jaekl

It truly is amazing how you guys change the upgrade the instrument cluster so easily. Back in 1986 after the meeting with the manager and consulting the factory, the salesman came back as "we don't think it can be done". What a line that turned out to be. I did a little research, went to the junkyard and plugged it in. Best way to buy a new car. Pick out a base model that nobody wants and if the dealer won't add them just find a late model wreck and add all the options you want. I've had a full gauge package in a base Cherokee for 20 years. Remember it can't be done.

In response to Opsled's economic rationalization. Once you get over the surface appearance it makes no sense to buy a new car. In the effort to improve the quality of vehicles, the manufactures have created a new competitor, their own older models. In the past 20 years the durability has improved dramatically. 10 years 100,000 miles was the holy grail before, now we cruise right past it with virtually no maintenance. Even in the rust belts, it's nothing like it used to be. As long as you can avoid major repair cost, a simple comparison can be done by dividing purchase by years. Tires, exhaust, alternators, etc don't enter the equation whereas a new engine does. Add the major repairs to purchase price. My new 86 Cherokee is now below $500 per year. My 88 Comanche like yours was $300 at 104000 miles put a couple of hundred in it and comes out at $200 to $300 per year. Can't beat the economics and you have pride of ownership, sense of accomplishment, and have a good looking truck with character and no worries of a few scratches or dents. The down side is when the number of vehicles start approaching 10 because you want them all and you lose all the advantage with license and insurance fees.

Classic plates are permanent with inspection. Antique are permanent without inspection. The theory is a 10 to 25 year old car will be driven more than an older one. Classic made sense when there were 2 inspections a year(only needed one). Now with the reluctance to issue them and only saving annual registration, you might as well wait until 25 years to get antique plates with no hassle. The use restrictions are exactly the same, once a week, unlimited club activity, shows, etc. Forget what you heard about night driving. If the headlights meet standards, no problem. Will cars lasting longer, there may be some changes over the horizon.

Pa inspections don't get better over time. I've had cars inspected for 34+ years and I still dread the 'wait'. Of course I was spoiled in the beginning when my uncle was our inspector. Back when it was twice a year we would do all the work, call him over to say ok and forced him to take a dollar for the 50 cent sticker. He retired after about a year with my cars but the neighborhood station did it as I watched. The next guy did a quicky as I watched. Both of these still charged the going rate. After I settled away from home, there has been no opportunity to get a good relationship. They either go out of business, change hands, or do something I didn't agree with. So I still do the pre-inspection and wait for them to find something. My record is pretty good but with 6 regular licensed vehicles it get old. The newest car is 12 years old so it definetly takes some time. Of course with my 86 Cherokee I have lifetime inspections so I can have free pre-inspections because they always find something. However, they are not too convenient now, but when it is 40+ years old, I'll take it in for a freebie. I went thru the new salvage vehicle inspection last year (deer damage) and I had to go to a particular inspector and he found rust thru under the spare tire bracket on the Cherokee. I never looked there for rust and neither did my regular inspector. Anyway, I wait all day not knowing if the lack of call is that he didn't find anything or he didn't start it yet. Retirement will allow me to wait for it, but by that time I'll just have Antique plates with no inspection.

Let's not confuse the issues here. If the coolant freezes in the water jacket, you are going to have some major damage. Lucking out in this case would be just the freeze plugs blowing out. In this case the high coolant temperature was a good sign. He matched the protection level to the overnight temperature because the exposed hose froze, hence plugging the system until the pressure built up and split the hose. A couple more degrees or couple more hours could have frozen the block. Has anyone every seen frozen weak coolant? Does only the water starts to freeze resulting in more concentrated coolant. If this is the case, a layer of frost would line the water jacket, which would help protect from more freezing and generally slows the process. Of course the radiator will be toast by this time.

Hands free phone may be different, but my observation is it is not the dialing etc that is the distraction, it's the conversation. A conversation in the car is fine most of the time. The passenger is in the car with you and knows what is going on and the conversation pauses when it has to. A phone conversation becomes your primary focus and the other end of the phone has no idea that someone is about to step off the curb. I seldom use the phone when driving but the few times someone has called me, I later realize that my speed has increased and the field of vision has narrower focus. I only had to push one button and that was in the beginning. Maybe it gets better with more usage, or it's a man thing that I can only do one thing (well) at a time. What is it with phones? Why do we allow them to take priority. How many Saturday mornings have you driven to the parts store and waited in line while the clerk allows everybody to butt in line because they called? Remember when you were a kid and your mother was on the phone? You could ask for anything you wanted. Some mothers would always say yes and some would always say no. Either way they really weren't listening. Telephones were the first electronic that has taking over us and has it really made life better? Sorry, when I got my license we had no limitations. Shoot we didn't even have to sit in a seat. It must be the seatbelt that is causing poor drivers. It's pretty sad when we need laws to to the right thing. Kinda of like a different kind of police state. Let's just make one law. It is illegal to do dumb stuff.

Yall assuming none of the bidders watch this forum. Check the profile of the winning bidder. A Harley peddler from New Jersey. I quess he is used to overpaying. No other comments.

Water absorption is dependent on the type of foam. There is open cell and closed cell foam. The closed cell will not absorb water. Most urethane foams are closed cell. Whereas a sponge is open cell. The test to determine which kind you have is easy. Put a sample of the foam into water and watch what happens. It should just float with no change is water level. The other great thing about typical insulating foams like 'Great Stuff' is it has great adhesion especially to rust and steel, so it actually can seal against moisture penetration. It's great for body rust repair.

It's one of those annoying things in life that you keep running into. It doesn't matter how much info you give the counter person showing that you know what you want. You don't fit the script and it's like you are the only one who does it. Some act like they know everything but it all ends the same, "It's not listed." It's like a show where first they show the present then show what happened previously to explain how they got here. It's bad enough with older unlisted vehicles. It must be ridiculous with modified ones.

What kind of auction is this? The value is going down. 12 , 10, 9, 8 going once.

Has anybody take a look at Renault seats? The pedestal seat was a big sales pitch for Renault. Alliance is the model.

You can get new reservoirs, but be careful. I found the best price, about $8.00 delivered from Jeep 4x4 Center. The problem is there is only one fitting. Is it for a later model? Not worth it to send back.

The vacuum reservoir will have an effect on the 4wd. The lines to the reservoir and 4wd branch off upstream from the reservoir. When the reservoir leaks there may not be enough vacuum to engage the CAD. The reservoir with its check valve is to keep the air flow directed as you choose and not change as the vacuum decreases. If the 4WD light goes off and on, it typically indicates only a loss in vacuum. Once engaged it stays engaged especially if torque is applied. The CAD needs vacuum to disengage as well. (Normally vacuum is always at the CAD keeping in unengages) The light goes on once the yoke slides all the way and redirects the vacuum to the light switch. But can anyone explain why my CAD worked fine for 16 years and then after being stuck in the unengaged position only worked after I switched the two vacuum supply lines.

Does the air flow ventsrespond when you redirect? When there is a loss of vacuum, all air goes to defroster and the heat will be on, if everything else is working properly. If everything works including directing the air flow, then it could be a stuck heater valve.

I've lost heat a couple of times on my 86 2.5. First time was clogged radiator. The recent one was the water valve was stuck. Vaccum closes the water valve when the heat is not required. I had vacuum once I fixed the line to the reservoir. However, no vacuum should cause the heat to flow, so I figured it must be stuck. I blew into the valve connection and heard it move, Problem solved.

Your running symptoms sound like my truck when I bought it on the cheap. The lines running to oil cans says alot too. Check the compression and the plugs. I suspect you have holes starting in the pistons causing a lot of blow by. Mine would fire up and then start blowing out oil from the disconnected hoses. After stalling it wouldn't start for a while. With the hoses on it would stall sooner probably from loss of intake vacuum. Of course there was litle power. Replaced the pistons and it's been running great for two years now.

Hey guys, I couldn't resist and get overly technical. Here goes. In the engineering world we use what is called a free body diagram, where the external forces are identified. The sway bar is an internal force and it has no effect of when the vehicle with flip. In a turn the forces on the vehicle are our friend gravity, so called centifugal force(CF) and the inside and outside load on the tires. Focusing on the rolling action, the difference between the vertical component of the forces at the wheels is dependent of the height of the center of gravity and the width of the track. Flip over occurs when the combine force on the center of gravity from the CF and gravity pass outside of the outside tire patch. The only effect that a rolling body has is it does move the center of gravity(CoG). Yes, the higher the CoG the more significant movement occurs. Therefore, contary to popular belief a sway does not affect the amount of force on the tire patchs. What it does is maintains the geometry of the suspension (doesn't apply to solid axles), which keeps more of the tire in contact to maximize the lateral friction. The problem is that a car with a sway bar may feel safer so one may corner faster and hit the critical speed, when a nonequipped vehicle scares the driver. Hence, keep the CoG low so that the tires break a little to reduce the CF component. Therefore, the higher you raise the center of gravity, the more critical a sway bar is to limit the lateral travel of the CoG. There the answer is the same, but now you know why you need the sway bar. If you what some real fun, take off the shocks. Just don't do for long and keep the speed down.

Almost guaranteed to be a bad groud at the parking/turn signal socket. The power back feeds across the double filament bulb and grounds thru the indictor lights. Been there, done that.

I'm jumping in here late, but it sounds like good old dirty battery terminals or clamps. When you measure 2.56 volts, are you testing on the battery or the clamps? After running disconnect the battery and measure the voltage on the battery. Since it runs fine, I say the rest of the circuit (alternator etc) is fine.

Are you trying the horn with the ignition on? It seems odd but mine needs to be on. At least the mechanic won't get an hearfull when someone is playing inside the Jeep.

The check valve to the reservoir is leaking. This valve allows the reservoir to fill the system when there is no brake pressure. As you push the pedal the fluid pressure closes this valve so that the fluid is sent to the slave. In your case the fast push is faster than the leak. Pull it out and replace the master cylinder or rebuild it. After trying a few rebuild kits, I think I know why the rebuilt units at the parts stores leak so soon. There is very poor cross reference to the kit part number. Many of the cylinders have the diameter size cast in the body. Make sure the rebuild kit is the same size. If it is smaller than it should be, it a good chance in six months it will leak onto the fuse box.

Thanks for the line confirmation. I was plumbed right. Mine problem was I had it at the wrong position. Didn't have rear brakes for a few days, but pressure built up but didn't release. Found procedure to set the valve. Don't have the tool but put the flat at about 4:30 and is working. Kinda strange to set the flat in such a odd orientation. Pulled the combo valve out of the parts car just in case. Sure was full of gunk. Not a whole lot of room to get to it with the 4.0 liter manifold right there. Also had a problem on my 86 XJ. Just wouldn't start. Learned about unplugging the CPS. (I grew up with points) Plugged it back in and fired right up. Will I have to do that in another 21 years or does it mean the sensor is going? Sorry for the hyjack, tough Friday but the Jeeps are back.

Sorry, I think the line to the T should come from the side port not the top.

Okay, okay. I realize I'm about to pull it out. I just want to confirm where the lines are suppose to go. Can anyone that has a working valve tell me where the line from the T go? The top port or the side port? I think it should be the top port.

Because of a brake line leak, I'm involved with the height sensing valve. It turns out the leak was from a rusty brake line. After replacing the rusty lines the way they were, the rear brakes get no fluid. Now I'm thinking that the lines to the valve were switched by the PO. I've found a factory diagram and it looks different. Can someone confirm which port of the height sensing valve goes to the T that feeds the wheel cylinders, top or the side one? The other port is fed by the regular service line from the combo valve.