ExpatMJGuy

Yeah I can do a lot but I’m not up to this task. But if it’s reasonable that it can be repaired. I’m willing to keep moving forward with the driveline pull. I had an idea how much I was going to price a clean chassis, but not one that needs this kind of work. Otherwise it seems pretty decent

MSO? Manufacture Statement of Origin? Mine is going to Australia if all goes according to plan. There can still be an audible for New Zealand but Australia is still the plan. I just don't want a customs inspector opening the door and going, that doesn't look right. Either way I know it needs a new label before it can go. I'm going to need to get with the OP and order a set. I'll hold them in a folder in the house till it goes in for paint and I'll have the body shop install them. Then at least I have them.

After a year I'm FINALLY in the process of pulling the old 2.8 v6 out of my 86 parts MJ. It's water logged and toast. Some kid hydro locked it and then rather than fix it, they parked it in a field and let it sit... for YEARS! I got into it and pealed back damage where this MJ has been in an accident at one point in its life. Looks like the front passenger side has taken a HARD hit. It looks to me like they have done some frame repair work and now years later the metal used in the repair has started to rust and give way. You can see where they even reinforced the repair underneath. Look, I'm not a body guy. Not by a long shot. Is this something that can be repaired at some point by someone that knows what they are doing? If it can be repaired is it worth it? Maybe since it was repaired once it could be done again? I've included pics tell me what you guys think. Here's the deal. I paid too much for something I thought was in better shape. I bought it originally for the complete black interior. Center console is intact and all. I originally found this thing in the dark. I thought at the time someone had already swapped out the Peugeot transmission. I thought it would go in my 88 MJ. Nope, didn't even know about the AX-5 at the time and they look alike if you don't know better. Knew I could snag several small parts, and the tailgate, but this is another gut punch. All my plans for this thing seem to have gone south at some point. I figured I could save someone the work, pull the engine and scrap it myself and recoup a few bucks. My intent up to now has been to sell a complete rolling body with complete glass. Something someone could do body work on and drop and engine and interior of their choice in. If this was an XJ I'd strip it of everything I want and send it on to the scrapper. But this is a Comanche, and one with a clean title! Since it has a clean title I'm trying to do what I can to keep it from having soup cans made of it. But with this new discovery of accident damage a bridge too far? There's metal work\body experts with lots of experience here so let me know what's up. Cause if it's too far gone I don't want to go any further waisting my time pulling an engine and getting it ready for someone else. Otherwise it's a typical southern truck that has been sat up for a long time. There's some surface rust but floor pans and all seem to be there so far. So big picture I'm trying to decide if I want to even continue with the engine pull. If the body is toast or unsafe, guess I'll need to come up with my plan C. Have a few ideas.

I wish I saw this before now. I'm going to be getting to the point I'm going to be dealing with international shippers this summer\early fall. Mine have paint and say VOID all over them. The question is will these be good enough to get through international customs inspections? I was going to have the truck painted when taxes come back. My original plan was to talk to the body shop when it was there about getting a replacement set. These seem on par to everyone? Problems can cause me problems at the port and thousands of dollars or worst case scenario a crushed Jeep.

I have experience in this being in the Military for 15 years and being the child of a carrier soldier. None "stayed" stateside. They were all sold overseas by the Army Air Force Exchange Service or AAFES for private use by military members. To my knowledge they weren't used by the military itself. And most Government vehicles are stateside purchased in bulk usually from the lowest bidder at a dealership somewhere in the states before being sent wherever in the govt agency that purchased then. I'm not surprised that they end up coming home with their owners considering all the details. AAFES "NEW" car sales when stationed overseas are considered tax free purchases and usually have low interest loans considering they know that you will get paid reliably every month till you get out of the military. Either way these are still new vehicle loans that are 60 months on average. When the military transfers you overseas you get 1 vehicle shipped for free as part of your relocation benefits each way. Any additional vehicles shipped are paid for at the owners expense and takes about a month to ship. My father was stationed in Germany 95 to 97. My dad did a 2 for 1 trade in and we shipped a 95 Mercury Mystique to Germany and bought a 68 Beetle since they were more common there as a second vehicle for my mom. I was thinking the Beetle was coming home, but he sold it and bought a 96 XJ in Wiesbaden Germany when we found out we were consistently running out of space on road trips we were taking overseas and wanted a smaller SUV. We came home a year early due a cancer diagnosis for my father and still owed on it, but he had the govt ship it home since it was larger and heavier, and paid 3k out of pocket to ship the Mercury home. Probably what we saved in taxes. Later in 2000 it wound up becoming my car, until a car crossed into my lane going down the highway and totaled it a few years later. May she RIP. But then again it's not uncommon for soldiers to sell used secondary cars locally before they go back to the states.

I love that pic. I might have some with my old 96 XJ pulling stuff maybe even my 02 Liberty pulling if I dig. I seem to remember the towing capacity of the XJ at 5k pounds. Will it do more... yup. I would know. Should you... another question. Goes to show what the Liberty is capable of. The KJ Liberty was an underrated vehicle IMO. It towed well and was also underrated as a capable off roader. The off-roading community wasn't ready for Independent Front Suspensions, but IFS is what honestly made it great a great off roader. They hated it because it created limits to just how high you could lift it and the difficulty level was higher to accomplish the lift for a casual builder on the weekend. But how high do you really need? The front end articulation off the pavement was excellent. The front tires were glued to the trail. I honestly think in pure stock form the KJ was more capable than the XJ. I didn't off road it hard very often because the Liberty was my wife's daily driver while I continued to drive my Jetta and my XJ. When it would leave the pavement I usually got an earful. A few times it went places where I probably shouldn't have taken it and always came back with me impressed. Was the KJ flawed? Yes. I had a love hate relationship with that swinging tailgate amongst other things. Jeep was beginning their run of cheap build materials at the time and the interior didn't age well because of it. But honestly the XJ was flawed in several ways as well. (Overheating, underpowered brakes, etc) My MJ has flaws for that matter. I'm yet to find the absolute perfect Jeep. But it is hard to beat the Jeeps from the 80's 90's and very early 2000's. And then came the cheap plastic interrior Just Kidding or JK Wrangler, the Commander, the Compass, and the Patriot... Outside of the 4 door Wrangler redesign itself the dark years... Now we have entered the great build but really Just Empty Every Pocket years... Just on the payment... Ouch those price tags! It's why I have a Pro-4x Frontier instead of a Gladiator. In 2019 I paid 13k less for my new fully loaded Frontier than a new stripped to the bone base model Gladiator! JEEP WAS ABSOLUTELY HIGH AS A KITE to think I'd pay 45k for a lowest of the totem pole S model! I have a sunroof now, I'm good.

I want to go again and again. I'm not hooked on going west now. I also want to go far north, towards Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and further up into Canada. I'm well well well versed on the east coast and I've had a taste of something new and I want more. I've lived in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia most of my life. I don't even need maps to navigate pretty much from Alabama and central Tennessee all the way to the Atlantic Ocean and all the way south to Orlando. I may not know every road but once I wonder to a main state or US route I can figure it out. I can navigate by interstate number further. I've seen so much of the SouthEast I'm up for something new. My wife is originally from Wisconsin so I've explored some up that direction and grandparents lived in Ohio. I've seen Many corners of the SouthEast and traveled from Miami up towards New York City and west pretty much to the Mississippi. I lived in North Carolina when I first joined the military and where of all places in the world did the army send me? Ft Bragg, North Carolina. Fort Gordon Georgia. I did live in El Paso Texas when I was in the Army for a few years as well, but I was kept on a real short leash and couldn't go more than an hour or two from post. And that was only North as I wasn't allowed to cross the border into Mexico for any reason. I hated it back then, as I didn't have the freedom to go and see what I really wanted to and I wasn't impressed with El Paso itself. This was also the days of flip phones and there was less information on the internet about what was around me back then when directions consisted of printed Mapquest routes and paper maps. When I would go on leave I seemed to always need to go back east to see or deal with family. The SouthEast is my home, but my wanderlust for the west is stronger than ever and now I've had a taste and it's made it even worse. I have family in Kansas that didn't live there back then and visited with them a few days on my trip, but I really looked at public lands for free dispersed camping, and campgrounds in national parks. Something that is much more difficult to do back easy. Usually either in National Forrest or Grasslands when we were in the plains. I used an app called iOverlander to help find AMAZING camp sites along the way. Since I retired from the military, most military bases have campgrounds that you can stay at for 5 bucks a night for tent camping and 20 for full hookups. They usually have restrooms that have showers that are better than national parks have, and many have playgrounds and or lakes at them. So we stayed on a few military bases along the way. Great stops for early turn in evenings or slow start mornings to get showers after being further off the beaten path. My daughter wanted to see the difference between Carl's Jr and Hardee's and in the process ate something that totally didn't agree with her and we so we stayed at a hotel in Amarillo and held tight that night for her but all in all we didn't spend much on lodging. Less than $200 for just over 2 weeks of traveling with the bulk of lodging cost in Amarillo. What I would totally change for future trips is how I packed. Just over 2 Weeks across ALL KINDS of terrain and weather with the food and kitchen for cooking that 2 weeks of food meant taking lots of gear and the space added up quick. I wasn't sure how the truck would load once we got the tent so I pulled the garden trailer to ensure there was enough space for gear and the tent in the box. With anything that can't be wet we put in the plastic bins inside plastic bags. It worked GREAT for the actual tent pickup as I just strapped the box on top of the trailer. You can see in the pic I added the box for the tent before I threw it away. Other than destroying it's cheap paint finish from all the gravel and dirt roads, surprisingly a cheap Tractor Supply trailer held up great to all the abuse of a cross country road trip with some light off roading for getting to some of these camp sites off the beaten path. The trailer made it easy for the actual tent pickup, but all in all it was such a PITA to get something simple as a change of socks out. Unstrap the bin, dig and hunt for it, reseal everything, strap everything back down. Especially during those cold mornings with high winds in Colorado trying to use my fingers to secure the straps in the cold was outright painful and dried my fingers out to leather. I could only do so much strap adjustment with gloves. The new rooftop tent did excellent in the wind but I'd strap everything back down on the trailer even at night to secure it from the winds and protect things from Animals. I love the space the trailer provided. It allowed space in the bed for casual stuff still. For Example in Mississippi, my daughter stepped in a mud puddle on accident in the dark and soaked a pair of shoes. Plenty of space in the bed to leave her shoes to dry while going down the freeway. Nice spot in the open and she was back in them by lunch that day. But at a minimum, I think a small enclosed trailer would would work better. Easier for waterproofing, animal proofing, easier access without having to lock and strap each individual bin, and more secure storage in the event we do decide to stop at a hotel as we did in Amarillo. Learning this and going all in for road trips such as this, in an ideal world I think I want a teardrop camper trailer, and then put the roof tent on top of it for the kids. Someplace I can store all my camping gear permanently, but short term I might be looking for a small box trailer for future west coast trips like this. .

I stand corrected they do run 4400 to 4900 depending on how you equip them and what you have onboard IE skid plates and such. I'm thinking about when I ran it across the CAT scales to weigh it for a military move 13 years ago. The army weighs you by the pound when you move. You have to weigh your vehicles empty and full to figure out your mileage reimbursement. My wife reminded me that I had to add the trailer to the empty weight because we owned the trailer. The military does not count your trailer that you personally own when you move towards your shipped weight. Either way it was an impressive trailer hauler. And my XJ surprised me as well. My parents had an emergency and needed to get a horse to a vet and the truck for the horse trailer was out of commission. We hauled the horse with my XJ over Mont Eagle Mountain Tennessee, it was an emergency. Would I do it again hell no. Did it do it. Yup and even though it was sketch, I was impressed when it was done, and the Liberty tows better. Again traffic conditions have a lot to do with my decisions in such cases.

Do u still have the same insurance company? They often keep records of every vehicle you’ve ever owned. If u have USAA, they have a drop down menu when you get an insurance quote that shows the vin for every car you’ve ever owned. They have every car of mine going back to my first Jeep from high school when I got my own insurance policy and separated from my parents insurance. Remember or got a pic with the old license plate number? Or any way to get it? If you can come up with that, a call to the DMV may turn up a result. Tell them you’re trying to locate a previously owned car and they may or may not play ball. Don’t expect it be a fast turn around even if they do play ball. And I’d work with a few agents of the answer Is no. Some people would rather say no then do the work or research how to do anything complex. Same goes for the insurance company. Just a few ideas.

I used to own a KJ. It's heavier than it looks. 6k pounds curb weight! I used to do some towing with mine. It actually towed better than you would think. Better than my XJ did if you can believe that. We moved with a 5x8 box trailer FULLY loaded and heavy as hell a few times. Biggest physical issues are that stupid spare tire and swinging tailgate being in the way. The biggest thing to consider is the types of roads and terrain your tackling without those trailer brakes. Flat 2 lane road, nice and slow. Or even flatter rural interstate ok as long as it's steady at those speeds. Mountain roads with 6 or 7 percent grades or an urban beltway where it goes from 80 to 0 in seconds with zig zagging impatient drivers.... NOPE. Also remember what a 2 wheel dolly does to the driveline of the towed vehicle. 2 wheel dolly should never be used on a 4wd vehicle without the driveshafts being pulled.

The morning we picked up the tent taken in Pawnee Grasslands Colorado S Sunrise over Pawnee Buttes Colorado Mounting the roof tent over the bed of the truck in a park, Ft Collins, Colorado First use of our Roof Top Tent One of the Many Pics from Rocky Mountain NP My poor daughter Freezing in Rocky Mountain NP My daughter posing when stopping at Vail Pass Colorado Someone's MJ on it's way to Moab, because I saw it there a few days later. Our tucked away camp spot along a ridge near Canyonlands NP You can see the ridge better here Sunset from Camp View short hike from Camp Beginning segment of Shaffer Trail Shafer Trail half way up looking back Looking up the switchbacks of the Shafer Trail I have TONS more pics but just wanted to give an idea what a basic trip to Moab can be all about! My the way it was 70 Degrees when we left Atlanta, 14 Degrees in the Rockies, in the mid 70's in Moab, 86 degrees Across Texas, and upper 70's by the time we made it back to Atlanta. Talk about temp whiplash. In Colorado the wind was worse than the cold temps but we packed for it so it's all good. We said to each other when we hiked to delicate Arch and were boiling hot we couldn't believe we were essentially in a blizzard just a few days earlier.

I've been in this trap before. That's how I came across my current PARTS XJ. My jeep had recently been stolen and then recovered after the payout by the insurance company. Because of this it had a branded title even though it had never been in an accident. I was like I have no intentions of ever selling it so whatever. I flew from Atlanta down to Miami to pick up the Jeep. Paid cash for it, drove it home and because it had a rebuilt title that's where my nightmares began. GA wouldn't accept the rebuilt. It hat to be inspected by the DOT inspector in GA. I had it inspected thinking hey, it just passed in FL so it should be no issue lets just jump though the hoops. Inspector knocked on my floor pans with the back of a screwdriver and punched a hole the size of a quarter that didn't exist before he inspected it and failed me! Told me it will need new floor pans placed in the vehicle according to manufacturers standards. I found another Jeep 2wd for $800 that is in mint shape with a bad engine and clean title. I'm moving the driveline and my once gorgeous cheep Jeep is now a parts Jeep for my 2wd conversion project. NEVER NEVER deal with anything but a clean title in hand.

So I’ve been away from the site for a bit, but for good reason. I took a roadtrip out west from Georgia and have gotten away from working on my Jeeps for a bit. And then in the short period after the trip I had to clean everything and transition right into doing things around the house with the spring planting season. We road tripped through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, clipped Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, a small part of Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana! I bought a new Crua AER Rooftop tent, and with an $800 price tag for shipping I decided fuel for pickup wouldn’t be much more expensive and I get a road trip out west out of it. Pickup was near Ft Collins Colorado. We took full opportunity to explore that area a bit. And looking back, the Pawnee Buttes in Pawnee National Grassland was a surprising enjoyment and more than just a free place to stopover. Unique scenery with great hiking, and Amazing sunrises and sunsets with a cool windmill backdrop. I explored Rocky Mountain National Park as best I could but in reality early to mid April is still just too cold for the Rockies. We still got snow and snowshoed around Bear Lake. And not to say it wasn’t worth it, because it totally was, the cold snow made unique scenery that will forever be in my brain. Parts oft the scenery reminded me of the one time I made it to Switzerland. But the cold was always something to be dealt with and detracted from the experience. With that we decided to head further west with our new tent and explore UTAH on our big cross country loop with the drive on I-70 in Colorado being another highlight of the trip and spotted a Comanche being towed to Moab along the way! Utah is everything everything any Jeeper could dream of and then more! And while I didn’t drive any of my Jeeps on this trip I still felt like a Jeeper at heart behind the wheel of my Pro-4X Frontier and figured out why it’s the Mecca of Jeep. We checked out the 4 corners area, Monument Valley, lots of stuff along the way there and back, but in my mind Moab, Arches and Canyonlands NP were the crown Jewel of the trip. If you’ve never been it’s something to behold. Especially if you are from someplace east of the Mississippi river like myself. The dramatic scenery difference from the southeast is worth it alone. The easter Jeep Safari is even held in April with good reason. Not too hot and not too cold. While totally not planned we arrived the week before Jeep Safari and stuck around about half way through the safari before we had to move on. Before the Jeep Safari it seemed like every third vehicle in Moab was a Jeep. Once it started it seemed like more than 3/4 of the cars on the road were Jeeps. There’s Jeeps of all kinds there. Unique Jeeps can be found but mostly 4 door wranglers are what’s found. They even have Jeep rental places all over Moab. It’s super easy to fly out there, and rent a Jeep if you don’t want the hassle of driving all the way across the country to get the Jeep experience and truthfully the best way to experience Canyonlands National Park. There’s trails of every difficulty level around the Moab area with all kinds of terrain on all kinds of land ownership. Riverbeds in the bottom of canyons to mountain paths in the La Sal Mountains! Water crossing to boulder hopping. My personal highlight was the Shaffer Trail in Canyonlands where you take an old cattle trail past colorful potash plant ponds, along the rim of a mini grand canyon, into a canyon, and right up the switchback sides of a canyon wall towards the National Park visitor’s center. If you can dream of the off roading terrain, the Moab area pretty much has it and tons of views along the way! With multiple land types and multiple federal agencies owning the land there’s cheap and free camping all over the place for all types of setups and rigs with few restrictions. Everything from a place to boondock a full size motorhome to a hidden spot to place a backpackers tent. Just remember some of the free areas with the least restrictions and best access can be more crowded and the crowds can be a bit more rowdy here. Personally the sounds of ATVs running up and down the dirt roads all night while I sleep in a tent is unappealing. (Willow Springs Road) But if your not afraid of the beaten path and a small drive from Moab you can still find a camping spot with a great view and not see a living sole for days which is exactly what we did and found a spot near a cliff with an excellent canyon view with an Amazing Sunset! And if camping isn’t your thing there’s still plenty of nice hotel space in Moab itself. There’s plenty of things to do besides Jeep. Crazy vista views, mountain biking, road biking, horseback riding, rafting, hiking, fishing, ATV or dirt bike riding, if it’s outdoor related it can most likely be done in the Moab area. And there’s not much there for dangerous animals as there are in other desert areas or even the rockies so the terrain feels pretty safe. Just remember, sun screen, drink lots of water, and chap stick. Especially if you're from someplace non desert like such as myself. You would be amazed how fast that sun can reach out and get you. Now that I understand what the attraction to Moab is, I’ll be back again, and again, and again. And next time since it will be the focal point of my trip most likely in my XJ. My Frontier didn’t let me down at all. In fact it did better than I expected. Other than a few minor departure angle scrapes, and a broken plastic $50 mud flap on a larger rock, it handled everything I threw at it with ease. Of course I’ve gotten past the stage in my life were I go off-roading with the intent of going hard enough to break things and knew that it needed to take me the almost 2000 miles home! I didn’t even engage my lockers at any point or use 4 Low. But coming back in my Jeep and signing up for official Jeep Safari rides which sounds incredible and I can’t wait to do it. Just remember not to get in over your head if you're by yourself and off the beaten path. My experience with cell reception is that it’s sketch on both T-Mobile and Verizon in many areas outside of town as I have an e-sim on one and physical sim on the other network and still didn’t have service many times and no data even more. Jeepers still tend to help fellow Jeepers but if needed tow bills can be quite expensive the further off the paved roads you are. Discretion is the better part of valor here and make sure your rig is ready enough to be out and about in highly remote areas. You don’t want to overheat, and you don’t want to stop to go to the restroom and come back to a dead battery 15 miles from the paved road. And again have water with you. Regardless, I highly recommend a spring or maybe fall trip to Moab for any of you. If you’ve been on the fence about going, DO IT! If you're in a pristine MJ or something hard to replace I’d just be real selective about where you go and stick to the main trails in and out of the national parks. I’d avoid any trails that require boulder hopping to protect body panels especially for your bed, but there is plenty of stuff that can be done with just minimal ground clearance and even 2wd. The biggest issue will be departure angles for long bed MJs without lifts but can still be done with the right line and going slow. There’s trails around Moab for everyone, a variety of rig setups, and every skill level. And best of all a local community that is friendly to the off-road community instead of adversarial. I always thought Moab was hype and maybe it is if you live out west. But to someone from back east it’s not. Happy Desert Trails Ya’ll !!!

Been awhile since I've posted an update... Got rear brakes on her last weekend. Figured I'd throw that out in the update. I've honestly been spending more time on tearing down the parts MJ and haven't put any time into documenting that here since it's not really this Jeep. What I've gotten done is not crazy or earth shattering but it's something. Had to do some Blues Clues playing. So the right rear Axle seal had leaked at one point and made a total mess out of the rear drum brakes. When I checked the diff it was full of fluid and the mess didn't look recent! The RTV on the diff looked fairly recent as well. It looked like someone changed the seal but did nothing to clean up the brakes! And my suspicion was right. I contacted the previous owner and he said he had the axle seal replaced at a local shop and then decided that he was going to go another direction and wanted to replace the DANA 35 with a Chrysler 8.25 and gave up on the axle. But what is even more bizarre to me is they had done 3/4 of the hard work when they stopped and just threw it back together and half @$$ at that. The oily brake components were still there, and they put them back to gather half @$$ even. They forgot to put the parking brake stabilizer in the drum, and they let all of the fluid drain out of the system when they left it hanging and never replaced the brake fluid even! They decided to just sell it like that. So since it's my long term vehicle I decided not to cheap out when it comes to brakes. I could have stolen all these components from my parts jeep but I bought new drums, shoes, all new springs, and all new adjuster components. The only part I stole from parts Jeep was the missing parking brake stabilizer bar. I properly bled everything and she stops on a dime now. Feel about safe enough to drive her to a few body shops for paint estimates. Eventually I will most likely use the brake booster out of my 99 parts XJ but for now I want it to stop when I push it around in the yard. I forgot to take a completion pic but as always I take pics of drums before dissassembly to ensure they go back together properly. You can see all the axle oil in the brake assembly. I also got the clock installed since my last update and pulled the Dodge Dakota taillights and put my cracked set in for now until the Jeep comes back from the body shop so they at least sit flush. When it comes back I'll attempt to swap the lens and keep my good pair as spare for now. The pic I added shows the difference between the two. And determined my speedo problem is coming from the cable not spinning. So I'll worry less about that till I start working on my AX-15 swap. I've had a few things that set me back time wise but I'm going to try to get more effort into the tear down of my other Jeeps. I'm also currently waiting on my soda blaster to come in so that I can redo and paint my bucket seat frames that I pulled from my parts MJ. Once that's complete I'm going to haul my seats to my cousin in Ohio to get them reupholstered while the Jeep itself is in the body shop.

Well Update... HR came back and basically made it sound like she could take the promotion but they were only going to factor in an additional 15% for cost of living increases. 15%! That's it! After my wife and I talked about it, even with the pay rate increase of the promotion it's just not enough to justify a literal 100% cost of living increase going to the west coast. It would be easier to downsize things if it was just us, but we have kids. Both of promotion money and the 15% cost of living increase together is only about a 50% increase from what she makes now so essentially we'd be taking a 25% plus pay cut to move out west! And the moving package is absolute GARBAGE! Worse than what they offered us when she accepted the position to Australia. SO where does this leave us? I don't know. She still has all the signed paperwork when she accepted the position in Australia in Dec 2019. We knew the cost of living increase was offset to the promotion which essentially had us break even with the move to Sydney and this was with 2019 economics. After all the cost of living increases of the past few years we have figured that even if the job makes less selling our house and most of our stuff would pay off all our bills and essentially reset our budget. And we figured the international experience was worth it. But corporate politics come into play now. Essentially she's declined a temp position that works with her own future team. Guess we'll just play this ALL by ear and if it's not meant to be it's not meant to be. While we have really gotten wrapped in the idea of moving internationally, and are in love with the idea nothing is happening till it's happening. We make good money and there's nothing wrong with staying put but for today it seems we're back in limbo land.

I'd reset or remove it before I bought a new one, but out of curiosity are these emissions timer modules still available from Jeep? IF this transfer goes though, and we go west, the more and more I think about it I'm thinking I'm going to continue to try to keep everything registered here in Georgia since we should be there only temporarily. Too much red tape for a temporary arrangement. Again I just want to know this information incase something happens and this temporary job ends up somehow becoming permanent or even longer than we anticipated. I also want to know the deal so when we arrive in California I know what to expect when I sell my modern cars before we get on an airplane heading overseas.

So essentially what you're telling me is you just use your real time monitor to see if both the o2 sensors are giving voltage, and whatever else it is your hunting before you go in because there are no codes stored in the computer. What happens when someone does something like a 3.6 Camaro Swap or Mercedes OM617 Diesel swap? Since it wasn't born that way and would now be carbureted? Or originally titled as gas? Or does California not allow these types of swaps? Or go the other way and puts a High Output engine in the vehicle and does a complete engine and wiring harness swap? I would think that going that way is more realistic seeing you're tightening your emissions compliance and the title still says it's a 6 cyl gas engine. Not that any of these are on my agenda right now, but this just seems like a mess even though it's a classic car.

Thanks, that would be good info! I need to order a muffler anyways so it would be nice to know if I need to go all the way with the exhaust. I used to be an auto tech and have done all kinds of emissions requirement work when I lived in NC. I'm quite aware of what it takes to get an engine light out for a 96+ vehicle. Of course I didn't see many pre OBD vehicles at the actual dealership. And if they were there emissions wasn't what they were worried about. I would think pulling the CEL bulb would be an automatic failure. In GA and NC for OBD emissions checks it's a requirement when starting the inspection to see if the CEL illuminates before starting the engine. If it doesn't it's an automatic failure. In fact, undercover emissions employees look to see if you look for that and they also ensure you put a mirror under the vehicle to check to see if the CAT is installed. If you don't you could loose your inspection license. I have to see if there a way to reset the emissions timer. Seems too complex to the a disposable part. I'll look in my shop manual later tonight. I've seen those real time kits but they have been sold out since last summer due to chip shortages according to his website. Again it's been the bottom of the list as the engine itself "appears" to be running well. My 01 XJ believe it or not was bought new here in GA but has California emissions. Actually can be a PITA because of it. I've never checked my newer cars. Never had emission problems with them and have been under warranties. I've been meaning to look.

Where is this info found so I can read up on my other vehicles? Yes it has a cat, but I need to get a muffler on it. The check engine light is on, but I haven't investigated it yet. I've been trying to handle some more basic things first. Like brakes... I got them right last weekend! I need to get information on pulling codes from a the Renix setup and figure out the purpose of the emissions timer. Again things I've had as lower priority. In GA anything over 25 years old is emissions exempt. Heck when I got it the CEL didn't even have a bulb! This is all provided I don't have issues with CARB. As the oldest vehicle, it will most likely be trailered behind the moving van if it doesn't go into storage. I think the factor for that will be the parking situation where we live and the space I have to work on it. Obviously we haven't looked at housing yet outside of prices for homes on Zillow. OUCH!!! Things seem to start at 1 Million!!! I don't want to go too hard outside of window browsing until HR says it's a go and they give us the details on the full moving package and we accept, and I don't really want to buy because it should be temporary. At a minimum I have to move 3 cars. The daily drivers for myself, my wife, and my son. I have the MJ and the XJ as well so that's a lot to store. Unfortunately I won't store the XJ at home and it will be the first to go and it was bound to happen eventually. I'm trying to get in overdrive and finish disassembling my parts MJ and XJ as well! I have to do all this on top of prep the house and go though everthing in it. So busy! I've needed to get off my tail and do it all regardless anyways, even if this falls though.

I have another option. My parents have 50 Acres just north of Chattanooga. If things get too difficult I'll take it up there and put it in the Barn until I'm ready to get around to shipping it internationally. If this goes down and living situation permits me to have a place for storage, it will actually be cheaper to ship it from the west coast than from the east coast.

Well, the plan is still on for us to move to Australia, but seeing it's been DELAYED and DELAYED and DELAYED due to all kinds of things outside of everyone's control. Mainly due to closed borders because of COVID and now even with things just starting to open the backlog in Immigration Applications due to Australia's extended closed borders is pretty hefty. A conversation has come up about how my wife has not been able to take her promotion due to everything going on. So now her company wants to temporarily put her in a role that is on the West Coast that is a liaison between her future team in Australia, her home office, US regulators, and other Asia Pacific Regulators. The only thing is the USA office that deals with APAC is in wonderful Alameda California!!! They don't seem interested in letting her take the promotion and stay here. No word yet but it's a go but it's a serious conversation and paperwork has been submitted to HR. So it looks as if we could be headed to Sunny California! I've never been to California outside of LAX so I said I wouldn't mind seeing some of the west coast before we leave the country. As of today it's temporary but life can throw curve balls. SO... what the hell is the deal with California Emissions?!? This looks like a cluster F^$k! Of course so I want to know, what are the rules? I've gone on the CARB site and that's trash. No answers. Tells you nothing on what it really takes to pass. It's just a bunch of very vague and generic information. Things like get an oil change, drive for 20 min, blah blah blah before inspecting. No hard rules. Articles and threads I've read basically say it's so convoluted no one knows what the heck is going on or what the rules are. But I'm used to a system where you can go online and get the specifications on what is passing and what isn't so you know before you even go if your wasting your dang time. And tailpipe emissions for pre96 is a new thing for me and the MJ will require it. I just need to know where I need to get it to be so that it can be properly registered. Even the California DMV website for registration is confusing. It's not very clear and works in circles or sends you pages that don't load properly. I was trying to find information on bringing my non-CARB vehicles with me from GA. It gives information on newer vehicles but not much information on out of state transfers or used vehicles. Not much information on the initial registration process for new residents. What happens when I try to sell my 49 state emission car when I try to leave the country in a year or two? Will no one want it because it's 49 state? Again hardly any info on used cars. As ridiculous as this all sounds if it's temp I think I'm going to attempt to try to keep things registered in Georgia. Help me make sense of this ya'll

I'm bumping this cause I just saw this on the for sale side but I missed it because I've actually been working on the MJ instead of reading about it...

To each their own. I don't mind the 97+ XJ lights but wouldn't want to do the metal work to accomplish it. But I'm one of the ones that think that the wrangler taillights are sacrilegious. The direct on from the back looks awesome and then once you get to the side of the vehicle and that's where you lost me. You can tell all you did is cut the original lenses and used a can of Krylon paint, painted them black the original lenses black, glued it together and called it a day. It looks cheap. (And it is.) And that's fine. But everyone has different objectives with their cars. Not as big of a deal if it's a trail buggy. But with dwindling numbers of a vehicle that never had a high production number to begin with this isn't kosher for a proper restoration and the direction many are headed.

I bought it. I figured that would be the answer. I'll check it in the next few days and let everyone know. I went through 3 of them before I got ahold of one that worked so I figured a spare would be a good idea. I've seen several of them online with this label but never jumped on one because I wasn't sure. But finding this one dirt cheap at the pull a part and having it in my actual hand, it's worth a shot.

I’m at the junk yard and found a wiper delay mod In an XJ. It says XJ/YJ only. It looks right. Is there wiring differences or is this because the MJ was no longer around when this was manufactured? Came out of a 93 XJ.