High Mileage 2001 Sahara Build

I wasn't all that worried since it was two high and shirtless 15 year olds vs two of my buddies and I, but I can imagine them seeing my doorless Jeep in my parking garage soon and taking advantage of it. I live in one of the nicest suburbs of Chicago, so once I move downtown after graduating next year, it can only get worse. I really think finding a ~$7K TJ and using that for my time here in Chicago is a better move. I can park it anywhere and not care. I've also found that I'm more timid about working on my Jeep since it is so special and I don't want to mess anything up. Being able to work on a TJ without any cares of messing something up would be nice. I would also be able to drive in the winter since I wouldn't have to care as much about salt. Getting a different TJ while I'm in the city is all around a better option. Once I get older and get a house or find a place with a private garage, I would bring my TJ back closer.

This has been a problem for a while. In summer 2018, someone yanked my glovebox open trying to steal whatever was there. They ended up taking nothing, but I'm having a hard time taking this much risk with a Jeep that has been in the family for 20 years anymore. I'll likely be in downtown Chicago for another 5+ years, so this might be a long term setup.
I honestly think it’s the best move. It really sucks that it is that way, but your plan is what I would do. Something that special deserves to be protected IMO
 
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I honestly think it’s the best move. It really sucks that it is that way, but your plan is what I would do. Something that special deserves to be protected IMO

This is the plan at this point. I've been thinking about this for years, but I was never in the financial position to make it happen due to being a freshman / sophomore in college. Now that I'm finishing up college and about to head into Chicago for work, there is no sense keeping my TJ around here now that I can afford another one. It definitely sucks, but at least I won't have to worry about my Jeep. A stock manual TJ that isn't rusted completely through can't be that hard to find. I'm going to spend the next few weeks looking around at the market.

I know a few friends who have moved into Chicago like I plan to do after college. Even in nice areas, they've still woken up to catalytic converters missing and the like.
 
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I can relate to being very attached and, thus, timid when it comes to things that could potentially go south. I bought mine when I was 18, and I'm 30 now. In the long run, I'd do the same as you in that situation.
 
It finally got hot today in Chicago. Went to home depot and the Jeep would barely start after sitting in the heat for a few minutes. Tried to die at about 400 RPM for a minute until it smoothed out. The #3 injector is the common problem with heat soak on TJ's, but it seemed that 4 or more of my injectors were having problems today. I've never seen it start as bad as it did today. Even once the weather cooled off, I had issues. I've filed a return with rock auto and my old injectors are going back in for the time being. Since the new injectors technically did fix the original starting issue that I was chasing in the first place, I'm going to try 6 new Bosch injectors. I would definitely not recommend buying Mopar injectors as they seem to be WAY worse than the original ones that came with my Jeep.

In other news, I ordered 6" light bars, which don't fit on my bumper. So I found some cheap light pods and wired them up today. Going to mount them tomorrow. Going to find another use for my bars. Probably reverse lights or mounted on the A pillar.
 
Ordered 6 injectors from Daveys Jeeps. $50, a nice $430 cheaper than the junk I ordered from RockAuto 😡

This is what arrived today. Not sure if I should be concerned or happy that I received 1.5x my order 🙂

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Daveys jeeps injectors are in. Had a really bad 2/5 misfire at first. Yanked those two back out and put two of the extras Daveys sent in. Disconnected the battery for a while and it ended up working out. Will see how they do in the heat, but so far I’m happy with Daveys.

Also put in a new battery holder on amazon. Much better than the one I got from autozone.

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Jeeps first and last (hopefully) day as a city commuter.

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Still fighting the same dumb issues I have been since last summer. Brakes are screeching like hell even after multiple break ins. I’m probably just going to order new pads and start again.

Speedometer isn’t working again even after torquing everything to spec. But now it has a fun thing where it bounces to 100 and triggers the speed limiter, causing me to lose all power. That was fun on Lake Shore Drive today.
 
sorry to hear about the troubles lingering. I've never heard of a speed limiter? was that in later models? I did over 100 once and it just pinned and kept going.

edit: nevermind, we have the same year. that's odd.
 
sorry to hear about the troubles lingering. I've never heard of a speed limiter? was that in later models? I did over 100 once and it just pinned and kept going.

edit: nevermind, we have the same year. that's odd.

Hope I’m not confusing the TJ with the JK I drove a lot in high school... If there isn’t a speed limiter maybe I should figure out why I was suddenly losing all power 🤔. Ruh Roh
 
I thought the TJ was speed limited to 94 or 96 mph.

The power loss I felt was exactly like the rev limiter kicking in. I know the JKU I drove was limited at 99 mph. Confirmed that on the way down the hill into Salt Lake City. The TJ I don’t push hard enough to know.
 
I've only had mine into the low 90s a couple of times. Never past where I think the limiter is. To see what happens, I could change the SpeedoHealer to trick the PCM into reaching 90-100mph at a much slower speed.
 
I've only had mine into the low 90s a couple of times. Never past where I think the limiter is. To see what happens, I could change the SpeedoHealer to trick the PCM into reaching 90-100mph at a much slower speed.

Maybe I’ll look into screwing with it a little. I’m going to drive it around before I mess with it to see if I can confirm / deny the 100 mph speedo thing.

Funnily, my speedo only goes out when I go at high speed (65+). Then I drive at low speed around town for a while and it works perfectly for months at a time. I don’t really care about my speedo so I’m considering unplugging it. Would like to know how many miles are on the Jeep roughly though...
 
Double check the main wiring harness along the top of the firewall. I recall the big plug being loose on mine and causing the gauges to do odd things.
 
I thought the TJ was speed limited to 94 or 96 mph.
The power loss I felt was exactly like the rev limiter kicking in. I know the JKU I drove was limited at 99 mph. Confirmed that on the way down the hill into Salt Lake City. The TJ I don’t push hard enough to know.
I suppose I could be mistaken, but I had a multi mile slight downgrade in a straight line with no one around once. It hit 100 and then the little pin after and just held there, but I definitely kept going faster. I got scared shortly after and let off the gas.
This was the only time I did it to be honest. This was back when the Jeep was completely stock, I won't be trying that again haha.
 
The power loss I felt was exactly like the rev limiter kicking in. I know the JKU I drove was limited at 99 mph. Confirmed that on the way down the hill into Salt Lake City. The TJ I don’t push hard enough to know.

Mine would do the same thing when my speedo was being erratic. It wasn't often, but it would lose all power just for a split second and it was always when the speedo needle was well over 100 mph. I havent experienced it since torquing the nut. FWIW, I put a very slight amount of RTV on the shaft when I was retorquing the nut, so far the speedo is still reading true.

Maybe I’ll look into screwing with it a little. I’m going to drive it around before I mess with it to see if I can confirm / deny the 100 mph speedo thing.

Funnily, my speedo only goes out when I go at high speed (65+). Then I drive at low speed around town for a while and it works perfectly for months at a time. I don’t really care about my speedo so I’m considering unplugging it. Would like to know how many miles are on the Jeep roughly though...

Again, similar issue. 0-30 was usually fine, but once I started going faster is when it would become erratic. Usually, though, when I was at 65-70, the needle would just drop and hang around 20 mph. Also, FWIW, when I had my speedo unhooked while waiting to put on the new JB connector, I was throwing a code for VSS speedometer (or something along those lines). My jeep would actually stall out at slow speeds with it all unhooked.
 
Mine would do the same thing when my speedo was being erratic. It wasn't often, but it would lose all power just for a split second and it was always when the speedo needle was well over 100 mph. I havent experienced it since torquing the nut. FWIW, I put a very slight amount of RTV on the shaft when I was retorquing the nut, so far the speedo is still reading true.



Again, similar issue. 0-30 was usually fine, but once I started going faster is when it would become erratic. Usually, though, when I was at 65-70, the needle would just drop and hang around 20 mph. Also, FWIW, when I had my speedo unhooked while waiting to put on the new JB connector, I was throwing a code for VSS speedometer (or something along those lines). My jeep would actually stall out at slow speeds with it all unhooked.

I'll have to go torque that nut again. My shop told me that the "old style" (as they called it) SYE's tend to make the nut loosen over time. The JB is apparently one of those SYE's I guess. Might be loosening up over time.

I'll give the RTV idea a shot as well. Interesting that you had a stalling problem. My Jeep had a VSS code for a few months at one point and ran fine.
 
Swapped some tested Bosch 4 hole injectors in. This seems to have fixed my idle problems completely, though I do not have many miles on them.

For a quick recap, I swapped my OEM’s out for mopar injectors from RockAuto ($480) after having some starting issues. This fixed my starting problem but the injectors were junk when it came to heat soak and idle. Jeep would barely start in the heat. I sent them back.

Then I swapped in some used from DaveysJeep. At least 2 out of the 9 injectors I received were broken. Even when I got it to run, the idle was poor. New O-rings and cleaning the seats did not fix it.

New Bosch injectors for $160 seem to be the ticket. Moral of the story, don’t trust mopar on everything anymore.

If anyone would like a spare injector or two, I have the 6 Daveys that will run, though I can’t claim perfectly. I will send one or two of them to you for whatever price UPS wants when I walk in 🙂
 
Swapped out half a quart of oil for half a quart of marvels mystery oil. Mostly just an experiment before my fall oil change in a few weeks.

New mopar MAF sensor to replace the NAPA one I swapped in for no reason 5 years ago.

Also got my front track bar off to rebuild my Johnny joint. The frame side bolt took me an hour of putting my boot on a breaker bar and turning it a 1/4 rotation at a time. Anybody have any tips to get it back on easily? I’m thinking new hardware, red loctite, and 85 ft pounds. Sound good?

Also, do I need this long of a bolt? It seems excessive.

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