Medicwithamanche

So last night I got the starter area cleaned up and finished with a flap disc. Just used the MD plate to measure it. The stock 4.0 starter fits nicely now. I think today’s plan will be to separate my aw4 from the 4.0 and work on my wiring for it. Pulled out the tranny harness last night but now I need to figure out what wire goes where and at least get the transmission plan together. I think I can finish putting the interior back together today too. Pulled it out thinking I would do something inside but never did.

I also have the plans to do a three link for the front. Was thinking about going with iron rock Offroad but I’m not dead set to use them yet.

So I’m finally getting around to writing up my project. Had my 88 MJ since august of 18 and put a lot of work in it making it my own. Added a RC 4.5 lift and their steering stabilized, and added new 15” method wheels and new 31” MT tires. JCR bumpers front and rear with their headache rack. Had it bedlined grey from the army green it was by a local body shop buddy. Various other mechanical fixes from the PO including new injectors and plugs, starter, rotor, brakes, and fluid changes. Added light bars to everything and couldn’t leave out rock lights. I own and operate a small pool cleaning business so I made it the badass pool truck! Ive wanted a diesel Jeep for quite some time now and told myself that I would make it happen when my 4.0 finally gave up. Well long story short is think my thermostat had a catastrophic failure on me and I kinda ran it hot. Blew the head gasket at least cause it idled like crap and was blowing oil all other the engine bay getting it home. I pulled it and set it aside to play with and rebuild a stroker for something else one day maybe. The plan for a diesel heap was to put in a Cummins 4bt in it because I love the way a Cummins sound. But after hours of reading through forum boards and facebook groups I had decided it was not going to work for me. I’d have to plate and reinforce my frame and get a new axle and suspension up front to do it right for my taste. Plus the cost wasn’t feasible or economic for me right now at the moment. I’ll save the 4bt for a J-series build one day! I ended up deciding on the Mercedes om617. It’s a smaller power plant yea but it still can get some respectable gains if done right. I sourced my motor from a guy that was only a couple hours away here in Texas. He had the MD4x4 AX15 adaptor plate with him and some universal mounts that I went ahead and made a deal with him on. Brought it all home and have been working on cleaning it and preparing it for the Jeep. I had heard things about the MD4x4 kits and have not heard good things from this particular plate. I ordered new mounts from them but I believe I’m going to go with Joe’s kit from DD when his AW4 kit is available in the next couple of weeks. I’d like to keep my aw4 that I had with my 4.0 because I already have it, keeps me form having to buy a new transmission setup, and the 88 models had a stand alone tcu. The aw4 needed a tps, brake, and speed sense in my readings to remain autonomous. I purchased the TCI remote tps to give a throttle voltage and the brake sensor can be wired to the brake lights on my pedal. The speed sensor I believe can be read from the cruise control sensor on my cable so that’s covered. I wanted to have an automatic build without a switch controller so you didn’t have to have a tutorial to drive it. The Mercedes, I currently have the motor dressed down. Cleaning out the intake manifold and doing the DD EGR delete and ALDA delete. I ordered Joe’s remote oil filter kit too and have plans to build an oil cooler and remote oil filter system. It had 77k on it when the PO pulled it and he guarantees it will start. So I’d like to get it to run before I drop it in the Jeep. I still have grind away the block where the started goes but the stock started from the 4.0 will work once I get the flywheel out of the 4.0. Ill use the MD4x4 plate to do all that and get it running. There is a bit more I had planned to do but plans didn’t come together. I would have liked to have done the 97 swap while i had it all apart. I went through a cleaned up the 4.0 harness and left all the sending wires for monitoring with the stock dash. Ill still have to run a few more wires through like boost and oil temp and EG temp but ill add those to a pillar cluster. This is a short write up about the build. I have an idea about doing a YouTube series on it but have not decided yet. I have the footage and pictures but have not done any editing. I dream to have the editing powers of bleeping Jeep and dirt lifestyle and guys of the sort but I don’t as of now. I want to have this done before the spring comes around so it’s nice to drive around. I’m not in a rush but I want to do it right. I want this to be my overland/camping rig so me and the GF can be gone on the weekends and just relax. I hope to have some feedback on other ideas and plans i could do. Cheers guys and gals.