I (also) bought a TJ

[Steve-O]

Found this nice little present under the TJ courtesy of the towing company AAA sent. However he chained up the underside of the truck tore the boot on my front Tom Woods driveshaft to pieces. I've pulled the driveshaft so I can figure out what to do. The two pieces of the driveshaft don't just slide off each other (unless I'm missing something) so replacing this boot would be impossible in this case, there's no way a new boot could fit over the ends without ripping

[Tom]

Damn

[Jim]

I'd contact the towing company for a claim.

My take: The driveshaft likely slides apart for easy boot replacement.

[Steve-O]

Yep, I've gone through AAA because they contract out the towing and are ultimately responsible. They took all the info down for my claim and said "we will call you".......

Well, I tried pulling the two pieces a little and it definitely has some sort of catch at its max extension. Not many blog/forum posts on the issue, only advice I found was to pull it harder...going to call Tom Woods on Monday and see what they say. I'd rather have a driveshaft with no boot than a driveshaft broken into two pieces

[FINOCJ]

Jim previously posted:

[TjMike]

Nice looking TJ and congrats on the buy!
Sucks the towing company messed up the boot but the drive shaft does separate. Just give it a good pull. I believe I have an extra one laying around if you want it, boot intact

[Schmitty]

Congrats on the TJ! Oof on the drive shaft! We'll have to wheel soon.

[Steve-O]

I never closed the loop on this story, TjMike and others were correct: "just pull harder"...driveshaft came apart fine, regreased the splines and replaced the boot. Bought a cheesy CV joint boot clamp tool and couldn't get it to work, just went with zip ties so hopefully they hold up.

In other news, I have this "slow filling" issue which apparently is common with TJs/LJs in this time period, '03-'05 I think. Apparently there are some bandaid fixes but the video posted in the thread below fixes the true root cause. Anybody have a transmission jack I can borrow? Seems like it makes dropping the fuel tank way easier. Maybe a motorcycle lift would work if it went high enough?

https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/...uel-tank.1506/

[Java]

I did this on my LJ, I was lucky because the LJs have enough room behind the filler to do it without dropping the tank. It helped, but not with filling; it stopped it from overflowing when it was full. Filling seems to be more about the angle, depth and flow rate of the pump I'm using. https://www.frontrange4x4.com/forums...s-Overflow-Fix

I have a scissor type transmission jack and the type that fits on a floor jack, you are welcome to either or both.

[TjSteveA]

I have a motorcycle jack you could borrow. I’ve used it to take my transmission out and to drop my gas tank

[Schmitty]

If you need extra hands lemme know.

[Steve-O]

Thanks for the offers guys! I was able to get after this this morning and had kind of an odd experience. Dropped the tank, pulled the fuel pump, reached in to pull the valve thing and it wouldn't budge. It also didn't feel like what it looked like in all the youtube videos I watched on this

And that's because it wasn't the same





I don't know if I goofed up the model years when researching this, or if some work has been done here and this is an aftermarket valve. Regardless, I couldn't get it out, it's one big piece of plastic that goes up into the other white piece of the plastic that connects to the filler hose. In the second picture I'm pushing the spring-loaded plunger down with my other hand.. I removed the filler hose to investigate the top of the valve and plunger



Duh, but this also doesn't look like it did in the videos. The plunger was sticking a little bit right at the top of its motion, as expected. All I could do was rotate the entire valve, which also rotated the opening on how the gas flows into the tank. The opening was facing to the right, as shown in the photos above, I rotated it 90 deg CW so the opening in straight down now. It appears to take some of the pressure/friction off of the lipped part of the plunger, and my hope was gravity would be able to help the situation a little more as the gas flowed straight down into the tank.

Well, believe it or not, it worked (for now). Went to the pump and was able to set it on the highest notch to fill up, and it clicked off as it should when full without a drop being spilled. Who knows how long that will work but it's nice to be able to fill up in a normal amount of time now

Thanks to Paul for letting me borrow his transmission jack, worked like a charm

[Steve-O]

Another small project to take The Beast "from happy to glad". I realized the second speed on the fan didn't work.. 1, 3, and 4 worked fine. Figured it had to be the blower motor resistor. $25 on Amazon...




Remove glove box, undo footwell light for extra clearance, unplug harness, undo two screws on resistor card and wiggle it out. Reverse the process and done. Just a pain to work in such a tight area, almost had to get a neighbor kid to help me glad I paid extra for the Mopar part, don't want to do that again anytime soon...

[Steve-O]

I started the Jeep today to head out wheeling and the Check Gauges light came on. Turned it off. OBDII scanner said there's no code (probably because the CEL didn't turn on?) But the key three times in acc trick revealed a P0523 Engine Oil Pressure Sensor/Switch High Voltage. I checked the dipstick, oil level was actually a tiny bit high. I let some out so the level is right in the middle of the "safe" zone. Restarted, same gauges light and code, this time I also noticed that the oil pressure gauge was at 0. Turned engine off. I did the gauge diagnostic test (hold trip odometer reset button and turn into acc mode). It ran through it's tests and the oil pressure gauge moved when tested. The electrical harness to the oil pressure sending unit, harnesses to the ECM, and other things in that area all look fine

I'll be honest I don't really know what the gauge diagnostic test *exactly* does/shows. Because the gauge moved, does that mean I definitely don't have an electrical issue? What's the diagnostic path from here? Just go ahead and replace the OPSU? The internet also mentions external oil pressure tests...should I do that before or after replacing the OPSU? If there really was an oil pressure problem (as opposed to just a sending unit problem) I suspect I would have gotten a real CEL as well, not just the Check Gauges light... Thanks for your help (as always)

[RockyMtRebel]

I seem to recall this happening to me before on one of the tjs. I removed the oil pressure sending unit, cleaned it all up and reinstalled and it was fine afterwards. If I recall it was super easy. I may have replaced the sensor at some point or just cleaned it up, can’t remember

[Trevor?]

The gauge diagnostic tests the function of the gauge in the instrument cluster. There could still be a fault with the pressure sensor or the wiring.

[open_circuit]

This is the first thing that came to my mind

https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/...hange-mine.80/

[Trevor?]

If its like my 1999 then the ECU may make the oil pressure gauge indicate zero to bring your attention to it even though the code indicates that a reading is too high. I once had my alternator fail, which caused a "check gauges" light and my voltage gauge to fall to zero. The voltage was definitely not zero.... it just was not high enough to charge. The ECU indicated zero because I probably wouldn't have noticed the difference between 14.1V and 13.5V and wouldn't know what gauge to look at otherwise.

Does the 2004 model year 4.0 use an oil pressure sensor or a pressure switch? My 99 uses a 3 wire sensor/transducer. The 2004 service manual doesn't seem to be consistent. It shows a 1 wire device in the electrical diagram but in another section it describes a 3 wire 5 volt pressure transducer.

If it's a 3 wire device then based on your descriptions I think a faulty sensor or wiring problem is more likely. They're designed to output somewhere between 0.5 to 4.5 volts when they are reading a pressure, but if they break they should go all the way to 5V or 0V so the ECU knows there is a sensor fault. That P0523 code seems to align with that.

If its a 1 wire device then its most likely a pressure switch. They only indicate pressure above or below a threshold. When they fail they are either stuck open or stuck closed. The ECU probably notices if the switch is closed when the key is on but the vehicle is not yet running.

First I would put the key in the run position but not start it. Back-probe the sensor and see if its reading close to 5V (or maybe battery voltage if its a switch). If so that's a bad sensor or that wire is shorted to 5V. If you unplug the connector, probe that wire and its still 5V then its the wiring. If it drops back to 0V then it's the sensor.

It might also be worth trying to unplug the sensor connector and plug it back in. I used to get a ton of these back from OEMs with nothing wrong with them. Fretting corrosion on the tin terminals would result in a thin layer of tin oxide that would wipe away once you unplugged it and plugged it back in, and if that happens on the ground terminal that could result in the signal terminal going to high rail.

If you pull the sensor/switch out take a look the connector cavity. If there is oil down in the electrical connector that's an indication that the seal failed inside it and its now flooded with oil. If you see little white marks that can indicate moisture getting in from the connector side which wicks along the metal terminal into the sensor and corrodes it from the inside. That would also mean you should also replace the connector on the harness as well or your new sensor could meet a similar fate.

[Steve-O]

I forgot to say thanks for the responses on this one guys. Really appreciate the thorough write up, Trevor. I replaced the OPSU and haven't had any issues, I'm still curious to do those voltage tests, just haven't gotten to it...

What I did find time for was installing a GMRS radio. Midland MTX275 with their 3dB Ghost antenna. Went for the hard wire, just had to chop of the 12V outlet plug that came on the power cord. Kind of weird how short that cord was, barely made it to the other side of the cab where the fuse box is. Antenna cord on the other hand was a mile long, funny because I needed maybe a foot stuffed the rest inside to the left of the steering column. Antenna probably could have been placed in a higher spot, but I like the look and I'm sure it will work fine. Once I fired it up I got someone on ch 21, said he was in Albuquerque via repeater. Just need to figure out where I want to mount the mic holder, probably that bit of plastic right below the vent

[Trevor?]

Steve-O previously posted: