Eagle

I don't believe the Metric Ton suspension is supposed to sit any higher than a standard suspension. There's no mention of a higher ride height for the MT in the FSM where they show how (and where) to measure for checking ride height. It's just supposed to add load carrying capacity.

After having one explode in a panic stop, I do NOT trust the height sensing valve. Replacements aren't available, so deleting it from the truck that suffered the failure was a no-brainer. However, I like having rear brakes, and I plan to eliminate the rear height sensing valve on each MJ as I progressively get them roadworthy.

:thumbsup: Do they make one with a dual outlet? I like the look better than just the one pipe. Yep: http://www.gibsonexhaust.com/sftmufflers.html

IMHO, the ONLY muffler that sounds better behind a Jeep 4.0L than a stock muffler is from Gibson. All the others are just obnoxiously loud.

I think Hornbrod recently posted that he runs that setup. Sorry, I don't recall what brand of muffler.

WOW! 5/16x18 -- an SAE size. I would never have expected that -- I was expecting 10mm. Thanks.

Does anyone know the bolt size and thread pitch for the upper, rear shock mount bolts in a late model XJ? Fuzzy memory isn't reliable. The one I just bought looks bad enough that I expect I will have to drill out the bolts, and I'd like to have replacements on hand.

Correct. And the transmission is an AX-4, not a BA-10/5.

4-door XJ will work. Obviously, you'll have to cut it off behind the door and splice it to the MJ cab corner.

The ground is for the pump.

It should, but I'm not 100 percent certain.

Harmonic. This is the crux of the issue. One wheel doing something screwy is either "shimmy" or "tramp," depending on what the wheel is doing. It doesn't pose a real problem (other than tire wear and beating up the tie rod end on that side) unless/until the shaking gets transferred to the opposite wheel and the two start shaking in unison, in a self-escalating harmonic. In fact, Chrysler/Jeep had to change the spring rates and the hardness of the rubber bushings in the front suspension of the export models of the 1999 Grand Cherokee because the particular combination they originally chose resulted in death wobble. And this was with brand new vehicles. All of which is to point out that there really isn't any one, single thing we can point to and say definitively "THIS IS IT!" It would be great if we could do that ... but we can't.

Your question is unclear. The '88 is a Renix -- the '91 is a Chrysler. That refers to both the ignition and the injection. Mechanically, the engines are basically the same, but the heads are different, the throttle bodies are different, and (most importantly) the entire injection and ignition setups are different and not compatible. It's not as easy as swapping ECUs -- the entire engine room wiring harness is different, and the under-dash harness is different. The Renix ECU is under the dashboard, above the driver's right foot. The Chrysler ECU is in the engine compartment, at the left front between the airbox and the inner fender. Also, the CPSs are different (to work with the different ECUs, so you also have to use the CPS and flywheel that matches the year of the ECU.

And my experience has been that the most common cause of death wobble is tire balance, followed in a distant second place by insufficient caster angle in the front suspension. I'm not sure I would say that those are the cause of DW. They are more like instigators of DW. There has to be other parts bad for these items to get DW started. Though these issues being good could make it so it never happens to begin with. No, there don't have to be other bad parts. I have experienced genuine death wobble in two vehicles. One was my then-new 1999 Grand Cherokee WJ, with (at the time) probably just over 5,000 miles on it. Everything was stock, I never took it off-road, so everything in the front end was new and tight. The death wobble kicked in when I touched the brakes lightly to control my speed going down a long down grade at about 50 to 55 MPH. The front rotors were warped (very common on the '99 WJ), and the resulting wobble in the rotors was all it took. The other was in my '88 Comanche -- after I had removed the lift and returned it to stock. Track bar was almost new, front hubs had been replaced, tie rod ends were tight. The DW kicked in at 50 MPH as I entered a long, sweeping right hand curve on a state highway. I turned around, limped home, rotated the front tires to the rear and the DW never happened again. It's tire imbalance that is the fundamental cause of death wobble. Loose parts may (or may not) play a role in allowing it to escalate. On the other hand, when the original track bar on my '88 Cherokee wore out and got loose, it was winter and I had no garage to work in, so I drove it like that for about five months. I had at least a quarter turn of free play at the steering wheel, probably closer to a third of a turn ... but not a hint of death wobble. Not ever. So a loose track bar by itself CANNOT cause death wobble. I have five months of rolling evidence to support that statement.

Keep in mind that there have been multiple different hubs used on the XJ, MJ and ZJ. They are all 5 bolt x 4-1/2" circle, but they take different rotors and fit different calipers. They are NOT all directly interchangeable.

And my experience has been that the most common cause of death wobble is tire balance, followed in a distant second place by insufficient caster angle in the front suspension.

I have been through that country, as well as spending time around Taos, NM, where a friend came within about 100 yards of losing her house to a wild fire several years ago. So I pretty much agree with everything you wrote ... right up to the part about "I wish I was there ..." I have fought much smaller forest fires on the east coast, and there is no way I would ever wish I could be in the path of one of those huge western juggernauts. I give all the credit in the world to those who fight them on the ground (I know a couple), but the only way I'd wish to be fighting them would be from an aerial tanker.

I was wondering if anyone else has used it and if it was any good. I haven't used it, but my brother's best friend is a retired Jeep service manager. He has done at least 50 of these conversions and he says they work fine.

Well, then, I guess you should run a compression test.

If I got the link copied, at the 0:30 mark you can see that the guy being interviewed is evacuating his house from the Colorado fires in a Jeep Comanche http://bcove.me/f6a5qz8c

I don't have a hitch to measure. What I do have is a NIB set of Fey bumper mount brackets for mounting their universal step bumper to an MJ. That same dimension on the Fey brackets is 1-1/16". The holes on those brackets are 7/16" diameter. If anyone wants to play with the hitch end plate pattern I drew up in AutoCAD, with an extension to also tie into the spring bolt below the other three bolts, send me a PM with your e-mail address and I'll get it off to you.

If the over-center screw can't be adjusted any further -- you need a steering box.

Not sure how the '99 would react. Have you tried testing the spark plug wires? If the #6 plug is wet, you have fuel but it isn't firing. Firing requires three things: air, fuel, and spark. A burned valve is usually an exhaust valve, which would typically allow firing but with low compression, and you should be hearing some backfiring if that's the case. The wife's 2000 didn't throw a check engine light when the rough running first started. In fact, I drove it with the skip for two or three days before the CEL finally came un. Once the light came on, I got a code for #6 misfire. With separate circuitry for each cylinder I guess the coil-on-rail system can be that precise -- the cap-and-wires system probably has no way of knowing. So I would start by checking the ignition wires. You test test them with an ohmmeter.

I don't think so. My '88 Cherokee is now at 287,000+ miles on the original coil. I fully expect it to reach 300,000.

Many thanks to those who offered suggestions, and especially 1987Comanche for digging up the TSB on doing a 'Mexican tuneup" to clean carbonized valve stems. Unfortunately, although we now have the cleanest upper engine in captivity, that wasn't the problem. After that didn't work, my fellow Comanche driver, Erich, dug out a complete fuel rail from a '99 and I swapped out the #3 injector out of that one for the #6 in the wife's XJ. Still no joy. The last gasp was to install a used coil rail I borrowed from the shop foreman at the dealership. BINGO! As they say in Little Italy, "She's a work." So I'm now looking at $125 (plus tax) for a new coil rail. I'm glad to have gotten the problem tracked down, but not very happy that this new-fangled ignition costs so much to repair. The vehicle has less than 100,000 miles on it. I should NOT have to spend $125 on a fairly low-mileage engine that has always been maintained and babied. A conventional coil would be a lot cheaper and a lot less work to change out. Oh, well. Rant over. I really just wanted to let y'all know what the problem was in case you ever encounter it.