Eagle

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.

.DWG is AutoCAD's file format. I'd like a copy of the file(s). I have AutoCAD, and I will be needing a hitch. Check your PMs for e-mail address. Thanks

Are you asking me or H8PVMT? I don't have to make sure. I have replaced enough exhaust systems on 4 liter XJs and MJs that I am sure. If you doubt me, go measure for yourself. Just be sure you're measuring OEM or OEM replacement parts, not custom parts. Ask me about 2.5 liter XJs and MJ and I won't be so sure, because from the several I have had go through here the size of at least the tail pipe changed from year to year. If they changed the tail pipe, I don't know if they changed the exhaust pipe and catalytic converter with it, or if those stayed constant.

If this is for the MJ, the downpipe is 2-1/2" to the cat flange. The cat is 2-1/2" inlet and outlet, and the connector necks down to 2-1/4" between the cat and the muffler. The muffler is 2-1/4" inlet and outlet.

New senders are not needed if he already has gauges.

I agree with most of what was in the above post. Except ... Lifting an MJ or XJ with the stock track bar actually pulls the axle over to the driver's side, not to the passenger side. Not that it really matters -- either way, the wheels will be off-center to the long axis of the vehicle and it will be impossible to properly align the tires.

A Comanche is a Jeep. The Jeep 4.0L engine and the AW4 automatic transmission are about the most bullet-proof drive train on the planet. Why are you considering anything else?

More important, go with the 3.4 and get an engine that won't self-destruct. The 2.8 isn't even a good boat anchor.

And that's because with idiot lights, the oil pressure and coolant temperature sensors are NOT sensors -- they are simple, temperature actuated ON/OFF switches. The sensors for the gauges are variable rate resistors. All you have to do is go to an Auto Zone, Pep Boys, Advance Auto, or NAPA store and buy the sensors for your year and engine with gauges, then replace your existing switches with the new ones. As already noted, the coolant temperature sender mounts on top of the head, at the left (driver's side) rear corner. The oil pressure sensor mounts to the block adapter where the oil filter screws on.

Not so fast. My 1999 WJ Laredo with Up Country suspension came with 245/70R16s. I've never heard of a WJ having 225/75-16s.

I'm pretty sure Pete has posted photos on this upgrade more than once.

I've run both 235/75R15s and 30x9.50R15s. They are essentially the same diameter, but the 30s are just a slight bit wider. The 235s gave me no problems. The 30s rubbed on the lower control arms when the steering was cranked over to full lock. The rub wasn't bad ... and I've also run 31x10.50s on stock rims, with more rub than the 30s. But for zero rubbing, 235/75-15 is the largest size you acn run rub-free (unless you change out the lower control arms for WJ arms).

I can just imagine a picky motor vehicle inspector or police officer getting all unglued if the VIN on a door sticker doesn't match the VIN under the hood and in the windshield. You'd think these people never heard of "junkyards."

IMHO, the VIN and emissions stickers are of no practical use. I bought my orginal Cherokee new in 1988 and I don't think I have ever looked at either the VIN sticker on the door (in fact, I didn't know there is one until I saw this post) or the emissions sticker. The value of your reproductions isn't to have the information so much as to have an accurate replacement for missing, damaged, or defaced OEM stickers. So my view is that they should replicate the originals as exactly as you can do it. If that's the original layout -- don't change anything (other than the data that changes according to model). Great work, BTW.

Someone posted awhile back that a handle for an early S-10 (don't remember which years) is the exact same handle. I've never verified that.

Really? Does it say why? We sure turned a bunch of them. It says something about a special contour, but it doesn't say what that contour is. The consensus is that it's slightly dished. I only know of a few people from NAXJA who have had the flywheel turned, and they all had problems.