The tale of SuperMJ
 

Howdy everybody. Look like it's time to start a new build thread in the MJ section of the forum. That's something new for me. Ha.

Before I start the introduction, I need to explain how I came to this point...
In 2009 I started a money pit project; a BBQ smoker mounted on a trailer. After a couple of years, I lost motivation, (I didn't have time to constantly drive to my grandmother's house to work on the BBQ smoker, it was stowed in her garage). I already had my first jeep XJ which was lifted and all, I knew I needed another vehicle to daily drive, what's better than another XJ? That way I ll only need to keep stock of same parts instead of two different piles of parts.

So I put the smoker up for barter on Craigslist. About two days later, I got a hit. A guy had a 2001 XJ with warped head that he didn't want anymore. We went ahead with the trade.

This is the build thread for the silver 2001 XJ
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f46/si...roject-195354/

I replaced the head with a TUPY 0331, fixed few minor stuff and got it running, which was great because it had AC (it was summertime). By August I got bored of it, and wanted something different. So I sold it for $2,200.

I wanted a 5 speed XJ, just because... I looked for about a month and found this gem... 1999 XJ with 4.0 and AX-15. I bought it for $500 and drove it home.

Here's the build thread.
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f46/je...x-15-a-198800/

To recap what happened, I put in a 2.5 lift, slapped on some 31's, swapped the axles to get 3.55 ratio (HP30 and a XJ D44). Swapped the t case out to a NP242. Etc etc.
I made a mistake that I still regret to this day... selling it. I sold it for $3,800 (I put in only $2000-including the purchase price of $500). Still a decent profit but I regret it nonetheless.

I bought a purple 1998 XJ auto for $900. I thought I could flip it and sell it but that didn't happen unfortunately. It was a nightmare working on it. Lol. Eventually led to the diagnosis of bad piston rings in cylinder number 1 on the engine.

Here's the build thread.
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f46/gr...e-haze-219593/

I wanted to get rid of it. I also wanted something completely different. I got really tired of XJs at that point. I'm about to move to a new house with a garage. I knew I would need a truck of some sorts but it should have a 4.0 so that way I can reduce the amount of parts to stockpile. And because I m used to working on it and I'm pretty familiar with it. I also usually haul stuff such as axles, and stuff. It's difficult to load the XJ lol.

Here is where a MJ comes in. I knew I can't afford to buy one and I couldn't sell the purple XJ for a decent price either. So a trade is the only way.

I keep asking various Craigslist postings to see if they were willing to trade. Some were willing, some weren't. One guy even tried to rip me off by jerking me around with vagueness and asshole-ness... anyway.

One day I saw a posting that asked for $3000 for both MJs (one good running one and a parts one). I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.

He agreed to the trade, so I drove the jeep over and took both trucks home.

And that's how I ended up with TWO MJs! Who would have thought??

I m able to post up one picture for now. My bathroom poop break is over so I gotta go back to work. Ha.Attachment 295491

2 (man) master jeeps! Score! Can't wait for the progress, oh and they make for good storage for parts, and the use for the bed is outstanding!

Oh I realized I forgot to add details about both MJs.

The tan one is 1988 pioneer with 4.0, AW4, and Dana 35 (2wd). 239,000 miles on it. Obviously a renix. I ll be keeping this one.

The red one is a 1991 eliminator with 4.0, ax15, and 8.25 rear axle (2wd) 129,000 miles on it. This is a parts-only vehicle since there's no title for it.

I'm keeping the pioneer because the body is in better condition overall. I still haven't decided what to do with the other MJ.... part it out, try to find a title, or turn it into trails-only crawler. I ll know when time comes.

I subbed to see how bad you mess this up..

I can see you as a XJ owner,, but an MJ owner
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...1d09148d26.jpg

lol

So when I arrived at the dude's house. I looked over the eliminator because he didn't arrived yet. It was parked against the fence and he must have spray painted it black because the side against the fence was still red... lazy ****.
I ll need to remove the paint somehow.

It's missing a battery, starter, and the rear driveshaft. So I couldn't get a chance to fire it up. The interior is nearly immaculate. I would rate it 9 out of 10. Blue interior. Maybe I should swap entire interior into the pioneer.

Someone put a Chrysler 8.25 axle under it.... new u bolts and all. Yeah that's great... but he never welded new perches on it. Oh well.

The coils seem to be really old progressive type of springs along with really old tubular lower control arms. Can anyone take a stab at as who made them?


The guy arrived in the 88 pioneer. It had extremely offset wheels with 275/65/15 tires. Looked really stupid. I checked them out. Real bad rot on them. I demanded to keep my tires/wheels off the purple XJ. He obliged and helped me swap them. Now the pioneer looks much better.

Final act I had with the purple XJ was to yank the eliminator out of its resting place and pulled it towards the tow dolly.

Attachment 295503Attachment 295504Attachment 295505Attachment 295502Attachment 295501

Hahahaha

It rode really terrible due to blown rear shocks... and broken leaf packs. In fact, on Sunday I went ahead and replace them with the leaves from a Dodge Durango... I used top three leafs with eyes cut off under the MJ main leafs.

When I removed the centering pin, a pile of broken leafs fell down to the ground. 8 broken leaves in total.

Replaced the rear shocks with brand new JK Sahara shocks. Nearly same lengths and I already had them on hand. So why not.

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Last night I did Cruiser54's TIP 18...

Refreshing and extending the ground for the dash.

When I drove it home late that night I got it, I was startled at how the dash lights suddenly went wonky and dimmed & brighten up randomly. At first I got to admit. I thought the alternator was on its way out. Luckily I made it home.
I checked the handy TIPS and saw that the ground was poorly designed. So I used a 16" wire with eyelets crimped on it, placed one of them under the original grounding location and put the other end on the stud which holds the parking brake mechanism.

Before I did this... the cigarette lighter didn't work, there's poor illumination, and the wipers didn't work.

After I did this, the wipers now work, the lighter outlet works, the illumination stayed bright, and the little light inside power/comfort switch illuminated. So it is not a myth. It really works.

Attachment 295517Attachment 295516

I also took the drivers side tail light out and cleaned the grounding location there (for the taillights and the fuel pump) I ran out of eyelets so I will be doing the fuel pump ground extension later on.

While I had the taillights out. I decided to upgrade the reverse lights to LED.

Attachment 295518

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I also bought the new nipple to convert the oil filter adapter to standard 3/4 threads so I have wider range of oil filters available to use.

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Uh oh. I see something that need to be eliminated...

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I plan on replacing both front and rear bumpers. I like JCR offroad's MJ DIY rear bumper and probably gonna do JCR front too.

Oh I also got rid of the black plastic toolbox on the back, because a friend gave me a beat up aluminum toolbox. It just need some straightening out and reinforcing.

I ll keep the rack bar thingy. It need to be cut down a bit lower and I ll weld a mesh across it so nothing ll hit my head just in case.

He's got some "supervision" from a few of us. Lol

Subbed. Congrats! :thumbup:

Busted all leafs, That's impressive.

Indeed. Thank you very much for the leaf packs. It was really helpful at such a short notice. I appreciate it and it was nice meeting you also.

:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:


I vote the non-titled one be turned into a trails-only truggy. THAT would be SICK.

Lol if that happens. That might mean I ll have to give up my street legal crawler and move the parts over to it. Ehhhhh. I don't even have a truck/trailer let alone afford it... and the new house won't have any room for it. Lol.

I might keep the chassis and leave it in the backyard for few years if I do decide to keep it though. Who know what I ll end up doing with it in the future.

You're no fun...LOL

Lee, I think he's trying to follow in your footsteps with the tan MJ ;)

IF I do turn it into a truffle, I ll do something like this

Attachment 295537

Wtf auto correct. TRUGGY*****

Lol. Nope. Not even close...

The plans for the pioneer is to have 4wd conversion with the AX-15, NP242 combo, on dana 44 front and rear. I already have a waggy 44 front axle sitting in storage. I have 4.27 gears, arb locker for it. Just need to get an Isuzu Dana 44 LSD for the rear. There will be a service bed on it with OBA, and hopefully an onboard welder if I can afford it by then.

:rofl: truffle... that was great!

Meh, close enough.... his is an AX4 w/ D44 rear... I think it's got 4.11 gears. Obviously not EXACT but.... DAMMIT NEAL, WHY YA GOTTA TAKE THE FUNNY OUT OF IT!!!

Exactly what I had in mind, Neal

I really like the trailer fenders on this. Looks really good.

Built in Oct 1986 as one of the first run 87 SWB SporTrucks. 2WD, AX-4, D44 modified Tracloc w/4.10 gears, 5" lift and 31x10.50's.
Nope, not even close to mine. Lol.

So I did some noggin poking around the engine bay visually inspecting stuff. Also was taping apart random connectors so I can spray electronic cleaners in them...
Attachment 295545

I was looking at the ground cable from battery to block. And for some unknown reason I felt compelled to touch it. I was startled to see that the insulation literally crumbled apart like if you squeezed a bag of chips and little pieces came out of the bag...

The cable was covered in oil and that's what crumbled apart... the parts of insulation that wasn't covered with oil was still intact.

So yes the myth about oil breaking down certain types of insulation is true, as apparently shown.

Perfect reason to upgrade your battery cables! I use welding cables because the insulation jackets are oil resistant.

Anyway. Look like a set of battery cables are bumped up towards the top of priority list.Attachment 295543Attachment 295546Attachment 295544

And yes the heater control valve will be deleted later on. Don't ya worry!

Re-engineer it...word has it someone on the site has the data for ya, lolz

He's been texting and emailing me like crazy!!

LOL. He's getting it done the right way, huh?

:thumbup1:

Well, when ya put it that way... :tt2:

:rofl:

Today I had time to do a bit of work. I decided to replace all the battery cables.

Luckily that block ground cable was only one that had severe insulation damage. I went ahead and replaced the battery post clamps as well.

I decided to retain the protective shroud from the alternator and starter cables to reuse on new cables.
Attachment 295658
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I decided for now to keep the plastic cover to hide the jumble mess. Of course I had to trim it a bit.
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This is what it looks like without the cover.
Attachment 295657

I also added another grounding cable (all renix jeeps was lacking this feature.
Attachment 295656

I also took the C101 apart so I can clean it for the time being. I eventually will eliminate it when I m able to tap into a power source for the solder gun.... (my parking spot from the apartment building is approximately 400 feet away.)

After I got both sides of connectors cleaned up, I fired up the jeep and it really improved dramatically. No rough idle and better throttle response. Dang.

The crap inside the C101 looked like the AMC engineers took turns pooping on a plate, then microwaved it until its tar-like before smearing on the connector back in the factory.
Attachment 295661

Oh on a side note. Remember when I did the dash ground upgrade? I finally got the B-pillars lights to work. It wouldn't work before I did the ground. So that's a minor yay.

Geez Neal, you're like a poster child for my Tips!!!!

Right? Hard to argue with what works though.

LOL
Well that's gotta be an honor if I've ever heard one on CF

Yesterday I had the pioneer inspected... passed emissions but failed safety inspection.

Attachment 295727

Apparently this bumper wasn't acceptable...

Attachment 295728

The passenger side mount was poking through the bumper and was an automatic fail. Luckily I had the other bumper from the eliminator sitting in the bed so it only took me 35 minutes to snap 5 out of 10 bolts and got the rest out. Swapped the bumpers and used remaining 5 bolts to tighten it up, for now. I ll look into an aftermarket rear bumper soon.

Attachment 295729

The old bumper was so rusted thin. I actually folded it in half. Lol.

About the muffler, I think I have a 2.5" muffler sitting in storage from one of the part outs. I'm going to contact an exhaust shop and see if they can make a new tailpipe out of 2.5" pipe.

The exhaust manifold isn't really broken like he claimed. It's only cracked.

Attachment 295730

So I'm gonna have to take it out and weld the crack shut. For now. I would like to replace the manifold later on down the road though.

Now to the rear axle... here's my dilemma. Do I spend $200 to overhaul the brakes and seals to pass the inspection just to toss it away when I put in a dana 44? I have a Chrysler 8.25 axle on the eliminator. No perches on it but I could grab a set for cheap. However I still don't know the condition of the brakes as well.

Option A; overhaul the dana 35 then toss it in 6 months
Option B; swap the C8.25 then toss it in 6 months.
Option C; don't drive the MJ at all for at least 6 months and then swap in new set of axles.

Unless I manage to find another MJ axle for really cheap.

Option B. Hands down. Seems the best way. Don't drop one dime into the 35, waste of money...the corp axle may need a thing or two, but won't break the bank, and when you do swap it out later, you can sell it to recoup some of the cost. Waiting 6 months to drive it isn't even an option in my book, LOL