At the tail end of a long trip and my clutch pedal started snapping the plastic off the master cylinder plunger. Friend got it limped to another friends house an hour from where it broke without the clutch and he welded together a full metal plunger and made it slightly longer so now it fully seats into the master and no longer hits the floor. This should get me home just fine. The overall length from the plunger end to the center of the eye-let is 5.1 inches long.




Some photos from the trip:

 

These things love to turn to dust and this XJ is no different. Swapped the ones from my old XJ in and that should cut down on the wind noise

 

Got this hood light from a friend and it wasn't retracting very well due to age. I drilled out the rivets and took it apart to clean and apply some new grease and now it works great. Got zip ties holding the case together but plan on getting some nuts and bolts for it and replacing the bulb with an LED. Always wanted one of these things.

 

Do you still have the actual vent windows from one of your Jeeps? I'll buy them from you, even without the weather seals.

 

unfortunately I don't. The driver one was broken at the hinge point in the door and the passenger side leaked like a siv on the old cherokee

 

Grabbed an OEM IAC from the junkyard to replace the Chinese one that wasn't working anymore

 

Finally got around to the first oil change for this Cherokee and figured why not also replace in Orings in the Oil Filter Adapter. I really love this version as it has a place to put a socket on rather than a hex or torx hole so it is a lot easier of a process. I really should have changed the oil when I first got the Cherokee because it was pretty dark then plus the 5k miles I put on it since but was too busy getting it ready for the trip.

 

So a friend of mine had a bigger throttle body and we decided to throw it on mine along with a spacer that it had just for kicks and it actually made a big difference with how much power this thing has. Doesn't totally feel like I'm dragging a boat anchor around anymore and makes the 3.07 gearing bearable. Plan on eventually swapping the intake for a 99+ manifold and a different exhaust.

Original throttle body

62mm Throttle body with the paired spacer (obviously the spacer adds 100 HP)

 

I'm not familiar with these kinds of upgrades, what does the spacer do? My jeep has most of the bolt on power upgrades, but not the 62mm throttle body, or anything electrical.

 

I'm convinced the spacer does nothing even though the manufacturer claims it can increase hp, torque, and mpg. Some people swear they work. The throttle body allows more air to enter the system though it's sorta restricted by the current intake and exhaust setup a bit but the differences are pretty night and day already. Mainly I don't have to press the pedal down as far to keep speed and it accelerates on moderate hills now.

 

I decided to clean up this throttle body since I'm currently running the bigger one but I may end up swapping it back on. Got 16.4mpg last fill up but I'm gonna run it one more tank to see if it's consistently that low with the bigger body. In hindsight I can see why I was having low power issues with how caked in carbon this one was. Probably hasn't ever been cleaned before.

 

This Jeep has a somewhat new Delphi fuel pump assembly and the gauge has always read 3-4 gallons lower than it actually was. Got fed up with it and pulled the tank yesterday to fix it. Decided to bend the float arm itself until it matched. Pulled 7 and a half gallons out of the tank ,which the gauge showed less than a quarter, and put in 10 gallons and bent the arm until it showed about half a tank and it works. It's not right on the dot as that's almost impossible but it's in the ballpark.

Delphi Fuel Pump

Inside of the tank before removing the fuel

First test after bending the float arm with 5 gallons in the tank

Second test after putting in an additional 5 gallons

Replaced this fuel line

 

I was doing 75 today and my idler bearing just disintegrated. Kept hearing a noise from the passenger side of the engine for the last four days but never could find the source. Guy in a 2004 wrangler pulled over and offered to take me to Autozone(his is on the right) so he saved the day.

 

About to embark on a 2,000 mile round trip so I decided to go ahead and replace the ignition coil in this thing. Rockauto accidentally sent me an extra one when I ordered for the green Jeep so it's been sitting around as a spare for the last few years. This Jeep still had its original coil and it's looking pretty bad so it's a good thing I replaced it. Jeep runs a bit better too.

 

Got this OME stabilizer from a friend so I figured why not throw it on today. The old one is factory and way beyond shot. Took it for a test drive afterward and the steering feels a bit more stable.