beijingjeep

Hi guys! I just wanted to stop by and say hi.

I am living in Beijing, but originally from Texas. i have been wheeling most of my life and wheel a 2000 GMC Sonoma ZR2 (4wd) slightly modified with 2" lift, 33's, bumpers/sliders, etc... all made/done by me. since living in Beijing (1.5 years so far) i have had withdraws from not having a truck to work on. Right before Chinese new year, my luck changed.
My boss gave me his 1996 2wd 4-door cherokee because it was breaking down on him and leaving him stranded once or twice a week and he didn't know how to work on it or what to do. it broke down on him for the last time and his mechanic told him it was totaled and the engine was trash. his wife told him to get rid of it so he gave it to me. i wish it was 4wd, but we will see if that changes in the future. =D (my wife says no as of right now) I cannot drive it around yet because i don't have my chinese license yet... working on it.

the mechanic that was working on it was mentally handicapped im certain. after working on it for a while and noticing all the stupid things he did to it, it is no wonder the jeep no longer ran. i replaced the cap and rotor, plugs, wires, rebuilt the carb (yes, it is carbed), fuel pump, fuel filter, all power steering lines and canister, several vac lines, temp sensor, and speed sensor. the jeep is now running like a top and has plenty of power (for the 2.5) and i cannot be happier... however, the temp gauge is not working. it pegs out when i turn it over but doesn't read anything. i replaced the sensor but still no worky. could it be a sensor that is supposed to be with the 'dummy light' gauge cluster? im going to get a newer 98+ sensor and see if that helps.
also the speedo and odometer are not working. i replaced the speed sensor but it is still not working. im going to recheck the grounds and pull the gauge cluster and clean the contacts. i am really thinking of swapping the cluster to a newer version with the tach.

my question with the cluster swap is if i have the gauge cluster with the huge fuel gauge except the tach (not the 'dummy light' cluster) i shouldn't need to swap any sending units (temp and oil pressure) being they are already gauged, correct?

i know this probably isn't the place for these questions, but i figured i would post them here for fun. Thanks in advance for any help or info. See yall around!

beijingjeep

well guys, i put in a thermostat (didn't have one) and got a gauge cluster from another jeep that has the tach with analog odometer (not the silver backed one with digital odometer). It is the Magnati Marelli cluster. everything works great except the speedometer. i put it in a buddies jeep to test it and it was screwy on his also, so it's the gauge not my jeep. The temp gauge works perfect. =D i will post pictures when i figure out how to...

From what i gather there are 3 gauge clusters in China. the one i started off with (huge gas gauge with other gauges), the one i have now, and the newest China made silver backed with digital odo. the silver backed one costs less than the used magneti marelli gauge cluster everywhere i have seen it. i got lucky and found one place that had one really cheap (im sure they knew it was broken). Im ok with it if i can get a GPS.

I think im pretty much done with "restoring" the Jeep... now to get my license, ownership of the Jeep, plates (hard as crap in Beijing), inspection, insurance, etc... Wish me luck!

beijingjeep

Old -

New -

Magneti Marelli!

your probably thinking "holy crap, you said you cleaned that before you put it in?!?!" and my answer is... yes... i did... very clean... less than 24 hours before the picture was taken, and you have not been to Beijing... hahaha

JD Cravin

Nice work! Post up some pics once you get to go "out"

beijingjeep

thanks!
I was driving it around our circle the other day and the speedo started to work perfectly until i stopped. then it was back to the same ol same ol. so i decided to take the cluster back out and pull the speedo and clean it up. i did and put it back together and the speedo is now dead, nothing. i think the paper thin ribbon wire that goes to it might have broken or something. just for fun i decided to clean up the old cluster better and see if it would work (i had the dash apart again so why not?) I plugged it in and the speedo, as well as everything else, works perfect. so i decided to keep the old gauge cluster and pull the tach out of the newer cluster and put it in an external housing and mount it somewhere else... so i did... i traced all the contacts form the cluster harness and ran wires off them to and tach (ground, ign, and tach reading) i even put a light behind it. i was all ready to connect the tach and see how it read and now the Jeep won't run, i think i lost spark. so im going to pull the plugs and see what they look like and see if i can get her running again and put her back together and i will snap some pics of the tach. I used an alarm clock housing and cut the gauge face down to size. it looks ok i think, but i have never really cared for aesthetics...
my ZR2 is smashed to pieces and pretty ugly... don't care... it works and has gone up and down mostly everything i have thrown at it. Now i want to go wheeling really bad... man i wish this Jeep was 4wd!!! haha