terrawombat

Starman is what happens when a total tech junkie also happens to be on the top 50 list of richest people in the world. I poke fun at a former co-worker about the fact that Musk was able to put a Tesla up in space, but he has been waiting over 9 months for the Tesla he ordered... The engineering feats Musk has accomplished with his SpaceX rockets are absolutely impressive and I believe it's just a small sample of the innovative technology that we will see in the future. It is no secret that SpaceX recruits and hires some of the most talented engineers in the world and it's been documented by current and former employees that he is very demanding and never eases up when it comes to pushing the envelope. While this is probably a similar approach that many companies have used to stimulate innovation and advance technology, I believe SpaceX will continue to be successful because Musk does something else for his employees - he ensures that they are well compensated for their efforts. I have been working with a guy for the last 6 years whose son worked at SpaceX up until last year. After getting married and starting a family he decided to move back to Virginia so his kids could grow up around family. His son is my age and has only worked for SpaceX and one other company since he graduated from college, but sounds like he could comfortably retire in a few years due to the stock options he received from Musk's publicly traded companies while he worked at SpaceX - namely Tesla. When my co-workers son left SpaceX last year I remember they hired some sort of financial adviser or legal counsel to help manage the 5,000 or so shares he had in Tesla. At today's market value that is nearly $2 million bucks. Granted, Tesla could have tanked (and can still tank) but I still wouldn't mind having a couple thousand shares of that in my portfolio right now :)

Don't have a photo of my ghetto fix since I was more concerned about my safety while on the side of a major highway, but was driving my Ram 2500 Cummins a couple weekends ago doing a dump run. Before that the truck hasn't been driven much and I had it parked on the side of my shop. As I'm driving along with the heat on full blast (was about 25F out that morning) I noticed that the air blowing out of the vents was getting progressively warmer to the point where it was unbearably hot. This led me to glance at my temperature gauge on the dash and sure enough it had just passed over the 210F mark and was still moving. In this kind of cold weather this truck wouldn't even come close to the 210F mark so I knew something was wrong and pulled over and see what was up. Right away it was obvious as I could smell antifreeze and saw it dripping from the lower radiator hose. Upon closer inspection of the hose it was obvious that some animal (most likely a squirrel) chewed a couple holes in the hose and the pressure of the cooling system had opened them up a little bit causing a pretty steady leak. Was going to just let the truck cool down and call AAA, but wasn't exactly dressed properly to sit in a cold truck and wait. Hunted around the truck and luckily found a roll of black gorilla tape. Wrapped up the hose as best I could and took off towards the AutoZone that had the hose in stock. Truck still ran a bit hot, but never overheated and that tape actually held up pretty well and completely stopped the leak. While I was shopping at Home Depot last weekend I passed a Gorilla Tape display, but then quickly turned around, bought three rolls and put one in each of our vehicles just in case the squirrels attack again.

I've heard of at least a couple interference engines that essentially create a sacrificial part in the valvetrain to try and minimize the cylinder head damage that occurs during a complete timing belt failure. On the VM diesel in the CRD that part is supposed to be the rockers, however, the engine conditions just before the timing belt failure will ultimately decide the fate of your valves. Small fortune is an accurate statement. I'm sure you can be a bargain shopper and find alternative sources, but my favorite small diesel parts site gives you a rough idea on parts cost. A complete Rocker/camshaft replacement kit: $850 is probably best case scenario if you roll the dice and don't think you bent any valves. Remove the head to check for valve damage and you've got to at least pick up a cylinder head install kit: $240. If any of the 16 valves are bent, you're looking at another $15 to $19 per valve. To add insult to injury the timing belt you just broke will also need replacement at an extra $400. Bottom line: don't skip out on a timing belt job. It could be worse, though. You could have a 2.1L French diesel from the 80's where the majority of its spare parts reside in Europe

I've always loved these little diesel Jeeps and spent a couple of months hunting for one to buy several years ago. I'm guessing due to their low production numbers they don't pop up too often and when they do they always seem to be on the opposite side of the country. The only real chance I had to pick one up was from a guy who hunted on my parent's farm and owned a very nice one in the dark blue color. Every time I saw him I'd ask him how much but he swore up and down that he'd never get rid of it. One day I heard him come up the driveway and the little CRD was clacking away and sounded like it was about to rattle itself apart. He offered to sell it to me that day, but threw out a price as though it was running in tip-top shape. I declined. He later told me that he had to spend a few thousand to have the camshaft and rockers replaced. I believe that isn't all that uncommon of an issue for these engines. What has been your experience with the little Italian diesels? I know Chryco has been sticking different versions of the VM Motori diesels in various platforms and I've always carried a little skepticism, but I haven't really come across too many complaints about their reliability on some of the diesels forums I'm on.

The site looks much better on mobile devices now. Only suggestion I have for mobile browsing would be the option to turn off the sub-forum descriptions. Should be on by default to help out new users, but I'm sure many of us have been here long enough now to knows the ins and outs of this old place. It would make the layout on mobile devices much more compact and quicker to navigate. No idea if the forum software can even do it - just a suggestion. When it comes to software it always seems like the things that appear simple on the surface are usually the biggest headache to implement and get right.

What you described is exactly how we're using Modbus in our products. My company designs & manufactures equipment that is just a small portion of a much larger production line. As such, we use Modbus to talk to all of the other pieces of equipment on the line to let them know how we're doing and what we're doing. Inside of our product we're using mainly all Allen-Bradley equipment, which, as I'm sure you know, has it's own proprietary protocol to talk to everything. I learned a lot about CAN and Modbus from our former controls engineer and he was excellent at dumbing it down and explaining it to people like me that have a mechanical background. He was a couple decades older than myself and had previously worked in a couple of facilities that had a hodge-podge of different equipment that all needed to talk to each other. The common language for that to happen was typically Modbus. He moved on to another company and his replacement is much younger and worked for a large organization that was highly standardized and all of the equipment was done with ControlLogix. He's very timid about diving into Modbus and learning the ins and outs, which has driven me to try and figure it all out on my own. I've always been fascinated with control systems, PLCs, HMIs, distributed I/O and the networks they run on. It was always comical to me that if I made a mistake on a part that I designed it would typically require me to perform some kind of time consuming process (milling, drilling, cutting, trimming, etc) to make it right. When our control system engineer made a mistake in his program, he would just rewrite a virtual rung in his ladder logic and the problem was solved.

Thanks for the clarification. After reading your response that jarred my memory about the many hours I spent on the internet researching their proprietary language, but I really didn't retain much (if anything) knowledge from all of my reading since I didn't have a fundamental understanding of how those two-wire networks actually functioned. At my office we primarily deal with Modbus on our products as we don't see too many of our customers utilizing CAN, except if their facilities are located outside of the US - then it's all we see.

Good stuff, fellas. I enjoyed both the photos and the video tutorial. I've been tinkering around at the office with CAN bus and Modbus on a new product line we're launching and gained enough knowledge to be dangerous. Haven't gone as far as to start messing around with CAN bus on any of my project vehicles, but I'd like to get there at some point. Have either of you done anything with the CAN bus network on the XJs?

Pete - I'm going to steer clear of the legal path if I can help it. Not all of the vehicles I have are registered/plated due to how the state of MD has structured that system - it can be VERY painful and expensive. If a vehicle is registered in MD, it must have insurance. If it does not, you must turn in your plates or you receive a fine that accumulates on a daily basis for every day that vehicle is uninsured. I found this out the hard way when I put my motorcycle up for sale and the insurance ran out about a week before I sold the bike and turned in the plates (something else that is required in MD). About 4 months after I sold it I received a notice in the mail from MD that was an invoice detailing my fine. I guess the state of MD has all of the insurance companies on speed dial to keep tabs on you... Unfortunately the diesel has not gotten the attention it deserves, but I fiddle around with it every now and then - mainly just running it every now and then. My neighbors don't appreciate it when it's running as it emits a plume of black smoke. I haven't dug too deep into why it's running so rich, but I do know that the PO had the timing belt replaced, but he never had the timing belt cover that goes over the cam pulley and also contains the all-important timing mark. I purchased a timing belt cover from the Winnebago place in Iowa right after I bought the truck and found that the timing is off by a tooth. Corrected that issue, but she's still putting out a good amount of soot. I still keep an eye on eBay for the random NOS knick-knacks that crop up for the MJ/XJ diesels and I'll generally buy them if the prices aren't completely absurd (i.e. $400 for a fuel sending unit that is nothing more than a pickup tube and a float). I'll probably never even need a majority of the parts I've obtained, but there's something kinda nostalgic about seeing them in their original, and often tattered, boxes. I recently took a large metal cabinet that my work was going to throw out just so I could start storing the random odds and ends for the diesel. Ben - I really do appreciate your offer, although I haven't the faintest idea when I'll be at that point. I did start cutting away some of the rotted metal last summer, but there is a lot more that needs to be done to get it anywhere near the point where new floors can be welded in. Unfortunately, it's so far gone that the pre-stamped floor panels you can get online (made for XJs) wouldn't be enough. Much of the trans tunnel needs to be cut away and the rot extends pretty far up into the firewall. I work with an older gentleman who has been doing sheet metal work and welding for the majority of his professional career and restores old Mopars as a hobby. He claims he has pulled old Chargers out of the weeds and they didn't even have a floor and he was able fabricate and weld one back in that looked like it was factory. I had him drop by one day after work and take a look at the diesel because I wanted to get his take on it and pick his brain about how to properly address a few areas that I've never seen rotted out on an MJ or XJ. He said the repair can definitely be accomplished, but it's going to take a while to make it right and there will be a fair share of profanity uttered.

Was rolling through my bookmarks this evening and my CC one took me to a blank page with an error message. I panicked and thought that the forum had gone into hibernation, but was relieved to find that my bookmark address was just a bit outdated. Figured I'd stop by and see what the crew was up to and drop a quick note. Still have all of my MJs, but haven't done much with them over the past couple years. Got married, started a family and have been focusing all of my energy and finances in getting our home where it needs to be as my little guy is slowly transforming into a big guy. I intend on getting back into Comanche land when the weather warms up as I've engaged in a bit of a battle with my town over a couple of the vehicles that are parked outside of my shop - one of which is the factory diesel MJ. Neighbors have voiced complaints that I have too many vehicles on the property and something needs to be done about it. At this time there is no town ordinance that prohibits me from having as many vehicles as I do, but it appears they may create one and pass it in the near future. Part of the problem is that I have a family member living with me and she has three of her own vehicles - one of which is her police cruiser, which is actually helping me in this matter. Bottom line - if you can move to the country where there isn't a neighbor in sight - take the opportunity! Hope all is well with you all!

Yep - of the big 3 (UPS, USPS & FedEx) customer experiences will vary wildly depending on region. FedEx is absolutely awful for me in my area mainly because their central hub is very far away from my home and packages spend a lot of time being thrown around the truck as the delivery guy runs his route. USPS is actually the quickest and most reliable for my area...and they deliver on Sundays now, too!

The OEM manifolds hug the block way better than any aftermarket ones. I had a set of the Mopar performance manifolds I wanted to install but it would have required a lot of hacking of frame rails and patching in new pieces to get it all to work properly. Lowering the engine, as you mentioned, causes the manifolds to get VERY close to the frame rails. The light blue longbed MJ with the 5.9L engine is probably a much, much better example to model after...I just don't know if he ever had a thread. The best pictures I saw were on an eBay ad some months ago. IIRC he had the rear of the hood propped up as well - dunno if that was for clearance or exhausting excess heat.

I had it to the point where I just had the rear of the hood propped up a little bit (which helps with the engine bay heat) and it cleared, but I'm pretty certain the engine movement would have caused an interference issue, but never got to that point before I was relocated and had to leave some of my projects behind in storage...

Well I'm the OP and I fabricated those mounts. Yes - the engine sits high. Yes - you'll need to modify your hood to make it work. No - I don't have pictures and the Jeep is over 150 miles from me at the moment.

Already got that little guy!

Agreed, the right front is the most difficult. Dunno about Classic Tube. I bought a set from them for the rear axle of an MJ with a Dana 44, and what I received wasn't even close. Also not remotely like an MJ (or XK) Dana 35. Only thing I could think of was that maybe they were for a full-size Cherokee with a Dana 44 -- but why would the brake lines be different on that? They finally made good on it, IIRC on the third attempt, but that required my sending them the old lines to use as a pattern. I can do as well as they did for a lot less money. I'll back up your experience with Classic Tube. Several years ago I bought a '99 XJ for a quick flip and needed a bunch of the brakes lines replaced and someone on NAXJA turned me on to that company. It seemed like a slam dunk that would have helped me repair and move the XJ quicker, but some of the brake lines didn't quite fit as was advertised on their website..."to match factory installation." At the end of the day I was able to get the brake lines to work with a little bit of modification, but I felt I shouldn't have had to do that as I could have fabricated my own lines for a fraction of the cost.

Have the insurance company find another jeep exactly like yours for the money they want to give you , bet you they won't , they'll give you some reasons why they won't . I thought insurance companies were supposed to get you to the point you were before the accident ... That used to be what they were supposed to do. The primary objective for all modern insurance company's is to determine how to pay out as little as possible (or nothing at all) by finding whatever loophole they can.

The Q/A section of the ad states that the center console switches are for the power windows. I like that location as I'm a left-handed driver and my right hand is always free to mash buttons.

Sorry fellas - no updates other than I put a car cover over the diesel. My son is due to be born in about a week. Let's just say certain things have taken a bit of a backseat in preparation for the most important event of my lifetime to date.

Life moves pretty fast and priorities get shifted every day. Ideally when I bought my house 4.5 years ago I should have brought this MJ with me, but I opted to leave it in NJ on my parents farm tucked away in a barn along with a bunch of tools and machinery I wish I had with me in MD. The plan was to expand my current shop to make room for the projects I had to leave behind, but that just hasn't happened yet as I'm still battling the permit office. So, for now I've just got to make due with what I've got and knock out some other projects that I've stumbled on along the way (diesel MJ & Hatteras boat to name a couple).

There are no further updates on this truck. Sitting in storage waiting for me (or the next generation of me) to get back on it.

This is why I drove as far as I did to pick up the rust free 92 you had! Still rust free to this day!

Interesting change of pace - you'll definitely love the torque of that V-twin in the hills and twisties.

My family owns a 300 acre farm where ATVs are heavily used for various purposes. We've always been high on the Honda ATVs (and rightfully so - they are the most reliable that we've found), but I was able to convince them to look into the Yamaha product line when it came time to renew the fleet. We ended up with a Yamaha Big Bear because of the load and towing capacity but I was always intrigued by the Wolverine. If I recall correctly the Wolverine uses the bottom end of a utility ATV, but the top end of a sport ATV, which gives you a nice blend of power and speed. In looking at photos of the 2007 model it seems like Yamaha basically went away from any utilitarian use of the Wolverine (the older models we were looking at had a front and rear rack) and have made it a pure sport ATV - maybe they have optional racks? The one stark difference between the Honda and Yamaha utility ATVs was the handling. I can only comment on the Big Bear since that's what we wound up buying over another Honda Fourtrax 300, but I recall the Big Bear being very top heavy and unstable at high speeds. It rode like a tank and always required maintenance to the engine. The Honda Fourtrax line of ATVs were so much more reliable and the only thing we ever changed were batteries and oil. Anyway, that's my story of Honda vs Yamaha and I'm glad to see you got the thing up and running with such a simple fix. It's always fun to work on ATVs as opposed to automobiles because of how simple they are. Question - how fast is the Wolverine that you have? I've always been curious as to what kind of top speed they're able to achieve.

It's not so much that a dented oil pan would cause mechanical interference (that'd be a pretty epic dent) but more so that the gap between the oil pump pickup and the bottom of the oil pan gets smaller. This is bad when the engine is at high revs and the oil pump is slurping up more oil. If the gap is too small between the pickup tube and the bottom of the pan it can suck in more oil than what is capable of flowing into the narrowed volume. This causes oil starvation at high RPM and can damage the engine. The gap on the 4L oil pan is actually quite large when compared to other vehicles. Small oil pan dents on other vehicles are commonly known to cause premature engine bearing failure due to oil starvation at higher RPM.