Eagle

You don't need a lift to run 31s.

Frozen calipers are a problem with disc brakes, and not uncommon if the vehicle has been sitting for awhile. These days, it's probably not worth the effort to try to clean them and rebuild them. Much easier to just trade them in as cores and buy a pair of rebuilds.

For starters, I would try to narrow the problem down to front or rear. It has been decades since I encountered a severe brake pull problem, but if memory serves, a test would be to go to a LARGE parking lot at a time when a big chunk of it is empty. Get rolling at around 15 to 20 MPH, going straight, hold the steering wheel lightly with just your finger tips ... and stomp on the brake pedal. What happens? If the truck swerves to the left but the steering wheel stays fairly straight in your hands, look to the rear. If stomping on the brakes yanks the steering wheel out of your hands, look to the front. If the issue is front, I would suspect a frozen caliper ... especially if the truck hasn't been driven for awhile. If that's the problem, pull 'em both off and trade them in for a pair of rebuilts. P.S. Idler arm? On an MJ?

Are they trying to claim that ZJs, WJs and Libertines crash more often because of design defects? How about just because too many people buy a vehicle that says "Jeep" and think that means the laws of physics no longer apply to their driving?

If you are swapping from the base model, 2-spoke "station wagon" steering wheel to the 3-spoke sport steering wheel, be sure the new wheel comes with all the small parts under the horn button, and be sure you know how those parts all go together. It's not difficult, but it's not necessarily intuitive if you're not taking out the same style wheel.

^^^This. I briefly owned a WJ V8. It had a lot of problems, and the rear axle was one of the worst. You do NOT want one of these axles. If someone gives it to you, sell it for scrap value and use the money towards a real axle. Don't even think about using it.

I'm really in over my head on this one. Just over a year ago I picked up a used 2001 XJ Sport. I confess -- I was seduced by the low mileage on the odometer and the fact that in most outward respects it's a twin to my 2000 XJ. So I didn't check it out nearly as well as I should have, and I've been paying for it ever since. And paying ... and paying ... and paying ... I'm gradually getting the mechanical issues straightened out. It runs decently, gets me to work and back, and having all power windows and locks is a big improvement over the '88 XJ with manual everything. But ... there's a new trick: A couple of months ago, while driving guests to the airport (2+ hours each way) I noticed that the clock on the radio blacked out. A few minutes later, it came back -- spontaneously. This happened a couple of times on the way to the airport, and a couple or three more times on the way home. Didn't seem to happen around town because it took awhile before it would start playing tricks. Recently, it has begun doing it during my daily commute, which is only a half hour. The radio and CD player still function -- but there's no lighting in the display, so if I'm using the radio I have no idea what station I'm on, and if I'm playing a CD I don't know what track is playing. (Fortunately, I also don't care -- I don't jump tracks on my CDs.) But I really miss having the clock. This morning I noticed something slightly different. It wasn't raining, so I didn't have the headlights on -- but the radio display was very dim. Probably even dimmer than the reduced brightness it switches to when the headlights are one. It also seemed to get gradually dimmer as I drove. When I started the engine after work, there was no display -- usually it's fine on startup and then goes walkabout. This is the factory radio head with tape player, CD player, and 3-band equalizer. I have no idea if the lighting is LED, liquid crystal, or a conventional bulb providing backlight. The FSM provides no information at all, and the shop foreman at the dealership tells me they don't work on the radios so he has no idea if the lighting is even serviceable. Does anybody have any information on what I should look at first?

Heh, heh -- In my wife's native country, anything with 4-wheel drive is a Jeep. They have no understanding whatsoever that "Jeep" is a brand name. To the it's a generic descriptor, like "truck" or "sedan."

I didn't realize the BA 10.5 had such a high first gear. Okay ... With the AX-15, 5000 RPM in first would get us up to 35 MPH. The BA 10/5 would get us all the way up to 39 MPH. (Still a wee bit shy of 55)

1. JB Conversions 2. Dunno 3. Because nobody wants to admit that a competitor did it first/better 4. JB Conversions

With stock tires, in 4th gear (1:1 ratio) 55 MPH is 2054 RPM. I don't have the BA 10/5 manual handy but I have the 2000 XJ manual next to my desk. 1st gear ratio for the AX-5 is 3.93:1, and we can probably assume the AX-15 and BA 10/5 aren't very far off. Crunching the numbers, 2054 x 3.93 = 8072 RPM. So ... no, we can't hit 55 MPH in first gear. Using 5000 RPM as the redline, 1st gear would actually top out at 34 MPH.

Have you considered that hot oil is thinner than cold oil, so there's higher pressure when cold and lower pressure when hot? Your gauge may just be telling you what the oil pressure is ... which is sort of the point.

No. The problem is that the vent glass doesn't have a full frame, so where the frame ends there's a small "step" from the metal to the glass, and the rubber gasket couldn't be molded closely enough to properly seal that point. That's where they leaked. If Hornbrod or anyone has one that DOESN'T leak there, consider it a major miracle.

As I've posted numerous times before, I am running 31x10.50s on factory alloys on my '88 Cherokee at factory height ... and the Cherokee has a smaller rear wheel opening than the MJ. 30s are not a problem.

Personally, I would MUCH rather start with a 2WD that hasn't been butchered or abused than somebody else's abortion on wheels, which is what that first truck is. 127,000 miles is VERY low miles for an 80s vintage Comanche. The ad says "OBO," so offer him maybe $1000 or $1200 and see what happens. Converting to 4WD is a bit of work, but the parts can all be gotten from a Cherokee in the junkyard. The only thing that doesn't swap over directly is the rear driveshaft, because of the difference in wheelbase.

Bench seat -- trash. "Station wagon" steering wheel -- base model truck, idiot light instrument cluster. Cheapie aftermarket wheels. Body butchered. 16-gallon is the small gas tank in a longbed ... and how do you "refurbish" a gas tank? IMHO this truck is NOT worth $2,000

Double-stick foam tape.

Transmission bearings?

Yes, the topic is Right Here But I lost the pictures :eek: So, I reloaded them Here I remember that. I liked it then, and I like it now. I think it would look even better with the fenders and grille updated to the "new" XJ style (1997+).

30" tires are about 6 percent larger than stock, so whatever the speedometer says -- you're going about 6 percent faster. 31" tires are 11 percent larger than stock, so whatever the speedometer says you're going 11 percent faster. That's if you haven't changed either the speedo drive gear or the axle gears, of course.

Why would you do that? Upshifting at those low RPMs means slipping the clutch for every shift. You should only slip the clutch when starting in first gear from a standstill. The sweet spot for upshifting a Renix 4.0L is 2200 to 2300 RPM. For an HO it's about 2500 RPM.

My first guess, before reaching the end of your post, was u-joints.

With 3.07 gears? Yeah start in second if you really enjoy replacing clutches. First gear is there for a reason. Use it. Especially with 3.07 gears.

Sure, but that doesn't show up in a tire size chart. What I'm saying is that every tire/gear chart I have ever encountered (other than mine) bases their calculation on the diameter of the tire, without taking into account sidewall squat that makes the actual rolling radius considerably less than half the mathematical diameter. Once you really know what gears will result in what RPMs at ___ MPH, then you can decide for yourself how much allowance you want to make for heaver tires. I agree that 4.10s are a good choice with 31x10.50s. For reference, as I have posted numerous times, I have 3.73s in my 88 MJ 5-speed. The overall drive ratio is EXACTLY the same as my wife's stock XJ with automatic and stock tires. It's fine for daily driver duty, but 4.10s would be much better off-road, and perfectly acceptable on the street and highway. For anything larger than 31x10.50, I think 4.56 is pretty much the minimum unless money is truly an object and you get a deal on 4-cylinder axles already set up with the 4.10s. But the OP here is asking about tires that are 31.6 inches in diameter. That's equivalent to a 32, not a 31. 31x10.50s typically have an actual outside diameter of about 30.5 ... and 30x9.50s typically run about 29.5, making them barely larger than a 235/75-15. It's important to be certain what your tire size really is before making decisions that are going to cost money and that you'll be living with for a long while.

What chart are you using? The problem with most charts, and with most calculations, is that they are based on the tire diameter as it sits on a rim, not mounted on a vehicle. Once you put it on a vehicle, supporting weight, the actual static radius from the axle to the ground is less (often significantly less) than half the theoretical diameter. When I made up my spreadsheet, I went to tire company brochures and web sites and found their own numbers for actual revolutions-per-mile. Even that's an approximation -- within any nominal size, one company's 31x10.50-15 may have a few different revolutions-per-mile than another company's 31x10.50-15. But it's still a lot more accurate than just calculating a diameter from the nominal tire size and dividing it by two. Look up 31x10.50-15 from any tire company and I think you'll find it isn't 31 inches in diameter. Most seem to run about 30-1/2". 31x10.50s with 4.56 gears is LESS overall gearing than a stock 4.0L with automatic and stock 3.54 gears. For the stock setup, 70 MPH in 4th (overdrive) is 2913 RPM and downshifting to third (1:1) bumps it to 3884 RPM. My wife's XJ is an automatic, and there's no problem climbing most hills on Interstates without downshifting. Any incline that's so steep you need to downshift for it probably won't be the end of the world if you only drive 65 instead of 75. But if you have the right ratio, you won't need to downshift as much on upgrades. This is why I think that factory's choice of 3.08 gears behind the 5-speed was so dumb. I have to downshift a lot even at 60 MPH on highways, and I should not have to do that.