terrawombat

Ah, yes, the wiring... Like you said, a daunting task at first, but it gets easier the more you dig into it. Like you, I have several Excel spreadsheets and wiring diagrams made up that show me the interconnection between the 97+ XJ dash harness (a 1999 XJ, to be more specific, since there were wiring changes throughout the years) and a 96+ ZJ body harness (A 1998 ZJ 4.0L body harness, to be exact). I'm currently modifying my drawings to an "as-built" state to accurately document the splice connections, but I am somewhat afraid to post it publicly - mostly because I am not aware of variations in the harness between model years, trim/engine packages, etc that could adversely affect the operation of the vehicle.

I was underwhelmed with the commercials this year. Normally there are a half dozen or so that stand out, but I only saw two or three that I liked - all of the ones already mentioned. There seemed to be a lot more "serious" commercials and a ton of movie trailers.

I've got the big 'ole 5.9L stuffed under the hood of my '88MJ, as shelby said earlier. Did the 97+ dash/wiring swap on the interior and got all of the gauges to talk to the ZJ computer so everything works nice. Haven't ran the fuel lines to the engine yet so I haven't had a chance to start her up (also need to get the cooling system done). I would say that the biggest reason there aren't more Mopar V8 swaps into MJ/XJs is because there isn't anyone out there making motor mounts, plug-n-play wiring harnesses or a drop-in cooling system solution. When people need to get creative and think for themselves, they tend to go down the path of least resistance - like a Chevy 350 swap.

What tires have good ice performance (not counting studded)?

I had one of those propane radiant heaters - the kind that just screw on to the tank. It was certainly a huge help, but you had to be within a 3 foot radius of the thing for it to do any good. I was too afraid of putting it near the truck since it could melt the plastic trim right off! Was a huge help though to keep my fingers moving. We've been getting a lot of rain in MD, too. Springtime is going to be a sloppy mess.

Where was this warm weather last year when I was replacing the transmission in my ZJ in 15-20 degree weather in my unheated shop? Took me twice as long because I had to sit and warm my hands by the propane heater every 15 minutes. Now we've got record high temps for the winter and I'm without a shop...go figure.

Sporks were a stroke of engineering genius. I've always wondered why they've become so scarce...

That's basically what I did, except I wrote her a certified bank check. Cash is cool, but I don't like carrying too much of it for too long ;)

Not many people buy/sell cars using a credit card. Nonsense. Last Jeep I bought was using an offer my credit card company had given me. 12 month 0% APR on a cash advance AND they waived the fee. A free loan, courtesy of my credit card. Also earned $30 in cash-back bonus points just for paying it off.

Comment to OP: People still carry cash? Comment to hi-jack: I had the same range/oven in my house in NJ. Great unit and loved the center burner for cooking up long strips of bacon.

Which one do you speak of? The '92 is the only one that even comes remotely close to being worth anything. I had contemplated going to look at, but the seller doesn't seem like the type of person that is going to budge much on the price. BTW, it was listed a couple months back at $4K.

There sure are, especially if you love spending $4K+ for one http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/ ... 70931.html Oh yeah I forgot.......LMFAO http://baltimore.craigslist.org/cto/2755498248.html Here's the cheapest thing around .........no s--t. http://york.craigslist.org/cto/2781656546.html

When I (finally) close on a house, the first thing I will be doing is putting up a shop. It definitely won't be my "dream" shop by any stretch, but something that will get me by for the next several years. One thing it will have is a crapper as my old shop did not have one and when you gotta go...well, you gotta go...

Yea, just what you need - another Jeep pickup to collect parts for.

2008 Kawasaki Z1000 - 4 years (this is gonna kill the average) 2001 Jeep Cherokee - 11 years 1998 Grand Cherokee - 14 years 1992 Jeep Comanche - 20 years 1988 Jeep Comanche Pioneer - 24 years 1988 Jeep Comanche SporTruck - 24 years Average: 16.2 years Not as old as I thought my fleet would be - a little disappointed, actually. I need to start buying older cars. Another calculation I want to do is the amount of money I have saved over the last four years when I bought my XJ for $400, put about $1,000 into it and have driven it over 40K miles versus the average Joe that goes out and buys a brand new car for $20K+ and has to make monthly payments. I feel as though the numbers would be incredibly surprising.

A friend of mine bought that same variable vane turbo for his Galant VR-4 build. He is trying to figure out the programming to make it work and he says he knows of only one other person that has successfully done it (and that person isn't saying much, which probably means it's not easy).

Pole barn is just the style of building - it won't be an actual barn, but a dedicated shop with at least two bays and a fairly large area for my CNC machine and other machine shop tools. As for your problems, I've never been known to be a motivation speaker by those who know me and usually tell it like it is. So, suck it up, fix the damn thing, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Park it, remove it from insurance, and start fixing the things one by one. The wiring harness will be a pain, but it's not the end of the world - I'd go after that first since it seems to be the most likely cause of your vehicle randomly dying down the road, then go after the steering box. Shocks are easy as long as you don't snap the bolts off, so start soaking them in PB blaster or Kroil today and continue to soak them for a week. Driveshafts are also easy and u-joints aren't terribly expensive. A u-joint press can be rented from an auto parts store (don't you work at one?) for free. Wouldn't worry about the intake/exhaust gasket until you've got the other things fixed. The clutch is still giving you problems?

The rear tail light wiring harness grommets are the perfect size to fix the XJ/MJ antenna grommet that falls out and causes water to get into the cab.

Dunno looks like an easy fix to me and the price is likely flexible. Thought you were pretty handy? You tackled those H4 harnesses like they were nothing. That MJ should be a walk in the park for you.

As I said it was last month and there were two nice MJs for sale around where I mentioned. Didn't realize you needed this thing yesterday.

Driving at 60MPH, down a hill, with the tires inflated to 60PSI? Even the 70K mile '98XJ I had wouldn't ever go over 21MPG on the highway no matter what speed I cruised at.

Not in TN, but I was in Charlotte, NC and Wilmington, NC last month on business and I checked Craigslist to see what those areas had to offer. Found a couple 4WD MJ's around Charlotte that were in nice shape, less then 200K miles and selling around $1,500. Now, it's been a while since I had a geography class, but I'm pretty sure Charlotte is a little bit closer to Knoxville than anywhere in FL.

So, you're clearly not from anywhere near Florida and you need a 4x4 vehicle. Why even bother looking at a 2WD MJ with a ground effects kit when there are plenty of 4WD MJ's that can be had with less miles and for a cheaper price?

Unfortunately, it's all statistics and they can only see the kind of person that you are through numbers and algorithms to make sure that they won't screw themselves in the long run. I have had some very heated debated about credit, credit scores, debt, etc. and what it boils down to is this: Educate yourself on today's credit score policies - how they score you, what to do/what not to do, and how to maintain it - and conform their backwards methods. When I was 18, I began to conform and played by their rules, even if it felt wrong. I had a score of 680 back then and now I'm at 805 9 years later (would have been 827 if they didn't dock me 12 points for shopping around for mortage rates, but it will go back up in three months time).

Paying cash is great and all, but it can hurt you at some point - like when you want to buy a house, send your child to college, pay for their wedding, or any other event that requires a large denomination of money in a short period of time. Paying with cash won't help your credit score (unless you were a credit card nut that always charged more than they had and never paid their bills on time) because there is no trace-ability and paper trails for the credit bureau's to follow. No, don't do that. What that will do is bring down the average age of open credit lines, which is taken into consideration for your credit score. Anything below an average age of 6 years is considered a poor reflection of credit. Instead, increase the credit limit on your current credit cards and continue your normal spending habits to make your credit score look better. The best credit card for this is an AMEX. After a certain period of time as an AMEX card holder and a history of on-time payments, you can pretty much increase your credit line to whatever you want with a simple phone call. I called up and had them increase mine to $15K (up from $7.5K) no questions asked. What you're referring to is a "hard" credit pull - one that extracts your entire credit report. A "soft" pull is when you just check it online using any one of the five billion online credit monitoring agencies. I am VERY surprised that the apartment complex and the utility companies did a hard credit pull on your parents credit history. There is ZERO reason for them to dig any deeper than the three credit bureau scores for their purposes. "Hard" credit pulls affecting your credit score have become a little more relaxed in the past year due do people wanting to "shop" for mortgage rates. Naturally, any mortgage lender is going to do a "hard" pull on your credit to obtain all prior history. Unfortunately, having too many "hard" pulls in a certain time period hurts your score, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with shopping around for the best rates. Even though the rules have relaxed some, my score still went down 12 points for going to two different banks when shopping for my mortgage. That kind of locked me into just sticking with the bank that gave me the better rate and not looking around any further as I don't want it to hurt my score any more. I can go on and on about credit scores as it's something I've closely monitored since I was 16 and got my first credit card with my father in a joint account. He doesn't have great credit because of opening too many accounts and having a low average age for all his credit lines. He is also not very diversified with credit - never had a car loan, mortgage, or student loan - and pays with cash almost everywhere. He wanted me to be more educated about my credit so he taught me what not to do - which often seemed to be counter-intuitive, but that's just the way the credit bureau's are.