Minuit

It's been a busy past few weeks but the radios must flow! Expect more regular rollouts of standard radios soon as my schedule stabilizes, with some interesting technology to come.

XJ door mirrors 84-96 are direct bolt on. 97+ give better visibility but IMO look horrible. Just some minor trimming needed to make those fit.

Only thing it's missing is "RARE!!!!!!"

Lower door seal, door to rocker seal, rocker seal, they go by many names.

In which I make more "remarks" that don't really fit into a build thread update. A build thread update is coming, but I'd really rather finish the doors before I make it. I've driven the truck a little bit more and I'm going through that usual period after some big work where there still needs to be some tweaking done. - NOS weatherstripping collection is going well. I have everything except the division bar seals (shouldn't be a problem to find) and the "secondary" seals that run along the A-pillar (might be a problem to find). Some of the parts are older than my truck but still appear brand new. - Tailshaft bushing still hasn't been resolved. I only have the ability to work on stuff on weekends, and it's kind of a big job to take the rear half of the transmission off. There's a tool to R&R it in-vehicle but it's $$$$. Coincidentally if anyone happens to have one of these tools I can borrow, you'll be my best friend forever! I drove the truck to Cookeville and back once to take sound readings, but I'm trying to put as few miles on it as possible to avoid damage. - I'm amazed at how few squeaks and rattles there are now. The plastic trim across the cab wall kept coming loose and causing a huge rattle - that was solved by replacing the clips. (I need to do some research and try to find a source for these bloody things!) There's one small rattle inside the dash but I think I know what it is. One of the rivets in the passenger door has come loose AGAIN. Naturally, it decides to do this after I put the new door panels on. Overall, the interior feels well made again. I took my time putting felt in between where plastic panels would rub, and that's paid dividends. - I need to adjust how the headliner fits. Right now the B-pillar trims don't quite fit right. Just a matter of lining things up the way they want to be. - I installed a power antenna... because I wanted to. Not that this was my goal, but this truck now totally has the Accusound factory sound system other than the door and rear speakers. One problem though: the antenna cable going to the radio has a female plug. The power antenna also has a female plug. I don't think the plug on the antenna is a standard Motorola jack. Still need to figure that one out before I can use the antenna. I also got a NOS plastic surround for it! - I got 19mpg on the last tank of gas. Dunno what that's about. - The 97+ heater hoses make checking my oil much more convenient now that the heater control valve is gone. - schardein and I have had a lengthy discussion on A/C. I've decided as a result of this to convert my truck to the 94-96 R134a native system. The one thing I haven't decided on is what parallel-flow condenser to use. There's a fairly cheap one on Rockauto that isn't the full width of the radiator, but Omix-Ada makes one that is full size and probably provides better cooling. Problem is, it's almost $200 where the Rockauto one is under $50. Hmmm... - Here's a more tangible noise comparison: Before deadening the cab I needed my amplifier to be able to get some bass at 70+. Now, I don't feel like I need it. I still haven't put it in yet, and if anything I have to turn the bass down on my radio. I'm still using the same 56002467 radio I've been using for a while, which is one of the least powerful factory radios at about 34W RMS total. - My rear speakers suuuuuuck. They're Polk Audio 4x6s, and I usually like Polk speakers, but these just sound terrible. I noticed one day that the stereo sounds much, much better when faded to the front. The rear's only contribution is a nasty response peak at about 1250 Hz and another one at 2500. When faded all the way to the front, my Polk 5.25" speakers and the Jensen tweeters work together wonderfully for very clear sound. I may experiment with some 4" full-range speakers, as 4x6 is just a suboptimal size overall. I continue to contest that rear speakers aren't necessary or possibly even desirable in the tiny 2-seat cab of the Comanche, so if you have your heart set on one of those really basic AMC radios, go for it. I don't think you'll be missing much. I still haven't bothered with rear speakers in my '89 either. - Never thought I'd get my hands on a pair of these, but I did: My door seams aren't as unbelievably perfect as Don's, but they'll have to do for now

My wiring was from a '92, but it matched color-for-color with my '91 FSM. If you go through with this and need some tips, let me know. I honestly think you'd be fine grabbing it from the junkyard if you don't want to deal with buying a whole vehicle. I never felt like I needed the whole Jeep when I did it.

I don't really think you lost out too much. As a power window and lock guy: The 88 XJ wiring is suboptimal. The locks don't really work too well (there's about a 40 page thread about that on NAXJA if I remember correctly) and the window regulators aren't plug and play with later model replacements - you have to splice a connector. The Renix window regulators I've seen are veeeeery slow too. The silvery dash bezel can be found pretty easily, it's not a Renix era thing specifically. Emblems are out there. If that's all you need (other than the spare parts of course), I probably would've bought it piecemeal. My favorite wiring for the PW/PL swap is from 91-92 XJs. The harness for it is nice and divorced from everything else (just plug in 2 fuse box taps, supply power and ground, and you're good to go) and all of the parts are available. I slapped my setup together in a weekend and it's worked flawlessly for 9 months. I've really enjoyed having keyless entry too.

You might have to look a while to find them. It looks like I bought the last pair on eBay, but that's the part number of the ones Don and I used.

Chrysler P/N 5513 4856. They aren't side specific.

I went ahead and bought the genuine article from Ruffstuff, and I got it installed this weekend. My truck is due for an alignment and I also installed a new tie rod end at this time, so the alignment is a little off. The bushing fit my aftermarket tie rod end perfectly, but from what I've seen the TRE absolutely has to line up flat on the drag link for the pin to seat all the way, and have any hope of keeping the grease in. This effectively locks the right TRE to the drag link. Temper your expectations, it won't turn your truck into (insert car with good steering here). The difference I found is slight but noticeable. I'm also totally unlifted, so I'm likely to see the least possible improvement from this. Still, the steering feels like it might just be connected to the wheels at some distant point. It's still a totally dead recirculating ball system, but the dead spot in the middle is now substantially smaller, even with my 171k mile original steering box. Making small adjustments on the highway is a matter of "move the wheel a little" rather than "take up the slack in the wheel, then move it some". A ZJ steering box and all new tie rod ends ought to make it feel better still.

You're lucky. My cats would probably see the seat backs as the perfect scratching post

I got my lower door seals in this weekend. I'd agree with Don, it seems a little quieter. Less wind/road noise coming from the door gap for sure. I'll stop hijacking your thread now

Damn, someone needs to buy this. Flooded or not it'd be a great canvas.

Can't be sure till you get a wrench on it. If I'm remembering correctly (this is 5 years ago now) the bolts looked fine until I tried to turn one. Can you not bend the cover a little bit to slip a tool in? WTF were they thinking when they put that bolt in? Mine was that way too.

Dang, that's a good looking radio isn't it?

This is now a thread about ferrets

Check behind the little inspection cover at the front of the bellhousing. It's extremely common for the flexplate bolts to come loose and cause a knocking noise. I had this and it sounded just like what you're describing.

Looks like it's the bottom one: That's the best pic I have, sorry. Love your attention to detail.

This site is your Renix mechanic. And with some studying, you can be one too! Seriously, this site is the most concentrated gathering of Renix people you'll find anywhere. What's going on with the truck?

I could go for this. I'd be willing to extend discounts on radios and radio accessories to the winners, if they're interested.

The parallel flow condenser is considered about 20-30% more efficient. I should mention that 50 is probably the lowest temp I've seen out of the vents, and that was taken moving from a cold start on low, so probably the coldest the air could ever get. My compressor leaks oil from both the front seal and the seam between the main body and front plate, and it's probably a little louder than it should be. Other than that, the system is 100% original and breaks down in one way or another every 8 months or so, so I'm just replacing it entirely. I replaced the evaporator (with a NOS part - my advice, don't - the only benefit is retaining the "frozen evaporator shutoff" probe) as part of my interior overhaul, and that slightly improved performance from my memory of how it was in the past. The air coming out of the vents never really feels very cold, but it gets the job done and hasn't ever really felt insufficient, but its reliability is poor to say the least. Could anyone tell this started off as a tow hook thread?

The triangle windows can be kinda hard to get totally seated. Is there any gap between the "front" edge of the triangle window and the door? That might cause a little bit too much pressure on the windows. The gaskets can also get pinched preventing the window from going in all the way.

Nope, that's exactly what I was looking for. I'm really thinking of converting to the 96 system too. My converted R12 system works ok (~50 degree air) but the compressor is pretty sick. I don't really want to use an aftermarket or reman compressor if I can help it, and the OEM Sanden 4727 for the 94-96 XJ looks like it's still available. I think I'll be going that way too - thanks a lot. Did you get any temperature readings at the vents? I'm curious to see how a native R134a system compares to my converted R12 system, original condenser and all. PM sent.

If you don't mind me asking, what compressor did you use?

Yeah, it's sad. After replacing all of my weatherstripping with aftermarket dreck I have more wind noise than I did originally. Now I'm piecing together a set of NOS parts... not cheap. Long in the future when it's a huge ordeal to keep an MJ on the road, it won't be for a lack of parts. It'll be because the parts we can get are so garbage they're barely useful.