Niteshade it...you'll never see it...


However, no one else will either, LOL

 

A buddy of mine (the one that hauled my parts jeep to my house) "Niteshaded" the lenses on his TJ. It literally looks like he sprayed flat black paint on one, and Rustoleum bedliner on the other one but he swears you can still see the bulb when it comes on.

I was toying with the idea of getting clear or smoked lenses anyway. I think once I get a better bumper for it, I might go that route. As much as I like my stubby bumper, I'm a little paranoid about smashing that header on a tree now.

 

That's why I've never really got stubby bumpers...

 

Meh. The main reason for doing it was because someone was looking for a chrome bumper. I wanted to get rid of mine anyway and the black bumper I had was mangled up. So I sold the chrome one and cut the black one into a stubby.

If I had some tube, I might make some ends for it just to guard the corners. I'll figure something out.

 

Well, yesterday, I hooked it up to my parts Jeep and drug it out of the overgrown hole it was sitting in. Needed room to access it from all sides to continue cutting it up. I've got about a week to cut the rest of it up to fit in my trailer before the county slaps me with a fine :bang:






Got as far as cutting out the passenger side body panels, fender, and that little peninsula that was left of the roof before it started raining on me. Snapped 2 out of the 4 sawzall blades I have left. Hopefully I can make the other two last me till the end of the week or I probably won't get done cutting it up in time.

Today, I loaded it up with a bunch of tools and headed to work. A co-worker's Jeep was dead in the parking lot. Wouldn't start. No-crank... not even a "click" to the starter. I wish I could have stuck around to help him work on it, but I had to start my shift. He came in and told me it's something between the clutch safety switch and the starter relay. Hotwired the relay and the Jeep started right up. Feel bad for him though. Been a rough week for him. Wife just left him, now he's got Jeep problems. Trying to help him out wherever I can.

 

I don't think that's a parts Jeep anymore, I think that's a parts HEEP..lol

 

hahhaa.... more like a SCRAP heep lol. It's all about to fit in a 4x8 trailer with 2' sides though! Watch me, watch me

 

Got the majority of my parts in from Rockauto today.

Went ahead and threw in:

-Dephi TPS
-Delphi MAP
-Stant 13lb safety lever radiator cap (gasket on the other one was SHOT)
-a1 Cardone reman 56027028 distributor

Pulled the cap off the old distributor and found this:



If you zoom in, you can see the electrode tab laying in the bottom of the distributor housing.

For those unfamiliar with what I'm talking about, here's what it's SUPPOSED to look like:



So with that in mind, I have no godly idea how this thing even started up, much less got me to work and back, AND through the trails, over the past few months of it not running right. I put the new distributor on with the new button and the DUI cap I already had on it, and she cranked right up. Took a few minutes for the computer to learn the new fuel trims with the new MAP, but after it did, the idle smoothed out and now it's actually running quieter out of the tailpipe.

Only thing NOW is, it idles great, but it's acting like it's running lean. Spark-knock and missing when you accelerate. I was thinking it might have to do with the ACCEL ignition coil I have on it combined with the .040" gap I have on the plugs. Then, lo-and-behold, a CEL popped up. Goodie goodie.... talk to me goose.

12,13,54,55 okay... interesting.... let's refer to the interwebz:






Excellent... so 1 or 2 of the parts I just replaced... ain't makin' the cut. Well, it was dark out and I didn't feel like screwing with it anymore. SO I packed it in for the night and I'll check it in the morning.

At least my computer is doing its job.

 

Pretty sure .035 is the correct gap. Is your timing off somehow? Maybe you swapped a plug on accident?

 

I'm running a slightly larger gap on purpose.... the accell coil is a hotter coil so you can open up the plug gap. Already checked and re-checked the plug wires.

It's definitely the newer style dizzy that's tripping things up though. I can't find the tech article that I read it from, but it said that you can use the newer style dizzy and stator with the 91+ 4.0 HOs.... however, my ECU is NOT liking it.

I think I just need to switch back to the original renix-style dizzy it came with and replace the rotor since the other one failed and my issue SHOULD be over. Only reason I really switched to the newer style distributor was because it's easier to replace the stator (pickup coil, cam sensor, sync sensor, etc - it's known by many things) inside the dizzy versus complete disassembly. But it's apparently not compatible, so trash that idea.

I'm gonna throw the old one back in with a new button.... I'll get a new distributor later on if I need to.



In other news, I got rid of the stupid HCV nonsense and replaced it with a set of hoses for a 98. Little more room in there now and I don't have to worry about it failing again.

 

*UPDATE*

I bought another pickup coil for the newer style distributor in the off-chance that the one that was in the new dizzy was bad. No change.

Also bought a new rotor for the old distributor in the chance that the newer style dizzy wasn't going to work. But I didn't just slap the new rotor on and call it done either. I still wasn't satisfied with the timing. I had previously removed the cam gear on my original dizzy (trying to figure out if I could just clean the pickup coil - HA!), and had evidently not put it back on in the correct position. It was flipped 180* - which puts it out of timing (I'm not sure exactly how much, Cruiser would probably know). So I took the cam gear off my new distributor (my original cam gear was cracked - didn't want it to break off and fall into the oil pan) and made sure to notate which direction I'd need to put it on. Found #1 TDC, and used Cruiser's method to index the distributor (this time with CORRECT cam gear position) and buttoned everything back up.

*VROOOM!* Bob's your uncle, it fired right up on the first key turn! Wish I could say it was running perfect, but it's definitely an improvement. Wants to stutter when you blip the throttle and it accelerates fine under mild throttle... but any more than that and it hesitates and backfires. SO, I'm going to return the pick up coil I got for the newer distributor and change it out for a pick up coil for the renix-style dizzy. Lee (OutlawStar) told me that's what he believed it was MONTHS ago... should have just gone with that to begin with

 

Yay. I can't wait to figure out my issue(posted a new thread and got some great MAP sensor testing advice) and get it back to running 100%.

Any recommendations on replacing the coil on a 99 then? Figure @216k miles it probably wouldn't hurt to replace mine. Or think it's fine? Doing rotor, cap and wires soon too.

 

Anything that's American made with brass terminals is what I'd go with. Don't worry about upgrading the coil just yet. You need to get it running right first to establish a baseline - this was kind of my mistake. OEM replacement ignition coils aren't too expensive anyway. But, I personally like the brass over the aluminum. With the exception of the electrode tab breaking off the tip of the rotor, I'm pretty please with my D.U.I. cap and rotor. Good heavy-duty construction and brass terminals. It's definitely a little heavier than the parts store applications.

I'll be able to say for sure once I rebuild my distributor (I hope), but I think I can safely say that the upgraded ignition coil is not really worth the money.

 

It's ran fine for the last couple months...Didn't get any time to trouble shoot it this break(family camping trip), now we're going to 11/3s(this turned out to be a typo, still 10/3). Contemplating dropping it at the dealer if I can't get it running well before the snow comes:-(. Stupid Chrysler wiring..

 

UPDATE:

I put the new stator in the distributor, found TDC, and indexed the dizzy to proper specs per Cruiser's tip 13 (cruiser54.com) as this Jeep has the renix-style distributor. It was still having the same issue... but now it was actually getting WORSE. It was trying to die on me rolling downhill and coasting.

By this point, I'm thinking it has to be fuel. But I can't POSSIBLY have burned through ANOTHER fuel pump Ok... before I freak out, let me check fuel line pressure first. Hooked up the pressure gauge- nothin'. Cycled the key a couple of times- needle would move a little, then nothin'. Tried to START the Jeep that had JUST BEEN RUNNIN'. Fuel barely went up to 10 PSI. Somethin' ain't right here... did my FPR take a dump? So I grabbed my 7mm wrench and took the clamp off, pulled off the regulator, and sure enough, the o-rings were all chewed up. Apparently, I wasn't careful about how I installed them to begin with so they got all crooked in the housing and just completely mangled. Again, I don't know how the thing was even running.

So, I found a couple of o-rings the same size, installed them, and bob's your uncle, started right up and ran like a beast! I got my throttle back, I got my idle back, I even got my burnout ability back. She's finally running like new again! Well.... ya know... as new as a 240k mile 4.0 can get with leaky valve seals. But that's another job.