Eagle

Some of you already know that I lost my wife almost five years ago. Our only daughter (adopted) is studying (supposedly) several thousand miles away, so I'm alone at holiday time. This year, not one but two good friends invited me to join their families' Thanksgiving celebration. One is a couple I met through NAXJA almost twenty years ago, who now lives only three miles (or so) from me. The other is a more recent friend who lives across town and who is also (coincidentally) a Jeeper. Probably a coincidence, but all the people I consider to be good friends happen to have been met through Jeep-related activities. Have I ever mentioned that I don't believe in coincidence?

The coil may be worth $50 (or not) but, unless you need a coil, why replace the OEM high-energy coil with their high-energy coil? That's just a waste of money. Just buy a new cap, rotor, and a quality set of spark plug wires and call it good.

The rear height- (load-)sensing valve is not engaged or disengaged with 4WD. It is what the name implies -- it's a valve that opens and closes based on the height of the chassis relative to the rear axle. The valve is located on the frame above the left side of the rear differential. It is connected to the differential (or should be) by a vertical rod. When you put load in the bed, the bed settles, which pushes down on the rod. The rod can't move, so the lever arm on the valve is raised, allowing more brake pressure/flow to the rear brakes. It works exactly the same in 2WD and 4WD.

Incorrect. The bypass function is to allow full (unproportioned) brake pressure to the rear brake circuit if the front circuit fails. The purpose of opening a front bleeder is to simulate a loss of pressure in the front brake circuit. Obviously, to do that the front circuit has to spit out the fluid through that open bleeder. Seeing fluid come out the open bleeder in no way indicates that the bypass isn't working.

I don't know enough about how the clusters are laid out to know if you can swap the electronic speedometer into the older cluster. It might be possible. If not -- you might be able to buy a speedometer cable and convert the vehicle to the mechanical speedo. DISCLAIMER: I don't know if other functions of the ECU on the HO models rely on electronic signals from the speedometer drive.

Yes, that's why there's a special procedure to bleed the bypass. Also, if you're not the original owner, make certain that the calipers aren't on the wrong sides, which would put the bleeders on the bottom rather than the top.

Holy Ripoff, Batman! I just Googled it. $200 to $250 for a distributor cap, rotor, and wires? The OEM Jeep coil is already a high-output coil, so unless yours is bad there is no need or reason to replace it. Save your money.

Doesn't affect the brakes. If you're losing vacuum through the center disconnect fittings, you'll have a hard peddle (feels like no power brakes, because you'll have no power brakes). It won't cause a low peddle.

What year and engine is your MJ, and what is the firepower ignition kit?

Does it still have the rear height-sensing (load-sensing) proportioning valve intact? If so, did you follow the prescribed procedure for bleeding Comanche brakes? Hint: It's not the same as for the Cherokee, so I don't know what you learned from the Cherokee forum.

Why not, indeed? Depends on the price -- someone closer might prefer to buy the complete doors.

My brother was into Nissan pickups. After his first one rusted so badly that the frame broke, he went looking for a newer one. He's in Connecticut, the home of liquid white chassis eater road solution. I suggested that he look at trucks from the south and southwest, but he didn't want to spend the money to travel that far. So he bought a used Nissan from ... Maine! Once he got it home and started maintaining it, he must have spent at least $3,000 on rust repair and replacement -- on top of the price he paid for the truck. After a year, for what he had in that truck he could have bought a rust-free truck in Arizona and flown himself and his wife there for a vacation before driving it home. It's like the guy used to say in the old Sunoco oil change commercials: "You can pay me now ... or pay me later."

The fire was/is an incredible tragedy and I'm sure we all mourn those who didn't survive, as well as all the homes and lives that have been destroyed. I'm glad to know that you and your family are not only okay, but that you're busy helping others instead of dwelling on your losses and licking your wounds. Don't be a stranger. You're family around here.

After driving with manual windows and manual locks for thirty years, I'm planning to convert my best MJ to power locks and windows. You may not want those doors (or the goodies inside them), but someone may.

I have a hulk of an '86 XJ V6 auto. It has 3.73 gears.

Keep in mind that what you can't use, someone else might be able to use. I would look at things like instrument cluster, fuel pump and sender, cross member, fuse panel (the one under the dashboard), vacuum reservoir (the "football" behind the front bumper), wiper motor, heater blower ... things like that.

Most of our members who have experienced that leak have been able to cure it using JB Weld. Perhaps you didn't clean the surfaces enough before applying the JB Weld.

Sorry, at this point I have no idea. I don't even remember where I bought it, and I can't find the receipt.

Did you adjust the valves with the engine at operating temperature? It's been a long time since I tinkered with adjustable valves, but my recollection is that the adjustment should be made at operating temperature.

I put an aftermarket tank in my '87 several years ago. Unfortunately, it was long enough back that I don't remember whether or not it had the sump baffle. I think it did. I didn't notice any sense that it was significantly thinner than the original tank. Eagle approves. "keep forever" =/= "scrap heap." Those words are music to my ears.

What year and what engine? If you have a 4.0L engine, there is no PCV valve.

I've had the TrueTrac for 15 or 16 years, but not that many miles. Maybe 25,000 or so? The truck was never used as a daily driver, and it has been off the road for a few years because when I started having health issues I couldn't afford to pay licensing fees and insurance on a vehicle I wasn't driving. I can tell you that it locks up more positively than the Trac-Lok (which I have in all my other trucks and XJs except the 2.5L MJ), and even in snow with the light tail of the MJ I virtually never needed to use 4WD. At the same time, it's completely transparent to the driver -- no clunks or bangs or oddball handling characterists. The TrueTrac was in the MJ when I was active with NAXJA-NAC and it survived multiple trail rides at Paragon Off-Road park without a whimper. If you can afford the extra $100 or so over the price of a Trac-Lok, IMHO it's definitely the way to go.

I've mentioned this before, and if you've tried all the usual fixes with no success, look into this one. On the Renix 4.0L, the throttle cable doen't run from the gas pedal to the throttle body. The cable goes through the firewall to a bellcrank assembly that's mounted on the frame extension, down beneath the brake reservoir. From the bellcrank, there's a rod that extends up to push on the throttle body. What I've found on my '88s is that dirt and corrosion get into the bellcrank pivot and interfere with free movement. This can cause intermittent high idle. The fix that has worked for me is to spray the bellcrank assembly, concentrating on the pivot, with PB Blaster, while manually pushing on the rod to the throttle body to rotate the bellcrank and work the Blaster into it. That has always fixed the problem for me.

Slight thread drift, but amusing (or not!): In November of 2010, my late wife and I were in her native country to finalize the adoption of her granddaughter. The process included a double hearing before a magistrate of their equivalent of something between our Probate Court and some slightly higher level of civil court. In that country there's an entire division of the judiciary devoted to marriage and family issues. We weren't allowed to have an attorney, but the government agency that oversees adoptions sent a social worker (whom we had met previously, when she came to where we were staying to do an in-depth interview), and an attorney. The social worker didn't speak any English, but we muddled through the interview part with my limited conversational Spanish. The agency attorney did speak English, moderately well. However, her knowledge of American history was, shall we say, somewhat erroneous. We had the hearing before the magistrate. First, the granddaughter had to go in alone and be interviewed by the magistrate. Then the granddaughter had to wait outside while my wife and I were quizzed by the magistrate. That was a strain on me, because the attorney wasn't allowed to translate for me, and the magistrate didn't speak any English. I guess I didn't make any serious mistakes, because the adoption was subsequently approved. But I digress ... After the hearing, but before we had any idea how the judge would rule, we all walked out of the building together and we were discussing the fact that we Americans were going to miss Thanksgiving. The attorney proceeded to explain to the social worker that the first Thanksgiving was when the Pilgrims invited the Indians to a feast and then slaughtered them. I had to explain that that's not exactly how it transpired. I always wondered where she learned that particular nugget of misinformation. We now return you to our regularly scheduled discussion of ... food.

You could always go with the Trac-Lok. They work pretty well as limited slips go, and should be good for at least 100,000 miles or so (166,000 km). Last I knew, a new Trac-Lok cost about 2/3 what a new TrueTrac was going for. Of course, with the TrueTrac you don't need the special joy juice in the diff lube ...