Eagle

I'm not sure. I've done AALs on XJs, but I haven't gotten into an MJ pack yet. I think I remember someone else reporting that the MJ centering pins are one size larger than the XJ. Makes sense, I guess. I know the XJ U-bolts are 12mm and the MJ U-bolts are 14mm.

Fire up Photoshop and see if the ranger box would look better with the XJ 97+ nose.

This is not a cell phone, and this isn't the Navy. Shorthand is not appropriate where it isn't necessary and where/when it makes things more difficult for the people with whom you hope to communicate. In the Army we called it 'Basic Training." Yeah ... been there, done that, got the medals to prove it. Next insult? Fair enough. Ciao.

Pete - When you added an XJ leaf into the MJ pack, what did you do about the centering pin diameter? IIRC, XJs are 5/16" and MJs are 3/8". Did you drill out the XJ leaf, or use 5/16" pins?

Sorry, Mate. Army jargon. "Sitrep" is short for "situation report." It just means "let us know what you find out." So what's this harness that "everybody" is talking about? Sounds to me like you're throwing parts (and money) at the problem without even knowing what or where the problem is. I hope it works, but it's not a great way to approach troubleshooting.

Okay. Moving forward (we hope). The hazards use a separate flasher than the turn signals, so if the hazards make the dash lights blink, too, then the problem isn't the turn signal flasher. This makes me suspect more strongly the front turn signal sockets. Remove the bulbs from the front sockets and try it again -- with no bulbs in. If it won't flash on the turn signals, use the hazards. See if the dash lights still blink. Sitrep at 08:00.

Cody - Please do us and yourself a favor and look on your keyboard for the period, comma, and caps lock keys. The English language is spoken in sentences, which allows one thought to be separated from the next thought. The post above is (I'm sorry to say) essentially unintelligible gibberish -- all because you're in too much of a hurry to observe standard punctuation and capitalization. Seriously, it makes my head hurt just trying to read it.

What do you mean by "proportioning valve"? If you are referring to that junction block next to the master cylinder, that is not a prportioning valve on the MJ. However, it does have rubber o-rings inside, so I would recommend against using heat. The block itself is aluminum, so it won't take a lot of heat to do serious damage.

210 is the normal operating temperature for a Jeep engine. 210 is NOT "too hot." There's a zone on the gauge that has a red background -- when the needle gets into the red, THAT's too hot.

You can start by testing, as I suggested. Remove BOTH front turn signal bulbs, then operate the lights, the hazards, the turn signals, etc., and see if the blinking of the dash lights goes away. Remember that unless you have a heavy-duty flasher pulling the front bulbs will change the flash rate. That's not what you're looking for -- you want to see if removing the front bulbs (which will eliminate any back-feeding) will eliminate the blinking dash lights. It's almost never a good idea to start throwing parts at a problem until you have at least narrowed down the cause. I'd rather not discuss how I learned that ... and how much the lesson cost me. BTW -- do the dash lights blink when you use the hazard flashers?

No. If you can SMOKE the brakes from 75 MPH, you do NOT need more stopping power.

Are you sure? Using XJ main leaves as AALs only lifts an XJ 1-1/2" ... or less (the one I did grossed 1-1/4", which resulted in a net gain of 3/4" higher than stock because the original springs had sagged a bit). The MJ springs have more arch, so an XJ leaf should generate less lift in an MJ than in an XJ. I haven't done one yet, but I'm predicting that I'll get basically zero lift, but added load capacity. Which is what I'm hoping for ... a home-brewed Metric Ton.

Before you start ripping the dash apart, be sure the system is full. I don't know how it reacts with a converted "open" system, but the closed system stops delivering heat if the coolant level is even a little bit low.

Words fail me.

Remove the bulbs from the FRONT turn signals and try it. My guess is the dash lights won't blink. For some reason, the front turn signal sockets on the XJs and MJs get funky after awhile. Things seem to work -- sort of -- but the ground within the socket is bad, so the turn signal filament, in order to find a ground, backfeeds through the parking light filament. Or vice versa. Or both. Then, when the lights are ON, that path is being used so when you try to run the turn signal with the lights on, much hilarity ensues. Simple fix is a replacement socket. Skip the junkyard. There's a Ford socket that's a perfect replacement, available in the HELP! aisle at all the national parts chains.

Thanks for showing up, Jeff. I went looking for your thread yesterday when I saw this question, and I couldn't find it.

It's academic, since there's nothing you can change. There's no "high performance" version of the Renix ECU, and there's no chip for the Renix ECU. What might happen is that you'll have to upgrade to newer injectors to increase the flow at wide open throttle. Why do you want to INCREASE the compression? For the 4.0L it's not exactly low. Most of us leave it stock or try to lower it to reduce pre-ignition.

The tachometer has to be recalibrated if you change between a 4-cylinder and a 6-cylinder. The early clusters (the ones that use a metal clip and screw to hold the speedo cable to the speedo head) do not have an adjustment. The later ones (the ones that use a white nylon squeeze lock to hold the speedo cable to the head) have a potentiometer on the tach circuit board, which is used to change the calibration. I'm not sure which type your '87 should have. I have always suspected that the speedo type changed mid-year in the '87 production, but I have never been able to confirm that.

Why didn't you put the original plates on top, with u-bolts? That way you could stay with the stock length shocks.

"Power to the people." I love it when a plan comes together.

After bleeding, you have to stomp on the brake peddle -- sharply and HARD -- to reset the slider that operates the light.

Not really. '99 was the first year for the WJ Grand Cherokee. The hub bolt circle is different from the XJ and MJ.

No it won't. The heater/blower box is on the passenger compartment side of the firewall. Removing the engine will do NOTHING to make getting at that any easier. The only heater part accessed from the engine compartment is the fan motor/blower itself (not the box), and you don't have to remove the engine to R&R the blower fan.

Sounds like your brakes work. By the time the shoes and pads are smoking, everything is so hot that the brake fluid in the calipers is boiling. That by itself creates brake fade and a soft peddle, because the liquid turns to vapor, and vapor can be compressed and expanded.

No. Step three is incorrect. As noted above, longer LCAs will re-center the wheels fore-to-aft in the wheel arches and will correct for the caster lost to the lift, but they will NOT reduce the stiffness in ride that is caused by the steeper angle of the LCAs. In stock trim, the UCAs and LCAs are level, which allows them to swing upward without resistance when a bump is encountered. Once you lift, they point downward. This means when you hit a bump, in order for the tire/wheel to swing upward it also has to swing forward -- which is in opposition to the direction the road is pushing it. Result ==> stiffer ride. The reason drop brackets solve this is that they maintain the stock geometry of level control arms. But, the commercially available drop brackets are made for a 4" lift. The effect of using drop brackets with a 3" lift is that the aft end of the control arms will be lower than the axle end. I found that the brackets were rick magnets even at a true 4" lift, so I would not recommend trying them at 3".