OSCDumpTruck

Getting the battery set in so I can get to work making the new cables

Still letting the Eastwood cure up on the MJ before I put the battery tray in and start crimping cables. So today I tackled the passenger side motor mount on the 1990 XJ as well as the oil filter adapter o rings. Will replace the driver side mount when I put in the HO air box bottom on. These battery cables will be getting replaced as well of course. Think we may be keeping this white XJ and I’ll use the blue XJ for paintable body parts for the MJ.

New battery today, went with a group 34 Deka Gold with 800 CCA

Out with the old, along with some slight surface rust clean up and topping with some Eastwood. No more cheapo napa cables. I plan on mount in the fuse holder to the battery tray in some way shape or form. Thinking welding a bracket to the side will serve better than counter-sinking machine screws for inside the tray. Also realized that I need to get a group 34 battery for this tray, which is another upgrade from the stock battery that will go great with the new cables.

Got my battery tray in as well as an oem black ash tray. Haven’t decided on powder coat or paint. I can finally get to work making new battery cables.

Thanks! After looking at some pics online of color matched grills (limited XJs) and consulting with my wife, I’m really leaning towards going with something like SEM trim black instead of glossy color matched black. That way I can paint myself and touch up myself if needed. Color matched grill is pretty fancy for a Sportruck

It has arrived! No cracks or breakage anywhere. Going to get that spray bomb off of it

My 89 is pretty much stock and am using 4ga cables on mine along with doing all of the cruiser ground upgrades. I felt bigger wire was a bit much for mine but if I had extra accessories I would’ve gone with 2ga. When I replaced my battery cables the first time I used 4ga premade cables from the parts store, they are cheesy and would not recommend. I also went with the KSuspension headlight harness upgrade. For 25 bucks I am really happy with what they accomplished and they are local to me. Made a huge difference! I also am running the Rampage headlight housings. But the headlights on my MJ blow the heck out of the ones in the stock 90 XJ.

Refreshed the ground by the washer bottle and ran another ground from there to the motor. Added a ground stud to the relay bracket for the blower motor ground and ran a 4ga cable from there to the battery. Also installed the crankcase breather hose back on to the air box, and a new air filter. So nice having a non-warped air box!

Seat looks great, just got mine redone as well. Really brings the interior back to life

Got to work on the 97+ air box bottom

Used some scrap print vinyl with matte laminate. Much better.

Alice In Chains on the cassette adapter. Anything from the 80’s/90’s sounds great this way

As I mentioned before, my wife and I own a sign and vinyl shop. I will be making a new printed/laminated 3M decal for the coolant bottle cap to freshen that up a bit and add some flair.

Excited to get the battery cables updated and get the steel battery tray in.

I could be wrong, but pretty sure you can have a locksmith key your new cylinder to the original keys.

Precautionary measures replacing the blower resistor. Will be doing the improvement to the blower ground ground at the same time I do my battery cables.

Sweet doors! Smoker windows are awesome, shame they are so noisy and leak though.

My ZJ

It’s exclusive to us AMC era folks! The one I got is spray bombed or something but it’s not cracked or anything. The last 10 slot I saw at the JY had a good crack, saved it for the next guy

Had a change of heart and I will soon have an oem 10 slot grill. I like the 10 because it is 80s only, even though it’s not correct for an 89.

My gauges fuse connector was partially broken, so I’d lose my gauges intermittently. Finally got around to removing it from the fuse block to replace, and realized it was bridged to another connector. Since it’s a pain in the butt with not much wire to work with, I just flipped it so the bad connector was in the ignition slot now. Easy fix without having to do any cutting.

They are almost always broken. My paint guy isn’t worried about painting the chrome stuff I have. After some digging it sounds like the headlight bezels have different mounting points. Black 90s stuff is easy to find

That would be cool! I have two XJs with the full chrome in good condition. I’m in East OR. Black Renix grill parts are hard for me to find. Id imagine the newer parts from 91-96 use the same mounting holes, just not metal trim. The simpler grill setup would be nice since I’m used to the 3 piece 97-01 header panel already.

Any of you guys know if I can use 91-96 grill and headlight bezels on my Renix header panel? I want to have the grill color matched black and don’t trust using chrome parts to do so. Finding good Renix era black plastics is a challenge.