89’ Pioneer MJ Barn Find

[oleskool]

Well. Went to head out last night in the truck and got a new issue   It cranked up faster than normal but only went up to 1500 RPM and then stayed at ~1k ish idle. It was running rich and sputtering etc bad. It’s fine this once before when I had the interior out so I never bothered digging into it. I went ahead and drove it down the street where it lost all power and wouldn’t rev at all until it stalled. So now I’m in the middle of a poorly lite street with a dead truck   I had to push it off to the side. Popped the hood to check it all out and everything looked good. No matter how many times I cranked it over I got no start. Finally I let it sit for 30 minutes or and as I decided to just walk back to grab my tools and my JK to whim he it safely to a traveled parking spot I tried it one more time. It tried to start. Hit the ignition again and boom. It fired up. Turned around and limped it home real quick so I could diagnose it tomorrow. Tried to crank it this morning before heading out for the day and it did the same thing. Here is what it does. 

 

[oleskool]

Got around to checking the CPS yesterday while I was out in the garage.  As expected it had an output below nominal and was reading around .2VAC.  Swapped in a new one and validated the readings, everything looked good so I finished putting everything back together.  So far so good, it got me to work today so that is a plus I guess haha.

[oleskool]

Well another weekend another issue. Noticed a rusty sludge on the drivers side carpet. Started investigating and found the clutch master cylinder leaking fluid into the cab and down the clutch rod  got a new one in order so tomorrow I guess we will see how quickly we can knock it out. The changing it out isn’t the hard part but breaking the fittings loose that’s a different story lol. 

[eaglescout526]

1 minute ago, oleskool said:

The changing it out isn’t the hard part but breaking the fittings loose that’s a different story lol. 

Flare nut wrenches! 

[Pete M]

cable cutters, a socket, and then new lines   

[oleskool]

18 hours ago, eaglescout526 said:

Flare nut wrenches! 

Haha. If they act anything like the brake lines I’m in for a fight 

[oleskool]

Had a little down time while working in the garage and decided to flip the grill the correct way. Had to cut the fog light wiring the PO installed straight through the grill lol. While it was out I decided to give it a fresh coat of paint. 

[Pete M]

On 12/22/2021 at 8:48 PM, oleskool said:

 Had to cut the fog light wiring the PO installed straight through the grill lol.

 

 

   priceless!

[oleskool]

Well found a little time to throw the OEM flares back on the PO removed. Didn’t have any mounting brackets so I made my own. I like this look much better. 

[oleskool]

Finally threw in the new single DIN radio. It’s a non CD unit. I can control it from my phone or voice. The nice thing is that I can now have hands free calling   it’s the small things haha. 

[oleskool]

Just got this little beauty in the mail. Can’t wait to install it and get rid of the crappy SPST switch the PO ran for the fog lights. These are beyond expectations for sure. 

[oleskool]

Well still having fun with this thing lol. Tried to crank her up this morning and got a misfire and sputtering. It was running super rich like a MAP issue. Checked everything out and swapped in the old MAP sensor that I replaced and everything cleared up. Guess only time will tell if this was the root cause or not. 

[oleskool]

Still tracking down the random misfire issue but here is the the final radio install. Took a little modifying but I am happy with how it looks now. 

[oleskool]

Thanks to @eaglescout526 I now have intermittent wipers again. 

[eaglescout526]

Holy crap that got there fast!! Still working on your clock though. Haven’t had a free moment. 

[oleskool]

27 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

Holy crap that got there fast!! Still working on your clock though. Haven’t had a free moment. 

You are good. I need to get the other one in the mail and that looks like next week right now. It’s supposed to rain the next couple days so I’m just excited to test it out in the rain lol. 

[saveevryjp1998]

On your sputtering issue and low idle, check behind your driver rear taillight ground. It costs nothing and well worth a shot. Cleaning up Renix grounds is always a good thing.

[oleskool]

4 hours ago, saveevryjp1998 said:

On your sputtering issue and low idle, check behind your driver rear taillight ground. It costs nothing and well worth a shot. Cleaning up Renix grounds is always a good thing.

Thanks for the idea. I did this in July when I bought the truck. I had to basically replace everything from the tank forward. Gas tank was rusted and it needed a new sending unit and pump. I put a MTS unit in and did the cruiser ground clean up and mods while in there. I’ll double check again. It’s a really strange issue. Try to crank it in the morning and it does the same symptoms. Wait a little bit and it finally cranks and runs correctly. Then it runs great for the remainder of the day   I’ve worked on a lot of older jeeps but this is my first Renix. Needless to say it is kicking my butt lol. 

[oleskool]

Well while dealing with a random start up issue I went ahead and refurbed the door jamb switches so I have lights when I open the doors. It’s the little things!

[oleskool]

Got the new fog light and cargo light panel installed. Really happy with the way this turned out. 

[MiNi Beast]

And then there was light. 

[oleskool]

11 hours ago, MiNi Beast said:

And then there was light. 

Haha. It’s the simple pleasures. 

[oleskool]

Well since I’m troubleshooting a random rough running issue and I was under the hood checking grounds I figured I might as well address the little Ted heat switch vacuum and my charcoal canister. The red vac line is in pieces and I didn’t want to cause anymore damage so I did a little redneck fix on it just to get me through the winter. If I change dashes out next spring I’ll deal with it properly or just eliminate the circuit. We shall see. 
 

For the canister I have been smelling fuel like crazy. With everything else I’ve been working on it hasn’t been on the top of my list but today i decided it needed to be fixed   The canister had been plugged by the PO due to the plastic intake like being broke and the tank vent line basically being non existent.  Luckily I had fuel line laying around that would fit tightly inside the plastic line and then I adapted it down to the proper hose size for the canister. I also had the right fuel line size for the tank line too. Pieces it all together so hopefully the canister works!  I’ve dealt with them on my CJs and I know how old canister can be when the activated charcoal isn’t good anymore. 
 

On a side note…. Do they make replacement air intake emission lines that run to the canister. I searched but didn’t find anything. 

[oleskool]

Well more goodies have showed up or will be showing up for the truck.  I have several cans of SEM Shadow Blue with plastic and vinyl prep / cleaner soap.  My plan is to coat all the interior pieces from the sun fade and refresh them.  SMS headliner should be delivered in a few weeks so I will knock out all the interior painting and headliner swap at once.  I have a new hood seal that needs to be installed to keep water from running down the firewall.  I remedied the problem for now by building a barricade on the driver's side to keep water from getting to the firewall fuse box connector.  Seems to work great but I still want to fix it properly.  Top priority on the list is replacing the clutch master cylinder that is starting to leak a little on the floor board / fuse box.  With the holidays its been hard finding time but I will try to knock it out this weekend   I am also tracking down OE style switches.  I have found alot of interesting options, I run nice carling rocker switches in my JK for lockers, etc but I do not really want that in this truck.  I found some Eaton switches that are exact matches except for the wire terminals on the back and they do not have the small light when power is on.  I then stumbled on some duralast switches from Autozone that are 100% OE matches.  These are $41 each but I may give them a try to see how they look and feel.  I am trying to keep the OE feel on this truck as much as possible   With that said, lots of pic and time spent wrenching is in my future haha.

[MiNi Beast]

Sweet. Another oe fan eh.. well thats cool.  got to get after them leaks when they coming down on the fuse block. Good call for sure getting something to catch it before it does. Common enough issue in the mjs for sure. Be sure to stretch out before tackling the mc as it can be a neck cramp and back twisting type of project.  good luck with it. Look forward to some progress pics with them new switches installed.  did you get it running better yet?