87 MJ Project A

[Unglar]

This is my $300 MJ with no tranny. It looks better the farther away you are.

 

The PO freaked when they told him how much to repair the pukegoat and he didnt even bother to get the broken one back.

 

Here are some highlights:

[Unglar]

A note about my mechanic'ing skills, I don't have any. This is my 1st foray into serious automotive repair. I don't have any way to work on the rust at the moment so I started with trying to get it running. I researched the pukegoat and found all the recommendations to go with the AX-15. So I ran out to the JY with my tool box and got to work. There were 3 XJ's with the AX-15, all were around 175,000 miles. One had the t-case and cross beam removed so I figured that would be the easiest to work, I pulled all the bolts accept the top 2, and then those striped out (at least I thought so). So I moved to the next donor. I had to drop the cross beam on it. Pulled all the bolts and striped the top 2 (see a trend?). Now I was starting to wonder what was going on... I moved onto donor #3. This time I dropped the crossbeam and went after the top bolts first, very carefully I got one bolt out, I think I used a 7/16 or 12mm, don't recall now. Then the 2nd bolt striped. I was like "what is going on!" Just about this time my buddy shows up to see how I am doing. I tell him about the bolt stripping out and he takes a look at the one I got out. He says, this is Torx. Doh, now I remember reading about how the top 2 bolts are Torx... :dunce:

[Unglar]

Tranny, T-case, Master/slave combo, and some miscellaneous parts came to about $300. Turns out though that the internal slave in the tranny (it was from a 91 I think) need to be replaced, this would be another $160 at Napa. I found a '89 XJ for $500. So I returned all the parts to the JY and got my money back and bought the XJ for a donor.

 

 

I figured it was a better use of my money as I need alot more than just a tranny. I still didn't really know what I was doing so my buddy told me to start by tearing apart the XJ. Here it is after a couple weeks:

 

 

I removed just about every thing that could be removed. I think the only thing left was the rear leafs and shocks, rear bumper and 1" hitch. I have sold $300-400 in parts so I easily made out on this deal. Not to mention learning alot about the XJ from the tear down.

[CWLONGSHOT]

I have done this twice now!! Didn't make any cash on the second one, had friends come over and we made a fun time of the

chop". Everyone took what they needed and we had it complete in a weekend. I got plenty of good parts!!! We took a sawzall to them for manageable sized pieces and brought the remains to the scrap for about 50 bucks more at the end..

 

Good times!!

 

CW

[Unglar]

Now I had a tranny, pukegoat but it was working when pulled. I replaced the internal slave and installed it. I put everything back together and got a permit to drive the truck around a bit. It ran ok, but loud, no exhaust, it was cut off behind the CAT. Took it in for the exhaust and inspection. It failed. After the exhaust was installed you could see and hear the exhaust leak at the manifold. I had an aftermarket header and the leak appeared to be coming from the collector. The exhaust manifold on the XJ engine looked good so I was going to use it. The bloody bolts under the manifold on the after market header were a major pain.

 

 

After I got the PS pump out of the way I realized there was no front bolt on the exhaust manifold, theres another leak. Turns out it was snapped off. :(

[Unglar]

I have done this twice now!! Didn't make any cash on the second one, had friends come over and we made a fun time of the

chop". Everyone took what they needed and we had it complete in a weekend. I got plenty of good parts!!! We took a sawzall to them for manageable sized pieces and brought the remains to the scrap for about 50 bucks more at the end..

 

Good times!!

 

CW

 

Yeah, I like taking stuff apart and I learned alot from it. I got $37 for the body, now I wish I had cut it down and saved it.

[Unglar]

So, with the front bolt snapped off I decided to pull the MJ motor and go with the XJ motor, it ran ok when we drove it home about 45 miles. To pull the motor I needed to remove the radiator so I decided to replace the front clip while I was at it.

These are my donor parts:

 

Time to pull the motor:

You can see the XJ motor in the background.

[Unglar]

By the way, I have been taking pictures all along but until yesterday I didn't know how to put them in, so this started a couple months ago. :cheers:

 

Got the truck out of the garage for a bit and did some cleanup:

 

The motor/tranny was pretty dirty so I decided to clean it up:

 

Got the tranny cleaned up nicely, just getting started on the XJ motor:

 

This is the point where the city decided I had too many broken down jeeps in my yard:

 

So I had to get busy and get the engine back in the truck:

 

I got stuck here because I don't have a welding rig (yet). The MJ header was a 3 bolt, while the XJ header is a 2 bolt:

So I had to cut the pipes at the tranny bracket:

And get someone to weld it for me, wasnt willing to pay the muffler shop another $200. :mad:

 

Finally got it welded:

 

Installed it and fired the truck up... major exhaust leaks at the manifold, so bad that there was no clear idea of where it was coming from. :(

[Unglar]

I didn't replace the manifold gasket or the flange so I decided to start there:

 

After pulling the manifolds I realized I had snapped off the alignment tabs at some point. :dunce:

So I pulled the intake manifold off the MJ motor.

It is alot harder to put those bottom bolts in with the engine in the rig...

 

After alot of knuckle wracking and meditation I managed to get the manifolds in without breaking anything this time and all the bolts in and torqued. Got everything hooked back up and tried to start it. Battery died after 4-5 cranks. :(

 

:dunce: should have been charging the battery while I worked on the engine...

[Pete M]

The PO freaked when they told him how much to repair the pukegoat and he didnt even bother to get the broken one back.

 

Smart man. :D the truck is really starting to come together. :thumbsup:

[Unglar]

Smart man. :D the truck is really starting to come together. :thumbsup:

 

Thank you! So, when I got home from work I was all excited to fire it up. Hooked up the battery and cranked it over and it started but was making a weird noise, I thought it might have been because I didnt have the air cleaner housing hooked up. But when I was looking I noticed stuff coming off the belt.... As I was looking at the belt it started coming apart and I jumped back and shut it down! :hmm:

 

So i'm looking at the belt wondering what happened I notice a bolt laying on the belt and right against the timing notch. Doh! Note to self always check the belt after working on the rig....

 

Replaced the belt with a spare I had and double checked everywhere for stray bolts or tools. Then fired it up, it ran a bit rough so I shut it down and hooked up the air filter housing. Made sure all the vacuum tubes were hooked up right and started it back up. Purrs like a kitten! :banana:

 

Now I just need to hook up the clutch master to the slave and bleed the line. Then the drive shafts. :-)

[Unglar]

Got it licensed and drove around abit. Oil pressure is running high, around 50-60 at idle. Gonna try a new filter. Found a big puddle of coolant on the driveway, looks to be a leak at the radiator. :-(

 

It'll have to wait till the snow melts off...