Experimental options for washer tank

[Gojira94]

Since I've done the 96 XJ brake booster upgrade, I wanted to explore options for the washer tank, other than moving the old tank forward or going with the later style inside the fender. I started looking at the late 80s - early 90s Dodge Dakota, ZJ, WJ and nothing I thought to look at fit the bill. Then I stumbled across a 2002 Crown Vic/ Mercury Grand Marquis. The fit is almost as perfect as could be asked for. The downsides: 1) the wiring and washer fluid line will have to be extended; 2) the fuel pump ballast resistor will have to be relocated, probably to the area where the old tank was; 3) electric fan and fog lamps relay mounting points need to move; 4) EGR purge solenoid would have to move.

 

My rig never had options for issue #3, I was going to put those somewhere else anyway. I'm deleting #4 due to the fact that I'm missing everything except that solenoid and it was for a 2.5l engine anyway (may be the same, don't know/care).

 

There's plenty of room for the front lighting and engine harness to pass between the bottle and the air cleaner, more than you can tell by the pics below. The air box in the pics is from a 96 XJ that had the short inlet aperture and a block off plate in front of it. I'll be adding a hole to the back of the lid to accept the canister purge line when it all goes back together.

 

 

 

 

[Gojira94]

Pics of the tank:

 

   

 

 

[eaglescout526]

What about doing the later XJ style that’s behind the fender panel?

[Gojira94]

50 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

What about doing the later XJ style that’s behind the fender panel?

 

I might have, but the only XJ (98) I'd seen in the local yard in ages had a broken tank, and I wanted to explore other options available while I was there.

[eaglescout526]

Fair enough. Proceed. 

[Gojira94]

I bagged the idea of finding something else that would fit. A used 97-01 tank at my local yard is like $13 so I grabbed one. Poked 2 holes to mount it and made the filler neck hole free-hand with a Dremel.

 

 

 

For those that have done this on MJ that had the old style tank, what did you do about the 97-01 tank being equipped with 2 pumps? Cap one hole, or power both pumps, connect the tubes with a Y for monsoon level spray, or what? I grabbed about 4 feet of the wiring for both pumps and the level sensor while I was at it to extend the reach and at least tie into C169 for a single pump setup.

 

Being that my cluster and engine harness came from an unknown 89 or 90 XJ or MJ, the engine harness also has connectors C168 and C195 for level sensor and rear pump. However, the original 87 IP harness is missing the pin(s) between engine harness and cluster for 'Low Washer.' That's an easy one to add though. I think common sense says to cap one hole, run a single pump, and add the low washer pin, just as a nice to have?

 

[watchamakalit]

I chose to just power one pump on mine. Figured when it failed I would just plug in the other pump.

[jeff351]

Hey while we're talking about washer options...I can't remember how the windshield washer hose routes from the engine bay into the cowl.

[89 MJ]

On 3/11/2024 at 4:57 PM, jeff351 said:

Hey while we're talking about washer options...I can't remember how the windshield washer hose routes from the engine bay into the cowl.

Your best bet might be tech for this question. I wasn't able to find a picture otherwise I'd have an answer for you. 

[kentsu66]

@Gojira94, my brother @jamespwsullivanand I just finished making this mod to his '87 Comanche. Regarding the pumps, we put the pump in the lower mounting location since that will allow the most fluid to be drawn before going dry. We are lucky to have some experienced staff at a nearby NAPA, one of whom found a differential plug that fit the unused pump hole nicely -- P/N 704-1949 ($7).

 

If you're using original pumps, you'll see that Jeep used different connectors on the upper and lower units--probably to keep the wiring harness connectors from accidentally being swapped? The Comanche single-pump harness uses the connector shaped like a "T", which is part of the Delco-Packard (which became Delphi, which became Aptiv) Series 56 connector family. The other one is a Weather Pack connector. Replacement pumps for quite some time have only been made with Series 56 lugs but have shipped with a pigtail to convert to Weather Pack.

 

In any case, we cut off the shell and terminals, extended the wires, then crimped on new Series 56 18-20 ga. female terminals ( NAPA does not carry / GM 2962508), and popped them back into the shell. (NAPA does carry the 14-16 ga. Series 56 female terminal, P/N 725147 / GM 2962447. If you're careful, you can cut down the inner wings to about 2/3 the height and get a proper crimp on 18-20 ga. wire.)

 

Also, I found that the connector type for the low fluid level sensor was Metri-Pack 150. NAPA has a complete pigtail (EC11) -- it is used all over the place on GM vehicles (and on Jeeps too, esp. for assemblies sourced from GM). Since I like a bit of a challenge, I instead re-used the same connector shell and put new 18-20 ga. pins in it (NAPA 725187), on the ends of the wires after we extended them. (Minor note: the fluid level sensor wire is 20 ga. and the pump wires are 18 ga., no doubt due to the lower current draw.)

 

All of these sorts of terminals are known as "open barrel" terminals, because the area where the crimp happens is not a full circle, but is instead open, with two sets of wings--one for the wire strands and the other for the insulation. Crimping these connectors is easy if you have the right tool. I bought mine decades ago but this one looks decent: https://www.amazon.com/Haisstronica-Crimping-Non-Insulated-Terminals-Receptacles/dp/B0978S514B

 

By the way, Pat and I were rather shocked (in a good way) that the sheet metal geometry stayed the same all the way through 2001--no re-shaping required to get the bottle to fit. Also, we discovered that the inner fender liners appear to be identical as well throughout that year range.

[Gojira94]

A wealth of good information here. Thanks for taking to time to record all the part number details. I was fortunate enough to harvest about 4’ of all the wiring for both pumps and the low washer sensor. @Airborne Janitor has a write-up on how he added wiring to that without having to add pins to C100, which I think will be the route I take as well.