# Jeep Yj MPFI conversion.



## mustanggarage

As the regulars on here know I have had this jeep YJ for about 8 months now.  It runs great but it is difficult to start in the morning.  you have to pump it and pump it.  but once it fires, it starts right up and runs great.  if you shut it off again and leave it for a couple hours it will still start right up.  leave it overnight or for a couple days then you have to pump it a lot again.  for this and other reasons I wanted to do this fuel injection conversion for a while.  so I bought the mopar MPFI conversion from Hesco. Jeepforum.com

now I am going to go through this as I do it so I can point out all of my screwups and problems that I have as I go through it, so that others can benefit from my mistakes....so don't laugh when I have to ask for help lol.
anyway as honor harrington would say, lets be about it.

this is how things looked in the beginning.







I had considered doing a cam swap but I decided against it.  I am however going to swap the 4.0 head on though.

first step to make access easier, pull the grill and radiator.






then I began disconnecting wiring and vacuum lines.  then since we were going to pull the head it, is a lot easier to pull the head, intake and exhaust all at once than to do it separately.  



so I set the engine at TDC  and took the distributor cap off confirming that the rotor was pointed at number 1, and  pulled the head. 



 then I had planned to change the timing set, so I pulled the harmonic balancer and the timing cover.

when I pulled the timing cover I found the crank sprocket positioned with the dot toward the cam sprocket.  the cam sprocket dot however was 180 out.  I rotated it around so the two dots are aligned.  here is the pic.





however the rotor looks like this.





now keep in mind this engine was running just fine when I took it apart.  but this as far as I know looks like the distributor is in 180 out of time.  I called Hesco and asked them about it and they said to just re install everything like I took it out.

so I swapped the timing chain.  it looks like this now.




the distributor looks like this.





before reinstalling the head I rotated the engine so the cam sprocket was at 1:00 and the crank sprocket was at 3:00 and counted pins.  15 count just like it should be. so I positioned it at TDC with the rotor pointing at number one again even though that means my timing dots are not aligned. reinstalled the head, torqued it properly.





now I need to pull the distributor.  the new distributor has a pin in it to keep it from rotating.  My concern is that this looks like it is 180 out to me.  should I reinstall it like it was?  I know it is not that big of a deal to pull the distributor and swap it 180 but I wanted to get some more opinions before I pulled the distributor.

so anyone out there have any opinions?


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## mustanggarage

Since I wanted to do some checking before I do anything else, and the new harmonic balancer I ordered has not arrived yet anyway I started doing some detailing.  I like to make things look nice when I put them back together too, so I started wire wheeling the exhaust manifold.  I found a big crack in it.  that explains why I could not get that stupid exhaust leak stopped.  I thought it was coming from the flange.  anyway I considered swapping in the header from the cherokee but when I put it on there it hits the shifter linkage.  I considered modifying that, but then I would have had to run a custom exhaust from the header to the cat, and have an oxygen sensor bung welded into it as well.  I also considered buying a new manifold.  259 dollars at NAPA.  or a new header from summit 350 to 450.  in the end I decided to see if someone could weld the manifold.  I happen to know a guy, I work with his wife.  anyway he has a welding and forge shop, does a lot of wrought iron work and can weld cast iron.  he says he can fix it for me so I dropped it off at his shop, and I am going to pick it up in the morning.  I also have to swap in a new temp gauge sending unit because I broke the old one when I put the 4.0 in the cherokee.  that will be in tomorrow also.  

since I was kind of at a stopping point Dad left for the night and I spent some time blasting and powdercoating some of the accessory brackets for when we are ready to reinstall them.  I still have a long way to go and this job is not going to be done nearly as fast as I had hoped, but we will get it eventually.  

more to come.


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## havasu

My YJ has the Hesco F/I kit. I didn't install it, but it purrs like a pussycat. If you need any questions answered, feel free to contact Leee at Hesco. He is/has always been a great help. 

http://www.hesco.us/forum/default.asp


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## mustanggarage

one thing I forgot to mention.  the 4.0 head has extra water jackets that need to be filled prior to bolting onto a 4.2 block.  we used JB weld as suggested by people on Jeep forum.  and let that set up for about 36 hours before we bolted the head back on.


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## mustanggarage

thanks havasu.  I called hesco and they connected me to benny.  I will post my question on their website with pics.  maybe that will give them more info to go on.


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## mustanggarage

I thought of something I should have thought of earlier.  now that I have the head on I can look in through the intake and exhaust ports and I can see that number one cylinder both intake and exhaust valves are closed.  since I know that piston is at TDC then that means everything is ok.  I am at TDC on the compression stroke and the rotor is pointing at number one.  so I think I am happy now and I will go ahead and put the front cover on and swap distributors in the morning.


here are the pieces I powdercoated tonight. 





 I am going to wait until I get the intake manifold on before I decide which powersteering unit I am going to use.  I would like to use the one off the cherokee but I don't think it is going to line up properly.


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## oldognewtrick

Oh, this is a lot more fun than cabinets and drywall...


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## oldognewtrick

Did you have the Carter or an aftermarket swap carb, cause I have the same problem with my 88. Let it sit and crank, crank, crank till it finally fires up, then good to go.


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## havasu

I remember reading from Jeep Forum that a Dodge Durango power steering pump was a better and stronger replacement. Have you also read this, or was I dreaming?


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## oldognewtrick

havasu said:


> I remember reading from Jeep Forum that a Dodge Durango power steering pump was a better and stronger replacement. Have you also read this, or was I dreaming?



No, you were not dreaming I've read that also.


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## mustanggarage

actually it is not the pump you are referring to it is the steering gearbox itself.  and it is a beefier piece that bolts in with a bit of work.  I just did a stock replacement on mine.  

well I am still not sure what to make of that timing issue so I have decided to just keep everything exactly as it was before.  so I installed the new distributor in the exact orientation the other one was in.  I may have to swap it 180 when we try to get it running we will have to see.  

but I did get a bit more done today.  first here is my second FYI segment.  I was cleaning up the exhaust manifold to paint it prior to reinstalling it.  I found it was cracked and a new one was 250 dollars so I had it welded.  cost me 75 dollars.  finished cleaning and grinding and painting it and tried to install it....   the 4.2 exhaust manifold does not fit the 4.0 head.  crap.  so I ended up having to use the cherokee header.  I am not totally upset about this.  the cherokee had a nice tubular aftermarket header and it will flow a lot better.  the only problem is that it has no oxygen sensor in it so I will have to add one in the down pipe.  also I had to modify the automatic shifter bracket.





then I installed the new intake manifold.  

then the fuel pump blockoff plate/ coil bracket.

next we lifted the jeep up and started working underneath.  we spliced the new prefilter, electric pump and fuel pressure regulator into the fuel lines back by the gas tank and mounted them to the cross member by using the bolts that hold the skid plate in place.

zip tied all the hoses up high out of the way.  I also installed the new speed sensor at this time.


and a few other things I can't think of right now.

I also found out that In an automatic transmission conversion you have to convert the kickdown linkage to a cable which is not in the kit.  so I ordered that.

right now I have on order:

harmonic balancer

kickdown linkage.

check engine light

tj style exhaust down pipe that will have to be custom modified to work with the rest of the exhaust system.

here is where I am tonight.


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## mustanggarage

btw odnt  I had the weber carb on mine.  it ran great, just slow starting.


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## mustanggarage

have you guys ever had one of those days when the things you are doing for fun, just aren't fun lol.  well today that is the way I felt.  I have been working on the jeep the last couple of days and today I just didn't feel like it.  I did a few minor things.  

1.  I installed the new harmonic balancer that came in yesterday.
2.  cleaned and powdercoated the brackets for the powersteering pump.
3.  cleaned the alternator and painted the fan and pulley.
4.  mounted the ecu to the firewall.
5.  attached the new fuel line to the fuel rail.  
6.  mounted the cps to the bracket on the oilpan.

and that is about it.  just no motivation today.  there is still quite a bit to do but most of it just involves running the wiring harness.  and figuring out where the wires go.  while that is usually one of my least favorite things to do, this kit seems to make it pretty simple the only connections I need to make are 1 constant 12 volt, one switched 12 volt, one ground, 1 wire to the neutral safety switch, one to the tachometer (optional) and one to the check engine light (optional)  the rest is supposedly plug and play.  we will see, but tonight I just don't feel like tearing into it.


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## havasu

When I bought my jeep, they didn't spend the optional $5.00 (J/K since I have no idea what that option actually costs) for the check engine light. I just can't understand this, but I picked up and installed a $3.95 light from Kragen Auto Parts. It sure helps to analyze what is going on with the upgrade.


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## Chris

I love my fuel injection, best mod I ever did. No more stalling out on hills and it starts everyday!


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## mustanggarage

well I have been working late this week so the jeep is coming along kind of slowly.  and of course I continue to do dumb things which slow me down.  

monday I had to work very late so I did not get anything done and yesterday I only had about an hour to work on the jeep.  so we started to run the wiring harness.  I tell you this kit from hesco is awesome everything is pretty easy to do.  the wiring harness is very straight forward.  I made most of the connections in that hour.  

we installed the Diode into the field wire of the alternator.

then hooked up all the sensors.  the CPS is supposed to have a little paper wafer on it that sets the gap.  I could not see any paper wafer but it said in the instructions to push the CPS right up against the harmonic balancer which I did.

then I ran the harness back to the transmission and hooked up the new speed sensor.

on back to the fuel pump.  in the instructions it says make sure you know which terminal is positive and which is negative because it is very difficult to see once installed.... I read this little piece of advice after I had it installed of course.  so out comes my handy dandy iphone which can get in places my head can't and has a zoom function.
http://s972.photobucket.com/user/mustangmccance/media/null_zpsea580110.jpg.html





I have found I use that trick a lot.  when I could not read what my paint code was on my mustang I just took a pic of it and zoomed it out.  if I need to see something under the dash where I can't get my fat head, pic.  very useful tool.

anyway I got the fuel pump wired.  coated it with dielectric grease per the instructions.

now I had to buy a different downpipe for the exhaust that has an o2 sensor in it.  I found the right piece at napa.  I had to cut it and it will have to be fabbed back to the catalytic converter.  I think I will just run it over to the exhaust shop and let him deal with it.  my welder needs to be replaced one of these days.  Dad keeps talking about buying one.  hopefully he will or else I am going to hopefully this summer.

once I got the exhaust pipe in place I installed the new o2 sensor and wired it up.  then I completed the fuel connections by cutting the pressure hard line and splicing it to the new fuel line with a short piece of fuel injection grade rubber hose.

all hoses on the pressure side of the fuel pump are fuel injection grade and double hose clamped.

then I went back up top and hooked the constant 12 volt wire to the starter relay.

the switched twelve volt supply to the yellow wire that went to the old coil.  

the ground went to the dipstick hold down bolt.

neutral safety switch wire to the ground wire on the starter relay.

with all the wires connected I hooked the battery back up, turned the key on and purged the fuel lines through the schrader valve.


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## mustanggarage

you may notice in that picture above that there is only one hose clamp on that fuel line.  that is the first of my minor messups.  after reading the instructions again I had to go back and put another hoseclamp on all my connections.

once all that was done I could not resist cranking the jeep over.  crank sputter crank sputter crank,,,,,nothing.

crap,,,  about that time my Dad showed up and he is convinced the timing is off.  I told him that it can't be, we checked it six ways from sunday.  he thinks that the stupid distributor must be 180 out.  

I did not think so.  after all my research and checking I was sure that part was right.  but I was not sure about that stupid CPS.  Dad says he told me to gap it with a feeler gauge and he probably did.  I did not do that however.  so we reset the cps with the feeler gauge to .025  and what do you know it fired.  we shut it down as soon as it hit because we still did not have the radiator or anything in it.


then we put the front end back on connected the radiator hoses and filled it with water.




she's alive.  obviously we have no exhaust on it yet, and I still have a vacuum leak because I have not replaced the brake booster hose yet.  

I still need to loom up the wiring better, and I just stuck the old spark plugs back in it so I will get some new champions and install them after I get the exhaust done.

next dumb mistake.  I looked through the contents of the kit when I got it and thought I had everything, except the kickdown cable.  hesco lists that as a separate piece so I thought it was not in the kit so I ordered it.  it came tonight and it is exactly the same as the cable I already have.  crap again, it was the throttle cable that was not in the kit and when I checked the packing sheet it does say the kickdown cable is included so I should have checked better.  I am going to see if I can steal the one off the cherokee and make it work, if not I will have to call hesco again.

anyway I am not done yet but it is alive.  it ran a little rough at first but then settled down,  I am sure the computer is getting dialed in and it may take a bit before it is all recalibrated.  the throttle response so far is pretty good so I am looking forward to getting it out and driving it.  hopefully this weekend.  

I also bought a K&N FIPK since it is designed for a 91-95 jeep I am going to have to do some judicious fabricating to make it work but I think it will look better than that funky thing they sent in the kit.  

more to come.


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## havasu

I'm enjoying reading about this build. Since I wasn't the one to install the F/I on my Jeep, I'm amazed at how many steps are done to complete it.


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## mustanggarage

well I did a little research today and I found that the cherokee cable will work but it is a bit long.  I was not sure if it would work after checking the internet so I called Lee at Hesco.  I must say that was a pleasant experience.  I really strongly believe in accepting the responsibility for my own mistakes.  I did not check the parts list adequately when I opened the kit.  I mistook the kickdown cable for the throttle cable.  I ordered the transmission conversion off the website because I did not want to admit I had not checked the list adequately.  I accepted that this was my problem.  I called lee to find out if the cherokee cable would work because I could not find the information on the computer.  He was very gracious.  He said yes the cherokee cable will work.  It may be a bit long and you may need to cable tie it up under the dash but it will work.  But he wanted to know what the serial number on the kit was and the initials of whoever put the kit together.  I told him I would get that to him when I got home.  then he said that he would send me the proper cable free, not even charging me for shipping.  He also said he will credit me for the other cable and provide a return shipping label so I won't have to pay that shipping either.  I am more and more impressed with Hesco the more I work with them.

btw see the attached picture.  this is a copy of the packing list that came with the kit.  if you wonder why the kit is so expensive this is why, there is a ton of stuff that comes with it and it is all put together with really good instructions.

anyway I am off to go chat with the muffler guy. 

View attachment packing list 2.jpg


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## havasu

Wow, that is a parts list. Yes, lee is very impressive, although I've only communicated with him via the web site.


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## mustanggarage

ok. so today I finished up several small items.  I salvaged the cherokee throttle cable.  I did not really understand what lee meant by cable tie the excess under the dash until I tried to install it.  what actually needs done is the inner cable that attaches to the pedal is to long.  so you pull the excess through the pedal and cable tie it up so that it won't pull back through.  then hook up the throttle body end.  I also installed the cable to the kickdown lever.

finished zip tying up some more stuff to keep it out of the way.  fabricated a bracket to anchor a 91 style windshield washer in.  installed the air breather assembly.  I am going to replace this soon with the k &n fipk.  I will take pictures as I figure that little thing up.  then I tried to start it again.  I just reached in through the window, cranked it over it fired immediately and sounded really good.  I have it scheduled to drop it off at the muffler shop tomorrow after noon and have the exhaust finished up.  

the whole project has taken about a week.  I started last thursday evening and other than the exhaust I am done tonight.  I can't wait to take it for a test drive tomorrow.


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## Chris

Your gonna love everything about it. I am trying to talk the father in law to do the same to his CJ8 since he has nothing but problems with the carb.


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## mustanggarage

if you do, they sell several stages of the kit.  if you can find a parts vehicle you can grab the head, intake and injector/throttlebody assembly, and exhaust header as well as the computer and you will be a long ways into.  then i would buy there wiring harness because it is so easy to wire up.  and review my parts list to pick up whatever else you need from hesco including there front mounted cps and harmonic balancer to make everything easy.


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## mustanggarage

well yesterday I salvaged the cherokee throttle cable and made it work.  then I took the jeep over to the muffler shop and had the exhaust hooked back up.  it was missing pretty obviously on the way over so once I got the exhaust on it I swapped the spark plugs to some new champions and then changed the oil.  took it for a spin and it seemed like everything was working perfectly.  so I took my wife to the football game in it and it ran great but when I tried to start it after the game it barely started and the lights were really dim.  I just about got it home and it died.  obviously the alternator was not charging for some reason, and I obviously had not even looked at the voltmeter.  so I walked the rest of the way home, came back with my jump starter battery.  hooked it up to the battery and it started up and I drove it the rest of the way home with that hooked to the battery.    

so we checked all the connections and they looked fine so I pulled the alternator out and took it over to o'reilly's this morning and had it tested.  it tested fine.  so we took it back and checked the wiring again.  I powdercoated the mount so i thought maybe I wasn't getting a good enough ground.  
1.  so I ran a dedicated ground from the alternator anchor bolt to the chassis ground.  

2.  then I found out that one of the wires in the connector that plugged into the alternator was loose, so I took it out of the plug, wire brushed it, bent the little retaining tang a bit more and plugged it back in.  put it back together fired it up and it still didn't charge so I revved it up a bit, and then it was charging.  shut off the switch and it wouldn't shut off.  so I disconnected the alternator plug and it died.  at this point we looked again at the diode we installed in the alternator wiring harness and it was installed per the instructions with the "pink connector toward the alternator".  so we researched, and tested the diode and read until we decided the pink connector must have been installed wrong in the kit.  we switched it around and it worked perfectly.  

so I drained and flushed the radiator and hooked up the heater hoses.
installed the 91 style washer bottle and fixed the wiring so now the rear windshield washer works.

took it for a cruise and it is running perfectly.  now I have some minor things to finish up, like
1.  cleaning up and looking the wires so it looks better, 
2.  figure out how to make the tachometer work with the new coil and   wiring harness 
3.  make the k&N FIPK work with this 90 wrangler.
4.  swap the throttle cables for the correct one when it arrives.
5.  wire up the check engine light.
6.  I also discovered I have a slow brake fluid leak that i did not know about so I am going to have to sort that out as well.  

once I get that done this jeep will be pretty well restored I must say.


ok here is where we started






here is a pic of where I am at now.


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## mustanggarage

so far the conversion has exceeded my expectations.  it starts every time without touching the accelerator, and it has great throttle response.  it really scoots down the road with excellent torque.


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## mustanggarage

today I finished up a few minor details.  the tachometer wiring instructions on this are a bit vague.  they say to run the old tachometer signal wire to the negative side of the new coil.  there is also a wire labeled tachometer feed coming off of the new wiring harness.  the one coming out of the new wiring harness is for another vehicle.  for my jeep I had to run a new wire.  it is very difficult to figure out which wire is the tach signal in that major mess of an original wiring harness, so since I needed to pull the dash to install the check engine light anyway I just located the signal wire right as it came off the tach gauge.  then I ran a new wire to the coil.  attached it temporarily and fired it up.  it worked, so I carefully stripped a segment of the wire and soldered the signal wire in without cutting the coil wire.  wired in the check engine light, then I cleaned up the wiring under the hood and tucked everything into the wire looms.  the engine looks much better and everything works.  took it for a nice long test drive and I really wished I lived closer to moab, like when I lived in Utah.  I would love to take this baby out and see what she would do.  

My daughter is champing at the bit she wants to drive it but I told her I need to drive it for a while and make sure all the bugs are worked out of it first.  she was very impressed when she started it today reaching in through the window and not even having to touch the gas pedal.:rockin::rockin:

next time I get some time off I am going to work on that K&N FIPK


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## mustanggarage

ok so I got a bit impatient. I picked up a piece of strap iron today to make brackets for the air filter assembly. since this K&N FIPK is made for a 95 wrangler I do not have the proper mounting point for the stock airbox to tie into and the powersteering bracket is different as well so I had to improvise. the first thing I did was roughly place everything in where I wanted it. then I marked it. I cut a couple pieces of strap and bent them to fit the angle where I wanted to make my mounting holes. then I attached them to the bottom of the enclosure, and made sure everything lined up. then I cut a piece to go in between those two angle pieces and welded it together. I had to bend them at different angles because the front mount hits right about where the shock tower starts. once you position the bracket and tighten it down it sits pretty level, and is nice and solid. adequate for the job anyway.







not pretty but it worked. then I cleaned it up a bit more and powdercoated it. bolted it in place to the jeep fender and then bolted the enclosure to it. next I had to make a new bracket for the "saddle" that is supposed to attach to the upper bolt on the powersteering pump adjuster. that does not line up well on my jeep so I used the front intake and exhaust manifold bolt, and I powdercoated it red as well.

then I put it together and tightened all the clamps. I think it gives it a more finished look.


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## Chris

Looking good! Did your mileage improve yet?


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## mustanggarage

probably, lol the old carb smelled like it was running a bit rich and now it does not.  however I never actually checked the mileage.  jeeps as you know are not really known for their aerodynamics and great mileage. lol, so I did not really want to know how bad it was.  maybe now we will check it after it has had a time to get everything settled.  but to be honest I will probably treat it like a hot rod and just try to ignore the mileage.


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## Chris

Thats what I do. Ever since my V8 swap with injection in my jeep I have the opportunity to get better mileage but I can't keep my foot out of it long enough to see if I do.


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## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> Thats what I do. Ever since my V8 swap with injection in my jeep I have the opportunity to get better mileage but I can't keep my foot out of it long enough to see if I do.



I can barely imagine a v-8 conversion in one of these short wheel base top heavy flying bricks lol.  that thing is squirly enough with just the 6 in it.  yesterday I was driving it up my gravel road and as I was going around the corner I punched it a bit to spin the tires around the corner like I do in my 89 convertible, and there for a bit it went every way but straight.  it is definitely not a sports car  but it does drive, handle and run like a very nicely sorted out jeep.  this jeep is way nicer than the one I had in Utah.  I just can't believe how much smoother and torquier it is now.  I really wish I knew where some nice offroad trails were around here I would love to see what it would do there.  even though right now suspension wise it is completely stock I think it would do quite well.  

the next thing I want to do to it is to knock some of the stock off it.  I want to put some bigger tires on it and some bushwacker flares.  I do not want to lift it because the main purpose of this thing is to drive in the snow and an Iowa blizzard is no place for a lifted jeep in my opinion.  big tires and as low as you can keep the center of gravity is best in that situation.

the only problem is that it looks like the tires are nearly new so I just can't bring myself to buy new ones yet.  maybe I should list them and all my spare parts on craigslist  oh well.  for now I guess I will just see how it does this winter and then fix what needs fixin.


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## mustanggarage

well my Dad read the write up on this and pointed out a couple things.  first of all when we tried to fire it up, there was a terrible squealing noise and it would fire but just not hit.  that was why he suggested the timing might be off.  now I have to say, he was sure the timing and everything was right from the beginning, it was me worrying and questioning it so much that got him started questioning it.  and when it wouldn't start he decided it must have been wrong after all.  that was before I told him I thought I might have messed up the CPS install.  also we found that I had reinstalled the fan on the alternator wrong and that was why it was squealing.  so anyway I pointed out that I was convinced that the timing was correct because it is pretty rare when I am sure enough about something on these cars that I will disagree with my Dad.  he is usually right so I don't argue often.  so as Paul Harvey would say now you know the rest of the story lol.


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## Chris

My jeep is of a different beast now, I went with the V8 and auto trans and tossed in the full width Dana 60 axles from my pickup truck and did a spring over conversion and she was on 37's but now is on 35's. Also I stretched the front six inches and the rear two inches so she drives totally different then when she was stock. It is almost like a short bed standard cab pickup now with no body attached.

On yours to keep it stock but give it a little edge I would get rid of the track bars front and rear and get sway bar disconnects (trac bars help in binding the suspension on these little jeeps, Let it free man). Also if you want to keep it low and have a great ride get some old man emu springs, you will get 2" lift with them but it will ride like a cadilac.


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## mustanggarage

your jeep is very impressive.  it would be a ton of fun on a trail ride.  I like the ome spring idea, that is what I was actually considering.  as far as the track bars.  I am not sure about that.  since my goal for now is to make this more of an all weather street and dirt road rig than a trail rig I thought the track bars should stay in place?  


hopefully my little yj will get a little more fun as time goes on.  for right now I am aiming a bit lower lol.  I want it to be a reliable vehicle for my daughter to get to school in this winter.  next year I will have to do some more fun things to it.


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## oldognewtrick

I dumpeed the track bars on my stock 88 YJ...you don't need them, they only make it ride rougher.


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## havasu

I did as well on my '90. It didn't cause me any problems on or off the road.


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## mustanggarage

now that we have had the mpfi in the jeep for a few months I can say that it has worked flawlessly.  it starts every time in the coldest weather we have had.  it is awesome.  So now I decided I will once again prove I am the coolest dad in atlantic iowa.  at least according to my daughter.  since it is really cold getting into the jeep and getting it warmed up.  especially in these arctic vortex days lol.  I bought a viper smart start remote starter for it.  it is one of those that you can use your iphone to start and it has essentially unlimited range.  It comes with installation because you have to activate it to the cell network.  anyway it should be cool.  she can remote start the truck while she is getting her stuff from her locker and it will be warmed up by the time she gets there.  I think I will also see if they can put remote door actuators on there so she will actually lock the doors lol.

anyway I know if I post this on jeep forum they would laugh me off the site, but My daughter will love it.  
btw the jeep has worked great this winter so far.  it gets around in the snow great and so far has exceeded all expectations.


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## Chris

I need that set up in my pickup.

Funny how making a jeep start and run daily makes them that much better. I drove mine to work today for the first time in months, its always a blast to drive.


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## havasu

I sold my TJ on Sunday. I'm really depressed to get rid of her and since I (gave) it to CarMax, I took a bath on what they gave me for it. The new buyer is going to get a gem, and not even know that all the rubber and seals have been replaced, with fresh fluids throughout it.


----------



## Chris

So how much did you get for it?


----------



## havasu

They gave me $8500 even though trade in blue book was $9400. They even got the new soft top, windshield, winch, floor mats, new brakes, seals, gaskets, rear main, etc. Oh well...


----------



## Chris

Hate to see them go.


----------



## mustanggarage

I had some time off this week so I went back to see my Grandma out in Nebraska.  she is 94 and so I do not know how many more opportunities I will get to see her.  My uncle needed some help setting up some hearing impaired headphones so she can hear the television.  so any way we had a good trip.  
so why is this in my Jeep thread?  well I am getting there.  we stopped off for supper on the way home.  it was colder than heck out so I used the remote start on my 2014 pickup to warm it up.  we go outside and the back window is spiderwebbed all through the drivers side part of the slider.




  I got home and called the dealership where I bought it and they are not sure it is going to be covered under warranty so I am ticked.  regardless it won't be until next week before they can get a new glass in so they told me to tape it up.  of course when I tried to do that it shattered and little chunks of glass went everywhere.  anyway so now I can either put cardboard in the window and duct tape.  or get the jeep operational.

I chose to work on the jeep.  so the two main things that were making it so I could not drive it right now are no brakes and no 4 wheel drive.  with all the snow we got the last few days that is important.  so anyway I had planned to do a major refit of the jeep and spend some time working on it slowly over the next several months.  replacing the brakes, switching to a tj front axle, replacing the stubshafts and the wheel hubs etc.  but now I just need to get the jeep functional until I can get the truck fixed.

so first instead of swapping in the tj axles which I don't have yet I just opened the cad.  we has previously permanently locked the locking gear over to the engaged side.  however when I opened the cad I found that somehow the locking gear had popped out of the yoke.  so I put that back together with a washer to hold the yoke more firmly so it won't flex as much.  hopefully this will hold it until I am ready to swap in the new axles.

I already had the new master cylinder and brake booster  the 95 yj has a dual brake booster for much better braking but it requires a different master cylinder so all that has to be swapped together.  btw if you plan to do this by getting one from a junk yard be sure to get the short lines and the distribution block as well all in one piece.  it would make life so much easier. I am also upgrading to black magic pads and rotors.  I had bought new brake lines before bryce sold it but the new owner never put them on.  but I got them from him as well.  so 
first I pulled the old master and booster out.  then I bolted up the new booster.  after that I decided to run the new brake lines.  the old lines were rusted and of course when I tried to take them loose they broke in multiple places.  but I replaced all the steel brake lines.  I have ordered new soft lines but they aren't here yet so I will have to go through bleeding them again when I swap those in later.  anyway all new brake lines in.  then I found out that the new brake booster has 8 mm studs to mount the master cylinder and of course I did not have any 8 mm nuts.  I also had to get some adapter fittings because the new master cylinder has metric fittings and the old one did not. so at that point I pulled the old drums off and found that the shoes and hardware were shot.  fortunately napa had the shoes and oreilly had the hardware.  now I can swap rotors and pads in about a minute but shoes I have never really done much of.  my Dad usually does that.  anyway this time he came over to help but mostly supervised me doing it, which means I had to redo it about 8 million times before I got it right.  man what a pain in the butt.  but I did finally get it.  neither napa nor oreilly had new brake cylinders but they were not leaking so hopefully they will last a while.  



I was so frustrated getting those stupid shoes back together right that I did not take any pictures.  but all new shoes and hardware.  the drums were still in decent shape so we just had them turned and painted them with a bit of alumablast paint and we are good to go.






I first mocked everything up.  bent the lines so I could get them started.   of course the new master has the lines attached on the outboard side instead of inboard so I had to modify them.




I did clean up those lines a bit better after this picture.

then I got the proper fittings and nuts and bench bled the master cylinder.'







 finished bolting up the mastercylinder. 


then swapped the front rotors and pads with some black magic pads and rotors.  I had planned to take some time and paint the calipers and everything and make them look nice but I was in a rush to get everything done because I needed to drive the jeep.  no time to make it pretty.  hopefully later I can clean things up better.







then once I finished getting everything together we bled and bled and bled the brakes.  started it up and bled them some more.  I just could not get much of a pedal. finally Dad suggested I take it for a short drive to see if some air would work itself out.  so I did and found that actually I have very good brakes I just need to get used to how the pedal feels.  with that new booster I can almost put the pedal on the floor if I really give it the leg.  however the brakes lock up long before that so actually the brakes are pretty good.  i drove it around for about 30 minutes and bedded the rotors the way it says in the instructions.  the 4wd worked ok as well except I need to adjust the transfer case linkage a bit.  also I somehow messed up the stereo working under the dash.  I think I blew a fuse so I will have to check that out later.  I also found there was a plug on one of the vacuum ports on the throttle body that was missing.  so now the jeep is running and idling very well.  it stops fine and although I need some new tires it is getting around ok in the snow.  so I am up and running until they get my truck fixed.


----------



## oldognewtrick

Now, isn't this much more fun than tile and painting bathrooms?


----------



## mustanggarage

yes much more fun.  over the weekend I was getting very little heat so I tried flushing the heater core.  not much luck so I swapped in a new heater core saturday.  much better now.  someday when I have more time I really need to pull that back out and put in some foam insulation to seal it better.  I did not have any and of course by the time I had time to work on it, it was after 8 and everything but walmart was closed.  walmart might have had what I needed but I just wanted to get it back together so that will be a project I have to do again someday.  fortunately it is very easy to pull that heater out.  

sadly my stupid 4wd is still not working.  I used the permalock solution on that CAD but the stupid locking collar keeps coming disconnected anyway.  I have decided to permanently fix the problem.  so I ordered 

new tj axles for the bigger ujoint and one piece axle design.
new moog hub assemblies
new seal for the driver side and the napa 11800 seal for the passenger side of the diff.

once those get here I will fix it permanently.  also my stereo keeps shutting down.  I think the stupid wiring is messed up and there is very little room back there to shove the wires so I am going to get rid of that stereo and get a new digital stereo.  this is like the one I put in the tj.  since I never use cd's anymore it gets rid of that extra space and the stereo is about 2 inches shallower to make the wiring a lot easier to keep from getting messed up when I have to work on the stupid heater.


----------



## mustanggarage

oh and btw the ford dealership says that ford has changed it's tune on the window, I guess they no longer need authorization to warranty the windows.  must be a lot of people complaining.  I think they are trying to avoid a general recall.  but at least the window will be replaced under warranty so that is good news.


----------



## havasu

Please take lots of pics of the one piece axle installation. I'm intrigued as to how it installs up.


----------



## oldognewtrick

I'm starting to get a little fog on the window from the defroster vent. I guess a new cores in my future. You say it's not hard, next time you pull yours, take some pics for this dummy please.


----------



## havasu

It is not hard, just tedious. My biggest fear was puncturing the new core during installation.


----------



## mustanggarage

Yeah I need to take some pictures.  Jeep forum has a nice write up on it that helps.  but basically you pull the battery and the battery tray.  remove the wire to the heater motor and 4 small 7/16 nuts and the heater hoses.  then go under the dash.  remove 3 control cables and the defroster duct and wiggle the whole thing out.  then take all the screws out pull out the old core put the new one in and reverse the procedure.  if You have a second person to hold the plenum up once you get the drain and the studs restarted it is an easy procedure.  if you are doing it by yourself it is a pain in the but to get it propped up there and jump around and get a nut started before the stupid thing falls out again lol  I had my daughter help this time.  much easier than the last time I did it.  I need to get one of those filters for the radiator hose.  I think there is a lot of scale in the engine.  anyway I plan to do that next time.  the other thing that you need to do is look at the heater core when you buy it.  some of them will be a cheap aluminum version that does not have the steel anchoring plate across the top that you screw into. if it does not have it go somewhere else.  Napa sells a good one.  oreilly's I had to pull the old plate off and jb weld it to the oreily heater core. 

View attachment shopping.jpg


View attachment shopping2.jpg


----------



## havasu

Did your heater core box still have the foam which the heater core sits inside of?


----------



## mustanggarage

havasu said:


> Did your heater core box still have the foam which the heater core sits inside of?



No.  Just the small strip of foam that comes with the new core.  I know I need to get some foam around it.  but it is working well enough to keep it comfortable in the jeep now.  but I know I can make it better.

btw here is a link to that jeep forum thread which has nice pictures for removing the heater core.  I don't think I can do a better job.  I am going to shamelessly steal some pictures of it to post here however.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f12/heater-core-219329/


ok.  so here are some pics borrowed from jeep forum.  the first two are of a 90 and up yj.  the 87 -some 90's bolt up slightly different. 

View attachment Firewall 01.jpg


View attachment Firewall 02.jpg


View attachment Firewall 03.jpg


----------



## mustanggarage

this is what the 87-90 bolts look like.  again after you remove the battery tray. 

View attachment 90 (2).jpg


View attachment 90-2.jpg


----------



## mustanggarage

this is what the assembly looks like.  those two screws in yellow go in that plate that should be on the heater core so you see if it is missing nothing really holds the heater core from moving around except the hoses. 

View attachment Assembly 01.jpg


View attachment Core in box 01.jpg


----------



## mustanggarage

that door next to the heater core is the temp control door.  it also has foam on it that gets hard and does not seal well.


----------



## havasu

I also used that same thread when I replaced mine. It was very accurate and made the job easy.


----------



## mustanggarage

I feel a bit guilty putting up pics from that thread on here, but the fact is that most of what I know I learned by either watching someone else or reading about it.  so I guess as long as I give credit where it is due I am just passing on knowledge.


----------



## oldognewtrick

It's s sister site. No worries. ( or was at some point in time. )


----------



## havasu

Yeah, we use to be one big happy family... many moons ago.


----------



## mustanggarage

well I have a lot of stuff to do now.





It will probably take a while to get it all done.  but I did get started.  I put the jeep up on the lift and pulled the front wheels off.

then I carefully removed the brakes and bagged them.  then I had my oldest daughter helping me today.  she usually is not interested in working out here, but she helped me today.  so I put her to work cleaning up the axle.




then I pulled the tie rod off so I could access the diff housing.

the best way to remove a ball joint that I have found is the shock and fall technique.  loosen the nut so that just a few threads hold it.  then  you take a good sized hammer and whack the heck out of the point the ball joint attaches.  right here.




five good whacks and voila.  no risk of tearing up the rubber with a pickle fork, and no risk of destroying the ball joint.  





then I removed the hubs and axles.  remove these 3 bolts out of the hub using a 12 point 1/2 inch socket.  I did use a fair amount of pb blaster, but with my dad's long 1/2 inch drive ratchet they came loose pretty easily.  





then the easiest way to get the hub loose is to leave the 3 bolts loosely threaded into the hub and whack them with a hammer.  a few blows on each bolt.  moving around in a circle to force the hub out.





then I pulled the cad housing off and found out why it failed this time.  the stupid little clip that was supposed to hold the yoke in place was broken.  so anyway I will not have to worry about that problem again.

after pulling the cad yoke out I pulled all but the top bolt out of the diff cover and popped the diff.


----------



## mustanggarage

once you remove the outer stubshafts and hubs you look into the cad opening and see this.





remove the locking gear and the other half of the shaft.





looking down the axle you can see the seal in the outer aspect of the cad assembly.





most of the places I read say you should remove that seal but from my research that really is not necessary.  it will not do anything anymore because the tj shaft is smaller in diameter at that point than the yj shaft.

I have not pulled the diff out yet.  I am going to wait until Dad comes over tomorrow before I do that.  and besides I wanted to clean the axle up a bit.  I have ordered a new diff cover, but it won't be in until monday so I am not really in a big hurry to get it back together.

I decided to go ahead and get new calipers for the front and I painted them with some red caliper paint.





wire wheeled the knuckles and painted them with alumablast paint





and wire wheeled the axle and the springs and painted them with eastwood chassis black.

then I bead blasted the backing plates for the brakes and painted them with vht black engine paint because I ran out of chassis black.





now I just need to let the paint dry and then tomorrow I think I should be able to get the axle back together.  I will have to wait until monday to put the new diff cover on so I may just have to stick the old cover on temporarily.  but I still have other work to do so I may just work on some other stuff while I wait.

I am tentatively planning a 2.5 inch lift sometime in the next year with all new shocks and springs so all that I am just leaving for now.


----------



## oldognewtrick

I've been looking at Old Man Emu or BDS for a 2-1/2" lift for mine. My old springs and shocks ride like a brick. Guess I'm gonna jeep it so I need to make it ride a lil better.


----------



## havasu

You guys are making me want to buy another jeep so I could do some wrenching. Damn you!


----------



## mustanggarage

oldognewtrick said:


> I've been looking at Old Man Emu or BDS for a 2-1/2" lift for mine. My old springs and shocks ride like a brick. Guess I'm gonna jeep it so I need to make it ride a lil better.



I have heard the OME springs ride the best.  I used a rubicon express lift on my jeep I had in Utah.  I liked it just fine.  but my jeep is not my daily driver so I have never really been all that concerned about the ride.  I just always figured "it's a Jeep"  lol  anyway that will have to wait a while.  I want to put some 31 10.50 tires and bushwacker flares on it this summer.  then I will add the lift at a later time.  for the time being it is all about making everything work right.  and make sure everything is in good repair.  and upgrading to better than stock whenever something needs fixed.  I just felt the need to justify the fact that my shocks are all crappy looking and obviously worn out, and I have no intention of changing them until I put the lift on.


----------



## oldognewtrick

havasu said:


> You guys are making me want to buy another jeep so I could do some wrenching. Damn you!



Quit giving yours away and you'd have one...


----------



## havasu

Yeah, you are correct on that one.


----------



## mustanggarage

well after a few major parts SNAFU's  we pretty much have the conversion done.  to just do the shaft conversion would be a pretty easy task I think.  by doing all the other stuff I did I complicated it quite a bit, but hopefully it will all turn out good in the end.

ok so on to the pics.

the first thing we did was to remove the differential.  I used an old box that I marked to make sure the bearing caps and everything went back together right.




here is a comparison between the old shaft and the new one.  it of course has the larger 270x ujoint which is a bonus for this upgrade.





next you need to install the new seals.  so since there was no seal in the differential on the passengers side you need to add one.  so I installed this EAS3-05 seal I got from summit racing.  some people use a napa 11800 seal.  I tried to get that one to seat but ended up getting it started crooked and bent it.  the eas seal installs without tools you just stick it up in there with your hand.  so easy.  it is however quite a bit more expensive.  




 then remove the old drivers side axle seal and install a new one.






then i installed these alloy USA end cap seals.  I used a liberal amount of permatex ultra black to seal them.  you just coat them with the permatex and push them in.  trying to keep the zerk in a relatively easy place to access.  I pointed it straight back to hopefully prevent a lot of guck from plugging them up.





they are primarily just to keep dirt and water out of the axle shaft.  they are greasable so hopefully they will do the job.





then reinstall the carrier assembly, torque the bearing caps to 45 foot pounds.





 and slide in the new axles, being careful to not knock out the new seals.


----------



## mustanggarage

then put the brake dust shields on being careful to orient them correctly and start all three of the bolts for the hub assembly loosely.

tighten them down in a circle whacking the hub assembly with a deadblow hammer occasionally and torque to 75 footpounds.  


both the hubs I bought off ebay were wrong so I had to pick up one here in town and drive to council bluffs to get the other.  because if you get the wrong ones once you tighten down the brake rotor the hub will not turn.  ask me how I know.  





then I installed a new pinion nut set.  first the washer.  then the nut.  torque the nut to 175 foot pounds.  that is pretty easy to do for me because the only socket I had that would fit it was in my Dad's 3/4 inch set so I used his 3/4 inch monster torque wrench to tighten it.  install a couple lug nuts to keep from damaging the threads then use a pry bar to hold the hub from turning while you torque it.  the first time I installed it I had Dad hold it, but he was gone when I got back from council bluffs with the second so i had to improvise to get it torqued.













*it is very important that the pinion nut be torqued properly as this sets the preload on the bearing and if it is wrong it can destroy the bearing.*


put the locking castle washer on and the new cotter pin.





then the rotors and new calipers.





and new braided stainless flexible lines, with two new copper washers.  





now when Dad comes back tomorrow we will bleed the brakes again. I considered getting some speed bleeders or a pressure bleeder and some day I will but for now I will be pumping the brakes while Dad bleeds them.

then I have a few other jobs to do. tomorrow.  including getting my stereo to work but first I want to possibly get the cat back exhaust on it.  then get it off the lift so I can get to the stereo and dash a bit easier.


----------



## havasu

What a great write up! I'm afraid you have surpassed my abilities for doing this myself, but nice to know there are still gearheads that could handle this with what appears very little problems. Congrats!


----------



## mustanggarage

havasu said:


> What a great write up! I'm afraid you have surpassed my abilities for doing this myself, but nice to know there are still gearheads that could handle this with what appears very little problems. Congrats!



thanks.  but really just switching to the tj axle is very easy. if you use that seal I mention and if you are just switching the axle and not doing all the other stuff I did you could easily do it in a half day even if you have never done it before.  the only hard part is getting the seals in straight and making sure you know how everything goes back together.  but I think with the pictures I took I think it is a very easy job.  much easier than changing rear brake shoes.  and I am not joking.

Dad did not come over today so I did not get the brakes bled yet, so I did some other things today.  first I removed the rear track bar.  I can't quite bring myself to remove the front one though.  

I also swapped out the rear flex line with the braided line to match the front lines.  btw one thing I never mentioned before is that someone did the axle vent mod on this jeep before I got it so the rubber hose on top is the axle vent that goes well up into the area around the gas tank.  the front goes clear up into the engine compartment.





then I pt in the cat back exhaust.





so tomorrow I want to get the brakes bled and get the jeep back on the ground.  then I can fix the stereo and the gauges.  I also have some decals to put on that will finally make a jeep out of my joop lol.


----------



## oldognewtrick

Dump the front track bar, I did. You won't miss it at all.


----------



## mustanggarage

oldognewtrick said:


> Dump the front track bar, I did. You won't miss it at all.



I probably will when I put the lift on.  for the time being I will keep the front one on. anyway.  I am slowly making progress.


----------



## mustanggarage

well we had a booger of a time trying to bleed the brakes.  I need to get me one of those one man brake bleeders that pump from the wheel up.    anyway we found out that one of the stupid bleeders would not stop leaking on the drivers rear drum. so I decided to go ahead and replace both wheel cylinders and drums so that the entire  brake system except the stupid pedals is new lol.





clean up the brake drums on the inside with brake cleaner and install.





I also got my new nodular iron diff cover installed.





filled it with differential grease, cleaned out the cad opening and spun the wheels for a bit.  I will spin them some more later and watch to see if any grease comes out the shaft to make sure the seal is sealing.  then put the cad cover back on.


----------



## havasu

When I installed my wheel cylinders, I was unable to bleed them properly. Using Jeep Forum, someone giggled at me and asked if I installed the wheel cylinders upsidedown, and sure enough, I did. They bled quick after I flipped them over. 

So before I giggle, are you sure you didn't mount them upsidedown?


----------



## mustanggarage

havasu said:


> When I installed my wheel cylinders, I was unable to bleed them properly. Using Jeep Forum, someone giggled at me and asked if I installed the wheel cylinders upsidedown, and sure enough, I did. They bled quick after I flipped them over.
> 
> So before I giggle, are you sure you didn't mount them upsidedown?



 I was having trouble getting them bled before I replaced them because the bleeder valve was not sealing properly.  that's why I decided to replace them.  but as for installing them upside down, I don't see how you could do that on this vehicle. the opening in the backer plate is shaped in such a way that I don't see how I could put it in upside down.  but I did go back and check and they are in right.  I just put them in tonight so I will try to bleed them again tomorrow.


----------



## havasu

If you install the left on the right, they will go upsidedown (at least on my YJ)


----------



## mustanggarage

well hopefully they are on right.  anyway I will see tomorrow.  I tried to put a new battery cable on tonight and as i was tightening it down the brand new cable end broke.  so I had to put the stupid replacement end back on until I can get another new cable.  what a pain.


----------



## havasu

Hell, maybe it was my TJ that I installed the calipers upsidedown. All I know was the bleeder faced up when correct and down when wrong.


----------



## Chris

I have the Mighty vac one man bleeder. It works great. I usually just crack the bleeder open and let it drain for a bit, that gets most all the air out, then I vac them and all good. I just did the calipers on my Cherokee a week or so ago, simple job.


----------



## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> I have the Mighty vac one man bleeder. It works great. I usually just crack the bleeder open and let it drain for a bit, that gets most all the air out, then I vac them and all good. I just did the calipers on my Cherokee a week or so ago, simple job.



yeah that is what I did last night after I put the new rear wheel cylinders in.  just left the bleed screw open till fluid started draining out.  but since I don't have the mighty vac or any of the other options I will have Dad open the bleeders while I pump the brakes up like we have done forever.  it works it is just not as efficient, and inevitibly we get brake fluid all over, even though I try to have him use a catch container with tubing.  

and as far as changing the calipers I agree.  I can change the pads rotors and calipers in no time.  I did struggle with those rear brake shoes a bit though.  anyway now every part of my brake system has been replaced so I should have good brakes.  hopefully I will even be able to drive it a bit this weekend.


----------



## mustanggarage

ok.  brakes are fixed.  4wd is fixed.  the jeep is functional at this point.  I can mash the brakes at 50 and it will lock them up.  I noticed last night on my test drive that I need to adjust my shift linkage for both the transmission and the transfer case.  but overall I am happy with my progress so far.  I plan to tear the gauges and stereo out tonight and do some work on that side of things.


----------



## Chris

I just swapped out all the dash lights in my cherokee for LED bulbs in white, it made the whole thing look like a newer car. Those dim yellow lights did it no justice. My heater controls and all the little stuff look great. (not like teenagers do now but like a new car) I found on ebay gauge overlays for my dash that are backlit as well. It reallydid make it change from 1985 to what new cars look like, I will see if I can get a picture. I glued them over the factory faces and then wired them into the dimmer so all works like it should.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/161878890275?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT


----------



## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> I just swapped out all the dash lights in my cherokee for LED bulbs in white, it made the whole thing look like a newer car. Those dim yellow lights did it no justice. My heater controls and all the little stuff look great. (not like teenagers do now but like a new car) I found on ebay gauge overlays for my dash that are backlit as well. It reallydid make it change from 1985 to what new cars look like, I will see if I can get a picture. I glued them over the factory faces and then wired them into the dimmer so all works like it should.
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/161878890275?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT



I really like that.  too bad they don't appear to have it for yj's


----------



## mustanggarage

well I found this gauge package from barneys jeeps that I uploaded as an attachment. and installed it when I installed the stereo.   the nice thing is that it is just plug and play.


I don't really like crimp connectors they have a tendency to fail on me so I prefer to twist, solder, and shrink tube them.









one thing I also learned is I do not put the ground wire or the 12v constant power through that connector.  I prefer to use heavier gauge wire and run them outside the connector so there is less chance they will short or fail











 

View attachment yjgpa-black_v1.jpg


View attachment YJGPA-8790blackbackpanel_v1.jpg


----------



## Chris

I did see the white face gauges for yours. That would look pretty good except you would have to swap out that neat gauge cluster.


----------



## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> I did see the white face gauges for yours. That would look pretty good except you would have to swap out that neat gauge cluster.



maybe next time I get sick of them.  I would prefer the white face gauges.  I think I am going to put the autometer gauges in for the tach and speedometer.  I want a programmable speedometer so I can upgrade the tires and possibly later the gears without having to swap speedometer gears everytime I do anything.


----------



## Chris

Would be nice if they made a nice digital gauge set for the yj.


----------



## Deckape

Chris said:


> Would be nice if they made a nice digital gauge set for the yj.


Chris, have you looked here? http://www.dakotadigital.com/


----------



## Chris

I did. That is where I found them for my f250 project.

The jeep yj is the mutt that no one likes.

I vote build a cj style dash for the yj.


----------



## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> I did. That is where I found them for my f250 project.
> 
> The jeep yj is the mutt that no one likes.
> 
> I vote build a cj style dash for the yj.



you're killing me Chris.  lol.  personally I like the yj always have.  I like it a lot better than the cj.  I really do not like the cj style dash.  my favorite of all the jeeps is the tj.  it has the best of all worlds in my opinion.  the best drivetrain.  best interior, best looking jeep of them all. but I still like my yj.  the cj puts the speedometer in the middle of the jeep which to me is a very awkward place for it.  it is fine when off roading when you really don't care how fast you are going but for basic driving like I spend most of my time doing it would be a major downgrade.  JMO.  anyway I have this one working for now and I like it pretty well.  maybe someday I will switch to white face gauges, but at least I can see them now lol.


----------



## Chris

My YJ gauges are in the middle and I agree it is not ideal. I have only riden in a TJ a couple times and I remember them being cramped but I am also a 6'3" 260 pounds so most vehicles are cramped. I do like their style though. I even thought about getting a JK but can't justify the money for something I will drive on occasion.


----------



## mustanggarage

I think the tj interior is nice.  the gauges are easy to read.  the stereo controls are much easier to get to .  the heat comes out of the dash so you don't freeze.  far and away better than the yj or cj.  but I do still love my old yj 

View attachment tj.jpg


----------



## havasu

I wish I never sold my TJ. It is something I will always regret.


----------



## Chris

Buy another? You're not a broke college kid.


----------



## havasu

I'm actually looking for 1938-1940 Ford right now. That is probably cheaper than a TJ these days.


----------



## Chris

Probably?...


----------



## Deckape

mustanggarage said:


> I can barely imagine a v-8 conversion in one of these short wheel base top heavy flying bricks lol.  that thing is squirly enough with just the 6 in it.
> 
> MG; In the mid '70's the CJ's were factory produced with an optional 304 cu in V8. A popular *bolt in* swap was either the 340 or 360 AMC V8's. I know a lot of guys that raced them at Little Sahara Park in Waynoka, OK.
> 
> I still have my '75 CJ with the original 258 cu in straight 6. I pumped it up with a Holley 750 4-barrel, header, and a Sig Erson .500 lift cam, '72 model head, ported & polished, and 1.7:1 rockers pushing .202 intakes and .194 exhausts through triple angled valve seats (which leaves .060 clearance in the cylinder diameter). Dyno testing showed 260 HP at the rear wheels (No Turbo)
> Oh, by the way, it has about 36K miles on it now. In 1976, I was clocked on radar by the Highway Patrol @ 127 MPH with the soft top up.
> No brag, just fact.


----------



## mustanggarage

You are a braver man than me. Although I must say now that I have all my steering. Suspension and brake repairs done. The little jeep actually handles pretty well for a flying brick lol


----------



## mustanggarage

btw  it is a joop no longer





next I want to tackle trying to adjust the doors.  they don't close right.  you have to slam them really hard and the bottom especially of the passenger door sticks out.  so I ordered some new door hinges. the bolts in the hinges are painted in and I know I am going to have to drill them out to get them off to adjust them and so I am going to just put new black powdercoated hinges at least on the door side I may end up pulling the body side off eventually but I am not excited about trying to get those bolts out of the window frame  ugh.  anyway we will see how that goes.  my guess is it is going to be a major PITA


----------



## mustanggarage

I have done a few minor things the last few days.  I bought a new set of tires.  the old ones were getting pretty worn and they really did not do well in the snow.  so I bought a set of these general red letter tires.  I think they look pretty good.  I do get a little rubbing from the fender flares.  I have always planned to put those bushwacker pocket flares on it though.  I just like the way they look, once I do that it looks like I will have adequate clearance so I may not have to put a lift on it, at least until I get the new bumpers and winch I want to put on it.  then I might have more clearance issues.  in the mean time I prefer to keep the body as low as I can get it with the size tires I like.  here are a couple pics.









I also ordered a programmable speedometer and tachometer.  I wish I would have found these gauges before I ordered the others.  now I am going to have to replace the ones I have in the dash because I really like the styling of the speedo and tach.  they are going to take a while to get here.  I will post up pics when they do.  Dad and I spent most of the day pulling the door hinges off and adjusting them.  we managed to get them all off without breaking any of them.  amazingly enough.  anyway a little more progress.


----------



## mustanggarage

I got my rugged ridge pocket fender flares on friday, but the new rivnut tool I ordered for the m-5 rivnuts is not here yet, and I also ordered some black diamond plate rocker panel armor which is not here yet.  I have seen those rocker skids others have used that incorporate the skid and the rocker armor together. but I really like the rocker skids from tomken so I plan to install them eventually.  but I wanted to protect the rocker panels with the diamond plate as well.  also there was some rust bubbles starting to form on the rocker panel already so I am beginning to see that the fresh paint on this jeep hid some deeper rust issues.  no big surprise really.  anyway I did start working on it.  first thing I removed the old fender flares.





then if you look closely at that rocker panel you can see some rust bubbles.  I thought well I will just see how bad it is.  well it was pretty bad.  there was a quarter sized hole all the way through that was just filled with bondo.  so I decided I had to fix it.  so I cut that piece out.





sprayed the hole area with rust converter.

cut a new piece of metal out of the old hood from my convertible.





and welded it in.





I am sorry to report, I am no Kevin Tetz.  however after a bit more grinding I covered it with metal to metal filler.




then sprayed some epoxy primer on it.  then some truck bedliner to protect it.





the other side was not as bad.  I had a couple areas with some rust bubbles but no holes so I just sprayed them with rust converter after knocking the paint and surface scale off with a wire brush then bedlinered both sides.









then I test fit the first fender flare.





of course none of the holes line up and I am going to have to modify the hole for the marker light as well, but I will get it done eventually


----------



## Chris

Looking good. I am glad we don't get the rust like that around here. I need to find some cool flares for my XJ.


----------



## mustanggarage

I started installing the flares tonight.  there are lots of ways to do these flares.  the kit comes with bolts and nuts, but I decided to use rivnuts.  I think this is a better way to go.  









then you don't have to pull the inner fender liner out and you don't have to hold a wrench on the nut.  so you don't have to lift the vehicle or pull the wheel off.  it makes the whole install much easier.

just put the rubber strip on.





then put 2 bolts in to hold the flare where you want it and use the flare to mark the holes with the drill.






the marker light holes did not line up correctly so I marked them and used a die grinder to modify the holes a bit.





then I installed my diamond plate armor.  I had to modify it a bit to fit around some of the riv nuts. then silicone the back and position it.





then use some of these little black aluminum rivets to hold it in place.





unfortunately the last flare I went to install is made wrong, or it is made for a different vehicle the back is longer than the front so it is not level when you position the bottom at the bottom of the tub.  





as opposed to this side which is made right.





so I did not finish the job.  but this is how the drivers side looks.


----------



## Chris

I like it. Where do I find a rivnut device? That would come in handy for a lot of stuff.


----------



## havasu

I installed those same flares on my YJ and yes, their way of bolting them up was a real *****. They had the bolt caps which constantly pop out, and you were able to eliminate them all together. Another complaint is those soft rubber moldings between the hard plastic fender and the metal body seem to slip quite a bit. I am constantly having to reposition it, and dabbing small amounts of silicone trying to stick it back in place. Next time I will glue that molding in place before installing the fender.


----------



## havasu

Damn Chris, you see I get up early, just like the working class!


----------



## oldognewtrick

havasu said:


> Damn Chris, you see I get up early, just like the working class!



Tell the truth, you just had to get up to pee.....


----------



## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> I like it. Where do I find a rivnut device? That would come in handy for a lot of stuff.




 I first saw it on extreme 4x4.  I bought it off amazon. 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TODXQW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20


----------



## Chris

havasu said:


> Damn Chris, you see I get up early, just like the working class!



What is wrong with you?



mustanggarage said:


> I first saw it on extreme 4x4.  I bought it off amazon.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TODXQW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20



Thanks!


----------



## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> What is wrong with you?
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks!



I'm with Old dog.  Prostatism.  I don't know about you guys but I can't sleep past 7:30 before I have to get up to use the bathroom.  it's weird.  we go to hawaii, I wake up at 4:30 every morning.  my bladder has an internal alarm clock and it is apparently not rapidly adjustable to time zone changes lol.


----------



## oldognewtrick

mustanggarage said:


> I'm with Old dog.  Prostatism.  I don't know about you guys but I can't sleep past 7:30 before I have to get up to use the bathroom.  it's weird.  we go to hawaii, I wake up at 4:30 every morning.  my bladder has an internal alarm clock and it is apparently not rapidly adjustable to time zone changes lol.



Well, I'll share a secret, the older you get, the more often you have to go looking for a fire hydrant...


----------



## Chris

oldognewtrick said:


> Well, I'll share a secret, the older you get, the more often you have to go looking for a fire hydrant...



I'm clockwork at 4:30 am everyday. I hate it on the weekends. I get up between 4-4:30 daily without an alarm clock.


----------



## Chris

havasu said:


> Damn Chris, you see I get up early, just like the working class!



It's 3am are you up yet?


----------



## oldognewtrick

Chris said:


> It's 3am are you up yet?



Guess havasu doesn't get up as early as he thought he did...


----------



## havasu

Sorry guys. I woke up with the flu today. Man, this sucks.


----------



## oldognewtrick

Sorry to hear Mark, get better soon!


----------



## Chris

I just got over that nasty crap.

That's the one thing I hate about being a business owner. I don't get days off no matter how I feel.


----------



## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> I just got over that nasty crap.
> 
> That's the one thing I hate about being a business owner. I don't get days off no matter how I feel.



I think you need to have a conversation with the boss.  I think he is being a jerk.  give him a piece of your mind.


----------



## Chris

I put on a helmet and jumped in the ring with him this morning. He beat the crap out of me in front of my employees.


----------



## oldognewtrick

Chris said:


> I put on a helmet and jumped in the ring with him this morning. He beat the crap out of me in front of my employees.



Just wait till he finds out you're sleeping with his wife...


----------



## havasu

oldognewtrick said:


> Just wait till he finds out you're sleeping with his wife...



I doubt it. He works way too much.


----------



## Chris

oldognewtrick said:


> Just wait till he finds out you're sleeping with his wife...



He will just kick my *** again.


----------



## oldognewtrick

What was this thread about anyway...?


----------



## Deckape

oldognewtrick said:


> What was this thread about anyway...?



It says something about "*M*y *P*ersonal *F******g *I*nbred *Y*oung *j*eep or something like that. You know how confused MG can get at times.....


----------



## oldognewtrick

Deckape said:


> It says something about "*M*y *P*ersonal *F******g *I*nbred *Y*oung *j*eep or something like that. You know how confused MG can get at times.....



Yep, one day he went out to tune up the Mustang and ended up remodeling the basement.


----------



## mustanggarage

Geez  take off for a couple days and look what people start to say about you.  and so I am a bit absent minded.  that just means I multitask well or something along those lines.  anyway I did finish the fender flares.  unfortunately, or fortunately I guess it just depends on your perspective I think I am not going to have adequate clearance without doing a lift so I have really planned to do the lift all along I have just been trying to talk myself out of it.  anyway I have decided I am going to do a rubicon express 2.5 inch lift.  I will have to wait to see what happens with my taxes here.  I don't want to make a big purchase if I have to pay a ton into taxes.  anyway.  the jeep is back together for the short term at least,


----------



## oldognewtrick

Have you looked at BDS and Old Man Emu? Also nice lifts. I'm on the fence about selling my YJ, if its stays it's one of the above.


----------



## mustanggarage

yes, I have looked at both.  the OME is probably the best lift or so I have heard. but to get all the parts you end up spending about 200.00 more for what people describe as a "better" ride.  now I do not ever expect my Jeep to ride like my truck so I will save that 200 for the rock skids I want to buy next I used the rubicon express lift on my yj I had in Utah and I liked it.  so I will stick with what I know.  besides I still have my rubicon express hoodie I got when I got my last lift.  and I like that sweatshirt lol.


----------



## Chris

Are you getting rid of sway bars and all that extra crap when you do the lift or keeping it all?


----------



## mustanggarage

I already removed the rear track bar.  the rubicon express kit comes with sway bar disconnects so I will use them.  I am undecided on the front track bar yet.


----------



## oldognewtrick

mustanggarage said:


> I already removed the rear track bar.  the rubicon express kit comes with sway bar disconnects so I will use them.  I am undecided on the front track bar yet.



Front and rear track bars are gone on my 88. Don't miss them one bit.


----------



## Chris

I also say ditch the trac bars completely. Keep the front sway bar with disconnects. Let them babies lose.


----------



## oldognewtrick

MG's Jeep, when he's done "remodeling" it. 

View attachment image.jpg


----------



## mustanggarage

Probably not till I retire and move back to Utah that looks cool but only if you have some place to drive it. But. Like I said maybe someday &#55357;&#56899;


----------



## mustanggarage

btw I got my new custom made speedometer and tachometer today.  I should wait to post these pics till I get the bezel and get them installed but they just look so dang cool I have to post them up. I really wish I had not bought those other gauges.  now I am going to have to replace them all with matching gauges.  oh well c'est la vie.












and I think you all have me convinced.  I will probably ditch the front track bar and keep the swaybar with disconnects.


----------



## Deckape

Looking Good MG! what's the little window in the Speedo for? Does it give your Lat & Long? 120 MPH Speedo? I thought you were shy of 'Flying Bricks' LOL.. Just kidding buddy, You're doing a great job there.


----------



## mustanggarage

the window is an lcd screen.  it has many functions.  odometer, 0-60 programming etc.  I have not read the instructions yet.  but I will figure it out.  and if I ever get this flying brick over 65 it will be because the accelerator is stuck and I am busy cleaning my shorts lol.


----------



## oldognewtrick

I have a 0-60 timer in my Jeep also. Comes in really handy merging on the Expressway. 

View attachment Wooden_hourglass_3.jpg


----------



## Chris

My brick gets to 60 in a heart beat but then again it does has a 5.9 in it.

Remember my pictures will look funny because I live on the vertical side of the earth and I bought a horizontal camera by mistake. 

View attachment image.jpg


----------



## mustanggarage

Actually this jeep still has the stock gears so it gets to 60 very easily. I just like to joke about the thing because it is not quite as quick as my other vehicles


----------



## mustanggarage

well just like most things I do with cars.  screw it up and go back and fix it better lol.  someone pointed out to me that the   gauges they sent have the wrong logo on them. that is a cherokee not a yj logo so I had to send them back and have them send out new ones.  but I liked these so much I decided to go ahead and get the whole set.  I will have to replace the ones I already have which is a pain, but it will be better in the long run.


----------



## havasu

MG, you are out of control. In a good way!


----------



## mustanggarage

well good news.  I do not have to pay in to taxes this year, in fact I am getting a refund so the lift is a go.  I will be ordering it as soon as the tax return is processed.  last year my return was stolen.  my information was hacked from my army records I understand.  anyway I had to get a PIN number and all kinds of hassle to process it this year.  I did not get my return processed until october last year.  hopefully it will go smoother this time.  but once everything is cleared I will put in my rubicon express lift order.  I also plan to do a little undercoating and rust prevention while I am at it.  I bought 3 cans of eastwood rust encapsulator.  that should cover the undercarriage pretty well.  

I may even be able to get Dad's mustang back together and painted this spring if everything goes well.


----------



## mustanggarage

my new gauges are here, but of course there is a lot of wiring to do to get them to work, and you all know how much I love wiring,   not.  anyway  here is a quick peek.


----------



## mustanggarage

alrighty then.  I spent several hours today thinking about and looking at the wiring.  then I decided I basically had to just get started.  it really is not all that hard to wire them it is just figuring out how I want to do it.    I am not quite done yet.  I have to swap out the temp sender and the oil pressure sender tomorrow for the ones that go with the new gauges.  also I only have one key for this jeep.  I have tried to have keys made for it, but I can't find a key blank that works right.  they get the one that looks right, and I can get it to work, but it is very tight, and obviously not right.  I found out that the little groove on the side of the key is slightly higher than the new blanks.  I have even ordered them online from a couple sites so I have basically given up on it and I am going to replace the ignition switch.  since I have the steering wheel off now, I guess now is as good a time as any to do it.  so I will do that tomorrow as well if I have time.  I did not take any in progress pictures because it is all just wiring and nothing really to show but here are some installed pictures.


----------



## mustanggarage

alright.  I finished installing the gauges tonight.  of course the temp gauge sender won't work in the stock location so I had to put it in the heater hose.  supposedly it will work fine there.  anyway i will see.  I also programmed the fuel level gauge and the tachometer to six cylinders.  while I had the steering wheel off I also replaced the lock cylinder.  and I tied the wires up a bit more neatly under the dash now that I am hopefully done working back there for a while.  I need to take the jeep over and fill it with gas one of these days to check and see how accurate the fuel gauge is, then I will have to follow it for a while.  on these 90 jeeps as I understand it the sending units can be very erratic.  It is supposed to be 0-90 ohm from what I have read.  fortunately this gauge is manually programmable as well.  I have it set the standard 0-90 ohm setting but if that won't work I can just program it manually but the tank has to be full to do that.

I reinstalled the steering wheel.  I put a bit of molding tape on the ends of the steering wheel spokes so this time it went back together easily.  I still need to adjust the steering wheel position, but no point in doing that till I get the lift on it.  anyway here it is all buttoned back up again.


----------



## Chris

Those are some good looking gauges!


----------



## havasu

Yeah, I likie.


----------



## Chris

I just noticed something funny, your speedometer goes to 120. Why?


----------



## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> I just noticed something funny, your speedometer goes to 120. Why?





Well you see this is s gps speedometer. So if I fall off a cliff I can monitor my speed all the way down.


----------



## havasu

Yeah, that is a waste of about 90 MPH's for the rolling brick.


----------



## oldognewtrick

mustanggarage said:


> Well you see this is s gps speedometer. So if I fall off a cliff I can monitor my speed all the way down.



Or... It will still work if you visit the verticle side of Chris's earth.


----------



## Chris

oldognewtrick said:


> Or... It will still work if you visit the verticle side of Chris's earth.



Yeah don't come to my vertices side with a horizontal made vehicle or you will be in for a fast surprise.


----------



## mustanggarage

that's the only way this jeep is going to make 120 mph lol.


----------



## mustanggarage

Rubicon express lift has been ordered. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of how can I spend more money on this old jeep


----------



## mustanggarage

ok  the rubicon express lift is on.  this is supposed to be a 2.5 inch lift, but with the sagging springs I had on it it seems it has lifted it at least a foot lol.  anyway it is on and here are some pictures.





sway bar disconnects.









all done






I am still waiting on my rocker skids.


----------



## oldognewtrick

The big question is, how does it ride?


----------



## havasu

I like it!....


----------



## mustanggarage

oldognewtrick said:


> The big question is, how does it ride?



like a brick on skids of course, just like all yj's lol.  actually it doesn't ride bad at all.  I am still working on getting the stupid drag link adjusted right.  it absolutely drives me bonkers when the steering wheel is not exactly straight.  I took it for a test drive, realized I forgot to adjust it.  brought it back and adjusted it, tightened the u bolts a bit more and took it for a longer test ride.  I did not get the steering wheel quite right because I did not have a marker with me on the first test.  but I marked it this time.  I think I need to have it aligned as well though.  I kind of have to fight it a bit to go straight it wants to pull to the right a tad.  I need to find a flatter road though, that may be just because the road I tested it on has a bit of a crown.  the speedometer works perfectly. that was easy, but the temp gauge is not reading.  I don't  know why really.  I imagine it is the same reason my heater is not working well.  I am guessing that thermostat housing is gunked up and not getting good flow through it.  I am going to have to pull it off one of these days.  I may also have to figure something else out.  first step is to test the gauge.  anyway.  I like the way it looks, and I like the way it handles.  btw I did ditch both track bars.  I am looking forward to getting my rocker skids though.  they make a nice step, and this jeep is just high enough now that I have to climb into it now.


----------



## havasu

I worked on the limiting straps on a friend's Pinzgauer, then took it out to the desert and shot guns all afternoon. What a cool off road vehicle!

http://buypinzgauer.com/


----------



## mustanggarage

well I test drove it a bit more and brought it back and tightened up the u bolts on the axle. I never seem to get them tight enough the first time.  I also got my temp gauge fixed.  man I am an idiot some days.  the sensor was too long to fit in the stock location so I google what to do about it.  I also sent an email to speedhut.  on google I found several options and the one most people recommended was to put the sensor in the heater hose which i did.  again what an idiot.  this is an electric gauge with a sensor.  it does not work unless it is grounded.  and those rubber heater hoses tend to insulate it quite well from any ground  duuuuhhh.  oh well I figured it out, and fortunately the guys from speedhut emailed back and said that the sensor comes with a line marked into it and you can cut the sensor with a dremel.  so I did. and now all my gauges work.  I still need to finish calibrating my fuel gauge.  I have to wait until it runs empty and calibrate the empty level I have already calibrated the full level.  but I have to say after driving it some more it rides better than stock.  I am sure that is partly because my shocks were shot, but still it does.  my daughter had to drive it to school today.  she was performing in the musical and her jeep was nearly out of gas.  she loves it too.  anyway everything is coming along.


----------



## Chris

How do you like those tires? I am thinking of a set on my cherokee.


----------



## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> How do you like those tires? I am thinking of a set on my cherokee.



I like them pretty well.  they are much quieter on the road than the ones on the blue jeep.  I have not had a chance to try them in snow or off road yet.


----------



## Chris

Are they soft or hard rubber? I had a set about 20 years ago and they wore out quickly.


----------



## mustanggarage

I think they are pretty soft.  I obviously have no idea how well they wear yet.  I will just have to wait and see on that.  but I probably won't be putting that many miles on this jeep anyway.  it is not a daily driver anymore.


----------



## mustanggarage

I am a bit old school I guess, and personally I like chrome. I do not like rust however and my door handles looked like this.










I thought about replacing them, but aftermarket parts frequently don't work as well as the originals and these work fine. also I have seen what a pain in the butt it is to replace them as well lol. so anyway I have read about people plasti dipping things for a while now and I decided I would give it a try.











I like it. it looks much better. Now we will see how well it holds up.


----------



## havasu

Way better. What did you use?


----------



## oldognewtrick

I like the door handles, anxious to see how they hold up. 

I've been running Toyo Open Country on my F350 and have been getting 70k out of the two sets I've had ( on number 3). Put a set on my wife's Grand Cherokee and when I get around to lifting the YJ, it will get a set too.


----------



## mustanggarage

havasu said:


> Way better. What did you use?



plastidip.  I got it at walmart.  google it and you will see people doing wheels and whole cars with it.  and if you don't like it you can just peel it off.  but it is supposed to hold up reasonably well. 

View attachment plasti.jpg


----------



## havasu

No kidding. I use the can plastic dip for some screwdrivers and even my pool on/off switch, so I don't get electrocuted. I've never seen the spray.

Oh, MG, I forgot to tell you that my jeep only needed a new rail style electric fuel pump. According to my son, she is running like a striped ape currently.


----------



## mustanggarage

Excellent. Glad to hear it havasu. My jeep is still running great. It has an annoying rear main seal leak. But other than that I am loving it. For my birthday I plan to get some nice wet okeole seat covers   Then I want a winch and on board air then I think I will be pretty satisfied with things&#55357;&#56397;


----------



## havasu

The rear main seal is a two hour job. What are you waiting for?


----------



## Chris

Can you come put one in my dump truck along with a clutch my guy burned up last week.


----------



## Deckape

I am a bit old school I guess, and personally I like chrome. I do not like rust however and my door handles looked like this.
[Photos deleted D/a]
I thought about replacing them, but aftermarket parts frequently don't work as well as the originals and these work fine. also I have seen what a pain in the butt it is to replace them as well lol. so anyway I have read about people plasti dipping things for a while now and I decided I would give it a try.

*Just a thought here, I seem to recall hearing about using aluminum foil for polishing out rust on chrome,,, Old Wives Tale? Urban Legend? Pure BS? Anyone who has tried it?*
http://www.garageretreat.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/


----------



## havasu

As you can see, when I restored my YJ, I used lots of black rattle can paint, since I don't think Jeep and Chrome should be used in the same sentence. 

View attachment jeep restoration 002.jpg


View attachment IMG_008-10-08-002.jpg


----------



## mustanggarage

havasu said:


> The rear main seal is a two hour job. What are you waiting for?



yeah yeah I know about those two hour jobs.. the jobs that only take two hours when you are telling someone *else* how long it takes to do it.


----------



## mustanggarage

Deckape said:


> I am a bit old school I guess, and personally I like chrome. I do not like rust however and my door handles looked like this.
> [Photos deleted D/a]
> I thought about replacing them, but aftermarket parts frequently don't work as well as the originals and these work fine. also I have seen what a pain in the butt it is to replace them as well lol. so anyway I have read about people plasti dipping things for a while now and I decided I would give it a try.
> 
> *Just a thought here, I seem to recall hearing about using aluminum foil for polishing out rust on chrome,,, Old Wives Tale? Urban Legend? Pure BS? Anyone who has tried it?*
> http://www.garageretreat.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/



I have never seen aluminum foil used, but I use 0000 grit steel wool and it will remove surface rust on chrome, but no amount of polishing is going to put chrome back on it after it is gone.


----------



## mustanggarage

havasu said:


> As you can see, when I restored my YJ, I used lots of black rattle can paint, since I don't think Jeep and Chrome should be used in the same sentence.



that is a very nice looking yj Havasu.  and like it or not, there is no chrome left on my jeep.  I do still like the aluminum wheels.  I am not a fan of the blacked out wheels really.  they look good on some vehicles  and they look great with the white contrast on your jeep, but I still like the polished aluminum wheels.


----------



## havasu

Problem with aluminum wheels are they will snap like a twig if you hit a rock. With steel, you may bend them but they won't break. I also got them for free, and you sure can't beat that!


----------



## mustanggarage

havasu said:


> Problem with aluminum wheels are they will snap like a twig if you hit a rock. With steel, you may bend them but they won't break. I also got them for free, and you sure can't beat that!



agreed.  there are always reasons for differences.  since I don't do any rock crawling.  no where to do it in iowa I am more concerned with the appearance, and with rust.  I hate seeing peeling paint from rust, and with all the crap they put on the roads out here to melt the snow,  well rust is a given.  at least with aluminum you can polish the oxidation out a bit.  it does not go away completely without a lot of work, but the paint doesn't peel off.  that is also why I am not a fan of chrome wheels.  but if I ever move back to Utah I will probably have to step up to some steelies.  although these newer aluminum alloys are very strong.  the new ford truck for instance is supposedly stronger and lighter than the old steel bodied trucks.  so who knows.

and to your second point, that one is the most important, these wheels came on the jeep, and I like them so I am keeping them.


----------



## Chris

I run Aluminum Hummer 2 wheels on my jeep. Don't necessarily love them but they fit my tires and have the proper backspacing to suck the tires under the jeep a little because of the full width axles I have.

Last week i bought new wheels and tires for my Cherokee, the came in today and are polished aluminum, I hope I like them.

I have black wheels on my Ram, not because I like them but because it is very hard to find anything other than black wheels now days.


----------



## Deckape

mustanggarage said:


> I have never seen aluminum foil used, but I use 0000 grit steel wool and it will remove surface rust on chrome, but no amount of polishing is going to put chrome back on it after it is gone.


 I wasn't saying it would replace the chrome, I was saying I had heard it would clean the rust off, leaving a shinier surface visible. Perhaps followed up with clear polyurethane paint or other clear protective material, such as wax. (Does anyone remember actually 
waxing their car?)


----------



## havasu

I wax my hood about once a month, but then again, I'm OCD.


----------



## mustanggarage

Deckape said:


> I wasn't saying it would replace the chrome, I was saying I had heard it would clean the rust off, leaving a shinier surface visible. Perhaps followed up with clear polyurethane paint or other clear protective material, such as wax. (Does anyone remember actually
> waxing their car?)



I know.  I was making a joke.  but in all seriousness the problem with my doors is the rust was all the way through the chrome.  I had already polished most of the rust off with the steel wool, but it left the bare metal with no chrome and while I could have covered it with many different coatings I decided the best option for me was the plastidip.  it is supposed to completely seal out moisture so it is supposed to prevent rust from getting worse.  anyway, again I have not tried the aluminum foil but I do use steel wool and it will make an amazing difference on chrome with surface rust.

it is a shame that smartassitude does not transmit well over the internet lol.


----------



## Deckape

Don't sweat it MG, We've been friend too long to worry about that... I was having a bad day when I wrote that,, Please accept my apology. (Barnacles don't taste good, even the salt free ones)

It is a great idea with the plasti-dip,, had not hear of doing that!


----------



## mustanggarage

after I did the lift, the rear shackles were making this horrible screeching sound every time I hit a bump in the road.  I knew it was just the rubber bushings squealing in the worn stock shackles, but it made it not as pleasant to drive so I got me a set of Currie greasable boomerang shackles and swapped the on today.  what a huge improvement, now the suspension is working like it should.  I suppose I should put some on front eventually so they match, but I am happy with the results so far.


----------



## Chris

They were really designed for that problem you were having but I run them all around. They do look cool.


----------



## mustanggarage

Ok.  Havasu.  I went ahead and changed the rear main seal tonight.  I have never done that before.  yes I have built engines, but never swapped a rear main seal.  anyway it took me more than 2 hours I repainted the oil pain and I had to stop for a couple hours to do some things with my wife, but it was much easier than I thought it would be.  I started it up to make sure I got the crank position sensor reinstalled with the proper gap, but I shut it down right away. I took this picture before I removed the oil pan so I could remember how to put it back together lol





 I will wait until tomorrow before I let it get up to temp and see if the seal replacement will leak or not.

there is some grooving of the bearings but no copper showing I guess that is not too bad for an engine with over 100,000 miles.  anyway I am not ready to rebuild it yet.


----------



## havasu

Looks great!


----------



## mustanggarage

all right!  well I am happy to report that my annoying rear main seal leak has been fixed.  Thanks Havasu, you shamed me into fixing it lol,  I knew how to do it, I had read about it and everything but I was concerned that it would be a lot harder to get the upper seal out and back in then it turned out it was.  it actually was stuck pretty well I had to tap it pretty hard with the punch to get it moving, but once it started I pulled it out with a hemostat, (very useful tools I recommend having one in everyones tool box lol)  and it slipped back in with just finger pressure.  then I was also concerned about taking off that crank position sensor mount.  I couldn't remember the gap it was supposed to be set at and I was afraid I would get it back together and it wouldn't start.  but I started it up this morning, let it get up to temp and revved it up several times.  before it would start dripping, so far no drips.  I will take it for a drive later to test it, but i think I got it.


----------



## havasu

I always buy those rear main seals in sets of three because I always seem to bugger one or two seals while installing them.


----------



## mustanggarage

havasu said:


> I always buy those rear main seals in sets of three because I always seem to bugger one or two seals while installing them.



now you tell me lol.  but I think I got it in right.  btw I really like that felpro one piece pan gasket.  it has those little pegs that hold the gasket and pan up while you start the bolts.  that makes the job a lot easier.


----------



## havasu

I also agree that Felpro pan gaskets are really great. What did you use to seal up that gasket?


----------



## mustanggarage

permatex black but I just used it on the timing cover and rear main section


----------



## havasu

Did you get a cork oil pan gasket, so you can remove it later?


----------



## mustanggarage

no I prefer the rubber gaskets.  the cork gaskets seem to be a lot harder to remove to me.


----------



## havasu

I feel the same but many older mechanics say cork is best for all around sealing.


----------



## Chris

I like rubber myself. Cork seals good but always sticks and tears.


----------



## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> I like rubber myself. Cork seals good but always sticks and tears.


I have also never seen a one piece cork pan gasket.  I like the one piece gaskets.  less gaps, less places to leak.  they also have those metal washers in there that reduce the risk of overtightening the pan bolts.  It is difficult to use a torque wrench on those bolts.  20-25 foot pounds with a 2 1/2 foot long torque wrench.  so I usually just use a 3/8 inch short ratchet and hold ratchet with the extension between my first and second fingers so I can only use my wrist to tighten them.  that usually keeps me from overtightening things.  anyway, 3 days now and no leaks.


----------



## mustanggarage

I finally got my tomken rocker skids and got them installed. 









I like the way these look.  anyway now I am going to have to let my daughter drive this jeep for a while.  I have to do some work on the tj.  she is going to be going to college in Idaho in september and I want to make sure everything is checked out before she goes.  right now the ac isn't working.  I am pretty sure it is the blend door motor, but I need to spend some time looking things over.  I also need to check the brakes.  I put new pads and rotors on the front when I got it, but with those oversized tires the brakes are not really up to snuff, and I never replaced the drums or shoes on the back axle so I need to just drive it for a while and make sure everything is good on it.  I will probably wait until after graduation.  I am not sure if all girls are like her and her mother, but there cars are like closet extensions lol they throw all there crap in there until you can barely fit another person in.  so after graduation she is going to have to get it all out before I start working on it.  (yeah we will see how well that works out.)


----------



## Chris

Good luck with the tj. Those sliders look good. Let me know if you find me a pair of flares like yours for s 2 door Xj for less than 300 bucks. Seems they are made of gold.


----------



## havasu

I had my sliders custom fabbed up by Zack, from A to Z Fabrication. Real nice guy, bulletproof sliders, quick shipping, and reasonable price.


----------



## Chris

I made my own for the YJ after I crushed in the body pretty bad, They are nothing special but they are strong and work if I can find a way to hit them since that jeep is so tall.

I plan on making some for the XJ too but I am going to do 2"x6" 3/16 steel and cut out the metal under the door and weld them in, it will look factory but will be a slider.


----------



## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> I made my own for the YJ after I crushed in the body pretty bad, They are nothing special but they are strong and work if I can find a way to hit them since that jeep is so tall.
> 
> I plan on making some for the XJ too but I am going to do 2"x6" 3/16 steel and cut out the metal under the door and weld them in, it will look factory but will be a slider.



Yeah i've seen that done on jeep forum.  it looks pretty slick and replaces the nasty rusted rockers, and stiffens the unibody a bunch all at the same time.


----------



## oldognewtrick

Been awful quiet in the doghouse lately, what's up?


----------



## mustanggarage

yeah I have been busy at work.  and may is going to be a busy month also.  graduation and I have to have a minor procedure done on me at the end of the month so I am going to have to take 2 weeks off.  so they are cramming everything in ahead of that time as much as possible.  but I did order my birthday present a bit early this year.  should be here wednesday.  I want to get it installed before my surgery.  details to follow lol.


----------



## oldognewtrick

Hope everything is ok health wise. Found out i have high blood sugar, had some polyps removed, going to the skin guy tomorrow, felt good till I went to the doctor for my first checkup in 11 years. Guess someone has a Porsche payment due.


----------



## mustanggarage

oldognewtrick said:


> Hope everything is ok health wise. Found out i have high blood sugar, had some polyps removed, going to the skin guy tomorrow, felt good till I went to the doctor for my first checkup in 11 years. Guess someone has a Porsche payment due.



just remember you went to him, he did not go to you.


----------



## oldognewtrick

I've roofed a LOT of houses for doctors over the years, I think they see this as a golden opportunity to get some of their money back...


----------



## mustanggarage

I have to have my roof fixed after the recent storms.  It looks like the roofers feel the same towards me.

but on another note my birthday present came early.  it arrived today.  My daughter has a concert tonight but hopefully I will be able to get some pictures in the next day or two.


----------



## Deckape

Old Dog & Mustang Garage in the Future!





Stay thirsty, My Friends


----------



## mustanggarage

yeah those old beds require constant maintenence


----------



## mustanggarage

ok.  I got my birthday present early and I spent most of today getting it together.  here are some pictures.

quadratec 9500 i stealth winch with synthetic rope line.





and a mummy lol.


----------



## Chris

Nice! I have one of those in a box waiting on me.


----------



## mustanggarage

the bumper was packaged pretty well.





the bumper comes with LED lights built in so the first thing I did was address the wiring plans.  when I installed my posi lock I made a bracket to mount it in the cab I never removed it so it was just hanging there, it had a round hole in it for the posi lock so I decided to get a round rocker switch to mount in there for the lights.  I found a nice wiring harness from super bright LED that had the rocker switch I wanted it also had the full wiring harness with a relay and lugs for attaching to the battery.  so i bought that.  






and installed it.  I ran it through the grommet that my speedometer cable used to go through.






then since my battery is a dual post I decided to rewire the jeep to use the side posts.  you are not supposed to use the side posts for a winch but they work fine for the starter and other electrical things.

I bought some military style cable ends for the top posts to wire the winch.







I removed the old bumper and spent some time chasing the mounting holes and putting anti seize in them.





so after that I test fit the bumper.





Iowa requires a front license plate so I mounted it.  it is a pain to reach under the bumper to hold the bolts so what I did on my old bumper and reused on this one was I put a 1/4 inch by 1 inch bolt through from the back of the bumper with washer and on the front a lock washer.  then later when I put the plate on I will put it on the exposed threads, anchor it with a nut then screw an acorn nut on to cap the bolt.  it looks nice, makes it very easy to remove or replace the plate when necessary.  I also mounted the fair lead.








naturally I had to massage the mounting holes a lot, and as they say when you have a hammer all the world is a nail.  I used the lift to support the bumper while I worked on it.


----------



## mustanggarage

once I thought I had the holes massaged enough I pulled the bumper off and mounted the winch to it.





then of course I had to massage the mounting points some more.  once I had it all mounted up to my satisfaction I finished wiring the lights and tested that.  they work fine.  the little LED in the rocker lights up to let me know the lights are on.  they seem pretty bright.





then I ran the cables for the winch and zip tied all the wires up neatly.

these are the military style battery cable ends I used.  they come with those nice rubber boots to cover everything.






then of course there is not enough room to put the frame cover back on so I cut it with a wizard wheel as my Dad likes to call it and bolted it back on.





the bumper also came with D rings so I put those on, ran the line out a bit and attached the hook.  I need to pull it all the way out and pre-tension it I know, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

final product.


----------



## mustanggarage

I bought the bumper off ebay for 289.00  now I need to save up and get the matching rear bumper some day.


----------



## havasu

I sure like it!


----------



## Chris

Turning into a pretty jeep


----------



## Deckape

Great idea on the battery connections! I'm sure you all have seen the wimpy post connectors that Detroit (or Beijing) are forcing on us now-a-days. The metal is so thin, I doubt it will last 3-5 years on some of these newer cars & trucks. Just sayin'.
MG, how much do you figure the FI conversion part has cost you? I'm thinking about doing something  similar to my '75 CJ 258 cu-in. How hard would it be to use salvage parts from a newer Mopar Jeep to the AMC version? (OBD II computer, etc.)


----------



## Chris

I did a Howell fi on my father in laws 82 CJ with the 258. Costs about a grand for that one but it got rid of about 30 pounds of hoses and crap from the engine compartment. Took a day or so to install.


----------



## mustanggarage

Deckape said:


> Great idea on the battery connections! I'm sure you all have seen the wimpy post connectors that Detroit (or Beijing) are forcing on us now-a-days. The metal is so thin, I doubt it will last 3-5 years on some of these newer cars & trucks. Just sayin'.
> MG, how much do you figure the FI conversion part has cost you? I'm thinking about doing something  similar to my '75 CJ 258 cu-in. How hard would it be to use salvage parts from a newer Mopar Jeep to the AMC version? (OBD II computer, etc.)



if you can get the whole intake exhaust manifold and wiring harness you can do it relatively cheaply.  there are several write ups on jeep forum.  
or you can buy the intake and exhaust manifold you can get hesco's wiring harness which is already modified and cut down so there are just a few wires to hook up.  Hesco sells many stages of the kit.  http://www.hesco.us/products/7902/40l-conversion-parts I bought the whole thing because that way I had everything I needed without having to spend a lot of time figuring out what to do and what I needed. remember besides the wiring harness you have to get a speed sensor that has both cable and electronic signal.  you have to either get a bellhousing for a 4.0 or convert to a front firing crank position sensor like hesco sells.  you also need an electric fuel pump either an inline or swap to a newer style fuel tank...  all of those individual parts are sold by hesco as well,


----------



## Deckape

mustanggarage said:


> if you can get the whole intake exhaust manifold and wiring harness you can do it relatively cheaply.  there are several write ups on jeep forum.
> or you can buy the intake and exhaust manifold you can get hesco's wiring harness which is already modified and cut down so there are just a few wires to hook up.  Hesco sells many stages of the kit.  http://www.hesco.us/products/7902/40l-conversion-parts I bought the whole thing because that way I had everything I needed without having to spend a lot of time figuring out what to do and what I needed. remember besides the wiring harness you have to get a speed sensor that has both cable and electronic signal.  you have to either get a bellhousing for a 4.0 or convert to a front firing crank position sensor like hesco sells.  you also need an electric fuel pump either an inline or swap to a newer style fuel tank...  all of those individual parts are sold by hesco as well,


Thanks, I was thinking of going in that direction, and the Hesco info will most likely save me a lot of grief when push comes to cranking.


----------



## havasu

Since my jeep has the full Hesco system, keep in mind that they have their own forum, and Leee (that's his spelling) will walk you through anything and everything they sell. A really nice/helpful guy.

http://www.hesco.us/forum/default.asp


----------



## mustanggarage

just got the bikini top on and it decided to rain.  Ozzie still wanted to go for a ride.  I did not but I did take it out today.





He thinks this is his jeep.


----------



## Chris

Have you thought about a family style roll bar out of a 92-95 yj?


----------



## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> Have you thought about a family style roll bar out of a 92-95 yj?



yes I have.  I have looked on craigslist and ebay.  I haven't found one close enough yet.  I have kind of given up at this point.  especially since my babies are all grown up now.  I pretty much keep the seat tilted forward and bungied all the time now since the only ones riding back there are the dogs.  but if I found a good one near enough to me I would really consider it.  in the mean time I guess I am fine with the sport bar.  since I really don't need it at this point I don't want to spend a ton of money on an aftermarket version.


----------



## Chris

I would give you mine if I were closer. I am about to do a full cage.


----------



## mustanggarage

man I would jump all over it.  that is the problem though every time I find one they are too far away.


----------



## Chris

I got mine a few years ago at a junk yard. Not sure if it was a California thing or nationwide but they were doing a cash for clunkers and giving people 4500 bucks for any car they had that was old to get them off the road. The junkyards were full of jeep parts for about 6 months.


----------



## mustanggarage

I keep looking every so often, maybe someday I will find one.  in the meantime Ozzie really doesn't care so I guess I will just not worry too much about it.  that will be a great find for somebody however.

anyway I developed a vibration in my jeep at about 45 mph the other day.  no real surprise I guess the front u joint went out on my front driveshaft.  so I took this opportunity to replace it with a Tom woods drive shaft.  I also stripped and painted the rear driveshaft.  

I also kept hearing this scraping noise.  it sounded like a bearing dragging so while it was up on the lift I checked it out and it sounded like it was coming from the back of the transfer case.  so I changed the fluid in the transfer case and that helped a lot, but I suppose someday soon I am going to have to fix something in there.  I may go ahead and do a slip yoke eliminator at the same time, but for now just changing the fluid seems to have it under control.  that is first time I have done that actually so I had to go buy a stupid 30 mm socket.  with all the tools in my shop I did not have a 30 mm socket.  or an inch and 3/16 would probably work.  I have 1 1/8 and 1 1/4 but no 1 3/16  anyway the jeep is in good running condition. I am still off work until monday.  so I took the buddies for a ride.





then


----------



## mustanggarage

I had a kind of scraping sound coming from my transfer case.  it sounded like a bearing going bad.  it also had a lot of slack in the chain.  I also wanted to do a slip yoke eliminator on it.  so I found this rebuilt transfer case from 4wd parts.  with the slip yoke eliminator and a one year warranty for 1037.00 so rather than try to gather all the parts up including the new chain and slip yoke eliminator then spend the time rebuilding my old one I just bought the rebuilt one and slipped it in this weekend, with new tom woods driveshaft to match my front one. so now I am pretty good to go.









I also took the time to clean, sand, paint with rustoleum industrial black paint, and bedliner the skid plate.

as soon as I can get some help out here I need to adjust the shifter linkage a bit,  I have to pull it down almost to neutral to get into 4hi.  but no big deal.


----------



## mustanggarage

I put the hard top back on.  it is starting to get chilly at night around here.  I put in one of those quick release kits that use thumb screws for the body and suitcase style latches on the front.  it makes it tool free to remove the top and with the adjustments I made in the hinges and the windshield angle with the aftermarket rollbar it seals up better than it ever has.  I still need to pull that heater box out and put some more insulation in there to seal it up better, but it seems to be working ok for now.


----------



## oldognewtrick

How has the lift settled in? Still liking it?


----------



## Chris

Got any pictures of the hard top quick release stuff? I'd love to do that.


----------



## mustanggarage

oldognewtrick said:


> How has the lift settled in? Still liking it?




yeah It is working out fine.  it seems to ride better than before.  the old shocks were shot so that is not too surprising.  but yeah I like it.


----------



## mustanggarage

Chris said:


> Got any pictures of the hard top quick release stuff? I'd love to do that.







http://www.quadratec.com/products/13022_00.htm


----------



## mustanggarage

teaser.


----------



## oldognewtrick

Awful quiet at the MustangGarage lately...


----------



## havasu

No ****! Where ya at MG?


----------



## mustanggarage

yeah sorry.  not much going on lately.  We got my daughter back from college and she has been driving my jeep since we left hers out in idaho.  she is home until april then she goes back for 2 semesters.  the way her school works they have 3 terms and she is on the spring fall term and home for the winter term.  anyway as long as she is driving the jeep I can't do to much to it.  I did go ahead and install the spartan locker into the dana 44.  that was a very easy process.  I was surprised.










I also replaced the brakes.













can't install it until I can have it out of action for at least a weekend.  and right now Sarah is driving it every day.

I replaced the stupid shift indicator light with some LED's and took it for a drive the other day. 
before, the trouble is the stupid bulb stops working sometimes because the socket is worn out.  I can wiggle the bulb and it starts working again
so I bought some of these from walmart.




now it works all the time, and the bulbs should last a lot longer than the stupid little bulbs












this was my christmas presents from my wife.  

  so onboard air addition will also be going in later as well.  I may have to start working on that old blue gt one of these days.  but since my daughters home we have been basically doing family stuff.  I am making lots of plans for spring though.


----------



## havasu

I'm looking forward to the air compressor install!


----------



## mustanggarage

well I made the cardboard tempate for the air compressor mount, and I gave it to Harison my daughters boyfriend.  he is going to fabricate it for me using 10 gauge steel.  in the mean time I had been having some trouble with the jeep it would run fine, then I would take it out on the hiway and accelerate up to 60 and it would sometimes sputter and die like it was running out of fuel.  I could not figure out what was wrong with it.  it just died.  after you stopped and restarted it, it would run fine.  now keep in mind the entire top end of this engine is pretty much new.  new head, new valves, intake and injectors and the entire wiring harness.  at first I thought it might be an electrical issue because the tach would jump all over.  I needed it fixed fast because my daughter was coming home so I took it to my local mechanic that I use when ever I have things like this I don't have time, or don't want to do.  he changed the plugs, that did nothing, then decided it might be the pushrods not opening the valves properly.  he decided the pushrods were the incorrect length and put new ones in.  I took it home and it did the same thing on the way.  home.  I still don't know what is wrong, but I suspected a problem with the pickup in the tank as I was using an external fuel pump.  so I bought a 95 style fuel tank with all new sendor and straps and swapped that in this weekend.  the old one did have a bunch of crud on the pickup and in the bottom of the tank.  I always planned to convert to an in tank pump mostly because I didn't like the fuel pump hanging underneath like that. and I wanted it to be like a stock unit.  so now I have to take it for a ride tomorrow and see if it fixed it. 

 I also swapped out the stock front shackles for some currie units to match the boomerang shackles in back.


----------



## Chris

I hope that fixes it. I had an issue with my old 93 for months and turned out to be a screw that rubbed through the harness on the firewall and kept blowing the fuel pump fuse. I hate problems like this.


----------



## havasu

My son also had a problem with intermittent sputtering in my YJ and found out it was a faulty corroded relay.


----------



## mustanggarage

Well no joy it is still doing it. So now I have to start checking all the connections and relays and sensors. I think I am going to take it back to Rick and let him figure it out.   Very frustrating


----------



## havasu

Pull your fuel pump relay and just replace it. They are about $9 and even though on mine it tested ok, the corrosion on the tongue caused an intermittent failure. On some of the wrangler forums I work on, many have found faulty ground wires near where the body and floor meet closest to the left thigh area of the driver.


----------



## mustanggarage

This thing is crazy.  right after I swapped the tank I pumped a couple gallons of gas out of the old tank into the new one.  I had an inline see through filter to watch and see if any crap came through.  really didn't see anything.  so I started the jeep ran it over to the gas station it ran fine over there, about 2 miles away.  then I drove it for probably 15 minutes and it started sputtering and popping, it died and I almost couldn't get it started again.  I finally got it started drove it home, it was doing it all the way home, worse than it ever has.  I shut it off in front of the house, struggled to start it, it even backfired once really loud before it finally started.  then I drove it to the garage and parked it.  the next day I talked to Rick the mechanic and scheduled it to be brought in and worked on this friday.  that night I got home decided to try it again, and it ran like a top.  no problem.  so today I drove it to work.  no issues.  I drove around for over an hour after work.  shut it off several times, let it idle a while, hiway speeds, around town, up and down hills.  not one hiccup.  tomorrow the stupid thing will probably blow up.


----------



## havasu

I really hate when these problems clear up without knowing what happened. Jeeps are #1 with doing this.


----------



## Deckape

mustanggarage said:


> This thing is crazy.  right after I swapped the tank I pumped a couple gallons of gas out of the old tank into the new one.  I had an inline see through filter to watch and see if any crap came through.  really didn't see anything.  so I started the jeep ran it over to the gas station it ran fine over there, about 2 miles away.  then I drove it for probably 15 minutes and it started sputtering and popping, it died and I almost couldn't get it started again.  I finally got it started drove it home, it was doing it all the way home, worse than it ever has.  I shut it off in front of the house, struggled to start it, it even backfired once really loud before it finally started.  then I drove it to the garage and parked it.  the next day I talked to Rick the mechanic and scheduled it to be brought in and worked on this friday.  that night I got home decided to try it again, and it ran like a top.  no problem.  so today I drove it to work.  no issues.  I drove around for over an hour after work.  shut it off several times, let it idle a while, hiway speeds, around town, up and down hills.  not one hiccup.  tomorrow the stupid thing will probably blow up.



Just thinking, could the 'crud' have been partly Water? condensation may have been the source for that. drain the tank then refill with fresh, clean fuel, Maybe?


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## Deckape

mustanggarage said:


> This thing is crazy.  right after I swapped the tank I pumped a couple gallons of gas out of the old tank into the new one.  I had an inline see through filter to watch and see if any crap came through.  really didn't see anything.  so I started the jeep ran it over to the gas station it ran fine over there, about 2 miles away.  then I drove it for probably 15 minutes and it started sputtering and popping, it died and I almost couldn't get it started again.  I finally got it started drove it home, it was doing it all the way home, worse than it ever has.  I shut it off in front of the house, struggled to start it, it even backfired once really loud before it finally started.  then I drove it to the garage and parked it.  the next day I talked to Rick the mechanic and scheduled it to be brought in and worked on this friday.  that night I got home decided to try it again, and it ran like a top.  no problem.  so today I drove it to work.  no issues.  I drove around for over an hour after work.  shut it off several times, let it idle a while, hiway speeds, around town, up and down hills.  not one hiccup.  tomorrow the stupid thing will probably blow up.[/QUOTE]_Just thinking, could the ' crud' have been partly Water? condensation may have been the source for that. drain thetank then fill with fresh, clean fuel, Maybe?
> _


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## mustanggarage

yes my dad thought that was a possibility.  i don't know though.  i replaced the tank pump and everything.  pumped two gallons out of the tank into a can.  then pumped a few gallons into the new tank, drove it to the gas station and filled up the tank with new gas.  it only happens when I get it out on the highway and drive about 3-4 miles.  then it starts cutting out.  it acts like it is running out of fuel.  stop it shut it off and it will sputter and pop eventually It will start again and run ok.  if I drive slowly.  park it for a few hours and it will start and run fine.  I can drive all over town and it runs fine.  it is really aggravating.  I put in a new oxygen sensor.  I ordered the new relays.  swapped them around in the mean time.  I also ordered a new crank position sensor.  it should be here soon also.  I dropped it off at my mechanic friends shop.  I am going out of town to a conference/ vacation for a couple weeks so I will just let him try to figure it out again.  annoying thing.


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## mustanggarage

well, I think we finally figured it out.  the hesco kit relocates the crankshaft positioning sensor to the harmonic balancer.  apparently when going down the road at highway speeds the air stream caused the wiring for the sensor to press up against the header behind the air intake tube in an area very difficult to see.  it was causing an intermittent short.  relocating the wiring seems to have it fixed so far.  I drove it about 20 miles down the road and it did not stall on me anyway.   so I think we have it sorted.  on the down side, the new crank position sensor I bought from hesco is apparently bad, it made the jeep run worse.  so I guess I will have to try to send it back.  anyway I am going to drive it like this for a while and hopefully get all the bugs worked out of it before starting my next series of modifications.


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## havasu

That sounds promising.


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## mustanggarage

what a pain in the neck I have had today.  well since finding the short in my cps wiring the jeep has been running pretty good.  I still had not gotten the stupid gas gauge to work yet though.  at first I thought it was because I programmed the gauge wrong.  so I wired a set of jumper wires that I could plug into the wiring connector.  then I got the old sending unit out and tested it.  It worked fine.  so then I looked at the connector.  I had to make a new weather pack connector because this is all aftermarket wiring, so I got a weatherpack connector set from summit and I thought maybe the connector was not making a good connection, so I tested that out by jumpering the wire so I could be sure the connection was good.  no joy.  so I still thought maybe the sending unit is different from the 90 to the 95 style sensor so I bought a new 95 sending unit and fuel pump 130.00 bucks from oreilly.  hooked it up to my jumper wire and it works just fine.  so then I thought maybe the stupid sending unit was stuck because it just reads full all the time.  so I dropped the tank again and pull the old/new sending unit and fuel pump out, and no it is not stuck.  so again I wire it direct to the wiring harness with my jumper wire and test it by raising and lowering the float, and it won't work.  so I put the new, new sending unit in the tank and wire it with the jumpers, and it reads 1/4 tank.  so I put it all back together and fire it up and it is running better than it ever has.  filled it with fuel, the gauge went up to full, looking good.

then I had been having a bit of rubbing at full lock on my tires so I had been considering getting different wheels.  but I like these wheels so instead I decided to just get some wheel spacers.  I put those on last night.  I really like the way the jeep is looking now.









I also ordered some decals for the hood.  on the old cj's and early wranglers there was a decal package that went there that said either wrangler, or renegade depending on the trim package.  so I had some made that say Joopacabra.  I think it will be cool lol.  Sarah will hate it.


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## oldognewtrick

I like the look with the spacers MG


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## havasu

Is it possible to add a 1" body lift to allow the tires full movement?


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## mustanggarage

havasu said:


> Is it possible to add a 1" body lift to allow the tires full movement?



No, that is not the problem.  the problem on this jeep is that the wheel offset is to deep, so the tire would rub on the leaf spring at full lock.  so I either needed a wheel with less offset or the spacers.  I have no problem with up and down movement.


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## havasu

I got ya. How about just twist out the stop bolt to stop the extreme L R movement of the front tire?


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## oldognewtrick

havasu said:


> I got ya. How about just twist out the stop bolt to stop the extreme L R movement of the front tire?



Spacers, problem solved,


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## mustanggarage

I initially put an extra washer in behind the stop bolts and it still rubbed, I could have spaced it out more, limiting my turning radius in the process,  but if I am honest the rubbing at full turn was only the excuse I used to sell it to my wife lol.  I really thought the tires needed a bit wider stance, but I liked the wheels so I did not really feel like spending several hundred dollars on new wheels when the spacers would do the same thing for a lot less money.  so I fixed my rubbing issue, and got the look I was after.  and it cost about 150.00  much less than a new set of wheels.


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## havasu

Damn, you are one, sly fox!


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## mustanggarage

havasu said:


> Damn, you are one, sly fox!


lol, a guys gotta do what a guys gotta do lol.

I was looking on facebook the other day and I saw this jeep on yj fanatics.  it was bright yellow and he had the bezels around the head light painted black.  it looked really cool.  I wasn't sure how it would look on my jeep because it is so much darker, so I decided to try it with plastidip so if I don't like it I can just remove it. anyway what do you think.  

before





during





after


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## havasu

I didn't like the thought but after seeing it, I actually like it better.


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## Chris

Looks good. Keep it.

I did this the other day to my yj. 

View attachment 20170303_131114.jpg


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## mustanggarage

Well that does not look good. Ouch.


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## Chris

First trip on these old man emu springs, they are junk. My old superlift springs took five years of abuse after ten years of road use before sagging so much they were worthless. These bent on my first rock hit and then one broke after a full droop. I will never buy another set of these. Cost me a set of springs and a tire and wheel. That and getting stuck in a place that was very difficult to get me out. Had to drive three miles down a trail with a flat tire and broken spring. Had to winch my own axle to keep it in place. 

View attachment 20170303_133029.jpg


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## oldognewtrick

I like the after pics MG, just don't put any of those eyelashes on it...:waggingfinger:


Chris, you just sold me on getting a BDS lift kit for my YJ. Sorry about the failure, I'm sure it messed up your day.


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## havasu

Well, that sucks.


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## mustanggarage

wow,  I really looked hard at those ome springs.  I wanted them because everyone gushes about how well they ride, but I decided I did not want to spend that much more to get all of what comes in my rubicon express kit.  so I went with them.  I have not had a chance to take it out and see what it will do, but I had good luck with my last yj that had this lift on it.


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## mustanggarage

btw  chris that is still a really cool looking jeep.  I love it, even though it has round lights lol.


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## Chris

mustanggarage said:


> wow,  I really looked hard at those ome springs.  I wanted them because everyone gushes about how well they ride, but I decided I did not want to spend that much more to get all of what comes in my rubicon express kit.  so I went with them.  I have not had a chance to take it out and see what it will do, but I had good luck with my last yj that had this lift on it.



My last set were Superlift and they rode softer than the OME and lasted. They would bend but not break. And the only bend because of what I do to them in my jeep, they would probably never give you an issue. I ordered a set of Rubicon Express springs yesterday because I couldn't remember which springs I had before that I loved and then a buddy reminded me so I am trying to cancel my order now so I can go back to Superlift. He also ran the superlift springs on his rock crawler and loved them. He had the same breaking issue with his Rubicon express. I think the issue is in the steal and how it is tempered. They make the steal more ridged so they keep shape longer but in turn they break easier. I also thought the OME were supposed to be something great but there was nothing I liked about them. Ride was not great, flex was not great and they broke twenty minutes into my first ride.


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## Chris

mustanggarage said:


> btw  chris that is still a really cool looking jeep.  I love it, even though it has round lights lol.



It's going under the knofe once I get settled in in Idaho, I want to do a frame off on it and change a few things. I want to go to 40's or 42's and get my steering the way I want it. I need to find an Ford Dana 60. This Dodge one has no aftermarket support. I like the TJ grill, between that and a V8 it confuses the heck out of everyone.


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## mustanggarage

well I finally decided on a rear bumper.  I thought about getting a swing away tire holder, and really had planned to do that, but the truth is right now my jeep is more of a mall crawler than a rock climber.  I don't want to have to mess with opening the tire carrier everytime I want to access the cargo area.  I already am annoyed that I have to open the tailgate all the way to get the window opened.  I also perversely, like the gas filler behind the license plate.  it is one of those quirky things that make it a yj.  like the square headlights.  I did want a hitch receiver and some recovery points so I found one that matches the front pretty well.  I ordered it and it should be here soon.


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## Chris

Did you ever find a family roll bar?


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## mustanggarage

No. And I have basically decided for now that I like the sport bar look, and the idea of trying to get those bolts out is causing me to think. I will just keep it how it is for now. If I run across one real cheap some day I might snatch it up. I will just have to wait and see


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## havasu

I went to a nearby junk yard with my son last month and picked up a family roll bar for the YJ. The owner helped us load it onto the truck and had it installed in 5 minutes. Well worth the headache, especially if it rolls over.


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## Chris

I was mentioning it because I got the Rampage soft top and it is pretty neat. Unlike Havasu I learned to put it on in the heat when it will stretch and after a couple days on it stays stretched to where you can zip it up again. It's nice not having a frame under the top. I bet once I move I will run the hardtop again when its freezing out.


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## mustanggarage

yeah I would like to have one, but I have not found one close enough that I could get it yet.  it is too large to ship of course, and with my job I can very rarely go on a roadtrip to get parts.  so I will have to wait until I happen to find one on craigslist close by.


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## Chris

Will you be heading to idaho next year? I plan on building a full cage and you could have mine


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## mustanggarage

You know I might be able to do that. I don't have any vacation plans for next year. Talking my wife into driving out there might be s challenge but let me know when you are ready to get started on it and I will see if I can work it out. Thanks


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## Chris

Not a problem, As soon as I get the jeep there it will be on blocks til I finish so it could be out there in a month.


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## mustanggarage

I got my new rear bumper today.  I did not take a picture of the bumper, but the first thing was to remove the old bumperettes.





it makes it a lot easier if you put the jeep on the lift.  then of course, it is difficult to get your hand in to hold the nuts.  sometimes people drop the tank to get at them, but I found that my short 11/16 socket on my 1/2 inch drive ratchet is just the right size to fit in there and wedge against the gas tank.  then I removed it with another ratchet.  piece of cake.

then since I always do stuff by myself I had to figure out how to lift the bumper into place and get the bolts started. First I tested the bolts that came with the bumper, and of course the holes in the frame are too small to fit the bolts so I enlarged them with my die grinder.  I used a piece of cardboard to make a template of the bumper bolts, then enlarged the holes a bit more than necessary to get the bolts in.  Then, the bumper weighs about 75 pounds so it is pretty awkward to hold it in place.  once again the lift proves its value.





I set the bumper on my rolling project center and lifted the jeep to the right height, then started the outside 4 bolts.

I removed the cart, lifted the jeep back up, and finagled the new bolts in.  my fingers are just barely long enough to be able to reach and start the nuts by turning the bolts and just holding the nut in place.  then once all nuts were started I tightened them using the same technique I used to take the old ones out.  then I drilled a small hole through the bottom strap holes into the frame and just used self tapping bolts to hold them in place.

then I put the D-rings on.









finished.  All said it took less than an hour.


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## havasu

I really like that back bumper. What brand is it?


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## mustanggarage

The bumper is from e-autogrilles the same brand as he front grill


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## oldognewtrick

Huge improvement over the bumperettes.


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