What did you do to your XJ today? 1M Views

[LuluBelle]

2 for me please!

[oldon]

That box of junk caused a bit of a stir back in the day.

[alexbrown64]

Originally Posted by Sobek

Had a crazy busy day but got a few hours at the end to spend on the heep, and actually got a lot done...

Managed to track down and seal 4 separate leaks, all the major common leaks - passenger and driver footwells, and two leaks in the cargo area. The passenger leak wasn't actually the fresh air intake strangely, as I put a camera in there and it was SOLID, not bad for 26 years old. Turns out I had a combination of a really bad windscreen sealant job up top, and a bad seal on the bottom of the blower motor panel on the firewall. 20 second fix for both. For the drivers side it was that rubber antenna cable grommet... I managed to smear black rtv all around it and that did the trick, but I think the outside needs it too. What do you do, pull the fender to get clear access? A job for a sunny day! The cargo was leaking at the rear left window seal up on the top right corner, and the tail light was letting some drips through too. Both easy seals

I also wired in an RF keyless entry system. Holy moly was that EASY. 15+ years since my factory keyfobs failed, man it's easy to forget just how much we can take keyless entry for granted. I'm beyond sick of having to shove my key into locks all day long in my running around...
I also took all the door panels off and liberally lubricated all locking mechanisms, latches and buttons with silicone lubricant, and man does that new keyless system SLAM those locks open or shut! It's amazing. $30 off ebay, copied someone's wiring details from some old post online somewhere for a 94, and it worked great - I just had to splice two more of the wires that came with the RF transmitter into the 12v source and it was good to go.

My extractor and new downpipe with gasket also arrived late yesterday, I grabbed one of those Tiger Headers kits off ebay for $360 delivered, and I have to say, it's... really good. For $360, it's bloody good. The downpipe is essentially IDENTICAL to the late 90's Wildcat extractors already on the car, and the extractors themselves line up perfectly for all the bolt holes as confirmed on the new manifold gasket I got too. I'd read old posts online from many years ago that people had to grind and modify their cheap Tiger Headers to get them to fit, but mine look like they'll go on perfectly first go. The only difference between these and the Wildcats, is that the join of the extractors to the downpipe doesn't use a compressible flange gasket type of join... it's just a flat metal gasket with the inner steel rings. So that's clearly of a lesser quality, but it's going to last well long enough that by the time it's ever an issue, I'll likely be in a position to do something nicer for it then anyway.

Changed the trans fluid, fixed up my stabiliser bracket (it was a bit warped and when reversing, stopping and shifting into drive, like in car parks, it would clunk or crack and was pretty embarassing. Now it's solid as a rock. I also repainted my windshield wiper cowl as it was peeling clear and ugly as hell.

Also I finally got my set of 235/75/15's fitted to the factory rims, and man do they look nice. For the $100 I spent on them, and the $100 to fit, and the fact they're basically brand new... I couldn't be happier. They make a very satisfying noise at lower speeds, and they grip great even in the wet. Which is saying something as I have NOTHING in the rear of my XJ, not even seats or a spare tyre, so it likes to SLIDE. The tyres are General Grabber AT2's.

It's slowly coming together. Next step is to fix the floor pan rust, then I'll feel happy about painting it. I've got all my paint gear ready to go, it'll be a matte black finish in the end, as I also have satin black unpainted headlamp bezels coming (I couldn't find a black grille that didn't cost literally an arm and a leg, so I may plastidip mine for convenience). Baby steps!

Oh, also... Does anyone have ANY idea what CNC machining costs are like? cad4x4 has a roof rack design that I seriously love, and it's what I want to go with for my XJ, but you have to pay $30 (I have no idea what currency as they don't say) just for the plans, to then give to someone to get a quote and decide if it's even reasonable. So if anyone has any thoughts what to expect $$ wise to have this cut and bent, by all means let me know?? You can see it here;

https://cad4x4.com/product/jeep-cherokee-xj-roof-rack/

Looking really good Sobek. Paint job will look great. I have the Wildcat headers that i only bought several years ago. Had them ceramic coated. Couldn't be happier. Good luck with all your build..

[Sobek]

Originally Posted by Fishframe

One of the best XJ upgrades, if you can find one, is an old Brock Energy Polarizer. Improve fuel consumption to get around 1L/100km’s and increase top speed to 450km/h. All based on magnets and crystals, apparently. http://www.ausjeepoffroad.com/forum/...b7a9b5032a.jpg

I remember going to some bush swap meet west of Brisbane as a kid with dad, and some fella had a beat up XB sedan. He was touting some new mega fuel saving device he had created, which looked just like that. It was just a box with a bunch of ring magnets in it mounted over the fuel line and had a red and black wire going in and out of it... He made all sorts of claims as to how much better it would make your car run, and how much it would improve your mileage. I remember he had a little notebook where he had written down all of his before and after fuel savings and such, and he was throwing that thing around like Moses with his tablet. And boy, did the crowd eat it up! I remember asking my dad "wow what is that, it looks cool!" and dad was scoffing and laughing and telling me what a dickhead the guy was... I didn't understand as a little sprout, but I sure do get a laugh about it now. In fact, your post reminded me of it and I asked dad about it today and we both had a good chuckle at the memory

Originally Posted by alexbrown64

Looking really good Sobek. Paint job will look great. I have the Wildcat headers that i only bought several years ago. Had them ceramic coated. Couldn't be happier. Good luck with all your build..

Thanks Alex I really wanted to just get more Wildcats, but life being what it is, I need to save what I can, where I can. I took a gamble, but I dare say it should pay off. I had some more good news today actually... Dad has an XA GT that we're just getting ready for sale, so I've been going hard on that doing repairs and maintenance (fixing trim, new dash wood, factory sticker restoration, alternator repairs etc etc) and he rewarded me by giving me his bank card and telling me "Buy the exhaust bits for your Jeep, on me" Since I already have those now, he instead said to get some cosmetic stuff, so that I did. Ordered some new headlights (truck-lite lookalikes), clear indicators, and a set of black security wheel nuts. A good day!!

Do we have any sources on where to get clear or smoked versions of the small side indicators that sit above the wheel arches? The Yanks didn't get those so there's no abundant US source for any version of them, but years ago I DID see some aussie XJ's running clear versions of them! Or maybe... are there some generic indicators we can replace them with that just happen to fit? I've located red/clear rear 95-96 tail lights (that was bloody hard to track down!! I can't believe how hard it is to get cosmetic stuff for pre-update XJ's, given how iconic and popular the car is). I just can't find those tiny side markers ANYWHERE, in any form

[Fishframe]

Originally Posted by oldon

That box of junk caused a bit of a stir back in the day.

Yes indeed. We stopped using them when we found out that a fake turbo sticker on the front fender worked even better.

[Sobek]

Ordered a new set of all 4 lower window belt line moldings. All of the clips on my factory trims have rusted, some to the point of dragging the windows and scratching them, and the black coating has peeled and deteriorated on a couple, it's just nasty. I got to researching, and a company called Precision in the USA manufactures replacement belt trims at a VERY reasonable cost. They don't sell them directly, but you can buy them through Jegs, Summit Racing etc... I found Summit was the cheapest, coming in at a total of $130 AUD for both the front and rear window kits delivered. Not bad all things considered! These are the parts on PRP (Precision)'s website;

https://www.prp.com/product/detail/352515

https://www.prp.com/product/detail/352518



I can't wait to replace these, because at the same time I have a guy here who will tint all my glass for bugger all, cash. I've had him do a bunch of cars for me in the past, does great work and does it cheap out of a little shed he rents in the nearby industrial area. Love it! Support small, support local

[awg]

more trans work today, probably saved myself a lot of $ doing this myself, I dont think a mechanic could have got this job done in much less than the 4hrs it took me

so the Torque convertor solenoid went from working nearly all the time to never.

During this time the resistance in the circuit went from about 125 Ohms to 1670, so you would think the solenoid was gone, but I had a sneaking suspicion it was the wiring, and so it turned out to be.

The solenoid read 13 Ohms, just like it did last time I measured it

After some thought, study and probing the wire with my special sharp pin backprobes, I ended up snipping the wire in the harness, about 6" away from its exit from the trans case, adding a bullet connector and piggyback wiring it up the the plug near the dipstick.

I now have ~ 14 Ohms, just like the other 2 solenoids, between the connector and earth. The high resistance must be somewhere in the middle of the old harness wire

Have not test driven it yet, as it was a bit of a project, as I also tapped 3 stripped bolt holes in the trans case to M6 x 12mm, and that worked very well, you can even just tap the new thread with the bolt if you want

a new cork gasket that I had on hand went up, I just dropped the pan down a few inches, and did not drop the trans support either

It would also be possible to swap in the old harness from my old trans that lost reverse, but requires a few extra hours work to do that, so fingers crossed what I di will fix the issue