Eagle

Actually, the early (Renix-era) hub/bearing units are serviceable. The procedure is discussed in the early FSM and you can (or could, I haven't checked recently) buy the individual bearings and seals from Quadratec. But it requires a heavy-duty hydraulic shop press to do the work, and if you add up the prices of all the parts they equal or exceed the cost of just buying an entire new hub unit. The newer hubs use straight roller bearings rather than tapered and they are not serviceable. But neither style of unitized hub/bearing involves a spindle. As you point out, that was only on the earlier 2WD models. And then somewhere around 1994 (??) they changed over to using the same hub/bearing units on the 2WD vehicles, with an outer stub axle that ends in a flat plat rather than a yoke for the u-joint.

Are you talking about flat towing, or on a dolly, or on a trailer?

I almost like it, but I agree with you ... it's just too long. It might be better if it had just used a shortbed box, but overall I think it really needs a shortbed box PLUS smaller rear doors -- sort of like the half doors in the rear of GM full-size pickups. (Not the true crew cabs.)

I did Connecticut to Taos, NM in 2-1/2 days once. Don't recall how far that is ... 2100 miles? I wasn't totally wiped out when I arrived, but I wasn't about to go square dancing that evening, either.

Did you also have the steering box centered? If so, you're good to go. If not, you have a problem.

The procedure to tighten up a loose GM tilt column is all over the Internet. I don't have it bookmarked because I don't have one, but someone here posted a link to one of the writeups within the past few weeks (IIRC).

I must have missed something ... I thought we had smith1811's problem all diagnosed. He needs a U-joint. The only complication might be if the ears are too beat up for the new u-joint to go in and stay in place.

There are no commercial spring shops in a city the size of Des Moines, IA? My friend down the road picked up an MJ with a busted #2 leaf on one side. He took it to the spring shop I recommended, the guy made up two new #2 leaves (so both sides would be the same) and put the springs back together. My friend plans to haul a lot of firewaood so he specified a slightly thicker replacement leaf and a touch more arch, so he ended up with about a 1" lift in the rear. Any spring shop should be able to do this for you.

How hard are you using the brakes to slow down? Blue obviously indicates a LOT of heat. Considering that in my racing days at Lime Rock I was using the brakes quite a bit all the way around the track and I never saw a discolored rotor, I'm inclined to think that you have a dragging brakes problem.

Does your truck have a tilt column?

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.