flazz85
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- New Jersey
Hey all,
I own a 97 xj and it does most things perfectly fine, its lightly modified but nothing drastic. Anyways not sure who here buys or subscribes to JP magazine but their one writer Pete Trasborg in their newest magazine had a write up on late model jeeps to buy and what to look for and what not to. When he got around to xj's he broke them down to the renix years, the first 2 years that i'll even admit are basket cases, the updated older version (91-96), then the true late models (97-01).
After explaining all of them he goes on about the 97-01's and he talks about how their relatively the same compared to the older ones except for things like the OBD-II, different design, etc. But what he says of the '97 models imparticular is that they have crap wiring, mainly the wiring harness revisions due to the new computer. his exact words are "there were up to three wiring harness revisions in 1997. No matter who you talk to, everyone agrees that unless you are leaving it completely alone, you might want to avoid a '97. We've been in an out of most of these, and it's clear that it took Chrysler until late 1997 to figure out the wiring, make it neat, orderly, and uniform from one month to the next"
Now what I want to know is because he doesn't specify anything else regarding '97's it basically sounds like if you have a 97 your up sh*t's creek so what to do? Theres no way I am giving up my '97, I like the truck too much, and there too many memories with it. Does everyone agree with what Trasborg says here? If it is the case that '97's have bad wiring throughout what would be a good solution to the problem? How much would it cost to buy a new wiring harness for a '98 or up and replace the old one (obviously this would take a lot of time and would be expensive but I'm just trying to piece this all together). Also if we are talking serious dough would it be feasible when my motor needs a rebuild down the road(I have 150,000 + give or take on mine) to just scrap it and go for a crate 4.0L get the computer flashed and grab a new harness then? Or what about dropping an LS1 from a wrecked camaro or firebird into the xj and use that engines computer and wiring harness system (novak-adapters sells all the adaption parts you need to make the swap). Any other options? I am sure there are plenty so I just want to pick everyones brain over this one because that lame article kind of had me annoyed because obviously if you are like one of us you like to modify your xj but you don't want to deal with the computer going ape sh*t because you decided to add a few parts here or there.
I own a 97 xj and it does most things perfectly fine, its lightly modified but nothing drastic. Anyways not sure who here buys or subscribes to JP magazine but their one writer Pete Trasborg in their newest magazine had a write up on late model jeeps to buy and what to look for and what not to. When he got around to xj's he broke them down to the renix years, the first 2 years that i'll even admit are basket cases, the updated older version (91-96), then the true late models (97-01).
After explaining all of them he goes on about the 97-01's and he talks about how their relatively the same compared to the older ones except for things like the OBD-II, different design, etc. But what he says of the '97 models imparticular is that they have crap wiring, mainly the wiring harness revisions due to the new computer. his exact words are "there were up to three wiring harness revisions in 1997. No matter who you talk to, everyone agrees that unless you are leaving it completely alone, you might want to avoid a '97. We've been in an out of most of these, and it's clear that it took Chrysler until late 1997 to figure out the wiring, make it neat, orderly, and uniform from one month to the next"
Now what I want to know is because he doesn't specify anything else regarding '97's it basically sounds like if you have a 97 your up sh*t's creek so what to do? Theres no way I am giving up my '97, I like the truck too much, and there too many memories with it. Does everyone agree with what Trasborg says here? If it is the case that '97's have bad wiring throughout what would be a good solution to the problem? How much would it cost to buy a new wiring harness for a '98 or up and replace the old one (obviously this would take a lot of time and would be expensive but I'm just trying to piece this all together). Also if we are talking serious dough would it be feasible when my motor needs a rebuild down the road(I have 150,000 + give or take on mine) to just scrap it and go for a crate 4.0L get the computer flashed and grab a new harness then? Or what about dropping an LS1 from a wrecked camaro or firebird into the xj and use that engines computer and wiring harness system (novak-adapters sells all the adaption parts you need to make the swap). Any other options? I am sure there are plenty so I just want to pick everyones brain over this one because that lame article kind of had me annoyed because obviously if you are like one of us you like to modify your xj but you don't want to deal with the computer going ape sh*t because you decided to add a few parts here or there.
is where I get my info.