Eagle

I agree with Geonovast. It sounds like you don't have the axle disconnect ... connected. Jack up all four wheels Run it in 4WD. See if the front driveshaft is turning. If you can't jack up all four wheel, put it into 4WD and in gear (any gear). Motor off. Jack up the front wheels and see if you can turn the wheels. If so, crawl under and see if the driveshaft is turning with the wheels. If not, try to turn the driveshaft by hand. If the driveshaft isn't turning but the wheels are, you didn't engage the axle disconnect properly. You may have accidently shimmed it into the disconnected position rather than the connected position.

WHY? The 2.8L is a 6-cylinder. The 4.0L is a 6-cylinder. They make the same number of ignition pulses per revolution. Recalibration is only needed when using a 4-cyl tach with a 6-cyl engine, or a 6-cyl tach with a 4-cyl engine. You guys are making this FAR more difficult than it is. All he needs is to use the old cluster with the old speedo cable into the "new" transfer case and he's done. Now ... How do I know this works? Because my friend in Greece had a 1984 XJ 4-banger that originally came from the U.S. He liked the style of the newer (1988-1990) gauges better and he found a cluster out of a 1989 Comanche 4.0L (in Greece, mind you -- abandoned). He dropped the '89 cluster into the '84 XJ and all the electrics worked. He used the potentiometer to calibrate the tach against a hand-held idle tach, and the job was done. He Jerry-rigged a clip to hold the old speedo cable into the newer style speedo head, and that was that. Don't over-think things.

Yes but the speedometer cable is different. Also, the '86 cluster doesn't have the adjustable potentiometer, so you have to use a 4-cyl cluster with a 4-cyl engine, or a 6-cyl cluster with a 6-cyl engine.

No. Why would you swap IN a cluster with idiot lights? What do you have now, and why do you want to replace it? The usual reason for swapping out the cluster is to get rid of the idiot lights and get a cluster with full gauges, and usually a tach (although around '88 the Pioneer level had real gauges for oil pressure, water temp and voltage, but did NOT have a tachometer). What you want is a gauge cluster for a late '87 thru '90 XJ or MJ with full gauges. If you want a tach, be sure it has the tach. In that range of years (like the one in the photo above from mfpdm) the tach has a potentiometer that can be adjusted for 4-cylinder or 6-cylinder, so which vehicle it came out of isn't important.

Are you saying that 4x4 doesn't work at all, or that low range doesn't engage? If it's only low range, I'd say the lever needs to be adjusted. There's a neutral position between 4-Hi and 4-Lo ... perhaps your shifter isn't getting beyond the neutral detent. Have you put it up on four jack stands and tried running it with the wheels off the ground to verify that the front wheel don't turn?

Do you have a wiring diagram? I don't think you understand what you're working with. There is no way one wire can "control" both taillights and stop and turn functions. That's the ground wire. The other wires are the power wires, and THEY are what control the lights. Are you certain that little thingie is a resistor? I have no idea how LEDs work, but I don't see any need for a resistor. Could that be a diode? To ensure that current only flows one way?

This is bad advice for two reasons: 1) Electrically, lights (especially high wattage auxiliary lights) should always be run through a relay to alleviate burning out the switch contacts. You also neglected to mention a fuse. 2) Legally, fog lights have to be wired so they can ONLY operate with the parking lights or low-beam headlights on. They MUST turn off automatically when the high beams are activated.

I still can't understand why Spielberg hasn't done a movie of the Dragonriders of Pern. Crikey, there are enough of the books by now to be good for at LEAST a trilogy. Back when I started reading the books I even had the cast picked out: F'lar ==> Tom Selleck F'nor ==> Sam Eliot Lessa ==> Lesley Ann Warren Masterharper ==> Kenny Rogers Mastersmith Fanderel ==> Hulk Hogan All of those folks are too old for the roles now, and I have envisioned them in those roles for so long that I can't imagine anyone else playing them. Spielberg, where were you when we needed you?

I'm not being sanctimonious, I'm trying to help you not waste your money. I'm an architect/engineer by education and profession. We use flow calculations on a regular basis. I know that bends add resistance to flow, but the bottom line is that a bigger pipe carries more stuff with less resistance. You can't more than double the cross-sectional area of the pipe(s) without significantly reducing the backpressure. If you are set on the dual outlet system, I would make the two outlet pipes no larger than 2" or maybe even 1-3/4" each.

You're joking, right? Let's see -- if your current muffler is a 2-1/4" inlet and outlet, the cross-sectional area is 3.98 square inches. A 2-1/2" muffler has an area of 4.91 square inches. That's an increase of 23 percent -- at the inlet and through the muffler. But then you want to make it a dual outlet with two 2-1/2" exhaust pipes. So the outlet area will be 9.82 square inches, which is an increase of 5.84 square inches or 147 percent. The 2.5L engine has a much "peakier" and narrower torque band than the 4.0L. Much more than the 4.0L the 2.5L needs backpressure to run efficiently. I don't know how you figure you don't "see" much drop in backpressure, but if you don't I respectfully suggest you need to have your eyes checked. It's your truck and your money, but I think you're making a mistake. And it won't get you the sound you want. The only way to make it sound good would be if the header had two independent outlets, each serving two cylinders. That way you could run two independent pipes right to the tailpipe and the exhaust pulses would be separated. The system you are considering is NOT a dual exhaust.

If you changed the hub, you had to have removed the axle retaining nut. It's supposed to be torqued to 175 foot-pounds. Is it possible that you skipped this step and that the outer axle isn't properly mated to the hub? Also, if you replaced a hub, are you certain you installed the correct hub? The hubs changed, I think in 1990. They are not interchangeable. If you used the wrong hub for a '92, that might result in making it appear the axle "got longer." (I'm not sure on that -- it has been a long time since I had the two style side-by-side for comparison.)

IMHO you are making a huge and expensive mistake. The stock system is 2-1/4". I once allowed my brother (who ran a Speedy Muffler shop at the time) to talk me into a 2-1/2" turbo muffler and cat-back system for the '88 XJ. It sounded great -- but the gas mileage dropped by 2 or 3 MPG and the performance at any legal speed suffered noticeably. By putting in a dual 2-1/2" system you'll be reducing back-pressure still more, which is going to cost you even more torque and fuel efficiency. That was the only time in my life I ever looked forward to an exhaust system rusting out so I could justify going back to the stock configuration. Oh, Gawd! Just noticed you have a 4-banger. Your stock system should be a 2". You are going to be VERY unhappy with what happens to your performance with this new setup you have in mind. And there is simply no way to make a 4-cylinder sound like a big block V8, not even if you had true dual exhaust -- which you won't, pushing it through a single cat.

Can't be done without destroying the shifter. My dealer is an old-line Jeep dealer -- they were AMC/Jeep since before the introduction of the XJ. (In fact, they go all the way back to Hudson.) The shop foreman told me that there once was a (very expensive) factory tool to separate those two halves. Over the course of about 20 years the shop used it exactly one time, so when they needed space in the tool room for tools to work on the newer vehicles ... it got tossed. It IS two pieces and you could probably mount it in a big vise and pound it apart -- but you probably won't get it back together again.

I have read ... but not tried ... that putting a rag in the gears between the ring and the pinion and then turning it will force the carrier and ring gear to walk out.

Just engage it and shim it in the engaged position. Send $350 to me and I saved you ten bucks. You're welcome.

Don't do it ... you'd never be able to sleep peacefully again ...

Turn WHAT? I repeat -- the cause of loose steering is almost NEVER the steering box, and if you tighten the steering box even a little too much you will destroy it.

The "flag" mirrors were black, not chrome, and they weren't large. Are you perhaps confusing the "flag" mirrors with the "west coast" style towing mirrors?

Yes an XJ mirror will fit your door. NO on removal. The little "flag" mirror was the stock mirror on the base model MJs. More likely the municipal garage found a junkyard XJ and added the passenger side mirror. My 1988 SporTruck came with the "flag" mirror on the left side and nothing on the right side.

To go from an '86 2.5L to an '89 4.0L you will need the ENTIRE underhood wiring harness, plus the ECU (which is under the dash, above the driver's right foot). You will also need the transmission for the 4.0L, since the 2.5L tranny won't bolt onto a 4.0L block and likely wouldn't stand up to the torque anyway. If the 4.0L is an automatic, you'll also need the TCU and harness. Personally, after studying the stroker for many years, I would not build a home-brew stroker. There are too many issues attaching to controlling the compression ratio and resultant detonation.

There is ... but you really REALLY should not mess with it if you don't know what you're doing, because if you do it wrong you WILL destroy the steering box. The cause of loose steering is almost NEVER the steering box itself.

Did you buy it new? I have NEVER heard of an MJ that came from the factory without that massive overload leaf.

The original Cherokee/Comanche mirrors that mount to the forward corner of the vent window fold in. Moving the flag mirrors IMHO would be a step backwards. They're junk anyway. Get rid of 'em.

I think you're the only other person I've known that's read Anne McCaffrey. I have all of her books in the Dragonriders of Pern series (multiple copies of some of them), and most of the Pern books written by (or with) her son, Todd. I think I have one more of his yet to acquire. I've also read most of her other books from other series. The one I never really got into was the Acorna series. I've read two or three of them, but they just don't ring my chimes.

Not really. But ... I AM an Anne McCaffrey fanatic.