XJ Mods VSB 14

[alexbrown64]

Originally Posted by awg

Thx for those informative posts

In my opinion, there is a better, cheaper and permanent solution.

Obtain MANUAL front driver seat (probably any color will do, as you should be able to swap your cover..double check that!...or seat covers (at worse)

I greatly prefer them in several vehicles, including my XJ, even my Mrs late model Mazda 3, easier & quicker to use, lighter, more space under seat ..and rarely if ever fail

just a left field thought to keep your eye out anyway, pick 'em up cheap..haggle..."what, they arent even power ! "

I have Luxury leather seats in my spare Limited, but no intention of swapping them in..not the Driver seat anyway

The seats in my DD Sport are cloth, and manual fronts + seat covers

I was also thinking about manual seats Tony. Its a good option. The electric seat bases can be removed from the seats. (see my pic of the electric bases i bought). I think you can keep your leather seats and just swap over to a manual base. I will also keep that option open for the future. I have been trying to keep all the features of the old girl going. The only thing i don't have working is my overhead compass/ambient temp gauge. I saw a puff of smoke come out of it a few years ago.. think it can be repaired with a some capacitors, but at the moment i just want to get her up to daily driver status.

Cheers,

[alexbrown64]

So after the seat work, i gave the old girl a good vacuum out, polished the car and did some other bits and pieces. Then it was time for a test drive..

Flat battery. Hmmmm... enough juice to run the power seats, but low on cranking amps.

The battery isnt old, so i got her on charge. After a few hours i decided to check for a parasitic draw. I have done this before and found a 50 mili amp draw on the LPG system. I fixed that and all was good (the gas system has been removed now due to LPG being too expensive).

This time i checked the the draw with the door open. Unbelievable. The interior lights (floor, 3 on the roof and god knows what else), suck 3 amps. I had been working all day mucking around with the seats and left the doors open, plus tested the seats a lot. I tested the draw with the door closed. 0 amps being drawn. No parasitic draw. The interior lights sucked the blood out of the battery. Good to check and know whats happening. Battery all good once recharged and car starts well again.

Bleepin Jeep has a good write up and some solutions to common problems..

You Tube

Cheers

[awg]

Originally Posted by alexbrown64

This time i checked the the draw with the door open. Unbelievable. The interior lights (floor, 3 on the roof and god knows what else), suck 3 amps.
Cheers

DUDE

I cant believe such a modded truck didnt go to LED years ago

leave your doors open all day & night..no worries!

I think their is only 4, type and dimension in either handbook or manual

all available on Ebay for a few $ each

use less than 1/10th power..saves burning up the bulb housing and associated components to, which is utterly inevitable with incandescents

[alexbrown64]

That's a really good idea. My dash lights are blue leds. I should of thought about the dome lights. I just ordered two led interior light kits.. Cheap as chips and come with a bunch of different size T10's, festoons etc..

I'm back at work, but will update again soon. Should be fitting new Trail Grapplers soon..

[alexbrown64]

So i come home from a week of working away and find the RockAuto parts in front of my Jeep. They only arrived this morning so it was perfect timing.



I got in and ripped open the boxes. A fresh set of chrome headlight surrounds, new back wiper, new belt, and all the spare sensors i could ever need to keep me from being stuck in the middle of nowhere.



I jumped in the Jeep and started her up to give her a bit of a warm up. While i was waiting, i played with the electric seats. They were working well, but i went back/forth to far and its jammed or broken again. Bummer. I will pull it down and have a look, but in the mean time i emailed the mob that makes new gears to see if they can do me a deal on post for new ones to Oz.

I also rang the tyre place and she is booked in to swap the Bighorns out for the Nitto Trail Grapplers in the morning. So a few pics and a write up of that swap out coming this way.

Cheers,

[awg]

Originally Posted by alexbrown64

While i was waiting, i played with the electric seats. They were working well, but i went back/forth to far and its jammed or broken again. Bummer. I will pull it down and have a look, but in the mean time i emailed the mob that makes new gears to see if they can do me a deal on post for new ones to Oz.

Cheers,

Promise you will love manual seats

reminds me of sage advice from an elderly taxi driver, back when electric windows were new-fangled

He explained that manually operated winder windows were much faster, and easier to locate than a button, when someone need to have a chunder out the window

[alexbrown64]

Well, finally got around to changing out the noisy Bighorns.
Ive only got the XJ up to 80 kph with the Nitto's and to tell you the truth, i cant tell the difference.

They are a great tyre though, so happy to swap out.


Not sure if they both have the same mud terrain tyre noise, or the noise is coming from somewhere else.
Either way, its going in soon to get the gears done, and while it is there, i will ask their opinion. Ive done all i can.

Before...



After...



As for the seat. I quickly popped it all apart again and i had actually stripped the gear. Just got old....

AWG, i know you like the manual seats, but i just want to try and keep the original electrics. So, i am going to get a set of gears from the link i put up before. Just gotta figure out cheaper post.

Cheers,