Patching up my junker...

[chillman88]

Hey everyone.

I was practically given a 95 XJ (4.0 Auto) that had been in a front end collision. I've been working on getting it fixed up with some parts from a buddy of mine. There's a few issues I could use some help with. Figured I could just make it a build thread too.

1. Oil pressure gauge is pegged to the high end. Is that going to be a short to ground or possibly disconnected? Where is the sending unit on a 95 4.0?

I was trying to burp the cooling system and it turns out the used radiator I got is leaking.... The temperature gauge got in the red but the e-fan never came on. I haven't tried supplying power directly to the fan but shouldn't it have come on? I was about halfway into the red, don't remember what the range is there and I'm not near the Jeep right now to check.

Here it is when I got it:

Here it is two weeks ago:

 

[chillman88]

Yeah the parts are rough, but free is free lol.

 

[ehall]

The sender is probably shorted internally. Simple test is disconnect the wire from the oil pressure sender and see if the gauge drops to zero. You can also test resistance between the tab on the sender and the battery. The old style gauges have a coil inside, and the sender provides variable resistance on the ground leg.

For the efan, the computer is supposed to ground the relay whenever the AC compressor is activated or whenver the coolant sensor in the thermostat housing shows temps over ~215f. Easy to check the fan circuit by pulling the relay and using a small jumper wire to see if the fan comes on. If that works then verify the gauge with an IR temp gun on the thermostat housing.

 

[chillman88]

Thank you!

I disconnected the sender and no change so it's either the gauge itself or in the wiring somewhere.

I also jumpered the relay and the fan spins up fine.

Thanks for the help!

 

[lawsoncl]

I disconnected the sender and no change so it's either the gauge itself or in the wiring somewhere.

The gage reading is proportional to the resistance. So disconnecting the wire should peg the gauge, and grounding it should make it read zero. I almost guarantee your sender is bad.

 

[ehall]

try running a lead from the sender wire to a ground (engine or battery), see if the gauge drops to zero

 

[chillman88]

try running a lead from the sender wire to a ground (engine or battery), see if the gauge drops to zero

It's not looking very good. I grounded it to the battery through my DVM and it made no difference at all. With the DVM inline it was reading 8.5V if that means anything.

Do these usually change at all with the vehicle on vs off? I'm used to newer vehicles "resetting" the gauges on startup. This gauge never moves at all.

 

[ehall]

Some of the gauges stay where they were, some don't, I don't recall which are which

 

[lawsoncl]

It's not looking very good. I grounded it to the battery through my DVM and it made no difference at all.

I'm not sure what you mean by "through my dvm"? I think a 95 has a connector with two pins. If so, short them together. If it's just one wire, hook it directly to ground, either the engine block or the battery negative. Use the meter to measure the resistance (ohms) of the sensor itself. A new sensor (not the switch, since you have a guage and not a light) it $16 on RockAuto.

 

[chillman88]

I'm not sure what you mean by "through my dvm"? I think a 95 has a connector with two pins. If so, short them together. If it's just one wire, hook it directly to ground, either the engine block or the battery negative. Use the meter to measure the resistance (ohms) of the sensor itself. A new sensor (not the switch, since you have a guage and not a light) it $16 on RockAuto.

I used the leads on my "Digital Volt Meter" between the single wire plug and the battery. That should in theory still provide a sufficient ground path to cause the gauge to move.

I will try jumping it directly to the battery again when I find a longer piece of wire. I ran out of time last night but if I can't get the gauge to move at all there's no point in wasting the money on a new sender. It just bugs me that it's not working, it's really not the end of the world I guess.

Thanks for your help

 

[chillman88]

Well after screwing around trying to fix the fuel gauge on my truck today I had some wire left over. Shoved it in the plug and grounded it. Bingo!

Regardless of why nothing else made a difference it swung to zero so I'll order a sending unit in a couple weeks when I have some spare cash.

Waiting on sway bar links which should be here later this week. She runs pretty good. I need to get some ATF and top off the transmission since I put the new cooler on it.

 

[denverd1]

oil pressure sending unit is cheap and known to fail...

 

[chillman88]

Well I ran it through the gears and topped off the transmission fluid. Sway bar links are in. Still needs a driveway alignment but I'll probably run it around a little bit this weekend. I ordered a new thermostat and radiator cap for peace of mind. Hasn't tried to overheat the last couple times I drove it around the block.

 

[old_man]

Sounds like you need to pull the dash cluster and clean the flat cable connector.

 

[Rob Mayercik]

You know, it'd be a good time to dust off the backlight bulbs in the cluster (and replace any dead ones) while you have it out.

I should probably do a cluster backlight cleaning/bulb check myself, seems like the instrument lights on mine are duller/yellower than they used to be...

 

[chillman88]

Both good points that I hadn't considered.

Does this cluster take the usual 194/168 wedge base bulbs?

 

[chillman88]

Also does anyone have a picture of where the drivers side floor "courtesy light" is supposed to be bolted in?

It's still attached to the metal bracket but I'd like to get it put back wherever it's supposed to be.

 

[chillman88]

A half hour and two cans of Rust-Oleum aerosol bedliner and the front kinda almost matches the back!

I checked the alignment with a tape measure and it's as close as I could get it so I left it. I did manage to shorten the drag link so the steering wheel is almost straight. Close enough!

 

[chillman88]

Well I have been driving it a couple days now. All the cluster lights work so I'll just leave it be.

This morning on the way in to work I finally learned what "death wobble" is... Holy crap, I thought something fell off!

I'm going to start looking things over before I go home tonight, I'm hoping it's an obvious fix.

 

[chillman88]

Oh lookie here, a couple XJ bumpers...

Yeah I know, cleaning the shop is next on the list.

They were given to me, 2x6 tube maybe 0.120 wall or better. He told me they were 4' long but they're longer which is perfect! They are almost exactly as long as I need. I've got some 3/16 plate to make mounts from. I just have to start cutting and fitting.

Front will be first, just need to get figured out how I want to implement recovery points. I've got a few ideas but need to nail it down.

Looked into the nasty death wobble from the other day. Asked a guy at work if he still had the stabilizer from his old Cherokee that he never installed, he brought it in and $20 later I find out its a nice Skyjacker unit instead of a cheap house brand like I expected. Score! I'll be replacing the track bar and a bad tie rod as soon as the new radiator gets here.