Eagle

Way WAY back, pre-NAXJA, there was a guy on the old XJ forum by the name of Frank Swygert who ran an AW4 in an AMC Hornet (or Concord -- same animal). He controlled it with a single, 6-position rotary switch.

Are you replacing the flex plate, or changing to a manual transmission with a "flywheel"?

IMHO it's far easier to just remove the entire seat with the brackets than to try fumbling around underneath to remove the seat from the brackets.

The dash gauge never reads the same as an actual thermometer aimed at the engine.

Son, I was born in Texas. Don't live there now, but that's where I first saw the light of day. I know all about "good to go."

That's a "work-around," not a "fix." So you have a Renix. Do you have a tachometer with the small fuel gauge, or do you have the big fuel gauge to the left of the speedometer? I'm guessing that's what you have, because I don't think the small fuel gauge could rotate as far as the 5:00 o'clock position.

Sounds normal to me. Certainly not bad enough to be tearing the engine down.

If the brake fluid were being sucked back into the booster, I would expect the level to drop in the rear-most chamber (the one closest to the booster) rather than the forward chamber. My money is on a rusted/ruptured line over the fuel tank. I've had two of them go in that location.

The lower flange on those brackets (where the sway bar mounts attach) have slotted holes. Why not just move the brackets as far forward as they'll go?

^^^ This. Also, jack it up, remove the rear wheels, pull the brake drums and look inside for leaking wheel cylinders.

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Early in production of the XJ Jeep ran into supply problems with the AX5 and used the T5 as an alternate OEM part. I was under the impression that such problem were resolved before the MJ came out in 1986, but perhaps not.

I'd sell the '89 and keep the '86. That truck is beautiful.

Those pressures are within spec. The spec is 13 psi minimum at warm idle, and 37 to 75 above 1600 RPM. Newer 4.0L engines typically run 55 to 60 psi at highway speed, but as bearings wear you lose some. 40 psi isn't bad. My point in asking those questions was that pulling the head to replace the lifters is a lot of work, and on a higher mileage engine that may need a rebuild soon(-ish) it probably doesn't make sense. For a Jeep 4.0L 158,000 isn't high -- except that yours isn't 158,000, it's that plus however many miles the previous owner piled on when the odometer conveniently wasn't working. Figure 175,000 to 200,000. At that point, some lifter noise is normal and to be expected. I haven't heard your engine, so I don't know how loud it really is compared to other Jeep engines of similar age and miles. If it were mine, I think rather than doing any mechanical changes I would just switch to 10W40 or 5W50 (or 15W50 if you can't find 5W50) synthetic oil and keep driving.

But did you replace the fusible link with a fuse?

Neither is a Comanche body with a Chevy engine in it.

How many miles on the engine? What oil do you run and what's your oil pressure at idle and at 60 MPH?

The VIN should be on a plate on the dashboard, in front of the driver. IMHO it doesn't matter. The engine is trashed, and the tranny is gone. So start over -- pull a complete engine/tranny/transfer case out of something and plug it in. If a CPS is the only issue, last I knew (which was a few years ago) Hesco offered a kit to mount the CPS on the front of the engine and read the signal off a spacial vibration damper. Or -- just buy an electronic distributor, run a carburetor, and forget ever having to change a CPS ever again. A J20 was a heavy-duty truck. If I had one that needed an engine, I'd look seriously at an AMC 360, 390, or 401.

I had the same thought -- not about a brake sticking (good thought, BTW!), but just that a locked locker shouldn't pull when going straight down a highway. A locked axle is only an issue going around corners, when the inside wheel doesn't travel as far as the outside wheel.

Are you certain it's in 2WD?

Not a 2.5L. My '88 4.0L MJ had a YJ tranny and transfer case in it when I bought it. Whoever did the swap was a butcher, because he just chopped out a huge section of the floor pan/transmission tunnel to get the Wrangler t-case shifter (which in the YJ was totally different from the XJ and MJ) to "fit." It runs okay -- I wheeled it like that for several years, but doing something to replace the t-case shifter and repair the floor is on my list of future projects. Remember the 2.5L uses a smaller bell housing, flywheel, and clutch (or flex plate and torque converter). Anything considered for a swap has to come from a 2.5L Wrangler, unless you want to go looking for adapters.

Good news. Thanks for the update. How do you like the 3.4 compared to the 2.8?

Basically, this is correct. It should be obvious that AMC would not have bothered coming up with a separate, smaller tank if they could have used one tank for both bodies. If you're stuck with a LWB tank and a SWB truck, you just have to experiment and see if you can find some way to shoehorn it in there. My guess it that you won't be able to do it.

Correct. Just remove the electronic sender and install the mechanical sender. Keep in mind that the 4WD speedo sender goes in the transfer case, so you may need a longer speedo cable.

IIRC, ZJ links are longer than XJ/MJ links