Minuit

The compressor came with a full charge of SP-15 oil which as far as I can tell is equivalent to PAG 100. The instructions from Sanden repeatedly stressed that the oil was a full charge and to not replace it. I did not add extra oil except to the o-rings when putting everything together. I weighed in the charge using a scale that I know to be accurate. It's entirely possible that the system is very slightly undercharged due to loss from my manifold gauges and purging them, but if so it can't be much.

... how loud is your compressor? Because I'm not sure I'm supposed to hear it from inside the truck and feel vibrations in the floor at idle. I ask because I just got done doing a complete system rebuild - new lines, condenser, receiver/drier, expansion valve, and a brand new genuine Sanden compressor. The parts are all for a '96 XJ and It has the correct amount of oil and contains the correct 32oz charge of R-134a. The system seems to cool pretty well. It's just that the compressor seems louder than it should. It's quieter than the original compressor was back when that system was working, but not by much. I do recall that the original compressor made a very similar sound. Here's a crappy video of the A/C cycling. Skip to 0:30 to hear what I hear inside the truck. I had the e-fan unplugged so any noise you hear with the A/C clutch engaged is all from the compressor. The interior vibration I mentioned goes away above idle. I've heard that Sanden compressors can be noisy, but is this in any way normal? I don't want to run the system if that noise is my brand new compressor turning itself into a fine mist of metal particles.

I paid 300 for my set of 4. They had fairly decent Michelins on them that I drove for a year and probably still had a few thousand miles left when I bought new tires. They also came with the factory lug nuts and a set of wheel locks that may or may not have been a dealer option. They do seem to be one of the more expensive factory wheels - as far as I know, they were only available for a couple of years and only on the TJ, so there aren't as many sets of them out there. Naturally, the clear coat on one started peeling about a month after I bought them

Yep.

Those are 235/75/15.

Ravines. Especially if the truck is a lighter color. Moabs are too mainstream and Canyons have never done much for me. Turbines look excellent as long as you stick with the old school front end and doors.

I remember when I first did the PW/PL swap, I used parts from an 88 MJ and those switches absolutely had Ford logos and part numbers. Guess at some point they decided maybe they should make their own parts? The ones on my truck now are NOS 93-96, so they're probably the same as yours.

Power window switches are Ford too. Even still have the FoMoCo badge molded into them. Just Everyone Else's Parts

Now I'm normally a "just answer the damn question" type of guy, but I don't have any idea why you'd ever want to do this. Is it because you can't get the belt to "lock" by pulling it?

^I like Fluid Film for things like that. I know it's just wax, but I swear that stuff is magical. Over the last week, I blew more than $500 in two transactions on A/C parts. I've got a brand new Sanden compressor on my desk right now and the rest of the parts are either here or getting here in the next few days. With a little luck, my truck will have a brand new A/C system by the end of the week! Just in time for winter!

Yuck. I couldn't live with myself if I made a vehicle that nasty. Sure looks like it'll clean up nice though.

A fuse doesn't blow by itself. You've still got a problem elsewhere. The radio circuit should come nowhere near blowing a 15A fuse let alone a 30A fuse. I'd be looking awfully hard for an intermittent short to ground, perhaps a wire rubbing on something metal.

I have one of those Lisle connector extraction tools. It's this one, I think. It has a tool for those Pack-Con connectors on the fusebox. Kind of finicky but it works.

Learned that one the hard way a time or three.

Yep.. the float it was. Also, this Bosch fuel pump is QUIET! When I was priming the system for first start I could barely hear the pump over the relay clicking. A far cry from the Airtex time bomb that was in there for sure. Moral of the story: even if your gas gauge kinda works, don't eliminate the float right away. It takes 30 seconds to remove it from the sender and shake it. Also, check all of the stuff everyone above mentioned, because those are the far more common causes of this problem.

Alright... answers! I removed the sender today and started off by sweeping the resistance with my analog multimeter. The pot has a smooth sweep from 5 to about 100 ohms with no dead spots or drop-outs. I then removed the fuel level sensor from the sender module and dunked it in a bucket of gasoline deep enough to immerse it fully. It very weakly floated until right about halfway up the resistance band - if I dunked the sensor further, the float would start sinking, staying at about half. Even at half, the slightest amount of force would push the float under the surface. I then removed the floater itself and shook it... it was full of liquid and much heavier than a gas gauge floater should be! I swapped the floater from my spare Renix sender and repeated the "dunk it in a bucket" test, and it passed with flying colors. I then compared the weights of the two floats, and my original was about twice the weight of the Renix spare. The old float would float by itself, but it ran out of buoyancy as the metal float arm extended perpendicular to the axis. I don't know how or why, but the original float must have a tiny pinhole in it causing it to fill up with gas over time. Things don't float so great if they're half full of the substance they're supposed to be floating in! Now... to find a new fuel float.

This was what I was thinking too, but I can't see any way for anything to block the float along its travel, and certainly not at half tank (it's already cleared the slosh pan by that point). There's not much play in the float arm so it can't move side to side, and I couldn't find a single dead spot in the pot. I agree that it doesn't make much sense that it would only float halfway, but nothing surprises me much on these trucks anymore. And it definitely fills the tank and shuts off when it's supposed to. I've driven the truck like this for more than 30,000 miles. I think even I'd notice by now if the tank stopped filling at half. The rollover valves are NOS and all of the vent tubing is in good condition. Gonna have to scratch my head for longer on this...

Yeah, I can't think of anything else this really could be. I'll yank the sender out tomorrow and test it to see how it floats.

No, this is definitely not an issue of the wrong sending unit. The sending unit fits beautifully in the tank and pulls from the very bottom of the pan inside the tank. Original '91 sending unit in a SWB 18gal tank. The resistive strip on the sensor has no dead spots. Moving it slowly from empty to full (installed in the tank or not) results in a smooth, correct movement of the gauge and smooth resistance changes. When installed in the tank, the reading on the gauge is correct for what it "should" be. With the sender at the top of its travel, the gauge sits right on full and when at the bottom sits right at empty.

'91 4.0. It's silver if that matters. My fuel gauge has never been able to go higher than 1/2 tank since I put a new tank in a long time ago. It is accurate from empty to 1/2 tank, but stops at 1/2. I thought this might have had to do with something blocking the floater arm, but it isn't. Just a few minutes ago I used a coat hanger through the top ports of the tank to move the sender arm while watching the gas gauge with the sender still installed in the tank, and it moved perfectly from full to empty with no binding or resistance. There is a couple inches of space for the floater in all directions. The gauge doesn't "drop out" or lose contact at any point along its travel. So to me, this eliminates the gauge, the sensor on the sending unit, and any wiring between the gauge cluster and sending unit, as well as the gas tank itself. So what the hell does that leave? The only thing I can think of is the fuel level float itself - has anyone ever had one lose its buoyancy over time?

Sounds like it would be a fun project.

What's his rate for radios?

It was a regular hex head on my 91. The hex bolt is much, much easier to remove.

So far, I'm not convinced they were.

Looks like a BA-10/5 to me. Which would be the correct 5 speed for an 88 with 4.0.