AZJeff

These guys might be able to help you out: GM Steering Column Parts

I live near PHX. Out here, rubber drying up and cracking is a way of life due to the heat and the UV rays in the sunlight. The wife's KJ Liberty is 19 years old. Even though it had just about 100K miles on it at the time, I had to go through and replace all of the suspension bushings due to "dry rot" And don't even THINK about what it does to all the plastic clips and retainers on cars nowadays. Each time I remove one to do some sort of repair, I say a little prayer before I try to pop them off

It's pretty well known on all the various Jeep forums that the 4.0 harmonic balancer has this tendency to separate in such a way that the outer "pulley" portion walks in or out from the "hub" portion. I don't know if it's a poor choice of rubber materials, or something related to the design, or both. I remember reading a story on one of the XJ forums about a guy who had his balancer fail in such a way that the pulley portion walked off the FRONT of the hub, fell out on the ground, and since it was spinning at idle (the vehicle was stationary, it scooted across the parking lot and slammed into another vehicle, causing a bunch of body damage.

Mine was all trashed when I got my MJ, and the cheesy "hardboard" Jeep had used was curled and delaminating from previous water damage. This drove me to a make a new one. I bought a piece of "masonite" from the lumber yard, and cut it to shape with a saw. (I used the old piece as a template.) Then I sanded the edges to remove the sharp corners. I obtained some black headliner material, and used spray-on headliner adhesive to attach the fabric to the masonite. The "L" brackets that attach to the bottom I cleaned and repainted, and attached them to the masonite with screws/nuts/washers. The headliner material is not as rugged as the stuff Jeep used, which was a sort of low-rent carpet type material. However, I don't put stuff behind my seats except a jacket or the like, so I am not worried about trashing the fabric.

Buy stuff from Rock Auto, and try to stay with brands that have a reputation. in looking thru RA’s selection for those years, it looks like GPD might be your best choice. too bad Four Seasons doesn’t make stuff for those older models any more

Looking for vacuum leaks isn't that hard, assuming you have some sort of vacuum pump. If you think the vacuum leak is in the dash area, intercept the line were it goes through the firewall into the heater box and plug it. Then use the vacuum pump at the point where the vacuum is sourced at the intake manifold. If the vacuum holds, then you have confirmed your suspicion that your leak is in the heater box. If the vacuum does NOT hold with this test, then at least your concerns about having to tear into the dash are over, and now it becomes a case of blocking off various parts of the system and retesting for holding vacuum until you find the area where the failure is located.

Given that your vehicle is 32 years old, I would strongly consider replacing the seatbelts for both seats. Heat, sunlight, and time all cause the belts to deteriorate (as you have discovered.) There are lots of aftermarket brands of seatbelts out there than will function as replacements, but both the male and female sides must be replace together, as there is no "standard" pattern between the two halves of the connection. I used these guys when I put in new belts: https://www.seatbeltsplus.com

I agree. Inside the limits of the types of audio that are posted on this forum, it sure sounds like an exhaust manifold leak.

The Moog's I installed had self-tapping zerk fittings.

There are companies out there that will make custom lines to your specifications. I know there are such outfits here in the Phoenix area (probably because auto AC is virtually a necessity here). Try looking around in Atlanta. I would bet someone is in that business there.

There is an “L” shaped bracket that attaches the top part of the radiator core support to the front grille surround. That is what those Torx head screws do, and they need to come out. there will be six 10mm bolts (3 each side) that attach the top cross bar of the core support to the top of the inner fender (2 face up, one faces rearward). The two nuts you see that are spinning actually attach the AC condenser to the cross bar. I think they are called condenser mounts or the like. “EagleScout526” can tell what the formal name of this part is, and can tell you where to get them.

Thanks, guys. Since I know this engine has been well cared for it’s entire life (along with PM to the cooling system like new rad, new WP, new hoses (twice for those) plus 4 coolant changes in 120k miles, I think I am safe with the engine as is. Here in PHX, a cooling system that is not absolutely PERFECT will kill an MJ/XJ real quick in the summer. I have carried over that practice into the wife’s KJ, and it seems to be paying off.

My MJ didn’t have a tire carrier on it when I got it. I looked at pics of the OEM design, and fabricated a new bracket from 1” square tubing and some plate steel. my actual tire winch is one from a late 90’s Ford Explorer. I welded a small 1/4” drive socket onto the input shaft on the winch, and thus use a 1/4drive extension and cheap ratchet to run the winch up and down.

I actually have the Liberty shop manual, and to measure chain wear as described above, you have to remove the Timing chain cover and all the crap in front of it.🙁 once I am that far in on a 120k engine, I AM putting new parts in.

Just in case you are wondering why I am concerned about the camshaft drive system on the 3.7L engine: My son has a Ford F150 with the infamous 5.4L Triton engine with the VVT. These things are NOTORIOUS for having the "cam phasers" that control valve timing dying and causing catastrophic valve train damage. In addition, the chain drive wears inordinately, and can cause chain jump because the tensioners cannot accommodate gross chain stretch. Owing to this, we decided to be proactive on his truck at just below the 200K mark. (Many of these engine croak LONG before this due to this valve train problem.) Because my son had been VERY diligent about oil changes and using synthetic oils, the valve train was still functioning, but there was no doubt that the chains were getting sloppy, and it was inevitable that the system would die in a catastrophic way in the not-too-distant future. We dodged a bullet by doing the cam drive system proactively. Parts were not cheap, but they were cheaper than a new/used engine. I just want to make sure the 3.7L Jeep engine doesn't have a similar latent defect in the cam drive system as does the Triton, and this is why I asked the question.

I figured you might have some intelligence on this. That would be appreciated if you could check the library..

Its been living on Mobile One, changed every 4-5K miles since new. I changed the valve cover gaskets last year, and the top end was a clean as could be, so I guess the change intervals and oil choice is doing it's part.

My wife has a 2004 Liberty that we have owned since knew. It has 121K miles on it, and it runs just fine, with no issues...no noises, no leaks, no oil consumption. However, I know that the 3.7L engine in the vehicle has timing chains the drive the camshafts, and these are tensioned by oil pressure driven tensioners. I am seeking some advice as to when it would be considered prudent to replace these chains and tensioners. Since this is an "interference" engine, I don't want to wait until a chain jumps time and trashes the engine. Can anyone point me to a reliable source as to how long this valve train can go before it should be replaced. Thanks.

That's what I am used to seeing. I guess just because a diff. has LSD does NOT mean it will look like all other diffs with LSD. Everybody who makes an LSD carrier does them a little differently.

I guess I learned something new. I always assumed the normal LSD looked something like the attached photo inside. I guess I was wrong, and there is more than one way to make an LSD, and some of them don't show the clutch packs so obviously.

That must be some aftermarket design you describe, as I have never seen an OEM diff. with that configuration.

You can see the clutch packs (partially) in an LSD housing. Those are not present in the photos, so that is a traditional "open" differential.

The method you suggest is commonly used at professional shops to find leaks in an auto AC system. The system needs enough refrigerant in it to cause the compressor to cycle. Once that happens, the dye that is added into the system is then used with a black light to find the leak(s). If the leak is in the heater box (due to a bad evaporator), the only way to find that is with a refrigerant "sniffer", but I am betting you will find it via the dye and blacklight.

There is no reason to replace all of the components in your system if you convert to R134a. There is another thread on this topic that is active right now where I make some suggestions on what needs to be done

The Chiltons and Haynes manuals are marginally useful, at best. The ONLY real way to go for a service manual is the factory one.