Eagle

You can buy rebuild kits or new ones and transfer the seals. If you're careful :D Rebuild kits won't help much if he snaps off a bleeder screw in the caliper.

Agreed. If this isn't fixed correctly you run the risk of the calipers binding up.

Are you working on a caliper or a wheel cylinder? Keep in mind that the bleeder screws are brass, so they are easier to mess up. At least for the wheel cylinders, I think you shouldn't waste any time trying to free up stuck bleeders. Just buy new wheel cylinders and install them. Your master cylinder was so bad it was leaking, so I would expect the wheel cylinders to be in equally bad condition. Rear wheel cylinders are $10 from Autozone -- new. Their remanufactured front calipers are $21.99, and they have a lifetime warranty. You decide how much effort you want to put into something that probably needs to be replaced anyway.

If you can find an XJ or MJ FSM on-line, look at Group 19 for the steering column. I was going to do a screen grab of an exploded diagram, but I would need to do about five or six pages to cover it. There might also be a single, overall exploded view in the parts manual if you can find that on-line.

Don't weld. Use vise-grips. And go easy -- if you break off the outer part, then you'll have to buy a new caliper (or wheel cylinder, depending on which end you're working on). In fact, wheel cylinders aren't expensive. Considering the age of your truck, it might not be a bad idea to just buy new wheel cylinders and start fresh. And don't use WD-40 for penetrating oil. That's not what it's for, and it doesn't work. Use PB Blaster, or (even better) Kroil -- if you can find it.

You didn't bleed the lines to the wheels. Just pumping the peddle doesn't do anything for you.

There is a mechanism. The column for a manual tranny has a release lever to allow the cylinder to turn to the final OFF/REMOVE position. For the automatics, this was done with a cable from the shifter. This is the same mechanism that locks the steering wheel -- does your wheel lock? If your truck is a manual, and you don't have the release lever, it probably is a column from an automatic, and whoever installed it didn't bother to create a way to release the key.

Appearances can be deceiving. You're not just "going" to a 3-wire system. All automotive systems are positive/negative/ground. Here's the link to the 1988 factory electrical manual. It's 103 pages, and many of those pages are fold-out 11x17 pages. Your '86 is slightly different because you don't have the fuel injection, but everything else is pretty much the same. You'll be much better off just fixing what's wrong rather than trying to rewire the entire vehicle from scratch. http://www.bteventures.com//mj1988electricalmanual.pdf But ... don't pay any attention to an old man. It's not like I might have made some mistakes over the course of my life and have some idea why what you think is easy ... isn't.

Why are you even THINKING of rewiring the entire vehicle? Do you have any idea what you'll be getting into?

It should be like photo #2.

Just go to Auto Zone, Advanced, Pep Boys, O'Reilly, NAPA, or whatever is close to you. Buy white polishing compound, not "rubbing" compound. Rubbing compound is coarser and takes off too much material.

Yes. :banana: :banana: :banana:

Note that he said "polishing" compound (the white stuff), not "rubbing" compound (the other stuff). There is a difference.

If his truck was really an XLS, that was the top model in 1986, and it came with bucket seats. I think the console probably is original.

Not a chance. Save yourself the effort, money, and heartache and just buy a console.

The XJ and the MJ were mechanically identical.

"Nothing ventured ... nothing gained." You are starting off on what is going to be a lengthy process. You ARE going to need parts that are specific to the MJ -- or at least to the MJ and XJ. Paying the admission price is a worthwhile investment just so you can scope out the place and see what's there so you'll know where to look in the future.

Someone may be able to get you another Comanche emblem. The 4x4 should be the same as Jeep used on the Cherokees of the same vintage, so that's not going to be difficult to find. You still have a CommandTrac transfer case. Jeep still called it CommandTrac after they discontinued the CAD front axle. The XLS was not positioned near the engine emblem.

No, no, no. They don't make this stuff any more. We don't throw away anything for an MJ. There are paints that are very close to chrome. Look in the spray paint aisles at Wal-Mart, Lowe's, and Home Depot.

For 1986 the only body available was the long bed. The short bed was introduced with the 1987 model year.

You're looking for the mini-console? I may have one in one of the clunkers. Dunno what the weather will be this weekend, but I'll try to take a look.

The bracket difference could be the difference between a long bed and a short bed.

For the brake lines, the SAE set is the one you need. But elsewhere ... the XJ and MJ came out during the period when AMC was merged with Renault, which is a French company. Also, that was right at the time when the U.S. automobile industry was on a push toward metrication. You're going to find that most of the nuts and bolkts on the engine are SAE, but most of the nuts and bolts on the body and chassis are metric. For regular wrenches and sockets, you're going to need both metric and SAE.

Doesn't matter -- they're pretty much all the same.

There are kits available for repairing cracked vinyl. They're "okay," but the one time I tried one I wasn't especially pleased with the results. I probably should have done a couple of practice repairs before I went to work on the arm rest I needed to fix. You can always try -- if it doesn't work, the option of buying another glove box door is always open to you. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Master-Manufacturing-Leather-Vinyl-Repair-Kit/13432580