Awesome

Update: fixed the engine. Found another broken vacuum line while poking around trying to adjust the timing (it's not adjustable). Replaced it and the engine idles really smoothly now and revs properly. Runs great!

I have one of these and she's been using it a lot.

My daughter worked on her floor this week: I bought her a body saw and she loves it. After cutting out little chunks with the grinder for a few hours over a couple of days, she went full ham on it on Friday and got most of the front driver's side torn out in an afternoon. She says she's having a lot of fun with the power tools and getting to see progress made. I think I'm going to jump in on the passenger side while she continues to cut more floor out on the driver's side this next week. As for how it's running; my buddy who went with me to pick the truck up did some troubleshooting for me. He pulled the spark plug wires off while the engine was idling and got zapped really badly through welding gloves, without being grounded, and while having his hands only somewhat adjacent to the distributor cap. The spark is SUPER hot. Regardless, pulling the plug wires didn't change how the engine was idling. So the timing is way off and that's part of the reason why there's fuel getting into the oil. The other reason may be that the injector is getting stuck open, but we believe the timing to be the biggest part of the problem. Should be an easy fix.

Ordered the floor pans today. Went with Classic2Current. Raybuck was way more expensive.

Thanks, that's way cheaper than the stuff from Team Cherokee was going to be.

I'm not seeing a complete kit for only two doors.

Replaced the window today and got the floors cleaned up. What is the part of the window track that is on the triangle window called? The plastic window track is falling apart on both sides and I don't know what it's called so I can look for replacements. EDIT: I found it. It's called a division bar weatherstrip channel. Team Cherokee has them, as well as all the other seals I'll need.

Yes, the local junkyard didn't have any used ones. I think they crushed all their XJ's again and don't have any left. They really don't have much left from the 80's and barely anything before that. Late 90's and newer is mostly what they have now. The new window (ordered through the junkyard) was $80 out the door. I thought it was a decent price for a new window.

Short update: Bought new tires last week. Got them mounted and on the truck. They look pretty good. Bought a new driver's side window yesterday, picked it up this morning. Daughter is getting the floor prepped, and fixed the passenger side door handle. The stud was indeed in the bottom of the door, as someone suggested.

Here's some more progress. picture hosting Daughter got the header panel replaced all by herself. I thought this one was uncracked but it's not. It has a break under the passenger side headlight. Why are they all broken?! At least this grille is uncracked. The other problem is the header interferes with the hood. Is the spacing adjustable? I'm not sure why it's interfering like this. The old one interfered too, but was broken and only held on with baling wire and duct tape. I'm going to need some trim pieces as well, as it seems that the trim on the '86 header is different from the trim on the later model that we got this header off of. Is there a source for new trim (headlight buckets and such) or am I better off finding junkyard parts? I still haven't ordered the floor pans, but I will soon.

Update; the floors are out. Passenger side. Driver's side. I've never had to fix floor rot like this before. Time to order some floor pans. The passenger side doesn't look that bad, but it is rotted through when looking from underneath. I'm guessing the hole is under that floor support.

Is that behind the heater blower area under the glove box?

More progress. I got the truck titled last month. No hiccups other than they didn't believe me that it was a scrap truck that I got running and they charged me taxes based on "market value" - which they figured at $1200. Daughter got some more coaching/practice for the new shooting team she's been invited to join. Tonight she finally used the right tool to get the seat belt bolts undone and we pulled the seat out. She was trying to use an allen tool instead of a torx tool. The hardware is actually in really good condition. Maybe I oughta get the seat recovered. The floor on this side doesn't look as bad as I expected. See all the moisture? It hasn't rained here in over a month, and hasn't seen moisture since I picked it up in early June.

The Parts'N'Go handles showed up today. They are made in Taiwan (at least it's not China!) and feel pretty good. When I can finally get my daughter to take the door handles off, I'll update on what we do next. It's been hot and she's been refusing to work on her Comanche. EDIT: we replaced one handle this afternoon. The parts were interchangeable. We now have one fully-functioning driver's side door handle that is still made from solid metal. I looked and could not find any how-to's on the internet, so I'm planning on making a video of the process for the other handle. Will post back when that's done.

I still have another Comanche that probably could use handles too. We'll find out next week!

I believe the stud was pulled out of the handle by someone who was breaking into the truck. They gave up on the passenger side and smashed the driver's side window instead. I will look for it in the door. I just placed an order for two "Parts N Go" handles.

Oh I hadn't thought about that. So I could just buy the cheap ones and use them to refurbish my current handles. The missing stud in the passenger side handle worries me though.

The handles on the '86 (the ones I need to fix/replace) are chrome, and they are still very shiny and chrome. They will enter the Gates of Valhalla...... wait wrong forum. No rust or oxidation. The problem is that if the doors are shut all the way they jam closed. There's a little rotating plate that is part of the handle, and a pin from the button part of the handle pushes on that plate to open the door. The plate gets stuck because the springs are broken off of them and because they probably are either very worn or need lubrication.

Where should I buy a new set of door handles? I I have the metal ones but they are worn out and the passenger side has a missing stud. I've only seen two available online, a set of Dorman plastic handles and another one by a different company I didn't recognize. The '88 has plastic door handles and they are still fine, so I don't care that much about the original metal handles, but I have heard of other Dorman handles not lasting long. Anyone have experience with this? Or am I better off getting a set of XJ handles from the junkyard?

For anyone else following this, your local (semi) truck shop can also make you springs. I went to one when I was getting square u-bolts made for my YJ. He offered to make me a whole new set of springs for my YJ.

Yeah I kinda wondered what that cute little shock was for until the first time we started it. Now I know. Hahaha. It's not a well-balanced engine, that's for sure.

Today we made more progress. Good progress. Daughter got the 4 vacuum lines removed this morning, then we went and bought oil, a filter, and new vacuum lines. I replaced the vacuum lines while she bolted the exhaust back up and changed the oil. Those short little lines are a pain in the rear. After replacing the vacuum lines and changing the oil, we started the Jeep again. It sounded better and smoother, but still wasn't running amazingly well and the throttle was still lagging. I grabbed the carb cleaner and sprayed it around again... hmm... RPM climbs when I spray around the intake manifold / block connection. Grabbed a 9/16 ratchet wrench. Sure enough, all three intake manifold bolts were super loose. Tightened them down. Started up. BAM! Instantly smooth-running, proper-sounding engine with appropriate throttle response. Had it up to 60-65mph (estimated) on the road. Don't want to go much faster on these unbalanced old used tires. Cycled through all gears just fine. Tried out the transfer case in the field. It makes noise in 4wd so I'll probably have to pull it apart and check it. Now for the interior. And getting it registered.

There is no block there, the TSB has already been done. I need to redo it. There is enough play in the metal lines that I can pull them back without damaging them?

I took a video of the MJ running with the exhaust disconnected, but my blasted phone didn't save the video. Friggin hate touch screen technology. Anyway, removing the exhaust didn't help. Still sounded like it was missing and when it smoothed out was still lugging. Revved it and it had the same bad throttle lag. HOWEVER... spraying carb cleaner around did find a pretty good vacuum leak at the four-hose junction behind the throttle body. It nearly stalled when I sprayed that area. Nothing else affected it. The oil looks thin and smells of gasoline. Haven't changed it yet so I'm not sure if it's adding more gas to the oil or if this is old. I need to change the oil pronto. So.... pretty serious vacuum leak where the four short hoses are. From what I'm gathering, the easiest way to replace those hoses is to remove the entire throttle body. Correct? Also they look to be different sizes. Anyone know off the top of their heads what sizes of hose I'll need?

I'll get on that tomorrow when I remove the cat and start checking for vacuum leaks. Probably won't get into the TPS before I call it quits for Independence Day.