mjeff87

Gotcha, thanks. My humble opinion, that wheel looks good with the matching woodgrain dash pieces, but kind of sticks out against a plain dash. On a completely different note, do you know how to pop the passenger side airbag dash panel off (the one above the glovebox)? I've got the most god-awfully annoying dash squeak/rattle coming from somewhere in that area that's driving me insane and I need to peek inside the dash behind that panel, but I don't want to A) break it trying to remove it, and B) accidentally deploy the airbag and Takata my face off....

late to this party, but question.....why did you swap? My KJ 'wheel looks just like the WJ one you swapped in but the woodgrain part is all wrapped like the rest of the wheel. Was your KJ wheel different, or were you actually going for the woodgrain look? Apologies if you covered this somewhere else.....I'm just curious. That top part of my wheel is getting a little soft/the wrap is starting to loosen up a bit, and it's bugging me. I want to replace it, but not sure what my options are. I've been driving this darn thing for 4+ years now and know about squat about it, LOL.

For the center bolts I've used a combination of short extensions with a universal joint, in 1/4" drive, to get them started. You don't have a lot of throw on the ratchet, like 3-4 clicks, and it takes awhile. The smaller 1/4" extension fits better between the runners. Once you have them snugged up, switch to a 3/8" drive socket or box end wrench for final tightening. And there are only 2 studs, not 3 (unless someone modified yours previously). There's a stud at the front and at the rear that hold the ends of the exhaust manifold to the head. All the rest of the fasteners are bolts, and all use Bellville washers. The studs use normal flat washers.

That's the kind of place where stuff like ftpiercecraker1's rear window tech is gonna go. It IS epic. LOL.

That thing is screaming for matching body paint (bonus points if you apply it with a brush) You crushed it with the flip up winder' too. Kudos, dude.

Seat the converter, it will make a hard stop. Rotate it about 1/8th of a revolution, it should drop slightly and stop again. Rotate it another 1/8th turn (approximately) and it should drop and stop again. Then it is fully seated. Ideally you would want to do this with the trans vertical, standing on the tailshaft (like inside a garbage can/dru/stack of used tires, etc), but you can do it horizontally as long as you get the two extra "clunks" after the first one. There is an actual measurement for how low the TC body sits relative to the outside edge of the bellhousing but for the life of me I can't find it. Just get the three clunks and you are golden. I would pull the trans back off the engine and pull the TC back out and inspect the seal before trying to reinstall it. Like Dzimm said, so long as you didn't actually start the engine you "should" be ok, but it would be hell for you to get it all buttoned back up correctly and have that .50c seal leaking. EDIT: this is a decent video (crappy audio) that explains the install process. Not an AW4, but it's the same procedure. HTH. Jeff

Despite my fear of getting flamed out of this place for sheer stupidity, I'll post this. I was very young, very dumb. I had a Ford Maverick and decided one night to take it wheeling with a bunch of my buddies. Way deep in the woods of southwestern PA, I put that Maverick in places it had no right or ability to ever be. Got it good and stuck, and burned up the transmission trying to get out. We sat there on the side of a mountain for a couple hours (at like 2AM), and decided to pour a beer into the tranny to see if it would even move. Much to my surprise, it worked.....for about 1/4 mile, then the tranny started slipping again. Stop, let it cool, pour in a little more beer and move another 1/4 mile, rinse and repeat. We finally made it back up to the top of the mountain, and it was all downhill from that point on a semi-decent access road. We made it home around daybreak. That Maverick went to the junkyard the following week. It gave it's life for us DISCLAIMER: Do NOT drink and drive, or wheel (even in a Maverick). I was incredibly stupid when I was younger.

^^^^yeah, that.

But, it's coming BACK for the new model year....so it must be great again!!! or better than it was before!!! (smell that? that's sarcasm......)

And a Chryco/DCA vehicle will flash the CEL to indicate something pretty serious is occurring (or not occurring) and you'd better stop driving it pretty ASAP. I think in reality any fault that relates to a repeated or multi-misfire will blink the CEL to indicate possible cat converter damage from raw fuel entering it. The 2 times the CEL blinked on my KJ, I really couldn't stop driving it....both were on the interstate in heavy traffic. One was a #6 misfire due to a leaking coolant hose right above the plug, the other was a #1 misfire due to a shorted coil pack. Both times I drove it for several miles until I could diagnose and repair.....both were obvious misfires, you could tell by feel. The strange thing though with the #1 misfire is that I couldn't push the pedal more than 1/2 way or else the whole damn engine started misfiring and it felt like it was going to bounce right out of the engine bay. Light throttle/part throttle was ok other than the obvious single misfire, but anything over that was a no-go. Lotsa fun in interstate traffic doing 45 mph, LOL. My guess is that the #1 plug sets the timing sequence of the whole system and if it's messed up it can affect all the other firing times. Or something like that.

Pop on over to Garage Journal with that and watch them all drop a nut or two.....

I ziptied mine to the C101 bracket. Just make sure you don't route it near the exhaust manifold on its way up and yer good

Nope, he flat out screwed me. I was a greenhorn and he knew it. In retrospect, though, I'm really not that upset about it. Judging from his place, he and his wife really needed the money (for rent, or heroin, or.......). I just chalk it up to a life lesson. He coulda told me it was a D70 full float with a Detroit in it and I woulda believed him at the time. I knew nothing. But that's when I started learning.

Waaayyyy back when, when I knew squat about Jeeps but had my MJ, I bought a D30 out of an 86 XJ (actually helped pull it out at the guy's house) to start my 4WD conversion. The guy (a long ago member from the Yahoo group days) flat out lied to me, saying it was a 4.10, which matched my rear D35). When I got to install it a few months later, I made the sad discovery that it was a 3.73. Stock axle out of an 86 XJ with a 2.8 and a TF904 tranny. That was my rather rude awakening into the Jeep world, LOL. I've never heard from him again. Cool starry bra, I know.

That really sounds like an unhappy bearing to me, and not the HB. Unhook the belt and run it cold for a few seconds like DC says, it's a quick, free test. Could be the idler pulley bearing or the front/rear bearings on the alternator. The fact that it goes away when warm is telling me it's not the HB (which would be constant). I would definitely check the HB though, just to make sure. Leave that problem go long enough and it'll either separate and 'xplode or it will wear a hole in your timing cover. NO bueno either way.

In addition to the radio display, there's a copy of the Guide and a towel in the glove compartment. Seriously. I LOVE it.

.....or an 8.25 out of a KJ. Most of the 3.7L autos are 3.73 and some are LS. 2002 model year only (the first model year) they had drum brakes, but all after that were discs. You'd need new perches and would have to rig up the e-brake cables, but the WMS is near perfect and you can keep the 5x4.5 bolt pattern. Plus they're all 29 spline (unlike older XJ 8.25's which could be 27).

I ran a glasspack behind my cat converter, with a turndown tip under the bed in front of the rear axle. It sounded like pure @$$. Swapped it out with a thrush welded....much, much, much (did I say much?) better.

Just a quick note on this.....early KJ's (2002) have drums in the rear, not discs. I know, I own one <<bleah>>

^^^awesome deductive reasonong

My vote would be O2 or MAP sensor. You can unplug the O2 and see if it makes any difference. About the airport thing.......I came across this very interesting problem-solving methodology awhile back: http://www.kepner-tregoe.com/blog/help-my-car-is-allergic-to-vanilla-ice-cream-a-study-in-problem-solving-part-i/ It's a pretty interesting read, and solution. Read the first part and try to figure it out. If you can't, click and read part 2 for the solution. We need to think "out of the box" sometimes..... Jeff

I can't comment on the HO harness, but on the Renix harness the TCU/NSS harness is hard-wired into the main harness (it's not a separate harness).

Thought your KJ was an oil burner, not a gasser (unless both engines share the same stoopid early model air intake??) Anyways, keep at it....I need some good KJ inspiration. I'm going to be replacing both front UCA's (because of torn BJ boots on both), and probably gonna toss new struts in while I'm there (and new rear shocks) on mine pretty soon. I need to get my creative juices flowing on it, just because..... And sorta on topic.....great post on Pirate today about docs discovering a leading cause of dementia. Excess urea in the brain: http://neurosciencenews.com/dementia-cause-8165/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+neuroscience-rss-feeds-neuroscience-news+(Neuroscience+News+Updates) My grandfather had dementia, with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. I've got a good idea what you're going through right now Pete. My mother developed brain cancer and developed dementia as well. I'm quite concerned that something like that is in my future, and I have a keen eye on medical advancements like the one above.

I agree with everything said above, but if all checks out.......try lubing the bushings on the wiper motor arms. They are ball/socket bushings, you can pop them apart (carefully) and add some white lithium grease to the sockets. Also try some Rain-X on the windshield. Both of these cheats will help the wipers sweep a bit quicker across.