So I have the XJ for about 3 weeks. Here are some pics. FIRST Jeep I have owned..let me know what you think. Also, comment on noticeable flaws that you would recommend me fixing. First obvious are VCG replacement. And WTH is up with this air horn??

 

Clean up that wiring job

 

Those bare wire clamp style battery terminals- no good. There is a forum member here who makes custom cables (I apologize for not recalling the name). Worth upgrading. Like most modern engines this one is touchy about good +12V power and solid grounds. You'll eventually have oddball problems that "nobody can find" with marginal power connections.

Does the air horn work?

 

I can probably pass gas louder than the damn air horn! Seriously its a POS!!

 

Yeah, but can you do Yankee Doodle, the Wm Tell Overture and the Model-A Ah-Ooo-Gah at the press of a button?

 

Upper radiator hose looks like it has a bulge (weak area) near the T-stat housing - could lead to a failure, down the road.

 

I agree, clean the wiring, and why not replace all the hoses while your there. Id get some kinda cover for that fuse box. Id start with doing a full tune up (wires, plugs, dist cap, oil change, new extra capacity filter, air filter).

 

fan shroud missing ,wiring,pdc cover ,ditch the cheap toy horns.

 

First off it's a Jeep so that part's GOOD. Have you been running it? How's it doing?

+1 on that wiring (don't need no fires). Maybe a coolant leak at the t-stat housing behind the sensor? Rad hose looks old but if nothing else it needs a protective covering where it's laying on the AC compressor. Something on the hood rubbing that heater hose? Oil dip stick is upside down (just KIDDIN').

If you feel it's worth keeping there are all kinds of thing you should consider doing. Get you a service manual and start doing some routine maintenance to it. And I might as well say it. Replace the cooling system components after a GOOD flushing. That way you'll know it in top shape.

 

Biggest issues I see are the wiring and cooling systems. The upper radiator hose is in bad shape and doesn't have any protection from rubbing against the AC compressor, and the hose right above it that runs into the heater in the cab is also in poor shape. Fan shroud missing too... like others have said I'd replace all those hoses as suspect and do a total flush. The horns and wiring are a pretty obvious safety issue, don't want anyone getting hurt. Or water getting in your PDC and killing the vehicle. Battery looks like it could use a scrubbing... search on here about a ground refreshing, its pretty much basic maintenance on XJs.

How hot is it getting in there with the headliner removed? I know some guys on here who have taken theirs off used rubberized undercoating on the ceiling and that keeps some of the temps and noise down.

Grats on the XJ Looks like you've got some fun ahead of you!

 

The hillbilly I got the Jeep from just rigged alot of the electrical. The headlights run on their own toggle switch. I first switch was a cheap one so I replaced it with a 30AMP switch, but I can feel the wires get very hot when I have the headlights on a long time. I removed that POS Air Horn and it looks like he spliced into the wiring harness for that as well....so I just removed the horn and electrical taped the end of those wires. It also rained hard and I had a puddle in my drivers side floor board..WTF! Need to find where its coming in from. Any "usual" spots that are commonly affected I should check??

 

Door trim, the little window winglets up front are what i had issues with, speciffically the upper half of the door trim and frontmost corner of the window winglets

 

Remind me NOT to post pictures of my engine bay here. LOL

 

BUT just in case you miss something 62,965 sets of eyes are better than two.