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Joopacabra

29K views 155 replies 27 participants last post by  mustanggarage 
#1 ·
Hello everyone. I finally decided to start a build thread on my jeep. my wife asked me why it said joop on the side when we got it lol so that is how it got the name joopacabra. here is a picture of my new to me yj.

it is a 1990 with the 4.2 and automatic. it was exactly what i was looking for.

I had a 95 when I lived in utah that I did a 4 to 6 swap and a bunch of other things too. so I am not entirely a newbie to jeeps. I spend a lot of time building and playing with mustangs so I have a fair amount of experience tinkering with cars and I have a really nice garage and tool selection to play with.:2thumbsup: here is a thread I did on my garage.
http://www.garageretreat.com/forums/f7/welcome-doghouse-1794/

I started looking for this jeep because I wanted something I could fix up for my daughter to drive to school in the winter, and because I really missed my old yj. We built a nice 67 mustang for her but it actually turned out a bit too nice and now she is afraid to drive it to school for fear of it getting vandalized so I guess it will be more of an occasional driver than a daily like I had planned. here is a pic and thread of it if anyone is interested.


http://www.moddedmustangs.com/forums/projects/224094-mustang-sarah-pic-heavy.html
I wanted a jeep that needed some mechanical work because I like doing that sort of thing, but I wanted one that the body was in decent shape because I don't like doing body work.
I wanted an automatic because I am going to be letting my daughter drive it. I also wanted the 6 cylinder because after the headache I had doing the 4 to 6 swap before I did not want to go through all that again lol.

this jeep is probably going to be different than the majority of jeeps on here because it has a different mission. I live in Iowa so there is not a lot of great rockcrawling places around here and with my job I can't go far from home very often so the primary purpose is for snow. I want it to be capable of getting through an Iowa winter and be relatively safe on the road. I want it to have good all weather capability and not sit up too high so that it is going to be blown all over the road when the wind kicks up. so a lift is not in my immediate plans. I may replace the springs, I would like to put a bit larger tire under it 31 10.50 like I had in Utah because that is the look I like, but I do not want to lift it any more than necessary.

I plan to fix all of the little problems that it has and at some point swap in a fuel injected 4.0 engine. I have already done a lot to it so I will go through some of that in the next few posts.
 
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#33 ·
then I installed the new intake manifold.

then the fuel pump blockoff plate/ coil bracket.

next we lifted the jeep up and started working underneath. we spliced the new prefilter, electric pump and fuel pressure regulator into the fuel lines back by the gas tank and mounted them to the cross member by using the bolts that hold the skid plate in place.

zip tied all the hoses up high out of the way. I also installed the new speed sensor at this time.

and a few other things I can't think of right now.

I also found out that In an automatic transmission conversion you have to convert the kickdown linkage to a cable which is not in the kit. so I ordered that.



 
#34 ·
I installed the new harmonic balancer that came in yesterday.
cleaned and powdercoated the brackets for the powersteering pump.
cleaned the alternator and painted the fan and pulley.
mounted the ecu to the firewall.
attached the new fuel line to the fuel rail.
mounted the cps to the bracket on the oilpan.

monday I had to work very late so I did not get anything done and tuesday I only had about an hour to work on the jeep. so we started to run the wiring harness. I tell you this kit from hesco is awesome everything is pretty easy to do. the wiring harness is very straight forward. I made most of the connections in that hour.

we installed the Diode into the field wire of the alternator.

then hooked up all the sensors. the CPS is supposed to have a little paper wafer on it that sets the gap. I could not see any paper wafer but it said in the instructions to push the CPS right up against the harmonic balancer which I did.

then I ran the harness back to the transmission and hooked up the new speed sensor.

on back to the fuel pump. in the instructions it says make sure you know which terminal is positive and which is negative because it is very difficult to see once installed.... I read this little piece of advice after I had it installed of course. so out comes my handy dandy iphone which can get in places my head can't and has a zoom function.
http://s972.photobucket.com/user/mustangmccance/media/null_zpsea580110.jpg.html


I have found I use that trick a lot. when I could not read what my paint code was on my mustang I just took a pic of it and zoomed it out. if I need to see something under the dash where I can't get my fat head, pic. very useful tool.

anyway I got the fuel pump wired. coated it with dielectric grease per the instructions.

now I had to buy a different downpipe for the exhaust that has an o2 sensor in it. I found the right piece at napa. I had to cut it and it will have to be fabbed back to the catalytic converter. I think I will just run it over to the exhaust shop and let him deal with it. my welder needs to be replaced one of these days. Dad keeps talking about buying one. hopefully he will or else I am going to hopefully this summer.

once I got the exhaust pipe in place I installed the new o2 sensor and wired it up. then I completed the fuel connections by cutting the pressure hard line and splicing it to the new fuel line with a short piece of fuel injection grade rubber hose.

all hoses on the pressure side of the fuel pump are fuel injection grade and double hose clamped.

then I went back up top and hooked the constant 12 volt wire to the starter relay.

the switched twelve volt supply to the yellow wire that went to the old coil.

the ground went to the dipstick hold down bolt.

neutral safety switch wire to the ground wire on the starter relay.

with all the wires connected I hooked the battery back up, turned the key on and purged the fuel lines through the schrader valve.
 
#35 ·
you may notice in that picture above that there is only one hose clamp on that fuel line. that is the first of my minor messups. after reading the instructions again I had to go back and put another hoseclamp on all my connections.

once all that was done I could not resist cranking the jeep over. crank sputter crank sputter crank,,,,,nothing.

crap,,, about that time my Dad showed up and he is convinced the timing is off. I told him that it can't be, we checked it six ways from sunday. he thinks that the stupid distributor must be 180 out.

I did not think so. after all my research and checking I was sure that part was right. but I was not sure about that stupid CPS. Dad says he told me to gap it with a feeler gauge and he probably did. I did not do that however. so we reset the cps with the feeler gauge to .025 and what do you know it fired. we shut it down as soon as it hit because we still did not have the radiator or anything in it.

then we put the front end back on connected the radiator hoses and filled it with water.

click on the picture to hear it the first time we fired it up.



she's alive. obviously we have no exhaust on it yet, and I still have a vacuum leak because I have not replaced the brake booster hose yet.

I still need to loom up the wiring better, and I just stuck the old spark plugs back in it so I will get some new champions and install them after I get the exhaust done.

next dumb mistake. I looked through the contents of the kit when I got it and thought I had everything, except the kickdown cable. hesco lists that as a separate piece so I thought it was not in the kit so I ordered it. it came tonight and it is exactly the same as the cable I already have. crap again, it was the throttle cable that was not in the kit and when I checked the packing sheet it does say the kickdown cable is included so I should have checked better. I am going to see if I can steal the one off the cherokee and make it work, if not I will have to call hesco again.

anyway I am not done yet but it is alive. it ran a little rough at first but then settled down, I am sure the computer is getting dialed in and it may take a bit before it is all recalibrated. the throttle response so far is pretty good so I am looking forward to getting it out and driving it. hopefully this weekend.

I also bought a K&N FIPK since it is designed for a 91-95 jeep I am going to have to do some judicious fabricating to make it work but I think it will look better than that funky thing they sent in the kit.
 
#36 ·
well I did a little research today and I found that the cherokee cable will work but it is a bit long. I was not sure if it would work after checking the internet so I called Lee at Hesco. I must say that was a pleasant experience. I really strongly believe in accepting the responsibility for my own mistakes. I did not check the parts list adequately when I opened the kit. I mistook the kickdown cable for the throttle cable. I ordered the transmission conversion off the website because I did not want to admit I had not checked the list adequately. I accepted that this was my problem. I called lee to find out if the cherokee cable would work because I could not find the information on the computer. He was very gracious. He said yes the cherokee cable will work. It may be a bit long and you may need to cable tie it up under the dash but it will work. But he wanted to know what the serial number on the kit was and the initials of whoever put the kit together. I told him I would get that to him when I got home. then he said that he would send me the proper cable free, not even charging me for shipping. He also said he will credit me for the other cable and provide a return shipping label so I won't have to pay that shipping either. I am more and more impressed with Hesco the more I work with them.

anyway I am off to go chat with the muffler guy.:cheers2:
 
#37 ·
ok. so today I finished up several small items. I salvaged the cherokee throttle cable. I did not really understand what lee meant by cable tie the excess under the dash until I tried to install it. what actually needs done is the inner cable that attaches to the pedal is to long. so you pull the excess through the pedal and cable tie it up so that it won't pull back through. then hook up the throttle body end. I also installed the cable to the kickdown lever.

finished zip tying up some more stuff to keep it out of the way. fabricated a bracket to anchor a 91 style windshield washer in. installed the air breather assembly. I am going to replace this soon with the k &n fipk. I will take pictures as I figure that little thing up. then I tried to start it again. I just reached in through the window, cranked it over it fired immediately and sounded really good. I have it scheduled to drop it off at the muffler shop tomorrow after noon and have the exhaust finished up.

the whole project has taken about a week. I started last thursday evening and other than the exhaust I am done tonight. I can't wait to take it for a test drive tomorrow.
 
#39 ·
yes, if I had not been so worked up about that timing issue I could have easily completed it in a weekend if I had all the parts.

yesterday I salvaged the cherokee throttle cable and made it work. then I took the jeep over to the muffler shop and had the exhaust hooked back up. it was missing pretty obviously on the way over so once I got the exhaust on it I swapped the spark plugs to some new champions and then changed the oil. took it for a spin and it seemed like everything was working perfectly. so I took my wife to the football game in it and it ran great but when I tried to start it after the game it barely started and the lights were really dim. I just about got it home and it died. obviously the alternator was not charging for some reason, and I obviously had not even looked at the voltmeter. so I walked the rest of the way home, came back with my jump starter battery. hooked it up to the battery and it started up and I drove it the rest of the way home with that hooked to the battery.

so we checked all the connections and they looked fine so I pulled the alternator out and took it over to o'reilly's this morning and had it tested. it tested fine. so we took it back and checked the wiring again. I powdercoated the mount so i thought maybe I wasn't getting a good enough ground.
1. so I ran a dedicated ground from the alternator anchor bolt to the chassis ground.

2. then I found out that one of the wires in the connector that plugged into the alternator was loose, so I took it out of the plug, wire brushed it, bent the little retaining tang a bit more and plugged it back in. put it back together fired it up and it still didn't charge so I revved it up a bit, and then it was charging. shut off the switch and it wouldn't shut off. so I disconnected the alternator plug and it died. at this point we looked again at the diode we installed in the alternator wiring harness and it was installed per the instructions with the "pink connector toward the alternator". so we researched, and tested the diode and read until we decided the pink connector must have been installed wrong in the kit. we switched it around and it worked perfectly.

so I drained and flushed the radiator and hooked up the heater hoses.
installed the 91 style washer bottle and fixed the wiring so now the rear windshield washer works.

took it for a cruise and it is running perfectly. now I have some minor things to finish up, like
1. cleaning up and looking the wires so it looks better,
2. figure out how to make the tachometer work with the new coil and wiring harness
3. make the k&N FIPK work with this 90 wrangler.
4. swap the throttle cables for the correct one when it arrives.
5. wire up the check engine light.
6. I also discovered I have a slow brake fluid leak that i did not know about so I am going to have to sort that out as well.

once I get that done this jeep will be pretty well restored I must say.

ok here is where we started



here is a pic of where I am at now.



so far the thing is running great. it has great throttle response and starts without touching the accelerator every time. :thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
#40 ·
today I finished up a few minor details. the tachometer wiring instructions on this are a bit vague. they say to run the old tachometer signal wire to the negative side of the new coil. there is also a wire labeled tachometer feed coming off of the new wiring harness. the one coming out of the new wiring harness is for another vehicle. for my jeep I had to run a new wire. it is very difficult to figure out which wire is the tach signal in that major mess of an original wiring harness, so since I needed to pull the dash to install the check engine light anyway I just located the signal wire right as it came off the tach gauge. then I ran a new wire to the coil. attached it temporarily and fired it up. it worked, so I carefully stripped a segment of the wire and soldered the signal wire in without cutting the coil wire. wired in the check engine light, then I cleaned up the wiring under the hood and tucked everything into the wire looms. the engine looks much better and everything works. took it for a nice long test drive and I really wished I lived closer to moab, like when I lived in Utah. I would love to take this baby out and see what she would do.

My daughter is champing at the bit she wants to drive it but I told her I need to drive it for a while and make sure all the bugs are worked out of it first. she was very impressed when she started it today reaching in through the window and not even having to touch the gas pedal.:rockin::rockin:

next time I get some time off I am going to work on that K&N FIPK
 
#41 ·
ok so I got a bit impatient. I picked up a piece of strap iron today to make brackets for the air filter assembly. since this K&N FIPK is made for a 95 wrangler I do not have the proper mounting point for the stock airbox to tie into and the powersteering bracket is different as well so I had to improvise. the first thing I did was roughly place everything in where I wanted it. then I marked it. I cut a couple pieces of strap and bent them to fit the angle where I wanted to make my mounting holes. then I attached them to the bottom of the enclosure, and made sure everything lined up. then I cut a piece to go in between those two angle pieces and welded it together. I had to bend them at different angles because the front mount hits right about where the shock tower starts. once you position the bracket and tighten it down it sits pretty level, and is nice and solid. adequate for the job anyway.



not pretty but it worked. then I cleaned it up a bit more and powdercoated it. bolted it in place to the jeep fender and then bolted the enclosure to it. next I had to make a new bracket for the "saddle" that is supposed to attach to the upper bolt on the powersteering pump adjuster. that does not line up well on my jeep so I used the front intake and exhaust manifold bolt, and I powdercoated it red as well.

then I put it together and tightened all the clamps. I think it gives it a more finished look.

 
#42 ·
Excellent work! Very nice shop and great job on the engine :highfive:
 
#43 ·
thanks KGB I just read through most of your thread yesterday. I have to say what you have accomplished with your yj is very impressive. it is looking really good. I did not get to the end yet hopefully you still have it lol. anyway thanks for the nice comments, and yes I love my shop. I spend most all my time out there. I almost never watch tv anymore. I come in at night to eat and say prayers with the kids. then like last night my wife asked me where I was going and I said back to the shop...it's not bedtime yet. she just shakes her head and walks away.

now with this project basically completed it is time to clean the shop up and maybe sell some parts. I have a bunch of stuff left over that I don't need now. :highfive:
 
#44 ·
since the conversion to fuel injection I have been driving the jeep a lot. it is running well It has a very slight stumble at 2500 rpm, but otherwise is very smooth. I am going to have the codes read tomorrow. I used the check engine blinking light thing and decided it was too annoying. I know someone who has a code reader that will work though. anyway, it is only a slight stumble and not really bothersome for driveability.

however while I have been driving it I fixed a few other little things.
first the turn signal would not cancel when you turn left.

so I pulled the steering wheel. frequently you will see people say you need special tools to fix this little annoyance but you really don't. when I take the steering wheel off I almost never use a steering wheel puller. I loosen the nut until it is even with the top of the threads of the shaft. then pull up on the steering wheel with one hand and whack the nut sharply with a ball peen hammer. it nearly always pops off with just a whack or two. then finish removing it.

next remove the little plastic cover under the wheel by prying gentle with a screw driver.

then you have to remove the locking ring. this usually requires a special tool. I do not have that tool, but it is a very simple thing to accomplish.
I used an old piece of angle iron and two bolts, and a washer. once it is adjusted you just tighten the bolt on the shaft and it compresses the ring very easily.



then using an o-ring pick and a small screwdriver carefully work the lock ring out of the groove. then remove the ring.

this is what you will see then.


as you can see there is a small spring in the right upper side. there is not one on the other side. this is how it should look.



I have been told you can buy the spring separately but since sometimes there is a broken arm or the cancelling cam can be broken so I just bought the whole switch. it cost 23.00 at o'reillys. the spring would be a lot cheaper. since all that was wrong with it is the spring I decided to save the switch for the next time it brakes and just swap in the spring. also since this was the first time I had done this repair I wanted the complete switch so I could compare to see what was broken. anyway once I discovered what was wrong I tried to swap the spring in, but it would not slide into the small hole. on the new switch you can see there is a slot to make replacing it easier. so I used a small drill bit to slightly enlarge the hole. then the spring slid in without difficulty. then reassemble in reverse. piece of cake.

seriously I have been annoyed by this for months. and it was a very easy repair, it took less than an hour.

tonight I had been bugged by the fact that the outside lock cylinder on the passenger side was hanging out of the hole. obviously the retaining spring was missing.

so I took the door apart. I had some left over from my mustang restoration that I hoped I could use but no such luck. I was getting ready to just put the door panel back on when I decided to check the bottom of the door to see if perhaps it had just fallen off. to my surprise I found it. it was not broken so I lubed everything up and reinstalled it. I did not take any pictures, but it wasn't bad. I was able to maneuver it in place behind the window regulator rail and lock it in place by driving it in place with a screwdriver.

I also installed an optima red top battery today.



I took the jeep through the automatic car wash the other day just to see where all the leaks could be found lol. anyway the top sealed really well actually but the drivers wing window leaked like a sieve. it also has a really ugly rusted latch. so I found a used one on ebay and it should be here soon so that will be my next task. I plan to gather up some parts. I think I will see about replacing the door panels and the outside door latches at the same time.
 
#47 ·
well I found out that the hesitation I was feeling was because of a faulty throttle position sensor. this was what I actually thought it was, and in fact I had taken it out and cleaned it with electronic cleaning solution and compressed air and reinstalled it. since it was new in the kit I really didn't want to just buy a new one until I was sure that was the problem. anyway that fixed it. now I am wondering why it failed. I pressure washed under the hood after the conversion to clean off the grease that was still under the hood from the previous owner. I was careful not to directly spray the engine but I suppose some water could have gotten in the tps. I understand that this sensor is not waterproof. but there was no water in the connection when I took it apart to clean it. and would that have caused the sensor to completely fail?
 
#49 ·
I have been driving it all day today, and most of yesterday and it is running great. smoother than ever. but today I found that the stupid gear position indicator light had stopped working again so I had to take the whole steering column apart again. I am getting really good at taking that thing apart lol. anyway I found that the problem I have been having is there was a short in the wire that went down the column. so I ran new wire down the column, wired into the under-dash wiring. so far so good. so I believe all my wiring issues and little irritations are fixed. so tomorrow I will change that front brake line if I get a chance.
 
#50 ·
well I have seen no brake fluid leaks in several days so I have not gotten around to replacing that line yet but I did tackle a small but annoying problem today. the washer hose on my hardtop popped off again. I think that something is missing I tried to find out what it is supposed to look like but I was not successful. mine has a small button on the hardtop then a piece of washer fluid line that was just capped off when I got it. i tried to connect it to the little button there but it would not stay. so today I decided to fix it another way.

so first thing I drilled out the four rivets holding the plate in place and removed it and the connectors. this is what it looked like.



so I cleaned it up, sanded it smooth with my belt sander and powdercoated it white.



then I bought a small double ended plastic hose barb.


drilled a hole through the little button just large enough to barely fit the hose barb. then I ground the little wings on the hose barb down so they will fit into the button.


and re installed it. I zip tied the inside because I wanted to make sure it did not come off in there. I pulled on it pretty hard to be sure it would not come off by accident.



then pop riveted it back in place.





it fits good and tight now and I can always zip tie the outside if it ever does come off. then I found that the prior owner had wired the switch backward so that both the washer and wiper came on when you turned the switch on and only the washer when you hit the momentary switch. so I pulled the wires out of the connector carefully and rewired it correctly. I need to buy a new switch though because this one is not in very good condition.

anyway another installment of fixing niggling little details that probably would not bother real jeepers but bug the heck out of me lol.
 
#51 ·
btw does anyone know any way to take spray on bedliner off without just grinding it? The prior owner bed lined the inside of the cab and I am glad of that but as you can see from the above pictures he sprayed it all over everything. I would like to find a way to get it off the wiring and the roll bar and roll bar pad etc. stuff that would be destroyed by anything I can think of to get it off.
 
#54 ·
thanks for the replies. I have not tried gas. I have the interior carpeted now so I don't think I will try that for a while. maybe I will just be happy with it the way it is.

as far as being particular. I much prefer working on clean parts. so I spend a little extra time cleaning things up when I can, and I love my eastwood powdercoater so anytime I have an excuse to use it I do lol.:cheers:
 
#55 ·
Well much as I love my little YJ I have been jones'ing over a tj for a while. I saw this one over at the local used car lot, and I thought I would trade my yj in.


it is a 2001 with the 4.0 auto trans, ac cruise control and all the good stuff. it has brand new 265 75 16 wheels and tires on it not in perfect condition but pretty good. they are asking 9800.00

well after discussing it with the guy and seeing what he would give me for my jeep I decided it wasn't worth trading in my yj so I decided to keep it but give it to my son to play with. he has a 2004 liberty that is his daily driver, but while it is a good vehicle for daily driving it is not really an offroad vehicle so I thought he would like the yj and give me a chance to work on it some with him. He was pumped when I told him about it. so I went ahead and bought the tj outright for 8800. So now I am going to start playing with it for a while.
 
#56 ·
mustanggarage said:
Well much as I love my little YJ I have been jones'ing over a tj for a while. I saw this one over at the local used car lot, and I thought I would trade my yj in. http://s972.photobucket.com/user/mustangmccance/media/tj_zps7cf6f696.jpg.html it is a 2001 with the 4.0 auto trans, ac cruise control and all the good stuff. it has brand new 265 75 16 wheels and tires on it not in perfect condition but pretty good. they are asking 9800.00 well after discussing it with the guy and seeing what he would give me for my jeep I decided it wasn't worth trading in my yj so I decided to keep it but give it to my son to play with. he has a 2004 liberty that is his daily driver, but while it is a good vehicle for daily driving it is not really an offroad vehicle so I thought he would like the yj and give me a chance to work on it some with him. He was pumped when I told him about it. so I went ahead and bought the tj outright for 8800. So now I am going to start playing with it for a while.
That's cool you gave it to your son! Good luck with the new TJ.
 
#58 ·
yeah I really like the wheels too. I have not been able to find out what kind of wheel they are. they have the jeep logo on the center cap so I am assuming they came off a grand cherokee. I don't think they were stock for a wrangler. anybody know for sure what wheel these are and what they came off of?
 
#62 ·
thanks. I love powdercoating. it is funny I bought that kit from eastwood. it cost about 100.00. My Dad laughed when I bought it, he thought it would never work. he is a believer now too. the best thing is I had a friend who was updating his kitchen and he gave me his old stove. so I use that for powdercoating small parts. I did the timing cover in there, and lots of other small parts. I use the IR heater I bought for big things. I have powder coated the rear axle for my daughters 67 mustang. I did the shock tower brace on my Dad's 94 mustang. the oilpan and valve cover on this jeep. all with that IR heater tons of small stuff. it has been a good investment. I think you will love it. btw eastwood sells two powdercoaters. the cheap hot coat version and the more expensive dual voltage version. I bought the dual voltage one recently and i don't like it as well so I went back to the cheap one and have had better luck.:2thumbsup:
 
#65 ·
I think I may have to resurrect this thread. warning, convoluted story ahead lol. My son decided he needed money more than the jeep so he sold it to my daughters boyfriend who used it for the last year or so. but now he is thinking he needs a vehicle that he can use to drive back and forth to utah where he is looking to get a job. my daughter graduates from high school this year. she is applying to BYU, her boyfriend graduated last year. he has been taking a certified welding course so he will be a very useful fellow to know. Anyway he has been driving my 99 f150 for the last 6 months or so and I asked him if he would want to just trade the jeep for the truck. He says he wants to ask his Dad, but he seemed interested so I think I will be getting the joopacabra back. I already have lots of plans for it.

 
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