After this trail ride, I've discovered I'm going to need two really labor-heavy repairs here sooner rather than later.

First repair: Heater core. It's starting to leak and show signs of failure. And from what one of my friends said, "they can go downhill fast. Mine went from a drip to steaming up the windows and filling the cab with water and that antifreeze s**t in about five miles."

Second repair: power steering pump. It's gone through a reservoir of fluid in 24 hours. I found the leak, and it's coming from right at the base of the pulley where the pump meets up with said pulley. As for that reservoir of fluid...most of it has been spattered around my engine compartment and is dripping all over my serpentine (which is due for replacement), just making a hell of a mess.

From what I can tell, I have about 20 hours of hard repair labor coming up here at a cost of around $120 ($150 if I get the belt)

 

Hey man, could you please do a write-up on the heater core swap? mine's apparently leaking too and i need to tackle this job in the summer. I hear it's a pain to do and time consuming. They couldn't have put the core in a harder to reach spot....

edit: oh wait, you have an older xj...might not be the same.

 

heater core replacement. on an '89

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthrea...#post243641386

 

Thank you very much, haynes said I'd have to pull the entire dash in order to get to this booger.

As for a long repair, pretty much everything is short compared to my longest repair: about 3 days full labor (12 hours each) spanning over two weeks when I redid the bed liner and found that hole in the floor.