An easy fix today that has been bugging the hell out of me. My drivers side mirror was broken to the point that it could barely support itself up. Luckily I found one ebay for a good price and was able to toss it on quickly. Only problem was that goofy tiny Torx set screw on the bottom of the trim piece. Super fortunate that I have a crazy small Torx in my iFix It tool kit. Everything else was easy.

Before:



After:



The new mirror isn't a prime example, it is a used part after all. But it actually fits like it should and breaks away like it is supposed to. And doesn't sag.

As much as I want to keep the old mirror around, maybe to salvage the glass or something, I dont really see the point. Anyone else think different?

One more small fix. I am going to be gone for the rest of the week so I wanted to do a little bit more before I left.

My center vent was loose as hell and constantly drooping down. I found this post by @winston427 in this thread: https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/cen...-floppy-17851/ that seemed to be my exact problem.

Pulling the vent out, I found mine was also upside down and missing the little triangle piece of foam. So made a new one with a self adhesive foam pad I found in a drawer:





I bent the mounting tab back a bit, she popped back into place no problem:



And now the vent stays in place with what feels like the correct amount of friction. Soon I can put the dash back together. As soon I can figure out why the tach and speedo aren't working...

I'm definitely gonna do that quick fix to mine, thanks for sharing!

Glad it helps! I was pleased to see this was a 5 min fix. I just hope it lasts.

I'm about to scrap a 95 donor XJ.
Hit me up if there's anything you want off it before it gets reincarnated as chinese razor blades.

Thanks! Sent you a PM

Not as much progress today as I would have liked. Went to replace the drivers side-rear door handle today and ran into some problems. I picked up a Dorman replacement door handle and it seems to fit just fine. All the dimensions and color seems to be a good match:



But for the life of me I couldn't get the metal bar to get into its corresponding hole:



I seem to be 1/4" or 3/16" off. And this is even before I got the green retainer clip in place.

I tried to get the whole assembly together before I screwed the actual latch assembly in place, but that didn't line up either. I cant tell if the Dorman handle isn't in spec or if there is a trick I am missing. Anyone have any thoughts?

I'm sure Dorman is to blame. They are known for making crap replacements that no one else makes.

You're probably right.

It looks like the old mechanism is still ok, it was the plastic housing on the old handle that gave away. I think I'm going to try the old mech on the new handle and see if that will do it for me.

So I did pick up a new (to me) alternator and I think it will fit. The only issue is that I dont see an obvious Voltage Regulator present:



I was under the impression the Voltage Regulator wasn't internal.

Hoping I didn't just waste money on this guy. I ended up going to Napa for an unrelated project and stuck up a conversation with the guy at the front desk. Turns out he had an alternator in stock for my 95. I was pretty surprised since this is a small town Napa and most things need to be trucked in from another location. The brand new, boxed alternator didn't have any obvious Voltage Regulator either. But I cant confirm that someone didn't buy it, remove some parts and return it.

So...am I going the wrong way with this? Am I missing something obvious? Should I just get one of those universal external voltage regulators and be done with it?

I really haven't been driving the Jeep much since the voltage spikes at anything above an idle and I don't want to toast a working battery. So I'm kind of ready to get this rig back on the road.

So a little while between updates. One reason is that summers up here are busy for me. Another reason is I was being a cheap ***.

So the good news is under the hood is a brand new alternator:



Which solved my overcharging issue:



Bad news is that my $45 ebay alternator wouldn't fit and I got tired of the rig sitting around. So I bit the bullet and paid full price for a new one and while I was at it had my local shop install it. In less then half a day she was back in my driveway ready to drive.

I also decided to break both mounting pins for my cargo area light while I was replacing it:



So now that's dangling by the wires. But at least it works now. If anyone knows what these pins are called, let me know.

I should have more time off coming up so with any luck updates will follow soon.

Minor victory today, I have the windshield sprayers working now:



I had to change out one of the washer pumps and the cowling where the nozzles were mounted. Both stems on the nozzles were broken off and I didn't know if I can swap out the sprayer nozzles or not.

I still don't have the intermittent wipers working yet, but I visited a 93' and a 95' XJ this week and was able to pull a few parts. Hopefully one of the intermittent control modules I pulled will work. If neither one does, I don't know what the next step would be.

Still tho, super pleased to have the sprayers working again. Its a personal pet peeve of mine when I cant clean the windshield. Maybe if I am lucky I can get a few more minor things knocked out with the parts I got.

Minor victory number 2 today. After scoring a pair of these guys:



I was able to turn this:



Into this:



I could not find the name of those pins, but I was able to pull a pair from another rig. It wasn't until I took the pics that I realized that I had mounted the darn light backwards. I had already reused the push-nuts once, so I'm in no hurry to use them again. The light can stay backwards for a little while.

My dash sage continues. From the start the speedo and tach in this rig diddnt work. I have tried all the little fixes I can think of. Cleaning the harness contacts, making sure all the pins are making contact, swapping out gauge clusters, ect. The rest of the gauges work just fine, just not the speedo and tach.

My next step was replacing the speed sensor. Seemed easy enough; one bolt and one connector. Pulling the old one out revealed this:




It looked physically ok, it seemed to spin just fine. But it was full of oil. I was hoping that was the reason she wasn't working.

My new sensor did not totally match up with the old connector. It was just different enough that the two wouldn't fit together. It did come with a new connector so I was able to splice in the new one easy enough. The new one bolted right in:



Unfortunately even with the new sensor the speedo and tach are still dead. At this point I think I am out of ideas, so if someone has some insight, I would appreciate the help.

So we have had a few cold snaps up here the past few weeks and the Jeep has has trouble starting. Real sluggish in the cold.

Putting my meter on the battery told me she was dead on 12v. Figuring I had a drain of some kind I put her on several battery chargers over the course of a week. But try as I might she would not take a full charge....crap.

Normally I would just buy a new battery and be done with it. But I may be moving in a few months and unless I am staying local, I don't plan on keeping this XJ. I will sell her and put that money to another one. So I don't want to spend $150 on a new battery just to sell the rig off. So I was able to find a used battery on Marketplace. It was the wrong size but it fits well enough for now and its at least 4 years newer. The old battery was the wrong size too so no bid deal.

Puling out the old battery and I found this:



Completely worn through the case with half the acid drained out of that cell. No wonder why I was only getting 12v on a full charge. She was only able to use 5.5 of 6 cells. The old battery is from 2015 and if it wasn't for that physical damage, I bet it would still be charging fine.

Tossed the new (to me) battery in and she fired right up. Once I find out where I am moving too, I will track down the correct 34/78 battery. For now this group 66 and a bungie cord will be good enough for a bit. But that old battery damage is the reason why you buy the right size battery and proper hold down.