Minuit

Another new MJ owner? Welcome to the addiction! If you ever need an extra pair of hands at some point I'd be happy to come down for a weekend. Serious offer.

Yep... we're gonna need some more details... and pics!

I'm glad there are people out here that actually give a damn about proper procedure re. tightening fasteners. Thanks for writing this up, Eagle. This is good information that many people are never exposed to. There's not much that I can think of to add, other than to never, EVER forget to retorque fasteners that fasten aluminum parts. The main application of this is aluminum wheels. Forgetting to do this nearly put my truck (and me in it) into a ditch at 55 mph last year. I live in the land of no rust and I garage my '91, so I've never seen fit to lubricate lug nut threads. I also don't put any lubricants on hub faces. As a general rule, I torque my lugs to 100 ft-lb, and critically I check the torque of my lug nuts on a regular basis. Especially with aluminum wheels, lug nuts can back off. Last year, I almost had a wheel come off of my truck and ever since then I've been much more anal about doing these things the right way. Sorry to keep coming back to lug nuts, but I think this is something that everyone needs to hear. If I can possibly avoid it, I also avoid shops. Not only is proper torque almost never a thing, most shops use rattleguns on lug nuts, and that will destroy the two piece factory lugs on our trucks in short order. If possible, I'll remove the tires myself and take them somewhere to be balanced. However, the are a small handful of decent tire shops out there. Tire shops that treat your vehicle with respect and do a good job are worthy of your business. Last year I took my Thunderbird to the Firestone in town to have new tires put on. I didn't expect much, but it was the best option I had at the time. Not only did they use a torque wrench set to 100 ft-lb for my wheels (and yes, I did re-torque them after I got home), they also balanced the tires almost perfectly. I was absolutely blown away by how good of a job they did. I've never had newly balanced tires that didn't vibrate at least a little bit at highway speeds. A year later, that car is still absolutely butter smooth on the highway. I think I'll be taking my tire work to them for the forseeable future.

I'm officially ruined. I won't suffer no AC even in a "beater" truck anymore. Fixing AC is one of my favorite things. Totally changes how the vehicle feels.

Alright, this truck's time has come. Time for it to start occupying space in my mind and wallet, anyway. I've come up with a very cunning and detailed plan that definitely won't be derailed the second I actually start working on it. Here's the plan. A good friend has recently indebted himself to me, so I'll have an extra pair of hands to help with certain things. We've recently resurrected his '91 Chevy 4WD truck with a manual transmission, and he's been rubbing it in my face that he owns a running manual truck and I don't. Time to fix that. Step one is finding out whether it needs an engine NOW, or quite soon. I'll drop the oil pan, see if I find the pickup tube laying in the bottom like I expect to, and maybe pop off a bearing cap or two to satisfy my curiosity. I'll have a new oil pan (I don't expect the original to survive the removal process. The one on my '91 didn't), oil pan gasket, and new oil pump at the ready. In the event I need a new engine, those parts can be reused. I'll be doing the bare minimum of effort to try and get this engine making oil pressure again. If the engine doesn't eat itself, move to step two. If it knocks or still doesn't make oil pressure after step one, I put an engine in it. If that happens, I'll be keeping the Renix injection system and doing the job as quickly and easily as I can. Then skip to step two. Step two is to get it driveable without fear of death. This'll mainly include a complete front end rebuild. I'll slap those nasty out-of-round Cooper tires I still have on it just so it has a matched set of tires. The door striker panel is cracked, so that will need to be welded up. I now own a welder, so I'll be sure to embarrass myself when I post pics of my welding on here. I'm tired of dealing with the stupid Renix cooling system, so it's going bye-bye. Step three is to get it to the point I actually want to drive it. This is the part where I find red doors (I'll add power windows if the doors I find have them), a red hood, and rattle-can the cab red so I actually want to be seen in it. At some point I'll have to address the driver side floor, so we'll put it in step 3. The windshield was cracked when I bought it, and that'll need to be fixed before this thing sees many miles. Also, I'd kinda like a gas gauge that works. Also, a headliner and maroon seats would be nice. I aim for this to be a working truck that I don't have to worry about getting the carpet or seats dirty in, so I'd really like some vinyl seats. The rubber floor mat it has now can stay. I'd really like some A/C in this thing (it's the only vehicle left in the entire fleet that doesn't have working A/C), so I might be doing some exploratory surgery on that to see if the current compressor is usable. I don't have a lot of hope that it will be, since somebody seems to have jumped the clutch to be always-on when A/C is selected, even with the engine off. It's a virgin R-12 system, and I really don't care for my refrigerant eating the ozone layer or costing $30 a can, and R-12 does both. I may throw it all out and do a '96 A/C system swap as I did in my '91, since I've been very happy on the one hot day there's been since I rebuilt the A/C in that truck.

I wouldn't expect you to find a radiator without them that isn't a new old stock original. You'll be perfectly fine using one that has the transmission cooler ports, you just won't have anything to hook them up to.

Yes. There are no advantages to the GM 2.8L in any way. The only good thing about a 2.8L equipped truck is that it's fairly easy to put a 3.4L L32 out of a Camaro in one, which is still a less powerful engine than any version of the 4.0L.

Eh, I think it qualifies. Anyone who tries to argue about it with you isn't worth talking to anyway. For what it's worth, I'd go for a normal, non-antique plate any day of the week. I don't want to worry about whether I'm legally allowed to drive my truck that particular day. Plus the TN plates from '88 (the year I'd be required to use) are nothing to write home about.

I could, and I might. I'm fairly sure that 210 ft lbs is enough for what I need. I might buy it on Amazon and immediately go try it on my buddy's nasty '91 Chevy that we've been working on together. That'll tell me if it's enough torque for sure. Also: the compact 1/2" is out. It's not any more powerful than the compact 3/8" but costs more. Comedy third option: the non-Fuel (so an old school brushed motor) 1/2" "High Torque" gun claiming 475 ft-lb for even cheaper with Prime shipping: https://www.amazon.com/Bare-Tool-Milwaukee-2663-20-18-Volt-Friction/dp/B002AKKJBS/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 Any thoughts? It sounds like that one requires a bit of break-in for it to work really well, but it sounds hard to beat for the price.

I'll try to make this short. I'm in the market for a new impact wrench, and I have a bunch of the M18 batteries and a couple of chargers kicking around, so Milwaukee is the natural choice. My old Dewalt impact from the Ni-Cad days is pretty much spanked, and these new lithium ion tools are so much better than the old stuff I think I'll be happy with pretty much anything. My question is this: Milwaukee has a ridiculous number of different M18 impact wrenches. I'm looking at the Compact Fuel models. Would I be disappointed if I went with a 3/8" over the 1/2"? I'm used to doing pretty much everything with hand tools and nothing I work on can be called "rusty" in any way. The 3/8" is also about $60 cheaper. I'm not opposed to ponying up for a more expensive impact if it's worth it, though. The guys talking about being able to take off suspension bolts with the 3/8" gun are making me curious. Thanks in advance.

Here's another example for you. A couple of years ago I ordered a NOS A/C evaporator from them. I specifically wanted a factory part because I wanted to keep the factory temperature probe, and as far as I know no aftermarket option lets you keep it. I have a troubled at best history with aftermarket parts, and the A/C evaporator is not something you want to replace twice. The ad claimed it was a factory "heavy duty" model and the picture showed a foam bulkhead gasket, which I also needed. Besides, it helps me sleep easier knowing that the thing that's going to be holding 90+ psi of refrigerant right behind my dash isn't a cheap piece of garbage. After 7 days and an email or two asking what was taking so long, it finally ships. When I get it, there's no gasket. Okay, I guess I should've known it was too good to be true. When I go to install it, it's a perfect mirror image of my original! The end result is that the expansion valve and pipes are set about an inch away from where they "should be". After a little looking, I'm all but sure it was a right-hand drive evaporator. The part number they listed was the exact match for a LHD evaporator from the '91 parts catalog, so that's not even a lie of omission. They're just straight up wrong. Also, it was no heavier duty than my original. It was exactly the same, but a mirror image. I tried, but I could not find a Mopar number for any kind of "heavy duty" evaporator for '91. Ok, that's three things wrong on their ad. Anyway, it turns out that the evaporator fits well enough despite not being the right part (it's still in my truck and doing well). The price was reasonable for a Mopar A/C evaporator, but they sure didn't make themselves easy to recommend in the process. Luckily for me (and them) the part was close enough to fit with some fiddling, but that was pure luck. Moral of the story: Be wary when ordering from Team Cherokee and do your own research beforehand. That's a lot of words for nothing. Geez.

Yep. It's literally the 231 plus all wheel drive. I'm not going to sit here and pretend I need 4WD for anything (I can count the number of times I've had a real need for 4WD in the past 7 years without taking my socks off), I just want to say I have it.

Some people get lucky and never have any trouble with them. Some have a lot of trouble. Also, their customer service is kind of crap and they take forever to ship. They do have a lot of rare parts that you can't find anywhere else, so if you want the part you don't really have a choice but to deal with them. Don't believe anything you read on the ads either.

As someone kinda sorta looking for this exact transfer case... ...you suck.

Yes, that interior color is called Charcoal, even though it doesn't really look anything like charcoal, but anyway. There are two types of armrest used for the grey interiors. The Limited trim got a dark blue version, and everyone else got the one you have. Here's the Limited trim version in my truck: And the other version: Yours look a little more discolored than most, but I don't think they'll ever perfectly match the interior. The Team Cherokee ones should be NOS, so they're as good as you're likely to find. Those armrests are pretty common, and you shouldn't have any trouble finding a pair in the understandable case that you don't want to do business with Team Cherokee.

Given enough time, money, skill, and patience, you can fix anything. And this is coming from a self admitted purist. If that's the only bad spot, that truck deserves to live.

Seems like it's about half useful things and half stupid crap for the Instagram demographic. Inverter in the bed is kinda neat (hardly unique), but I've never wished my vehicle came with a Bluetooth speaker. The less IoT devices in my life, the better. The tonneau cover is cool, but I wonder how long it'll take for it to spring a leak. Of course, the silly extras are just a distraction. Guess we'll see how these things hold up in a few years. I probably do about as much real trucking as the "lifestyle vehicle" crowd and the 6ft bed of my trucks feels restrictive pretty often. I think a 5ft bed would just piss me off more than anything else. I don't see myself ever owning a truck with a bed shorter than 6 feet.

The expensive Fel-Pro gaskets for the earlier models are blue too. Just took one off of my '91. I want to say that the OEM gasket for the stamped steel valve covers was black or gray or something like that.

GREAT looking truck, and it looks like you got some really desirable accessories with it too. As to the plastic - be careful, but don't worry TOO much. In my experience, the plastics in an MJ interior are more durable than others of the time, with GM coming in at the absolute bottom of that list. You'll still want to have a gentle hand, but don't expect the interior to crumble at the slightest touch. The biggest thing is to be careful with the screws. Overtightening them will break the tabs. I've had some success epoxying washers into the spot that the mounting tab broke off of. If the air blows out of the defrost vents only, it's almost certainly a vacuum issue as you mentioned. The most likely place is in the big line that runs to the reservoir's OEM location (behind passenger side of bumper) up the passenger side of the engine bay. For the fuel leak, the first place I would suspect is on the side of the tank where the sending unit goes in. The o-ring between the sender and tank can leak, as can the pipes on the sender itself. Check the fill hoses on the driver side of the tank too. There are a bunch of places water can leak onto the passenger side floor. The easiest one to get your eyes on is probably the antenna grommet under the passenger side kick panel. The windshield and the gaskets where blower motor and HVAC pipes go through the firewall are big leakers too. That's definitely my second favorite factory MJ color. Looking forward to see what you do with it

Aw SWEET! Always love the stock restorations like this one. Have to say, it suits you Pete

The further south the OP lives, the bigger a deal this is. I for one would never consider a non-AC truck at any price. It may not be working, but the infrastructure for it damn well better be there. I can fix a non-working AC system, but I really, really don't feel like adding AC to a truck that never had it in the first place.

Worked fine for me before and after the headlight harness. Also, my '91 had the fuse.

I figured this one would be coming soon enough. Here it is. Motorweek's review of the brand new 1986 Jeep Comanche. 0-60 in a blazing 15.2 seconds with the 2.8L V6. They liked pretty much everything else about it though.

You mentioned being a novice mechanic. You have a nice truck that's worth keeping nice. The best way to do that is to have good maintenance habits. Here's what works for me: I print out these sheets for every vehicle under my care and go around the vehicle filling them out every couple of months. Anything I do that's of note gets written down. "Oh, I guess I'll change the oil next week" or "I think I remember changing the oil last month..." is how engines get gunked up and full of sludge because if people are good at one thing, it's forgetting important details. If I have any doubt, I just look at the most recent sheet and know exactly when I need to change fluids. If anyone wants a PDF of that sheet, let me know.

Fluid Film is excellent stuff. If there's anything that will keep his truck from rusting, it's what he did.