My 1991 YJ, Or what is left of it

[indirocz28]

I have had 2 Cherokees and now this YJ because I thought "hell that would be cool". Well, I'm figuring out that I don't want to buy another project supposedly "90%" complete. FML.

With that said, it has GM 3/4 ton 8 lug front & rear axles, with manual hubs in front, locker in rear, 4.10 gears in both, and 4 wheel disc brakes. It also has a SM 465 transmission, and a Dana 300 twin stick transfer case.
Front suspension consists of some Rubicon Engineering leaf springs over the axle, and the rear is a home made 1/4 elliptcal. It flexes like crazy, but currently has no shocks. The tub has been cut in half, and a cage welded in. There are a lot of things I would like to fix, but we will see where that goes.

So, When I picked up this YJ it had some pretty rough 37" Goodyear MT humvee tires, it ran on propane with an old SBC350, although it didn't like how the guy had it set up. Idled high, drank propane like crazy, etc.

After spending a whole weekend setting the mixer according to the, manufacturer specs, and checking timing, changing timing, and plugs, It made it no better. It would start up, run until it got warm and then die every time. So it would run for about 5 minutes, or drive about 200 feet and then die. Coolant temp read good, about 190* and everything else seemed okay.


Well I got fed up with this, and decided "Screw it, Ill throw in a TBI 350, and mate it all together" So that is where the project begins....

First couple of pictures are from previous owner:







Then I get there to pick it up, and the guy has taken off those IROK's and put on some older humvee tires, and a miss matched yet great condition super swamper.
- Already was kind of miffed, but at least it ran, drove and had tires.

So I drove it around, and put it on the trailer and brought it home.




Decided to get it to run a little better, hopefully, I honestly think something was possibly wrong with the mixer itself, or that the liquid to gas converter was bad.



- - - Updated - - -

After spending the whole weekend messing with this thing and literally getting no where despite peoples advice from pirate 4x4 and the manufacturers info and settings I said screw it, and decided to go fuel injected.

So the next Saturday morning I yanked out the propane system, and old engine.



Then went to the salvage vehicle I had lined up about an hour away and pulled out the TBI 350 with computer and wiring harness out of a 1995 Suburban.
So that sat in my storage unit for a week until I could come back to work on getting it IN the jeep.



Come to find out, that the original "fabricator" didn't really line things up 100% straight, so the tranny was sitting kind of sideways on its cross member, and we COULD NOT get the engine bolted up. Just seemed like nothing wanted to go together straight. So, I had to drop the cross member, tranny and transfer case. Which was a chore. Bolt it to the engine, then lift it all back up.



Once I got it all back up is when I noticed that the cross member was not built straight. When its bolted up to the transmission and the engine is sitting on the mounts, the cross member actually sits about an inch and a half towards the passenger side.

[indirocz28]

Okay, after getting that whole debacle in and taken care of, and getting the engine full in, here is how that looked.




After that, it was time to start taking out the wiring harness to cut out what I didn't need. I started with this octopus of a harness that originally came from the engine compartment of a 1995 Chevrolet Suburban.


Then I un loomed, and un taped it all to start tracing and cutting out what I didn't need. At first this appeared to be quite a challenge because I had the correct wiring diagrams for the suburban, however the ECU pin outs I kept finding were all a little different from the wiring connectors I had in front of me. So after 3 hours of digging online and tracing and being pissed off, I finally came across the correct ECU pinout. Seems that the ECU that I got with this engine was a replacement with an updated part number, making things a little more difficult at first.

After about 6 hours of tracing, cutting, splicing, being distracted by the fiance, and eating, I finally had this straightened out.



This past weekend I was lucky enough to get to lay the wiring harness out in the engine bay, and connect it to all of the sensors. Then I went and ran them in their perspective locations to get ready to tape and loom them once I get the rest of the project ready to start.


I also ordered some block hugger center drop headers, so that I can keep the exhaust inside the frame rails hopefully. I plan to try installing them next weekend if I can.



Once I laid the wiring harness out in the engine bay, I went to swap the old crappy tires with much newer fresher humvee tires and 8 bolt double beadlock humvee wheels. During which time I found the cause of this great annoying howling sound that would occur when driving it around previously.
Looks like someone smashed the disc cover on a rock. So I fixed that.


So after a Saturdays day of work, I put it back on the trailer and this is how it sits now, until I can tend to it more, hopefully next weekend.





Future plans are to get it running, I need a fuel cell, and inline 14psi fuel pump.
Finish the start switch and key wiring inside under the dash.

I ordered a YJ passenger side firewall battery mount tray along with Ballistic Fab shock hoops and some 14" travel shocks for the fronts.

Then probably during that fabrication phase I will drill out the cross member bolts and weld some new nuts in and design a flat skid plate to better support the stress.

[Mudhog1977]

welcome to the world of yj's fix something and 2 other things break

[indirocz28]

welcome to the world of yj's fix something and 2 other things break

Isn't that about the truth.

[Stouttrout]

It looks like it should wheel good.

[indirocz28]

That is still to be determined..

[Mudhog1977]

I think my wife's yj hates me lol, I agree looks like it outta go pretty good

[indirocz28]

Some days I feel like this one is the same way.
It asks me Y, J? Y?

[UstabeaRenegade]

I named mine the Black B$%ch for a reason.

[indirocz28]

LOL that works