J33ps

I can fix em, just need to cut and extend with some new hose. I thought the charcoal canister was under the truck next to the gas tank. I took it for a test drive today, getting that TPS replaced and dialed in fixed my AW4 shifting! It was a nice little drive. I have not seen any spitting of oil this time. It's been sitting a while all winter, you may be right and it's just some gunk formed over some time. I'll keep an eye on it.

Well I’m embarrassed but I’ll say it anyway…I had forgotten to plug the map sensor airline back up to the throttle body. Now it runs much much better. But in my search i did come across a part that has 2 hoses that are rotted and not hooked up. What does this do? It says carb bowl. One hose runs to the air box and the other down under the jeep. My first thought is….gas tank purge??

Agreed, I think it's going to be a nightmare but going to spend some time learning how it works before I start tearing into it lol. It spit out liquid oil. I do not (luckily) see or smell any evidence of burning oil.

Thanks guys! So I did do a quick search and sure enough it has a 0630 head so it must be the 98. Thing that throws me is I bought a water pump for a 98 but it didn't fit. Had to go with a different one. Maybe just bad part labeling who knows. As for the IAC I have like 3-4 that look clean, possibly never used. The one installed I cleaned up real good with the whole throttle body but I thought maybe I was too rough with it and swapped it out. I've decided to make sure the entire vaccuum system is solid. I noticed a few dry rotted hoses on my system. I'm going to start there and make sure it's fully sealed up before moving on. Sounds like a tea kettle lol. Also, during my testing yesterday I noticed it is now sputtering some oil through the exhaust. It's still on my driveway today lol. What causes that? Are those bad CCV elbows?

Background: A few months ago I noticed my AW4 tranny would not shift, it was stuck in 1/2. I removed the fuse to the TCU and it shifts fine so it's a sensor problem. So I went to Cruiser's tips and decided to clean the throttle body and sensors. When I put it back together it started idling like crazy, it kept revving up then down then up and down constantly. So I grabbed my meter and determined that my TPS is bad. No problem, put a new TPS on it and measured and I got it close (how close to 17% does it need to be?). Anyway it is idling BETTER than it was but it's still acting weird and now it's doing other weird stuff and idle still kinda sucks. To be fair this engine has sounded funny since I bought the truck but I don't drive it in the winter so I have very little road time with it. I'll try to be concise but I've never done engine work before, I'm learning as I go. I have an 04 wrangler with a stock 4.0 in it. It sounds like champ compared to my truck. Here's what I was told from PO (I don't trust him): Truck is supposed to be a 1990. Engine in the truck is from a 1998 jeep cherokee XJ, it's a 4.0 (he says the AW4 tranny is from a 1988 XJ) the engine has old stuff on it and does not use the same parts as my 04 TJ. I have a strong feeling it's more like a 1988 4.0 but I have no idea how to figure that out. The throttle body and such is the old design as far as I can tell. Symptoms: 1). Engine idles a little rough but not terrible, it revs up/down a bit 2). I can hear a very audible air leak 3). When I rev the engine it's not consistent, it even drops RPM randomly as I steadily give it gas 4). When I hit 3k RPM (it's parked, just sitting in the driveway) I can hear a THUMP THUMP THUMP and it won't go above 3k 5). VERY STRONG gas smell -- gas was last filled back in november (maybe it's old??), i rarely drove it through this winter to keep it out of the salt 6). AW4 won't shift at all -- this is what started my investigation, I'll deal with this once I get a happy idle and can rev smoothly What I've Done: I cleaned the throttle body and put it back together with a new gasket. I replaced the TPS cause my meter said it was bad. I put in a new one, adjusted, turned on the engine, it idled high, readjusted with engine running and it's spot on. With the engine off it's reading a bit lower...idk if that's bad. I needed 0.829 and with the engine running it's exactly that but with the engine off it's 0.821 Since it was having trouble I put in a "new" IAC but no difference. Truck came with a bunch of parts, I'm just throwing them on lol. I don't really know what I'm doing I took some videos for audio purposes, maybe I could get those up. I'll see if they'll upload from my phone later today.

Didn't see your reply there, sorry about that. I brought the truck back to stock height, no plans to wheel it. I did end up having the wife help with using the steering, it was super easy. Since getting it setup with the stock bar it drives MUCH better. No more rubbing or crunching lol. Luckily it's a tight fit still.

That's what I figured too, good to hear some comments to be sure. Thanks for the advice!

I'm running through Cruiser's tips. This truck is still new to me, and just recently the AW4 transmission has been stuck in 1st gear. I tested it manually by removing the TCU fuse and driving and it does shift fine. So now I'm starting with cruiser's tips and knocking out all the basic grounding and little upgrades before I start putting meters on the TPS and such. He suggests the big battery kit. It's a bone stock truck with no plans to offroad or run auxiliary equipment. Would I really benefit from this big battery kit upgrade (from jeepcables.com)? I looked at the addition of the grounding cables and for 20 bucks in NAPA parts I thought I could probably accomplish enough improvement. Any thoughts?

Got it, I’ll give that a go today. Doesn’t need much, I guess I was surprised it doesn’t fall into place being all stock components and a stock bar but I guess it needs some help lol

Hello! I finally got around to removing the track bar bracket that the previous owner installed for the lift. I removed the lift and it’s bone stock, I just forgot to take the bracket off and couldn’t figure out why it was crunching and rubbing on one side. Tip I learned this evening: most of this truck is clean but my goodness the track bar bracket and bolt are not looking good. I have zero interest in removing the bracket but i decided to replace the bar with stock. It’s a road truck I don’t need anything special. The bar was seized on the body mount side, I had a hell of a time till I figured out you can slide a 2x3 through the engine bay, land it on the bar and hammer away. I sprayed with kroil, let it sit 30 min, came back and hammered it off! That trick saved me hours and likely having to remove the bracket which judging by the bolts is a very bad idea. i put my new stock bar on and the bolt is pretty far off, probably cause I drove it around with the axle not centered. I have a few Qs: I shook and shimmied the truck but it’s not self centering. Would turning the wheels to line it up be fine? Think I damaged the control arms and recentering will bend things back? Another question, what the hell is up with my bracket bolts? It’s 2 threaded studs with nuts on both sides. All the pics I see on everyone else’s are actual bolts. It looks like hell if I ever need to get it off. pics attached

Wow Pete, good eye! I didn’t even think of that. I’ll pull it off this weekend, hopefully the difference didn’t tweak the new arms. They seem so flimsy they’ll probably bend right back 😂

If it wasn't centered, wouldn't that mean it's the wrong sized trackbar? It's not adjustable so I'd have no way to fix a centering issue unless I bought a stock bar. I'll measure it and see. Also he painted it detonator yellow from the jeep color released in 2007. Didn't know there were pennzoil ones, that's funny to me as everyone has some opinion on this color from school bus to taxi truck

Oh shoot, I see, that one pic where it looks off I hadn't used the jack stands to level the axle. That's a bad pic, don't know how it snuck in there. That's why the coil looks crooked!

Hmm how might I measure the centerness. I replaced the following with new stock equipment: 4 arms, coil springs, shocks, and supposed to be new swaybar links. I did not remove the trackbar nor the steering links to install. It appears stock or otherwise non adjustable. here's some more pics and better lighting 😁

Before I go too deep, it's making crunch noises when I hit dips in the road at a decent speed. Pot holes and the like do not crunch, it seems solid. Best I can figure is it's bumping the wheel wells when the body flexes enough but I dunno. Maybe I'll have the wife take a GoPro and a stick and we go for a drive I'm questioning this because the measurements below would say there's nothing wrong height wise: Okay here's some pics and some measurements. Front measures 8" (as close as I can tell) which is within 4wd limits. Rear measures 7 to 7.25" which is a little short but probably accurate if their original leafs. Not too worried about that, won't be hauling much any time soon. Swaybar pins on the comanche are 0.690 inches per my calipers Attached are lots of pictures, figured more is better. Maybe someone will spot something. It definitely contacts on the drivers side lower control arm at full lock. Passengers side has clearance. Not sure that's normal, maybe my steering stop is set differently one side vs the other. They're tack welded into place so not meant to be adjusted. Swaybar pins look identical to my TJ but I haven't measured the pins on the TJ yet. Here's a flood of pictures, PO told me the rear was an AMC 20 but it looks too round to me, I put a D35 gasket on there with no issue. Diff cover looks odd, like it's not centered...I dunno...also plug is still leaking so I'll get it replaced. **going to do a separate post with pics from my phone, maybe it won't come in upside down

With you 100% haha the PO told me a lot of details and I'm learning he remembered most of it incorrectly. He definitely didn't do things right, and most of the spare parts he gave me are junkyard parts. Doesn't cost much to just buy some of it new. He was an older guy and seemed like he just pieced this truck together with whatever junkyard stuff he came across. Not sure what compelled him to mess with the driveshafts, I'll have to take them down and measure to see.

Great info so far, everyone. Thanks for the replies. I'll snap some pictures and measurements after work tonight. This truck is full of mods and I'm not sure they're all good ones haha. I noticed driveline vibrations and the PO told me he modified the drive shaft for the lift. Transfer case is leaking pretty bad at the pinion seal on the front side. Which confuses me cause the clown didn't replace the control arms, only put in new springs and shocks. So if he didn't change angles why would he mess with the shafts. So that's another piece of the puzzle I need to figure out at some point. Unrelated of course to the tire size issue.

Yes, I can do that. I'll have to crawl under it tomorrow evening to grab the measurements! Thanks!

So I think I know why the PO put 3" springs on this truck. That's literally all he did, didn't swap control arms to do anything else which I thought was dumb. So I ripped it all out and did a stock install of all new stock parts from rock auto. I snapped a pic of the tires that came with the truck and based on my search it seems that's that's the stock size -- P235 / 75R15 but that doesn't seem to be right. I rub control arms on tight turns, rubs on less tight turns but hills flexing it a bit, and when I hit dips in the road at like 45 mph I hear a serious crunch which I can only assume is the tires touching my wheel wells. I can fix the rubbing on turns with the steering stops -- i haven't checked to see if they're even installed. Wouldn't be surprised if there's nothing there lol but I'm surprised rubbing against the wheel wells. Guess I need a smaller tire?? What do you guys run on stock height? Also, side note, I've tried 2 stock swabar links and neither one fit my setup. I'm wondering if my front D30 is not the stock one...idk how to find links that will slide over that pin. The ones I'm buying come with a sleeve that's always too tight. It honestly seems like I should just remove the sleeve but I'm not sure the elastomer will hold up very long.

Hmm, how do I know if this is an early style ac setup or if he installed a later model one? is the condenser the same for either? It’s confusing since nothing in this truck seems original.

Nice! Yeah it honestly seemed like a redneck fix but hey if it's legit I'll leave it. So that piece in front is the A/C condenser and I did some digging and I'm clearly missing a lot more A/C parts than he let on. Also looks like you can replace the condenser removing the grill. So I won't have to do any radiator rework when the time comes. Replace another time!

Interesting. I’ll leave it as is then, thanks guys. Another discovery, this jeep does have AC but he said a hose was clogged and he never got it running. It has a new AC pump and something else but the hose off the pump is just hanging there. i did not realize the AC uses a radiator of its own, though I guess that makes sense lol. It’s sitting in front, I didn’t see it till I removed the normal one. It looks rough, wondering if I should just replace since I’m here. There are hard lines running out that look pretty rusty. Think there’s any risk removing? Like any residual Freon? Or should I just leave it all for my AC guy. I plan to have them fix eventually to get it running.

Is this normal?? This truck has a 4.0 from a 99 XJ, I was expecting the sensor to be plugged into the thermostat housing like my TJ. Seems there’s an adapter on the coolant hose…is that what it is? Is that okay? I'm about to replace the radiator and water pump. I might as well fix it this is bad. I only know TJ stuff so I know this could be a bit different.