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Got shipping confirmation for the '01 Durango 160 amp alternator I'm hopefully swapping in. With headlights and rear heater on the voltage would drop unless over ~1200rpms. Also had to park it as the drivers side rear caliper siezed up...it was only 2 years old from the black magic brakes swap. Those should be here Monday, but I swapped over to driving the ZJ...man I wish the XJ had the 5.2! It's so much more fun to drive.
not sure, my guess is since i dropped the transfer case and the front pipe engages there that is the reason why is making like a V between the cat and the muffler. Tried pushing up but a no go.
All washed and clean again. That mud was (is still) everywhere.
man i never though i would be driving this car that much. Is a combination of fun, rough and i don't know what. Lately i have been using this car more than my DD. I am more exited since my boy is now involved and wants me to drop him off and pick up at school every day, saying is his future car jaja.
In anticipation of my alternator/battery cable upgrade I picked up my new battery yesterday. Cost me about $80 after the $20 rebate. About 6 years ago I put the regular Napa battery in my '00. The 7534. This is the one up. 8434. The 7534 comes with a 75 month warranty. Frankly it was touch and go in the winter whether the 7534 was going to survive. But I think this is more my fault then the battery. Despite the Jeep being a DD and the only vehicle I own she does not get driven much. And when she does mostly short trips. Thinking if I drove more like a normal person the battery would be in better shape at this point. Since I did make it through the winter it will survive until next winter without a problem. So the 8434 has more cold cranking amps. Thing about these batteries is the increased lead in them. My boss kind of tried to talk me out of this. Supposedly the charging eats at the lead which settles to the bottom. When the level of the lead gets to a certain point is hits the plates and causes the battery to fail. My thinking is that this battery will spend more time sitting then being driven and charging. So as voltage does drop from sitting it will still be higher then the 7534 cause of the increase in cold cranking amps. We shall see. LOL.
So also I have been trying to finalize the battery cables. Have a guy rebuilding an alternator that will fit a '00 and upping the amps. I wanted a straight bolt in despite the fact that using the ZJ or Durango alternator is not that big a deal.
I am still trying to decide if I want to solder or crimp. But I bought the Harbor Freight crimper and wire cutter to play with. And to try and be all professional I bought the wire stripper off Amazon. LOL.
So the crimper crimps more flat and not more round like the better ones. I played with it on 4 and 2 gauge wire. Like in the videos I watched I cut the lugs in half when done. You can see how the wire even with the cheap Harbor Freight one looks solid.
But I have a theory about this. I think this is kind of caused when cutting with the die grinder and a 3" cutting wheel.
Also I too want to position the Mega Fuse in front of the fuse box. Looks like it was made to be like this at one time and not the fusible link. l Was hoping that these battery terminal bolts would fit in the existing slot. A square head bolt would work best.
The head of the bolt is to thick to fit in the slot so I am going to take it down some on my bench grinder. And will shorten the bolt too. Otherwise looks like it will fit in there.
I yanked a wiring harness of of an XJ in the boneyard cause I wanted a guide that was easy to look at. Lots of details still need to be finalized. Some are I am thinking about using 45 or 90 degree lugs in certain places.
At the starter and alternator. Plus the ground wire that attaches to the fender maybe.
I expect to have to grind down a couple of the lugs to fit the starter and alternator.
Some pictures.
Kinda amazing that the OEM shocks lasted 18 years without ever being replaced. Isn't it recommended to replace shocks every 50K miles?
Originally Posted by pdqgp
Should ride pretty nicely once done. Valve Cover is done as of tonight. I have most of the day tomorrow and will finish the rest.
Originally Posted by JeepWoman
Very nice looking rig.
LOL at the 18 year old shocks having still worked at all. Over the past few weeks of owning and driving it I just thought the rough ride was more of a "Jeep Thing" Now with the new ones on it really does ride like a "Limited" trim level would imply. My wife thought it felt like a new one. Valve Cover was pretty simple. Gotta love the easy access and design of the 4.0L in this thing. Now no more 1-2 drops of oil every now and then so can ditch the metal pan I had under her to save my driveway. End links were simple and now the "creak" that it had is completely gone and the risk of them failing.....as these suckers were rotted, is gone. Exhaust was simple too. I was a little worried about the bolts at the Cat. breaking but a little anti seize and they broke free without issue. Put some new ones on and she hung right in place. For now I simply put a stock pipe bend downward for the tip, but I may cut it later this spring and put a nice chrome tip on it even if it is just stock-quiet. I want it to look sharp.
Looking forward to spring now as the snow seems gone but the temps are still cool here in Ohio.
Feeling ambitious. Today's the day I get to rip her apart and replace the timing chain and harmonic balancer. I have 2 days to get this done and I'm going to take my time doing it.
1/2 way on the timing chain install. The OEM chain has over 2 inches of deflection on the bottom and about an inch on top. Also, the rubber chain guard was being chewed to death as it had somehow fallen out of its little home on the cover.
I'm surprised it was even still on the sprockets to be honest. Tomorrow I get to put her all back together. So far, so good
Got my rear springs in. Also replaced the broken upper shock bolts. I was a PITA to replace those springs by myself. I had one of the capture nuts on the front of the drivers spring break so I have to cut a access hole funny thing is it broke putting it on, I knocked the bolt into the spring and I heard it drop.
Big difference
Both sides in , just have to install the shocks and button it up
Started to replace the front fender liners several days ago. If you touched them they would fracture, as you can see in the photo. Found good used fender liners, fender flares and front bumper at a salvage yard to replace the bed liner coated parts that came with the Jeep. Sure wish bedliner had not been used to "refresh" those parts. Ordered a Crown flare retainer kit from an Amazon vendor and when it arrived it was missing one type of retainer but had two of another and one of those was missing a stud. ????? Waiting for resolution. I have figured out the the Dark Silver paint code that was original for the flares and bumpers and other trim on this ’91. It is KS7. Need to get paint mixed to that spec yet.
Got my rear springs in. Also replaced the broken upper shock bolts. I was a PITA to replace those springs by myself. I had one of the capture nuts on the front of the drivers spring break so I have to cut a access hole funny thing is it broke putting it on, I knocked the bolt into the spring and I heard it drop.
Big difference
Both sides in , just have to install the shocks and button it up
Shiny
When I re do my leafs I will do the same thing. Looks great.
So the timing chain and harmonic balancer are in. After more than a day of screwing with the dizzy I have finally figured out the new TDC/timing marks. I guess the adjustments that I made with the OEM chain were way off when I got a new one on there, as it is stupid tight now. Slightly perceptible ticking coming from the dizzy was telling me that I was close, but not dead on.
You have to love these 4.0 engines. Even with the timing off AF it still fired right up first try and ran, albeit roughly. In fact, it ran so rough at first that it gave me the dreaded "flashing CEL" and I killed it out of panic. LOL
Anyways, I'm happy to report that the idle is much smoother. The road test will occur when I drive her to work at 4. There is STILL a slight hesitation/lag at idle. I'm guessing that it must me a vacuum leak somewhere. Can somebody point me to a sticky on how to chase vacuum leaks down? I feel like that's my next step. Thoughts?
03-16-2019, 03:24 PM
