AZJeff

One of the common issues that crops up here on Comanche Club are electrical "gremlins" due to poor electrical connections. Often these can be traced to the actual connectors in the wiring harness itself. In a former life, I was a mechanical engineer who spent a lot of time around electrical connectors, so I have a decent knowledge of what makes a good connector. I won't mince words--the connectors Jeep used in the 1980's were very primitive. The designs Jeep used were just very prone to environmental damage, which makes the connectors intermittent. On my MJ, I have chosen to replace connectors that don't have a specific interface to a component. What that means is, if a connector is in the middle of a wiring harness (with both a male and female end), whenever I am working on that section of the harness, I cut out and replace that connector with a more modern type, one that has modern environmental sealing built into it. What I have been using is a connector series made by "AMP", which has a long history of being a supplier to the automotive industry. I have used products from AMP in my career, and this design is perfectly suited for replacement use in vehicles. This series is sold on Amazon, and the connectors come in a variety of sizes (number of connections). Each connector already has a "pigtail" of wiring on it, so no special crimping or installation tools are needed. To make reliable connections, one would either need to solder these connectors on to the existing wires, or use the type of butt splices that have a heat-shrink covering that provides a waterproof seal over the splice. (I choose soldering, since I know it's the most durable.) Here is a photo of a few of the sizes of the connector family, for reference. They go by the "MUYI" brand name. They are made in China (of course), but they are licensed from AMP.

Another aspect of restoring my taillights invovled fixing the holes where the bulb sockets attach to the reflector portion of the light housing. Below is how I fixed that

I have also added a write-up on how to repair the hole in the reflector housing where the bulb socket does it's "twist lock" engagement. Mine were all trashed. That write up is in my thread about the taillight restoration in the DIY section.

CROSS POSTED THE SCREEN SHOTS FROM THE WRITE UP HERE, SINCE THIS IS THE "DIY" SECTION:

So I have tried to screen shot the pages of the PDF. They are pasted below.

PDF is uploaded. There are tons of pictures, so downloading it is the best way to see the details. MODS-- I couln't get my document to copy/paste into the main message screen because I had photos with highlighing lines, etc. Thus, I just uploaded a PDF. If you can tell me how to fix this, I will repost directly into message screen for easier viewing.

https://comancheclub.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=71012&key=b31d72426b0ba9585df16f78806701eb

I bought a set of the reproduction tail light lenses from Key Parts. While doing the install, I did a write-up of what it took to get good results. Is anyone interested in me posting a PDF of the procedure I went through?

That’s not the thread I was thinking of, but the link has the correct info on how to obtain just the shaft/bearing assembly, and reuse the old bracket.

There was a thread about this topic on one of the XJ forums years ago, wherein a guy figured out a standard part from one of the main National bearing suppliers that is pretty much a drop in fit. Of course, one needs to get someone to has a hydraulic press to remove the old one and install the replacement. I cannot remember which XJ forum it was, but I know “Eagle” was on that same forum at the same time, so maybe he remembers. With the OEM stock of these bracket/shaft assemblies drying up, we might all be needing to use this alternate approach soon.

That bearing is pretty worn. MOST of the upper "frosty silver" layer is gone, and that's a sign of wear and tear. Assuming the crank itself shows no scoring due to dirt or metallic stuff, a new set of bearings might fix this.

I am guessing, based on the description of the lower steering column you stated above, that there was some sort of change to the column during the "body refresh" on the XJ in 1997. My column is from a 2000XJ (along with the dash), and the lower portion of steering shaft is a solid rod with two "flats" on it, forming what an engineer calls a "double-D" shape. The upper shaft section is a hollow tube with the same shaped "double-D" on the inside. The two pieces slide into each other, and don't seem to have anything to prevent them from sliding in or out until the respective halves are connected to the body and the steering gear, respectively. You can literally push the lower solid section up into the upper hollow part without using a hammer (I greased mine to help with this.) Oddly enough, this same type of joint was used by Ford on my old 1991 F-150, and that shaft developed some slop in that "double-D" slip joint. I fixed it by drilling a hole on one of the flats on the "D" of the hollow portion. Then, I welded a nut on the outside over the hole, and used a set-screw and a locknut to take up the slop between the two halves. Note: I did NOT tighten the set screw to the point that the shaft could not telescope.

Where is the suspected slop in the steering column? Is it on the coupling that attaches to the input shaft on the actual steering box?

There are several reasons why auto makers have used HVAC systems that employ a small radiator to provide cabin heat. The biggest of which, of course, is that an internal combustion engine (ICE) generates LOTS of excess heat, so using it to heat the cabin is "free" so to speak. Electric vehicles don't have that luxury, of course. However, they have NOT chosen to use what is commonly called "resistive electric heating," mainly because it is HORRIBLY energy inefficient. What they do instead is to employ a heat pump, which is an air conditioner in reverse. This solution is EXPENSIVE, and thus it's the primary reason that cars with an ICE don't use it. Others have pointed out that a properly maintained cooling system will allow an ICE equipped car with a traditional heater core to last MANY, MANY years. Going to the trouble/expense of trying to remove the heater core as a failure point might end up introducing a WHOLE BUNCH of other more complicated/expensive pieces in your solution.

As a retired mechanical engr., the first thing I did was read the tech. specs. On the various ThreeBond adhesives, and I saw a couple that might be effective for this application. But…..I could not find anything on their website on how to buy their products through any retail channels. Which product did you choose, and how did you obtain it?

I am with Cruiser. Drill and tap deeper, and use sealant on the threads when they penetrate the water jacket. Older Ford V8's had threaded holes that penetrated the water jacket, and sealant kept those from leaking.

I never heard of "Threebond", so using my Duck-Duck-Go skills, I saw they make a plethora of different adhesives. So which one did you use, and why? And what retail source is there for the stuff?

I got a set of the new lenses from Key Parts. I also have got a "spare" set of taillights with really crappy lenses that I was going to experiment on. Can you elaborate more on exactly where you made your cuts? I have some small saw blades for my Dremel, and was thinking they might be the ticket for getting the old lenses off the reflector housings. Some close up pictures of where you made the cuts would be really helpful. Thanks.

OK. I looked at the charts in the journal.pmed. (I don't consider NPR an unbiased scientific source, so I skipped them.) You ARE correct that there are some long term effects. The most common one is "anxiety". As a suffered from anxiety myself, I will not dismiss this as not an issue, but HOW MUCH of the anxiety is brought on by our government's fear-mongering that I mentioned originally? I also notice that many of the symptoms listed for "long covid" can also occur in influenza survivors, too. (The rate is not as high with influenza victims, notably.) My point is that nobody carries on about "long flu", and yet it's also a possiblity for influenza survivors. We must balance the realities here. Covid is serious, but it's not the 21st century version of the bubonic plague.

The part in black is incorrect. I "may" prevent death, but it is NOT certain, especially if there are serious co-morbidities. The part red is STATISTICALLY INCORRECT. The majority of Covid deaths occurred in the first 14 months of the pandemic, as the below chart shows. We didn't even reach 50% vaccination rates among the US population until mid-2021

Can you point me to a legitimate source for the statistic of 10-20%? I know there have been "a few" cases of weird aftereffects from Covid, but I have NOT heard of any statistical number being documented and publicized.

CAVEAT: I have been vaccinated, so don’t think I am against the vaccine, per se. However, the following comments about the vaccine and it’s roll-out are my observations. In a former life, before I retired, I was a mechanical engineer for 40+ years. The last 10 years of my career was involved in product/process quality. As such, I dealt with a LOT of statistical data, and our decisions in industry were based on that data. My point with saying the above is the way our government is approaching dealing with this virus is pretty much ignoring the statistics related to it’s impact on people as individuals. Instead, like it often does, our government is trying to apply a “one size fits all” solution for the entire population. We now have PLENTY of data that shows that, statistically, this disease is not the same for all people in terms of risk of infection, risk of hospitalization, or risk of death. But, you wouldn’t know it from the message our government is sending related to this virus. Government agencies have almost COMPLETELY hidden the fact that in general, this illness has a 99.7%+ chance of recovery, even without any sort of vaccine. Furthermore, your chances of being serious ill or dying from Covid is HIGHLY dependent certain specific risk factors, including the following major ones: 1. COMORBIDITIES – if you are diabetic, or very overweight, or have COPD, or CHF, and a few other serious medical issues before becoming infected, your chances of dying from Covid are FAR GREATER (by orders of magnitude) than for someone who does NOT have those issues. The information being disseminated about this virus via government press releases and most media completely IGNORES these added risk factors. 2. AGE – Persons under the age of 45 or so are very unlikely to be seriously affected. Yes, they will get sick, but the chances of dying are quite low (assuming none of the comorbidities mentioned above). If the person is under the age of 18, virtually NOBODY will die from Covid. In spite of this, we have the government and the media clamoring that all school children MUST be vaccinated, even though they are in the LOWEST RISK group. In addition, we have a large percentage of the population was initially told (and still believes) that getting vaccinated will protect you from catching this infection. If you “read the fine print” when the drug makers introduced the vaccines, they never said that the vaccine would PREVENT the infection. Instead it was intended that the vaccines were designed to LESSEN THE SYMPTOMS and thus hasten the recovery. Additionally, those who study viruses and vaccines to control them have stated for years that viruses tend to mutate, and a thus vaccine that is effective now may not be effective with the next mutated strain of the virus. (This is why flu shots are different each year.) Yet, for a long time, the government and media never told us that vaccines for Covid would be a “forever” thing. Instead, they act like they were caught unaware of how the vaccines don’t deal well with the mutations of the original virus, and thus additional boosters are now required. What I am trying to point out here is that our government “leaders” (I use that term loosely) have engaged in a campaign of “selected information” to distribute to the citzens. To compound this, they have engaged in fear mongering, trying to induce EVERYONE to get the vaccine. Worst of all, they have even resorted to economic terrorism, by threatening to shut down businesses that won’t FORCE their employees to get vaccinated. The vaccine is not totally bad. It carries risks for some portions of the population, but then again, so does the Covid infection. However, the way this vaccine has been rolled out and presented to the population is a case study in government incompetence at it’s finest.

I agree. Any competent welding shop can repair a broken aluminum casting with the appropriate welding method and filler. The cost would probably be less than the cost of a used transmission for a case donor.

A warm (not hot) clothes iron will also help remove the wrinkles.

Those belts will be ok if you have a bench seat. With buckets, thought, the buckle end will flop onto the floor when it’s unlatched. I prefer the belts that use the stiff cable on the buckle side of the belt when installed with bucket seats.