Eagle

I never like to kick a guy when he's down, but I DO think it's important in a group like this to disseminate accurate information, and to correct errors when we see them. I have the MJ FSM open to Section 'G' right now. And there is nothing in the service description or procedures for the 4WD front axle that refers to a spindle. If you are looking at the exploded view on page G-108, that's for the 2WD axle ("Type 2"), which uses a conventional spindle rather than a unitized hub/bearing assembly.

If you used a box from the PnP I assume you took the pitman arm with the box, so the pitman arm probably can't be on wrong. Plus, as noted, it is keyed so it can only go onto the shaft in one orientation. Which means that when you bolted the box in you must have not had both the box and the steering wheel straight when you connected the steering shaft to the box. You'll have to remove the box and re-install. do NOT try to "adjust" it with the drag link.

Considering it's a 4 wheel drive axle that doesn't have a spindle, that's a stretch ...

Technically, this incident occurred in my '88 XJ 4.0L but, since the Renix MJs are mechanically identical and this could have "consequences," I'm posting in the MJ Tech area. With the a/c not working, "Old Faithful" is currently mostly relegated to weekend warrior duty, such as hauling stuff to the local transfer station. To get there, there's a half-mile climb up a moderately steep hill that I normally do in second gear at about 2200 RPM. The gas peddle seemed a bit stiff today and when I'd let off the idle didn't drop all the way down to 650 as it should, but I figured with a bit of driving it would loosen up. WRONG! When I pushed down a bit more on the gas to go up that last hill, I knew immediately that the throttle was stuck. It ran up the steep part at about 2500 RPM in 2nd, but when the grade started to level out we just started going faster ... and faster ... and faster. I rode the brakes until I got to a spot wide enough and straight enough to pull off, then I stopped by shutting off the engine, popped the hood, and manually closed the throttle body. From there I made it to the station, dumped my stuff, and limped home in first and second, then set up to clean the throttle body and idle air controller. WRONG AGAIN! After mucking around with the throttle body, I discovered that the problem was not IN the throttle body. The cable from the accelerator pedal leads to a bellcrank down on the side of the engine, which in turn pulls and pushes on a lever that comes up and snaps onto the throttle body arm. The pivot on that bellcrank was frozen up. With the arm snapped off, the throttle body operated smoothly ... but the connecting rod didn't. After numerous soakings with PB Blaster and working it by hand, it finally loosed up ... somewhat. I'll rinse and repeat a few times over the next several days to get it better loosened up, and I may even add a supplemental return spring. If your throttle begins to feel at all "catchy" or sticky in operation, DO NOT assume that it will get better as you drive. I was lucky to be on a side road with no traffic when mine froze up, but in traffic the result could have been a lot more serious than it was.

Did you "bypass" the rear proportioning valve, or did you eliminate it? If you bypassed it -- how dod you do it?

You could use it for that, but Hesco developed that to mount a CPS on the 4.2L engines when converting them the MPFI.

Yes, I know. No, you can't bypass it.

Wait -- "Counter"? You won't find lift springs at the local Auto Zone or Schucks. You have to order them from a place that specializes in Jeep 4x4 parts and equipment. NAPA and Carquest can sell you heavy duty "Cargo Coils" for the MJ, but they only give you about 1" of lift. They are essentially the same as XJ Up Country coils.

Let's see: 55 / 3.07 x 3.55 = 63.6 I'd say your son probably wasn't really doing exactly 55, but it was the rear axle ratio change that did him in. That's assuming, of course, that the speedo was accurate before you swapped the axle. If the tires were larger than the speedo gear "thought" they were, even with the old axle the actual speed would have been faster than indicated.

You're doing an axle conversion, not a straight swap. You need a specialty shop that does custom 4x4 work, I wouldn't trust a job like that to a corner garage. And I hope you have deep pockets, because whatever axle you got, it's going to have to be modified to fit into a Comanche. What is the "donor" axle out of? Have you even considered things like overall width, brakes, wheel lug bolt pattern, control arm brackets, ...?

Looks nice, but ... does it have a tachometer? I know cruisers don't "need" tachs, but I have been riding and driving by the tach for better than 50 years. I won't own a vehicle that doesn't have a tach (other than for parts, or waiting to have a tach installed). Heck, I had a 1971 Honda CB350 that would do 80.

I don't recall what the FSMs for the XJ and MJ say, but all the service manuals I used to use called for packing the oil pump with Vaseline to get a prime.

Try metric sockets. The MJs, especially the early ones, were a maddening mix of metric and SAE fasteners. And use 6-point sockets, not 12-point.

Maybe this will work: Well, it didn't work. I can manually view your pics, but putting them in a post with correct tags results in an error message that the picture size cannot be determined.

"Bleeding" is for brakes. "Burping" is for the cooling system.

Are you certain the plug you took out was the fill plug and not the drain plug?

No, you didn't have to do it. You wanted to do it just to torment me. Well, have I got news for YOU ... My little brother is the unchallenged horrible pun king of the known universe, so have at it, Mate. You can't touch me. ( :fool: Neener neener!)

Your friend is, I assume, a professional automotive engineer? Ask him why, if the oil slinger isn't needed, the engineers at AMC/Chysler/Jeep went to the trouble and expense of using it. They don't use ANYTHING without a reason if it'll save 2-1/2 cents per vehicle.

OUCH! Your a tougher man than I am. If that had happened to me, I think about now I'd be keeping myself "heavily medicated" and I'd be in no condition to be posting on some Internet forum.

WOBBLE! Not "wable" BRAKES Not "breaks"

Let's get terminology straight. Wheel shake or shimmy is not always (and in fact usually is NOT) "death wobble." Death wobble is a particularly violent shaking, not just of one front wheel but BOTH front wheels. It is SO violent that you literally cannot drive or steer the vehicle. The ONLY thing you can do is hit the brakes, hold on ... and pray you can stop before you crash. It usually requires coming to almost a complete stop before the shaking goes away. If you have a shake at 50 but you can still get it up to 80, you do NOT have death wobble. You have wheel shimmy. Have your tires balanced. Seriously -- "death wobble" is called that for a reason. When it hits -- you KNOW you're going to die.

Heh ... I thought LAST week was the week from [bleep]. That was only until we got to THIS week. What's left of my brain is totally fried (and not on any extralegal chemical substances, either).

You might want to hit a junkyard and have them cut out the upper windshield brace for you ... the member that runs across the top of the windshield. The one on that MJ has a fairly sharp kink in it -- it may be difficult to get that straightened out enough to mount a windshield without leaks. The XJ roof skin is different, but I think the structural brace is the same. If you remove the entire roof skin, you should be able to weld in enough of the XJ brace to eliminate the kinked section of the original truck, then hammer out the dent and reattach the roof skin.

I'm 92.37% sure they're 10mm ... but I don't remember the thread pitch.

The upper/outer corners don't line up. The early fenders have a flat, straight chamfer at the transition from the vertical sides to the flat top next to the hood. The early header has a small beveled section to match this. The new style is rounded (radiused) rather than chamfered. You can make it work. Before mounting the new header, you fill in the inside of those upper corners with Bondo. Then you mount the header, and shave down the outside of the upper/outer corners to blend in with the old fenders.