Minuit

If anyone happens to be parting out a '91 or possibly '92 Comanche (not a cherokee - I have a hunch that the MJ has different wire colors than the XJ) with an intact, stock, unmolested stereo harness, I would be interested in getting the plug, ground and about 4 to 6 inches of the wire (or as much as is possible). I will be retrofitting a stock style radio into my truck and I have not been able to find any wiring diagram or harness (even a 1991 XJ harness I harvested at the junkyard did not match) that matches my truck, so I am looking for an exact match that I can just wire up color to color. Shipping would be to 38401. If anyone has one or knows someone who does, let me know. Wire colors: Purple w/ white Dark Green w/red Light blue w/red Dark blue w/red(or orange) Pink Blue w/ white Brown w/ light green Brown w/ blue Orange w/ black These may not be all of the colors as I'm going off an old picture.

Really not sure what look they were going for with a Jeep front clip on a Chevy, but I can respect that they at least went to the effort to make the fender line match up.

When I was younger my parents had a '96 Voyager with the 3.0 V6. It too had the mystery automatic touch-free wipers. Pretty much nothing electrical on that thing worked. Slow, oil burning, lifter ticking pile of garbage. Smelled like mold too. Motivated me to get the MJ driving so I didn't have to drive around in that miserable thing (it went to the junker not long after I got my license). Never stranded us, though.

I pretty much know exactly who owned my MJ, when, and what it did during that time, and it is pretty interesting to know. I wish I had pictures of back when it was shiny and new (I have looked and none exist). Any time I see vintage pictures (or especially videos, like the '89 dealer videos that were posted a while ago) of MJs when they were new I feel motivation to work on mine some more.

When you find one be ready to do a whole lot of swearing as said before. Those $@#%ing speed nuts that hold the bumper on love to break. IIRC they can be found from the dealer still though. You'll need a T50 socket. You can also detach the mounting brackets from the frame if you can't get the bumper off. The front bumper is one thing that you can get off eBay for cheap and have it fit reasonably well. The front clip on my truck was trashed when I got it, and the eBay bumper I have now fits fine (the plastic grille pieces certainly don't though)

I believe he's talking about the parking brake release handle on the bottom left of the dash, as well as the cable that goes with it. You can probably get almost all of those parts from someone on here if you put up a Wanted ad in the classifieds.

IMO that would make the already big B-pillar blind spot on our trucks even bigger, but it would look great if done right.

If you install the accumulator now you'll need to install a new one when you open the system up again. It acts as a filter for the refrigerant and won't work after the system is opened once. If you're not going to be using the A/C system until you get your other parts, hold off on the accumulator.

I went and looked at my truck a minute ago and I don't think it would be difficult to modify front XJ mud flaps to mount to the rear inside the fender well if you don't like the looks of the MJ rears. At the most you'd need to make a new bracket, but the front mud flap brackets are extremely simple anyway. That would be using a very rare part to substitute for an extremely rare one though, and it may or may not be a chore to make the mud flap hang parallel to the tire. It would look period correct - IMO the ones Don linked look a little bit too modern.

I've had this happen before. When my block had the chip knocked out of it I got so p!$$ed off I didn't touch the MJ at all for a few months. After a while I got tired of the Thunderbird life and here I am now. The urge will come back, I guarantee it. Seeya 'round!

Good choice! Some day I'll put some speakers in the doors. The interior is my favorite place to play Jeep Legos. You can pretty much turn a base model interior into a fully optioned out one with nothing but parts swapping. To my knowledge the wiring exists in all MJs for these: - Underdash courtesy lights - Headlight delay timer - "Headlights on" warning buzzer - Dash clock - Full gauge cluster (with some sensor swapping) - Intermittent wipers (with accompanying module and multi-function switch) - Cigarette lighter light and probably many others. My favorites are the cheapest, the dash clock and courtesy lights. Yesterday, I swapped out my factory 36 tooth speedo gear for a 34 tooth. Took about 15 minutes. Now I'm wondering why I didn't do it earlier. Speedometer and odometer are bang on now.

I add up my reciepts (and for whatever reason post that number publicly so others can share in my pain) but yeah, I could rebuild my MJ over again about 25 times for that price.

This. There will come a time when there are no MJ parts left - let's try to keep that as far from now as possible. Don't want it, pass it on. (although there seems to have been a huge and unprecedented increase in mud flapper demand recently)

That's true. Especially Renix stuff. Every day that stuff gets more difficult to find.

Good to know that this has been done before. My springs are horrendously noisy and as soon as I drop the D35 I'll be doing what you are. Thanks for writing this up.

UPGRADE!: July-September 2015 For this update, we'll go way back to the tail end of my summer break, a time when I wasn't staying up until 3am studying, and I had time for truck fixin'. I think we'll all agree that I'd rather do truck fixin'. A couple of months ago, I made a thread about the 94+ bumper seals that are installed to the A-pillar. Since nobody else had ever really even acknowledged their existence, I decided to see for myself: Not a good start. Anyway, they are held by double-sided adhesive to the A-"piller" here: While the seals weren't of very high quality (the adhesive failed a couple of days after I installed them - I replaced it with double-sided tape), they made a slight but noticeable difference in wind noise. My door seals were torn to crap and slightly leaky, so I ordered a new set of 97+ door weatherstripping from Team Cherokee. Old and busted on the right, new hotness on the left. Also, toes. Installation is pretty simple - just take off or pull back every interior trim piece that goes around the seals, then just take the old seal off, install the new one and cut to length. I would strongly recommend anyone who cares about the condition of their truck to replace their original door seals immediately if they are damaged. If you let them go too long, it starts to look like this underneath: :eek: :fs1: :fs1: :eek: :eek: :eek: I did not try, but I bet that spot would fail the screwdriver test. Repair will happen as soon as I have more than a day or two to work with. I had a few minor fitment issues and I would describe their quality as being a bit "overseas-y" but overall they made for a pretty good improvement over what was there. Make sure to transfer this piece over to the new seals if yours don't come with it. It bridges the gap where the seal is cut. The 97+ seals are substantially thicker than the old ones and will make the doors very difficult to close at first. After a few days, they will loosen up but the doors will always be harder to close than they were. On the plus side, I'm dry when it rains now! A few weeks later, I decided that I was bored and started to take the dash apart. I had been collecting upgrade parts (clock, full gauge cluster, etc) for a while, and I also thought I was going to replace the heater core. I don't have many pics of this process, since my A/C works again and I didn't want to discharge it to replace the heater core in the middle of summer. (and have to recharge it and replace the accumulator AGAIN at no small cost after I'd had it done a month before) Instead of replacing the heater core, I went on an inside-out rampage of making improvements, fixing stuff, and generally doing a better job of things than I had done before. (hint: when I put the interior back together at the beginning of this thread I did a very sloppy job, including leaving loose bolts. Three years later I'm not having a bit of that. I was a rather lazy 15 year old) I pulled the Oh $#!& Handle out of the roof the last time I let my dad drive the truck. It was reinstalled promptly and made very tight. I added a dash clock found in the junkyard from a very nice 1991 XJ. This is probably the cheapest upgrade I ever have done, and probably my favorite. A ballpoint pen is now standard equipment in the glovebox for clock adjustments, as was the way years ago. This dash bezel is quite possibly the most perfect part I have ever found in the junkyard. Its former owner was a stripper 1993 XJ - 2.5, 5speed with in excess of 300,000 miles. It even has the under-steering column piece! The full gauge cluster from a 1996 XJ. The odometer reads exactly 12,000 miles higher than the actual mileage of the truck. This is a bolt-in mod, the only things you need to do is replace the oil pressure sender by the oil filter and the coolant temperature sender on the back of the cylinder head (not the one on the thermostat housing). The tach and voltmeter will work without any changes. You will also lose the column shift indicator, but I can pretty much tell by feel what gear the transmission is in and I will shortly be converting the AW4 to floor shift anyway. The 1996 cluster has a slightly different arrangement of warning lights on the left side but it all works out. The only real difference is that the check engine light is now orange. I found an old mounting kit to install my radio in the stock location, rather than cutting out the dash bezel. You can see the surround for the radio a little bit but it's not a big deal. I found a somewhat rare steering column in the junkyard - black, tilt, intermittent wipers. This will be installed when I change the interior to bucket seats with floor shift. I did not get the steering wheel with it - I will be transferring mine over. It's just one of those little things that I don't want to change. I grabbed these seat covers out of the same XJ the column came from. I've decided I want to upgrade the interior, but keep the stock theme of it. These covers match the pattern of my bench. There is a single cigarette sized hole in each side (seriously, why would you do that?) and they are dirty, but the hole can be fixed and a couple of runs in the wash machine will clean 'em right up. I already have MJ bucket seats and brackets almost ready to go in, but they have badly ripped vinyl covers that I wasn't too crazy about anyway. While I was at the JY, I removed the dashes from two different XJs and harvested all of their bolts and screws to make sure I had enough and spares for mine. (At this rate, I think I've pulled more XJ dashes than bumpers, and that's a pretty big number. I think I'm down to about 35 minutes per dash) I will fix this abomination at some point, as well as install a factory radio. Don't use wire nuts for automotive wiring, people. Crimp 'n' shrink is the way to go. Yes, I have the hands of a 9 year old girl. No, I am not a 9 year old girl. Re-installing the bolts I didn't put back in last time. The factory clearly put the dash in before the windshield. All put back together, minus the Power/Comfort switch, which I broke removing (it has since been replaced.) It took three days to do, but at least now I know it's done right. I even plugged the glovebox light back in! :doh: (seriously, 15 year old me needs his @$$ kicked) My jack hold-down equipment was missing, so I procured one from schardein. Great seller. There is a clip that goes on the D-shaped bracket on the back of the cab, but I haven't been able to find one and mine is missing. This is how it all works, if your sticker is missing. Then I gave it a bath, and it was ready to take on the pavement again, with a tach, a clock, and plenty of other goodies! (I am painfully aware of the clearcoat failure on the roof. I am saving up for a professional quality paintjob, although it will be years before I can get it done) During this time I replaced the outer tie rod ends, wheel bearings, and brakes on the Buick in the background. Great car, but the steering was really loose. A little love and it was back to driving like a couch again. That brings us to this weekend. I knew my speedometer was off, but I didn't know by how much. Looking at the tach and a little research told me that my speedometer was about 9% off. My truck originally came with 195/75/15s and it now has 235/75/15s. That's a 9.1% difference in size - which is very significant. This was confirmed by my resetting my trip meter at a mile marker and the trip meter rolling over 0.9 miles as I pass the next one. Fortunately, I know exactly how many miles I've driven since increasing the tire size, so I can figure the exact mileage of the truck. The correct fix for this is to replace the speedometer gear that was in there originally with a 34 tooth, long shaft version. Under the truck, on the drivers side of the transmission. The speedometer gear is located under the housing in the center of the picture. If your truck is 4x4, this housing will be on the transfer case. Mine is a '91 with an electric VSS speedometer, so I have a two wire connector instead of a speedometer cable. Regardless, the procedure is the same and extremely easy. Just undo this bolt with a 1/2" socket and the half-circle fork will come out. The fork has teeth that will lock into the speedometer housing to stop it from moving. Once you have taken the fork off, just pull the speedometer housing straight out. The speedometer gear will come out with it. Transmission fluid will probably spill out, so make sure to have a catch pan ready. See the numbers on the housing? The numbers correspond to the number of teeth on your speedometer gear. Make sure to turn the housing to match the tooth count of the new speedometer gear. If you're installing a 34 tooth gear like I am, turn the housing until the line on the transmission is close to the "32-38" mark on the housing. If this is not adjusted correctly the speedometer will not work. New 34 tooth speedometer gear on the left, old 36 tooth gear on the right. Simply pull the old gear out and put the new gear back in, and adjust the housing as described above. When you install the fork and bolt, make sure that the teeth on the fork lock with the notches on the housing. After that, you're done! Go for a short test drive and verify that your speedometer works. If not, make sure the adjustment is correct. Took the spare out from under the truck to check the air in it. This is actually a pretty decent tire, considering I bought it at the junkyard. Sidewall looks great and it holds air. It's not pretty but if I need it, I can make it home. I recently got my hands on these Gearwrench 120 tooth ratchets. They are easily the best ratchets I have ever used, and they aren't expensive at all compared to some other ratchets out there (looking at you, Snap-on). The top is a 1/4" drive and as long as a typical 3/8" drive ratchet, and the bottom is a 3/8" drive, as long as one of my 1/2" drive breaker bars. If you're in the market for more ratchets (I do freely admit I have a slight tool problem) I'd strongly consider these. Unfortunately, they're made in Taiwan - I try to buy as many USA made tools as possible. They seem like good quality, but I'm anxious to see how well they hold up. (Disclaimer: I am not an employee of Gearwrench or any tool company. I bought these with my own money and these are my actual opinions, not an advertisement. I just like tools.) Unfortunately, I don't have any numbers for money spent or any of that stuff since I don't have my main computer with me right now. I will try to get these numbers tomorrow. This update took nearly 2 hours to put together - I don't have 2 hours of free time on weekdays. That's why this update took so long to come. . :MJ 1: .

There's no way. Here's a 2016 Journey vin from a dealer's website: 3C4PDCABXGT110507. I could see just the serial number if yours is an early '86, but just about nothing else matches. All MJ VINs start with 1(made in the US) and J (Jeep) for instance. That doesn't look like any MJ VIN I've ever seen. The Journey is made in Mexico (leading digit of 3) so that rules it out completely.

I haven't heard good things about Jasper, but I didn't know they were that bad... Does it have a piece of round bar stock for a camshaft or something? No engine in good condition should be that weak. Is the exhaust plugged? When my cat went bad I had a hard time going 50 uphill with my foot to the floor and it would occasionally try to stall. I would look at either that or badly off ignition timing if it has good compression. If the motor has good compression (should be mid 100s PSI) there's something else going on.

I like the way mine look but what I like more is the fact that my tires don't throw dirt and crap onto the rockers anymore. I can just kick the mud flaps to clean them off, too.

Yep. 96+ engines have your solution if that's all you have access to. Use the new style gasket and fittings as described above.

Cheap fun: I wanted to say a Fox Mustang, but you'd probably be stuck with a 4 cylinder turd in that price range. Similar problem for a Camaro (also including the mullet factor) How about something Japanese? Prettiest: Something British. The "can't drive it" rule is perfect for British cars, since you can't drive them anyway. Money no object (but I actually get to drive it): '69 Mach I. Loud, flashy, and loud. Although if I had a choice of any vehicle, I would no doubt have a truck of some kind. Preferably fast. Gotta have space for whatever crap I bring back from the junkyard.

:agree: And a build thread. Don't think we've had a genuine barn find project for a while.

Until recently I've used the same set of tools that I use in the garage with a few things left off: big unwieldy 230pc Craftsman socket set with a ratcheting screwdriver set instead of hex keys (added as a result of those stupid T6 set screws on the interior mirror trim) as well as a bag with hammers, screwdrivers, combo wrenches, ratcheting wrenches, steering wheel puller, gear puller, 1/2" impact and accompanying impact sockets. In total that was about 50-60lbs in just tools (and it grew with each trip) but I rarely if ever was without something. I've since put together a leaner kit with a smaller socket set and a bag about half the size that also fits behind the seat of the MJ so I can also use it as a traveling set (although I lose the impact) Your way is about a million times better than mine and I will almost certainly steal it in the future :D

If the front tow hooks and related hardware are in good shape I'm interested.

Yep, there's still a couple sets out there. Congrats on scoring a set, and in pretty good shape too! Took me almost a year and a half to find mine but they eventually pretty much fell into my lap. One of my most prized MJ possessions :thumbsup: Do you have brackets for the front? If you have bigger than 215/75/15 tires you'll need to hold them away from the tire (otherwise they'll rub during tight turns) using bolt D and the associated washers & spacers, all available from any hardware store: