Eagle

The 1984 4-cyl XJ Wagoneer I once had included leather seats and the full gauge package, with tachometer. My friend's Cherokee, that he updated from the 1984-style cluster to the 1988-style, had full gauges and tach from the factory. They exist.

Small plastic measuring spoon jammed into it. I was fearful that it was a siezed motor. Time to have a discussion with my roommate. :no: So what did he stuff into the washer drain?

Then don't. It has been well-documented that the tachometers for the early (up to/through 1996) 4-cylinder and 6-cylinder are different, and have to be recalibrated when changing from one engine to the other. That's not just me saying it -- it has been written up here, and it has been written up on NAXJA. If yours is accurate, I'm happy for you. But it shouldn't be, and I just don't want other people to think theirs will be if they do the same swap.

There's a new body style Cherokee at a gas station/garage down the road from me. They've been taking parts off it for several months now. Being able to do it in one day must be REALLY cranking. If I were doing it, I'd want to label all the connections on the wiring harness, and that alone would probably be a two- or three-day effort.

If your tach reads correctly, it didn't come out of a 6-cylinder donor vehicle. The tachs prior to 1997 are NOT self-compensating, they are matched to the engines by number of cylinders. The early ones (1984 thru 1986) cannot be adjusted, they have to have a resistor changed on the printed circuit board. The 1987 thru 1996 tachs have the potentiometer and can be adjusted.

Just because the tachometer is functioning and giving you a reading doesn't mean it's a correct reading. The tachometer counts ignition pulses. With a 4-cylinder engine, two pulses equals one revolution. With a 6-cylinder engine, THREE pulses equals one revolution. So you put a 6-cylinder tach into your 4-cylinder vehicle, and your engine has to go around one-and-a-half revolutions for the tachometer to "see" one revolution. It is showing you two-thirds of your actual engine speed. I haven't done this swap, but a good friend of mine did, and we DID have to recalibrate his tachometer. There is a potentiometer on the back of the tach, and that's what's used to calibrate it. In the case of my friend, he was updating the appearance of an '84 XJ that already had a tach, so he just hooked them both up and adjusted the new one to match the old one. Since you don't have an old one, you can use an idle tachometer. As a point of reference, if you ever get a speedometer working or access to a GPS, with 225/75-15 tires and 3.55 gearing, in 4th gear you should get the following readings: 40 MPH = 1723 RPM 50 MPH = 2154 RPM 60 MPH = 2584 RPM [Edit to add]Wait! You said the tranny is an AX-5? And 3.55 gears? Are you certain? Typically, the 3.55 gears were used with the AX-4, and the AX-5 should have either 4.10s or maybe 3.73s.

You are caught squarely on the horns of a dilemma. A Dana 35 rear axle is marginally adequate for running 31" tires, including moderate off-road duty, if you aren't a heavy-footed driver. I ran 31's on the Dana 35 in my '88 MJ for three or four years, before I lowered it back to stock height. 32s IMHO are pretty questionable. But ... for either 31s or 32, 4.10 gearing is a LOT better than 3.54. For comparison, I ran the 31s with 3.73 gears, and the final speed-to-RPM was exactly the same as my wife's stock Cherokee with auto and 3.54 gears. So, although the Dana 44 rear axle is far superior to the Dana 35 in strength, the 3.54 ratio is going to be lousy for off-road. Marginal at best with the 31s, and not even marginal if you go with 32s.

It shouldn't be. It should be reading (... lemme see, it's a 6-cyl tach w/ a 4-cyl engine so it should be registering ...) two-thirds of the actual RPM. The tach is NOT self-compensating. What gears do you have, what tranny do you have, what tire size do you have, and what RPMs show on the tach at 60 miles per hour (100 km/hr)?

Did you remember to recalibrate the tachometer from 6-cylinder to 4-cylinder?

You're going to need a 4WD AW4, and they usually come with the bellhousing attached.

Measure the center-to-center spacing on the holes, and look on the HELP! pegboard display. IIRC, there's a u-bolt kit for some Ford vehicle that's also correct for the Jeep yokes.

If the rear of your truck is 4 inches higher than stock, how do you figure that a 4-inch lift in the front won't level it? Try this: Measure the height of your front end as it sits. The method is in the same post that told you how to do the rear. Or, the simple method: wheel/axle center to bottom of flare. Stock height should be 17-1/2 inches. I'm betting yours is sitting lower than that -- which would mean that a 4-inch lift based on stock height would give you more than 4 inches of lift.

This is by far the easiest fix, and stronger than the OEM bolts.

The older 8-slot grilles used the older header and headlight trim. The chrome trim strip across the top was three separate pieces, one for the center and two curved pieces over the headlights. In 1990 (I think) Chrysler revised/simplified it so the upper trim band was an integral part of the grille and the headlight bezels. The newer style takes a different header panel, but from ten feet away they look the same.

Keystone had the export lights? Hm, never heard that before. I can't get to the Keystone web site -- I don't have an account. Here's another source: http://www.jeep4x4center.com/jeep-light ... -xj.htm#13 Scroll down. The Euro tail lights are below the U.S. versions.

10-4. Pete isn't kidding on this.

The '86 had a 1-3/4" or 2" exhaust, didn't it? You can mellow it out a lot by using a 2-1/4" muffler and tailpipe for a 4.0L, but be advised that you'll sacrifice some low-end torque (which is sort of an oxymoron with the '86 anyway). Once you have the 2-1/4" tailpipe, you can run a Soundmaster or Dynomax muffler of your choice. 4-bangers are tough, though. It's hard to not make 'em sound like a ricer. It'll NEVER be mistaken for a big block V8.

Whatcha' gonna do for wheel adapters? (6-bolt hubs)

S ... s ... s ... sell? What language is that word from? It is not recognized.

"I love it when a plan comes together."

I've thought about just buying a smaller car, but I am currently looking out the window at approximately 3 feet of snow, coated with sleet and ice. The major storm was a week ago, followed by two minor ones, and the roads all over this area are still a mess. I definitely want her to have something with full-time 4WD. That's why my first preference would be to buy a used XJ with SelecTrac. Converting an older XJ or MJ is the fall-back plan.

UUUUGGGGLLLYYYY! Kill it with fire! You should still be able to get export tailights for the XJ from Keystone. They ARE different from the U.S. taillights, although I don't know why they did that.

Background: For those who may have noticed that I've been pretty much in absentia for the past couple of months (well, also for those who didn't notice), the absence was because I was in Chile, battling the bureaucracy to complete the adoption of my wife's granddaughter. We finally made it through and got her here. My now-daughter turned 16 today, and she's already talking about wanting to learn to drive. (This is a big deal for her -- in Chile you can't get a license until 21.) I can stall for awhile, because she has to learn English well enough to take the mandatory drivers' ed class, but sooner or later she's going to be a driver ... and then she's going to want/need wheels. If possible, I'll try to find a decent 97+ XJ that has dual airbags. However, decent new-style XJs aren't growing on trees around here, so I'm also looking at "the fleet" and wondering what I have that might be suitable. I'm giving some consideration to either an '88 MJ 4-banger, or an '86 XJ 4-banger. But I would really like to have her behind an airbag. So ... .. has anyone swapped a 95+ XJ steering column, with functional airbag, into an early XJ or MJ? Can it be done? It would involve dimmer wiring and windshield wiper wiring, as well as the steering column itself and swapping in an airbag control module. If anyone has done this, I'd appreciate a synopsis of what I'd be facing if I decide to go that route.

How's your heat? Not "temp" ... "heat." The temp gauge in my '88 XJ has been reading consistently at the first hash mark from the left for at least 5 or 7 years. I've gone through several thermostats and three temp senders ... doesn't make any difference. Then I realized that my volt meter also reads low, and that's been verified by checking the voltage at the battery. As for the temp -- I have excellent heat, even with the outside temperature below 20 degrees, and if the coolant temperature was really what the gauge says, I'd be shivering while driving. I suspect your gauge may be off. I also suspect ... but I've been too lazy to check into this ... that the erratic gauge readings may be due to a bad ground between the gauge cluster and the chassis.

So you have about a 4" lift compared to a stock 4WD MJ. Did you meausure your front and compare that against the factory method? That would give you a better indication of what you need for springs. If your truck started out as a 4-cylinder and had a 4.0L swapped in, the 4.0L is a LOT heavier, and perhaps the person who did the swap didn't bother to swap the front coils. Which would mean your front is probably well BELOW stock height.