Finally bought the h4 housings again for this XJ since the last ones were destroyed in the accident. Also put in some slightly brighter bulbs so I can see better at night. Lot of deer crossings in this town and I definitely don't want to hit one. Low Beams Before Low Beams After
After going through two 195 tstats that worked fine, my temp would never rise much higher than 180. Threw in a 205 degree one and now it regulates just below 210 like I wanted.
Edit: So me and some friends did some investigating and it turns out someone put a postal service RHD radiator in this Jeep at has a core thickness of 34mm. The stock thickness is 24 so that would explain why I need a 205 tstat to stay at operating temp.
Grabbed another from the junkyard because my cruise and wiper washer stopped working. Cruise wires were broken in the column and the connector under the dash was very loose so with that fixed and the stalk replaced cruise works great. This one doesn't turn off when you use the blinkers either. The wiper washer still doesn't work but im guessing that's due to the switch inside the column.
EDIT: So both failing was just pure coincidence after all. The wiper/washer issue was caused by a dirty ground under the dash and its working now and better than ever before. Cleaning that ground also fixed my wipers being slow on the low and high settings.
Had a friend come down from Oklahoma and we pieced the system back together. When I got this Jeep, it was missing two hoses and the drier. I found one on my old Jeep and bought the other along with a new drier. He had a spare new condenser so we put that in. Cleaned out the system and replaced all the o rings and finally put it all back together only to find my 2 year old compressor has a serious leak behind the clutch. I swapped the old R12 compressor with this one because it is locked up so I'll need a new compressor. But at least the system is back together and sealed finally.
Decided to replace the fluid in the rear differential since it was black. Inside looks very good. I could service the front but it leaks from the passenger axle seal so im topping it off every 2k miles anyways so its fiiiine.
Found a pretty deep Crack on the upper hose yesterday so I swapped it today. Thing was unzipping around the hose clamp. Could've been a bad day had it not been caught. This wasn't even the right hose to begin with so I'm glad to have the correct one on it now.
So recently I have had hard shifting problems almost like I wasn't even pressing the clutch in. Started about a month ago on my way back from Oklahoma and came and went. Finally pulled the transmission today figuring either my clutch was bad or the throwout bearing exploded. Turns out the pilot bearing vaporized. Guess it happened on my way back. Bought a new clutch kit from LuK along with a Timken pilot bearing and got it all slapped together along with a new transmission mount in about 6 hours. Not bad. Only cost me $72 to do at a local auto shop since they let you rent bays for $12/hr.
Glad to have this done because I will be leaving for Moab, Utah again on the 28th. Old Pressure Plate Old Throwout Bearing AX-15 Transmission Old Clutch Flywheel Exploded Pilot Bearing Comparison New Pilot Installed BenjaminStubbs1USA
I always wanted to swap the log intake for the newer horseshoe style and today I finally achieved just that along with a knockoff banks header that flows really nice. Old exhaust had the classic Crack so I had a reason to replace it. This thing has a lot more power now especially with the 62mm throttle body. Couldn't be happier with the swap. Now to get 3.55s in this thing....
So I have been searching to an 84-87 header panel for the chrome 10 slot grille and headlight housings I've had and finally got ahold of one yesterday. Had to drill a couple holes to make it work but now the front end has chrome again. Just need to paint it white to match the rest of the Jeep.
Update 08/24/25:
Painted the Header panel. Jeep is finally(mostly) one color.
Took another trip to Moab with absolutely no issues this time! We installed a manual steering box from an 86 comanche and the steering is so much lighter now. Feels like I have power steering on the highway. Also got a chrome bumper from a friend while there so now the front end looks complete and not such a mess.
