KJ question.....no heat (fixed), now headlight questions

[HOrnbrod]

LEDs on everything except the flourescents in the garage. But they'll be gone soon after the pile of spares are gone. No more halogens or incandescents except for dash light. I don't like the bright whites either Jeff. There's a real good selection now if you do your homework.

[Old man with MJ]

Have you done the headlight cleaning; I have a 02 Gas KJ that needs cleaning,polishing!

I also hang out at the lostjeeps and jeepkj.com forums.

[mjeff87]

Yeah, the headlight housings are crystal clear.  Fog lenses, not so much....but I'm not concerned with them right now.  I rarely use the fogs here.

[Pete M]

I put LEDs in my foglight housings and use them as daytime running lights.    I spend a lot of time in mighigan and prefer headlights that melt the snow.

[mjeff87]

Lol, that's not a bad idea.

 

we don't get tons of snow here, but when we do get it we get dumped on.  I totally forgot about the heat output melting snow off the lenses.....I just might stick with the nuclear-halogen option

[mjeff87]

I put a set of Phillips x-tremes in today.  While I had the housings out I gave them a good polish (again), and all is looking good.  Just waiting for darkness to take it on a trial run to see what difference that might have.

[JeepcoMJ]

L.E.D.'s are great!

 

But, as Pete said, heat output.

 

We've converted the landing/taxi lights on my bonanza to LED, and to off-set for winter landings, are adding a late model incandescent nose gear mounted landing light.

 

I would NOT choose them as a primary light source on a road vehicle.  They are brighter, but have less heat output and do not have as nice of a splash pattern.

 

I put the cheapest available replacements in my KJ.  They work great.  But, I'm not investing money in my KJ, either.  It's rusty, and is a plow vehicle.  As far as I'm concerned, the cheaper the better.  It doesn't help that I've got to polish the headlights multiple times a year for them to even work well

[mjeff87]

Lol Pat, yep.

 

I pulled and polished the fog lamps today, and had to wait for dark to realm the headlights.  It's a miracle....I can see at night again!

 

I'll post some pics tomorrow.  I did draw the obligatory blood working on the fogs.

[mjeff87]

Kinda boring pics, but I spent the better part of Saturday tracking down Phillips bulbs (only Pep Boys carries them around me, and I loathe going into that store....).  I found it much quicker and easier to just pull the grill and both headlight housings out to swap the bulbs, rather than trying to get to them from behind.  I polished the headlamp lenses again, and also pulled the fogs and polished them (they were in need of a cleaning/polishing).  I accidentally broke the tip off of one the OEM/old headlight bulbs pulling it out of the housing, so in the trash it went LOL.  It still worked, but instantly fogged up with mystery smoke when I plugged it back in.

 

Grill pulled and headlights out, headlights with polish on them (Crest toothpaste, then followed up with Meguire's scratch remover compound), fogs out, fogs polished, all put back together, and an obligatory shot of my engine bay

 

Only 3 beers and one cut finger.

 

 

 

[JeepcoMJ]

[mjeff87]

Back to the heater core for a moment, I totally forgot.  One of the tricks I used, that I think had the best result, was to gently modify an el cheapo hose end wand thingy that my dear old mom got for me many years ago.  I bent the tube part carefully so it would insert the whole way into the core inlet/outlets, and it has a 1/4 turn valve on it.  I used it to  flush the core both ways with short, quick bursts of water.  Putting the tube the whole way into the core allowed me to really get a good flush and push any air out

 

 

[Pete M]

love it!  I'm totally going to steel that idea  

[JeepcoMJ]

….

 

I just realized that I've got a Milwaukee M18 fluid transfer pump on a cool down cart for our race sleds that I can use to flush the radiator...with coolant.

[Sir Sam]

Man those gasser engine bays look so weird.

 

 

[Pete M]

5 minutes ago, Sir Sam said:

Man those gasser engine bays look so weird.

 

 

 

I know, right?  I think the same thing when I hit the junkyards. 

 

[mjeff87]

Yeah, but lookey where that alternator is......it's so easy to change I think even one of my cats could do it

 

Now, getting the oil filter off, or changing the #6 plug or coil.  Well, some engineer needs keel hauled for those.

[Pete M]

that's one thing about the CRD, removing the oil filter is so easy even a rock or tree root could do it!  while you're driving!    I really need to get a skidplate for that thing...

[mjeff87]

Holy crap......

 

And I'm worried about the little Fumoto valve I installed on my oil pan.  LOL.

[Minuit]

Wow... that's just asking to get smashed by something.

[Pete M]

indeed.    she needs armor.  and a lift.  I have a plan for the first.  the latter takes a goodly chunk of money and will have to wait. 

[JeepcoMJ]

Jeff, I put a remote oil filter on mine behind the license plate on the bumper support.  Can’t change the filter with the plow mount and the dual fan shroud.

 

best $200 I’ve spent on it so far.

[mjeff87]

I've been considering a remote filter, just can't figure out a good spot to mount it.....I'd like it somewhere on the firewall, but just nowhere there available.

[JMO413]

I had never heard of using vinegar. I tried it and now I have heat. Thanks for the good write up.

[mjeff87]

^^^theres lots of options fir a cleaning chemical for the core (CLR, Prestone mystery fluid, and others).  Since my KJ core is aluminum, and buried under my dash, I didn't want to take a chance of putting anything too caustic in it and chance any possible corrosion/leak.  Vinegar is a mild acid that doesn't attack aluminum, although it does discolor it if left in contact for too long, so I took the safe route with it.

 

The trick is to carefully blow out the core with air and then add the vinegar/water mix so it actually fills up the core.  I let it sit like that for about 30 minutes, then flushed it all out.  Blew the core out with air again, then filled the core with coolant mix, quickly reconnected the hoses and refilled the whole system.  I've got 170 degree air out of my vents now, have to cut the heat back it runs so good, lol.

 

Glad you have heat again

[JMO413]

I blew the coolant out with my air pressure. Filled the core with vinegar and let it set for 20 minutes. Poored the rest of the gallon through it. The gallon was only $2. Can't buy any flush chemical for that! Flushed and back flushed with water. Now you have to turn the heat down it's so warm.