Eagle

Removing the thermostat is a bad idea. People who suggest things like that don't understand that the purpose of the thermostat is to keep the temperature UP, not down. If the engine runs too cold, it doesn't run efficiently. With the Jeep RENIX injection system, too cold means the ECU never switches from "warm-up" mode to "run" mode, so you'll always be running rich and wasting fuel.

The rule of thumb is that tires should not be more than 4 inches wider than the rim. IF your rims are 7-inch, that means a maximum tire width of 11 inches. If your rims are 6-inch, that means a maximum tire width of 10 inches. You can mount 32x11.50s on the stock rims, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea. Some shops may refuse. If your rim width isn't listed on the chart for that tire, shops that are aware of liability issues won't mount them for you.

You could not pay me enough to put those under any of my Jeeps. Can you return them and get your money back?

Use the donor downpipe. Reuse the lines that are in your truck. The pump will swap over, the fuel gauge sender won't. You should be able to use the sender from the 2.5L fuel pump. (I think.) Remove the boot inside the cab. There are four bolts holding the shifter into the tranny. Remove bolts, pull out shifter. Use the linkage that goes with the tranny and transfer case you will be installing. You need 4.0L front springs. The '86 had an external slave.

That part is plastic, and the plating on it is not chrome ... it's "chrome-like." Whatever blemishes you see, they aren't rust because plastic doesn't rust. Given your location, I'd say just clean it up, wax it, and drive it.

Or a bad oxygen sensor.

Light bracket? Are you talking about the retainer ring that holds the headlight into the bucket? If so, it's not chrome, it's stainless steel. If it has holes in it, throw it away and get another.

There is no such thing as elongated lug nut holes that I've ever heard of ... except wheels that have been drive with loose lug nuts and the holes damaged. A long, LONG time ago I had a set of aftermarket alloy wheels on a Javelin that used straight lug nuts. The holes were not elongated, and the lug nuts had straight shanks and washers for bearing on the face of the wheel. I have seen alloys that are universal fit -- the lug holes are in a removable, reversible insert. Orient them one way and you had a Ford bolt pattern, reverse them and you had a GM pattern. I haven't seen wheels like that for a very long time, either. Are your wheels "hub-centric"? If not ... don't use them.

Yes on the stripper. I use "Aircraft Stripper" from AutoZone. Wax won't hold up for long. Aluminum exposed to air and moisture oxidizes on the surface. That's whay the factory clearcoats them in the first place.

I have always been frustrated by the fact that AMC designed the Cherokee with amber turn signal/hazard warning lights that are fully independent of the brake/tail lights ... but they did NOT do that with the MJ. I'm back to wanting to add some auxiliary lights to operate as dedicated hazard flashers, without interacting with the brake lights and disabling the turn signals. Money's tight, so this has to be a low-budget project or it can't happen. I can't open up a Gall's catalog and buy a set of professional-grade strobes. I was in a Wal-Mart yesterday and I noticed that many of their clearance lights have gone over to LED. Has anyone ever tried these? I'm curious as to whether or not they are bright enough to serve as hazard flashers on a bright, sunny day. If not ... I won't waste my time on them.

What year MJ and what engine? If it's an 87 through 90 4-liter, the bottle is not an overflow, it's a pressurized tank. Overflowing could mean the cap doesn't seal tightly (very possible), or it could mean the tank is overfilled. The colling system with the pressure tank doesn't have any overflow provision, so there has to be somewhere for coolant to expand when it gets hot. The coolant bottle on the firewall should be filled halfway when cold -- no higher, and definitely not "full."

Please do. There should be some date codes on the right side of the block, near the distributor IIRC.

Go to Lowe's or Home Despot and buy a short length of 5/16" plain steel rod. The shortest they sell is probably 8" or 12". 8" might work, 12" I would cut in half. Take it to your bench grinder (you DO have a bench grinder, right? If not, turn in your man card no later than Thursday at 1200 hours) and grind about a 60 degree taper on the end. Use that as your drive pin. A tapered punch will be too fat and will stop before all the holes are lined up. This thing-a-ma-bob will self-align the holes as the taper passes through, and the straight body enters the spring pack.

A worn track bar can result in a LOT of free play across center of the steering wheel. Worn/sloopy tie rod ends will also result in loose, sloppy steering. My advice is to enlist an assistant, and start checking each moving part. Touch is more sensitive than sight. Park with the wheels straight ahead. First test is the steering box itself. Turn the steering wheel gently back and forth across the center (straight) position while watching the left front tire. There should be almost no movement of the steering wheel before the tire starts to move, and you should feel some resistance against the steering wheel as soon as it gets off center (straight). Now put your helper in the driver's seat. The helper should move the steering wheel back-and-forth across center, NOT actually turning the front tires but stopping just short of when the tread contact patch actually moves on the ground. What this does is load the steering components. What you do is put on a rubber exam-type glove, lie on the ground under the front end, and put your fingers on each moving joint. You want to see and feel if there's any slop or looseness between the tie rod end and the steering arm it attaches to. Also check the tie rod type fitting at the upper end of the track bar, and the bushing connection at the axle end of the track bar. Replace any parts that have slop.

Ya know ... I've never noticed.

Just to hijack a bit ... what years had the aluminum valve cover? I've never encountered anything other than plastic ... and I HATE plastic.

Get enough advice and somebody pretty much has to be right! :)

I don't know, either. I haven't sawed a ZJ proportioning valve in half so I have no idea how it works.

Yep. My '87 MJ has the dealer-installed a/c.

Pete, he didn't ask why the headlights were upside down. Whatever he intended to ask, what he did ask was IF they are upside down. ]

Your post (#4 in the thread) was hardly polite, to either me or to Hornbrod. If that's your idea of "polite," I don't want to hang with your group of friends.

Look at the headlight lenses. There are codes molded into the glass. If you can read the codes, the lamps are not upside down..

Why would you need weld-on shock mounts? Did you remove the stock shock mount studs? MJ shocks don't use bar pins, why would you need bar pin eliminators?

There are several threads here that describe how to eliminate the load-sensing proportioning valve. As I posted just yesterday (or maybe the day before), IMHO replacing the MJ front metering block (it is not a proportioning valve on the MJ) with an XJ proportioning valve is a VERY bad idea. To understand why, you have to understand how the XJ proportioning valve works. In the XJ proportioning valve, fluid to the rear brakes is routed through the forward part of the valve body. Inside that, there is a spring-loaded plunger with an o-ring seal on a piston. The spring is VERY strong, and until the brake fluid pressure gets high enough to overcome this spring, there is NO braking to the rear wheels. Once the pressure gets high, the plunger moves and the rear brakes come on. This is why XJ rear brakes typically last through two or three replacements of the front pads -- the rears never do any work in normal driving. But the rear of an XJ has a full roof, rear seats, a lot of glass, and a tailgate hatch. There's a fair amount of weight on the back wheels. The rear wheel load in an empty MJ, by comparison, is very light. In normal conditions you won't notice a difference with the XJ proportioning valve because the rear wheels are doing anything, but under panic conditions the rear wheels could lock up unexpectedly. That's "not a good thing." Of course, if you correctly bypass the MJ height sensing proportioning valve you'll have full braking power to the rear wheels all the time, and that can also lead to premature rear wheel lockup under panic conditions. Being an olde pharte who learned to drive decades before we had proportioning valves, I can live with this because at least it's predictable, where the operation of the XJ proportioning valve is not. (The XJ valves also clog up. My '88 XJ has had no rear brakes for four or five years, but it's driven only locally so I haven't made a priority of fixing it.) For those who can't handle that, the Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve for the rear wheels is the way to go. Do NOT use an XJ proportioning valve. IMHO it's an exceptionally stupid design.

Now that you mention it, I recall a few years ago discussing this with the owner of a commercial spring shop where my friend used to have his stock car springs made. They don't drill springs for the center pins -- they punch them. The more I think about it, Don, the more I think you should just replace with whatever size is in there and keep the u-bolts torqued.