Dave in Eugene
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Eugene OR
I bought my 87 XJ just about a month ago, it is a Pioneer model with a very nice and clean exterior and interior, but just at 200,000 miles and cheap.
Bought it from the widder down the street who got it from her college student grandson after she GAVE him a Lexus (I asked her if she would be my gramma too).
It's just a replacement work rig for me (which I also will use for household projects and when adventuring in the woods - dirt roads & passable trails, no rocks), bought to replace a 454 Suburban that I used for the same purposes (fuel bill noticeably improved).
It is all stock, and seems to have been treated well, there are no dents, gouges, or scrapes on the underside, not even the front skid plate. Engine is smooth and quiet, only clicking I hear is the fuel nozzles.
I have been working at the little defects it has, most fairly minor. Idle speed seemed high, and washing out the engine compartment made that worse (manual was helpful there, it WAS the TPS that I killed). I just bought one at the nearest wrecking yard yesterday, plus a bag of other spare sensors & relays and all the misc trim parts I wanted to change, all for the most reasonable sum of ten bucks.
A/C won't come on. Comp clutch getting no power, not a blown fuse. See a relay someone has put in the circuit to the clutch, just hooked up with some spade connectors and wrapped up in black tape & stuffed behind the battery. I'll clean that up when I have time and I suspect that will fix the A/C.
Cruise doesn't work. Again, not a blown fuse, but not my highest priority and I'll get to it later.
Cooling system had obviously boiled over recently, and the system contained only plain water. Radiator was brand spanking shiny black new (and not updated to the open style durn it). Not overheating in the 85-95 weather we've been having the past month, and all hoses look good. Did a quick flush and refilled with a batch of Dexcool and a vial of Bars Leaks Goldseal. Pressure bottle is staying dry for the time being but I needed to tighten the cap a bit more than I think it should have been in order to get it to stay that way. I'll soon get a new cap and clean up the roughness in the mating surface on the bottle. Serpentine belt looks real tired so I'll change that out too.
Stereo is a fancy Jensen unit with a 90 X 4 Alpine amp in the back, about the size of two bricks, all driving factory stock speakers. I'm more of an AM talk radio guy so I'll probably downgrade that to a more basic player, and my wife has called dibs on the fancy stuff for her Aerostar (she is "decorating" her van and she says the colors of the Jensen's display are just right - figger women will ya?).
Battery cables are crappy, terminals barely stay on the posts and corrosion has crept down the cables too far, plus the B+ lead to the main relay is about half scraped through. I'll build some good 4/0 cables with the stuff I have in my heavy equipment dealership parts dept (where I work - and yes I'll pay for the stuff, but not retail).
Power door locks seem weak, the driver door solenoid doesn't quite have the power to lock the doors, the others work most of the time. I think the battery cable fix will fix that, so I'm not all that concerned.
Parking brake weak. Cable loose enough that the lever pulls up on the stupid cupholder (which doesn't neem to hold any standard sized cup). Probably just worn rear brakes. I'll soon pop the drums off the (D44) rear and have a look.
Transmission is (yup) a BA10/5. Don't need to say a lot more except I know it is getting tired. It is the only thing underneath that is covered in leaked oil, and before today the 2-3 shift needed to be done very slowly to avoid grinding (but overall the transmission is not real noisy). Made a tool today and dumped out about 1-1/2 pints of some very thin oil of unknown type. The magnet plug had a little more fur on it than I like, but I have seen a lot worse. The oil itself, however, held a lot of brass in suspension, so I think it is safe to assume it has some very worn syncros. I refilled with some regular Walmart 80-90 GL-5, and I'll go easy on it for a couple weeks and dump it out & see what I get. The new oil fixed the 2-3 and 3-4 shifts, but now the 1-2 and 2-1 shifts are tough, where they were smooth before. I'm looking for some guidance on this one. I'm thinking I could do better on the oil. I know the manual calls for 75-90 GL-5 but I'm not convinced that's the best thing for this transmission and I'd like to try to finish the season out with it. I've just about convinced myself that this gearbox is crying for a fill of 50W synthetic.
Next year I WILL be towing a trailer into the woods and I know I'll have to swap out to an AX-15 or better to do that. In the meantime, I don't want the pug-ott to scatter, and I'm hoping good oil and kindness will preserve it.
Bought it from the widder down the street who got it from her college student grandson after she GAVE him a Lexus (I asked her if she would be my gramma too).
It's just a replacement work rig for me (which I also will use for household projects and when adventuring in the woods - dirt roads & passable trails, no rocks), bought to replace a 454 Suburban that I used for the same purposes (fuel bill noticeably improved).
It is all stock, and seems to have been treated well, there are no dents, gouges, or scrapes on the underside, not even the front skid plate. Engine is smooth and quiet, only clicking I hear is the fuel nozzles.
I have been working at the little defects it has, most fairly minor. Idle speed seemed high, and washing out the engine compartment made that worse (manual was helpful there, it WAS the TPS that I killed). I just bought one at the nearest wrecking yard yesterday, plus a bag of other spare sensors & relays and all the misc trim parts I wanted to change, all for the most reasonable sum of ten bucks.
A/C won't come on. Comp clutch getting no power, not a blown fuse. See a relay someone has put in the circuit to the clutch, just hooked up with some spade connectors and wrapped up in black tape & stuffed behind the battery. I'll clean that up when I have time and I suspect that will fix the A/C.
Cruise doesn't work. Again, not a blown fuse, but not my highest priority and I'll get to it later.
Cooling system had obviously boiled over recently, and the system contained only plain water. Radiator was brand spanking shiny black new (and not updated to the open style durn it). Not overheating in the 85-95 weather we've been having the past month, and all hoses look good. Did a quick flush and refilled with a batch of Dexcool and a vial of Bars Leaks Goldseal. Pressure bottle is staying dry for the time being but I needed to tighten the cap a bit more than I think it should have been in order to get it to stay that way. I'll soon get a new cap and clean up the roughness in the mating surface on the bottle. Serpentine belt looks real tired so I'll change that out too.
Stereo is a fancy Jensen unit with a 90 X 4 Alpine amp in the back, about the size of two bricks, all driving factory stock speakers. I'm more of an AM talk radio guy so I'll probably downgrade that to a more basic player, and my wife has called dibs on the fancy stuff for her Aerostar (she is "decorating" her van and she says the colors of the Jensen's display are just right - figger women will ya?).
Battery cables are crappy, terminals barely stay on the posts and corrosion has crept down the cables too far, plus the B+ lead to the main relay is about half scraped through. I'll build some good 4/0 cables with the stuff I have in my heavy equipment dealership parts dept (where I work - and yes I'll pay for the stuff, but not retail).
Power door locks seem weak, the driver door solenoid doesn't quite have the power to lock the doors, the others work most of the time. I think the battery cable fix will fix that, so I'm not all that concerned.
Parking brake weak. Cable loose enough that the lever pulls up on the stupid cupholder (which doesn't neem to hold any standard sized cup). Probably just worn rear brakes. I'll soon pop the drums off the (D44) rear and have a look.
Transmission is (yup) a BA10/5. Don't need to say a lot more except I know it is getting tired. It is the only thing underneath that is covered in leaked oil, and before today the 2-3 shift needed to be done very slowly to avoid grinding (but overall the transmission is not real noisy). Made a tool today and dumped out about 1-1/2 pints of some very thin oil of unknown type. The magnet plug had a little more fur on it than I like, but I have seen a lot worse. The oil itself, however, held a lot of brass in suspension, so I think it is safe to assume it has some very worn syncros. I refilled with some regular Walmart 80-90 GL-5, and I'll go easy on it for a couple weeks and dump it out & see what I get. The new oil fixed the 2-3 and 3-4 shifts, but now the 1-2 and 2-1 shifts are tough, where they were smooth before. I'm looking for some guidance on this one. I'm thinking I could do better on the oil. I know the manual calls for 75-90 GL-5 but I'm not convinced that's the best thing for this transmission and I'd like to try to finish the season out with it. I've just about convinced myself that this gearbox is crying for a fill of 50W synthetic.
Next year I WILL be towing a trailer into the woods and I know I'll have to swap out to an AX-15 or better to do that. In the meantime, I don't want the pug-ott to scatter, and I'm hoping good oil and kindness will preserve it.