billyjp2
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Indian Orchard MA
nice write-up on the booster and MC swap. i hope to install my WJ MC and larger booster soon
-
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beater!
- Thread starter ehall
- Start date
XJ86Fever
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Up High in the Colorado Rockies
Hi ehall and thanks for the great writeup!!! Sorry if I missed the info but regarding the removal of the front body parts (radiator sheet metal support, header panel etc.) to gain access to the front of the motor as you did in pg. #6, are they all bolt on parts?
I'll be doing the same swap to my '91 XJ ('99 engine) and I'm working in a very confined area. I would be so nice not to have to raise the engine to clear the front of the XJ.
TIA-
-Lou-
I'll be doing the same swap to my '91 XJ ('99 engine) and I'm working in a very confined area. I would be so nice not to have to raise the engine to clear the front of the XJ.
TIA-
-Lou-
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- Location
- Rainy side of Washington
Yes. Header panel is almost certainly going to give you trouble though, use a wire brush to remove rust from the two studs on each end (they're welded into the fenders and go through the header panel) and start soaking them in penetrating lube now. In a few days, you can start backing the nuts off but be really really careful and if they feel like they are binding up, tighten them back down a quarter to half turn to free the threads then start backing them back off again. Otherwise you're nearly guaranteed to break the studs off, at least around here... and that means tacking in new ones or buying new fenders.
The black metal radiator support at the top is entirely bolt-in.
The black metal radiator support at the top is entirely bolt-in.
- Location
- Southern Maryland
The radiator and front pieces come out pretty easily. The header panel is held on with two bolts on each side, with the nuts behind the headlight bezels, and is also attached to the crossmember on top of the radiator. The radiator itself has a couple of pins at the bottom that keep it in position, and is otherwise just bolted from the top. You might have trouble with the tranny cooler disconnects but I am usually able to pull them out with pliars.
Remove the electric fans and mech shroud, remove the crossmember across the top of the radiator, remove headlight bezels, unbolt header from fenders, then pull the radiator out from the top. You can remove the front bumper for more clearance but it's not absolutely necessary.
Remove the electric fans and mech shroud, remove the crossmember across the top of the radiator, remove headlight bezels, unbolt header from fenders, then pull the radiator out from the top. You can remove the front bumper for more clearance but it's not absolutely necessary.
XJ86Fever
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Up High in the Colorado Rockies
Sweet!!! Thanks for the info guys. This will work out perfectly now as I did not have enough celing height to raise the engine above the heather panel. :yelclap:
OverlandZJ
NAXJA Member # 101
- Location
- Bristol,PA
Been meaning to mention.. these pages are taking forever to load for me... i dont know if it's because this thread is so pic heavy (a good thing imo) or your host Eric.
When you gonna start a ZJ build that i can rip off ideas for? :laugh3:
When you gonna start a ZJ build that i can rip off ideas for? :laugh3:
- Location
- Southern Maryland
Picked up a stock bumper-mounted tire carrier with all of the hardware today from 
goodfellow ithinkican. The hinge is blown out but otherwise it's all there--it's still even attached to the stock bumper.
This is going to be a side project for a while, and I'm not really even sure if I will mount it (don't want to make unnecessary holes in the hatch but at least it doesn't use the quarterpanel).
Anybody know if its possible to supesize replace the hinge?
goodfellow ithinkican. The hinge is blown out but otherwise it's all there--it's still even attached to the stock bumper.
This is going to be a side project for a while, and I'm not really even sure if I will mount it (don't want to make unnecessary holes in the hatch but at least it doesn't use the quarterpanel).
Anybody know if its possible to supesize replace the hinge?
gw204
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- St. Leonard, MD
Just read through your whole thread and I am seriously impressed. Nice work!!!
If you ever need an extra hand give me a shout. Be glad to help out if I can sneak away from the wife and kids.
If you ever need an extra hand give me a shout. Be glad to help out if I can sneak away from the wife and kids.
- Location
- Southern Maryland
Thanks! We get many more XJ peoples down here and we'll need a SMIB chapter
- Location
- Southern Maryland
I went to a junkyard to get some parts for my Cadillac project and ended up leaving with a working air compressor for $25. I've been wanting to get one of these for a while to use for filling tires and running light power tools (a nail gun, for example). These compressors are kind of small (larger than the tire pumps but smaller than a car battery), however they are typically used to raise and lower the rear air struts to keep the car level and emergency tire inflation on some models, so they are adequate.
I cleaned the rust and corrosion, painted the steel, and replaced the hardware, and she came out real pretty.
The Cadillac FSM says the pump is good for 180 PSI (a separate in-line limiter that I'm not using prevents the shocks from going over 60 PSI), but from what I've seen elsewhere it is only able to push a little more than 1 CFM so I will need a tank of some kind. The motor is a permanent magnet type. The black cylinder piggyback over the pump motor is a desiccant drier so I won't have to worry so much about moisture in the tank. You can see a skirted relay hanging off the back too. It has electrical connectors to turn the compressor on and off, and also has an exhaust solenoid to release pressure from the line.
I plan to install this where the stock airbox used to be. However I want to get the tank and manifold put together first, and am trying to figure out where to put that stuff. If I get the tire carrier installed I can put a small 2-gallon tank where it used to set pretty easily so that is what I will probably do.
I cleaned the rust and corrosion, painted the steel, and replaced the hardware, and she came out real pretty.
The Cadillac FSM says the pump is good for 180 PSI (a separate in-line limiter that I'm not using prevents the shocks from going over 60 PSI), but from what I've seen elsewhere it is only able to push a little more than 1 CFM so I will need a tank of some kind. The motor is a permanent magnet type. The black cylinder piggyback over the pump motor is a desiccant drier so I won't have to worry so much about moisture in the tank. You can see a skirted relay hanging off the back too. It has electrical connectors to turn the compressor on and off, and also has an exhaust solenoid to release pressure from the line.
I plan to install this where the stock airbox used to be. However I want to get the tank and manifold put together first, and am trying to figure out where to put that stuff. If I get the tire carrier installed I can put a small 2-gallon tank where it used to set pretty easily so that is what I will probably do.
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- Location
- Southern Maryland
My little brother stopped in town on his way out of the Marne Corp and into the Navy officer program 
atriot: I think I said a few times in this thread that he learned how to drive with this car and tore it all to crap (seriously, most of the repairs are for things he did to it). I showed him some of the things I'd done and let him drive it around, and he wanted to see how it handled off-road so we went down a little horse trail in the woods.
Those trails are reallly narrow.... Dented both passenger doors and tore the rear flare right off. So I get to fix more of his damage now :sure:
OTOH it handled great
atriot: I think I said a few times in this thread that he learned how to drive with this car and tore it all to crap (seriously, most of the repairs are for things he did to it). I showed him some of the things I'd done and let him drive it around, and he wanted to see how it handled off-road so we went down a little horse trail in the woods.
Those trails are reallly narrow.... Dented both passenger doors and tore the rear flare right off. So I get to fix more of his damage now :sure:
OTOH it handled great
OverlandZJ
NAXJA Member # 101
- Location
- Bristol,PA
Safe to say that's the last time he will be driving this rig?
:repair:
:repair:
- Location
- Southern Maryland
We've got a string of nice weather here so I am tackling some things. First on the list was to repair the drivers side upper hinge.
Long story long: the drivers door never really closed right, and I could see a sliver of daylight and feel a breeze through the A-pillar. I thought this was just an alignment problem so I ignored it, but when I did the body work I discovered that the upper door hinge had been repaired, and the installers had welded the hinge in such a way that the upper door would no longer seal against the body. I asked my parents about it and mom said she was taking pops to the airport and the door fell off, they held it in place with bungee straps long enough to get him on the plane then took it to the dealer for repairs.
Here is the repair. Basically the dealer riveted and glued a piece of heavy sheet metal over the A-pillar and then welded the hinge back into position. It's a comprehensive repair--the hinge is on there good and solid--but it was done poorly
The specific problem is that the hinge was reattached to the body with a large gap and at a 90 degree angle. However the upper hinge on the passenger side is 87 degrees, and putting the drivers side hinge at 90 degrees causes the top of the door to point outwards. So by putting the hinge where they did the top of the door would never close. This pic shows the problem using the A-pillar as the reference; the hinge ends up pointing up and outwards
I removed the hinge to get a better feel for the situation. As you can see there is plenty of good metal there.
I was planning to use WrenchMonkey's fix for this but after studying on the problem for a bit I decided to just make a straightforward repair. I did find some good tips in his thread though, such as using a long piece of threaded rod to hold the hinge in the correct proximity
Rewelded with the right angle and position, painted, and sealed with silicon.
I have done some preliminary fitment tests and without adjusting the hinges the door is much closer to the body. I still need to get the door aligned but I have no worries about it.
Interestingly, while I was examining the passenger door for comparison purposes I noticed that the upper weld was starting to crack, and the lower weld was almost nonexistent
So I beefed both of them up, painted, and resealed that hinge too
The passenger door does not sag anymore now
About 4-5 hours total time I guess, half of which was getting everything set up and then cleaned up
Long story long: the drivers door never really closed right, and I could see a sliver of daylight and feel a breeze through the A-pillar. I thought this was just an alignment problem so I ignored it, but when I did the body work I discovered that the upper door hinge had been repaired, and the installers had welded the hinge in such a way that the upper door would no longer seal against the body. I asked my parents about it and mom said she was taking pops to the airport and the door fell off, they held it in place with bungee straps long enough to get him on the plane then took it to the dealer for repairs.
Here is the repair. Basically the dealer riveted and glued a piece of heavy sheet metal over the A-pillar and then welded the hinge back into position. It's a comprehensive repair--the hinge is on there good and solid--but it was done poorly
The specific problem is that the hinge was reattached to the body with a large gap and at a 90 degree angle. However the upper hinge on the passenger side is 87 degrees, and putting the drivers side hinge at 90 degrees causes the top of the door to point outwards. So by putting the hinge where they did the top of the door would never close. This pic shows the problem using the A-pillar as the reference; the hinge ends up pointing up and outwards
I removed the hinge to get a better feel for the situation. As you can see there is plenty of good metal there.
I was planning to use WrenchMonkey's fix for this but after studying on the problem for a bit I decided to just make a straightforward repair. I did find some good tips in his thread though, such as using a long piece of threaded rod to hold the hinge in the correct proximity
Rewelded with the right angle and position, painted, and sealed with silicon.
I have done some preliminary fitment tests and without adjusting the hinges the door is much closer to the body. I still need to get the door aligned but I have no worries about it.
Interestingly, while I was examining the passenger door for comparison purposes I noticed that the upper weld was starting to crack, and the lower weld was almost nonexistent
So I beefed both of them up, painted, and resealed that hinge too
The passenger door does not sag anymore now
About 4-5 hours total time I guess, half of which was getting everything set up and then cleaned up
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- Location
- Southern Maryland
Took all day to get the doors realigned but they are on there square and flush. I used the dollar bill method to check for tension, then the car wash method to look where water stopped on the weatherstripping, and all tests passed. Plus I can actually have a conversation on my cell phone now without having to pull over from the road noise :rof:
- Location
- Southern Maryland
I've been having problems with steering wander and clunking noises so I am tackling some of that. First thing was to replace the steering box with a unit from a YJ to try and counter the wandering problem. The box was bought from a part-out on JF, and it's very stiff. I had to flush it out a few times before it started moving smoothly (no drag spots anymore) but its still really stiff overall. Maybe my XJ box is just super worn out after 346k miles and this one is normal :rof:
Overall the steering is more repsonsive and the wandering has mostly been eliminated (still some problems related to caster but the jeep doesn't change direction on it's own anymore). It might have a leak but I'm not sure yet--I flushed it a bunch and fluid got everywhere. Since I wasn't sure if I could get this box to loosen up any, I left the YJ pitman arm attached and while the angles are fine there is a dead spot in the center of the steering which could be related to the arm, or possibly a problem with the box. I should probably get a ZJ pitman at some point since I plan to go to 5+ inches.
Also tightened up the steering component hardware and regreased everything. The jamb nut on the trackbar TRE keeps wandering loose, which allows the TRE to rotate in the bracket, which is part of the clunking. Still have some noise though, which I suspect is the lower bearings on the column. I have a replacement set, but I will need to either remove the brake booster or the steering column to get the old one off, and I haven't decided which will suck less. Probably the booster will be easier but I will probably pull the column in order to tighten the tilt assembly and replace the cruise control wire.
Also regreased everything, bled and adjusted the rear brakes, and started applying rust converter to the front axle parts that had the paint stripped off from the snow
Overall the steering is more repsonsive and the wandering has mostly been eliminated (still some problems related to caster but the jeep doesn't change direction on it's own anymore). It might have a leak but I'm not sure yet--I flushed it a bunch and fluid got everywhere. Since I wasn't sure if I could get this box to loosen up any, I left the YJ pitman arm attached and while the angles are fine there is a dead spot in the center of the steering which could be related to the arm, or possibly a problem with the box. I should probably get a ZJ pitman at some point since I plan to go to 5+ inches.
Also tightened up the steering component hardware and regreased everything. The jamb nut on the trackbar TRE keeps wandering loose, which allows the TRE to rotate in the bracket, which is part of the clunking. Still have some noise though, which I suspect is the lower bearings on the column. I have a replacement set, but I will need to either remove the brake booster or the steering column to get the old one off, and I haven't decided which will suck less. Probably the booster will be easier but I will probably pull the column in order to tighten the tilt assembly and replace the cruise control wire.
Also regreased everything, bled and adjusted the rear brakes, and started applying rust converter to the front axle parts that had the paint stripped off from the snow
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- Location
- Southern Maryland
The tightness and the leaking both seem to have been related to the lock nut on the preload screw--the screw itself was overtightened and the lock nut was damaged allowing fluid to leak. I moved the lock nut from my old box over, loosened the preload screw and then locked it down. Steering feels good now and there's no obvious leak anymore, but we'll see. I should have checked this earlier, seeing as how it came from a JF kiddie.
- Location
- Southern Maryland
I noticed last night that the new dead spot in the steering had disappeared. Presumably this was also fixed by loosening the preload screw. No complaints with the box anymore other than it being slightly tighter, but that is probably why it works better
- Location
- Southern Maryland
The A/C lost its ability to make cold air over the winter. I talked to the mechanic that runs a local automotive electrical and HVAC specialty shop and he gave me one of his old Snap-On harnesses to play with.
It's really neat. Basically the blue hose goes to the low side service port, the red hose goes to the high side service port, while the yellow and black hoses are for external hookups (in this case yellow is used to draw refrigerant and black goes to a vacuum pump to evacuate the system). All of the ports meet at the manifold. The gauges show the pressure on the low and high service ports respectively.
Hookup showed that pressure was really low. Also discovered that the Schraeder valve on the high side service port was leaking so I had to buy another adapter at NAPA, and lost the rest of my coolant charge during removal.
Next I bought 6 ounces of Ester oil, and 36 ounces of R-134A (only really needed about 28 ounces though). When I got back home I discovered that the cans had sealed lids and the Snap-On harness used Schraeder valve, so back to the store for an adapter. Then screw the can onto the adapter, puncture the seal, and open the yellow knob to allow the juice to flow into the manifold, then crack open the low side valve and it all gets sucked into the compressor. Once the can is completely empty, close off the low pressure line and the feeder line, swap cans and do it again.
Once I got all of the oil and 2 cans of refrigerant the system was pretty full but still a little short so I started on can #3. I was told to keep the high pressure side of the gauge below 300 (it's head pressure on the compressor), but once I started feeding the last can the high pressure side would periodically jump up to over 300. At that point I would close the low pressure and intake ports, crack open the high pressure port and close it again to release pressure into the manifold, and then cracked the black hose valve to vent the refrigerant. I had to do this a couple of times to get it all balanced out but as of right now the system looks pretty good with about 22 psi of low pressure side and 260 on the high side. That is kind of low on the low pressure side from what I am told, so I am guessing the desiccant drier needs to be replaced again, although it could be any number of things. Right now the A/C is cranking out the cold really nicely but I will have to see how the charge holds up.
Nice tool though
It's really neat. Basically the blue hose goes to the low side service port, the red hose goes to the high side service port, while the yellow and black hoses are for external hookups (in this case yellow is used to draw refrigerant and black goes to a vacuum pump to evacuate the system). All of the ports meet at the manifold. The gauges show the pressure on the low and high service ports respectively.
Hookup showed that pressure was really low. Also discovered that the Schraeder valve on the high side service port was leaking so I had to buy another adapter at NAPA, and lost the rest of my coolant charge during removal.
Next I bought 6 ounces of Ester oil, and 36 ounces of R-134A (only really needed about 28 ounces though). When I got back home I discovered that the cans had sealed lids and the Snap-On harness used Schraeder valve, so back to the store for an adapter. Then screw the can onto the adapter, puncture the seal, and open the yellow knob to allow the juice to flow into the manifold, then crack open the low side valve and it all gets sucked into the compressor. Once the can is completely empty, close off the low pressure line and the feeder line, swap cans and do it again.
Once I got all of the oil and 2 cans of refrigerant the system was pretty full but still a little short so I started on can #3. I was told to keep the high pressure side of the gauge below 300 (it's head pressure on the compressor), but once I started feeding the last can the high pressure side would periodically jump up to over 300. At that point I would close the low pressure and intake ports, crack open the high pressure port and close it again to release pressure into the manifold, and then cracked the black hose valve to vent the refrigerant. I had to do this a couple of times to get it all balanced out but as of right now the system looks pretty good with about 22 psi of low pressure side and 260 on the high side. That is kind of low on the low pressure side from what I am told, so I am guessing the desiccant drier needs to be replaced again, although it could be any number of things. Right now the A/C is cranking out the cold really nicely but I will have to see how the charge holds up.
Nice tool though
- Location
- Southern Maryland
A couple of years ago I put some Class-III receivers on the front of my jeep for use as recovery points and also with the intention of eventually getting a tow bar so that I could flat-tow the jeep if I ever needed to. Today I was helping the 90-yr-old widower next door with his car and noticed a tow bar in the corner of the garage. He said that he and his wife used to flat-tow his Bronco II, and he wasn't doing anymore of that so I could have it as thanks for helping him out.
It's a Reese, says it's rated for 5000 lbs so it should be good for dragging the XJ around. I have to make inserts/adapters, and wire up some heavy-duty diodes and trailer wiring, but neither of those will be very hard.
Too many side projects are coming together right now so I will back-burner this one for a bit. The tow bar was the big hurdle though, so having it means I have to do the rest.
It's a Reese, says it's rated for 5000 lbs so it should be good for dragging the XJ around. I have to make inserts/adapters, and wire up some heavy-duty diodes and trailer wiring, but neither of those will be very hard.
Too many side projects are coming together right now so I will back-burner this one for a bit. The tow bar was the big hurdle though, so having it means I have to do the rest.
- Location
- Southern Maryland
One thing I complained about was the sharp angle of the XJ intake elbows. Today I got a feeling that the engine wasn't breathing right so I checked around and found a tear on the elbow at the throttle body, presumably a result of the strain and heat from the exhaust manifold.
I pulled everything out this evening, and the filter had a bunch of fresh pollen from the dusting last week, so this must have been recent, less than 200 miles hopefully.
I decided to go ahead and rebuild it while everything was apart so I bought 2 more YJ elbows from a local junkyard. I also had the oversized hole in the firewall where I had missed on the first attempt, so I also bought some 22 gauge sheet metal from Lowes and some 3M seam sealer from Car Quest.
First thing was to trace the hole onto some paper, then cut a dummy plate with the hole saw to mark the outline for the filler piece.
Cut and tack the filler plate into place... who says you can't tack sheet metal with flux :eyes:
Then enlarge the hole with a grinding wheel to even it all out, and apply seam sealer and paint to hide my sins
I also found a spot in the top of the filter where the windshield wiper arm had been wearing a hole into the rubber so I screwed the dummy plate to the top as a shield
Finally I ran some vacuum hose around the lip of the hole, then cut the YJ elbows and mounted everything back up. There are no more sharp angles, and the tube is also higher over the valve cover now due to the taller elbow.
I'll have to keep a closer eye on this and see how it holds up in the summer. I suspect I will need to go to silicon elbows at some point.
