Eagle

Ummm ... who do you think makes Rancho? Rancho and Monroe are both part of Tenneco and I'd bet a donut they all come out of the same factory. The reason I don't recommend the Sensatracs isn't that they're not good. IMHO they are VERY good. But ... they adjust to road conditions by having short bypass grooves in the bore at the mid-height position, allowing for a softer ride at "normal" height that stiffens up as the suspension compresses or droops, when the piston gets beyond the grooves. If you'll be towing or carrying a heavy load frequently, you lose the benefit of the "groove tube technology" ... so why pay for it? You can get the Monro-Matic Plus for a few bucks less than the Sensatracs, or you can go for the Reflex series for a bunch MORE than the Sensatracs. For a daily driver that sees a lot of miles at highway speeds, I might go for the Reflex. For most of us who use an MJ as a weekend warrior, 2nd (or 3rd, or 4th) vehicle, the Monro-Matic Plus is fine.

I would use Monroes. Whatever the line is next cheaper than the Sensatrac. Way back when my '88 XJ was new (ish), when the factory shocks wore out my brother talked me into buying a set of KYB Gas-A-Justs for it. I HATED them. They were sloppy over big bumps and dips, yet extremely harsh over pavement cracks and closely-spaced ripples. I didn't even wait to wear then out. I had them on less than a month before I did what I should have done. I put on a set of Monroe Magnums (a series that has been discontinued). Those rode and handled much better, and lasted well over 100,000 miles.

Nope. Over-revving should not result in overheating. Prolonged idling might, but not over-revving. Unless your fan and/or water pump weren't working. 1) Drain the oil, into a clean, OPEN pan. Inspect the oil carefully for evidence of coolant in the oil. If you find a lot of coolant, you may also have damaged some bearings, in which case the new motor might be wiser. If there's no (significant amount of) coolant in the oil, go to: 2) Borrow a machinist's steel straightedge and check the top surface of the block for flatness. Also inspect the cylinder bores. If the mating surface of the block is flat and there's no visible scoring in the cylinders, go ahead with the low-miles head. All it'll cost you (apparently) is a head gasket and some time.

You still have not explained what caused the head to crack ... or what caused the head gasket to blow. Getting stuck in mud typically does not blow gaskets or crack heads. That said ... if you blew a gasket and the resultant overheating cracked the head, unless you got enough coolant into the oil to score the bearings your short block should still be good. Why go through all the work of swapping an entire engine if you can just bolt a head onto it and drive it?

Before throwing the baby out with the proverbial bathwater, and recognizing that it's a lot easier to swap a head than it is to swap an engine ... HOW did you crack the head? What's the likelihood of other (collateral) damage?

Another vote for just installing a used engine. She apparently didn't tell you WHY it is seized. If from standing, it could be rusted rings and that can be freed up -- but there's a good chance it'll always use oil. If it's seized because it overheated, there may be other damage you'd have to do a tear-down to assess and repair. It isn't worth the effort -- just get a known-good engine from a junk yard and swap it in.

So what happened?

Are there two switches? Possibly you got a 2-speed switch for a vehicle without intermittant wipers?

Rear main seals do not last forever. Doesn't matter if the vehicle is driven daily or parked for several years. If the '88 needs a RMS, the '87 will need a RMS ... if not today, then maybe next week. If it's 4.0L, the RMS does not require dropping the transmission, only removing the oil pan.

You mean the other line to the rear? No, it won't. If anything in the rear is leaking, you essentially have no rear brakes and the front brakes are doing all the work.

:???:

I ran my '88 MJ Chief with 3.73 gears and 31x10.50s for years. That combination was an accident. I bought the gears for the '88 XJ with the intention of running 30x9.50s. Then I got the lifted MJ, which came on bald stock-size tires, and my brother gave me his old 31x10.50s from his Nissan. The truck was a dog with 3.07s and 31s, I had the 3.73s, so I said "Why not?" and put 'em in. It was okay but I wished at times they were 4.10s. Street was fine, but the crawl ratio (especially with a 5-speed) wasn't low enough. In fact, looking at road speed and RPMs, the 31x10.50s through 3.73 gears ends up being exactly the same overall, final drive ratio as stock tires with 3.55 gears. Which reinforces my general rule of thumb, 3.7s for 30" tires, 4.10s for 31s, 4.56 (or 4.88) for 33s, and 4.88 for anything larger than 33s.

Andy in PA (or Andy from PA) also lowered an MJ. I don't recall if he posted any details.

You guessed it -- there was originally a tag on each spring. I pulled the code off the tags on my (now my wife's) 2000 XJ Classic when it was new and the tags were there and readable. The XJ has Up Country. When I used that number to order a duplicate set of springs to put in the old XJ, the parts guru recognized the code and asked why I was ordering ZJ coils for an XJ. That's how I know XJ Up Country coils are the same as stock ZJ V8 coils.

It's worth whatever the buyer and seller agree on. Clean, rust-free MJs of any year are difficult to find. It all comes down to how badly you want it. It's well-known that I'm a curmudgeon, but if I were asking $2,500 for a vehicle and you offered me $1,500 I'd throw you off my property. If you came back the next day and offered me $5,000 I'd tell you to f*** off. You're talking about an offer that's roughly 40 percent less than the asking price. That's not an offer, that's an insult.

They used different coded springs depending on what equipment was on the vehicle, so they would all ride at the same height with or without options. It wasn't unusual to find different spring codes on the left and right side of the same vehicle.

That's the proportioning valve for the rear brakes. Many of us don't trust them and have removed or by-passed it. There are several threads on this site discussing how to eliminate it.

TJ coils are shorter/softer than XJ/MJ coils and would result in a ride height about 2 inches LOWER than stock. When lowering the front back to stock height, remember that it will affect the toe-in, so have the alignment checked immediately, unless you really don't like your tires.

I don't understand the question. First you say there's no split, then you say the hose that connects to the split was visegripped. What's the question?

The factory manual says head bolts can be re-used one time. They instruct you to put a dab of white paint on each bolt head so the next person to go in there will know not to try to use the head bolts for a third time.

Pete is correct. The LWB originally offered two capacities. If Jeep did it the same as the Cherokee, the tanks would be identical on the outside and the small tank would have had a baffle to prevent filling it all the way. (Dumb!) There was only one size tank for the SWB, which was in between the capacities of the two LWB tanks. The SWB tank is definitely not the same size, physically, as either LWB tank. Dunno if you could get a SWB tank into a LWB chassis securely -- I've never seen it and never considered it.

#2 was a Jeep show vehicle from around 1999 or 2000

Try unplugging the connector for the CPS and plugging it in again. Your '88 also has the C101 connector -- that's the big connector thing on the upper firewall directly ahead of the driver, with the main harness running into and out of it. If the CPS doesn't do it, try wiggling the C101 connector.

My 2000 Cherokee is "Patriot Blue," which is a pretty nice, dark blue metallic. The next year, Chysler came out with an even darker blue, the name of which I don't know, which is what my brother got on his PT Cruiser. I really REALLY like the super-dark blue on the Cruiser.

My amigo Jeepero Erich, down the road, is replacing the driver's side floor pan in his MJ even as we speak. We spent three days drilling out spot welds and cutting an intact floor pan out of one of my XJ hulks so he could weld it into the MJ. He has removed the entire floor from part way up the tranny tunnel clear across to the door sill. I asked about photos and he said he is taking them as he moves along, so once he's finished he has promised to post a write-up.