Eagle

ALL harmonic balancers eventually separate. Often, yes. Not always.

Why? Flip them side to side and they'll work fine, with the original shocks.

Amazing. I'm shocked -- SHOCKED! I say. Tires. Who'd a thunk it? ^^October 23, 2010^^

Works for me. Don't believe what you read on the Errornet. The AW4 is one of the most bulletproof automatic transmissions you'll ever find. Unibodies are used because they are stronger than chassis-on-frame, not because they are weaker. Those few trucks that break in half don't break at the unibody, they break in the rear, where there's a conventional frame. FWIW, although I have never seen an MJ break there (and I live in the salt belt), my brother's Nissan "Hardbody" did break there. And the Nissan has a full frame under it. Don't beat on it. I have 288,000 miles on my '88 Cherokee, with the original Dana 35 rear. I've wheeled it all over the northeast, from the Mohawk Train to Paragon in PA to some undisclosed trails in MA and RI. I've also driven it across the country twice and wheeled a bunch of fire roads in New Mexico. It ain't a Dana 60, but it's MORE than adequate for street use as a daily driver. Harmonic damper. Flex plate.

Park on a level place with the wheels pointed straight ahead. This is important, so make sure. Set the parking brake, put it in PARK if you have an automatic, and chock the rear wheels. Turn the ignition key to the first position after LOCK. You want to be able to turn the steering wheel, but you do NOT want the engine to start. Now -- roll down the drivers window, stand outside the door, and gently rotate the steering wheel through the range of slop. DO NOT TURN HARD ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY MOVE THE TIRES. All you're looking to do is see how much slop there is. Now -- open the hood and look at your steering box. You'll probably have to remove the air filter box for access to the top of the steering box. It should look about like this: In the lower part of the photo, do you see the "turret" that's attached with three bolts and has a stud and locknut in the center? That stud is the over-center adjustment screw. You'll need a box-end wrench for the locknut and an Allen key for the adjusting screw. Sorry, I don't remember the sizes. Loosen the locknut while holding the screw in place. Back off the locknut a couple or three turns, at least. Remove the box-end wrench. You are now ready to adjust. You can rotate the steering through the slop range from under the hood by grabbing the flex flange where the steering shaft attaches to the steering box. What you want to do is wiggle it back and forth while GRADUALLY screwing the adjusting screw in. You should feel the slop range decreasing as you screw in the adjuster. DO NOT try to take every last micron of slop out. The box needs a small amount of "lash" to keep from binding up. Just take most of it out. Once you've got it so there's only a tiny amount of slop, hold the adjuster with the Allen key and tighten the locknut. Note: If the steering box is completely trashed, the adjusting screw will bottom and you'll still have slop. I've only seen one box like that ... ever.

Answer: No. quote="Bignuke"]And i was thinking about adding a pretty cheap lift (1"-2") I know the chevy drop shackles will add about 1.5" but I'm looking for an even 2" lift.. I already have the WJ lower control arms for the rubbing and I'm not planning on trimming the fenders at all. Just want to know what's out there for a lift around $100.. I know some companies have all these pucks and shackles for $300 when i go to a junkyard and get them for $50.. If it's only for the street, you don't need any lift, so why are you even asking?

Technically, play in the steering box itself has NO effect on front end alignment. Alignment includes caster, camber, and toe-in. In an MJ, camber is not adjustable (except by replacing the ball joints). Caster can be adjusted by adding or removing shims in the frame pockets where the lower control arms attach. That rarely needs attention. Toe-in is what usually needs to be -- and gets -- adjusted. The tech could have done the alignment -- he wanted to sell you a steering box. Don't go to that shop again. I hate shops that try to "upsell" unnecessary work before they've even looked at what I asked to have fixed. How much slop do you have in your steering wheel, and have you tried adjusting the over-center screw on the box?

Actually, ALL MJs came from the factory with 14mm U-bolts. The closest SAE size is 9/16, but since I work on both XJs (which came with 12mm U-bolts) and MJs, I standardized on 1/2" so the same parts can be used on both. It's slightly oversize for the XJ and slightly undersized for an MJ, but IMHO a new 1/2" U-bolt is probably at least as strong as a 20+ year old, heavily rusted 14mm U-bolt.

Correction: Will most likely be a Dana 35.

I cannot imagine brake fluid in an engine doing anything other than creating endless misery. I've popped frozen engines loose by using a length of hardwood dowel placed against the cylinder wall (so it bears on the edge of the piston, not the hollow center) and striking sharply with a moderately heavy hammer (NOT plastic). Move from one cylinder to the next in rotation. Helps to have been soaking in rust penetrant for some time before the attempt, but it sounds like you have that covered. Just be careful that you don't punch out the center of the piston top.

As a reference, a fairly typical 31x10.50 is 10-1/2 inches wide (at the sidewalls, not the tread width) and about 30.5 inches in diameter. A 265/75-15 would be 10.4 inches wide and 30.65 inches in diameter.

SporTruck was the model. It was the designation for the base configuration around 1988.

I also welded a washer, to the front only. But my friend works in a VW dealership and at the time VW was issuing some kind of retrofit kit that included some 10mm bolts and VERY thick, oversized washers. Apparently not all the cars needed the bolts and washers, and my friend had a bag full of them. So we grabbed one of the washers and welded it in place. I'm fairly certain it was hardened as well as being extra thick and extra large diameter.

Wouldn't a radiator for a 4-banger with A/C be at least a 2-row core? Yeah -- Auto Parts warehouse lists 2-core radiators for the '86 4-banger. Scroll down: http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/search/?Ntt=Radiator

It is impossible to make them not leak, short of sealing them with silicone. I paid EXTRA to get them when I bought my '88 Cherokee new. The vents leaked from the day I took delivery. The factory service rep cheerfully informed me that the factory had a fix. "And what might that be?" "We take them out and replace them with fixed glass," he said. I can't reproduce what I told him because this is a family-friendly site. The problem is not deterioration. The problem is that the gasket was not molded with a step at the point where the bottom track stops and it transitions to just glass. There will always be a little gap there, and that's where the water gets in. Silicone is your friend.

Trac-Lok was always an option from the factory, regardless of which axle you got.

Lowe's sells sheets of steel that are about ideal for this. I used the heavier of what they offer, but I can't remember if they offer 16-ga and 20-ga, or 18-ga and 22-ga. Fuzzy memory tells me it's the latter, which would mean that my patch panels were 18-gauge, and they seemed plenty heavy enough.

That may be part of the issue, but he's going from an XJ setup, that had separate, amber lights for turn signals, to an MJ style that blinks the brake lights for turns. The old/early XJ Wagoneers also did NOT use dedicated amber turns, and there was an entire tail end sub harness that was different in the XJ Wagoneers than what was in the XJ Cherokees. The simplest solution now would be to get a "logic box" such as what's used to run standard, small trailer (4-wire) lighting off an XJ. Connect the logic box to the chassis harness per the instructions, and run your LED units off the output (trailer) side of the logic box.

Dunno if they sell it at Lowe's and Home Depot, but HVAC installers insulate sheet metal ducts with a somewhat thin, foil-faced fiberglass insulation. There are two thicknesses, representing two levels of insulation value. Maybe the thinner stuff laid on the floor and then covered with indoor.outdoor carpet would do the job for you. Yeah, here ya go: http://www.lowes.com/pd_179375-1410-SP5 ... facetInfo=

Eagle -- "Older than dirt." At your service, Sir.

:huh???: If that's a reference to my taking issue with a couple of responses, I don't think I'm being sanctimonious. I didn't ask for advice; I asked for a part. It's not only this forum, it seems to be almost standard on most Internet forums. Someone posts up a very specific request, saying, "I have identified a specific need for ___." And immediately 17 gazillion people chime in, "I don't know where you can find a ___ but what you really need is ***." Frankly, I think such behavior is just plain rude. It isn't responsive to the question, and it serves no purpose. Why waste bandwidth offering an answer that is unrelated to the question? If you want sanctimonious, IMHO the epitome of being sanctimonious is assuming that you know what someone you've never met and know very little about needs better than he does. [/rant]

I would prefer a Trac-Lok, but the fact is when it's slippery there isn't enough traction for a Trac-Lok to UNlock, so it might as well be a locker. Gents, I know you mean to be helpful, but I'm 67 years old and I've been driving in snow for longer than most of you have been alive. I know how to do it, and weight and tires are NOT the answer. I need a traction device ... I just don't want to shell out $400 for a new diff to drop into a $100 truck.

Looking for a Trac-Lok unit (preferably), or maybe a Lockright or Aussie Locker to fit an '86 MJ Dana 35. Truck is 2WD and I won't have time to convert to 4WD before winter. Looking for cheap traction. Whaddaya got?

The '85 XJ 2.5L had a carburetor, but that doesn't affect the gauges. Go for it.

Yep.