Eagle

He can see what the rods and mains look like without any help from us. Your concern was the cam bearings, and if he's going to tear it down far enough to check those he's well into doing a rebuild. The OP asked for opinions. I offered my thoughts. Your thoughts are different from mine. That's life. If it runs now but has low (zero) oil pressure just at idle, I think it's worth throwing a set of bearings at it. If that doesn't work, he can still use those new bearings for a rebuild. Once he drops the pan, if the bearing journals are badly scored, then he'll know it's time for a rebuild, or a different engine.

An expedient field repair is generally worth a try before just assuming the engine is toast and tossing it. In the famous book The Grapes of Wrath, the Hudson pickup truck the Okie family was driving west lost a piston ring. The repaired it on the side of the road by dropping the pan, lowering the bad piston, installing a new ring, and (since they didn't have a ring compressor, and that wouldn't have worked from the bottom anyway) using a length of fine thread or soft copper wire (don't remember which) to compress the rings while they pushed the piston back up. Once the engine started, the thread or wire released from the heat and the ring seated. Yes, a work of fiction, but I don't think Steinbeck would have written that in such detail if he hadn't heard about the method from someone who had done it. I number of years ago I picked up a 6-cylinder Javelin with a frozen engine. I removed the head, soaked the pistons with oil, and knocked them loose with a mallet and a block of wood. I reamed off the carbon rings, honed the cylinders with the pistons in place, blew and wiped out the gook as well as possible and put it together. I drove it as a commuter car for about two years when I worked in a neighborhood where I didn't want to take a decent vehicle. More recently (about 6 weeks ago) a friend lost a piston in a '99 Wrangler with the 2.5L engine. Apparently that's a common ailment with the newer 2.5 liters. After driving it 15 miles with a broken piston, he pulled the head and pan, shoved the pistons and rods up through the bores, had new pistons put on the rods, and reassembled with new rod bearings. He didn't hone the cylinders, didn't even loosen the main bearing caps. It fired up and he said it runs stronger now than it did before the piston grenaded. The point is -- yes, if you're building an engine for a NASCAR cup racer, you do everything "right." But in the real world, when you don't have anything to lose by trying a field expediant, why not do it?

When bleeding by the pedal method, is the "pedalman" (for lack of a better term) pressing slowly, or is he pushing really hard? The shuttle shouldn't trip from bleeding brakes. I've never heard of that happening, so my first thought is that the pedalman is just pushing too hard. But -- one thing you might try is to reset the shuttle, leave the brake light switch out of the metering block, and have a second helper manually block the shuttle from moving by holding a piece of metal rod (perhaps the back end of a drill bit that matches the plunger hole diameter) against the "waist" of the shuttle while you and another assistant do the bleeding. Or stick a plunger substitute in there and hold it with a hose clamp.

Do the Cherokee seats have the "rocking chair" option, or not? The floor brackets are different between the XJ and the MJ, but it's not difficult to remove the seats from the XJ pedestals and mount them onto the MJ pedestals. The MJ bench and buckets use the same pedestals, except that the bench doesn't have an adjuster lever on the passenger side. The rockking chair option on the buckets complicates things a bit, but it's still possible.

The pan has to come off anyway (if it hasn't already). I would replace the bearings (rods and mains), button it up, and hope for the best. The fact that it will start and run is a good sign. When you open it up, before ordering the new bearings, examine all the bearing journals. If they aren't scored, I think you're safe to proceed. If they are slightly scored, you may be able to polish them up enough using crocus cloth. There's a bearing size code stamped into the side of the engine near the distributor. Check that before ordering. Don't assume that everything is standard. They probably are -- but don't bet the farm. While it's open, think about replacing the oil pump.

Nowhere in there did I get any understanding of how or when the shuttle valve in the front metering block tripped. How do you know it tripped? And, once it tripped, how dod you reset it?

rhollen - Please describe exactly how you bleed using the pedal procedure. Just had a thought why the shuttle valve may be tripping.

Yeah, but just think how nice those power windows will be in a daily driver ...

Your buddy is completely wrong. Turn on the headlights. Are they nice and bright? If not, there's a bad connection or a bad battery. If the headlights are bright, leave them on and try the starter. Do the headlights go dim when the starter is engaged?

Windshields don't have frames. The newer Cherokees use a trim gasket that fits directly to the glass.

The one piece is glued in, like a windshield. There is no frame. The seal is the sealant/adhesive that holds it in -- the gasket is trim.

'91 was next to the last year for the MJ. It's an HO (betcha didn't know that, did you?). That's not "early" in XJ/MJ parlance.

That front block in the MJ is NOT a proportioning valve, and it does not contain a plunger or spring. The XJ unit is a proportioning valve and meets this description, but not the MJ. All proportioning in the MJ is done by the rear load/height-sensing valve. The shuttle valve in the front metering block should not move if you vacuum bleed one wheel at a time. It also should not move bleeding by foot pressure unless you're pushing too hard and too fast. This is the MJ metering block, cut open (this shows it with the shuttle valve tripped, to open the rear brake bypass circuit):

The earlier ones didn't drop the condensate onto the top of the frame rail, the tube extended down over the side of the rail and discharged directly onto the ground. Chrysler's bean counters must have saved at least 1.37 cents per vehicle with that change.

Got it. Comes out of the evaporator housing about 2 inches and stops. Doesn't "go" anywhere, it just pees on top of the frame rail. Can't see it from underneath -- that was my erorr. It's right there when you look down from above.

A/C condensate drain tube is clogged -- it's peeing into the passenger's footwell. I can't find where the drain tube outlet is. Does anyone know? I thought it was supposed to run down inside the frame rail, but I've got it up on ramps and I don't see anything that looks like a drain tube.

Coils won't balance anything out. You are 1/2" higher than stock in the front, and 1.2" lower than stock in the rear. You need a 1.5" AAL in the rear to balance it out. That's just about what the Rancho AAL will give you. Last I checked, the Rancho AAL kit sold for around $75. If you go spring over in the rear, you're going to gain around 5.5" to 6", so you;ll need 5" coils to balance it out. Since you can run 31" tires on an MJ with zero lift -- why go through the hassle and expense of lifting it?

If you want to install a solid piece of glass, why is your link to a 4-panel slider unit?

You got 8, the specified dimension is 9.2. That's 1.2inches lower than stock. How are you figuring that's 2 inches of lift?

You are confusing the XJ and the MJ. The front ride height measurements are the same, the rear are not. For a 4WD MJ, the rear ride height measured from the top of the axle to the frame rail at the bump stop is supposed to be 9.2" plus or minus 1/2-inch. This means your rear suspension has sagged about an inch, it's not lifted three inches. If it were mine, I would do a simple add-a-leaf to restore the factory ride height, install 30x9.50 tires, and drive it.

If it's a '99, be careful. Jeep switched rotors in mid-year 1999. The early ones are the composite rotors that were used from around 90 or '91 up to mid-'99. These are, in a word, "crap." They are prone to warpage and, in the rust belt, they had a nasty habit of spontaneously disassembling themselves. To be able to buy replacement rotors and hub assemblies, you have to have the vehicle VIN, because they don't interchange (unless you change both the hub and rotor together).

2000 Cherokee should be a low pinion. I own two, one bought November of 1999, the other at the end of the 2000 model run. Both are low pinion.

There was an option to have intermittent wipers, but even with the intermittent there were only two "always on" speeds.

What vehicle is it out of?

It will fit -- WITHOUT CUTTING -- but it's a tight fit. Many have gone before you. The biggest problem you face is cooling. Every SBC I've seen in an XJ or MJ has had cooling issues.