Rex89

That worked! Yeah I’d prefer to have a working cassette player, but I’ll figure that out later. For now, it’ll be nice to have FM radio! Thank you! It was weird tho, it didn’t work immediately when I plugged it back in to the truck. I hooked it all up, turned the truck on, and… nothing happened. It was just a dim display that showed the frequency but still no audio. So I twisted all the knobs a bunch and then after like 30 seconds, the little screen illuminated and the audio was working!

Hey yall, hopefully this is the right place for this question: I recently picked up an RX-171 for my 89 MJ and I'm having some trouble with it. My truck originally had the base AM-only unit, which worked fine, so I know my truck's wiring harness and speakers are known good. Also the speaker pins match between the two labels (2/12 and 6/9) on both my old radio and this new (to me) one. The problem is that the radio powers up straight to "MTL" and won't leave tape mode. The AM/FM buttons do nothing, eject does nothing, no motor sound, and it won't grab a cassette. I took the top cover off and verified that nothing in the mechanism is physically stuck though. What I've found so far: - Unplugging the white connector at the top of the tall green board on the side of the tape mech (looks like the tape preamp) drops it into radio mode. Tuning and presets work. Plug it back in, MTL comes back. - However, in radio mode with the aforementioned board unplugged, I get zero volts at all four speaker pins. Pins 4, 5, and 11 all show 12V. Chassis ground jumped straight to battery negative made no difference. No speaker wires read to ground. So I'm not getting any actual audio from the radio on either AM or FM, whereas my AM-only radio worked fine. - While pulling the green board I accidentally tore the little 5-trace flex from it to the head, so the tape side is probably done regardless. The MTL issue was happening before I messed that up though. I'm disappointed because I was hoping to use the cassette deck, but if I can at least still have FM radio, that's better than nothing. @NickyV, on the RX-170 drawing, can you see where the tape-in / cassette-present switch is and what the micro expects to see when the deck is empty? I'd like to tie that line off so the radio runs in tuner mode with the deck out, then do the TP371/471 aux mod for bluetooth. @ghetdjc320, your note about running a 172 with the deck fully removed makes me think the amp should be alive in radio mode. Does 0V at the speaker pins with the deck unplugged point at the main relay on the power board, or something else on the RX171? Thank yall! This thread and Minuit's are the only reason I've gotten this far as I have zero experience with electronics like this. And I probably shouldn't monkey with it too much more or I'll break something else I'm sure!

I don’t have those tailgate pieces available but I have a bunch of other stuff. I have an 87 that I use for parts so let me know if there’s anything else you need.

1997 Jeep Cherokee XJ 4.0L, 5 speed (AX-15), 2wd Current location: southeast Louisiana (Northshore area) Was daily driving a TJ and realized I needed more space to haul kids and stuff. I really had been wanting an XJ anyway. So I set out to find a standard transmission 97+ XJ and sold the TJ. Took a while to find a 97+ XJ with a standard trans that was in decent shape. They seem to be disproportionately automatic, especially after 97. I don't even know if they made very many 4.0 L XJ with a 5-speed after 99, because every 5-speed I was finding from 2000-01 was a 2.5L. Finally found one in decent shape that was in budget. But the reason it was in my budget was that it was a salvage title... A father and son had done a lot of work to restore it for the son's 16th birthday and unfortunately it got wrecked. So they decided to go ahead and sell it. It was near Daytona, FL, about 10 hours from me. But I got a great deal on it and had it on the road less than a week later! Welded a new support in the front, put in a new radiator, and new condenser (and other new AC stuff it needed). And I was extremely lucky that an XJ with the same paint code and with the parts I needed just so happened to appear in a nearby junkyard right before I went to get my XJ. So I took what I needed off that and put them on mine. Almost good as new! I've been daily driving it since December, but just hadn't gotten around it to uploading it here yet.

Yeah that's weird. I just bought one of their EGR block off kits a couple months ago. @boxyjeep, did y'all stop making the kits?

I have all of that from an 87 but it would take me some time to get it pulled. It’s all still in my parts truck.

I’ve got a pair I can pull from this 87. I can get better pictures for you tomorrow so you can see if they’re in decent enough shape for what you’re wanting.

pm sent

Do you have a transfer case also? And I appreciate the offer for the shop time! I just bought the XJ in December. Previous owner put an OME lift kit and 31” tires, but I would like to go back to the stock height and stock tires. So I may just take you up on using your shop to swap the suspension parts out when the time comes. I have yet to source the parts.

@Tex06, No unfortunately not…All I have is a 2wd BA10/5 and a 2wd AW4. I search Facebook marketplace every day like it’s my job and nothing ever pops up around here. They’re all over the place in Georgia and Tennessee but I can’t justify driving that far right now. I do actually have a 2wd AX15 in my 97 XJ but that’s my daily driver so I’m not sure I could afford the downtime to swap it out right now.

@JZLAJeep, well I’ve now officially decided to get an XJ too! So I could use your advice… Although I just got my TJ a few months ago, it’s not really practical as a daily driver, especially with hauling kids and their stuff around. So I’m gonna list the TJ for sale this week and then start hunting for an XJ. I’m sort of torn because I prefer the pre-97 look but I feel like I should maybe get a 98-01 model year. I don’t commute for work but the XJ would be my daily and I do sometimes have to drive an hour or two for work meetings. I’m just worried the 96 and older would really be showing their age now and I’d have to be working on it more frequently. I’m not afraid of the work but my MJ is already a project and I don’t need another project right now. I see that you have a 95 and a 96 XJ. What’s your thought on daily driving one of those vs maybe a 98 or 99? I’ve read to avoid 00-01 where possible because of the 0331 head issue, but I’m not sure how critical that is to consider. The only stipulation I have is that it must be a 4.0 with standard transmission and four door. I know those are harder to find in the later model years, although I’ve seen some listings. I could obviously AX15 swap anything but I’m looking for something turnkey.

I often just use the Watertight Heat-Shrink Butt Connectors from Harbor freight! Just have to crimp them.

Yeah I wasn’t getting any resistance either. I’m no expert on electricity by any means, but I think the way the IAC valve stepper motor works is that it requires more amps to work than passive sensors like the TPS or MAP. So even though the grounds had no resistance, those same splices couldn’t handle the higher current draw when the IAC tried to actually move. Maybe there was small resistance in those corroded splices that was enough to starve the IAC of current when under load, especially when cold. Anyway that’s my amateur understanding of it. Since the IAC grounds through the ECU internally, fixing those sensor ground splices in theory gave the ECU a clean ground path, which let the IAC finally work properly. Time will tell if it’s truly fixed… I’m still nervous haha.

Ok so I just wanted to provide an update. I went ahead and cleaned up the engine bay wiring, mainly just taking the factory splice out and creating a few new ground wires for the ECU and injectors. Knock on wood, but after doing that, it seems to be doing better. I hesitate to say it’s “fixed” until I have a few more days to test it on cold starts, but it’s promising. This is what I was working with: There were 9 wires going into a splice and coming out as 2 wires. 6 of the wires were from the injector plugs, 2 from the ECU ground port (through which most of the sensors, including IAC, all ground), and 1 uninsulated wire that was coming off the knock sensor wiring. The knock sensor wiring was encased in a separate gold-looking insulation that I did not unwrap. I did put the uninsulated ground from it in one of the splices I created. Below photo shows the factory splice I cut out. I created new wires with 3/8” ring terminals and put them all on the dipstick tube stud. I gave each of the 2 ECU grounds their own respective wire and terminal. And I took a bundle of 3 injector plugs each and made a splice into one wire for both of those bundles. I included the knock sensor ground in one of the injector bundles. I forgot to get a picture of the dipstick tube stud. It’s crowded but it all fit. There was also this factory splice that takes the TPS, MAP, CTS, and IAT all into one. I took the tape off and the solder actually looked fine. So I just put some heat shrink around it and taped it up a little better. I forgot to take an after picture but this is what the factory tape looked like. Like I said, I’ve only tested it a couple times over the last few hours, but it seems to be doing better. And I still have the cheap Amazon “A-premium” IAC valve on there. So if you haven’t done so already, it can’t hurt to clean up the wiring a bit!

I’m basically in the same boat as you right now. I got the $23 “A-Premium” brand IAC off Amazon just last week. I thought it had fixed my idle issues but either (1) I got what I paid for because it died after about 30 minutes of driving or (2) I have other electrical issues because I’m still fighting super high idle on cold startup. I thought it was a vacuum leak but I’ve addressed that and I believe it’s an electrical problem. I have yet to do cruiser’s tips related to some of these issues so I’m going to give that a try before I replace any more parts. I just unwrapped all the wiring harness from the sensors to the dipstick tube stud to clean up all that wiring. I’m also going to do the ECU connector refresh and see if any of that helps. All that to say, I don’t have experience with the premium sensors you’re asking about, but if the wiring/ECU isn’t the issue, I’ll probably have to go with the Mopar or whatever quality sensor.