Cleman Simpson

it's been one of those days where you win a few and lose a few. When I bought this 04 Laredo the factory radio was missing with only a hole in the dash where it used to be. I decided to put one in it today and got one from a friend of mine who owns a junkyard down the road from my house. We found the correct radio in an 04 Chrysler Intrepid and I went to put it in and discovered that the wiring harness which hooks to it in the Cherokee was burnt up. So while I'm studying the damage my daughter tells me that something is wrong with my dodge charger police interceptor. The traction control light is staying on and the car spins the drive tires real bad taking off from a dead stop.
So I took the charger back to the wrecking yard to get the wiring harness for the radio and it was a blast. I had no idea how much power that car really had until today. At half throttle it white smokes the tires and at full throttle it is nearly undriveable. It has the big hemi engine and is the high performance interceptor model on top of that with a four speed automatic. Basically it is an SRT Charger in a plain white wrapper. I'm not going to fix the traction control as apparently it has been throttling the engine down for some time on takeoffs and this thing is way too much fun to drive with those loud exhaust and spinning tires.

So while I am getting the wiring harness my friend who owns the junkyard tells me he has a wreckked 87 or 88 model Cherokee with a good running 4.0 in it and I ended up with a spare motor. I gave him a 57 olds rocket 88 a few years ago so he gave me the jeep engine for free today. Still don't have no radio working in the wj but had fun today anyway. So where is the radio fuse located in the 2004 WJ?

dave1123

You DO realize the 88 engine will not fit in your WJ, don't you?

So now you know what it was like to drive a 60s super car!

Cleman Simpson

What I want to do when I swap the engines, if I ever do, is go back to a distributor and a carbureted intake. I want to take about ten miles of wire, the fuel injection, and as many compooters as possible out of the GC and go old school with it. I realize Jeep was playing more to the soccer moms than to the off road crowd when they designed the wj but this thing is just way to complicated to maintain for an offroad rig. I may even put a manual gear box in it too. I haven't even started to look at how that engine will work for what I want to do and probably won't until the engine I'm running shows signs of giving up the ghost. .If it will work that is good and if it won't then I'll sell it and get something that will. Either way it was free and I couldn't pass up that deal.

Actually I'm very well aquainted with driving muscle cars. My first car was a 69 dodge charger RT with a 440 magnum in it which I smashed up rat racing a GTO Judge. We pulled the 440 out of the wrecked body and installed it and the beefed up 727 torqueflite into my best friends 71 Mach One Mustang fastback which he still owns to this day., My second car was a 71 challenger with a 440 magnum 6 pack cowl induction and a four speed manual pistol grip shift. I have also owned a 69 Z-28 Camaro and two trans ams,( 76 and 79 )one of those a 6.6 four speed, the other a 455 smoky and the bandit special, and a fox body 302 4 speed mustang. . I love hot rods and have owned a bunch of them over the years. I used to run the challenger at Hallsville drag strip in e/t brackets and consistently ran low twelves through the quarter mile with it. If I had dropped to lower gears in the dana I could have probably gotten it into the mid to low tens with the racer brown cam and 12 to one pistons I was running in it, but I didn't want to sacrifice that 150 plus mph top end capability.

edit to add, back in 1976 I was following up a lead on some high performance engine parts and came across a 69 Daytona Charger with a 426 hemi four speed for sale in a guys back yard. The 426 was out of the car and completely torn down with the rods pistons and crank piled up in a big washtub. The cars body had multiple bullet holes in it mostly in the rear end. He said he would take two thousand for the whole mess and I turned it down because I figured the car wasn't worth what it would take in parts and labor to put it back together at that price. Duh. I could have dragged the thing home and put it in my hay barn and it would be worth about a half s million dollars today.

I've only had this 2007 intercepter charger up to around 130 mph and don't know what it will do flat out. It needs new tires before I try that. I know that the Chrysler 300C will get up to 187 mph before the computer stops further acceleration and it has way less horsepower and more weight than my charger. I looked at a new challenger RT with intentions of buying it in 2012 but switched to a half ton short wheelbase hemi ram when the salesman confessed that the challenger topped out at 110 MPH due to computer overrides which could not be undone without voiding the warranty. I asked him what the hell was the point of buying a muscle car that couldn't outrun a ford focus top end? Luckily the computer in this charger has no limits that I am aware of. I got the charger for 3000 dollars at a garage sale, about one fourth of its book value, because the oil pressure light was staying on and we and the owner thought the engine was on its last legs and I was going to have to rebuild it, but it turned out to be a faulty sending unit and the motor is still good and healthy and the transmission works real good after changing the fluid and filter.

When I was in McAllen Tx., down on the Rio Grande, working this past summer I saw a lot of these plain white Charger interceptors being driven by the border patrol and DEA to chase down the cartel drug smugglers. The border patrol has mandatory inspection points set up about 50 miles north of the Rio Grande and would always have one of these interceptors sitting North and South of the checkpoints. I figure this car came from there as you don't see them around here at all.

dave1123

Your history sounds similar to mine, except my toy was a 67 SS Camaro running 11.9s in G/Stock. 4.10 gears topped out at 108 mph. I got out of racing when they started the "brackets."

I like your plans for the WJ. The main difference between the early and late 4.0s is the location of the motor mounts. Chrysler changed the mount locations in the WJ to balance the 4.7, thus having to change the mounting bosses on the 4.0 to still use it. The oil filter adapter gets in the way of the mounts so the filter had to be moved up on the side of the block. The cam sensor fits into the same hole as the distributor so that should clear.

Somebody makes mounts to fit the 5.2 and 5.9 in the WJ so IDK if you can use those mounts for the 4.0 or not. I suppose you could fabricate adapter plates for the 4.0 but they may not be strong enough.

Cleman Simpson

LOL, well we're both from the same era, a whole different world than what we find ourselves in now. Not a different time but a whole different world. I don't think it is a better world now either. But I'm old and grumpy and set in my ways and probably getting senile if the looks I get from my grandkids count for anything. LOL. I can't stand it when they sit all day poking at the screens on them damn cell phones so I make them go outside and actually play with something like a basketball or ride their bicycles.

That was a quick Camaro glad I didn't tangle with you back in the day, LOL. I don't know if you ever heard of him but my first cousin is Glenn Harrison, held the top fuel eliminator record here in Texas for about ten years running. He ran a 63 corvette that we built at his automotive machine shop where I worked when I was a young man. It turned in the low 9's and high 8's which was fast as hell back back then, he could run with most of the local blown and injected rail jobs.

. We tore that car all to pieces at Hallsville testing a new engine. We didn't put the wheelie bars back on it to save time which was a really bad decision. He rolled it over about five or six times at over 100 mph and that was the end of that. He was also my auto mechanics teacher at Panola college so I got a double dose of racing and mechanics every day. LOL.

We balanced and blueprinted race engines, bored blocks, turned cranks, milled heads and redid valves seats along with porting and polishing race heads. I built my challenger engine there but had to keep the car street legal and driveable as it was also my DD. Glenn loaned me an old Apache shop truck to drive while I built my engine. My best friend and I tried running a hot rod shop and garage after that but I had to give up working as a mechanic for a living due to back problems which standing on concrete all day really aggravated.

Gassing on that Charger yesterday really brought back a lot of memoriesd of days gone by and Saturday night street races for cash over in Longview, running from the highway patrol on deserted country highways in the late night hours, just generally having too much fun. We were the dukes of hazard before there was any dukes of hazard. Nowdays they shoot you 57 times with a glock and put what is left of you in prison for life for what used to be standard Saturday night fun. We buried another of my old racing buddies last week, aint many of us left now. I got biker and hot rod buddies buried all over Texas, the biggest part of them killed in wrecks but now cancer and heart attacks are catching up quick.

edit to add: I have put all manner of engines into vehicles they didn't belong in, LOL. If you got a torch and a welder you're good to go.

dave1123

Yeah, been there, done that! LOL! My Camaro was quick but not entirely legal. I started making race parts for the Baker&Evans G/Stock national record holder and he gave me some secret tricks that wouldn't be found easily. I was making Pro-boxes (Muncie 4 speeds) for him, installing Ford input shafts and moving the countershaft .006" closer to the main shaft. This mod gave the Muncie and incredible low ratio first gear. His driver was shifting to second while the front end was still in the air!

I was running 3 leaf rear springs from the 396 cars that were a factory installed Dana Engineering option, but not available until 67&1/2.

I actually met and talked to Big Daddy Don Garlits at Connecticut Dragway in Colchester Center. Really nice guy, but very grumpy when thing didn't go as planned. He was one of the last guys to "hotfoot" a clutch and he had toasted one that day. His crew was working on it while it was still smoking! I have home movies of the Yankee Peddler blowing off Tasca Ford 3 times that day!

My first car was a 37 Dodge that we crammed a Dodge "pocket hemi" in. '56 315 cu in V8.

Cleman Simpson

Glenn ran a Muncie four speed for a while in the vette, then we modified a Nash four speed, We took out reverse and put in an extra forward gear in its place giving a close ration five speed. I don't even know if that is legal these days but it shaved a quarter second off his time. over the four speed. In my Challenger I just ran the stock four speed, it held up good too. I watched Daddy Don run quite a few times but never got to meet him. He usually set his car up near the entrance to the dragstrip and would sign autographs for a while before the races started as a crowd draw but we were always busy working on our stuff getting ready to race. Hallsville was out home track and it had a pretty short shut down apron so when the cars started getting down into the sixes they were too fast to run there any more safely. they finally closed it down about eight years ago and now there is a housing development built on the old grounds. We had a key to the gate and could go over there any time to do test runs which is what we were doing when we destroyed the vette.




g

dave1123

I grew up in Rhode Island and back in the late 50's when street racing got to be too much for the local cops to deal with, The Southern New England Timing Association was born. They made a deal with the Navy to use one of their auxiliary landing fields runway on Sundays and the Navy provided an ambulance. There were not many rules and no timing clocks, just a flagman to start the runs. You had to be 18 to run and hold a valid driver's license. That was about it! I was just a spectator at that time, but it ignited a fire in my belly! The thing back in that time was to run "60" or a 15 sec 1/4 mile. Funny how things have changed!

This is the strip where Tasca Ford got it's start in racing. They were running a '57 Ford Fairlane that was constantly blowing up or breaking! They didn't get famous until they got factory backing and used Mustangs.

I spent my whole adult life as a toolmaker in plastic injection molding. I also had problems with my feet and knees from concrete floors and heavy weights all day.

dave1123

We should probably get back on topic. How goes your radio wiring?

Cleman Simpson

LOL. I'm afraid the wiring situation is terminal. Not only is the Cherokees harness totally smoked but the plug connector I went and got off of the donor car is wired differently and the Cherokee seems to have a extra hot wire that goes somewhere unknown. hard to terll since some of the wires are burnt completely in half and the insulation is so fried on most that you can't even tell what color they were. It looks like the GC probably had a factory stereo amp when it was born but I guess whoever stripped out the radio took what was left of it as well.

dave1123

Yeah, the ZJs had an Infinity Gold amp under the back seat and had a power wire to supply it. There was also a second lighting supply to dim the display when the headlights were on. With an aftermarket radio, you're better off running all your own wiring. My WJ doesn't have an amp, but it's a plain Jane Laredo.

Cleman Simpson

I agree about the aftermarket solution. It is going to be a whole lot easier to put in a whole new radio with new harness than try to repair what is in the GC now. I think I can re=use the speaker leads on the old harness with just a little repair but the power side of the harness is total toast. I'm afraid the damage goes deeper into the dash than I can see or feel also and may cause yet another fire if I repair and re energize it. I'm going to run a new hot wire and ground to the replacement OE radio/CD first to see if it will work ok before I invest in a new system.

dave1123

The radio in my WJ has cassette/CD and a 3 band equalizer without the infinity system. It was sort-of the bastard child when it comes to factory equipment. The CD just quit working as soon as it got cold this winter. Before you say anything, of course I got the jeep warm before I used it!

I'm just as happy with "The Dinosaur," a radio station here that plays top 40 hits from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Where else can you hear Buddy Holly, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and Diana Ross on the same day?

Cleman Simpson

I really don't listen to anything on the radio any more except for Christian music and some preachers. But I especially like the sermons and teaching of J Vernon McGee and they come on early in the morning before daylight which is when I'm headed out to hunt during season. I used an old radio shack portable unit this past season and it worked ok but the batteries go dead after a week or so. I found a set of Bible Commentaries by McGee at a garage sale recently and have just started reading them. I don't know if I have mentioned it here before but I am an ordained minister and used to serve The Lord witnessing for him in the field as I worked all over the country in the oilfield before I became disabled. I was kind of like John Baptist, that voice of one in the wilderness, LOL.

dave1123

I envy your dedication to the ministry in the oil fields. It must be a tough sell to roustabouts.