Long hiatus ended

Hi,

I'm from New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, when I tried to renew the license on my trusty old 85 Cherokee I was surprised to learn that according to the State of Louisiana my car had been destroyed in the flood judging only from my zip code. This was news to me for as I told them I had driven it just that morning and it seemed fine. They disagreed but never offered to return the $20 renewal fee.

At any rate, now, three years later, the restriction has been lifted! I was finally able to get a license.

Of course, my car has been sitting for three years. It started right up with the installation of a new battery even on a tank of gas 3 years old! The clutch master cyl. did go out from sitting but the brakes only needed to be bled.

It's not without problems though. During the hurricane looters broke my tailgate and stole my stereo out of it. Now My tach doesn't work, the A/C only blows through the windshield vent, and I have no turn indicators (I tried fuses and a new flasher.)

I think in ripping out the radio they buggered up some other wires/hoses inside the dash which I will have to replace too because they weren't very gentle about it.

I like my faithful old XJ and intend to restore it if possible. I need a new tailgate because I am unable to open it without the window falling out, hence I can't replace the burned out brakelight. That and no turn indicators prevents me from getting an inspection tag.

Does anyone have any advice for me concerning the dash problems? Could the looters have accidentally disconnected something on the heater control head to cause the A/C to only blow through the dash vents? Could they somehow have disconnected my turn indicators and tach behind the dash (the tach does go all the way to the stop during startup but after it's running it remains at zero). Or maybe it's something caused by sitting up for so long. What should I look for? And how difficult is it to replace the padded dash?

Thanks,

Ken

The a/c blowing from the defrost vents is a vacuum problem. A vacuum hose could have been broken in the dash when the radio was removed. Thats about all I can help with. JIM.

Greetings,
Sorry about your XJ/Katrina. We moved out of Slidell about 6 months before the hurricane to protect my XJ.
Air is directed around to the various vents by the deflector door which is vacuum operated, check the hoses on the control, they might
have ripped out a hose when they jerked the radio.
On the turn signals, is the flasher on the fuse panel clicking? If so, it might just be that the harness behind the instrument panel has come loose, that large connector also controls the tach. It would be worthwhile to un-plug it and spray it down with some contact cleaner. Ditto on all the fuses and flashers, remove, spray with contact cleaner, re-install.

I got the blinkers working. Well the dash display doesn't which is what threw me. I heard the flasher ticking just as you said. The dash indicators weren't on and just then a neighbor who could see the car said "I see you got the blinkers going"

The A/C keeps melting fuses! and I tried to find a hose loose behind the control head but it's pretty hard just feeling around.

I intend to change the dash anyway so once I figure out how to remove it I suppose my electrical task will be easier.

Slidell huh? Don't blame you for leaving. I had a relative who lived in Slidell and returned to find a slab with pipes sticking out of it where his house used to be. I hope you fared better than he did.
The Northshore took another beating from Gustave then Ike in August. I can only imagine what it's like to see a hurricane approaching on TV and not have to panic and worry. Evacuating is a real pain and fewer and fewer people return after each one. I'm afraid that one day I'll wake up and find I'm living in a ghost town.

Did your XJ get flooded at all? Or was it on higher land? I've only been to New Orleans once a few years back so I'm not that familiar with the area, if there are any high areas or not.

could be the indicator bulbs are burned out. although odd that they'd both burn out at the same time.

The XJ dashboard is retardedly easy to pull out compared to other cars. Start with the lower kick panel and just keep taking out screws. At some point you just pull off the dash trim. Then it should be easy to inspect the back of the hvac control panel for busted controls or cut wires. The instrument cluster is pretty easy to get out but you have to reach around behind it and push in the release ring on the speedo cable.

I like alldatadiy.com, they have year specific full wiring diagrams with the right colors even scanned from the FSM. It's my secret weapon when tracking down electrical issues.

Thanks guys. I'll let you know how things come out.

No my XJ was high and dry during the flood. The water's edge ended 5 blocks away that's why The State of Louisiana considered it destroyed because in my zip code we did have flooding.

It sat unlicensed in my driveway for the past three years and often times I considered getting rid of it. Now I'm glad I didn't.

Last night I got a call from a friend who has a 95 XJ with a blown engine. If I pick this one up for parts will bits like the tailgate and dash be interchangable with my 85?

By the way you are in the Red River Chapter neck of the woods

I don't know If I'm in Red River Chapter territory. Does it extend to Jefferson and Orleans Parish?

Yes it do.

Skeezix said:

Thanks guys. I'll let you know how things come out.

Last night I got a call from a friend who has a 95 XJ with a blown engine. If I pick this one up for parts will bits like the tailgate and dash be interchangable with my 85?

Click to expand...

Most of the body parts will interchange. Keep the tailgate wires from yours when you change them out. Pull of the inside panels of the tailgates, disconnect wires, pull out old, feed in new. Don't disconnect them from the body.
The instrument clusters are different, especially the speedometers and won't swap.

Everything you want to do we have already done. Search and you shall find.

Gook luck!