JZLAJeep

Ordered new cables from Jeepcables.com/Big7kits.com for the '95 XJ and thought I'd give a review here after installing. Summary: The cables are nice. The installation was not. Overall rating: 2 out of 5 stars. I ordered a 4 gauge set of wires for my '95 XJ. The old battery terminal wires had been shortened enough times and corroded enough that it was time for new longer wires. The wires are NOT plug and play. They are also NOT direct replacement for the factory wires. Factory wire ends that position the wire correctly and keep the wire from spinning when tightening are not present for instance. It took me probably 8 hours to do what I thought was going to be a 1 hour job. Between the routing, re-routing, re-re-routing, modifications, and run to the hardware store, it took a LOT longer than expected. It should have been an ominous sign when the instructions said, "With the XJ (91-95)/MJ/YJ and ZJ (93-95) you will have to do a couple extra things to successfully complete the install." Yeah, a couple... Issue 1: The factory cable has this end connector on it that aligns the red cable (from the battery) and the green wire (starter relay?) so they line up on the starter and don't twist when tightening nuts. Well, the red cable get's replaced from the kit, but not the green wire and the instructions are silent on how and what to do. Called customer support and they said to either put a new end on the green wire, or cut the connector apart. I opted for the latter, figuring I could fall back to a new connector if needed. The black rubber did cut apart easily enough with a cutting wheel (wrong tool, but got the job done). Also, this connector placed the wires parallel to the starter, the new wire is placed perpendicular to the starter (no 90 degree bend in the connector) so I bent the green wire's connector to match. After several attempts at routing (tried behind the charcoal canister then routed to the fender side of the fuse block, I ended up routing it between the engine block and the fuse block and tucked behind some of the AC hoses. Issue 2: From the instructions: "If your alternator has a shroud, it is ESSENTIAL that the shroud remains in place... You may need to trim shroud to get larger wires/lug to fit." "Trimming" the shroud isn't particularly easy. My XJ is AC equipped so the compressor and AC lines are in the way. Not wanting to remove the alternator to install battery cables, I decided a Dremel tool was worth a try. Could barely get it to reach, but I was able to "trim" the shroud eventually. Only had to make one trip to the hardware store to buy more attachments after I melted the one I had. Eventually got the shroud "trimmed" enough to get the cable on. Needed to "trim" some shroud to accommodate the width of the cable. Melted Dremel attachment I didn't get a final picture of the "trimmed" shroud. This was taken along the way, but you get the idea. The black wire hanging in the photo no longer attaches to the alternator because it is replaced with a different wire from the kit. I did not chase this wire through the looms and just left it dangling. I'm sure future me will say, "I wonder what this is supposed to connect to." Additionally, two 60A fuses are pulled from the fuse block and are replaced by the in-line fuse. Then lastly, on 91-95, the connector from the the fuse block side of the wire from the starter has to be cut off to connect the two studs on the side of the fuse block. Apparently only 91-95 had this style fuse block. I didn't take a picture, but here's a screenshot from the instructions. By this point, I was ready to be done and stopped after installing 6 wires from the Big 7 kit. The 7th wire runs from the back of the block to the firewall. Eventually I got everything hooked up, aligned the way I wanted it, wrapped up in wire loom, and the vehicle started. The kit worked, but not without some difficulty along the way. Good cables, but NOT plug and play and NOT a quick, direct replacement. That's my review...

Nice work! I've noticed this too. I have owned three 5-speed XJs and they have been '94, '95, and '96. 5-speed XJs are fairly rare anyway, but they do seem to be rarer after '97. I've seen a few in ads, including an ad for a '97 two-door, 5-speed XJ once but the guy wanted what I thought was an outrageous price for what was otherwise a base model XJ with fried paint and some body damage. Apparently he got his asking price though.

I take it you are keeping the closed system and keeping the two factory "Ys" and connecting into them? Before buying any specialty hose, I'd just buy 3/4" and 5/8" hose from the auto parts store make connections where you have to. The hose will bend and loop some without kinking. Or, this will be a good time to convert your system to an open system and get rid of the heater control valve which simplifies the hoses. There is a lot of information out there on the topic, including the link that keeps the old radiator. I recently made the closed to open conversion with a new radiator and overflow bottle and simplified the hoses to the firewall so there is one 3/4" hose and one 5/8" hose, just like Jeep did in and after 1997.

I contacted the seller, asked about the "engine runs but needs work" and about the interior since there are no interior pictures. I received the following: "Interior is pretty good and it is rust free. "I rebuilt the engine 2 years ago bc it was smoking like it wasn't burning fuel good enough. Thinkin' it was tired, I replaced literally everything. It is wet sleeve so I replaced the pistons, rings, & cylinders as a set. Everything to do it is online since that engine was installed in a number of vehicles in Europe including Jeep Cherokees there. "New copper core radiator. Remanufactured turbo. Clutch kit complete with slave cylinder. Professional rebuild of the fuel pump & injectors (Spokane Pump). Rebuilt alternator...List goes on. "Started it and it ran exactly as before. And then it leaked coolant from somewhere. I tightened the various hose clamps. Still couldn't find the leak. Figuring it might be the newly installed head gasket, I bought a new one and was going to do that over but instead concentrated on the smoking and hard starting. Figuring it was old fuel, I installed a brand new fuel tank! New fuel... same problem."

I'll be in Coeur d'Alene at the beginning of August for work. Hmm...

So basically it's a preference thing. Which is fine, was just wondering.

Sounds like you just need to cap the intake manifold in two places and cap the vacuum lines. You can buy EGR delete kits or just do it yourself like we did. You can see what we did here:

We are grateful that @eaglescout526 gave us a pair of these a few years ago. They are on our Comanche. Seems that you guys prefer these over the plastic rain guards (link)? Curious why.

Those were the old motor mounts that I took off. They would have looked the same when new. Our record for replacing one was about 20 minutes. If the O-rings on the oil filter housing were original, then I'm sure they were leaking. That's another repair that all of our old Jeeps need if original. The rubber O-rings don't last 30-40 years.

It's been a few years since we've done this, but I'm sure we put the bolt back in the other direction. We may have had to cut the bolt so that it didn't hit the oil filter. Like I say, it's been a few years. It's been our experience that the motor mounts do need to be replaced periodically. The rubber gets brittle and breaks after a while. Just replaced the motor mounts on our newly acquired '97 a couple weekends ago. This is what I took out:

Did you put the motor mount bolt back through the other direction so you don't have to do that again next time?

Yes, like that. And they do wear out so need to check them from time to time. We've installed poly motor mounts before, but if you want to stay OEM, you can get stock motor mounts at any parts store.

1979 Datsun 510 hatchback. 2.0L, I4 RWD, 5 speed. No AC in Phoenix... It was "grapefruit" yellow, but otherwise looked like the photo below. For a while I had the wiper hose pointed forward out of the grille and could spray people, which wasn't necessarily unwanted in the heat of a Phoenix summer... In hindsight, it was a fun around town car.

We had our MJ windshield replaced at Safelite. I asked them to use the 97+ rubber gasket and they were happy to install that instead of messing with the aluminum trim. I highly recommend this upgrade. Cost was ~$180 a couple years back, probably more now. As far as mirror, the MJ mirror fit. Even if yours doesn't it's pretty easy to get a replacement from a junkyard or Amazon.

Nice!