Eagle

Why a new steering wheel? There is no difference between a manual transmission steering wheel and one for an automatic.

Abuse. I have an '88 Cherokee with 287,000 miles and an '86 Cherokee with 209,000 miles ... neither is broken at the headlight switch mount.

Bent float arm.

I'm afraid I remain skeptical. I saw at least three different pages on their web site where they explained in excruciating detail that the IRS can take up to 27 months to approve status as a non-for-profit. They have been in exisyence for just over a year. This tells me that they have not yet received IRS approval as a non-for-profit. Yet they say all donations are tax deductible. If they have not yet been approved by the IRS as a not-for-profit, I don't think that statement is correct. Having been on the board of directors for several non-for-profits, and having been involved in the creation of one, it is my understanding that donations to an organization are NOT tax deductible until the IRS issues a determination that the organization is a not-for-profit.

I envy you. I always wanted to drive to Alaska. Take photos. Post blogs.

Sorry, Jake -- I guess I'm just too old and I've been burned too many times. What does it mean they'll donate the funds to the California 200 tragedy? Do they even know who the victims are and how to send money to them? How do they decide which victims need the most help? More importantly (to me) ... how do we know their idea of giving "to the tragedy" doesn't mean helping the driver rebuild his truck (not that I in any way blame him, but this wouldn't help the victims), or perhaps go into the organizers' legal defense fund? And I DO blame the organizers. Completely. Since posting earlier this evening I have learned that they paid a lease fee to the BLM for the use of the course. Among the terms: 1. No more than 350 spectators. In fact, they had well over a thousand. 2. Spectators to be kept at least 100 feet away from the course. We see what a swell job they did of that. The organizers (to use a well-worn military expression) screwed the pooch. They don't deserve any help or sympathy. Thanks to their negligence, 8 people are dead and a dozen more seriously injured. Sorry. I believe you mean well by posting that link, but I just don't get any warm and fuzzy feelings that my donation would ever get where it should go.

As the resident tell-it-like-it-is olde pharte, I guess I have to ask this: The mission statement of this Fast-Aid group says The people who were injured and killed at this race were spectators, not drivers, media or pit crew. How does a contribution to this organization help the people who were MOST affected by this?

True. The fences at NASCAR tracks today are both higher and a lot stronger than they were even a few years ago. They still probably aren't 100 percent accident proof ... but they are trying. Many years ago, my brother and I crewed on a modified stock car that ran at a quarter mile oval. They had guard rail around the entire track on the outside, and a chain link fence that was ten or twelve feet high. One night our guy was on the outside approaching turn one and the guy on the inside decided to go straight rather than turn left. Our guy's right front wheel hit the guardrail at just the right angle that it climbed the rail, flipped the car in a barrel roll, and sent him flying OVER the fence into the pit area. He landed on his roof in the back pit area, where (thankfully) there wasn't anybody standing because they were all up by the fence watching the race. He wasn't injured, and the car miraculously survived. It took about three weeks to bang out the sheetmetal and check out the engine, and he was back to racing. (However, the frame apparently got tweaked a little, because forever after the incident that chassis always had handling problems.) So the guardrail and fence weren't enough ... but they were something. It was a freak accident. Allowing crowds of people to stand basically IN a course where vehicles will be traveling at 100 MPH is not just imprudent ... its absolutely idiotic.

I was going to post about this, but you beat me to it. However, this is NOT a story about the dangers of off-roading, or even the dangers of off-road racing. The driver and navigator walked away from the crash. It was idiot spectators who were killed and injured. Watch the video. This was a flippin' RACE, on a course where the trucks get up to 100 MPH. And spectators were standing right next to the road/course. RIGHT next to it -- as in less than ten feet away, on both sides. Supposedly the organizers "advised" spectators to stay at least 100 feet away from the course, but human nature insists on pushing the limits, so people ignored the advice and stood practically on the course. Under conditions like that, it is hardly a surprise that something happened. Racing is racing -- when competitors are going flat out, sooner or later someone goes 102 percent and crashes. I was lucky in my racing and hillclimb days. I had any number of spinouts and "off course excursions," but no crashes. My brother and another friend in our club both succeeded in demolishing their cars at hillclimbs in Vermont. Rocks and trees are not very forgiving ... they hit back. I am very sorry that people were killed and injured but I have to say that the person I feel most sorry for is the driver. He had to flee the scene because people (the same people who ignored the safety advice) were throwing stones at him after he crawled out of the wreck. This was NOT his fault. The fault lies with the race organizers, who didn't make any provisions for maintaining a safe course, and the victims themselves. If you stand in front of a loaded gun when someone has his finger on the trigger, it should not be a surprise if you get shot. Follow-up ... Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/us/201 ... t/#slide=1

Or you could substitute something like DynaMat, which is excellent for sound control.

What happens when people CAN'T figure out your really badly misspelled words? Perhaps more importantly for YOU, when you go on the Internet looking for information ... what happens when people don't feel like trying to translate what you threw up on the screen, so instead of answering you they move on to the next question?

You may be referring to the ventilating fan motor.

I have no experience with the '96 vintage computers but, if you're not getting ANY codes, I would strongly suspect that the computer is toast. Why are you playing with the key, BTW? A '96 XJ is OBD-II == why not get a scanner and get a REAL read of the codes (or confirmation that it's dead)?

Reality check -- if you are driving in their state, you DO go by their rules. You may not like it, but that's the law. Your home state license and registration allow you to use their roads, but when doing so you are subject to their laws and regulations.

The problem you face is that the OEM Jeep rims have a 5-1/4" backspace. There are NO aftermarket rims with that much backspace. About the best you can find is a 4-1/2" ... that immediately sets the tires 3/4" farther outboard. Then you go from a 15x7 to a 15x8, so you add yet another inch. On OEM 15x7 rims, you can run 31x10.50s with no rubbing on the flares, and the tires will "stuff" inside the flares when the suspension compresses. Set the tires 1-3/4" farther outboard, and then the tires hit the corners of the flares when you turn, and the tires hit the flares when the suspension compresses rather than tucking up inside. The best setup, unless you really WANT to start carving up the sheet metal and spending big $$$ on a lift, is to run OEM 15x7 rims and either no lift or maybe a 2" budget boost. Going that route, the worst case is you might swap the lower control arms for WJ arms, but no other mods are required. One other point about running wheels that set your tires much farther outboard: You haven't mentioned where you live, but most states don't allow the tires to extend beyond the sheetmetal. How strictly they enforce that varies, but I have been ticketed for tires extending too far because my '88 didn't have front flares when I bought it, and the front tires (31x10.50 on OEM rims) were about an inch outside the fenders. Of course, the previous owner had cut off the lips where the flares mount, so I had to buy two new front fenders, get them painted and installed, and mount flares, all within a ten-day window so I could get the truck inspected.

If the new cluster is from an '88, '89 or '90, there is a small potentiometer next to the tach on the cluster. Looks like a little plastic car with a '+' in it. The '+' is for a Phillips screwdriver. Use that to calibrate the tach. You probably should have a known-good idle tach to verify the calibration.

If you run 30x9.50 tires on 15x8 aftermarket rims, the tires will almost certainly rub the flares every time you turn. Why the fixation on 15x8 rims? 8" rims are almost too wide for 30x9.50 tires anyway. OEM Jeep 15x7 rims will work fine with both 30x9.50s and 31x10.50s and require no trimming, and no lift. With either tire on OEM rims, you will probably have some rubbing against the lower control arms at full steering lock. Adding lift will NOT correct for this. To eliminate it, you can either shim the steering stops, or use WJ Grand Cherokee lower control arms. You do not need new shocks with a 2" lift.

From the original post:

To clarify -- You want to short the battery (screw) terminal to the "Ignition" terminal. Don't connect the wire from the ignition terminal to the threaded stud.

Read up on bypassing the height sensing valve. And it's "brake" ... not "break."

As a quick test, remove the wire from the relay terminal marked "Ignition." Short that to the threaded stud where the lead from the battery connects. That should energize the solenoid and make the starter spin.

POR-15, followed by rust-proofing (NOT "undercoating").

Begin at the beginning, Grasshopper. The sequence of power is: ignition switch ==> relay ==> solenoid ==> starter. If the relay doesn't click, and a NEW relay doesn't click, you need to use a test light or multimeter to verify whether or not you are getting power to the relay when the key is turned to START. Assuming the test light or multimeter confirms no power, you need to look UPstream, not downstream. Ignition switch.

1987 thru 1990 model years (which means they started building them as '87s in late 1986).

No, that was the beginning of THIS thread. What I want to know is -- what are the symptoms of the no-start problem, since that's what led to seeking a new starter relay. That information is hidden away in another thread somewhere.