Jake's 99 XJ continuing build

Makes no sense, I know. Unfortunately the evap leak came back  hard to care now that I've passed inspection but I really want that damn light off my dash. Next thing to look at is the filler neck. Someone suggested spraying 3M undercoat all over it to seal it up. Ghetto fix but I may give that a go at some point.

Got the APN header installed yesterday, as well as a fancy new fel-pro valve cover gasket. Unfortunately the damn header is leaking from the gasket area, quieter than my cracked header was but its still a bit loud. Going to attempt partial removal tonight, see if I can slide the gasket out, spray it down with copper RTV (which I probably should have done in the first place) and slide it back in without fully removing the manifolds. The runner on the APN header was RUSTY out of the box, guess only the tubing is stainless? Little annoyed at that as I spent a while sanding the seal face smooth, but its still not perfect, which may be the reason its leaking.

Valve cover inspection revealed this though which sketches me a bit:



I haven't looked into it yet but I'm hoping its not significant..

CrawlingForward wrote:How is it that a '99 doesn't have emissions in the most stupidly legislated state, but I in Texas have to get my '95 tested for another 4 years?  WTF?

be happy, doesnt matter how old your vehicle is in arizona, inspection and emissions eveeerrrrryyyyyyy year. lol

Sooo, this isn't jeep related but my new dynomax catback came in today to replace the bits of exhaust that are still attached to the cat.

All's well with that.. but in the box was a bubble wrapped film camera, with film in it. Box was stapled and appears to have been opened and taped shut. Going to have to develop it obviously but I'm scared to see what might be on it. Might actually take it to the police first just in case there's some fucked up shit on there. Soooo weird.

You get it developed yet? There has to be at least some good blackmail material on there

Its being developed right now, ended up being black and white. May have been unused to though, hard to tell cause the battery was dead. I'll be somewhat disappointed if it's empty lol.

Replaced the radiator e-fan yesterday with a jy pull. The mounting tabs had broken off and it collided with the power steering pulley before I realized which threw chunks of it all over the engine bay and unbalanced it so that it vibed like crazy when in high mode (AC on or too much low speed driving in the heat).

Naturally a 5 minute fix turns into a few hours when.. the overflow line from the radiator breaks off and it turns out the existing fan was a replacement and has been spliced in so the connector was cut off, had no crimps so I had to solder it.

Very glad drilling and tapping the radiator filler worked because apparently the filler is integral to the radiator and I don't really feel like replacing the radiator if I don't need to lol.


Also installed the dynomax catback and forgot to grab a pic but holy shit silence is golden. I think its still leaking a bit from where the manifold mounts to the head though unfortunately.

Sounds like things were conspiring against you. Looks like you got through it though.

Ordered tires on tirerack had em delivered to local installer in Beverly, dropped off the jeep this morning. Got a call a few minutes ago with them asking where my lug nut key was. I'm like what, there are definitely no lugs requiring a key, 100% sure on that. They're like well, there is but we can just take it off and replace it. I told them to do that.

Not sure I trust these guys now, unless someone is messing with me by swapping lugs for keyed lugs, which certainly seems unlikely. Anyone have experience with shops messing with you?

I've discovered (after the fact) that this one repair place I trusted in Peabody was doing some pretty sketchy work on my Jeep (and as a result no longer use them), but in your case it's pretty cut and dry as to whether or not you have locking lugs or not (I use them on mine so I know firsthand). I'm guessing you did this, but I'd make sure they're actually working on your Jeep and didn't get keys/orders/tires confused, because no doubt they're going to charge you for the replacement locking lugs and something isn't quite right.

Yeah, that's bizarre. I'd ask them to confirm the vehicle and/or save the busted up locking lug for confirmation.

Turns out the guy who looked at it was being a dumbass, one lug nut was missing it's sheet metal cap thing, which I had suggested when I was on the phone with them but they insisted that it really was keyed.

The fresh rubber:


They're dick cepek mud country 33's, I wanted to go 35 but decided against it, next set of tires hopefully .

So far I'm impressed though. They're essentially silent and and what little rumble there is almost imperceptible and only noticeable at all at like 2 mph. Impressive for a mud tire.

The new muds look great!

Really? That is impressive. The BFG Mud Terrains are crazy loud.

Yeah, surprising based on their appearance right? I spent an excessive amount of time on tire research and these, which weren't even a consideration originally, ended up looking like a good balance between DD'ability and performance. Supposedly they actually handle slush/ice fairly well too which I certainly wouldn't have expected looking at the tread.

For anyone who was still curious about that camera that came in with my exhaust.. the film was never used, certainly a let down after thinking so much about it lol.

New Brown Dog motor mounts came in today (almost a month after I ordered them?). Have a new tranny mount waiting to go in so we'll see if those things improve anything. Either way, better safe than sorry with motor mounts.

Next up, it'll be time to replace the white body hydros with some bilstein 5100's so passengers can stop complaining about the bumpy ride.

hobhayward wrote:Next up, it'll be time to replace the white body hydros with some bilstein 5100's so passengers can stop complaining about the bumpy ride.

I generally direct those passengers back to the foreign-made compact car they crawled out of, it's a lot cheaper that way.

Unfortunately I too am a passenger  . If it didn't feel like the harshness was going to break things I wouldn't care so much. The recent exhaust and tire improvements have made it so much nicer to drive on road that I'm now seeking full dd comfort haha.

Out with the old..


In with the new:




Getting vibes at idle in drive and reverse but I have some tweaking to try to eliminate that. Otherwise it'll be time to swap the poly for rubber..

So my AC clutch bearing has been making noise for long time, decided last night to confirm that it was that and based on the sound it makes spinning it by hand I think it is. Going to replace that tonight.

On another note had to move the aux fan to get to the belt tensioner and had to remove the line from the coolant overflow to get to that. Looks like brass and cooland do not mix? The brass fitting was full of nasty white corrosion goo. Guess I need to replace it with plastic or stainless?

So my fail for the day.. It was dark when I was pulling the ac compressor clutch off and I forgot that the bearing snap ring was supposed to come off before the pulley (didn't see the snap ring till after I had the pulley off). What does that mean? Well.. The bearing is pressed into the pulley and onto the compressor, the bearing should get pulled off the compressor by the pulley, but I took the pulley off first... So I may have no way of getting the bearing off. Best shot I have is pressing the pulley back on and hoping that it will then pull the bearing back out with it. Unfortunately for me though, the bearing was staked onto the pulley after it was pressed in so that should have won the press fit war.. Lol. Gotta pick up some snap ring pliers (it really didn't want to come off) tomorrow and see what happens. If I can't get it off.. Gotta either replace the entire compressor or swap in a bypass pulley, which is the more likely direction

Was thinking this morning that I might be able to cut the bearing out with a dremel worst case, but the space is tighter than I remembered. Hoping that the pulley will be able to pull it out.

Whelp. Destroyed the pulley while beating it on to the old bearing with a block of wood, was not successful in pulling it off though. Drememled the crap out of the bearing and had the first row of balls out, friend sugested welding something to the bearing.. pulley was trash already I threw it back on and welded it to the bearing and the bearing came right out with the 3 jaw puller. I need a facepalm smiley. Will hit up the JY for a new pulley tomorrow.



Anyone know if clutches and pulleys are matched pairs? I have the shims that came off of mine but I don't know if they all use the same number of shims or not.

Which junkyard you going to? I'm planning on hitting up Holland's in Billerica early tomorrow for a few things for the Cherokee, and I'm always perusing for things for the YJ and my family's other cars as well. There's always a million Cherokees at Holland's so I'm hoping to have some good success there once again. It might be a bit of a haul for you but things are always easier with two people if you feel like meeting up. Shoot me a text (781-738-8276) if you're interested.

Was planning on going to Naumkeag in Salem cause it's really close, but last time I was there they only had two XJs. Holland's definitely has way more and there's a couple other things I should pick up so maybe I'll head down there. I'll text you in the AM if I'm going to make it down to Holland. Any chance you're planning on bringing a jack or a hi-lift? I have to find a cart or something that I can use to bring my jack in.

Well the stuff I'm looking for doesn't really require a jack, but I can bring one along if you think you will make the trip to Holland's. My parents' F-150 has like the best scissor jack I've ever used, and I need to head to their place tonight to grab the tools I'll be taking with me so I could grab it. I also always have my Hi-Lift secured in my YJ (which will be with me) so if it came down to it we could use that. I'm going with a different approach this time and I'm just gonna throw all my tools in a backpack. I've come to realize that hauling a heavy metal toolbox all around the yard and trying to carry parts just is not a good way to do things. I'll keep an eye on my phone for your message.

Whelp, no dice on the pulley yesterday. Rather unfortunate as I now know that the pulley is unobtainium. Can get the clutch assy but as I found out after I got home it doesn't include the pulley.

Current options are: find someone who for some reason has one kicking around, or I buy a new compressor and either swap the pulley onto my compressor, or replace the compressor, which I really don't want to do because that means paying someone else to do it. Until I do get it worked out though it's undriveable which is always fun. I do think I can hobble over to a shop without accessories if I need to though (or install the new compressor and dangle the old one there and just have the shop do the ac shenanigans).

Anyone have any better ideas?