eaglescout526

I put thoughts on that and when I examined the wiring and pin out for both wiring and ECU of 86 and 87-90, I came to the conclusion that I’d would be fine to run the older ECU as it won’t see the WOT switch but would see it at the power steering. Now I did unplug that while testing and didn’t see any difference at all.

Grounds are good and clean. That was one of the first things I did before completing the swap and making sure there wasn’t any resistance. I’ll probably double check them for sanity but grounds to me wouldn’t be a huge cause of it running and driving right until it reaches closed loop or operating temp conditions to just behave like this.

No problem. As for 84-86 clusters, the thing I’d worry about is the printed circuit. The early ones are notorious for delaminating and separating due to age. Now this doesn’t mean you can’t find one in great shape. Now the pros to the early cluster is gauges are easy to swap and the tach has two versions. One for the 6 and the other for the 4 cyl. And the speedo cable is easy to remove while the cluster is installed. At least for me on my 84. Cons: delaminating printed circuit, engine specific tachs and limited availability of gauge parts. 87-90 cluster pros, adjustable tach, volt, oil and temp gauges swap out with 91-96 years and a little bit more easily found. Cons, 87-90 Renix years with the fuel gauge as HO ones will not swap, cluster has to come out to pinch and pull speedo cable off. Just some food for thought.

I recommend staying far the hell away from the aluminum radiators with plastic tanks on both ends. Crown makes a damn good drop in replacement radiator that I’ve been running with no problem and I’m in AZ and using a mechanical fan. Course I don’t do any crawling. But if I were, I’d look into keeping both mech fan and put an electric fan on the front of the radiator. But the 2.5L also doesn’t run incredibly hot and doesn’t take up 95% of the engine bay real estate to mess with air flow. Biggest thing is making sure the original fan shroud is in great shape and not in pieces.

Ok so the 84 XJ(89 engine harness with an 86 ECU) has been acting up. Badly and Im nearing my wits end with this one. So this problem surfaced after the fuel sending unit swap. I was able to drive to work just fine but driving home was a challenge as in I started losing engine power. It has since progressively gotten worse to where I can not drive more than a 1/4 of a mile from my house without sputtering as if its getting no fuel, spark or air. I have done rigorous testing, swapping some sensors with new ones I have. I at first thought it was the sending unit again. All logic pointed to that cause it drove fine prior to the swap, no reason it shouldnt drive right going back right? Well I swapped the float to the original assembly and then put it in and guess what? No change. Tested CPS, was below voltage, new one is below voltage, no absolute change. Both even have the same starting pattern. Starts, drives fine, sputters, turn off, restart, starts, dies, restart, no start, wait, restart, starts, runs, dies, wait, restart, starts, drives like nothing happened then the cycle starts over. Tested TPS and plugged in a new one. Same as above. Tested MAP, found it below voltage spec running, hot, idle. Same as CPS. Funny enough, REM told me I had a barometric error. Some change but not alot. Examined spark plugs, rotor, cap, all fine and within normal parameters. Saw nothing in the cylinders. Compared spray patterns of the injector to my MJ, same exact patterns at idle and wide open throttle. Tested O2, same, either unplugged or plugged in and REM shows good vitals for it. The only thing I can think of is fuel pump is dying, yes swapped relays, no change, or the pressure regulator is or has failed and I have no way to check that as I still need to figure out a gauge set up for the 2.5L fuel rail. But theres no fuel leaks, no fuel leaking into the TB, tested damn near every ignition related component and am damn near at a loss. Thoughts? My guess from all this, its something thats getting heat soaked and failing or its something else that I physically can not see.

Agreed. i was gonna do this as a side business if making door cards and making new ones, washing the material and putting them back together. But that’s been on hold for years.

Thanks! I had been looking for the right size staple for a while but never got the chance to find such.

Ground out the connector at either sender. It will illuminate on the cluster. If not. Bulb could be bad. Or swap to a gauge cluster and get sensors for the two.

What kind of staples did you use for this?

Lol!!!! Really the only place for the later smooth bezels.

Yes. Lol.

Well it sort of is a wire. Grey? Now I dont know. It should be a plastic, clear for non tilt and tan/white for tilt with copper contacts in the plastic housing that when the key is put in, the plastic in the cylinder will push on that contact to make the buzzer work when the door is open. Which leads me to the door switches.

Grounds, the door switches and the contact in the column come to mind for probable causes.

Dammit!! I hate people who value their own lives and neglect those around them. Sorry man....glad youre ok, but seeing the 21slot being toast makes me want to switch mine out just to save them

From someone doing a bench to bucket swap. Might be able to get away with finding GM or ford of the same era with the Bendix buckles. But 86-87 will be your best bet for finding AMC buckles in tan

No. You can change to either AMC style or the Bendix buckles as both can be found in tan.

It all looks like original Renix/AMC parts. Early or later would be hard to tell but one thing, he didnt install a later compressor as it still mounts the Renix/AMC way and not the Chrysler HO way where the mounting bolts go down into the bracket. What part number is on that condenser?

So I installed a diode to rectify the back feeding issue. Worked like a charm. I also yanked out the fuel sending unit and found the float level to be on the fritz! So I swapped out the unit and got hell of a surprise to see I was low on gas! Haha. So I am gonna inspect that FSU and see why the hell its behaving like this.

I want to get back to this. @Eagle_SX4 I got the diode and installed it. Now everything acts normal. Even upon shut down it doesnt act like it wants to keep going. And my ipod doesnt constantly restart upon shut down or starting. But this didnt fix my fuel guage. HOWEVER! I yanked out the sending unit and found the float to be on the fritz! Well changed it and got one hell of a surprise to be low on gas! Hahaha. Thanks for the help!

On the topic of the C101. I found that in the heat it would liquify the crap in the connector and screw up my connections. Notably the O2. I cleaned and cleaned without really tearing it apart and my issue would go away for a bit but would return after a few days to a week. Then what I finally did was take an air gun from my air compressor and blew air into each socket for the terminal and blew the hardened gunk out to eliminate my issue of it turning to a grease like substance and ruining my good clean connection. So far so good. Now I haven’t done anything for moisture prevention as water feels nonexistent here and I probably should add something but I’ll get to it.

Everyone and I absolutely mean everyone, with an 87-90 MJ or XJ should replace those crappy plastic sockets with the 84-86/91-96 metal sockets to avoid any further issue with their blinkers, hazards and bulbs.

Check the switch in the door jamb itself. They corrode to where they wont conduct anymore and will need to be cleaned. That being said. Highly recommend cleaning and adding grounds if you have not done this yet. And while we're talking about your headlamp switch, if you havent put your headlamps on a relay harness yet, we all recommend you should as that will reduce the power load on the switch itself.

Huh. Of the few times I’ve been to Kent, I have never seen a single MJ.

I probably am not too far from you.

Yes they can.