Lost_Wrench
NAXJA Forum User
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Today I swapped out my old instrument cluster on my 96 XJ 4.0 which only had "idiot lights" and I put in a cluster with gauges but I ran into a few head banging issues that made the project take 5 times as long as it should have.
The rear Temp Sensor for the gauges near the back of the Valve Cover was a royal PITA!!! The first replacement sensor I picked up from Advance had a larger sized nut (9/16) than the OEM (13mm). With the threaded hole for the sensor being so close to the valve cover it simply wouldn't thread in. Stupid. Went to Oreilly this time and found one that was 13mm, but on this one the nut wasn't as "thick" or "deep" as the OEM so I could thread it in to a certain point but the socket would eventually bottom out on the edge of the valve cover. I literally had to get out the Dremel and cautiously grind off a section of my valve cover to allow the socket to fit all the way around the sensor. Prior to grinding I tried using a 13mm crows foot open-end wrench but it too would only get me so far before I needed more leverage and I was beginning to round out the nut on the sensor. This, I found out, was due to the hole for the sensor being drilled in at a slight angle for some reason. WTH seriously? Was this a mistake at the factory? By the time I finally snugged down the new sensor I noticed that it had the appearance of being badly cross-threaded. One side of the nut was contacting the metal on the block while the other side was higher by a few millimeters. Again, seems like a factory mistake to have that hole for the sensor drilled in at a slight angle. I backed out the sensor and checked the threads and they were all fine and not cross threaded at all. I put Teflon tape on and reinserted the sensor.
The new gauges all work but now that I can see my running temp for the first time it is at 160 or 170 degrees which seems way low, it should be around 200. Could it be the new sensor is faulty, or the new (used) cluster is off somehow? Thermostat maybe? Should I even worry about that? The Jeep runs great, heater blows hot, and she gets good gas mileage.
Last thought about this project. With the ease in which these instrument clusters can be swapped out (20 minutes) we should all be wary of mileage when buying older XJ's. I went from 150k on my old cluster - which was almost certainly not the original - to 144k on my "new" cluster. Since it's old enough for the Title of the vehicle to say "Mileage Exempt" there is really no repercussion to this type of fraud. Lots of lower mileage clusters are available online so this is an easy scam. Also, someone had removed the "Check Engine" bulb on my old cluster, haha. Oh and now my check engine light on my new cluster is on. :/
Thanks for reading. The End.
The rear Temp Sensor for the gauges near the back of the Valve Cover was a royal PITA!!! The first replacement sensor I picked up from Advance had a larger sized nut (9/16) than the OEM (13mm). With the threaded hole for the sensor being so close to the valve cover it simply wouldn't thread in. Stupid. Went to Oreilly this time and found one that was 13mm, but on this one the nut wasn't as "thick" or "deep" as the OEM so I could thread it in to a certain point but the socket would eventually bottom out on the edge of the valve cover. I literally had to get out the Dremel and cautiously grind off a section of my valve cover to allow the socket to fit all the way around the sensor. Prior to grinding I tried using a 13mm crows foot open-end wrench but it too would only get me so far before I needed more leverage and I was beginning to round out the nut on the sensor. This, I found out, was due to the hole for the sensor being drilled in at a slight angle for some reason. WTH seriously? Was this a mistake at the factory? By the time I finally snugged down the new sensor I noticed that it had the appearance of being badly cross-threaded. One side of the nut was contacting the metal on the block while the other side was higher by a few millimeters. Again, seems like a factory mistake to have that hole for the sensor drilled in at a slight angle. I backed out the sensor and checked the threads and they were all fine and not cross threaded at all. I put Teflon tape on and reinserted the sensor.
The new gauges all work but now that I can see my running temp for the first time it is at 160 or 170 degrees which seems way low, it should be around 200. Could it be the new sensor is faulty, or the new (used) cluster is off somehow? Thermostat maybe? Should I even worry about that? The Jeep runs great, heater blows hot, and she gets good gas mileage.
Last thought about this project. With the ease in which these instrument clusters can be swapped out (20 minutes) we should all be wary of mileage when buying older XJ's. I went from 150k on my old cluster - which was almost certainly not the original - to 144k on my "new" cluster. Since it's old enough for the Title of the vehicle to say "Mileage Exempt" there is really no repercussion to this type of fraud. Lots of lower mileage clusters are available online so this is an easy scam. Also, someone had removed the "Check Engine" bulb on my old cluster, haha. Oh and now my check engine light on my new cluster is on. :/
Thanks for reading. The End.