NCMetalMechanic

alright, so at the end of last summer i bought an xj from a couple who was splitting up, and they wanted the jeep gone. i wanted the tsl's off it, so i picked it up cheap. ive been ever so patiently waiting for a 91 to show up at the local junkyard so i could steal the underhood harness from it. the connector block on the firewall had a short and fried the connector. im in the process of pulling the old harness so i can put in the one i just snaggged from the junkyard, and found an extra bundle of wires on harness thats currently in the jeep(the bad one). i traced it back to the passenger seat, where the bendix adaptive brake module is. the new harness does not have that wiring. can i just run the brake booster with out all the computer nonsense? all the brake sensors at the wheels have either been cut or ripped out from the PO. i cant imagine why this would be a problem, but i want to confirm that i can run this jeep with out the bendix control module.

anybody have any experience deleting this horrible, horrible module?

thanks

Radi

Your best bet is to find a vacuum booster, master cylinder and proportioning block from a non-ABS XJ of the same vintage. The only thing less reliable then that Bendix system is a half-removed Bendix system.
FYI- pump the brakes about 50 times with the motor off before opening up those accumulators, they are under a lot of pressure.

NCMetalMechanic

Thanks Radi, that's what I was thinking but Im not real familiar with this particular setup. The jeep I pulled the non bendix harness from had a booster and master that look identical to the ones on mine. Any comment on that? A vacuum booster is a vacuum booster to me. Is there something that could be different on mine vs a non renix booster? Thanks again

Radi

The Bendix 9 ABS didn't have a vacuum booster, it used a motor/pump assembly and two accumulators, one mounted to each side of the master cylinder. Inside accumulator is marked "High Pressure Vessel". See pic below.
If you have a traditional vacuum booster, someone has already removed the Bendix system but for some of the electronics.

NCMetalMechanic

The booster definately threw me for a loop, bc from what I understood about this system was there was no booster. And that would also explain all the extra connectors on the old harness. Im trying to piece this thing back together so that its reliable, bc the PO did some not so fantastic hack work on this thing. glad to know that im not going completely crazy.
Thanks for the help Radi, I certainly appreciate it!

Radi

Yeah, the 'ingenuity' is amazing sometimes and the older they get the more of it you see. There apparently are a whole lot of former Jeep owners who should not be allowed anywhere near electronics or brakes, lol.

NCMetalMechanic

So, so true. Thank god I helped the guy put the engine in it, lol.