Sir Sam

Terra, I know what you mean about too high, since the back of the MJ cab raises up it changes the seats a little, and make them sit a little higher, I think cutting and lowering the rear XJ brackets is a good idea for most XJs seats. I have dual electric seat bases that will let me adjust the height and and tilt of the the seats, so I am hoping it is a non issue. I also scored a set of 2 door seats that were trashed awhile back and removed the 2 door tilt mechanism with knob and installed them into the seats I will use. I also scored the drivers door panel from the 2door so I can make the proper door panel switch setup for the MJ. Been gathering parts for a long time, hoping it comes up as close to a factory 2002 2.5 CRD MJ as possible.

I also used this extensively in one of my VW Vans, and it is MUCH quieter because of it. Yes it is expensive. I sprayed it on so I had a very good finish quality with it. I think the thing I like about it is that you get a chance to coat ALL surfaces around, heck even the inner fenders and under cab can be quickly sprayed down. And for maximum effect add some of the other products on the large reasonating surfaces to help quiet it down. Terra how many coats did you put on? Here is a video showing the difference between a treated van and an untreated van. Granted its not an in cab decibel reading, but its a pretty good side by side comparison. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3q30q5Nf9s

I had the standard black leather KJ wheel in good condition, still do. This wheel is from a WJ overland, so it has perforated leather and the woodgrain. I grabbed it since they are pretty rare, and it was in decent condition, and only $20. I decided for $#!&s and giggles to run it in the KJ since it fits and took me 15 minutes to install. DigitalBman got me thinking about it for my MJ with woodgrain center when I saw this picture: The 99-00 WJs had a single inflator airbag, so you can swap in the WJ airbag to kep the airbags functional. The rear mounted radio control buttons could even be used if you swapped in a ZJ clockspring. So since it will be awhile before the MJ would need it I decided to put it in the KJ and try it out. Now I am onto the other KJ wheel project I didn't know I needed to do thanks to hornbrod.

If laughing at "80085" on an odometer is wrong I don't wanna be right.

Airbag from a KK will work out just fine. Both my KJ and the KK have dual stage inflators(which the XJ does not). The KK is just a KJ with a different outer skin, so basically I'm just installing a newer looking airbag from the same vehicle. The compass, wrangler, and grand Cherokee all have a dual stage airbag that looks the same, but I cannot figure if the module is the exact same, so to be on the safe side I'll stick with a KK airbag since it's 1 to 1 for the same vehicle.

Made an offer on the steering wheel. I'll get that in and check fitment before ordering an airbag.

Ok so the biggest issue is just cost. The steering wheel aint cheap and the airbag is even more expensive, hardest part of this whole endeavor is find a reasonable price airbag to go with the wheel.

Ok, you planted a seed in my mind and I got to thinking about it today. This wouldn't work for the MJ CRD but for my KJ would.....The wheel you posted from a grand cherokee has a dual stage airbag........which the KJ does. So if I picked up a grand cherokee steering wheel with the silver trim, and the dual stage airbag, both of those should work with the KJ airbag setup. The cruise control buttons wouldn't 100% cross over but the main functions are there, and the unused switches on the left could be repurposed to the extra cruise buttons the KJ has. This is also assuming the steering wheel has the radio control on the backside. So this might be a possibility! Did you find that wheel on ebay?

Continued playing with the TJ cluster reprogramming. I was trying to get it to say BOOBS. But the miles are a little off for it to work cleanly.

Thats very nice looking. But I don't think the airbag is compatible, and the cruise control switches are not compatible with changing resistors and losing all the functionality. So speaking of not not being an upgrade............

Agreed. Total BS about ordering from the factory with a 44 front in 2000. You don't get to say "Ive got money so build me an XJ with this axle." On a production line that is 24/7 automated and costs $80,000 an hour when it shuts down.

Would need a good standing and a good clear coat. Maybe there is a carbon fiber or silver vinyl wrap that would look good?

Yup, I considered that too.

Installed the steering wheel off of a WJ Overland. Feels different in the hand, functionally and fit the same as the KJ wheel. Not sure I will keep it here, the wood grain just doesn't match the rest of my silver trim. Maybe if that section were silver? I'll run it for awhile but it might make its way onto the CRD MJ since I have a matching wood grain dash bezel.

Wiring work continues on the main engine harness: Auto trans stuff removed: I gotta start sitting down the with the Xj wiring diagrams and the KJ wiring diagrams to see what I can adapt from one to the other, and what I need to add, like glow plug relays. etc.

Question still remains, what does it take to get a post into the epic forum? 10 year long build thread?

Purpose?

I made some progress on the TJ gauge cluster, I cannot seem to program less than 1000 miles, I suppose thats close enough to zero? I was just really looking forward to seeing it run up from zero. I might keep playing with it, I also want to figure out to reprogram the VIN.

My coworker came over last sunday to use my pressure washer on his newly acquired wildernest to get it cleaned up, I decided it was a good time to open mine and take a look inside the back of the MJ........I'm find all sorts of parts I forgot where back there. Fun times ahead! Looking forward to having both MJs out and be camping!

I'm one of about 3-4 guys in the US with the most knowledge about these things. I've owned multiple(personal and flips), done dozens of timing belt jobs, turbos, etc. IF the valves touch the pistons the rocker arms break. New rocker arms can be had online for about $20-30 each x 16. You do not need to pull the head to check for valve damage as you can do compression and leakdown tests with the head on and intake off. This will tell you very quick if the valves are sealing or not. My water pump failed on my personal CRD I have had since 2007. The bearings gave out and the pulley pulled over letting the belt go slack. The rockers damaged and broke, but they did their job. So I had to buy 16 rockers, plus a normal timing belt kit, and about double the labor to pull the intake off to replace the rockers compared to just a timing belt job. I've bought a few jeeps that had similar issues that trashed the rockers and I was able to pick them up cheap and have them repaired for ~$1000 in parts to be completely gone through and sold for a profit. Last year I did a timing belt job in record time for me, about 3 hours, since my dad was going to drive a CRD from CO to CA the next day, the ear had broken off of the water pump that held in the vicous heater. The timing belt was fine but the viscous heater was loose and therefor the serpentine belt was waiting to fail. Usually it takes me about 6-7 hours. IDparts is great, and I have used them for my Jeep and Mercedes, but they are not always the cheapest option. However they are convenient and reliable. I've got a block with a valve stuck in a piston, I'm keeping an eye out for an engine being parted to pickup a good piston to make a good short block. I have a couple of heads and an intake so I'm fairly close to a complete long block.

Agreed, I'm wondering how all sorts of plastics and materials used hold up. Many plastics have elastomers and other voilatile compounds that offgass even on earth. Now remove 14.7 PSI keeping those compounds in. How long before the dash cracks and shrinks? The tires? The urethane bumpers? Lots of materials engineering went into making that car - which was never designed for hard vacuum. Still, pretty comical to think we put a red car into space just because we can.

I will need to do some more testing in the future where I read through the OBDII port with a scanner to show what PSI to oil pressure sensor is seeing, and how that translates to the position on the TJ guage cluster. The TJ cluster is reading oil pressure through the PCI bus from the ECU, and then displaying that as an analog value. The question comes up as the the calibration, when it read "half" what PSI was that? When it went higher to 3/4 what PSI was that? If you noticed the oil pressure gauge is the only one that does not have any units shown. This is because on the 2002+ TJ the oil pressure gauge is basically just an idiot light! The sensor on the newer TJ is a discrete, meaning it is either open or closed. In theory, when off or no pressure the switch is open circuit, and then when the engine is on and oil pressure is "good" it is closed. This way if your oil pressure drops below "good" or if it fails it should go open circuit. What the TJ ECU does is read this open or closed switch and send a value to the cluster. So the TJ cluster reading from the ECU only sees 0 PSI/bad, or X PSI/good. This means that on a stock TJ the oil pressure gauge either shows zero, or middle. Since the gauge is then basically just an idiot light they removed the units of measure. However since the CRD ECU does read an analog pressure from the oil pressure sender the REAL psi is transmitted over the PCI bus, and since the TJ cluster is reading a real analog value it drives the gauge accordingly. The only thing left for me is to determine exactly what pressure the middle means, and exactly what pressure the high means. I am working on a way to read the calibration from the processor onboard, which may allow me to change the scaling factor on the gauge. Likely that will be much further along, I'm just happy the Main functions, fuel level, coolant temp, RPM, and presumably speed all read correct. In final form this will be wired into the normal dash wiring for the cluster for all functions such as turn signals, lights, 4wd indicator, etc, leaving the obdii port completely open like factory.

Longer video showing the engine bay harness work that needs to occur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX91ttWpfXQ

Tested the TJ gauge cluster finally! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpO4isRTThs However I thought the KJ plugs were the style I needed but it turned out they have more pins than the TJ, so I need to find the same connector type but with fewer pins to fit the TJ cluster. Grrr, back to the junkyards to raid 15 year old Chryslers.