Austindude2015

Howdy yawl from Austin Texas!
I just bought a 1990 XJ for $1200 bucks off craigslist, has a 4.5-5" pro-comp lift, 31.5 inch tires 161k on the clock and a nearly mint original interior.

The guy I got it from had bought it with a girl and they split up so time to sell the truck of sad memories, good for him to cash out and I gained a nice beginning for a fun project.

The one issue I need a little help with first is it has a very slight knock when running, sounds exactly like the knock from the flex plate bolts being loose I saw on youtube.

Any way I can tell for sure what the cause is other than to go after the Flex plate nuts and re-tighten?

Also do you recommend new bolts or just take out add lock tight and re torque?

Guys said he did not drive it after noise started and this is believable due to it be parked at his friends lawn for 2 months.

Plan is for re-build driveline, steering, brace frame , winch bumper, rear tire rack / bumper, roof rack and rock sliders open flow exhaust, CB, Scanner, Shortwave, and some nice all direction night vision cameras for fun and backup safety.

Possible snorkel, and some nice LED lights zombie lights all around :-0

If it ends up being a motor issue I'll probably go the stroker route and either buy a new shortblock or if I can find a good local shop have them re-build and stroke mine.

Really like the 1990, with simpler electronics and NO airbags etc, seems somehow much more right for my offroad truck needs.

I'll post a few pics later on of the before state.

-Matthew

Austindude2015

Just adding a couple more pics of my CL find.

XJwonders

Awesome! Nice find. Congratulations

Fred/N0AZZ

Welcome to the forum!


I have bought both of my Jeeps off of craigslist good place to shop.

aj2494

Same here. Although I wouldn't exactly consider the first one a "win".

Very nice find though. The interior looks great on it.

Crash_Course

Congrats on your Jeep, condolences to your bank account. Kidding, of course, but anyhow...

That looks pretty clean and straight for a '90, good find and well-bought.

Cheers from Temple!

CherokeeHoonigan

Sweet jeep man. Just remember the first will always mean the most to you. i regret selling my 1992 two door xj every day.

peep

Nice Jeep, good nuff for the girls I go out with.
Course I am partial to White XJ Renix 4.0's.
Warm up your debit card, no end to this road. But wow, what a ride it will be.
161's, no problem just broken in. Keep up your oil and filter maintenance.
Read and perform Cruiser's tips on Renix, your Jeep will appreciate the attention.
What's the Jeep's name?

Austindude2015

Thanks everyone, I have had the jeep in the driveway for a couple weeks just got the title in my name in the mail...Yeaaaaaa!!!

Couple of things I am working on, it was ticking pretty bad when I got it then Oil presure went to basically zero, so I didnt run it, did a bit of research and found that the noise was likely a lifter tick and the oil pressure "could" be a plugged Oil filter.

here is what Ive done so far, went and got 2 oil filters and two compelte sets of Oil, first is castrol GTX high milage 10-40 and the second is Mobile 1 High Milage. Also picked up 4 cans of seafoam 1 bottle of marvel mystery oil and a can of rislone engine treatment.

The plan which I ahve started is:
1) change oil to castrol and new filter adding can of seafoam and 1/2 marvel oil topping off with oil until full. Add can of seafoam to fuel. Do seafoam treatment on intake. then Run the heck out if it for a bit.

This part has been done and the result is a lot of smoke and soot, and about an 80-90% reduction in the ticking sound.

2) run the truck a bit more around the neighborhood tomorrow then change Oil once again to Mobile 1 HM and add 1/2 bottle marvel oil and Rislone treatment then top off with Oil.

Hoping that will get me to 95-100% cured as far as the tick goes...

Also picked up tune up parts, wires, plugs, distributor , rotor , fule filter. will install all that and see hwo she runs.

Beginning to see what you mean about the bleed of "investment" dollar, sat and added up my dream parts list off rockyroad and other sites and its about 10k and that's NOT counting major axle work, transmission work or transfer case work and a stroker lol so clearly a multi year redirection of small amounts of cash will have to be slipped past the wife to achieve that :-)

Can easily see where someone could end up investing a lot in these trucks, My goals is make it good enough and get out and drive it see if the xj is for me , I;m a big guy and it seems cramped a bit inside for me. also drivers eat has an odd lean back might be adjustable not sure.

One thing I could use a little help with, the steering wheel seems to have like 5-7 inches of play in it when rolling along, and braking is pretty scary when at speed as it moves one way or another a bit under hard braking. Also when hitting any bumps the right had drivers side front sesms to bottom out while the rest do not, when this happens there is definitely some bump steer action.

Also steering wheel has an odd feel, almost like it's bolted on unevenly or something, only noticeable when going around 90 degree turns.

Where to begin to look for issues?

I will eventually do a full rebuild of all front end parts with some upgrades but if there is a few simple things I can check first that might make it more drivable while i gather parts for front end please suggest them.

Wondering is the steering box might need to be adjusted, had a cj 7 that had an adjustment on the box that tightened up the entire steering which had a similar feel years ago.

Also picked up some late model window seals at salvage yard for 2 bucks each, will be following a youtube video on how to mod those to get them to fit my 1990, removing the old cracked and missing ones.

thats It for now

Thanks for the replies and if you have any ideas about the issues I mentioned all theories are welcome :-)

cruiser54

Congrats.

Use only Wix filters.

Just do the flexplate bolts.

Fred/N0AZZ

Congrats and Welcome!!


Yes on the Wix filters or a NAPA Gold filter made by Wix only way to fly.


As for oil in a 4.0 I would run any quality Dino based one without any additives as most require nothing anymore. In fact my XJ gets Castrol in it and has for 4 yrs now, it had 220,000 mi. on it when I bought it and it leaked oil but fixed those easily, now it used no oil between changes.


It is my only vehicle that I own other than diesels (3) "not" running a syn oil (4) others that do.


But all have WIX filters on them my race car has a remote duel setup for filters on it and runs Mobil 5w40.

snozberries

Welcome to the forum! Good score on that one.

Austindude2015

I will pickup some WIX filters over at NAPA, thanks for the tip.

I found a couple of vacuum leaks this afternoon that brought the idle down to normal levels, that plus running it a bit with the new oil and filter seem to have really cleared up the ticking sound almost not audible now. + i've got oil pressure again 25-40lbs at idle!!!


Also still missing at least one more vacuum someplace as I've got the diaphragm on the left side of the throttle body with nothing attached to it.

swampcobra

Nice !!! I remember my first XJ. I still miss it to this day.

DM<

'90Cherokee

Tho you do have a simpler vehicle with fewer electronics than newer stuff has, you have the Renix system which is kinda odd. Scroll over to cruiser54 who replied earlier and click on his tips. If you have ABS do some research on it, the system is Bendix 9. Many people choose to eliminate it, I believe it's the only ABS system that's potentially dangerous to have. As for your steering woes, have someone rock the steering wheel back & forth as you look over the front end and steering box mounting and see what's loose. Once lifted and parts start being swapped by who knows who the geometry of stuff changes. If the track bar and drag link aren't both at the same angles you'll get more bump steer. Ideally they'd both be horizontal but I don't know if that can be achieved on a lifted XJ.

I also have a white '90 and love it.