Project Tetanus - H4s & Herculiner

[UNL1MTD]

That cluster came out of a 4.0l... As for the oil gauge not working,,, hummm... Try to see if you get a reading at the sensor wire.. I think your looking for a change in the ohm reading... Let me know, I probable can get you another sensor if you need it..

 

do you mean right at the sender's spade? or somewhere else closer to the cluster? I went to the parts store to get a new one and the only had the dummy gauge one in stock. Also had a hard time finding a sender for the gauges, part looks odd in the comp so I didnt order it. But no worries, I'll pick one up around here somewhere.

[jtdesigns]

That cluster came out of a 4.0l... As for the oil gauge not working,,, hummm... Try to see if you get a reading at the sensor wire.. I think your looking for a change in the ohm reading... Let me know, I probable can get you another sensor if you need it..

 

do you mean right at the sender's spade? or somewhere else closer to the cluster? I went to the parts store to get a new one and the only had the dummy gauge one in stock. Also had a hard time finding a sender for the gauges, part looks odd in the comp so I didnt order it. But no worries, I'll pick one up around here somewhere.

 

I don't know 100% on what numbers your looking for... It was covered some time ago.. You might be able to PM Hornbrod,, he'll probably know the numbers,, He's like the electric engineer/electronic guru around here..

 

EDIT: oh and at the spade to test sensor.. sure you can test at harness too to see if signal is getting there also..

[UNL1MTD]

just a thought, but could the pressure just be that bad? I know I have two oil leaks if not three (valve cover, distributor, rear main).

 

I'm going to try and get some movement out of the gauge tomorrow by disconnecting the wire and going straight to the battery with it. According to a bunch of threads with it disconnected it should be at one side of the guage and when connected to the battery it should go to the other. This will atleast show the gauge is good.

 

For reference the correct part number for the oil pressure sender is S768 or PS133.

[UNL1MTD]

I'm going to try and get some movement out of the gauge tomorrow by disconnecting the wire and going straight to the battery with it. According to a bunch of threads with it disconnected it should be at one side of the guage and when connected to the battery it should go to the other. This will atleast show the gauge is good.

 

Looks like the gauge is fine. When ungrounded it went far to the passenger side (right), when grounded to the battery it went far driver (left). This gives me a warm fuzzy that the gauge is fine. I will be picking up a new sender this afternoon from vatozone, hopefully.

[UNL1MTD]

Figured this is worth an update more for the rolling legar of whats been done more than any usable tech. But anyways.

 

The guage swap thing ended up actually being the guage. I got a line on another cluster and might swap it in eventually, but I'm in no hurry. I ohmed out my sensor and it proved to be reading within the correct ohms for oil pressure. Thats good enough for me for now.

 

I did change out the serp belt as the original was getting chaffed on the back of the belt. Figured if I change it now I will have the old one as a spare in a pinch.

 

I've been bitching about my valve cover still leaking after changing out to a cork gasket. Well I did some dectective work yesterday and I'm no longer convinced this is the case. After 30 minutes of driving there was plently of oil leaking, but none around the cover. I really think its 90% Rear Main and at speed the oil just gets everywhere, including up on the firewall a bit.

 

I did however start investigating my distributor. For a while I have noticed oil in the distributor. I don't think this is normal. Nor do I think the slow leak on that motor mount/side of the engine bay is normal. Good for rust prevent, but not normal. I bought the only gasket the dealer had for the distributor. (PN J3181288) This is for the seal between the distributor and the block.

 

Removed the dizzy.

The seal was torn, but this could have happened during removal.

This is a view inside.

 

Notice the oil. I was hoping that the seal on the block was co-responsible for the internal sealing of the dizzy as well, but it appears this is not the case. I didn't have any documentation on how to further tear down the dizzy, nor did I have parts, so I stopped there and reassembled with the new block gasket.

 

I did find the tip of the sparking mechanism inside the dizzy. I'm assuming the rotor broke it off on a previous owner and they never fished it out. That was interesting, :roll: .

 

I'm going to start a tech thread on this topic, because I need some info on how to get the oil out of the dizzy.

 

MJ is going to be the daily driver for the next two weeks while the TJ gets new diff internals [ARBS, 4.56s], so I imagine its going to get some more love from me, hopefully.

[HKB3]

I know this is a LONG shot but any chance you saved the solid rear glass from the parts truck? I`d like to pick one up.

[UNL1MTD]

For the record, the other truck was junked a long while ago, no parts are left.

 

Earlier in the week I did some painting to the tailgate and lower door seam. Both places were showing some rust. I sanded it down and shot it with reddish primer. Nothing fancy, just trying to slow down the very first signs of body rot on the truck. Today I turned some wrenches on the truck for the first time in a long time. I've been DDing the truck for the last 3 weeks while my Tj was undergoing some repairs after a HMMWV backed into it. So the Mj became my ride. In doing so I got tired of some stuff and finally did something about it.

 

I wanted to change the Tstat in order to further trouble shoot my FlOATING TEMP NEEDLE, so I began with drainning the coolant and removing the upper radiator hoses.

It was apparent that the larger hose had been replaced in the past as it did not show the age that the upper hose did. The upper hose was stuck to the Tstat housing and inside showed some corrosion. The housing came off next and the Tstat did not match my Mopar part, so I assume it was replaced at one point in time.

While cleaning the block up, I rememebered how difficult it was to position the valve cover because of the two upper hoses. I figured that since I had them off I might as well replace the valve cover gasket with the Felpro one I bought a while ago. Once I had it off I figured now would also be a good time to change out the grounding strap at the back of the block with a heavy gauge cable that Jon Kelly sent me with my wiring harness upgrade kit a while ago. (The valve cover restricts what tool you can get on the nut at the back of the block, with it off any normal ratchet will work). I swapped out the cable very easily with out the cover in place. Here is a side by side of the two wires.

The previous valve cover gasket came off easy and it was clear where the back bolts weren't tight and the oil seeped out. While I had it off previously I cleaned my rockers, lifters, and the inside of the cover. However I was unaware you could remove the oil gallies for the crankcase vents. So I figured while it was off I would dissassemble and clean them out. That went smooth. I did have to use high temp RTV as a gasket as I did not have those gaskets handy.

Then I dropped the gasket in place and was very happy that it did not slide around like the cork one. It seems well made and stayed put during installation. I was also happy to see that the last 2 years and 4k miles havent added any deposits to my rocker arms that I cleaned up a long while ago.

After the valve cover was on I RTVed up the Tstat gasket and installed the housing over the Tstat. After the hoses were one I started filling up the cooling system, just to realize I was short on coolant.

 

I'll have to get some and finish up topping her off. Hopefully my temp gauge stays steady at 210 and I can keep the oil from leaking out the valve cover.

[UNL1MTD]

For the record, the other truck was junked a long while ago, no parts are left.

 

Earlier in the week I did some painting to the tailgate and lower door seam. Both places were showing some rust. I sanded it down and shot it with reddish primer. Nothing fancy, just trying to slow down the very first signs of body rot on the truck. Today I turned some wrenches on the truck for the first time in a long time. I've been DDing the truck for the last 3 weeks while my Tj was undergoing some repairs after a HMMWV backed into it. So the Mj became my ride. In doing so I got tired of some stuff and finally did something about it.

 

I wanted to change the Tstat in order to further trouble shoot my FlOATING TEMP NEEDLE, so I began with drainning the coolant and removing the upper radiator hoses.

It was apparent that the larger hose had been replaced in the past as it did not show the age that the upper hose did. The upper hose was stuck to the Tstat housing and inside showed some corrosion. The housing came off next and the Tstat did not match my Mopar part, so I assume it was replaced at one point in time.

While cleaning the block up, I rememebered how difficult it was to position the valve cover because of the two upper hoses. I figured that since I had them off I might as well replace the valve cover gasket with the Felpro one I bought a while ago. Once I had it off I figured now would also be a good time to change out the grounding strap at the back of the block with a heavy gauge cable that Jon Kelly sent me with my wiring harness upgrade kit a while ago. (The valve cover restricts what tool you can get on the nut at the back of the block, with it off any normal ratchet will work). I swapped out the cable very easily with out the cover in place. Here is a side by side of the two wires.

The previous valve cover gasket came off easy and it was clear where the back bolts weren't tight and the oil seeped out. While I had it off previously I cleaned my rockers, lifters, and the inside of the cover. However I was unaware you could remove the oil gallies for the crankcase vents. So I figured while it was off I would dissassemble and clean them out. That went smooth. I did have to use high temp RTV as a gasket as I did not have those gaskets handy.

Then I dropped the gasket in place and was very happy that it did not slide around like the cork one. It seems well made and stayed put during installation. I was also happy to see that the last 2 years and 4k miles havent added any deposits to my rocker arms that I cleaned up a long while ago.

After the valve cover was on I RTVed up the Tstat gasket and installed the housing over the Tstat. After the hoses were one I started filling up the cooling system, just to realize I was short on coolant.

 

I'll have to get some and finish up topping her off. Hopefully my temp gauge stays steady at 210 and I can keep the oil from leaking out the valve cover.

[UNL1MTD]

So when I filled/fired her up I found I had a leak at the tstat housing. The haynes manual had me put RTV on both sides of the gasket which probably wasnt a good idea. The mopar gasket doesnt need it. Anyways I redid the job this morning and I had some old gasket still stuck to the block. Just used RTV this time and after 10 miles of driving it appears my temp needle really isn't floating any more. Just a 5 degree or less variance while cruzing. I'm glad I trusted the gauge and did something about it.

 

I might spend some time soon wiring up the aux fan to see what that does. The replacement ground cable has made a small change in starting. Just seems a bit quicker, could be my imagination though. The next big project will be doing the RMS.

[UNL1MTD]

I took advantage of the warmth and did some painting. I gave some life back to the 22 yr old plastic grill and headlight buckets on the comanche. Even did some 600 grit sanding to help adhesion of the Krylon Fusion.

before:

after:

Also did the signal marker conversion to turn signal marker while I had the grill off. Super easy electrical mod, which cost nothing and adds a touch of safety. I followed MadXjs write up. I should have added 3 inches of wire to the driver's side signal marker ground wire, becaue I literally just had enough to screw it into the housing. The pass side had a lot of wiggle room though.

 

I also torqued down the rear valve cover bolts a bit more, I developed another leak at the vc, even with this new snazzy gasket, hopefully this helps out. I also found one drop of coolant on the serp belt under the Tstat housing. I couldn't trace down its origin, but that sucks.

[mvusse]

My factory replacement harness (off an XJ (91?)) has the ground wire on the side market light hooked up to the turn signal wire. So they both blink, but out of phase which each other. Still have the remains of my original harness, though (got cut up and mostly respliced after a deer messed up the front of the truck before I bough it), because it has the wiring and relay for fog lights. Once I get my replacement fog lights I will use both harnesses to make one with fog lights AND blinking side marker light.

[CWLONGSHOT]

Good job, looks great!!

 

We know our trucks have ground issues, adding extra grounds is never a bad idea. BTW, You don't need such a big wire for a chassy ground. A 10-12Ga is just fine. :D

 

CW

[UNL1MTD]

My factory replacement harness (off an XJ (91?)) has the ground wire on the side market light hooked up to the turn signal wire. So they both blink, but out of phase which each other. Still have the remains of my original harness, though (got cut up and mostly respliced after a deer messed up the front of the truck before I bough it), because it has the wiring and relay for fog lights. Once I get my replacement fog lights I will use both harnesses to make one with fog lights AND blinking side marker light.

 

 

The lights only blink in phase when the head lights are turned off. If the marker lights are on or the head lights are on they blink out of phase. If you view the video, then select the next video you can see what I'm talking about.

[UNL1MTD]

Added a fancy dancy underhood light to the MJ. I got this from the Brandywine Junkyard for 15 bucks. I robbed the hardware as well, but ended up not using any of it. I wirewheeled the mount and shot it with paint first. My factory wire connecting the light to the engine harness was hard to find, it was tucked underneath the passenger motor mount. The blade connector was heavily corroded and I had to clean it up with a stiff brush and some baking soda solution. Plugged it in to test and bonus, bulb was still good. The light mounts to the hood via Nutsertz, I happened to have some extra ones from my Rocker Panel install on my TJ, so I was able to use them here. The size of my nutsertz were a bit larger than the factory's, so I had to drill out the holes to 17/32nds using a 1/2" drill bit, then a dremel. Then collapsed them and bolted it up. I did spray some electrical ox guard type stuff on the grounding points (hood mounts) to make sure I had a good ground. Let there be light!

 

[UNL1MTD]

Its been awhile since I updated the thread.

 

Over the summer I ended up getting a new set of tires as mine had started to dry rot pretty bad from sitting. I ended up finding a decent deal on 4 BFG ATs 31x10.50s for 300 bucks.

 

 

I also wired up the electric fan I had got off the board to a switch on the dash. I ran the wiring through a relay. The fan definitely makes a difference when just sitting in traffic, I'm not sure why my temp starts to climb. I'm thinking either the bottle is loosing pressure or the radiator is in need of replacement. In the mean time using the fan when I'm stopped has done the trick to keep the temp at 210. Although, the fan is crazy loud. I think I'm going to junkyard for a newer 10 blade fan soon to replace this one.

 

I replaced my window wipes with some stuff from JC whitney that someone recommened in a tread in tech talk http://comancheclub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20758. Mine had become brittle and started flaking away. The new ones aren't a perfect fit, but pretty close. I'm happy with them at 20 bucks. I removed the door panels to replace the entire piece. I ended up with about 3 ft left over. Picture is a bit out of focus , sorry.

 

I also replaced the door molding from a 97 and up xj. $3 at the yard, pretty good deal. Also replaced the wood screws holding in the Driver's speaker with sheet metal screws.

 

Just in the last week or two I've started a big RMS project. I parked the mj in my father in laws garage and its been nice not having to rush the project. Getting the pan off was a big chore. I had to hammer in putty knifes, chisels, and screw drivers to break the seal and eventually it popped free.

 

The inside was sludgey and the lip was a bit bent. With the outside rust. I ended up buying a new pan, along with a new oil pump/pickup tube, starter, and dizzy. So the engine is getting a lot of new parts. Currently I'm trying to get the top part of the RMS out, hopefully I can get back to it next weekend.

 

During the RMS job I've distracted myself with replacing brake lines. The softlines up front were in bad shape. So when I went to remove them from the hard line (even with a flared wrench) the fitting stripped. Which resulted in having to replace the hardlines up front. Which meant I had to remove the master cylinder and booster. So I'm thinking I might look for the '96 booster/mc to swap in while its convienent.

 

To top all that off, right before the jeep went under the knife it picked itself up a 4.10 geared non disconnect HP D30 with a diff cover. For 150 it was hard to pass on, it needs ujoints, unit bearings, and all braking components. I'm not going to rush the swap, but now I got atleast a piece to make the rest of the hunting much easier.

[CWLONGSHOT]

GOOD PRICE!! Heck Superlift wants damn near that for the stinkin' diff cover protector!!

 

CW

[UNL1MTD]

I've been slowly having productive days on the MJ. As it stands now, I'm a cotter pin in the drag link, bleeding brakes, and oil priming away for firing it up. I've got the new rear main in, new oil pan with gasket on, bolted up the new oil pump and pickup, put in the new starter, installed the new dizzy, ran new brake hard lines from both sides of the front of the jeep, reused some brake soft lines from the LJ, reinstalled the steering and suspension, adjusted the serp belt, and get the interior back together. With all that done and so little to go, it should be done by the end of this week. I'm a bit nervous though, lots has been done and potentially something could be f-d up, hopefuly not. We'll see. Anyways just grabbed this one shot of the oil pump, pickup, prior to putting the pan on.

 

 

Installing the remain dizzy was a bit of a pita. They coated it in a fresh paint/covering and in doing so covered over a machined surface which made it too large to fit into the block. I had to slowy work it down with some grease, which resulted in shaving the coating off until it fit. Thankfully the pan was off and it was easy to clean up any shavings, just thought I would mention it as it was a pain.

 

I did unfortunately find some rust of the firewall under the pading. I dropped a nut from the brake booster on reinstall and had to pull back that padding. Its not bad at all, so I'll have to add that to the list of crap to fix. Loose plan there is to wait until I get my buckets and pull the interior again to get that rust taken care of. Hopefully thats all that I find and can make that an easy project.

[ComancheKid45]

Also did the signal marker conversion to turn signal marker while I had the grill off. Super easy electrical mod, which cost nothing and adds a touch of safety. I followed MadXjs write up. I should have added 3 inches of wire to the driver's side signal marker ground wire, becaue I literally just had enough to screw it into the housing. The pass side had a lot of wiggle room though.

 

 

 

Have a Link to this writeup? Id love to do this mod 2 my MJ sometime. Keep up the goood work :thumbsup:

[UNL1MTD]

 

Have a Link to this writeup? Id love to do this mod 2 my MJ sometime. Keep up the goood work :thumbsup:

 

 

http://www.madxj.com/

 

He has got a lot of great low buck tech on there. The write up for signal mod is under Technical>Electrical. The whole process is pretty straight forward. On the driver's side it might be easier to patch in a little bit more of wire so you have some wiggle room. It was a tight fit for me. But it did end up working out just fine.

[UNL1MTD]

I haven't gotten around to finishing up this RMS/brake project yet, but I did find a decent deal on a set of 91 2 dr seats in Gray with a center console. Best part was that they were local. The seats were in good shape. The major defect being the tilt trim was broke on both seats. But all the cables and levers worked. I swapped them to my MJ bucket pedestals and used the DIY thread on reconditioning the fabric to spruce them up a bit. They are hang drying now. I think the previous owner or the one before him was a smoker and they reaked a bit.

 

Here are the naked seats swapped over to the MJ pedestals. You can tell which one is the driver's seat just by the extra grime in the cushions.

 

And here is the deep sink after a quick rinse and scrub with Simple Green (sorry no Purple Power in the House). All 4 covers turned the water from clear to poopy brown with just 5 minutes in the deep sink.

 

Now I'm just waiting on them to dry and then I'm going to paint all the trim black along with the center console. I'll be searching for some black cloth covers to finish off the interior.

[UNL1MTD]

Finally got the MJ moving and stopping on her own. Ended up having a problem with the timing after the reassembly of the dizzy (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=23566), but after some good advice it was fixed up and she is once again on the road. So far so good on all the RMS work. I ran her for about 40 minutes at idle and just a short trip around the block with no drips. Pretty happy so far, but its going to need a good road test. Inspection is dead, so thats top priority.

 

I got the buckets reassembled and the center console painted. I might swap those in on Sunday.

[UNL1MTD]

Some pics to bring me up to date.

 

New Starter / oil pan

 

Actual appearance of my plugs. Putting this on here for reference since it appears the dizzy cap screws aren't in the stock location according to some.

 

Cleaned up seats and painted console.

 

I didn't clean the headrests because at the time they looked to be mint in comparison. Now they look filthy. So I got that to do. I went with the gray/black console look for now. I figure it might help blend the seats in until I get black seat covers. I just used Krylon Fusion Black Satin on the console, it came out pretty good.

[UNL1MTD]

The MJ passed inspection, so its now getting driven a bit. Put about 25 miles on her today and no leaks. Seems like the engine is making more noise on heavy throttle, but it could just be I'm not remembering as its been over 3 months since she has been drivern. I think I might put a real muffler on her and get rid of the glass pack. I put the headrests through the permanent press cycle and they dried after 3 days. So I swapped in my buckets. This is probably the longest bucket swap in the history of CC. I got the MJ brackets in Jan of 2009 from mrjeff. Then after a year plus of looking for buckets I got some from a guy parting out a 2dr XJ just in the town over. All and All I got 140 bones into the swap, plus paint and time.

 

 

A couple things aren't perfect. 1) the tilt bezels were busted so I deleted them. 2) the tilt cable on the pass side is working but I noticed 2 wires have started to fray, so its only a matter of time before it quits. 3) the center console is closer to the pass side than the driver at the rear. I didn't have the dimples in the tub like I've seen in some threads and just eyeballed it. 4) because of the eyeballing the vinyl flooring was cut just a little too much

 

Overall I'm super happy and can't wait to drive around in it tomorrow. I now just need some cup holders for my morning coffee. Also I am surprised how much I like the gray/black coloring. I know I was gunning for seat covers, but I think I'm just going to roll with it for the time being. No reason to waste money.

 

One casual question for those following along and have swapped a full console, how well will the heat work with the air deflector removed? I unscrewed the piece under the dash to get the console in, so I assume its just dumping air straight down now.

[UNL1MTD]

Got a Crown cup holder insert for the factory console. Its a fairly basic product. I was excited to get back cup holders in the MJ as getting the coffee to work has been a bit harder without them. Install is suppose to be remove existing screws, put in the insert, reuse screws. BUT the factory screws no longer gripped the plastic threads and didn't hold it down well. So I opted for some counter sunk allen head bolts with washers and nuts on the back, this really helped secure the insert to the console.

 

 

Next issue is that the lid no longer closes. This is annoying. The thickness of the insert causes the latch to be too far from grabbing. Taking the latch apart shows there is no adjustment and since its built on an internal pyramid plastic thing, you can't just put a spacer there. I might try dremeling/cutting out the factory insert peice so this sits flush, but I'm not willing to invest that much effort immediately.

 

 

I'm a bit bummed this basic product didn't live up to my relatively basic expectations. Oh it doesn't hold my standard coffee mug, so a fail there too. The cupholder are way to small at the bottom and riggid overall, so its gott be a perfect fit at the top circle or bottom. Thankfully can soda and bottled water work. Also the color doesn't match the gray console lid or the black paint I used, so I will likely paint this to make it a bit easier on the eyes (cause otherwise it just wouldn't fit on the MJ :wink: ).

[UNL1MTD]

Ever since I drove the MJ at night, I knew that the stock headlights were going to be replaced eventually, but this and that became more important and its now 3 years later. Doing the research showed upgrading to H4s isn't the only piece to this and that a wiring harness upgrade is needed to truely get any performance out of the lights.

 

Luckily I snagged the eAutoWorks harness, which is a song compared to others out there. (LINKY) Then I got a set of Rampage H4s via the forsale on NovaJeepers. So for just under 100 bones I was able to make this happen.

 

New vs the Old

 

Started by removing the grill and headlight surrounds.

 

Then snaked in the harness, mounted the relays and taped off the driver stock headlight socket. I also mounted the grounds to radiator support bolts after brushing off the paint under the washers.

 

Then plugged in the passenger headlight socket to the new harness, this keys on and off the relays using the stock wiring. No splicing or hacking, very easy. I then tapped up this connection to make sure it stayed put.

 

I then went to put the headlights in the Headlight Buckets, but realized after some pushing that they didn't fit. :? I never saw this in all the write ups, but the H4 rubber socket boot didn't fit in the headlight bucket.

So I first tried just bending the tabs out, but that didn't solve the problem. So I uninstalled those aswell and took them inside to be cut up by the jigsaw on the vice. 5 minutes later, no tabs.

Reinstalled the buckets, realized I broke a clip for the adjustment screw on the pass side :( . But just kept going, the spring compensated a bit for the broken plastic piece. I also zip tied the harness down. End result looks something like this.

 

I didn't capture a before shot of the light output, but here is the after.

 

My initial impressions after driving around a bit is that the new amount of light is very impressive, however not ridiculous. The lights have a nice cut off to not impare other drivers. The fog lights no longer provide additional lighting while cruising, they won't get used much anymore. They still need to be adjusted a bit as the converge too early creating a bit of a too bright spot in the middle. The high beams are kicking bright. My only complaint is that on low beams the reflector pattern is visible a bit at the bottom of the light output and I found it mildy distracting. I also noticed that the lights dim very quick without the jeep running, not very surprising considering the age of the battery and the corrosion on it.

 

 

That'll be a mod coming in the near future. For the cost of this mod, its a wonder why I didn't do it sooner and a wonder why everyone doesn't do this immediately. Its a large safety upgrade that will be used as often as I use the truck at night. Dollar for Dollar for cost effective mod, just like on the TJ.