My 89 Virginia ELIMN8R

[Skorpyo]

On 10/10/2017 at 1:16 AM, jeeppapa said:

Looks like he could be the muscle. Great job on the seats just reconditioned an identical set my 88 Eliminator.


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Thanks, the DIY article on the site definitely was a huge help. It started as "I need to check the floor boards and fix the fold forward levers" to "Hell, i'll just redo the entire interior and recondition the seats"

[Skorpyo]

So last week I pulled the cowl and the B pillar vents to clean up inside there and make sure I didn't have any lurking issues. Outside of a dried up wasps nest in the passenger B pillar all was well, but I discovered that the washer spray nozzles are VERY fragile when they're 30 years old and so now I need a new one to replace the one that snapped when I pulled off the hose. I'm thinking about hitting a JY this weekend to see if I can find a new nozzle and while there inspect a few XJs they have in stock for power doors. I really shouldn't be spending $ on the MJ, but if I find a set they're so cheap there I might grab the doors at $50 for one or $75 for both.

 

As for the cowl I've left it off for now and am debating about building a cowl air intake since it's pretty cheap and easy to do since I already have a cone filter and all I would need to source is a canister for it. Outside of that I can build the rest from parts at the hardware store. If I come up with a decent design and its cost effective I'll put together a DIY.

 

I have a bunch of small projects left to go on the MJ, so I'm anxious to get to working on it in my free time. Throughout this project the MJ has been at my father-in-laws house and frankly I'm dying to bring it home. The only issue is parking it at my house. I've got a 2-car garage, but my promise to the wife was that she ALWAYS gets one spot in the garage. So with the other half of the garage full of yard equipment and shelving I'm parking my XJ and DD sedan in the driveway which leaves no where for the MJ. (Yeah, middle class first world problems, i know...)

 

So the next task in getting the MJ done (and home) is actually to build a shed in the back yard so I can move the crap in the garage elsewhere and fit either the MJ or XJ in the garage and park the other in the driveway along with my DD. Currently my commute is about 20 miles and the XJ gets really bad gas mileage, like 16 HWY and 12 city, and the MJ needs to be shaken down after this massive amount of work before I'll trust it for a DD. But on the plus side my office is moving soon (2-3 weeks or so) to a new building that is only 4 miles from my house and NO highway driving! Plan is to then decide if i need to keep the DD since I could easily drive the XJ or MJ without much change in commuting costs. Hoping this all works out and I can use the DD on a trade to get the wife a new vehicle. She's driving a small SUV now, but she said she's open to the idea of a full size SUV so I could use it as a tow rig for the XJ, What a gal ;-).

[Skorpyo]

I managed to score a set of Rough Country adjustable control arms on CL so they went in yesterday. In the process of doing so I managed to fubar a lug stud on one of the front spacers. I'll have to pull the spacer and see if I can swap the stud for a new one but I'm not hopeful...

 

Spotted a small gas leak near the filter that seems to be due to a loose clamp so I tightened that up while I was at it. This thing really is the project that never ends. I'm less hopeful I'll get it back home before the holidays since the shed hasn't materialized and I'm not yet done building the wife her farm table so half the garage is in woodshop mode while the other is her parking spot lol.

 

Soon enough I suppose...

[Skorpyo]

In the few hours I've spent working on the MJ over the last two weeks all I've managed to do is remove, adjust and reinstall the upper control arms trying to get the caster right on the front axle. After two tries it's still off by a few degrees so one last adjustment should do the job. The upper control arms are a pain since one of them is so tight I have to put it in a vise and use a pipe wrench to turn it. It's currently needing another 1/2" of adjustment to get the caster right so hopefully one last time and we'll be able to call that part done. Once the caster is set I'm going to do a driveway alignment and see if I can take the MJ home.

 

I've got a pile of parts for small projects left to go onto the MJ, but my main goal right now is getting my XJ ready to off-road. I'm upgrading the steering on it and hopefully will have new IRO critical path arms and 35s for the XJ before June when I take it up to NACFest. I'm also hoping to shake it out a bit before then on a trip to AOAA. Time will tell if I can get all of it expensed and setup before then lol.

[Skorpyo]

Worked on the rig on Sunday, first time since early January. Pulled the old e-brake main cable and swapped in a new one. Man, that was a bigger job than I had expected. I had to pull the driver seat and my freshly installed carpet came up with it since two bolts unthreaded from the body rather than from the nut! After some finagaling I finally got the seat out and the rest of the job went alright. I'll have to see how well it's actuating the emergency brakes on the 8.8, but I am not getting a lot of movement on the adjuster arms. Once its out of the garage I'll have to check that out.

 

Meanwhile my buddy swapped out the thermostat, we'd notice it was never closing and sure enough it was stuck open. He managed to botch the job and actually forgot to put in the thermostat all together! We had it all back buttoned up and I asked him "Hey, isn't that the new thermostat?" and he said "Yeah... and the old ones over there..." Doh! Back apart and then done right. She burped and burped and burped and finally got to running right.

 

Meanwhile I started stripping down the power window/lock doors I picked up last month for a song. I pulled all of the power window components out of one and was working on drilling out the rivets on the power lock actuator when I ran out of time. Hope to get back to working on it on Thursday and get the doors stripped out so I can get rid of the carcasses. I'm going to just set all of that aside for a bit until I'm ready to do the swap to power everything. On the plus side, the donor doors had great seals and trim so I'm gonna pull all of that too and eventually swap it onto the ELIMIN8R. 

 

I've almost finished the new farm table for the wife, so that'll be out of the garage soon and I'll have room to bring the MJ home and finally be able to tinker with it at will. Almost bought an XJ over the weekend. Guy was unloading a 2001 for $600 with 204K on it. It was the grey color I love, but with 2 Jeeps already, and a DD and the wife's Rav4 I couldn't really fit it into my suburban neighborhood, and I've got about 1500 other projects going so... Bummer though cause it looked like a great XJ.

[Russell E. Gray]

Looks great, @ 77 i don't think i'll challenge any projects like that. Just did all my brake system on my 89  Sport. Went to local Pick & Pull here in Wilmington, NC to check on some parts, & they had crushed the 88 & 89 Comanche, they had, sad day. Also bought a small flaring tool from NAPA for dbl flaring , first attemp, went well. New emergency brk cables & all is stock, L/S seems fine,just a daily driver. Russ/ Mossyjaw

[Skorpyo]

10 minutes ago, Russell E. Gray said:

Looks great, @ 77 i don't think i'll challenge any projects like that. Just did all my brake system on my 89  Sport. Went to local Pick & Pull here in Wilmington, NC to check on some parts, & they had crushed the 88 & 89 Comanche, they had, sad day. Also bought a small flaring tool from NAPA for dbl flaring , first attemp, went well. New emergency brk cables & all is stock, L/S seems fine,just a daily driver. Russ/ Mossyjaw

Haha, Don't sell your self short! My father-in-law isn't too far behind you and I'm always leaning on him on this project. Flaring brake lines is definitely one of my least favorite tasks, but mostly because it's just tedious. Thanks for the kind words and keep on Jeepin!

[Skorpyo]

On Saturday I officially called the main phase of this project done. I finished stripping the doors I bought of their power pieces (windows and locks), discarded the carcasses and got the MJ out of the garage. After a few adjustments to the e-brakes we took it for several spins around the neighborhood and couldn't' find any issues. Next step will be to bring it home and button up a few little things before it goes to inspection. I need to swap out the lugnuts, adjust the headlights, since one is misaligned, and adjust the steering wheel alignment. Glad to have it finished and ready to go back on the road.

 

There's a pile of pieces to go into the MJ next so I'll do better about taking photos when I do them :-).

[acerocknroll]

Nice truck and some great info here! Just curious, what did you use to clean up the seats? They look great and mine are grossssss.

 

I've got your license plate's namesake here in PA btw 

[Skorpyo]

3 minutes ago, acerocknroll said:

Nice truck and some great info here! Just curious, what did you use to clean up the seats? They look great and mine are grossssss.

 

I've got your license plate's namesake here in PA btw 

That's awesome! Love the plate! I was checking your build thread too, your paint is lookin killer! That's on my list for 2019 since the paint on mine is really dulled out and chipping in some spots. I might try and buff it up some before I get it repainted cause the wife says it's a cool truck, but ugly... Can't argue with her.

 

I actually followed what this guy did to clean up his seats: 

I used purple power on the vinyl, lots of it, and the fabric I ran on the gentle cycle in the washing machine about 3 times each until I was satisfied, then let them air dry. Good luck!

[HOrnbrod]

Quote

As for the cowl I've left it off for now and am debating about building a cowl air intake since it's pretty cheap and easy to do since I already have a cone filter and all I would need to source is a canister for it.

 

I've read that most folks who install a cowl intake regret it later because the loud sucking noise inside the cab drives them crazy eventually. Instead of a cowl intake, consider routing the intake  tube down to to the left front where the original intake opening is. You can do this with 3" elbows and adapters to place it right where you want it. I used a 40 degree elbow for my application. Spectre sells these parts, and also carries a nice heat shield for the cone filter.

[Skorpyo]

12 minutes ago, HOrnbrod said:

I've read that most folks who install a cowl intake regret it later because the loud sucking noise inside the cab drives them crazy eventually. Instead of a cowl intake...

It's funny you should mention that. I had scrapped the idea of a cowl intake for that exact reason. I hadn't decided yet what I was going to do for the air intake. Short run will be to leave it as is, but long run was to route it to a better "colder" air setup. I really like what you did with yours, defintely inspires me to keep thinking about it! Thanks Don!

 

PS. I also scored a snorkel for the XJ recently so I'm going to use the box from the MJ to set it up and that gives me a better cone filter mount to swap into the MJ. I'm going to reroute all the hardline hoses too cause they look silly running all over the engine to avoid an airbox that's not their anymore...

[Skorpyo]

Well now that she’s home it’s time for state inspection so I can start driving the old girl, Belle, back and forth to work. I also need to pickup a small shed this weekend so she has to be legal.

Everything’s in order and the last thing I wanted to do before inspection was upgrade the wiring harness for the headlights. I got a harness for Christmas and figured now is as good a time as any.



I wanted to run it cleanly so I pulled apart the front clip and ran it tightly. It also gave me a chance to address a bad splice that made my right turn signal unreliable in the front. The headlights are all squared up now (get it... square... never mind) and everything is cleanly wired.

I decided to put the relays on the fender wall since I still have some wiring to clean up near the relay area but it works.



So tomorrow I get to find out if the state approves of Belle. My only concern is the wheel adapters. They’re perfectly legal but I’ve heard of some inspectors giving folks crap about them. So we’ll see. Wish me luck!

[Skorpyo]

Well Belle failed the state inspection. Turns out I have an exhaust leak before the cat. I'll have to button that up before anything else, but everything else passed. I'm surprised I missed it but frankly I didn't put much into the exhaust as after 25 years the state doesn't require an emissions test. Regardless though the state inspection requires that your exhaust system at least conform to OE, which means no leaks where there shouldn't be.

 

Should be an easy enough fix, it just means I'll have to wait in line AGAIN to get it inspected and burn another hour of my time doing so. Gotta love living in Northern VA where everywhere is crowded.

[Skorpyo]

Picked up an exhaust gasket on Friday and got her into the garage on Saturday to fix the exhaust leak. Turns out I must have forgot to really tighten the bolts when I installed the AX15 and they were barely tight. Regardless I threw in the new FelPro gasket and cranked them down. Got her back to the shop this AM and she’s now VA legal.



This summer I’m going to have the windshield replaced. That crack was on the truck when I got it and a local guy quoted me $90 to put in a new one so that’s with it in my book.

And so begins phase two of her life. I’m planning to give her a deep cleaning on the outside now that the interior, driveline and suspension are done. I’ll document the before and after as I’m hoping it’ll be epic. I know the paint isn’t great but I think she’ll shine up pretty well until i can afford to get a good repainting done.

[rosco11]

Picked up an exhaust gasket on Friday and got her into the garage on Saturday to fix the exhaust leak. Turns out I must have forgot to really tighten the bolts when I installed the AX15 and they were barely tight. Regardless I threw in the new FelPro gasket and cranked them down. Got her back to the shop this AM and she’s now VA legal.



This summer I’m going to have the windshield replaced. That crack was on the truck when I got it and a local guy quoted me $90 to put in a new one so that’s with it in my book.

And so begins phase two of her life. I’m planning to give her a deep cleaning on the outside now that the interior, driveline and suspension are done. I’ll document the before and after as I’m hoping it’ll be epic. I know the paint isn’t great but I think she’ll shine up pretty well until i can afford to get a good repainting done.

Sweet man, look forward to hearing about phase 2!

[Skorpyo]

Nothing new with the MJ lately, it's been working its tail off hauling stuff to the dump, helping family move and picking up supplies for my shed / garage rebuild. I did pick-up a truck box for it though. Found a guy locally selling a UWS box for a good price so I snatched it up. I'm stoked to finally get all the junk out from behind the seats. and have my tools where they belong.

 

[WahooSteeler]

4 hours ago, Skorpyo said:

Nothing new with the MJ lately, it's been working its tail off hauling stuff to the dump, helping family move and picking up supplies for my shed / garage rebuild. I did pick-up a truck box for it though. Found a guy locally selling a UWS box for a good price so I snatched it up. I'm stoked to finally get all the junk out from behind the seats. and have my tools where they belong.

 

That looks good, thanks for posting a picture as I'm looking to get the same low-profile box for mine. 

[Skorpyo]

6 minutes ago, WahooSteeler said:

That looks good, thanks for posting a picture as I'm looking to get the same low-profile box for mine. 

Sure thing. I should add that the PO of the box had a tacoma and the bed is slightly wider between the rails and so the mounting hooks he gave me for the box wouldn't line up with the rails. I've got one side locked in, but that leaves no room on the other side. I'm debating if I want to drill new holes in the box (from the angled section) and install hooks that way, or drill through the bed rails and mount straight down. I'm leaning toward the first option as that doesn't require me putting holes in my MJ.

[WahooSteeler]

Thanks, good to know!