WranglerMangler Posted March 25, 2023 Author Share Posted March 25, 2023 Thanks! It’s been running good for the last two days without any issues. After this issue I’d suggest checking grounds! Lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted March 25, 2023 Author Share Posted March 25, 2023 Amongst all the problems, I have actually got an upgrade to go in. I ordered this before all these problems kicked off. Since I started driving CommuteChe, I’ve kept an eye out for a full dash in decent shape, with mileage near mine. When I ordered this dash, it had just over 900 more miles then what CommuteChe had on it at the moment. With just commuting, I do 500 miles a week, plus running the kids around, etc, etc. The mileage racks up quickly. Luckily it worked out perfectly with the miles driven and delivery of the gauge. Got home tonight and the gauge cluster had been delivered. Did take just a little bit of effort, but I got the mileage to match on both clusters. 138,954.7 Miles each. Swapped out the “light” oil pressure sensor for the proper “gauge” sensor. Was happy to see for the first time, CommuteChe has perfect oil pressure. Will hopefully have some cool things to post about tomorrow as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted March 26, 2023 Author Share Posted March 26, 2023 Oh boy did I hit the Jackpot today guys. Cruising around on the FB MP and found this beauty listed for parts. It was the color matching grill that really caught my eye, it matches one of my ‘88 MJs. Then noticed the color matching headlight bezels and mirrors, so I looked into it further. Really liked the look of the power leather seats and Tri tone Door cards. Along with all the black interior trim. Hit the guy up and met up with him today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted March 26, 2023 Author Share Posted March 26, 2023 Here’s the haul. I’m more than happy with what I got. Worst rip in the seats. Forgot my steering wheel puller, so I took the entire column. Lol Still has the rear ash tray in the back of the center console. Factory cigarette lighter too. I didn’t bring enough cash and will be going back next weekend for the factory rear D44. Really just need a carpet kit and CommuteChe will be going through a complete interior upgrade and overhaul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted March 28, 2023 Author Share Posted March 28, 2023 Got home tonight and decided the MJ needed a little loving. I’ve wanted a sentinel light module for a while now. I grabbed one off the XJ I recently got parts from. Got it plugged in and luckily it’s functioning! Great mod for cheap. Suggest grabbing one if you see it. Silver box in photo is the factory location. I also grabbed the courtesy lights from the donor XJ and soon found out that Renix and HO Courtesy lights are different? Apparently the plug changed in 1990 from what I gather. I ordered the small, under steering wheel, wood grain trim piece that was missing from my newly installed wood grain dash bezel. It showed up today as well. Was pretty happy about the piece until I tried to install it. Its way too small. Not sure how to fix that. We’ll see if the wood grain is staying or not. More interior plans coming up. I noticed on Minche, another one of my MJs, that it has a little distributor wire clip that clips to the motor mount bracket, went back over to CommuteChe and it doesn’t have the little wire clippy thing. So I’ve been keeping and eye out and found one recently. can't have one on one MJ and not the other right? Especially when, now you know it’s missing and one belongs there. So I had to get one. My OCD wouldn’t stand for this. I’ve been keeping this aside for almost a decade now waiting on a worthy candidate, (AKA threw in a tote ten years ago and just found it again) and believe CommuteChe has surpassed the threshold of “Factory clean” I guess you could call it, and finally installed it. Nothing special, weird stuff like this entertains me. I haven’t looked up the part # and probably should before I claim it’s a factory Comanche battery insulator bubble wrap thing but I found this in one of My ‘91 MJs a really long time ago. And believe it could possibly be a factory MJ part? She has also been running great recently too after it’s little spat of problems Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpnjake Posted March 28, 2023 Share Posted March 28, 2023 7 hours ago, WranglerMangler said: Got home tonight and decided the MJ needed a little loving. I’ve wanted a sentinel light module for a while now. I grabbed one off the XJ I recently got parts from. Got that all hooked up and functioning. Great mod for cheap. Suggest grabbing one if you see it. Silver box in photo is the factory location. I also grabbed the courtesy lights from the donor XJ and soon found out that Renix and HO Courtesy lights are different? Apparently the plug changed in 1990 from what I gather. I ordered the small, under steering wheel, wood grain trim piece that was missing from my newly installed wood grain dash bezel. It showed up today as well. Was pretty happy about the piece until I tried to install it. Its way too small. Not sure how to fix that. We’ll see if the wood grain is staying or not. More interior plans coming up. I noticed on Minche, another one of my MJs, that it has a little distributor wire clip that clips to the motor mount bracket, went back over to CommuteChe and it doesn’t have the little wire clippy thing. So I’ve been keeping and eye out and found one recently. can't have one on one MJ and not the other right? Especially when, now you know it’s missing and one belongs there. So I had to get one. My OCD wouldn’t stand for this. I’ve been keeping this aside for almost a decade now waiting on a worthy candidate, and believe CommuteChe has surpassed the threshold of “Factory clean” I guess you could call it, and finally installed it. Nothing special, weird stuff like this entertains me. I haven’t looked up the part # and probably should before I claim it’s a factory Comanche battery insulator bubble wrap thing but I found this in one of My ‘91 MJs a really long time ago. And believe it could possibly be a factory MJ part? She has also been running great recently too after it’s little spat of problems Sadly it looks like the wood grain bezel you got is from a 95/96xj with airbags and a Chrysler column, the colum was physically bigger and they cut the bezel bigger so it shouldn’t have the bottom part at all :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted March 28, 2023 Author Share Posted March 28, 2023 39 minutes ago, jpnjake said: Sadly it looks like the wood grain bezel you got is from a 95/96xj with airbags and a Chrysler column, the colum was physically bigger and they cut the bezel bigger so it shouldn’t have the bottom part at all :/ Sweet. Good to know. I was wondering about the differences. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted April 4, 2023 Author Share Posted April 4, 2023 CommuteChe has been parked since last Thursday. Front brakes got too bad to continue driving it. Got home tonight and all my parts had showed up. Got right to work and got everything replaced. Just went with the budget brakes. Nothing special. However, they do seem to be pretty quality stuff. The brake pads actually came with replacement rubber slider bolt covers too. I actually had difficulty tracking down the front 2wd rotors. Definitely not as common as the 4wd stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted April 4, 2023 Share Posted April 4, 2023 nice XJ haul! the fuel pump ballast resistor can be simply bypassed if you ever have doubts about it. it's not necessary for functionality, only to make the pump less noisy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted April 5, 2023 Author Share Posted April 5, 2023 Oh Man, I went back and Bought the entire XJ. There were just too many good parts left over. I will start by saying I do know it’s a shame to part out such a nice, clean, well optioned XJ. I wasn’t the one who made the decision. I just happened to be the first person to get there to part it out. The block is cracked by the freeze plugs and I believe that’s what lead to to POs decision to part it out. I showed up and stripped out the interior then the guy posted the rest for just too cheap. I was already going to go back for the D44 and for double what he wanted for the 44 I could take the whole Jeep. This one XJ will be sacrificed to help me make at least 4 MJs much better off. Worth it in my opinion. 1987, 161,xxxmi, Limited, 4x4, AW4 floor shift, NP242, D30 non vacuum disconnect/D44, Cruise, A/C, wing windows, factory fog lights, Power mirrors, antenna, windows, locks and leather seats New Coil and starter relay. Also notice the relay panel cover twisty clipper thing. Found the other one hidden underneath the coil mount bracket. Hard to find those in my neck of the woods for some reason. Newly remanufactured head definitely snagging this. Newer starter. Always comes in handy. Got this beauty removed tonight. Also has a newer closed loop radiator as well. And a NIB heater core. Will hopefully get the Transmission and transfer case removed tomorrow night after work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted April 6, 2023 Author Share Posted April 6, 2023 Tonight I got the newly remand head removed from the donor XJ. Was actually happy to see the condition underneath the valve cover. Removed the head, intake and exhaust manifold as an assembly. Also got the Transmission and Transfer case removed too. Turns out we have a NP242, not a 231 like I thought. These sure a lot heavier than I remember! Found this disaster tonight too once I got the head removed. Still finding brand new parts too. Tonight it was the new Crank position sensor and new flex plate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 242 ftw! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted April 9, 2023 Author Share Posted April 9, 2023 How it started: How it ended: Thank you ‘87 XJ. Your spirit will live on forever in many of my MJs!! I suppose I’m done thread jacking myself on this XJ part out. Lol. There will probably be another one soon enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted April 16, 2023 Author Share Posted April 16, 2023 The flex plate has been rattling around in the bell housing for a while now in CommuteChe. I figured it was cracked and had been putting off the repair because my “shop” is in the grass and it’s been raining a lot. This weekend I finally got around to making it happen. Luckily my good buddy Cody let me borrow his garage. It was nice getting out of the mud to do a transmission repair. Lol. You guys with garages don’t know how good you got it. Upon tear down, I found the flex plate bolts had actually loosened up and wallowed out the mounting holes. Fairly uneventful repair, glad to have it done. Did flush out the fluid and changed the filter as well. 140,300mi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted April 25, 2023 Author Share Posted April 25, 2023 When I did the flex plate job, I painted my dipstick tube just because it was out and easy to do. I’ve been meaning to stop and buy some red paint for the dip stick handle. Luckily I spotted a guy walking around on the job site today painting stuff red. So I asked if I could borrow the paint for a minute. Turned out pretty good for no prep but hosing off with brake clean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted May 7, 2023 Author Share Posted May 7, 2023 Went down to NorthwestMJs house today to check out his beautiful new little truck TealSteel, on my way home I took the scenic route. Turned out pretty good. Found this first: “It’s my son’s and it’s not for sale” was the answer at the door. We shall see about that. I’ll be back to check on her. Then cruising along, couple miles down the road, spotted this guy. Stopped in and actually talked with the guy for a while. Paid $800 for the truck. Factory 44 in the rear. Pretty nice truck really. Wish I had found it. He had just recently bought it locally Then last weekend I found this guy out and about and was talking to him and he told me where to find the truck so I did some Comanche creepin on him. It was actually there. NWMJ’s 2 plus these 3 make it a 5 MJ day. Do the 6 at home count? 11 MJ Day? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiatslug87 Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 Did you get any of their VINs for the registry? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted May 8, 2023 Author Share Posted May 8, 2023 I did not, I just feel awkward asking people to get a picture of their vin on a random stop and knock. I’ll see at least 2 more in the future. I’ll try then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted May 9, 2023 Author Share Posted May 9, 2023 Did some Dana 44 stuff today. I have a feeling CommuteChe is going to get a rear D44 swap in the very near future. Usually like to disc swap the rear before installing but it’s tough times these days and I don’t have any backing plates or brakes laying around unfortunately. Just a future post I suppose. Started out like this, The old hammer through, Snap-On Pry chisel helped out getting the XJ shock mounts off. Got both shock mounts and spring perches cut off. Cleaned up pretty good. Blank canvas now. I was debating on which spring perches to weld on for the MJ swap, looking at the stock MJ perches, they’re pretty flimsy and basically look like stamped sheet metal. Found these “anti wrap” spring perches by Barnes4WD that I do like the look of. Decent price as well. Looking back at these stock XJ perches, they actually are looking pretty stout compared to the MJ ones, and with some of this 1” thick steel I have laying around, I could probably make my own “anti wrap/ lowering block” mounts. With the XJ perches and 1” block, I believe it would drop it 1.5” in the rear I don’t know, no plans set in stone yet. Just out screwing around today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted May 17, 2023 Author Share Posted May 17, 2023 Recently got a good deal on some 4x6 Rockford Fosgate speakers for the B pillar rear speakers (thank you GJeep), took a little doing but got them hooked up to the stock harness. Sound much better than the paper stock blown out speakers. Plan on wiring up a sub and amp here shortly. Still need front door speakers and tweeters too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AverageJoe10 Posted May 18, 2023 Share Posted May 18, 2023 Those are good speakers! I'm pretty sure I had the same ones in an old Toyota pickup I used to have and they sounded great I'm curious to see what audio setup you go for, as I want to upgrade my sound system soon too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WranglerMangler Posted May 18, 2023 Author Share Posted May 18, 2023 35 minutes ago, AverageJoe10 said: Those are good speakers! I'm pretty sure I had the same ones in an old Toyota pickup I used to have and they sounded great I'm curious to see what audio setup you go for, as I want to upgrade my sound system soon too! I was going to stick with Rockford Fosgate for the speakers. I will end up with the 5.25” in the front door and will buy their tweeters as well. Not for any specific reason. Not brand loyal, just found a deal on these and am running with it. I do have multiple amps sitting around, I need to decide which to hook up. Have never wired an actual decent system into anything before so it’s going to be a learning experience for me. And unfortunately I’m an electrical idiot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AverageJoe10 Posted May 18, 2023 Share Posted May 18, 2023 13 minutes ago, WranglerMangler said: I was going to stick with Rockford Fosgate for the speakers. I will end up with the 5.25” in the front door and will buy their tweeters as well. Not for any specific reason. Not brand loyal, just found a deal on these and am running with it. I do have multiple amps sitting around, I need to decide which to hook up. Have never wired an actual decent system into anything before so it’s going to be a learning experience for me. And unfortunately I’m an electrical idiot Sweet! Should sound good. I'm no audio expert but in my little experience having good speaker wires always helps a ton on quality. Also having good grounds! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffK Posted May 20, 2023 Share Posted May 20, 2023 Those do look sharp. I wish I could have found buckets that nice when I was doing mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthwestMJ Posted May 20, 2023 Share Posted May 20, 2023 On 5/7/2023 at 1:53 PM, WranglerMangler said: NWMJ’s 2 plus these 3 make it a 5 MJ day. Do the 6 at home count? 11 MJ Day? I’m dying! Super funny! So if you find 3 random other MJs with three independent people and you have 6 MJ’s does this mean you have the same amount of MJ’s as 6 regular people? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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