mjeff87

I'll go even one step further....a manual 3-on-the-tree. It's what I learned to drive in (my grandfather's pickup truck), on the farm. I was about 8 years old, LOL. I haven't seen a column shift manual car, truck, whatever...in years. I did see an old Ford pickup in the junkyard once that had a column shift. Brought back alot of memories.

I'm going to go against the grain here and say.......manual My KJ is only the second vehicle I ever owned that was an automatic. It's my "middle aged man" vehicle, and I don't mind it. It's got the "truck" transmission in it that went in Dakota's, and it shifts somewhat "spartan".....but it will never break. Every other year KJ got a revised auto trans that is not as stout. My Focus is a 5-speed hot rod. I love it.

And then there's this......

Much sad. Wow, what a shock. He dealt with brain cancer for over three years. My mother got diagnosed with glioblastoma and passed <4 months of diagnosed. I'm not sure which one is worse. I went through a huge Rush phase so many years ago in my life when I was in the Army. God bless and RIP. You were truly a legend.

Bump...... Whats going on there OP?

Well, that wasn't too hard to figure out once I really looked at it. Went to take the old coil out today (still in the work parking lot, I'm rolling the KJ) and pulled the plug wires off. That's when I noticed a HUGE ball of electrical tape wrapped around the wiring harness to the coil connector. I couldn't see it with the plug wires in the way.......I unwrapped the hidden present the previous owner left for me and found one broken ground wire, and the other ground wire replaced with the wrong gauge wire, spliced into it and jammed into the coil. The whole 3-pin connector was even put back into the coil upside down. I have no idea how or why this thing has been running the whole time I've owned it. I'm going to hit the yard tomorrow morning and still grab a spare coil, and I'll just leave the connector attached and cut the wires to it as long as I can so I can splice it into my existing harness. I'll just keep the coil as a spare, just in case.

Welp, sadly the Focus is down...... Was cruising it to work this morning. Stopped at an intersection, checked for cross traffic, then started to pull across and dropped a cylinder. Luckily I was close enough to work to limp it into the parking lot and into a space next to my office. No bad/ugly engine sounds, pulled all the plugs and they are fine (no deposits from bad running or mechanical damage). Oil and coolant are fine (was thinking head gasket blew maybe), plug wires are new (along with the plugs), timing belt (new) is fine and everything is spinning under the valve cover.....so I'm suspecting a bad ignition coil. It looks fine, but it's been on the short list of things for me to replace just out of caution, and I think my time is up. It's a fairly common problem on these engines, especially with high miles. Mine has 170K on it, and I'm pretty sure it's the OEM coil. They are a waste-spark coil, not individual COP's (that would make troublshooting so much easier....). I'm not going to drop $100 on a new one just yet, though. I'm going to leave it here in the parking lot tonight, and probably tomorrow night too, until I can get down to the junkyard and pull a coil for $15 or whatever they charge. If that fixes it, I'll pony up for a new one in the box. I'm catching a ride home from work from a co-worker tonight. Was planning on going to the shooting range after work today, but this puts the kibosh on that, LOL. edit: this engine is NOT the 2.0L that has a fondness for dropping valve seats.....that is the SOHC engine. I had one of those in an older Escort that did drop a seat. I just threw a junkyard head on it and kept on driving it just fine. I don't *think* mine has a dropped seat (there's no noise typical of that), but it darn sure feels like it dropped one. If I had it home in my garage I could do a leakdown test on each cylinder to figure that out, but for now it's sitting in a parking lot. If the new coil doesn't fix it (I'm just spitballing that, hence the planned trip to the junkyard), I'll have to get it towed/dolley'd back to my house and dig into it deeper). My fingers are crossed that it's just a junk coil.

I know it's a cliche, but it's great advice. Buy the worst house in the best neighborhood, not the best house in the worst neighborhood. You're 2 years now in the area...you should have a good feel for what is and what isn't a decent area. Look for a good structure with good mechanicals.....don't be easily swayed by cosmetic stuff (new paint, fancy fixtures, etc). Make sure the foundation, roof system, plumbing and electrical system are all in good condition and meet or exceed code (for when the house was built). Good luck hunting, and have fun

Back when I owned real Jeeps, I wouldn't get so much as the time of day from anyone when rolling my MJ (on 35's, lifted and all kitted out). But I got waved at almost every time when I was driving my bone stock, non-lifted, still-had-running-boards on it TJ. Go figure.

OP, where are you located? (that profile thingy really does help if filled out). If you're reasonably close to me I would be willing to come and eyeball what you've got going on. That's about the surest way for me (or anyone else) to help you figure out what you've got going on there. If you're not local-ish to me, maybe there's another member close enough to you that can put some feet on your ground and see what's up.

I'm currently MJ-less but I've got an '01 Focus and an '02 KJ that keep me plenty busy. Seems every time I drive either one I invent a need to do something.....anything to them. If I'm not working on them, I'm cleaning them. I just tell my wife she should be happy I'm outside in the garage tinkering on them. They are keeping me out of the bars

I used a BFH to remove the studs on mine (there may or may not have been a serious amount of beer involved that day) And here's a shot of the AX15/crossmember in my MJ. I used to have a better pic of just an AX15 and an AW4/AX5 crossmembers sitting side by side on the floor, but all of those went away with Photo#%!-it. At least you can see the center section which is divoted to put the driveline at the right height so everything plays nice together.

Just to mention, when I converted my MJ from 2.5 (AX5) to 4.0 (AX15) that stud pictured was in my way, and I removed it. Like DC and others say, the AX15 uses the rear sets of holes in the frame and frame bracket to mount the crossmember. It looks like the rear frame bracket hole on yours has a broken off bolt inside of it. Either drill it out and retap it or remove the weldnut from the bracket via your favorite method of choice and use a new nut/bolt there. I'm betting you'll need to pound out that stud on both sides to get the crossmember properly located. Also, on the rear shaft.....those "tube-in-tube" style shafts were used on 2WD drive MJ's (I can't say exclusively, but I've never seen one on a 4wd MJ). They really can't be cut down to fit because there's a rubber isolator/sleeve inside the 2 different tubes at the yoke ends. If I had to wager, I'd say it was a 2WD shaft, and it's too long. For the front shafts, there's at least 3 different sizes of them as well, depending on what transmission was in the vehicle it came from. Each trans uses a different length shaft. I want to recall from memory that the AW4 was the longest, AX4/5 were the shortest, and the AX15/BA10/5 are intermediate length between the two. I (and others) think you're about 95% there, you just need to button up a couple little (important) things. edit: and one other little important thing....if you are using the correct AX15 crossmember (still in question), it is NOT symmetrical. In other words, if things don't line up 100% on both sides, take it off and spin it 180 degrees and reinstall it. Little differences in hole placement make a big difference on this. I was stumped for a good couple hours on this problem until I figured out the problem. From then on, every time I took the crossmember off I made a witness mark on it to make sure I put it back on in the correct orientation.

Can't hurt any to pull and clean it, but you'll probably get marginal gains from it. I'd look more toward vacuum leaks like 'scout says. Refresh all the grounds and check the intake/exhaust manifold bolts/nuts. Odds are the rear exhaust stud/nut is snapped off, too. The 2.5 relies on 4 sensors for proper operation...O2, MAP, MAT and coolant sensors. Make sure all of them are in good shape and the wiring (and vac line) for the MAP are intact. Throw a new cap/rotor on it that has brass terminals (NAPA has them), and toss a set of plain old Champion truck plugs in it too

The TBI has both a fuel supply and return line, both screw into the top/back side. I would use flare nut wrenches to remove them (they are different sizes). I clip the electrical connector for the injector (carefully) ans pull it out of the way. Disconnect the IAC connector, remove the MAP sensor vacuum line and unbolt the 4 manifold bolts holding the TB to the manifold. Carefully lift the TB up and off (take care not to rip the base gasket so you can reuse it upon reinstallation. A1/4" drive socket with a universal/swivel will help to get the manifold bolts off, as a couple of them are recessed underneath the TB. Why are you removing it in the first place?

Missi and I actually made it to midnight without falling asleep, lol. Happy New Years guys and gals Going to bed now.

Well, I've put about 200 miles on it now. Nothing is leaking, or knocking, or banging. Coolant level hasn't dropped any, oil is still nice and clean, and she's chugging down the road just fine. Knock on wood, but I'm gonna call this repair job good. Lol. It should be good for at least another 135K miles.

The only other real difference between early and late model brackets is the top mounting bolt for the bumper. Earlier models bolt through the front of the bumper face, later on the bolt down through the top of the bumper (stock). Nothing a drill and a 1/2" bit can't work around though, lol.

You need the transmission tunnel cover plate (the thing that's under your ripped up carpet in your first pic) for an AX-15. Each transmission (AX4/5, Puekgoat, AW4, AX15) has a unique cover plate with a cutout to match the shifter throw of each transmission. Learned this the hard way when I converted mine and tried re-using the AX5 cover plate I had. Also, you really need an AX-15 crossmember for everything to line up correctly in the vertical position. I can't really tell by your pics, but it looks like the one you're using is not for an AX-15. The correct one has a depression in the center section where the mount bolts up (all of the other crossmembers are level straight across). The others will "work" per se, but the trans will sit too high in the tunnel. The exhaust flange at the cat converter will be kissing your floorboard, and the factory shifter linkage will not line up correctly. Also on that linkage....you'll need both the AX-15 shift rod (it is a medium length, the other tranny ones are either too short or too long), and you'll need the specific AX-15 bracket that bolts to the underside of the tranny tunnel that has the little swivel/ball/heim thingy in it. That swivel is at the rear of the AX-15 bracket, all of the other ones it's centered and will not line up.

If you like the KJ engine bay, you'll love the Focus. It was a bit of a hot mess when I got it, but I've been slowly working on getting it cleaned up. Lol

And my wife also got me a mason jar of peach moonshine. I'm already about 2" deep into it, been sippin' on it all afternoon

As promised

Congrats Derf. That's about the best gift anyone can get. Holy oooopsss.....rylee. Congrats, lol

^^^^thats funny, right there Merry. Christmas. And not ashamed to say it. Seriously, I hope every one of you guys and gals have a great holiday. Jeff

It was pretty clean to begin with (it's a fetish of mine to keep my engines clean). But, every part I took off to fix the head got deep cleaned while it was out. Probably why it took me 429 hours to get the job done, lol. Ive got a few OCD issues.....just ask my wife.