Eagle

I'm seriously considering the same upgrade for an '88 MJ 4-banger I have sitting in the yard. Just need to decide how much I value my marriage ...

No it doesn't. Been there -- done that. XJ and MJ.

Pete, you missed the part where he said he's a restoration guy. I appreciate that ... we try to do everything as close to original as possible.

Yep. Buy a 25-foot coil of brake line and some fittings, and make up all new lines to the rear. IMHO, this is the time to eliminate the rear height-sensing valve, which also eliminates one of the two lines to the rear, but some people don't agree with me when I describe it as a ticking time bomb. Your choice. The brake lines are one piece, front to rear. You can cut out the bad section and use couplings to insert a short length. I did that on my '88 Cherokee, then while bleeding after the repair the remaining existing line blew out 6 inches ahead of my new section. However, I will admit that snaking a full-length line into place is a PITA, and there are advantages from an installation perspective to using pre-cut lengths to make up the new run.

A SOA conversion will lift your chassis between 5-1/2" and 6-1/2". Yes, with stock tires (or even 30s or 31s) it will look totally retarded. Plus then you'll be looking for stuff to lift the front to even it out, and you'll be throwing some real money at it because a 6" lift results in all sorts of issues that need to be addressed.

Shackles won't add any strength, and they'll make what's left of your springs get worse faster. Get thee to a junkyard and find a set of springs from an older Dakota or S10 ... one set up with the springs under the axle, like the MJ. Take those springs apart and use either the second leaf from each as an AAL or cut the eyes off the main leaves and use those. I'd start with the main leaves and, if that doesn't give you enough lift, then add another leaf on each side. Being long leaves, tis will not make the ride significantly harsh. It's the short, stiff AAL kits that ride like ... "a truck."

Very few Cherokees came with a 4-cylinder and the AW4 -- maybe none. So finding a 4WD 4-cylinder auto tranny and transfer case combo shouldn't be all that difficult ... but it won't be an AW4. For a wheeling rig that's not a major concern. Overdrive isn't used much in low range on trails. www.car-part.com In fact, I have a Wranger 4-banger block with a 904 behind it. No transfer case, but I picked up a tailhousing adapter to mate up with a transfer case. The tranny was free, and the adapter cost me $25. If you want it, it's yours for $25 plus shipping from 06583.

$75 later, I can adjust the toe-in on the "new" (to me) 2001 Cherokee. Tie rod adjusting sleeve was so badly rusted to the TREs that I put the longest pipe wrench I have on it, stood on it with my current 240 pounds and bounced ... and it wouldn't move. Finally did a preemptive strike. Replaced both TRE's and the long sleeve, and I can finally adjust the toe-in. It's nice to be able to steer again.

There's a reason why "barrier islands" are so named ... and Long Island is a barrier island. You'd think people would have learned not to build in places that Mother Nature designed to be trashed in storms, but ... Noooooooooo. To complete the proof of societal insanity, they'll rebuild Long Island, just like they rebuilt New Orleans and Galvaston.

This is a commonly perpetuated myth, but it is untrue. My '88 XJ has the Peugeot tranny. I have 287,000 miles on it, and the tranny is fine. It has been wheeled all over new England, at paragon in Pennsylvania, and in Arizona & New Mexico. However, I will agree that if you drive it "like you stole it," it will break. So will the AX-15, and so will the NVG3500. These are truck transmissions, intended to be shifted by people who know how to drive a standard transmission. If they are treated like drag race transmissions and slam shifted, the synchronizers will NOT survive.

I am aware of both and I have read about people using the SKS for hunting deer, but I have no personal experience with either. I have fired an 8mm Mauser, and the recoil was "healthy." The 7.62x54R Mosin-Nagant round is reported to have significantly more recoil than either the 8mm Mauser or the .30-06. It would certainly take a deer ... if you can hit a deer with it. Buying one today off the mil-surp market is VERY "iffy" as to what you'll get. You might get one with a decent barrel, but more likely you'll get one that has a corroded barrel in need of a counter-bore or recrowning. It has been argued that the good old .30-30 has taken more deer than any other cartridge in North America. The 7.62x39 carries less muzzle energy than a .30-30. The 7.62x39 (in the typical mil-surp loadings) has around 1500 foot-pounds of muzzle energy. The .30-30 generally has 1800 to 1900 foot-pounds. Why not look for a used Winchester, Marlin, or Rossi lever action carbine in .30-30? They are out there. I picked up a Winchester Model 94 a few years ago for $90 because the finish was bad. Bore was perfect.

Well, MY wife, on the other hand, has a very novel approach to driving standard transmissions. As nearly as I can figure out, the first four gears are used when starting first thing in the morning from a cold start. For the rest of the day, all conditions are addressed by varying degrees of destroying slipping the clutch. The only blessing is that she hates driving a manual, so she has never EVER asked to use one of my 5-speed XJs. (It helps that her 2000 XJ Classic is the nicest vehicle we own.)

Assuming the stock tires might have been 215/75R15s (they were more likely 205s. but I don't have data for that size), so 60 MPH road speed with a 5-speed tranny should be just about 2320 RPM.

Sorry -- mised it.

... and then there's high centered: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/mexico/jeep-stuck-atop-border-fence-765490

Yep, that's for sure a Cherokee hitch. The Comanche hitch has three holes on each side in the vertical end plates, and bolts to the side of each frame rail.

I'm replying from a McDonald's in another town. My town is currently 69% out of power -- which is UP from 62% on Tuesday. LOTs of trees down, so I have to figure the utility deenergized the whole friggin' system to allow tree crews to get stuff off the lines without having to wait for a power crew to denergize on a street-by-street basis. The irony is that we were out for a week just a year ago, and people were hopping mad about the piss-poor response from the power companies. So the state passed a new law, that if the power companies miss their projected repair times, they get fined. So, naturally -- as of Wednesday night (almost 48 hours after the peak of the storm), there IS no projected forecast for repair. They'll let us know on Thursday (they say). And my emergency generator just died. Engine runs strong -- no juice. Anybody know if an older Coleman 5000 watt generator uses replaceable brushes?

The big deal with this storm was mostly storm surge. All four coastal counties in Connecticut were hammered. Houses ripped off foundations, or just opened up on the water side. I'm 15 miles inland, and 450 feet above sea level. Lots of trees down around town, and as of 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday my town is 62% out of power. The next town south (closer to the water, but still not "shoreline") is 75% out. But Tuesday was a beautiful day, with lightovercast and some sun, and the "wind" was down to a pleasant breeze. So work on clean-up and repair could get started. Don't even want to think about the construction site where I work. It's about 100 yards from New Haven harbor, with a ground elevation of about 10 feet. The prediction was a 13+ foot surge on top of the full moon high tide, so I expect things will be a bit ... soggy. Only good news is that the building goesn't have a basment.

I'm sure there's a question in there somewhere, but I'll be danged if I can figure out what you're asking. I don't mean to sound crotchety, but I AM a crotchety senior citizen. The English language uses capital letters, punctuation, and sentences so other people can understand what you're writing. Try it -- it'll help immensely.

Wait -- in your first post you said it starts but won't stay running. If it starts, it has fuel pressure when cranking. Run a jumper wire (at least a 14-gauge or 12-gauge) directly from the battery to the hot side of the fuel pump, then start it and see if it stays running. Or just turn on the ignition and use a 12-volt test light or multimeter to probe the wire feeding the fuel pump to see if it is getting electricity.

You can run 31x10.50s with NO lift, and it looks good. In fact, I am currently doing so on the '88 XJ, and the rear wheel wells are bigger on the MJ. So, if you want to keep the ride height as close to stock as possible (which is always a good idea), don't do anything, just mount up the 31s (on factory Jeep rims) and drive it. That alone will give you about a 1-inch "lift." If you need a touch more, you can get 3/4" spacers for the front coils. They'll pop right in without needing a lot of other mods, and since the rear of an MJ usually sits higher than the front, a 3/4" lift in the front only won't look stupid.

That's usually what happens with a bad ballast resister. have you tried bypassing it, or hot-wiring the fuel pump?

Snap-On used to have a universal scanner that could be used with the Renix Jeeps. It cost over $3000 back when it was available (maybe it still is, but I'd be surprised), and the Renix ECU doesn't store codes so it was of limited usefulness. Pretty much all tests for the renix system can be run using a ten dollar multi-meter from Harbor Freight Tools.

The problem is that the sensor in the HOs is not a "switch." It doesn't have an OFF and an ON condition. It's a variable resistance sensor. You could use the temp sender for an early (Renix) XJ or MJ with idiot lights, but that won't turn on the fan until the temperature is already too high. IMHO your easiest "fix" (at least for now) is to wire a toggle switch to control the aux fan relay. Watch your gauge, and flip the switch if the gauge reads higher that 210 degrees (straight up).

Input shaft spline count. Jeep changed to the AX-15 5-speed in mid-1989. That changed the transfer case input shaft from 21 splines to 23 splines. As to idiots -- A number of years a NAXJA friend from NJ contacted me about a 2000 XJ that was for sale in Connecticut at a very good price. He was interested in it for his wife. It happened to be at a small used car dealer near where I was working at the time, so I headed over after work to look at it. It was advertised as a 6-cylinder Sport. It had some kind of decals on the side I had never seen before and have never seen since. Something about surfing. They were well-done and looked factory-ish, but I haven't ever found reference to a Cherokee surfer edition. The next clue that there might be a problem was that the instrument cluster was all idiot lights -- which meant it could not be a Sport. Sales drone came out, opened the doors, popped the hood ... and there sat a 2.5L I-4. I asked him if this was really the vehicle they were advertising, since it clearly wasn't a 6-cylinder. Now ... get ready, and DON'T have a mouthful of coffee ... "This is the only Cherokee we have right now. I don't know what happened ... it had six cylinders when we brought it in here." And then he proceeded to carefully inspect the driver's side of the engine, as if he expected to find two stealth spark plugs hiding under the intake manifold. But, even though it was NOT a Sport as advertised, and was NOT a 6-cylinder as advertised, they absolutely refused to lower their price. So I recommended to my friend that he pass, which he did.