Eagle

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.

It's still a piece of crap. Don't do it. You'll be sorry if you do.

Your salvation is the fact that the Comanche is nothing but the pickup truck variant of the Cherokee. Everything from the rear of the cab forward interchanges with Cherokees of similar vintage (except the seat brackets). Even the doors are the same as 4-door Cherokee front doors.

^^^ This. The 2.8L was a horrible, horrible engine. The 2.5L is a much better and much more reliable power plant. It is absolutely NOT worth the effort of converting from the 2.5L to a 2.8L. Think of everything you'll have to replace if you swap. The 2.5L is fuel injected, the 2.8L is carbureted -- you'll need a new fuel pump (lower pressure). You'll need new motor mounts. You'll need a new exhaust system. There will be a myriad of little things that will have to be changed as you go along. Don't do it.

YAY!!!!

What year is the truck? On the passenger side of the engine block, near the distributor, there should be a flat, oblong boss with a series of characters stamped in it. Post what those numbers are -- those are the engine build codes.

Not the way Pete did it, with XJ rear sway bar mounts. Then use a regulation BPE - simple. Will save aggravation down the road fighting those bolts again. I might consider that on any of the "keepers," but I'm fixing up the '01 to sell. Even at top dollar I'm going to lose big bucks, so even an extra $40 invested isn't a good option.

They shouldn't. I think the author forgot to mention something about a lift. Some years ago I thought I was going to be economical. I had a stock height MJ that needed rear shocks, and I had a set of nearly new, good quality XJ rear shocks. So I removed the bar pins (destructively, unfortunately) and went to install my "free" shocks. Fully extended, the shocks were 3/4 of an inch too short to reach both mounts. So I went to Pep Boys and bought a pair of their cheapest Gabriel shocks. Then I had the problem of finding a set of bar pins to put the XJ shocks back to being XJ shocks. Finally got some from somewhere, and had a tough time getting them installed. No, stock MJ rear shocks are too long for a stock XJ.

Not the way Pete did it, with XJ rear sway bar mounts.

What I don't like about the bar pin eliminators is that the result is the upper and lower shock mounts being at 90 degrees to one another. That has to be hard on the shock.

How do you get a wrench in there?

Thank you. I would have guessed metric -- and I would have guessed 8mm. And I would have been wrong. That's why I asked.

You should be able to drive from Massachusetts to Arizona and back for $1000. Be sure to check out the Grand Canyon while you're there ...

Does anyone happen to know what size bolts are used for the upper mounts on the rear shocks? I need to replace the shocks on the '01 XJ I bought for my daughter. The underside has more rust than any vehicle should ever see, so I'm anticipating that I'm going to snap at least a couple of them and have to drill and retap. I'd like to have the new bolts available before I start. Thanks.

But it runs in open loop mode, which is -- by default -- a very rich mixture. It's got to hurt gas mileage to run like that all the time.

Good for you in figuring it out. It always helps when the manufacturers ship parts that don't fit, and forget to tell you.