Alexia's 1987 To 1997 Comanche

[Alexia]

Doing some late night dumb stuff.  I just bought the underhood, engine, dash accessory, and dash power wiring harnesses off eBay for $275.34.  This is stage one of unscrewing up all of my mistakes and will get it into a stock wiring state.  This way I can sell the Haltech Elite 2500 for money towards a replacement transmission.  Also, this will fix the air conditioning and cruise control.

[Alexia]

O_O  There is a wrecker 1.5 miles from my old house that claims to have a 100,000-ish mile AW4 for $275 and already pulled.

[Alexia]

-_-

 

I got right side of the engine wiring harness off.  I went into the driver foot well to unhook the wiring harness under the dash so I can pull it through the firewall.  It is a swamp.  There is a leak some where, the carpet is soaked, and the floor underneath is rusted through the rust coating I put on the metal.

 

I almost finished writing a classified post to sell this thing off for parts.  That is how much trouble this build has been for me.  I am crying in my office because either I ignore the water issue or I add even more time stripping the interior down to fix it.

[neohic]

*facepalm

[Alexia]

13 minutes ago, neohic said:

*facepalm

 

Hormones suck and I have bills to pay.  I can't afford this anymore.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Oh yeah, the fuel pump assembly o-ring is leaking, again.  I will have to pull it a third time to "fix it".

[Pete M]

if I was closer I'd swing by to lend a hand.     it's really becoming a problem child. 

 

But I too had plenty of setbacks when I built mine and it was all worth it when I finally got to drive up the trails in Moab.    don't give up!  focus on the goal line!  think about how awesome it'll be to drive around in it knowing you defeated all its demons and came out victorious! 

[89 MJ]

5 hours ago, Alexia said:

 

I almost finished writing a classified post to sell this thing off for parts.  That is how much trouble this build has been for me.  I am crying in my office because either I ignore the water issue or I add even more time stripping the interior down to fix it.

Your MJ was my inspiration. I saw it in the MJOTM section before I owned mine and I fell in love with it. Please fix it. 

[Limeyjeeper]

1 hour ago, 89 MJ said:

Your MJ was my inspiration. I saw it in the MJOTM section before I owned mine and I fell in love with it. Please fix it. 

Don't give up. Jeeps are a test of willpower as I drove my 91 today and when I needed it the horn didn't work. Worked last week. In fact it worked for 13 years. There is always something with these MJ's. You have had a run of bad luck and when you push the envelope setbacks are inevitable. Hang in there. You have inspired more people than you can possibly imagine. I just used your 97+ handbrake adaption today on my 89 project MJ.......

[Alexia]

About four hours of work in: The interior is stripped, engine harness is 95% removed dangling out of the engine bay, replacement 2001 XJ dash harness is on the dash frame, and now it is basically reassemble everything.  I tore apart everything that is not mechanical in half a day of work.

 

I might need to buy a new carpet or temporarily leave it out for a while.  It stinks badly and I am not sure if I can get it deep cleaned right now.

 

And, yeah, my girlfriend came over last night and we got ice cream with lots of chocolate.

[Pete M]

gotta find that leak before you even think of putting it back.  

[Alexia]

15 hours ago, Pete M said:

gotta find that leak before you even think of putting it back.  

 

I have to put the engine bay wiring harness back in at least to close up those giant wiring harness holes.  I spied a rust streak on the inside of the grommet for the transmission controller wires.  My current culprits are the door seal or the windshield itself.

[Alexia]

Late night shenanigans: Doing calculations for spring rate increase after cutting the front springs and how wide of a 28" or less tire I can fit.

[neohic]

Smaller tire and cutting springs? 

[Alexia]

4 hours ago, neohic said:

Smaller tire and cutting springs? 

 

SLAM IT.

 

...I'm short.  My theory is if I am going to fix this truck to be useful I should be able to actually get things into the bed.  I struggled to lift the replacement transmission up into the bed.

[Alexia]

When I did the modifications for attaching the AW4 kick down cable to the throttle pedal I enlarged the original throttle cable hole in the firewall.  So now the throttle cable that I am reinstalling falls out.  I will have to come up with a retaining clip and seal for it.

[Alexia]

At lot more of it is put back together now and I was going to test starting it, but I need a very specific computer to run this setup.  4.0L, automatic, year 2000 only Federal emissions.  I can run the 50 state/California 2000-2001 year computers, but they will complain about the missing oxygen sensors.(Which the eventual fix would be to install the matching manifold.)  I found a remanufactured one on eBay for $100 and it is on the way.

[Pete M]

what a time to be alive.   a little typity-type and a BAM a rare item you need is on its way to your doorstep.     no muss, no fuss. 

[Alexia]

I am over here thinking about the logistics of getting someone to swap their stock axles with my D30 and D44 with 4.56 gearing.  Then I remembered that I have an entire junk MJ sitting around with stock gearing in it.  Suddenly being able to lower the truck is much more affordable!  I might even break even after selling the geared and rebuilt axles.

[Pete M]

score?    why wouldn't you run the good stuff?

[Alexia]

2 hours ago, Pete M said:

score?    why wouldn't you run the good stuff?

 

Lowering the MJ back to stock height with reasonably sized tires is easier by just swapping in stock axles.(4.56 gearing and small tires is silly.)  I would have to cut and replace the brackets on the D44 then also regear both axles.

[Pete M]

it's not as crazy as you might think.  a 2.5/auto came with 4.56 stock  

[Alexia]

The PCM finally arrived.  After I actually hooked up the crankshaft position sensor it sputtered to life running terribly.  I need to extend the oxygen sensor wires to get the California 1/1 O2 sensor connector to the transmission area.

[Sir Sam]

9 hours ago, Alexia said:

The PCM finally arrived.  After I actually hooked up the crankshaft position sensor it sputtered to life running terribly.  I need to extend the oxygen sensor wires to get the California 1/1 O2 sensor connector to the transmission area.

 

So I just did some of this yesterday. I have a 2001 harness, which is the same as 2000 california/export. I was able to unwrap the harness and move the upstream wiring from the injector cover to where it reaches the upstream. I also pulled back the downstream sensor wiring, but it reaches about as far as the other downstream, so thats not much help. If that doesnt reach then I will cut off the plug from one of the spare harness's around here, and use an old 02 sensor plug, and make an extension cord for the o2 sensor for the rear one.

 

I also have a cat from a 2001, which is missing the downstream bung, because for some reason the downstream sensor was ahead of the second cat? freakin odd. So I bought a bung to weld on to it.

 

 

[Alexia]

43 minutes ago, Sir Sam said:

 

So I just did some of this yesterday. I have a 2001 harness, which is the same as 2000 california/export. I was able to unwrap the harness and move the upstream wiring from the injector cover to where it reaches the upstream. I also pulled back the downstream sensor wiring, but it reaches about as far as the other downstream, so thats not much help. If that doesnt reach then I will cut off the plug from one of the spare harness's around here, and use an old 02 sensor plug, and make an extension cord for the o2 sensor for the rear one.

 

I also have a cat from a 2001, which is missing the downstream bung, because for some reason the downstream sensor was ahead of the second cat? freakin odd. So I bought a bung to weld on to it.

 

 

 

Yep!  I stripped the connectors out of the 1997 engine wiring harness last night and cut one connector a dead sacrificial downstream oxygen sensor last night so I can splice an extension harness together.  When I welded the exhaust I put the catalytic converter behind the cab to keep the floor from getting so hot.  So I have an official MOPAR O2 extension harness ready to be plugged into my extension harness when I finish it.  I just need to find a sacrificial upstream sensor to use.(New ones are way too expensive to cut up.)

 

The California emission models had three catalytic converters.  So the two downstream sensors are after the small catalytic converters on the exhaust manifold.  The third catalytic converter is a three-way catalyst for whatever those two do not catch.

[Sir Sam]

Ya its just odd that they didnt put one of the sensors downstream of the final cat like the older ones did. Sure there are the two main cats, with upstream and downstream, that makes sense, its just odd to me to have no downstream o2 sensor after the final cat. Probably an engineering compromise since the 4 upstream got most of it, saves some money and complexity.

 

I have extra O2 side plugs if you want one. You are talking about the grey connector correct? Can drop in the mail if you would like, not sure how much of a hurry you are in.