patooyee
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2008
- Messages
- 5,692
I am helping my brother in law replace the engine in a fairly nice stock-ish 1999 TJ. His story is probably similar to many: Young guy, didn't know a thing about mechanics, overpaid for a used mildy built Jeep, didn't consult anyone, got it home, immediately started having problems, didn't pay attention to some of them, overheated engine, didn't stop driving it, and now needs a new one. Have a couple of questions for people more accustomed to dealing with TJ's:
1. We got the new engine in and running now and in the process ended up with an extra cable that was missing the connector at the end. I remember disconnecting it when we pulled the old engine, so I know it was connected, at the time I assumed it was a cruise control cable, and Alldata agrees in that where it came from would be a cruise control cable. It connected exactly opposite from the throttle cable on the bracket. Then I found out that the Jeep doesn't have cruise control. I followed the cable through the firewall and it runs up in front of his shifter console and into the dash at which point I wasn't able to follow it any more. It does not appear to do anything that I can tell, appears to be too long for whatever it does do, and the only other cable that Alldata lists for these vehicles is the transmission cable for automatics. This one is a manual. So what is this cable?
2. In the process of overheating the Jeep I guess he over pressurized the system somehow too because it blew the upper radiator hose off and shot high pressure steam out for miles before he stopped driving it. The radiator is now leaking at the tanks so he needs a new one. While shopping for it I noticed there is an application for an automatic and a manual transmission for radiators, the difference being that the auto has a built-in trans cooler. The rad that came in the Jeep when he bought it is an automatic one that never did have the trans cooler hooked up. Is it normal for the manuals to come with auto radiators? I bought him the manual radiator in any case.
Is it possible / realistic that this Jeep may have started life with an automatic and was swapped to manual at some point? This might explain the radiator that is in it now as well as if the extra cable was a transmission cable that was just hooked up in the wrong spot. The transmission has been off at least once before us because the heads of the top mounting bolts were rounded off and a PITA to get out.
3. Also, the Jeep has an aftermarket 2-speed electric fan with a sensor in the radiator. Low speed on the fan doesn't work, high speed does. But the wiring job is totally ghetto and I have to redo it without knowing what I am working with. It was wired to constant power so that when the Jeep is parked in the hot FL sun the fan will actually turn on and run the battery down while it is unattended. The sensor has 2 wires on it, a small green and small yellow. Both of them got torn during the tear-down and I need to know what to do with them. Does it sound familiar to any popular aftermarket fan setups that ya'll have heard of? It is obviously meant for Jeep TJ's because the shroud bolts right up to some factory weld-nuts on the radiator. Poorly designed setup overall though as it leaves a 2" gap between the rad and the shroud and interferes with the water pump pulley. I ca see where the installer cut the back of the fan motor plastic housing out to make room for the pulley studs to turn.
1. We got the new engine in and running now and in the process ended up with an extra cable that was missing the connector at the end. I remember disconnecting it when we pulled the old engine, so I know it was connected, at the time I assumed it was a cruise control cable, and Alldata agrees in that where it came from would be a cruise control cable. It connected exactly opposite from the throttle cable on the bracket. Then I found out that the Jeep doesn't have cruise control. I followed the cable through the firewall and it runs up in front of his shifter console and into the dash at which point I wasn't able to follow it any more. It does not appear to do anything that I can tell, appears to be too long for whatever it does do, and the only other cable that Alldata lists for these vehicles is the transmission cable for automatics. This one is a manual. So what is this cable?
2. In the process of overheating the Jeep I guess he over pressurized the system somehow too because it blew the upper radiator hose off and shot high pressure steam out for miles before he stopped driving it. The radiator is now leaking at the tanks so he needs a new one. While shopping for it I noticed there is an application for an automatic and a manual transmission for radiators, the difference being that the auto has a built-in trans cooler. The rad that came in the Jeep when he bought it is an automatic one that never did have the trans cooler hooked up. Is it normal for the manuals to come with auto radiators? I bought him the manual radiator in any case.
Is it possible / realistic that this Jeep may have started life with an automatic and was swapped to manual at some point? This might explain the radiator that is in it now as well as if the extra cable was a transmission cable that was just hooked up in the wrong spot. The transmission has been off at least once before us because the heads of the top mounting bolts were rounded off and a PITA to get out.
3. Also, the Jeep has an aftermarket 2-speed electric fan with a sensor in the radiator. Low speed on the fan doesn't work, high speed does. But the wiring job is totally ghetto and I have to redo it without knowing what I am working with. It was wired to constant power so that when the Jeep is parked in the hot FL sun the fan will actually turn on and run the battery down while it is unattended. The sensor has 2 wires on it, a small green and small yellow. Both of them got torn during the tear-down and I need to know what to do with them. Does it sound familiar to any popular aftermarket fan setups that ya'll have heard of? It is obviously meant for Jeep TJ's because the shroud bolts right up to some factory weld-nuts on the radiator. Poorly designed setup overall though as it leaves a 2" gap between the rad and the shroud and interferes with the water pump pulley. I ca see where the installer cut the back of the fan motor plastic housing out to make room for the pulley studs to turn.
