Made some more progress today. Got the Pro Flow intake harness plugged in (I’ll tidy up the runs later). Also figured out there was no place to mount the coil, so I fabbed a bracket to take advantage of the spare mounting points on top of the Sanden air compressor (test-fit with the coil in-place – I’ll paint it later, too). I worked on the engine harness a bit while Dave was busy underneath reinstalling the transfer case shifter, new transmission mount, and drilling out a snapped-off bolt Tom’s Tire World left me after installing the lift kit back in ’96. Toward the end of the afternoon, Dave installed the spark plugs and the passenger side header along with getting its pipe drilled for the O2 sensor. The worm gear clamps for the FAST O2 sensor ‘Strap-On Bunghole’ ran out of slots, so we had to make a run for some more clamps and a few more nit-noids. Hopefully tomorrow, get the other header and exhaust pipe in, reinstall the skid plate/transmission mount, and finish up the fuel system and wiring, along with hoses. Then brake pedal assembly and steering column and hoping to hear it run sometime on Friday with any luck.

Today was mostly underside stuff, so no pics of that. Here’s the Edelbrock high pressure fuel pump to feed the Pro Flow 4 MPFI sitting on top of the engine I mounted up yesterday. Dave got the torque converter bolts sorted out, and with the exception of the transfer case shifter, we’re ready to hang the exhaust and replace the transmission mount (underneath). I was on the phone with Scorpion Racing Products about the rocker arms (asking which studs I need to fit their roller rockers, and Norm suggested he could send some pedestal-mounted roller rockers to preclude the need for studs. So, we’ll be blowing off the roller rockers until the trial ones show up and I can see if they’re going to work (or not). After that, I tore into the Redneck’d wiring harness that came from Klooge, removed the Duraspark circuits, and got most of the leftovers identified and marked, now just need to figure out what the remaining 4 or 5 wires that had been clipped go to, repair them, then wrap the whole thing so it looks nice with all the new Edelbrock wiring I’ll start installing tomorrow.

After yesterday’s Cars & Coffee wiped us out, we started working on the top end (since the new shifter cable won’t be in until Monday-ish), and one of the intake manifold bolts decided to snap off… I won’t say who did it, but it wasn’t me. LOL! So, the better part of the afternoon was tracking down bolt extractors, and once that was done, we were done. Today started with pulling the intake, cleaning up the valley, harvesting some bits off the old intake we might need, and some overall general housekeeping before installing the intake, new distributor, and a good portion of the fuel injection system (OK, it was already loaded up on the intake, but it sounded huge). The shifter cable actually showed up yesterday as well – Bonus!

Finally, some actual progress. Started in on getting the transmission cooling lines plumbed for the radiator-side, and ran into a major snag that had us chasing fittings late Wednesday, yesterday, and early this morning. After no joy actually taking the radiator to O’Reilly’s for some help, Dave noticed something about the fittings just before we left, and wound up going a whole different direction, and put an end of the ATF cooling line slog. Once we got the ATF cooling lines plumbed, jumped over to the oil pump and oil pressure sending unit. As I was getting ready to start in on the shifter cable, I noticed it’s for a GM 700R4/TH400… which is not an AMC TF999, so I ordered a new shifter cable kit from Summit and it’ll be here [hopefully] Monday. Hit some more tomorrow (probably top-end: intake manifold, fuel injection, and roller rockers).

No picture updates today, but Dave got the power steering pump installed and plumbed while I farted around trying to organize (read: find) some of the parts I’d ordered awhile back, and the container with all of the fasteners I’d removed while cleaning the engine. That was after chasing down a few parts: hoses, belts, fasteners, and some 5/16″ barbs for the radiator (the Inline Tube transmission cooling lines don’t have flare fittings for the radiator, just bubble flares on the those ends). It was either find some of those for a short run of silicon hose (as Inline Tube suggested), or cut off & flare the ends after chasing down some flare nuts – either way, it was a trip to a local parts store.BTW – I now have 2 complete sets of 304 block Freeze Plugs if anybody needs a set. LOL!

Got the condenser and radiator mounted, and rewired the H4 Relay Kit to pop out the driver side (to leave room for the A/C hoses). Meanwhile, Dave got the alternator and A/C compressor mounted up. The Nostalgic AC instructions leave a bit to be desired (compared to the Classic Auto Air system I put in the Mach 1, so it was a bit of a slog). Also made a custom bracket for the dryer, since the fenders open up – the dryer needs to stay put, so it’ll live where it’s supposed to, just not nailed to the inside of the fender. “Swedged” my first A/C hoses today as well, so that was fun. Also drug the Redneck Dual Exhaust out of the overgrown part of the side yard I haven’t been able to get to since the Jeep is jammed up against that side of the carport, so it’s ready to go when it’s time to hang it. Tomorrow, I’m diving under to work on the transmission stuff (shifter cables, cooling lines, etc.) and Dave will probably work on getting the power steering pump back into place – we’ll see.

OK – On Leave… Check. Dave’s Here… Check. The Weather’s AWESOME… Check. It’s JEEP TIME! It might sound trivial, but I got the new headlights installed today, and it turned into an “All Day Sucker” project. It’s all about doing things in order so I don’t have to go back and take something apart to do something I missed, then do the other thing(s) all over again. First things first: headlights… then, the A/C condenser, then the radiator, and finally the fan and fan shroud. Once those are in-place, I won’t have to take them off again to do all the wiring for the headlights. Oh did I forget to mention I’m going with LED Halos and an H4 relay kit? (Had to wire all that up and make it nice).Dave was busy meticulously cleaning all of the engine bracketry, power steering pump, clutch fan, and got ’em all painted as well. Seems oddly fitting, since it all came off of HIS Jeep’s engine. LOL!!

Just built a bracket to mount the Edelbrock EFI fuel sump to the firewall. There’s a pinch-weld seam right where I wanted to mount it under the battery tray, so rather than destroy that, I made a ‘spacer’ mount for the sump unit. Turned out OK, it’ll look better once I paint it and mount it all up, and I can’t help thinking about how much nicer it might’ve turned out if I only had a real shop with some actual metal working tools to use (like a brake, big bench vise, etc.). Oh well – it’ll work. Also got the new hatch struts installed. No pics, but if you’ve ever seen a Jeep hatchback open and not falling down, you’ve seen ’em all.

After chasing down the missing parts, and chasing my tail on a few things, it’s finally done and ready to go back in.

Discount Tire let me know that my new wheels were in, so I picked ’em up this morning and swapped out the old ones. The Jeep’s only about an inch taller (over all), so it still fits in the garage, but the old ones were 26 years old and I wouldn’t be able to trust them at speed on the highway.