Project Parts Truck

[Bomberjeep]

Hey everyone,

 

So last year I bought an 89 as a parts truck. Previous owner did a lot of incomplete work. He managed to stab a 4.0 from a 96 XJ into it and laid the wiring harness in the engine bay. During his process he also pulled the dash, steering column, brake master cylinder, among other things. In the bed was a mess of parts from the donor XJ and the original parts from the MJ. About two weeks ago I found the dash from the donor in the pile of parts. It had the entire wiring harness attached to it. So I decided to make this one a runner.  
 

First picture is of it slowly being yanked out of the barn that it was stranded in many years ago. So when I got it home, I had to put the doors on it to try and keep as much of the weather out as possible. Also tossed the hood back on. 
 

 

[Bomberjeep]

Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago and me deciding to do something with this.  I was looking everything over and noticed the starter was barely hanging on and the wiring was just sitting in the engine bay. Got the starter bolted up and the wiring installed as well. Used my jump box to just test the starter and also see if it would spin the motor over. To my surprise it did. I did try to spin it by hand previously and it did spin before attempting this and it did roll over. 

[89 MJ]

Looks like a pretty solid rig

[Bomberjeep]

Over the course of the last week, I got the steering column installed and the dash semi dropped in place. Once that was all in, I was able to hook up the ignition, multi function switch and the clock spring. Then mounted the bulkhead connector and plugged the engine side into it as well after a thorough cleaning and fresh application of dielectric grease. Then while looking around the engine bay I noticed the crank sensor wasn’t hooked up and was the one for the Renix wiring. So I had to shell out 80 bucks for a replacement. Got that in and hooked up.
 

So with everything connected that it should need for spark, I shot some starting fluid down the throttle body and jumped the starter relay. I was shocked when it actually barked off.
 

So I then tested the fuel pump to see if it would even work since my last 2 MJs both needed fuel pumps. Much to my surprise it not only worked but worked strong. Since the fuel lines to the rail weren’t connected I used that time to flush as much of the bad gas out of the tank and then splashed a few gallons of fresh gas into it. Then had to rig up the fuel line with some extra fuel line I had laying around. With the fuel in place I figured now was as good a time as any to see if it will fire and run under its own power. 
 

I'm amazed. IT LIVES!!!!!!

 

Next on the list is getting the brake master reinstalled and plumbed. There was a dual diaphragm booster and MC sitting in the pile of parts. I’m hoping to get that situated here shortly. 

[Bomberjeep]

17 minutes ago, 89 MJ said:

Looks like a pretty solid rig

Thanks! The body/unibody/frame are actually incredibly solid. Floor pans are trashed but not completely Bluetooth. That’s a project for later down the line. Right now the aim is to just get it moving under its own power. 

[Bomberjeep]

Not really much of an update, but I went out to attempt to mount the brake master cylinder and realized the one the previous owner left in the bed will not work. One of the wrecking yards near me has a few grand Cherokees so hopefully I can pull a master cylinder and possibly some WJ knuckles. 
 

[pizzaman09]

Awesome fun project!  Like a giant puzzle that someone else took apart.

[Bomberjeep]

On 11/9/2024 at 8:05 PM, pizzaman09 said:

Awesome fun project!  Like a giant puzzle that someone else took apart.

I’m trying to figure out why he did some of the things he did. Like he had ADHD and just started blowing it apart and didn’t do anything past that. He didn’t keep any of the hardware with the components, just tossed everything into a couple coffee cans. 

[Bomberjeep]

A little bit of progress, kinda. I managed to get the brake booster mounted today along with the distribution block. Only issues I have to work out is that the lines that go from the block to the brakes are in position for the old booster and that offsets the block so that the master cylinder lines that go to the distribution block won’t line up. I know that some Grand Cherokees have flexi lines, but I’m not 100% sure they will be long enough. 
 

I was also able to solve my throttle cable issue by getting one out of a 96 ZJ with the 4.0. Thankfully it just snapped into place with no issues 

 

[pizzaman09]

2 hours ago, Bomberjeep said:

I’m trying to figure out why he did some of the things he did. Like he had ADHD and just started blowing it apart and didn’t do anything past that. He didn’t keep any of the hardware with the components, just tossed everything into a couple coffee cans. 

I have a friend that likes to do this.  I put together the entire dashboard on his Suzuki Samurai with hardware scattered amongst the footwell and other random spots of the barn.  He has the motivation to take things apart but not always put them back together.

[Bomberjeep]

3 hours ago, pizzaman09 said:

I have a friend that likes to do this.  I put together the entire dashboard on his Suzuki Samurai with hardware scattered amongst the footwell and other random spots of the barn.  He has the motivation to take things apart but not always put them back together.

I think this guy tossed a lot of random hardware from some woodworking projects in there too. All sorts of randomness everywhere. I really need to go through the bed and see what’s all in there.