XJ deep water question

[BuckB]

I've got a question for all you XJ guys or just anybody who might have a good idea. Since buying my XJ I have not had it in any deep water but, I also noticed that the alternator is mounted low in these rigs. I'd like to kidney punch the genius that came up with that bright idea. I know that I am going to have it in deep water in the VERY near future and I'd rather not fry the alternator. I used to sink my Toyota up to the hood in water all the time and had no issues other than the Charge LT flickering at me a few times. usually nothing bad happened at all but, the alternator was mounted high on my Toy truck. and it was on 7" lift and 35" tires. My XJ is on 5.5" lift and 32" tires so I know I need to do some water proofing on this thing for wheeling until I can add some altitude to it. Thanks for any ideas ahead of time.

 

[angelfly]

Honestly your alternator shouldn't do bad at all, thats the least of your worries! You need to think distributor, plugs, intake, any unwrapped lose electrical connections anything like that:awesomework:

I would take some rtv and rtv you distributor cap, get a jug of grease and for each plug get a nice handfull of the grease and wipe it all over the connections on your plugs!! Grease deflects water and will stop water from getting in and making you lose spark For lose connections or anything along those lines, I would go get some LIQUID TAPE thats the name of it and put that all over any lose or uncovered connections!

I have done alot of deep water crossing before! When I was driving my oldskool fullsize There were multiple times that I had water to or abve my windshield line and made it through no problem:cheer: Another thing to always thing about is all your A/C vents and such those are like shoots for the water just to come rushing in! Any other questions feel free to ask I got some sweet vids of deep water **** if you want to scope those to!!!


My point being is that I ran a 77f250 through deep water almost every weekend I never touched my alternator and it was low close to the frame rails! The biggest problem that me and yu have is making sure we are always getting fuel and spark:cheer: Goodluck:beer:

 

[Jaydog]

First thing I would suggest is putting a Snorkel on it.

 

[2slow4you]

The first thing to think about it Diff breathers. Unless you like water in your diffs... :redneck:

 

[1 grumpy]

your going to need to reroute you muffler and tail pipe and get a snorkel

 

[NotMatt]

Honestly your alternator shouldn't do bad at all, thats the least of your worries!

Actually, that's where you'd be wrong. XJ alternators are notorious for being in a crappy location. I went through at least three of them (possibly more, I lost count) when I wheeled my XJ, and I wasn't particularly fond of deep water. Usually it just took getting into some muddy "slop", which we do have a lot of here in the northwest, and the thing would be fried shortly after. I got pretty good and R&R'ing XJ alternators, and finally wised up and realized I could rebuild them with new brushes and components from Auto Electric Rebuilders here in Wenatchee for cheaper than I could replace them.

No suggestions for you really, except to keep it out of the really deep stuff, and make sure to hose the alternator itself out really good after a trip involving sloppy stuff. I built a little splash guard for mine out of some sheetmetal and mounted it with some bolt holes in the frame, it seemed to help but I can't say for sure as I eventually parted out the rig and got rid of it.

 

[Binder]

uh there is a few deep water hole at Rieter.I should know I've been in most of them with my xj with a snorkel:fawkdancesmiley:

Yup. And it's illegal to be in them....

 

[wagonslayer]

waterproofing

just get a "life time warranty" alternator:redneck: and take it back each time it craps out.

 

[cisco]

So uh...... go around the water. I cant think of any spots where your forced to go through anything more than 2 feet deep. Like said before put tubes on your diff breather lines and call it good.