Renix, pre-91 era XJ jeep tech differences

[Ecomike]

Wow, we need to meet up someday so I can see that beast, since we live in the same town. What part of town you in? Awesome write up!!!! I must admit my roofs and hoods are getting a wee bit of rust and are ready for fresh paint jobs.

I just keep coating the fresh rust with a polymer rust neutralizing primer from Loctite with a paint brush. Awesome product to delay the paint job 2-3 years.

I upgraded my AC's also, and in one case I used the 97 OEM condenser which improved the cooling a bunch since the 134-a was not as good as the old freon with the stock hardware. In 97 they upgraded to parallel flow style condensers that are way more efficient. So yes, I guess many OEM upgrades from the HOs to the Renix are possible, quite a list you have there. Thanks for sharing.

Point is I guess, that OEM repairs of older rigs can include upgrades from HO or Grand Cherokee OEM parts of newer jeeps.

My '90 XJ is pretty much amazing. Everything works and while it doesn't need emissions testing anymore (Texas), it passed with flying colors when I last took it in 2 years ago. The non-OEM stuff is the usual:

1) changed the coolant bottle and added an inline filler cap to rid myself of the PITA leaking bottle
2) upgraded the entire AC system to R134 out of a '95
3) changed all the rear glass to factory tinted glass I got from a wrecker on one of their 1/2 price long weekend specials
4) changed to beefier springs and shocks to get a little height
5) completed many of the "fixes" outlined in this forum including ground updates, headlight relays and door lock relays
6) changed all the locks to the single key version found on the '93 and up
7) removed the factory keyless entry and added a 3rd party device
8) re-purposed the (semi-useless) garage door opener hatch in the overhead and mounted a video screen for the rear passengers + added a dash mounted video and a rear view camera
9) replaced the power brake booster and Master with one out of a Grand Cherokee
10) changed the rear lights to the slotted design (removes the bottom bolt) used in the '93 for easier access

Lots more "little jobs" including repainting the whole thing (looks great) and refreshing the interior (dying the carpets, painting some of the plastic panels).

WRT the metal, my '93 (bought new) came with the zinc coating and a "lifetime limited warranty" which didn't amount to crap when the Chrysler refused to honor it when actual rust occurred (floor and one of the doors). Conversely, my '90 had only a small bit of surface rust on the roof where the paint had baked off and I had to weld a small patch on the rear quarter where the PO had removed the plastic plugs and then drove it through wet sand which collected inside the space behind the rear wheel. To be fair, the '93 lived a hard northern life while the '90 was a Texas truck from day one but I don't place a lot of stock in the Chrysler plating process and if I had to pick between the two bodies, i would go with the '90 every day of the week.

On a recent drive between Houston and Austin (140 miles), I used a little less than a quarter tank of gas which equates to close to 30mpg.

One of the nicest things about the '90 is the interchangeability with newer parts (like the AC, brake booster, glass....)

 

[tjmotter]

Hey Mike,

I am up in the NE, towards Tomball. Would love to meet up! The XJ is in Austin at the moment but I'm planning on bringing it back to Houston to do some more upgrades. Like you, I went with a parallel flow condenser but the one thing I didn't change (and regret) is the evaporator. The '95 evaporator has a little larger outlet which allows for more expansion with R134 which means it blows colder. Mine works really well but it has trouble catching up when we have those 110 degree days so I am planning to update soon.

I am also in the process of upgrading all my turn signals to LED. Every XJ I have owned seem to have the small idiosyncrasy of dimming lights on things like the stereo and the clock when I use the turn signals. It got better after refreshing the grounds in the '90 but I still find it annoying (never did figure it out on my '93) so I have moved to digital relays and will be changing all the bulbs to LED to see if the reduced load will make the nuisance go away.

The XJ is one of my hobby's so the wife doesn't mind (too much) when I put money into it, particularly when the LKQ lots have so many donor cars to help me keep the cost down.

I actually did the paint myself. I had never painted a car before and it came out really nice. A local Maaco quoted me close to $3000 to do the whole car but I found that buying the paint guns and material (I already have a compressor) would only come to $1700 so I did it myself. There are a couple of beginner mistakes that only I seem to see but I enjoyed the work. My only regret was that I should have installed the lift AFTER painting the roof. It was kind of a pain to reach with the extra height.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned on the forum was to pull a good passenger seat (bottom only) out of a donor and install it on the drivers side (they are the same part). Passengers sides tend to get less use and are in much better shape. My wife was ok with running the seat covers through the washing machine and after air drying for a couple of days they look almost new. This one is "all OEM" though so not fit for this thread (sorry about that).

One last thing, I pulled the 3rd brake light out of a newer model and installed it in my XJ as well. This one seems to fool a lot of XJ people into thinking the Jeep is a '94-'95 Once they look under the hood and see that it is a Renix, the questions start to fly.

 

[Ecomike]

Sounds like a Classic (LOL) Cloaked Renix rig to me. Thanks for the post, amazing how many small OEM changes can be made to a Renix XJ with JY parts!!!! Most Renix OEM upgrades I heard about were the engine and the radiator...and some on the AC.

 

[Green Mesa XJ]

To me the knowledge about these older XJ needs to be archived.
84-86 XJ are so anomalous there is hardly anybody left who knows the intricate a details of these jeeps.
Renix is a little better defined but still becoming harder to research and fix.

Surprising to see so many folks still rocking the old pre 91 XJs. I was beginning to think the majority of people here were here with issues about the late XJ with 0331 heads.

The youngest of the old AMC XJ are all 30, the youngest Renix is 26. Amazing so many are on the road.
This tech may not interest the millions of other XJ owners with newer XJ, to me and apparently a lot of other it's interesting tech.


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[Goose_XJ88]

I'm interested to hear more about the AC upgrade. If it works for a renix, then it must work for an early HO

I just bought a 92 MJ with AC delete and would love to piece together the most efficient ac package to throw into it but I have no idea where to start.

Do you have a "build" thread for the AC or maybe some reference thread about someone doing it?

 

[Ecomike]

I was totally lost for about 2 years trying to find service data on my 85 Cherokee Pioneer, and the Nissan diesel engine in it was a total mystery. I found some info in the local Public libraries in the old hard cover Chilton repair shop manuals. But it was not until I found that I started to find any real help, then I found a Nissan Diesel site and once I scored the SD-22 engine rebuild factory manual on Ebay and the Renix multiport injection manual I was off and running.

The rarest one I found was a Modified USAF MJ-tug with a Nissan diesel engine in it used at the air force base for towing planes. It was on an Ebay auction about 12 years ago. It still worked.

To me the knowledge about these older XJ needs to be archived.
84-86 XJ are so anomalous there is hardly anybody left who knows the intricate a details of these jeeps.
Renix is a little better defined but still becoming harder to research and fix.

Surprising to see so many folks still rocking the old pre 91 XJs. I was beginning to think the majority of people here were here with issues about the late XJ with 0331 heads.

The youngest of the old AMC XJ are all 30, the youngest Renix is 26. Amazing so many are on the road.
This tech may not interest the millions of other XJ owners with newer XJ, to me and apparently a lot of other it's interesting tech.


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[Ecomike]

Not sure if it is still active but 5-90 had for over a decade a Yahoo Renix XJ special interest site where we archived a lot of stuff. He was even creating a list of bolt specs for every bolt on the Renix, LOL. Talk about obsevive compulsive LOL, but I got bolt data there when I needed it. I lost my Yahoo account years ago and have not been there in ages, but I suspect it is still there.

To me the knowledge about these older XJ needs to be archived.
84-86 XJ are so anomalous there is hardly anybody left who knows the intricate a details of these jeeps.
Renix is a little better defined but still becoming harder to research and fix.

Surprising to see so many folks still rocking the old pre 91 XJs. I was beginning to think the majority of people here were here with issues about the late XJ with 0331 heads.

The youngest of the old AMC XJ are all 30, the youngest Renix is 26. Amazing so many are on the road.
This tech may not interest the millions of other XJ owners with newer XJ, to me and apparently a lot of other it's interesting tech.


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[Ecomike]

I'm interested to hear more about the AC upgrade. If it works for a renix, then it must work for an early HO

I just bought a 92 MJ with AC delete and would love to piece together the most efficient ac package to throw into it but I have no idea where to start.

Do you have a "build" thread for the AC or maybe some reference thread about someone doing it?

Sorry no build thread, I just bought the 97 OEM XJ parallel flow condenser and had a local shop make modified hose fittings/new hose to bridge the 87-97 gap from the 87 Renix Accumulator to the 97 Condenser. I bought a new Renix OEM filter-accumulator from him and took the online buy AC condenser to him so he could match the hose fittings and make a new hose set, while I drove the rig to the shop so he could map the route and length of everything. I have great shop close to me that has been doing low cost service and custom stuff for 35 years now.

The 97 condenser was an easy install as I recall, simple no apin swap, just had have the custom hoses made since the fittings changed over the years and I was still using Renix AC hardware on everything else. I did upgrade to 134a hoses and o'rings and seals on the parts I replaced. Only thing that is not new on my 85 and 87 now is the evaporators.

 

[Green Mesa XJ]

I'm interested to hear more about the AC upgrade. If it works for a renix, then it must work for an early HO

I just bought a 92 MJ with AC delete and would love to piece together the most efficient ac package to throw into it but I have no idea where to start.

Do you have a "build" thread for the AC or maybe some reference thread about someone doing it?

Did the previous remove it?
My 85 never had AC, bought it in Colorado didn't really need it compared to down south.

If yours has AC and the previous owner removed it, ( stuff like ac line and compressor), it is fairly easy to add it back. Ac heater control will be correct the vehicles wiring harness will be correct.
It's just a matter of putting it all back together. The hardest part would be replacing the evaporator in the dash is its been removed or is no good.
If you don't have ac at all I think you'd need to pull the dash and add airbox with the space for the evaporator (pretty sure it different)

If it's adding from scratch I'm honestly not sure how hard it's be. Much easier to add it back, basically buy the parts off the shelf,
I've adapted all kind of cars to run on r134a that were r12 with no issues.

 

[Green Mesa XJ]

Btw jeepair has kits for wranglers Adding AC to jeeps with no ac. Might give you an idea of what's involved if it's a complete retrofit.


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[Goose_XJ88]

Yeh my MJ came with the AC delete. Ill look into the jeepair then.

 

[Green Mesa XJ]

Yeh my MJ came with the AC delete. Ill look into the jeepair then.

Ok. Then we just need to find out if the MJ/XJ of this year were pre-wired for ac. I know older XJ were not.
If it is pre wired it much simple, if not I'd try to find a donor with dash and engine harness, and to get the heater box out of. The rest of the parts out to be off the shelf at the parts store.

There's a thread on this at the Comanche board but I don't see a write up, no updates since 2014.

 

[Green Mesa XJ]

Discussed in detail here
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77823

S


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[Goose_XJ88]

Discussed in detail here
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77823

Thanks for the link. Not sure if I want to tear into the dash or not. That will probably be the determining factor. lol

 

[Green Mesa XJ]

Thanks for the link. Not sure if I want to tear into the dash or not. That will probably be the determining factor. lol

Sorry it's not better news. Be so much easier if the previous owner removed it. Relatively simple to add it back. Retro fitting is another story, partly why I never bothered add ac to my older XJ.

Not sure what the wrangler kits consist of or how they wire it in. Ought to be some similarities, but they can be miles enough apart too.

If you find a solution please let me know, I'm sure others would be interested too.

 

[Goose_XJ88]

Yeh. I'm going to try and do more research or start my own question thread if I can't find HO specific swap someone has done. If I do end up retrofitting a system, I'll try my hand at a write up.

I'm probably going to need to find someone local that doesn't want ac and just swap all of their parts to mine

 

[old_man]

I can completely pull the dash in a Renix in about 20 minutes. You pull the defroster cover next to the windshield and there are a few bolts there. Then pull the bolts next to the doors on the sides. You have to undo the bolts that hold the steering column and the one behind the center ash tray.

To pull it all the way out, you will need to undo the bulkhead connector from under the hood. Other than that, you need to unplug the radio and the vacuum lines to the heater control and the a/c & heater hoses. It then will come out as one piece.

 

[Green Mesa XJ]

Yeh. I'm going to try and do more research or start my own question thread if I can't find HO specific swap someone has done. If I do end up retrofitting a system, I'll try my hand at a write up.

I'm probably going to need to find someone local that doesn't want ac and just swap all of their parts to mine

That swap would work. Pretty much the way to do it.

I watched a few videos about wrangler how to on AC , turns out jeep pre wired them for ac, and the air box is ready for it with a few adjustments.

I don't know about 91 for sure but 80's XJ/MJ got different wiring ac and non ac.

Some mention under dash ac (avoiding the dash work) I'm not sure how that works or if it fits XJ/MJ .

BTW as old_man said its not all that difficult to pull the dash. It needs to come out for heater core jobs.
The part I hate is removing the vent screws and bezel, then the bolts under neath. Although the outer big bolts are technically harder.

 

[Ecomike]

When are you going to visit Houston again and what is your favorite brew? LOL

I can completely pull the dash in a Renix in about 20 minutes. You pull the defroster cover next to the windshield and there are a few bolts there. Then pull the bolts next to the doors on the sides. You have to undo the bolts that hold the steering column and the one behind the center ash tray.

To pull it all the way out, you will need to undo the bulkhead connector from under the hood. Other than that, you need to unplug the radio and the vacuum lines to the heater control and the a/c & heater hoses. It then will come out as one piece.

 

[Ecomike]

The part I hate (even more so now days with my RA) is standing on my head under the dash :bawl:

When I was 19 my first auto mechanics mentor installed a 100% after market AC (GM rotary compressor) on my Ford Pinto. He hand made the brackets... not sure how he set up the controls. That was in 1974, a long time ago. Point is the main reason for pulling the dash is to install an evaporator, but you might check some parts wholesalers and custom shops and see what easy work arounds they might have. There is one great one in Arizona that has an AC web site like Naxja for asking these questions, They are the ones that turned me on to how to upgrade my 87 AC condenser to the 97 parallel flow (both OEM) that made a huge improvement in my 134-a upgrade.