AZJeff

That cladding does not ride at the actual crest of the body accent line in the sheet metal. That means it’s not going to protect the body from door dings completely.

I got a replacement TV cable for the AW-4 on Amazon. I think it was an Omix-Ada branded part. It's not quite as nicely constructed as a Mopar cable, but it functions correctly. By the way, they are LOTS of fun to change if someone has tie-wrapped the cable to the trans tunnel above the transmission body. Digging around up there to free up on the old cable was a nightmare for me.

Gotcha. I don't have them on my MJ because I have aftermarket flares, so they looked alien to me to begin with.

Do these things hold on the OEM flares?

No doubt the Mishimoto is an excellent radiator, but it IS PRICEY, at over $400. Rock Auto carries a CSF all metal radiator for the late style XJ type open cooling system that costs about $250. I used one of those in my 2000XJ and my current MJ. Here in Phoenix, they do the job just fine under the hardest of conditions, as long as you have good coolant, hoses, and the correct thermostat. I feel that it's a case of cost/benefit ratio. The Mishimoto doesn't bring enough to the party to justify the added cost.j

Agreed. I was astounded how screwy an AW-4 can act when the TV cable slips back and forth from it's proper setting. It makes you think your trans is completely shot.

I don't think it is actually a fuse. It's a self-resetting circuit breaker, and it should pull straight out and have blade type connectors on it.

That's a nice write-up, Eagle. If the rest of your document is that concise, I want to encourage you to put it out there for others to leverage as a knowledge base for MJ/XJ owners. Stuff like this is starting to become a treasure for a vehicles that is at LEAST 19 years old, and possiby much older, nowadays.

If you are really trying to "restore" and MJ to factory new condition, the website the OP cited is a good place for some of those weird esoteric connectors. However, they are PRICEY, like REAL PRICEY. If you are like me, and your objective is to make a reliable, functionally complete MJ, there are other connectors that can be had for much less money and will do the job much better than the crap AMC used back when MJ's were being assembled in Toledo. There are oodles of waterproof connectors with pigtails on them that can be soldered and heat shrunk into the wiring harnesses out there. I got mine from Amazon when I redid the harness that feeds the fuel pump and rear tail lights.

Same here. I was uncertain how the balance would be since I already had no original MJ load sense valve. I found that swapping to discs resulted in surprising good balance.

In general, I don't recommend that most of us here attempt to rebuild the actual Saginaw steering gear box. There are some special tools and procedures that need to be used/followed, and most of us don't have that stuff. It's easier to get a good used junkyard box, or if you are wealthy, buy a remanufactured box from a trusted source. (I do NOT recommend Autozone, as I went through 3 boxes from them for my 1991 F150. Rock Auto has AC Delco remans, and they seem to be OK.)

I am familiar with twisted pair wires and how they are supposed to function. Given they are not supposed to be in close contact with other circuits, I would assume they would be in their own separate harness, and not part of any other wire loom(s). I will look to see if that is the case in the stuff on the back of the instrument cluster wiring.

Good points. I have not checked to see if there are any intermittent shorts to either ground or power on the lines I have tested. I will do that.

Yeah, I realize that, and that’s why these intermittent issues are bugging me, since I checked continuity of ALL. Circuits except the CCD bus.

I cannot remember if I bypassed this particular wire (I did SO MANY), but I DID ohm-out EVERY wire in the system (except the CCD bus), with no sign of issues.🙁

I don’t have the upgrade, based on my dash wiring harness. So this improvement was never introduced during production, and all connector upgrades/fixes were dealer installed?

I assume the DRB3 is a dealer diagnostic tool. What do you think the odds are of a Jeep dealer having this tool as it applies to anXJ? Where does this tool tap into the instrument cluster and the cruise functions? Is it put in line in the cluster-to-dash interface? I ask because my thought is to strip all the trim off the dash, thus exposing the cluster directly, and then go to one of the large Jeep dealers here in the PHX area, and convince the shop to pay them just to run diagnostics using theDRB3. (Showing up with a 1989 Comanche and telling them to run diagnostics on the dash like it was a 2000XJ would be amusing.) I always prided myself on being able to fix all of my XJ’s I have owned, but I admit I am between a rock and hard place here. On the other hand, I am cheap and poor, so I don’t want to write a blank check to a dealer so a young tech. can learn about the primitive electronics of a 20 year old Jeep🤨

The XJ brake light switch for the later models has a set of contacts dedicated to the cruise control circuit that are "normally closed" when the brake pedal is NOT depressed. I not only temporarily bypassed this switch (with no effect), but also replaced the switch since it was acting a big flakey for the brake lights anyhow. Still no change.

The cruise won’t work. The light does not stay on long enough to see if it works when it’s illuminated. i bypassed the brake light switch temporarily to see if that was the issue. No joy.

Yeah, I bypassed the (new) CS, and it had no effect. I ran wires directly from my second (functionally identical) CC switches to the PCM. No effect. This one has me really puzzled.

Oh, I replaced that too, because the horn was not functional. I forgot to mention that. It did nothing for the cruise.

OK, so here is my problem: I press the cruise control power "on" switch on the steering wheel, and about 1/3 of the time, the light saying "cruise" illuminates in the cluster, indicating the cruise is ready to accept commands. In anywhere between 2 and 10 seconds thereafter, the "cruise" light shuts off, and cannot be turned on again until the vehicle is shut off and restarted. The issue "may" be connected to bumps and jars in the road surface, since I am always moving when I attempt to turn the cruise control on. So far, I have, with the aid of the factory shop manual for a 2000XJ, checked continuity for all wires between the steering column and the PCM, and from the PCM to the cruise control servo. I even temporarily bypassed ALL the wires between the PCM and servo, and between the PCM and the steering column switches. None of that did anything. I also replaced the cruise control servo with new OEM since the connector on it looked "nasty" but there was not change. I installed a different set of cruise control buttons (used) in the steering wheel, but they ohm out with the same impedances as the original set, and thus there was no change there. I even sent the PCM out to the shop that had previously "remanfactured" the PCM before I owned the vehicle, and asked them to confirm if the PCM cruise control functions are normal. They reported no trouble found. I also ran the instrument cluster through it's self-diagnostic tests, and it passes them all per the shop manual. I am convinced the issue is some sort of intermittent connection in the cruise control circuit(s), and I have tested all circuits except ONE. The ONLY part of the system I cannot test is the twisted pair CCD wiring between the instrument cluster and the PCM. Apparently there is a diagnostic tool dealers used to verify the function of this communication bus, but I, of course, do not have that tool. Do you have any suggestions?

Were you a tech at a Jeep dealer back when this issue was going on? If so, I have some questions about the CCD bus, if you know anything about the details of it's operation. Please advise and, if so, we can take this to private message to avoid a topic that is not really pertinent to "regular" MJ's.

As my sig lines shows, my MJ has a dashboard from a 97+ XJ in it. I am trying to track down intermittent cruise control light function on the instrument cluster, and I suspect the issue may be a CCD bus communication issue. The CCD bus runs thru the two blind mate connectors on the back of the instrument cluster, and I know there was some sort of TSB related to these connectors having erratic operation. I think the TSB involved changing these connectors to a more reliable design. how can I determine if my connectors are of the older (flakey) design, or the new improved variant!

Thanks!!