Keep it Stock Stupid

[GonzoTheGreat]

I’ve been a lurker here for over a decade now, but I have yet to start a build thread. I figure it’s about time. The other 2 and a half Comanches I own are more fun, but this one is what I have the most pictures of, and over the last two weeks it’s had a bit of an overhaul. So here we go.
 

Last year I bought an ‘89 2.5L aw4 2WD with only 50k mi on the ticker. 

 

It had zero options besides the automatic, ie: manual steering, AM radio, cigar lighter delete, etc. It only had one stock side mirror, and a useless aftermarket other-side mirror. It was as “base model” as it gets; the old man special. 
 

For a New England truck it has amazingly little rust. It’s the only one I’ve seen around here without at least blisters on the rockers, and everything but the floors was solid. The guy who used to own it spent his winters in FL, so it basically just made dump runs during the summer months.

 

The plan was to keep it stock, daily drive it, and stick to basic maintenance only. 

[GonzoTheGreat]

I started off with basic tune up stuff, plugs/wires/cap/rotor, it needed tires, and the battery cables were in typical shape for a 34 year old vehicle. 

 

Since the two side mirrors were the size of a quarter, and the rear view had lost most of its shiny stuff, I got 3 “new” junkyard mirrors, and picked up a decent toolbox. I bought a set of snow tires for the steelies, and put summer tires on an old set of alloys. 

the only thing left was to track down a slow coolant leak. I never left a puddle, and there was no oil contamination, so I went ahead with a heater core.

 

Turns out the windshield has been leaking for A LONG time. It was rusted across the entire bottom edge, and most of the top.
 

I also still had the coolant leak, and it turned out to be a cracked block. The drips landed on the exhaust down pipe, hence no puddle.

 

I had planned to keep the major components original on this one, but I guess the Jeep has other plans. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

Find one on the east coast with little rust is like winning the lotto!

I luckily found a low rust one that was just moved to Massachusetts, but even so, I still had to replace the driver and passenger floor boards.

Good luck with your restoration!

[Drahcir495]

10 years! Better late than never . Oh no, a cracked block. Any way to fix it or will you have to get another block? 

[GonzoTheGreat]

1 hour ago, Drahcir495 said:

10 years! Better late than never . Oh no, a cracked block. Any way to fix it or will you have to get another block? 

The gray loctite bought me a few months while I prepped a new-to-me engine. Thanks to @Kkilmer87
 

I should have the new one running tomorrow.  I’ll post updates. 
 

 

So I guess it’s sorta true when they say JB Weld will fix cracked engines 

[Drahcir495]

That’s actually pretty cool. Should keep some of that in my tool bag.

[eaglescout526]

4 hours ago, GonzoTheGreat said:

So I guess it’s sorta true when they say JB Weld will fix cracked engines

 

6 minutes ago, Drahcir495 said:

That’s actually pretty cool. Should keep some of that in my tool bag.

Have y’all ever seen project farm test JBWeld with others like it?

[Drahcir495]

I have not. I will have to check it out.

[GonzoTheGreat]

On 11/11/2023 at 7:29 PM, eaglescout526 said:

 

Have y’all ever seen project farm test JBWeld with others like it?

I hadn’t, but I just started. Pretty cool stuff!

 

On 11/11/2023 at 9:58 AM, Salvagedcircuit said:

Find one on the east coast with little rust is like winning the lotto!

I luckily found a low rust one that was just moved to Massachusetts, but even so, I still had to replace the driver and passenger floor boards.

Good luck with your restoration!

thanks! It was nice to see so much sheet metal intact. 
 

I spent some time spiffying up the new engine over the past month. I had only planned on replacing a few wear items, but it kind of snowballed into a bit more.

 

I put in new oil and water temp senders for a full gauge cluster swap, as well as replacing/cleaning up basically everything external on the engine. Plus the exhaust header because why not. 

[GonzoTheGreat]

I had some free time, so two weeks ago, I pulled almost everything out of the cab and engine bay. 

The windshield frame was super crusty, and there were several small holes. 
The floors, honestly weren’t as bad as I expected. The inside of the frame rails was almost spotless. Nevertheless, it took me a couple days to hack out and replace all the nasty stuff. 

only a little hole under the battery tray under the hood. Otherwise no serious rot in the engine bay. 

[GonzoTheGreat]

Everything got cleaned up, with POR15 inside and out, then seam sealer and a couple coats of spray paint on the inside, and rubberized undercoating underneath. 

 

I used Key Parts pans and frame caps. They fit very nicely and required only minimal modifications. The pans were pretty close to the original, but as I understand it, they are actually for an XJ. The frame caps were perfect duplicates of the originals. 
 

The windshield frame cleaned up nicely, and I purchased a late model XJ rubber gasket that the windshield guys put in when they did the glass. It came out great!

[eaglescout526]

Please tell me you kept that AMC valve cover. 

[GonzoTheGreat]

4 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

Please tell me you kept that AMC valve cover. 

 Unfortunately, it was shattered around two of the bolt holes when I got it. 

[eaglescout526]

How shattered? Only cause the original and Chrysler ones are a hard plastic vs crowns garbage flimsy plastic.

[GonzoTheGreat]

Two holes over the intake side had split the long way and the cracks traveled 3-4 inches. It was beyond saving. I’m not sure how it happened, since the bolts have shoulders which prevents over-tightening. 
 

The aftermarket one is really flimsy, but I couldn’t justify paying for an aluminum one. 
 

I still have the Chrysler one that’s on the original cracked engine. If I have any leaks with the aftermarket, I may end up swapping them in the future. 

[eaglescout526]

I’ve used cracked ones before, never had any leaks so long as you use some rtv with the gasket or I used JBWeld to keep it from getting worse. 

[jpnjake]

Awesome truck, with the aw4 and2.5l it should have 4.56 gears in the back from the factory 

cool option truck, stock is always a great way to go, especially in New England to keep these old 2wd truck off the salt. 

[GonzoTheGreat]

41 minutes ago, jpnjake said:

Awesome truck, with the aw4 and2.5l it should have 4.56 gears in the back from the factory 

cool option truck, stock is always a great way to go, especially in New England to keep these old 2wd truck off the salt. 

Thanks! I thought of your dad when I found this one because it’s another Grampa special. I got to see yours in person many years ago when I sold him a sport bar. 


 

I got the interior put back together last night. I sound deadened the cab before putting in an ACC carpet. The original vinyl floor was all cracked up. I wasn’t super thrilled with the carpet fitment, but hopefully over time it will settle in. 

 

the bench fabric cleaned up nice with some power washing. 

 

I also installed the full gauge cluster. I had to cut out the tach to allow for the shift indicator. 
 

 

Probably the most intimidating project for me so far was the headliner. it had been reskinned before with what looks like a blanket. 
 

 

Lo and behold, I screwed it up. 
 

 

It looks a lot better in the pic than in person, and it’s still better than what was in there, so I think I’ll live with it until the next SMS group buy. 
 

Oh I also added an REM II which I’m super stoked about. 

[GonzoTheGreat]

This past week I cleaned the engine bay while I had it empty, and gave it a quick spritz with gray engine enamel. Then I got the drivetrain put back in and gave everything a good cleaning as I put it all together. 
 

 

I had gone with a 4.0 radiator with an electric fan last year when the original rad was leaking. I think it cleans up the engine bay quite a bit. It’s weird how much more space there is with a 2.5 under the hood.
 

I also tried out the Detroit muscle splash shields. The engine bay one is definitely made for a 4.0, and the 2.5 one must have been quite a bit different. It fit ok, but I wouldn’t do it again with a 2.5. The wheel well shields were perfect though. My original fender liners have slowly been shedding pieces, so I sprayed the wheel wells with fluid film, and covered them up with repop rock auto liners and the Detroit muscle splash shields. 
 

 

I also spent quite a bit of time on the brakes. Someone had bypassed the load sensing valve at some point by tee-ing the rear lines together. The inner workings of that system have always mystified me, and since there is no valve anymore, I swapped the distribution block for an XJ junkyard unit, and a single line to the rear. The rubber lines were disintegrating, and the fittings were in rough shape. I also had done pads/rotors/bearings 2 months ago, and found the passenger side caliper was stiff and dragging.
 

So I did all new CuNi lines from the master cylinder down, new rubber lines, and new calipers, getting rid of two compression fitting from a PO in the process.  Thankfully the fittings broke loose on the wheel cylinders. Shoes, drums, and hardware were all in great shape. I put in new bleeders in the rear, because one was starting to round off. I bled everything this evening, and I was finally able to move and stop under the truck’s own power!

 

No major issues at first.  I had to tighten a coolant hose clamp, and the steering wheel is a little off, but I swapped in a power steering box from a different truck so I’ll adjust the drag link later. Brakes worked, power steering worked, engine came up to temp no problem, I drove around the block just fine. Everything was going suspiciously well. 
 

…and then I noticed a steady dribble of ATF coming from the bell housing 

 

It was dark and cold out, so I’m gonna leave that one for tomorrow. I’ll probably have to drop the tranny and do an input seal.  
 

The torque converter was stuck in the flex plate when I split the tranny from the old engine, so it did come off the input shaft, but then I gently slid it back on, and that was that. Apparently that was enough to f up the seal. 

 

[jpnjake]

On 11/13/2023 at 8:36 AM, GonzoTheGreat said:

Thanks! I thought of your dad when I found this one because it’s another Grampa special. I got to see yours in person many years ago when I sold him a sport bar. 

That’s really cool, I’d say your truck is alot more grandpa than mine now 

We actually still have that sportbar too lol, hopefully gonna use it in our chief soon

[GonzoTheGreat]

It's been a minute. I haven't been around much, but this week I finally replaced the leaky tranny seal. It turns out the brass/steel bushing that centers the torque converter in the fluid pump had spun loose and wedged itself into the fluid pump seal. It also turns out, that just replacing the seal and leaving the whipped out bushing is not ok, as I had read on Jeepforum... It also also turns out that a thin, little bushing like that is a real PITA to drive in properly, but all's well that ends well. 

 

This reminds me why I typically drive vehicles without a slushbox behind the engine. I'm repeatedly tempted to do a 5 speed swap, But the plan is still to keep this one generally in stock configuration...

[Salvagedcircuit]

1 hour ago, GonzoTheGreat said:

It's been a minute. I haven't been around much, but this week I finally replaced the leaky tranny seal. It turns out the brass/steel bushing that centers the torque converter in the fluid pump had spun loose and wedged itself into the fluid pump seal. It also turns out, that just replacing the seal and leaving the whipped out bushing is not ok, as I had read on Jeepforum... It also also turns out that a thin, little bushing like that is a real PITA to drive in properly, but all's well that ends well. 

 

This reminds me why I typically drive vehicles without a slushbox behind the engine. I'm repeatedly tempted to do a 5 speed swap, But the plan is still to keep this one generally in stock configuration...

Do you happen to know the bushing part number? Thanks

Looking good!

[GonzoTheGreat]

11 hours ago, Salvagedcircuit said:

Do you happen to know the bushing part number? Thanks

Looking good!

Thanks! Here’s the Napa part number. It’s also available on rock auto and a couple other places on the internet. I think the same bushing was used in quite a few different transmissions, so it seems readily available. 

[GonzoTheGreat]

A couple other small things I've been working on:

 

I did a wiper motor refresh, with new linkage bushings and ground wire

 

I got a lot of gas fumes with a full tank, so I spent some time with the fuel system. The tank had a couple pinholes, so I put in a new tank, with new breathers and hoses.

 

I have no idea how my fuel pump was grounding. Mice had chewed the wire off. It must have been chassis grounding through the lock ring! The pump and sender were still working fine 

[GonzoTheGreat]

Aaaand I’ve officially gone full grampa on this truck. 

 

The Chevy on the other side actually is my Grampa’s old truck, so the mismatched bed cap with homemade adaptors is really following the family legacy. 
 

 

I’ll be starting a long road trip in a few weeks, and I wanted something secure that I can camp in, when needed.

 

The cap is ARE brand, originally made for a 20teens Nissan Frontier. Length is perfect, width between taillights and width overall are close, but need some adjustment. It has LED strips inside, so I might find a way to make those work, and I have a couple spare taillight harness connectors, so I should be able make the high mount brake light work without cutting the original harness.