Renegade CJ

[matth_85]

Have a few things to take care of over the winter that 1000 mostly trail miles have exposed...

-The engine skid needs additional bracing. Came down on it rather hard at Windrock and it bent a little.
-Install new fuse panel for the LS harness. It had the plain jane cheap fuse holders and I had an issue with the fuel pump fuse at Windrock. The fuse holder has gotten loose so it allows the fuse to move and kept popping them. I have a much nicer setup, just need to install.
-INNER FENDERS for the front. I had hoped to cut some myself with my new plasma table but time may force me to order some if stuff doesn't start happening faster around the shop.
-You need a full top for SE wheeling. If you care about your rig at all... I hope to do a top before Harlan this year.
-Still have to pull the front end and body armor apart and clear the tub.
-Would like to go to an ARB compressor that allows for OBA.
-Still want to do an under dash vintage air setup, but that is not really a priority and $$$

My goal is to have everything on this list done less the ARB and Vintage Air before Harlan. Also planning to take the CJ on the Poker Run this year, that is if it happens.

 

[97TJGUZZY]

this year has been nuts. I'm hoping we get to do the poker run this year, but who the heck knows. We will be camping and riding that weekend up there either way.

 

[matth_85]

CJ gets some windshield frame customization now courtesy of Mason Jar. Also, my ARB pump I wanted to replace now needs replacement. The wiring at the connector is loose. I dub that reason enough to get what I want. Also get to replace the PSC steering pump before the CJ is ready for the trail again. Going to clean it up this week and start back on it in a couple of weeks.

 

[VOLT]

The Renegade CJ is a BAD machine. Looking forward to wheeling with it again soon.

 

[matth_85]

Let’s make it happen. I’m game for something possibly in June. Next month is super busy for me. August were camping at Gulches for the Great American Crawl ride.

 

[matth_85]

So, we took the #RenegadeCJ down to the dirty myrt this last week for the 34th annual Run to the Sun. Had a lot of fun cruising the beach in the only trail rig out of probably 4,500 classics in town. It got a ton of attention to say the least... maybe some from the squeking belt...lol.

Friday morning my cooling fan decided to go to be with the lord. It self destructed but luckily didn't snag the radiator. Going to use this as an opportunity to upgrade the already questionable cooling system before Harlan.

I bought a 3K CFM fan at the show and wired it up wrong in a hurry....oops. Going to get the Flowkooler high volume water pump as I think my water pump is the culprit of the squeak. Going to do a flush mount aluminum shroud for the newly acquired fan and see how it does. Hopefully I can take the pusher out of the grill as I hate how it looks.

See youins in Kentucky next month. Some Dirty Myrtle pics until then....

 

[97TJGUZZY]

looks like a good time! love the the kids cars in the last pic!

 

[matth_85]

Probably shoulda done a build thread on Braz’s Tot Rod here…I have been slack on posting anything.

 

[matth_85]

So, cooling update....

The Flowkooler waterpump didn't fix the squeak....You heard us this weekend. lol.

Also, I don't think that the fan was enough to eliminate the pusher. With both fans on and some hard pulls up the mountain it would climb to the 210* range. Which is fine, I just get nervous with a trail rig because once one gets hot it's hard to calm it down. I definitely think that it is better though. Going to look into a bit nicer fan and see if that can eliminate the pusher...

Also, have determined that the squeak has to be from the PS pulley. Will be adjusting it to see if we can get rid of that.

UPGRADE TIME:
The AGR steering box busted the end cap on Friday coming up Fish Fossil. Luckily it was on the end of the trail. I bought a saginaw box in town so I could borrow the end cap.... Going to replace mine with a billet end cap as my box is older and just had the standard cast aluminum one.

 

[jimbo92]

Shoot I wouldn't worry a second about 210. That's typically the stock thermostat temp. My bone stock 4.0 won't stay that cool on those climbs with a manual. *the Jeep 4.0* the ford no care even a little for some reason.

 

[matth_85]

Thought I'd move my OSCAR 14 thread updates here to document the issues.

-Found out my fuel pump issue last year's OSCAR 13 was more wiring harness related rather than actually a bad fuel pump. I had made a trail repair back in 2020 to a fuse holder and it worked, so I never fixed it. Last year when running the trans cooler lines to the new cooler, I clearly pulled a connection loose and it was hanging by a thread.

-Started process of wiring in a new fuse/relay block, but the harness is in too poor of shape to take that time. Was going to have to pull it to do repairs, so may as well replace with new.

-I ordered a harness that had decent reviews from Amazon. Claimed to be high quality, Delphi connectors, and match factory color charts. That proved to be incorrect. The connectors are meh, and the wiring color is off. I am going to attempt to use it as everything seems right other than colors. I have traced it to pins via color per the chart and it all looks right.

Even if this one does fine, I would buy a BP automotive harness for $700 next round over this one.

**I did find another goof up on my end on the initial build. I have never ran an electronic trans in my past builds (TH350 or manuals).... I never hooked up the TCC. This harness called for it to wire to the brake pedal and had me scratching my head. Going to wire it up, and hope that was why I had issues with the initial tune with it pulling through the brakes in low range. (TCC unlocks converter when brake is depressed). The strange thing is, that the converter definitely unlocks in OD and acts as it should. This is a good thing though...

-I have corrected some wiring that was added after the build in 2020. Fan for external trans cooler is now to ignition power. I cut out a good bit of wire that in the past I had looped up in loom. Cleaned it up and will be easier to follow if I have an issue again. Also cleaned up the wiring coming into the tub. I had added several accessories since original build and when I installed them, I never shortened the wires as I should have. All in all, this was a great opportunity to get the previous work done right.

-Last item on my list pre-Harlan is to make a nicer mount for the fuel pump. If things go well this week with the final harness connections, this will happen. If not, meh...it's probably fine.