Superduty MJ

[dustyinthedirt]

So my woman was wanting a four wheel drive to get back in forth to work in the snow next year. And of course just so happens i knew where a MJ was.. a good price and supposed to run and drive. It sat for four months the P.O. said after the muffler blew a giant hole in it and it supposed "over heated" he says the gauge is wrong.. we will see about that. after adding a little gas it fired up and killed every mosquito in a 1/4 mile range. I put it in gear and it sat and spun cause of the wet grass and slick tires. four wheel drive it is and she chugged along idling like crap but was running and moving like he said it would. Drove it on the trailer and brought her home. And she hasn't started since! the plan is a very dependable truck (wife will be driving sometimes) to take on be able to drive anywhere. 
1989 (not sure if its a base model or whatnot) 
4.0 liter. 5 speed.  


 
The bumper is for trade for a stock one if anyone is interested.
 

 
it has a straight body only a couple bad places
 

 

 
it came with a stock bumper But the P.O. wasnt able to get the bolt out of the other one so he just cut the bracket off.
 
 
Now comes the bad as of now..

I think the bumper will hide this on the drivers side but the passenger side is higher

 

now the rockers

the drivers side is clean
 
I will be working on this thing almost daily so i hope to really keep up with this to not only share what i learn along the way but to be able to see my progress. I wanna get this thing running right soon so i can do some donuts . :MJ 1: . !!  I will leave you with a shot of both of the MJs in my life 
 

 

[HOrnbrod]

All-in-all not to shabby. That bumper must weigh close to a metric ton.  :yes:

[dustyinthedirt]

Ha its a MONSTER! I got all the old gas out i could and put fresh premium in and a bottle of sea-foam, After messing with fuel lines that had the band clamps on them but they were just dangling there. It fired up after a few minutes. Idles at around 700 rpm kinda rough but not bad. Still smoked a little. I drove it down the drive way and it acted like it was in four low. the steering was a little stiff and it idled up extremely fast in first i let out of the gas and it back fired. I laid underneath it to see if maybe the lever on the transfer case was in a different place then the shiftier suggested. I compared it to the placement of the other MJ i had there and it looked the same. Also i believe there is air in the coolant lines. the temp gauge went to the red and i was still able to put my hand on the thermostat housing and able to touch the head momentarily nether where extremely hot. Hoping to trade for open cooling

[dustyinthedirt]

So i believe the motor has ether been out or replaced in this truck. The wiring harness is just kinda laying in place not in any of the clips like it should be. there is Halfway tightened bolts everywhere. I was trying to make everything look nice and neat and i found this

This is for the CPS it was laying against the manifold. Lazy bastards! I got it to start after giving it a little squirt of starting fluid. then it sat there and idled perfectly

I cut it off and let it sit for a few minutes and then tried to start it again and it fired right up no problems. Is the fuel pump maybe not giving enough pressure?

[dustyinthedirt]

So i have been tinkering around on the little truck and found this..

 

 

What the heck is that?!! After seeing this i decided that it was time to go to open cooling. I followed this thread http://comancheclub.com/topic/44535-closed-to-open-cooling-diy/ Thanks Blue88Comanche  :bowdown: !! I used his parts list to get what i needed and read through this and a couple others and had no trouble other then when the thremostate housing broke. one JY trip later and i was good to go. Also picked up a power steering pump while i there as mine was shot.

Before

 

after

 

The brackets were made out of a couple old metal shelving arms

 

 

Sorry for the poor picture quality the lighting is pretty terrible in my shop right now.

The bottle fits very nicely though. Looks like it came like this. 

[Steve Gregory]

Nice!!! Excited to see the progress

[dustyinthedirt]

I noticed there was coolant underneath the truck and backed it outside and could see a wet running spot on the side of the block below the freeze plug on  the intake side of the block.  My boss Has a couple aftermarket headers laying around from one of his cj builds and my manifold had noticeable cracks at multiple welds. and i was dying to try it before getting a new one. I am gonna try and see if one of the ones he has will work.  :crossfingers:

Do i need to put a bung in the header for the O2 sensor? and the tube that runs to the intake?

While unbolting the intake and exhaust manifold i noticed the bolts were fairly easy to turn. Then i notice that the gasket looks new around the edges. Was thinking man i hate to screw up this gasket just to get to the freeze plug underneath it. Pulled the intake off and then i notice there was no silicone on the gasket at all!

 

This is what the gasket looked like?! I have not tried to put the header on yet as i could not get the exhaust undone and will have to grab the saw zaw tomorrow from the shop. 

[dustyinthedirt]

Finally getting back around to working on this thing.. Time to tackle the rocker panel... I have NEVER EVER DONE THIS BEFORE!! So... lets see how this goes.

 

Here it is. Not great but not that bad. 

 

 

Ground the paint off so i could see how bad it really was.

Then began cutting.

 

 

The whole thing was full of dirt. And a Mouse Motel. 

 

 

After grinding everything straight and smooth. Took some measurements and a piece of sheet metal that is thicker then the metal on the truck. But shouldn't happen again. I have coated the inside of the rocker with por 415 and began shaping the metal.

 

 

I just bent the sheet metal using the table for the radius in the bend. I used a piece of flat stock on the front and back so the adjustables wouldnt scar the metal to bad. Doing this again i might use heat so it bends a little easier. (if this works out when i do it to the my other MJ i will do a write up)

 

 

 

I have not got a chance to finish up yet. Got everything ready and was out of gas... :doh:

Here is some pics of when i was mocking it all up. you can get the idea of what itll look like. 

 

 

 

 

I will cut it at the line and that were the wield will sit.

its gonna look okay i am gonna lose the seam line at the cab corner. I'm getting excited and a little nervous about it. 

Once i get all the stuff and a good allotment of time so i can go slow and try my best not to warp like a flag in the wind.  

[dustyinthedirt]

Alright so I’ve been working on the truck hot and heavy and haven’t posted any pics so I'm about flood it. First Is the finished rocker replacement. Which went great. Didn’t have much warping from heat I jumped around a lot. I blew some big holes in the old metal at first with my mig till I got it dialed in. The layer of body filler on here is really thin. 

[dustyinthedirt]

Also finally got the motor back from the builder. Only took 8 months and a lot of harassment to get him on it. But lesson learned..the hard way. Had to have it bored .04 over because some one had ridge honed it at some point and had it all out of wack. I put it back together with most of the original stuff that came off of The motor 8 moths before and had trouble getting it to start. It wasn't getting spark from the coil. I then went back and took loose everything that was butt connected and soldered it back together. Pulled number 5 plug out to see if i was getting any spark to the plug. Turned it over and VROOOOOOOMMMMM!! scared the $#!& outta me when it started. While breaking in the cam it was running super rich causing the ebay specail header i had just got and welded my o2 bung (pictured below) in to turn bright glowing red, it was just open header no exhaust. I then swapped out the stock injectors for the 4 port Bosch injectors. Then emailed Jeff at stroked jeeps and got a 60mm throttle body.  Now to tiddy all the wiring up cause its a hectic mess under the hood at the moment and its driving me insane

 

[dustyinthedirt]

when i got the engine and head back from the builder, The builder missed a broken manifold bolt so i got the try my hand at extracting one for the first time. Pretty proud of that little trophy.

 

I picked up a set of 2 door xj seats from a guy on CL for $30!! (don't mind the wet spots on it from the dog thinking they are for her)

 

[Skorpyo]

Lookin good! So the world wants to know, are you keeping the camo or are you gonna repaint? Nice score finding 2-door XJ seats in camel. There's a good article in the DIY on reconditioning seats. I did mine following that guide and they came out stellar. Keep up the good work!

[dustyinthedirt]

Hahaha I am planning on repainting it. I would love to have it the anvel grey color.  But that is far in the future. Going to look at a front clip from a 97+ this weekend. Then will at least spray it all the same color. I would love to do the doors to now but that may have to wait. I remember there  ring a thread about using 97+ windows in the original doors with very little alterations, they appear to be have he same without the smokers widow. (My little corner windows do not turn like a smokers window  or I would keep them)Anybody know if this will work? 

[Skorpyo]

4 hours ago, dustyinthedirt said:

Hahaha I am planning on repainting it. I would love to have it the anvel grey color.  But that is far in the future. Going to look at a front clip from a 97+ this weekend. Then will at least spray it all the same color. I would love to do the doors to now but that may have to wait. I remember there  ring a thread about using 97+ windows in the original doors with very little alterations, they appear to be have he same without the smokers widow. (My little corner windows do not turn like a smokers window  or I would keep them)Anybody know if this will work? 

Most people swap in power windows from 84-96 donors, but a lot of people also just swap the doors from a 97+ XJ since they are relatively easy to do and come with everything wired in. I'm not certain you can easily swap in 97+ full windows into the 96- doors since the lock/power control mechanisms are under the vent/fixed window and would interfere with the full sized window. The 97+ moved the power controls to the arm-rest to accommodate the larger window, and they have two rails for the window versus the one in the earlier models. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it would be a lot more work than swapping in power windows from a OBS XJ or swapping doors from a 97+ XJ.

 

Vent windows can be found online and in JYs, but they are prone to leaking, at least so I've heard, and are often removed for that reason. I had them in my old XJ and never had a leak problem so I must have been lucky. I am currently looking for them for my MJ eventually as well.

 

The anvil grey would look great, check out the Trailhawk thread in this forum too for a great example of that color:

 

[dustyinthedirt]

That truck is beautiful. I plan on doing some of the same stuff except I picked a set of 3/4 ton axles and am gonna do a axle swap. The doors I would like to keep the manuel windows in it but have the full glass like the 97+. 

[Skorpyo]

Oh, ok, that might be an easier mod than the 97+ power windows to the old door. Interesting mod. Good luck!

[HunterK]

what vehicle are the bosch 4 hole injectors from? do they made a big enough difference to make them worth getting?

[dustyinthedirt]

On 1/17/2018 at 9:57 AM, HunterK said:

what vehicle are the bosch 4 hole injectors from? do they made a big enough difference to make them worth getting?

 Mine are from a Volvo I believe. I did the injector as I swapped the engine so I don’t know what kind of difference it made. But for $60 including shipping i figures I would try it

[Lthompson741]

Can you post a pic of your finished rocker panels?   Mine are gone and am looking for ideas.   I like your idea and its actually feasible without big equipment.

[dustyinthedirt]

On 1/23/2018 at 4:21 PM, Lthompson741 said:

Can you post a pic of your finished rocker panels?   Mine are gone and am looking for ideas.   I like your idea and its actually feasible without big equipment.

It was super easy to do. I used some pretty thick material and was able to bend it using the adjustables fairly easy with just a little heat. Now I did loose the line where the rocker meets the cab corner. That’s the seam I used to weld in my material 

 

The black enamel i used on it to cocer up the bare metal and little bit of body filler make it hard to tell what is going on. But you can kinda see the line I am talking about loosing. Only notice it if you knew it was there.. or looked at the other side.  I tried to take a couple more pics but the truck is pretty filthy from all this wet weather. That pics from when it was first done. Also my welder is only a 115 volts so not a big unit 

[dustyinthedirt]

I picked up a set of smoker vent windows this weekend from a upull. Also got a set of superduty axles with disc brakes front and rear. Geared 4:10. The front is a Dana 50 and the rear is a 60. I know I’ll have to ether get a truss for the front or run coil overs because of how far the pumpkin is to one side I can’t fit the spring... we shall see

[Lthompson741]

17 hours ago, dustyinthedirt said:

It was super easy to do. I used some pretty thick material and was able to bend it using the adjustables fairly easy with just a little heat. Now I did loose the line where the rocker meets the cab corner. That’s the seam I used to weld in my material 

 

The black enamel i used on it to cocer up the bare metal and little bit of body filler make it hard to tell what is going on. But you can kinda see the line I am talking about loosing. Only notice it if you knew it was there.. or looked at the other side.  I tried to take a couple more pics but the truck is pretty filthy from all this wet weather. That pics from when it was first done. Also my welder is only a 115 volts so not a big unit 

Looks good! thank you for the pics.   That doesn't seem to hard to do.  I've got a little welder as well, and a few fab tools so at least it is possible without a full machine shop.

[dustyinthedirt]

So I have been waiting for 2 months on rocky road to ship my lift. Recently picked up a set of superduty axles for a good price. And have started cutting the housing to make more room between the pumpkin and the knuckle it’s a fifty in the front. And I know they are just a “beefed up” 44 and the rear will be a sterling 10.5 full float with disc brakes. I measured the difference between the stock Dana 30 and the 10.5 and it’s around 5 inches larger per side. It’s gonna be wide. I have definitely debated on trying to get a 44 for the front and using the 8.8 I have laying around. But anyways here’s my progress so far. Just waiting on parts to show up

[dustyinthedirt]

I didn’t cut into the plug welds in the tube. But I did remove a little over 2” of housing and am gonna quarter weld the tube to the housing just for a extra measure of safety. I will still end up having to weld some of the bucket to the cast housing. But will also have half welded to the tube now. 

[dustyinthedirt]

I’ve been daily driving this ugly truckling around for a couple months now getting bugs worked out. The windshield leaks there’s holes in the driver side floor. The passenger window doesn’t roll all the way down it stops about four inches from the bottom. You can push it down and it’ll go but it won’t roll back up till you get it back to that point it stopped at. Also nobody tells you that with no insulation in the floor just Bed liner the heat from the tunnel is awful on your legs.  

 

 

But my lord am I proud of this ugly truck.