Orange is the new black. That's the name I like for our Cherokee. It's too long, I know, so another name is in the works.
Finally made it down to DMV and got plates and stickers for Jack-o-lantern (maybe?). Any trip to DMV is like a trip to the Amazon rainforest - you never know what you might find. I'm never surprised at the curves thrown at me when I walk through those government doors, so I go prepared, with as little paperwork as possible (don't want to confuse anyone) and three forms of payment.
There was still a bit of work to get done before it could drive - I fixed the bad-out-of-the-box oil psi sender, then decided to renew the gauges and heater controls. The cluster is a pain to remove so I wanted it to be DONE before it went back into the dash. The engine turned aluminum overlay was damaged, so that was removed. The plastic lenses were blurry and fallen off, so those were polished and epoxied back into place. Then the HVAC controls were taken apart, block surfaced, lubed up and reassembled. I also took time to install the new Team Grand Wagoneer plastic glove box insert, which took way more time than it should have. After all that work was done, the HVAC controls were verified to work, the gauges read properly and I was able to stash the reg and insurance papers in the glove box. Time for an extended test drive.
That didn't go well...
A slight wobble in the passenger rear axle shaft still produces a minor vibration, and that's annoying. I'll have to source a replacement shaft sooner than later. May as well replace both sides wheel bearings and seals while I'm at it.
Anyway, the test drive was nice, with only the wobble to complain about. On any test drive, there's a balance of easing into it, and really giving it all you got. I like to take it easy the further away from home I get, but close to home, that's when you mash the throttle pedal to see what problems may arise. I knew I had a weird ignition thing going on after a full throttle higher RPM event (it would start to run on seven cylinders), and that persisted, but I also figured out how to "fix" it afterwards. In park, I would gently bring the RPMs up and feather the throttle until all cylinder were firing. I figured it was a weak spark thing going on, but I was wrong. While feathering the throttle, at around 4000 RPMs, the engine gave a medium size bang and it died. I didn't hesitate to remove the distributor cap, and guess what - the reluctor ring had blown apart, completely destroying all of the distributor's internals in the process. Perfect time to convert to an HEI ignition.
HEI in hand (Summit Racing brand instead of the DUI HEI which I wanted and was 8 weeks out), I am waiting for plug wires to arrive. Hopefully by this time tomorrow, I will be removing the stock distributor and installing the new parts.
Wish me luck! Should be straight forward enough, right? Well, like any trip to the DMV, I am prepared for anything at this point.
Summary to date - how can one vehicle be soooo entirely clapped out that almost every single mechanical piece needs replacement? That's what allowing a vehicle to sit for 15 years does.