Eagle

What you DON'T want (IMHO) are KYB shocks. Years ago, my brother talked me into buying a set for my '88 Cherokee. They were AWFUL. They were very harsh over pavement cracks and small bumps, yet the provided almost no control over larger bumps. I took them off and replaced them with a set of Monroes (a series since discontinued, and replaced by the Sensa-Trac) that are infinitely better. The 2001 Cherokee I bought used three years ago came to me with KYBs in the front. Same thing. I finally got around to wrestling with the rusted-in OEM shocks in the rear, and replaced everything with a set of Rancho RS5000s all around. The Ranchos were given to me by a friend who had lifted his XJ. They are pretty firm, but they are are a huge improvement over the KYBs. OME get rave reviews, but they're pricey. I'm partial to Monroes, with Gabriel being a close second. In Monroe, I like the Gas-Magnum line. The Reflex line is their premium series and should be very good, but I've never found the money to spend on them. I avoid the Sensa-Trac line because of the "groove tube" feature. It's good at stock height, but if you change the ride height at all (such as a budget boost) the piston isn't centered in the grooved section of the bore, and the ride and handling are adversely affected. In Gabriel, I again lean toward the Ultra series as being an economical shock that rides well and works well. These have a 1-3/8" bore, which is the minimum I think should be accepted in any shock. Worth a look also are the LTV (1-5/8" bore) and the MaxControl (1-13/16" bore) series.

It could be the tires, it could be tire pressure, it could be uneven wear on the tires, it could be caster and/or camber -- it could even be that the rear axle isn't square to the chassis and is trying to drive the body in a circle. There's no shortage of things to investigate.

No. Replace the fan clutch on the mechanical fan. (That's the viscous hub that bolts to the water pump, and to which the fan blade is bolted.

Early years had two kinds of mechanical speedo connection. '86 MJs (and '84 and '85 XJs) had a metallic clip at the speedo head end, with a screw to hold the cable to the instrument cluster. '88 thru '90 had a nylon compression clip, with no screws. I haven't had the cluster out of my '87, so I don't know which style was used in '87, or if it was a mid-year change during the '87 model run.

Two models. The XJ Wagoneer also had all red lenses and no separate turn lamps in the rear.

^^^ Correct. And I believe you posted in one of your first posts that there are a lot of Cherokees even though there aren't many Comanches. Remember, the Comanche was the pickup truck version of the Cherokee -- just like the Ranger and the Explorer. The floors are different so the seat risers won't interchange, but otherwise basically everything from the rear of the car forward is the same as from a 4-door Cherokee. And the Cherokee started two years earlier, so for a dashboard cover you have your pick of 1984 through 1996 Cherokees. It's the same. How can it look different? Would the 95 cherokee dash fit?...it looks different

Up to 1996, not 1997. And doors have to be from a 4-door Cherokee.

^^^ Correct. And I believe you posted in one of your first posts that there are a lot of Cherokees even though there aren't many Comanches. Remember, the Comanche was the pickup truck version of the Cherokee -- just like the Ranger and the Explorer. The floors are different so the seat risers won't interchange, but otherwise basically everything from the rear of the car forward is the same as from a 4-door Cherokee. And the Cherokee started two years earlier, so for a dashboard cover you have your pick of 1984 through 1996 Cherokees.

Before tackling a full-blown replacement, you can always try something like this: http://www.amazon.com/No-Liquid-Leather-Vinyl-Repair/dp/B000E24APU/ref=pd_sim_263_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=00Q90VRQ89F9ASZSWHCK If it works, you spent ten bucks and saved a lot of work. If it doesn't work ... you blew ten bucks and you would have done the work otherwise anyway.

There is no PCM on an '88 -- it's a ECU, and I don't think it feeds through the fuse panel. The Renix wiring diagrams have been posted here, somewhere. See if you can find the link.

Check the ground cable from the battery to the chassis.

Fuel pump relay?

There is no need to remove the main leaves. I've done the home-brew spring thing twice with XJs and once on my old Javelin race car. I didn't take the main leaf out for any of them.

You'll love it. Don't forget, the top gear has the same ratio in both the 5-speeds and the automatics. For the 5-speed, 4th gear is 1:1 and 5th (overdrive) is (depending on year and tranny) 0.72:1 or 0.75:1. With the automatics, 3rd gear is 1:1 and 4th gear (overdrive) is 0.7x:1. 75 MPH won't be doing anything to you that it isn't doing to every XJ and MJ that has an automatic transmission.

Actually, I said you gain 33% capacity, but that on-line calculator says it's 43%. It's a fairly simple exercise in structural/mechanical engineering. The lower leaves aren't stiffer than the main. They are the same thickness and the same width. You are mistaking the fact that they are shorter for stiffness, but if you took just the center section of the main leaf, it would be equally stiff as the shortest leaf (ignoring the overload leaf, which is twice the thickness). That said, I support the concept. I've done the second main leaf conversion on two XJs that were severely sagged (and one had a broken intermediate leaf). The first gave me 1-1/4" of lift. It started out sagged half an inch, so the net was 3/4 of an inch. The second had sagged a full inch. The AAL gave me an inch and a half, so it now rides a half inch higher than stock. In both cases, the increase in capacity could be felt just in the firmer ride (which I like).

I don't know what a corner bezel is. Do you mean the headlight bezel? See the photo in Hornbrod's post #2 in this thread. Is that what you're looking for?

Aux contraire, mon ami. The stock springs (not metric ton) are 3-leaf springs, with an overload leaf. The overload leaf doesn't do anything until the three primary leaves have sagged down to make contact. Functionally, then, we have a 3-leaf spring. Add a fourth leaf and you have increased the load capacity by 33 percent. http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/leafspringrate.htm

The adjustable track bar is only to center the front axle on the centerline of the vehicle. It won't cause wheel shimmy or death wobble. It sounds like your shake wasn't front end related at all, but the rear drive shaft u-joints getting ready to self destruct. Either that, or your driveshaft is too short now that you have the lift.

??? In addition to "the fleet" of MJs and my original '88 XJ, I currently own two 2000 XJs and a 2001 XJ. All the new style XJs have the 4.0L with the oil filter mounted horizontally toward the rear, and I have no problem changing the filter from above.

Which, of course, is why they used an adapter to change the orientation of the filter.

When this family of engines was first introduced by AMC in the mid-60s, the oil filter screwed directly to the block. But ... engine compartments were larger and less crowded back then. I haven't paid attention, just accepted that they put the adapter there for a reason. If you can flip it so the filter hangs down, why can't you just eliminate the adapter entirely?

Several years ago, I researched slide-in campers for the MJ and I found a number of different manufacturers who offered models for mini-pickups. Most offered two models, on for 6-foot beds and one for seven and a half-foot beds. Some were full height, some were pop-tops. What happened? I just went looking on-line, and I found only two companies offering campers for mini-pickups. They only fit 6-foot beds, and one doesn't have a sleeper extention over the cab. Where did they all go?

I don't understand the question. What are you asking?

Well, I know it didn't work for me -- and that was on a 2WD Comanche. However ... I just looked up the mounting dimensions for a representative series of Monroe shocks, and the numbers (for that series) suggest that it will work. I looked up the #32197 for the XJ and #31094 for the MJ. These are the same series. For the XJ, lengths are 12.375 compressed, 20.375 extended, 8" travel, mid-length 16.375. (In an ideal world, the mid-travel would be the static length at curb weight for the vehicle.) For the MJ, lengths are 13.375 compressed, 23.125 extended, 9.75" of travel, and 18.25 mid-length. However, even with one brand (such as Monroe, who publish all the dimensional data), the lengths vary slightly depending on the series of shock. So I suppose if the mounting height/length for an MJ is around 18.25 to 18.xx, if a particular XJ shock doesn't have that much extended length, it wouldn't work. Or if the actual mounted length for an MJ is more than 18.25". It's probably just as well it didn't work. If I had gotten them on, they would have been almost fully extended, and I think that would have resulted in some strange ride and handling characteristics even on pavement. The Jeep gods were watching over me.

Done. It only took seven HOURS to change out two rear shocks. :ugh: The left side went easily. Thanks to you guys' advice, I went with the air hammer and punched out the weld nuts. Easy peasey. I would never have thought of fishing in new bolts, but that went easy, too. Lesson learned -- 3/4" bolts are long enough to get the job done, but not long enough to keep in place while mounting the new shock. I lost one. Fortunately, I had bought four 3/4" flange-head bolts and four 1" flange head bolts at Auto Zone, so I switched to the one inchers and it was much easier. The right side, however, do not go well. That was the side on which one of the bolt heads reounded off. I spent a LOOOOOOOONG time under the chassis using an air die grinder with a cutoff wheel to grind away the bolt head enough to pull the shock out. My compressor just doesn't have enough capacity to run air tools, so I spent a lot od time waiting for the compressor. Then the weld nuts on the right side didn't bust loose as quickly or as cleanly as the left side, but obstinacy prevailed in the end. Thanks for the advice. I've been putting this job off for way too long because I knew the bolts were going to snap, and the only fix I had encountered previously was to drill and retap.