[Purcell69]

Here's an update from the past month...

Right after I posted the last update, I began having problems with my XJ Cherokee overheating. I flushed the radiator only to have it blow apart the plastic tank on the side while road testing. I feared I may have cracked the head, as it is a 1999 and may have had a 0331 casting, which is known to crack. I pulled the head and found it to be in remarkable shape, but had it rebuilt anyway, since it has 240k miles on it. While it was at the shop, I did everything I could to clean out years of Pennzoil residue that had accumulated under previous ownership. I got everything back together, drained the diesel fuel soak from the oil pan, installed the new radiator and now the engine is cool and runs quieter then it ever had.

I had a bunch of parts arrive for the "Napco" in a push to have it start and run for my birthday, new fuel pump, new battery, hoses, belt, etc. I installed new plug wires, a cap and rotor, new plugs, the hoses and belt, made new battery cables and began to fill fluids. The "new" water pump had a leaking seal and when I installed it, I had my head up my ass and used sealer on BOTH sides of the gasket. The sealer held so well that I needed a pry bar and a 6' cheater pipe to get the pump off. The gasket literally split down the middle with half on the pump and half on the timing cover. It took a LOT of scraping to get the gasket off the timing cover.

I also found the transmission pan was deformed by the previous owner, whose answer to solving a pan leak was to just tighten the bolts to the point of deforming the pan. I have a new pan of the way, as the old one began bleeding out around the 4th quart in.

The weather didn't cooperate for the birthday target, but after all these years, what is a few more days. When I connected the battery, the + cable sparked, which was odd, since the only electronics on the truck relate to engine management. Then the ECM began to smoke and I attributed the weather as having flooded the computer to being the cause for failure. I hit the Pull-a-Part up for another computer yesterday and got a Dodge gauge cluster just to keep eyes on things until I get my actual gauge cluster done.

With everything reconnected, I got a seatbelt light on the turn of the key, but nothing else. I found a burnt 120A fuse and replaced it with no change. Then, after mucking around the wire harness at the rear of the motor, I got a loud whistle followed by more smoke from the computer. It appears the problem lies in the engine harness. Thank goodness I didn't modify it yet. Time to pull it out and look for the problem.

I am sooooo close to being able to crank the engine.

-Joe