pizzaman09

Samurais are fun! I have a friend with a 1988.5 model, it is one of the most fun ways to zip around town or go to the beach with some friends. It's also the most capable vehicle I've ever driven in the snow, 4x4 in a light weight truck with no power and good snow tires.

Working on mounting up the DC drive motors. Also have all of the batteries built up and have them running a portion of the house off grid with the inverter that will also be used to charge the batteries when they are used for the blower.

I know you have a 2.5L and my experience is with the 4.0L engines but I suspect this applies. I've had issues that cause this sort of bucking caused by exhaust leaks from the exhaust manifold before the O2 sensor. Check to see that the intake/exhaust manifold bolts at the head are tight and all present. If not it can be leaking and you might even have a bad gasket there. You could also have a crack in the exhaust or even a bad O2 sensor. The symptoms change as the exhaust system heats and cools along with thermal expansion.

I went with the Key Parts ones. I would advise for installation to either get 3/16" aluminum rivets or aquire a heavy duty pop rivet setting tool for the stainless ones that come with the Key Parts kit. I broke 3 pop rivet guns trying to set those stainless steel rivets before I gave up and swapped them for aluminum.

That's a very nice looking setup.

The release button on my driver's seat belt no longer pops up and the latch is now unreliable. Does anyone have a driver's seat belt latch (female end with the release button).

I did this with my factory one when I had my transmission out! Definitely easy to do if you have it out.

You might have a small exhaust leak up stream of the cat. Check that your header isn't cracked and that the conncections between exhaust sections aren't leaking. I had this specific issue on a vintage car of mine.

I had the same issue with bumping my oil pressure gauge needle when I cleaned my cluster. @Eagle_SX4 is spot on with the fix.

Also check that the manifold header bolts are tight and all are present. This can cause all sorts of poor running that manifests itself as an incorrect fuelling issue.

I think you have hit 50% of the answer with the reduced pressure comment. Seals use pressure to help push them to the edge of the cavity they are attempting to seal. The other part of the problem is that all rubber seals experience a phenomenon called compression set. This is effectively when the rubber takes the shape of its compressed state and doesn't spring back to its original as molded design. Temperature can also play a roll and the answer very well could be a combination of all three. I find it unlikely that housing porosity could be a source but it's possible, similarly corrosion or rust can do the same thing.

I used Permatex rear view mirror adhesive, it worked perfectly.

I needed to make a work trip up to VT, 8 hr drive each way from Erie, PA. Instead of grabbing a rental car I decided to drive the MJ. It has been a delightful trip, particularly this time of year driving through the Adirondack mountains of upstate NY. The MJ has handled the trip well, I did lots of 70+ freeway driving and a few hours of hucking it around the sweeping turns of the mountain state routes. I bet I surprised more than one person keeping up with them in far more modern vehicles. Lots of thumbs up from others on the highway and the folks at the customer I visited loved the truck too. Rolled over 282k miles. Even achieved fuel economy over entire tanks of 19.9, 21.4 and 22.4 mpg, of which I consider very good with the way I've driven.

I found these to be super easy to bleed, I let it gravity bleed for 15 minutes and my clutch was perfect.

I would at least bleed the clutch and make sure you are getting it fully to fully disengage the clutch. I could see where it is it struggling to get into the gear fully from a standstill in first. I am not confident this will fix it but it is way easier than tearing into a transmission.