Minuit

I found the heater control valve made a 3-5 degree difference in vent temps with an AC system in good working order - certainly not enough to blow hot air out of the vents even with the AC on, but enough for me to un-delete mine and install a Mopar valve. If you have blazing hot air even with the A/C (or regular vent) on, there's something else going on.

Agree. After owning something with fold down back and front passenger seats I'm wondering how I lived my whole life without them. I've got almost exactly 9 feet from the front of the dash to the end of the trunk in my Volvo.

Does yours by any chance smell like a dentist's office?

I lost my brother and neice in a head-on car crash (someone swerved into them) last year. Ever since, safety is at pretty much the top of my list when suggesting a car to someone. I think you're right to look away from an XJ for a new driver. We all like them, but apart from what you mentioned, even a 97+ XJ with its many safety improvements folds like a tortilla in crash tests compared to a newer car. So in my mind, anything much older than the mid 2000s is right out. Since it'll be for a brand new driver, it should be something that can get banged up a little bit and it not be the end of the world. I'm sure these are things you are considering already, but just my 2 cents. Something with good visibility, maybe unpainted bumpers.

Not for the AR-7650, sorry. The RX-135 manual may be of some help but it won't match entirely.

My CSF is also doing just fine. But so is the single row Spectra I put in my other truck.

The imagery is dated 2022, so there should be at least two white cars in this picture, maybe three depending on if I was gone when the picture was taken. I'm pretty sure the grey splotch is my 91 MJ, but my 89 is nowhere to be found. Probably got filtered out with the noise.

It seems like the repainter had trouble with the badges all around. You'd think they would take the time to measure.

If you do determine that it's the thermostat, and I see nothing else it really could be, go with Mopar for the new one if you can. They're made a lot better and also make bleeding the cooling system easier.

I'd be highly tempted to put some type of ceramic coating on them while they're new and undamaged by UV rays.

If you must solder "vintage" wires, additional flux beyond what's in the solder is a near-must IMO. My personal preference is Kester 186, which is a mildly activated, "no clean" liquid. I use that in little dropper bottles for both wire and circuit board repair and it massively improves the quality of my joints.

I could get fired up about connectors and wiring best practices and type until my keyboard breaks, but unfortunately I have to go to bed soon, so I'll just throw some of my own things out there: - 90% of the connectors on an MJ are utter trash. If they give you problems they're not worth keeping. - Crimp enthusiasts and solder enthusiasts love to get on their respective holier-than-thou high horses and proclaim themselves the best. This is a dumb argument, and it's one I am long tired of, so I'll sum it up: To make a quality joint, crimping requires good quality tools and supplies and an understanding of how to use them. Soldering requires good quality tools and supplies and an understanding of how to use them. - I prefer leaded solder to lead-free solder (just for the love of all that is holy, wash your hands after handling it), and open-barrel crimp terminals to closed crimp terminals. - Quality connectors can be a "pay to play" game. It's hard to go wrong with AMP. All of my quick-connect, ring, etc. terminals are AMP. Expensive, but worth it. Molex makes a good line of super cheap, light duty connectors as well, and the contacts crimp really well with generic crimping tools. I bought the official unsealed Metri-Pack 150 crimper to do radio harnesses with. I paid over $150 for it, and it only does one type of terminal. But it does a damn good job. - Here's a good site for colored and striped automotive wire. They're not joking about that same day shipping either. - Aptiv connectors, especially the 150 series (and maybe the old Weather-Pack connectors they're descended from), are probably about the best entry point to doing truly OEM-style harnesses I can think of, because a generic crimping tool will do an "OK" job on them, they're used on our trucks, reasonably small for their pin count, rated at I think 14 amps per circuit, readily available in many variations, and aren't all that expensive. - Use the right connector for the job! If I see one more person using an unsealed spade terminal in an exterior application I will reach through my screen and slap them silly with the package they came in. - I can not think of a single good time or place to use these things: They provide no environmental protection, take up way too much space, look ugly, and most people don't even use them properly anyway. Don't use them! If you must use a butt splice,

Now THAT is how you do a writeup.

I'm fine with bells and whistles, but don't make me go through any menus to get to them. I should not have to go through menus to make anything that could be remotely considered a routine adjustment. That is all.

And then there's the proprietary Chrysler connectors on 91s and 92s, and the weird, obscure French and other European connectors that don't have any markings on all years. Good luck with those.

My bearings at 150k didn't have a third of the wear that yours do. That's beyond what I would consider unacceptable wear for a 50k rebuild.

No kits left of any kind, sorry.

It should be if the column has not been involved in a wreck or otherwise jostled. The shaft in the steering column is actually two pieces, once again connected with an injected plastic crash structure to allow the column to collapse in a wreck instead of skewering the driver. If this crash structure has broken, there will be slop in the column itself. This is the reason why you'll very often see warnings to handle a dismounted steering column very carefully. Hammering on this shaft could very well break the crash structure. I have a NOS one for a tilt column in my attic that I could take a picture of to show you.

Until I run out, sure.

Attention JRE Customers and Friends: After more than four years and many ups and downs in my personal life and otherwise, I have decided that it is time to reduce the scope of the Radio Emporium. I will still maintain an electronics lab for some radio work and my own personal tinkering, but I have come to realize that I simply do not enjoy working on Jeep radios as much as I used to. As a result, the business side of Jeremy's Radio Emporium will be coming to an end for now. From now on, expect Jeremy's Radio Emporium to exist as an informational resource for the Jeep community and nothing more. I will not shut down the website, and I will not remove the "contact" form on the website. I'm not going anywhere, and I will continue to answer questions and offer guidance as best I can. If your name was on the waiting list, I cannot guarantee your place on it in the future. I will keep the list of names, just in case I decide to restart the business. At this time, I have a significant stock of radios in various condition, radio parts, and radio literature. This includes digitized service manuals for some radios, mostly mid-1980s AMC. I have decided to make these manuals available upon request. There is a good chance that I will sell some of my inventory in its current state. I have nothing but good things to say about my experience running a business for the Jeep community. I'm proud to call myself a member of the vintage Jeep community, and I am a firm believer that there is not a better group of individuals out there.

You said it's a tick, not a knock or rattle. That's good news. But everyone has different terminology for different sounds, so until we can hear yours, we're just guessing. In my experience, a "tick" is just as often an exhaust leak as valvetrain trouble and can sometimes sound very similar to one another. If it's an exhaust leak, the character of the sound can vary heavily depending on load. Rev the engine a bit by manually pulling the throttle body and listen. If the "tick" gets a lot louder, not just faster, as soon as you rev the engine, dollars to donuts it's an exhaust leak. An exhaust leak will also get louder as you give it more throttle at a steady rpm, going up hills for instance. You didn't note the "rate" of the sound. That helps to know too. If your engine idles at 700 rpm, here's what a half-speed tick such as a bad lifter or single-cylinder exhaust leak would sound like: Is there a chance you could upload a video? Much better to do some diagnosis before mentally condemning the engine. Here's a rod knock that I'm pretty sure actually is a rod knock. Lower end noises change by throttle too, but in a totally different way from exhaust leaks.

I do plastic models from time to time, usually planes. I do have that exact J10 model waiting though.

I'll take two of each.

Looks pretty clean and original, and that really matters.