Greenjeans

Looks good!

I bought this old China winch at the u-pull-it for $25. Well $22.50 with the discount 👍. Scrapped the line and busted solenoid box. Made up some new 2awg wires. I ordered a new solenoid, synthetic line etc on Amazon (do Jeeps come from the Amazon now? Half of mine has 🤔). Cleaned, inspected, lubed, spray painted etc. bench test is good. Just need to mount it and run the hot cable.

Very nice ride!

I just listed a bunch of blanks (door and ignition) on the For Sale board. I know my ‘86 has a replacement ignition cylinder from NAPA. The package and old ignition was in the glove box when I bought the vehicle and these “J” blanks fit perfect. It’s a GM style cylinder. It has a small bolt holding it in. The ‘92 column I listed has a spring loaded tab for retention of the cylinder. Otherwise I believe the columns are the same internally.

I just went back and looked at page 1 to see what this is. I went on my honeymoon in ‘91 in an ‘81 T/A that was white with a blue bird on the hood. Looks very similar! The A/C was broke and we went to Panama City in August! Good times! I hope you get that bird back on the road!

20 more miles logged today.. the good news today is I finally opened the drivers door with the inside door handle, first time since owning this XJ. And the new drivers side lock cylinder works with the same key as the passenger side and hatch. Small victory but this drivers door has been a lot of drama..also, the “JEEP” marked key blanks are cut for the doors and ignition and work! I bought a bulk pack of these key blanks so I’ll put the left over blanks on the For Sale page once I figure out how many I don’t need (not looking to get rich, just don’t need the rest). I greased the dog snot out of both window regulators so both windows work like they should! Also replaced the shift shaft seal yesterday so no transmission fluid puddle under the Jeep this morning.. We are slowly getting somewhere.. Next up: figure out how to put the minty friction reels for the seat belts in after I remove some interior plastic panels. They came from some Chevy truck at the junk yard and the buckle will work with the female end on the Chevy Sonic seats I have.. And I still need to beef up the spare tire mount for the larger spare.. Stay tuned!

New windshield day! And new wipers…the wipers don’t “self park” but it’s the first time I’ve ever turned them on so I don’t know if that’s normal…anyway got 10 mores miles in and caught a rainbow.. **I don’t advocate for driving and using a camera 👍.. tomorrow I’ll work on the door lock and window regulator more.. IMG_8982.mov

If you have some time to waste, check out my 86 XJ thread on the “other cool projects” section.. I was basically in the same boat with a worn out leaky 2.8 that I swapped for a Camaro 3.4.. if you can find a decent one in a junkyard.. they’re pretty old cars themselves now.. it’s not easy or as cheap a route to go as it may seem but it’s been worthwhile for me so far. If your original carb is serviceable, you are ahead of the game but most of those are junk. The Weber swap cost more than a used engine (about $500-600 for the carb and electric fuel pump). I hogged out my intake and put a free flowing exhaust in which had to help. Neutering all of the smog stuff is the best place to start if you are in a friendly state. The 3.4 is a stroked and bored 2.8 from the factory so a good option. If you have the ability to keep the 3.4 fuel injection, you’d be way ahead there. I bought my Weber carb before I really knew what I was doing so I was committed to using it. It was pretty easy to set up. You also have the option to swap the throttle body over from a 2.8 S10 to your 2.8 or onto a 3.4 if you can get everything from the S10…computer, distributor accessories etc But the Weber allows you to just stick with a carb to make it simple. The 3.4 came in 94-96 Camaros and Firebirds.. good luck!

My wife is 50 so she’s not real interested in learning much about Jeep’s 😁, however I can tell you that when we were newly married and very young…and living in a tiny apartment... She kept asking me when I was going to get the “Muncie” (transmission) out of the living room…. (It was all cleaned up and someone would have stolen it off our front porch in that neighborhood 🙄)…. She still says DW-40 once in awhile 😁but I guess she has me trained because I know what she means.

🤠 dream about driving this thing more than I actually dew 😁

Rear rebuilt, reinstalled and quiet as a pin now. In fact, now I hear the exhaust drone more 😁. Another project…. I have drone about 2700 rpm but I don’t plan to spend alot of time in that rpm range honestly. my wife and her sister were trying to come up with a name, I guess that’s a thing. And I guess “the Cherokee” didn’t do it for them. When I say XJ, they look at me weird because they don’t speak Jeep, and so they kept throwing suggested names out. I told them Mountain Dew or just “the dew” would stick better than the rediculous pet names they suggested. This Jeep was purchased for use on our mountain property, we’ll see if it ever gets there.. Here’s a cardboard cutout I stuck in the window, some trimming needed 👍 last notes: still doing shake down runs, 10 or so miles at a time. Notice first mud…. Up next: fix leaking seal on trans selector shaft. New windshield. Fortify spare tire mount better. Put driver door lock cyl back in. Dig into pass door for lube of window regulator (brought the drivers side regulator back to life with a ton of grease). Gosh it never ends 🏁

Removed the 8.8 rear, tire it down and found this on the inner pinion bearing. If you put these together, lay them on the bench top and press down hard on them and rotate, you can feel it “grinding”. Do the same with the smaller pinion bearing and it’s silky smooth. I checked the preload before I took it apart and it only had about 5 inch pounds rotating the yoke. And it’s supposed to have around 25…. tomorrow, I will put new carrier bearings and pinion bearings or at least see how far we can get with the set up. I have only done one prior and that was the front axle in this jeep. Thank goodness for YouTube.! Wish me luck… update.. the bearing kit wasn’t delivered today 🤦🏼‍♂️

Relabeled the switch panel also…

Dash all buttoned up. 4 Cadillac horns in the garage are pretty righteous! now about that horn button…. I used to build Chevy hot rods before I took 20 years off to raise two kids. I went to swap meets went to junkyards, etc. when I found the wheel it was in poor condition with no Jeep center logo, it was missing. I cleaned the wheel up months ago, spray painted the black horn button and let it sit maybe 6 months to stabilize and dry completely. When I found it, it had that sticky rubber thing going on. While kicking around in a box of parts I’ve had for decades, I found that old Camaro horn button logo. My XJ has a Camaro motor…. It was fate I guess. I may swap it out one day, but for now the bowtie stays. Last Sunday afternoon I turned on an old Edward G. Robinson movie and leather wrapped that steering wheel. I used a cheap Amazon kit but it’s real leather and came out nice. Another first for me but it was pretty easy. IMG_8624.mov

I’ve been spending the last couple of days putting the tilt column in and fixing some electrical issues…. I put a toggle switch panel where the factory clock was. All switches work now. And I have an extra led that lights up in 4lo. And each switch has a led light when that switch is on and all work. The one marked “Aux Light” isn’t connected to anything yet, maybe an interior light will be added later. The “TQ Comvertor switch is so I can turn off the lockup torque converter if I need to.. 8.8 woes…. I have a junkyard 8.8 from a Ford Explorer. I’m convinced my rear end needs a pinion bearing…. So I’ll be pulling the rear and putting a bearing kit in it soon. I rebuilt the front axle so I have all the tools already…I’m not looking forward to it, but it is what it is.. I also figured out why my junkyard stereo has been acting weird ever since I installed it. I had a microphone plugged into the back of the stereo for using the blue tooth for phone calls.. it seems that I had it plugged into some other hole on the back (don’t know what it’s for?) and the stereo was finding a ground there or something.. unplugged that in the back and the stereo works perfect (technology is not my gift 😁).

Last screen shot picture I took: Spotted on marketplace. I messaged the guy and asked if he’d take more than asking price but no reply 👍

Cool car!

I’m not at Auto Zone or Advance Auto Parts where they know me by name at this point 😁

Went looking for a few parts today while doing more shake down runs. Don’t ask me where I am, I’ll only lie to you 😎

It was alot of fun till I started driving it up to 55 😁

It was a very long day, but I have both seat brackets engineered and tack welded together. The driver seat has the pump up and down mechanical function and it works. I’ll pull both seats out, pull the brackets off and burn in all the welds good this week. They are even, level, and no more Adirondack angled chairs 👍

Pass seat bracket tacked on.. too much rake to the back like an arondike chair. It test sits very comfy but I may need to level it just a bit. The drivers seat has totally different brackets so maybe I’ll tack it up and see how it looks tomorrow. These seats have heaters too, I don’t know if I’ll try to get that working on a toggle switch or something.. I’m in the South, so not a big deal on the seat heat… 🤷🏼

You reminded me that I need to fix my head knocker.. early on in my project, I grabbed some Liberty struts from the JY not even researching lengths etc. they are too short…. I did buy some new ones just been lazy.. I like the round fog lights. I was going to get some KC’s until I found out what they cost. I only wanted them for the retro look 😁 my shifter knob is similar, but no button, you just push down on the knob itself. It hasn’t come off but there’s nothing holding it on. I want to put a set screw or something in it.. lookin good, can’t wait to see it with the tires!

To add: the lock up torque converter isn’t connected to 12v yet so it’s running 2500 rpm at 55 mph. About normal before lockup. I downloaded a speedometer app and the speedometer is dead on. I guess I put the correct tooth count gear in the t-case 👍

I’m still doing shakedown runs as I get time and I have got it all the way through fourth gear and up to 60 mph but I was nervous I’m not going to lie. All old jeeps are quirky and I have had every nut and bolt off of this thing….. I was also sitting on a milk crate 😳 I’m going to call that good for now on the transmission and try to get a seat in so I can drive it safely. The fuel pressure problem has completely gone away and I attribute it to the return line that goes back to the tank. So currently I am running a weber with a Carter low pressure fuel pump, and no return line. The pump seems to be doing fine now and holding just under 3 psi, which is perfect. We will continue to monitor the situation as we drive it more. The next problem we need to solve is with the right rear axle. From the first time of driving this thing slowly and then a little faster each time, I have noticed a sound in the right rear . I thought it was probably just a brake pad or some other small part that was installed incorrectly by me or something. Did not sound like major deal, and I was planning just to come back to it which I did. And I have concluded that the right rear axle shaft was slightly bent. It was causing a brake pad noise from the rotor turning in a non-perfect, or non concentric circle , so I went to the junkyard and pulled another rear axle shaft installed it and it looks to be doing the exact same thing. So I have to try and locate my tools to measure the run out on the axle flaming and see what is going on. I don’t know if people just bounce Ford Explorer 8.8 rear ends off of curbs alot or what (pick-n-pull 8.8 rear axle). 🤷🏼 or perhaps there’s an issue with my AutoZone rear wheel bearing and the axles are slightly bent, but still within spec, I don’t know yet. But anyhow, I need to get a seat installed and the rear axle Mystery solved before I put many more miles on it. I am also still waiting on my locksmith to call me about that driver side lock cylinder…. IMG_8282.MOV