Little Red Wagon

[Pete M]

gotta represent the late models  

[eaglescout526]

Pretty much Pete! It was a blast! I even registered to become a member of the AZ chapter of the AMO. Met a few AMC guys and talked about my Jeep with a few people. Finally met the owner of an MJ that lives close to @MJCARENA today as well. His MJ is white with those fancy metal body moldings that have the laser etched Comanche on the door moldings. Learned that it’s hard to talk about an addiction with folks that are there to look at cars and not so much learn about your vehicle. Oh and I got to educate an older gentleman that AMC made their own 4cyl as he thought I had that stupid iron duke engine. And I also represented CC by putting CC as my club affiliation as well. 

[eaglescout526]

To install or not to install

 

 

I probably will install this as I looked at my e-brake pedal this morn and saw that it’s definitely seeing it’s at its end. 

[fiatslug87]

Install it! Its purpose is not to sit on a shelf.

[eaglescout526]

 

Done! 35 years of OEM service.

[eaglescout526]

.....Seriously? I havent even had AC for a solid 3 years and the compressor is crapping out. Ugh and before summer too!

[eaglescout526]

Well I got the system evaced today. NOS compressor showed up. Lets begin!

 

 

So I got the old compressor removed. Easy-peasy right? Well all went good until I needed the valves on top the compressor. Well the Jeepair kit with the suction side valve had a wonky nut on it but it still went on. Well its stuck on the old compressor. So I fought and fought with it until I panicked due to the valve not coming off. Welllll I have an older compressor on standby to rebuild soon and it has valves on it. I was told theyre older R134 valves. So I ran to O' reillys and got an R12 retrofit kit and bingo we were in business! The new adaptors fit on them perfectly. 

 

Ok crisis adverted. Now to get the compressor installed.

 

Done!

 

 

My only concern right now is the discharge hose being bent as it is. Granted it worked fine when it did work, but when I tightened it down, the hose I swore was bending and flexing. I couldve been imagining it as I can't get the hose to move so I have no idea. Hopefully all goes well tomorrow. 

 

Oh and Minuit, I did drain out the old mineral oil and put in the proper PAG oil in case you read this.

[Pete M]

max coolness! 

[eaglescout526]

We are charged and good to go. I’m hearing a new sound but it could be just the compressor breaking in as it has sat for about 30 years since new. So I’ll be sure to baby it for a bit. 

[eaglescout526]

It is really nice to have cold AC once more. This time we are slightly over charged but its been fine and blowing damn cold and I mean I hop in with a sweaty back and I can be home in about 15 and half way through the drive my back won't be sweaty. Pretty nice actually. Now I just need to insulate the roof and cab better one day. Hopefully on one of my three day weekends. Any who I have a couple things.

 

1. Without molesting the factory speaker harness, I have found a way to add in the Jensen tweeters. Now why would I do that? Why the hell not, if I found a way without messing with the factory harness or connectors too much, I plan to do it. I do need to fix the speaker wires in the door though, Ill do that too when I get the connector to speaker adaptor.

 

2. So recently my grandfather passed away a week or so ago, leaving us with a bunch of stuff to go through and possibly a new project for the wife and I in the future but that I will spare any info on until its set and stone mine. Anyways he was a man who really didnt like you looking at his stuff. So I went over there today to help with trimming of some trees with my father and I was roaming some of the junk he has sprawled about his yard. I found a Reel-to-Reel in a woodgrain case laying on the ground and then I spotted something that looked awfully familiar....

 

 

 

My original license plate lamp harness with lenses!! I couldnt believe it! They were just sitting on a bucket in a pile of scrap. This makes me wonder about the history of my MJ, sadly my grandfather didnt remember much after his multiple strokes and quad bypass as thats when he became more crotchety and forgetful. He claimed he had a full cluster which I never saw from him and told me of how he would drop the tailgate and load in his little fishing boat and take it to the lake. Anyways this makes me wonder if my MJ did indeed have a factory accessory bumper from the factory. Granted yes a dealer couldve put on those aftermarket ones and put the harness in but I can't make any assumptions with the lack of info. 

 

Anyways I wanted to share my excitement in finding something that belonged to my MJ where I got her from.

[89 MJ]

Sorry to hear about your grandfather. 

[eaglescout526]

9 hours ago, 89 MJ said:

Sorry to hear about your grandfather. 

Thanks…but he’s probably in less pain now. 
 

 

 

Anywhoooo I sat down with some time to see how and of an install the factory tweeters are. Really wasn’t. Maybe took me about 30-45 min. I took the old packcons apart and snipped off the old terminals. Crimped new ones with the new connector together per side and bam! Tweeters are installed and playing well. I can definitely hear a difference with them in place and I can notice the lack of load on the door speakers. 

[Minuit]

On 6/5/2022 at 5:42 PM, eaglescout526 said:

Thanks…but he’s probably in less pain now. 
 

 

 

Anywhoooo I sat down with some time to see how and of an install the factory tweeters are. Really wasn’t. Maybe took me about 30-45 min. I took the old packcons apart and snipped off the old terminals. Crimped new ones with the new connector together per side and bam! Tweeters are installed and playing well. I can definitely hear a difference with them in place and I can notice the lack of load on the door speakers. 

...and you can do this with them too

 

 

What happened to the A/C compressor?

[eaglescout526]

3 hours ago, Minuit said:

...and you can do this with them too

 

 

What happened to the A/C compressor?

True hahaha 

 

This is the weird part. The compressor itself wasn’t actually failing. I’m pretty sure the compressor itself is fine but the clutch was slipping and was barely allowing the compressor to turn to push the refrigerant around. Kinda odd since the compressor wasn’t that old unless the clutch was poor quality. 

[eaglescout526]

Not much of an update. She’s been a happy camper driving around until I got bandit running and driving. Now by complete coincidence is when I started having idle issues when bandit was driving and filled little red up with gas. I’ve been spending a few days tearing my hair out. I know I have a vac leak and cyl 3 isn’t firing well. Remove the wire and it remains the same. So I replaced the wire and the plug and no change. Even changed the cap and cleaned the rotor, no change. I also had thoughts of a bad head gasket and valve seals were failed or even push rods for that cylinder failed, luckily the latter two aren’t it. So I decided to just take my lunch and go examine my vac lines once more and see what’s loose. I then give up, look down for some loose manifold bolts and lo and behold! I am missing two bolts. Both bottom intake bolts and I can hear the vac leak coming from intake port 3. So I’m gonna fix that tonight with hopes of a change. 

[watchamakalit]

Intake gasket failure/loose intake bolts would cause a vacuum leak signifigant enough to stop a cylider from firing.

[eaglescout526]

1 hour ago, watchamakalit said:

Intake gasket failure/loose intake bolts would cause a vacuum leak signifigant enough to stop a cylider from firing.

Yeah that’s an understatement and a half hahah. I just added the two new bolts and we are back to normal baby!! Now I can put my attention back to the other two. 

[eaglescout526]

 

3 and a half hours later and I have the low washer warning lamp working. Take a look at the “adding low washer warning” thread to see how I did it. But I will say adding it took bit of a mental toll seeing how I had to take the C100 apart twice to add two wires that didn’t exist at all on the MJ dash harness. I truly do wonder why AMC didn’t just have the wiring there seeing how AMC offered a single pump reservoir with the sensor but I digress. 

[eaglescout526]

Hole saw showed up so I got this done 

 

 

Now it’s proper and set up. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

4 hours ago, eaglescout526 said:

Hole saw showed up so I got this done 

 

 

Now it’s proper and set up. 

Cool! Curious, where did you find a windshield washer tank sensor? Thanks!

[eaglescout526]

35 minutes ago, commissioneranthony said:

Cool! Curious, where did you find a windshield washer tank sensor? Thanks!

I did but didnt. It’s one of my NOS coolant level sensors. I know there’s a couple of the sensors out there at dealers as NOS. 

[eaglescout526]

I finally got around to doing the insulation for the roof! Sounds pretty nice and quiet and not so hollow and should hopefully keep the summer heat out and the cool in. No need for pics cause I’m not too proud of the job I did.
 

Also I entered into a car show this weekend, so Friday I’ll go get little red a bath and have her looking nice and spiffy for the show. 

[eaglescout526]

Guess the radiator is now showing it’s age. Had a good three year run with it when I got all the AC stuff. Waiting on the new one to come in to swap the old one out and do some cleaning/maintenance while I’m in there. 

[eaglescout526]

Radiator swap went off without a hitch. Got the new one in. Crowns model is accurate to the T except the radiator cap. Looks like they designed it to probably fit their caps which doesn’t surprise me. So I broke out the dremel to make sure my AMC radiator cap would fit on the radiator. All is good. No leaks which is nice.  

[eaglescout526]

New Jack instructions installed. Emissions label should follow soon!

 

 

Thanks @SoCalJeepComanche these are fantastic!