If you add that switch for the AC fan I would like to know how you do it.

 

Well last night I finished up the tune up under the hood with a cooling system tune up. I noticed the water pump pulley had a little movement in it, so I ordered a replacement. Once it showed up at my house I went about removing the thermostat housing, upper radiator hose, old thermostat, waterpump, and lower radiator hose.

When I flipped the water pump over to inspect it I immediately saw two large black objects up behind the impeller. I was able to get one to fall out, but the other one would not come out. It was a large black piece of plastic with threads on it and I instantly knew what it was! It was an old radiator plastic plug that someone had drilled out. I guess they got it out, but 2 large pieces fell inside the radiator and then got circulated thru the system until they got stuck in the water pump impeller. I'd always thought the flow of the coolant seemed a bit slow on the XD and I was happy to know why! The radiator is a very new Nissens Unit and I seriously doubt the plug came from that.

The thermostat I pulled out was a cheap 190F unit and it didn't even have a hole or that little brass piece to allow anything to flow thru when it was closed. I got a 180F High Flow version and now when the XD warms up I can feel the upper hose get warm much much much faster! Water pump install went well, and so did the upper radiator hose. The lower hose fought me a good bit on that smaller line that connects to the heater core line. Once again the hardest part was getting all the old gasket material off the timing cover for the new water pump. Filled it up with fresh green coolant, let it idle until the thermostat opened, topped off the coolant and took the old gal out for a 32 mile drive. Coolant system is in excellent condition and the system was good and clean with no deposits of any kind. Rock Auto had a great deal on the upper/lower hoses, along with the thermostat, and thermostat housing gasket.

 

That plastic plug in the radiator has probably killed dozens if not hundreds of D1's.

 

Yeah I was glad I changed the water pump & discovered that before I drove 6.0hr across TX for the 2019 HCRR event in Oct.

 

Well I haven't updated this build much as I haven't honestly had time to even mess with it. I did "attempt" to go into Houston and grab some misc parts off of a 97 D1 at LKQ however the buzzards were already circling the carcass when I arrived (spotted a rough D1 in the parking lot). When I finally tracked it down a guy had totally gutted the interior (D1 was only in the yard for 2.5 days...). I said hi & climbed under it to grab the VSS. The man asked me if I was going to grab the alternator which I replied yes I really need it and I just figured I'd climb under here first. I got an Okay back from the man & 10 seconds later I heard a ratchet and the SOB was removing the alternator....... Why ask me if I wanted it & then take it is not how it's supposed to work, but whatever... He started speaking Spanish to his wife about what parts to quickly grab (like I'm going to listen after he stole the alternator from me). My friend was with me who spoke Spanish so I got a heads up & ignored him and took whatever I could....

I ended up not really getting what I needed, but the fuel pump relay was a good grab, VSS, rear bumper end caps, tail lights, air intake hose, air intake temp sensor, and center caps. I mainly went for the Alternator lol.....

Today I finally got around to pulling out my ECU. I knew I was probably not going to be happy with what I found and it was a 50/50 split. The ECU had indeed got covered in corrosion from the hole in the fender below it. So salty roads from up north, and water were not kind to it. Once removed I took it inside and opened it up. The lower corner of the ECU is badly corroded on 6 pins with basically the PCB flaking apart. I attempted to clean it and re-solder a few of them, but it didn't help. While it was out I installed the P38 GEMS ECU I have just to test the communications. With my original ECU I can't connect a single scantool to it to check anything. I was extremely happy when my iCarsoft LR2 connected to the ECU in a matter of seconds. I showed 6 faults so to test it I cleared them, and then re-scanned it. It communicated perfectly. I also verified my ScanGauge II operation and it communicated without any issues. So that is the good part!!!! I know for sure that my communication issues are with the ECU. The bad part is now tracking down a 96 Non Advance EVAP ECU in good condition along with a paired Alarm box so it will be a PNP swap.

I will then seal that SOB up with silicone and block the hole in the fender. Then I can try and diagnose why the darn thing runs like crap. I'm hoping it's entirely the ECU because if I can't communicate to it, how is it supposed to communicate with all the sensors properly.

If that fixes my issues I'll just have the steering to fix, and I should be able to drive it out to Marble Falls for the 2019 HCRR. She's not a super model and with the rust I don't think she ever will be, but off roading it should be a complete blast!

 

This evening I also performed the 95-02 P38 Parking Light/Turn Signal Mod. I've always thought the D1 seemed kinda weird at night from the front. Just a pair of head lights and no forward facing amber parking lights. I already had a set of P38 bulb bases, and the pigtails so today I went ahead and installed them. It was actually color for color with my pigtails I had off of a 97 P38. For now I also left the lower side Amber LED's hooked up in the bumper end caps. Kinda feels to me like this is how it should have rolled off the assembly line for the US Market.

 

Got the replacement ECU & alarm box today. Installed them & it fired right up!! Runs excellent now & everything is working as it should be!

 

Wooooo!!

 

Yes it's wonderful to see the darn OBD2 port work, the speedo work, and all the sensors communicating like they should be!!!!

 

Got the old girl all legal today!! New plates, tag, and insurance! Took it out onto I-10 for a little victory lap and it was happily doing 70-75MPH with no issues at all! Proud to have an XD back on the road!!!

I’ll be fixing the front seat bottoms next, swapping on some 265/75R16 Kumho M/T’s off my Kalahari, and she should be all set to hit the road for the 2019 HCCR in Oct & to see my best friends up in Austin.

I will be water proofing the ECU to help from any future issues as well.