Eagle

The first was definitely poor extraction technique. It was also a hot dog who got into something his vehicle couldn't handle. What I can't figure out is, with all the people standing around watching, why nobody had a winch. Unfortunately, there are no views showing what was straight ahead or straight behind. Pretty obviously, they should have been doing a straight pull rather than a severe side-angle pull. But ... too late now.

Bummer. Not an ideal way to spend New Year's eve. The good news is that you're still among the living; it sounds like the accident could have turned out a lot worse.

ALL the dash lights quit? Have you fiddled with the dimmer function on the headlight switch to see if you're just on a dead spot?

I like the bank of toggle switches idea. Put in four or five of them and wire them in series so that the switches have to be set to OFF or ON in a specific pattern or it's an open circuit. For this to work, they have to be double-throw switches, so that they can make a circuit whether the lever is up or down. Assuming your MJ is like most and has a blank switch panel to the right of the steering wheel, you could put in an XJ panel there and put two switches in that. Unless they are both ON, no run. Mount one of them upside down to make it more confusing. Plus they'll have factory labels for stuff so they won't look like a security system.

Wait -- aren't you the same Canadian who was advocating warning shots a few days ago? :cheers:

The link to this clip was sent to me by a friend in Greece. Looks to me like they managed to rip the front axle completely out, and the right front wheel seems to have ended up basically under the driver's seat. The obvious lesson here is, if you're going to build it for "real" off-road use, be sure you do it right because Mickey Mouse builds won't get you home.

Clearly we're being out-posted :D but I'd be curious as to how the breakdown of members goes. For example, the most prodigious 1.3% of posters here account for fully half the posts. I wonder if that scales up. :dunno: Is this just a case of our small group, or is this more like the bell curve, which can be applied to all sorts of things in the world. :smart: That's normal. On another site where I serve as a moderator (not Jeep-related), I occasionally notice someone who may have been a member for four or five YEARS and has fewer than 10 posts to his account. By the way, ladies and germs, as long as we are discussing milestones and the origins of the Comanche Club site, I think it's appropriate to remind y'all (or inform you, if you didn't know) that this forum is here for us ENTIRELY thanks to Pete M, who put it up on his own hook and who funds the server space/time out of the goodness of his heart. If it weren't for Pete, we would not have this site. Thank you, Pete.

That was a rather significant omission. Now that we have that squared away - CONGRATULATIONS!

Does it come with any version of Office on it -- or can it run Office (or Star Office) if you install it? I'm very tempted to pick up an Aspire, but I would need to be able to run at least Word and Excel.

No, the hole should be there, but you'll probably need to put a thread-sert in it for the bolt.

Those prices sound high for used axles. I've bought Dana 44s out of XJs for $75 each at a u-pull-it, and they typically go for $200 to $250 at a yard that pulls 'em for you. Can you actually regear an axle for $200, or is that the cost of the parts only? Unless you have the tools and the experience to set up new gears yourself, trying to save a few $$$ by not having it done professionally can be a very expensive mistake. Have you done it? Do you have the tools?

Based on your posts and questions so far, it seems that you have been told a lot about XJs and MJs, and most of it is totally untrue. The D35 is not "finicky." Changing the axle lube absolutely won't hurt it, and might help it. It's not a strong axle, but it's plenty strong enough for a stock 2.5L engine in a stock truck. The weakest aspect is the axle tubes, where they go into the center section housing. When run with large tires in extreme off-road situations, the tubes bend. This puts the axle shafts at an angle to the center section, which wears out the carrier bearings.

Both Sears and Wal-Mart sell a small, flat battery charger/maintainer that can be permanently mounted under the hood, right next to the battery, for this purpose. And Jeep probably still can provide the factory block heater that was offered as an option on the 4.0L engines. It replaces the forward freeze plug on the driver's side of the block and keeps things nice and toasty. Between the two, you can be fairly certain the engine will start. But you still need to drive it like a little old lady for about the first ten miles or 15 minutes, because the lube in the tranny and the differential will be icy cold, and until they get stirred up a bit it's not a good idea to accelerate hard or drive fast. Many years ago I had an engine oil temperature gauge in one of my cars. For the engine oil to get up to normal operating temperature on a cold morning took all the way to where I would get on the highway going to work -- about 8 miles/15 minutes. I'm sure the axle lube was just barely getting the wake-up call by then, with no source of heat other than friction (which, of course, is what we're hoping the lube will prevent).

:agree:

1. you contradicted your self by saying only the 225/75's came on the 4.0L I-6, and using the 225/75 v.s 225/70 comparison. I didn't contradict myself at all. First, I didn't say that only the 225/75s came with the 4.0L. I said that was the LARGEST size the factory used. Second, I used the sizing comparison of the 225/75-15 versus the 225/70-16 to show the difference going from a 75 series to a 70 series makes. I chose that example because both were offered by Jeep on the 2000 Cherokee, and I have one of each parked in my garage right now. But that's for 2000, when Jeep offered 16" rims on the Cherokee Classic and Limited. They did NOT offer either 16" rims or 70-series tires on the Comanche -- ever. The point was that you have a truck that came from the factory with 75-series tires on it, and you are now running 70-series tires on it. Ergo ==> your tires are smaller than stock, which equates to the same thing as having more gear. If you want to make your comparison valid, compare the same nominal size between a 70-series and a 75-series. Take either a 205/70-15 vs. a 205/75-15, or a 225/70-15 vs. a 225/75-15.

My friend, the retired AMC/Jeep service manager, has a sign in his garage at home: LABOR RATES ------------- Labor = $50 per hour If you watch = $75 per hour If you help = $100 per hour If you tried to fix it first = $250 per hour

The speedo can be recalibrated by replacing the drive gear in the transmission. Your truck feels peppy because the tires on it are smaller than stock. The 70 series tires are about an inch smaller than the stock 75 series. For example, a 2000 XJ Sport comes with 225/75R15 tires and a 2000 XJ Classic comes with 225/70R16 tires. They are the same size (diameter). I have an '88 MJ 2.5L 4-speed. It gets from point A to point B, but there's no way I would ever describe it as "peppy."

The built-in circuit breaker can just get tired. It's rare -- I have multiple 20+ year old XJs and MJs that don't have any problem, but my 1978 full-size Cherokee had the light switch go bad when it was only about 12 years old. First it would only trip when I had the brights on. Then even the low beams would trip it, so I had to replace it.

You asked what the stock size should be. Don't get uppety because I told you. They make snow tires in those sizes. You can run 235s. Just be aware that they are oversized, the 2.5L 4-speed is a dog to begin with, so it'll be even doggier with those bigger tires on it. Don't go any larger than 235/75-15 or you'll have clearance problems in the front.

Bad move. NEVER connect anything to a plug if you don't know what it does. You may have wired into a plug for the optional fog lights. The headlights have a circuit breaker built into the switch, so it sounds to me like something about your CB install created either an overload or, more likely, a short that's tripping the circuit breaker. Unplug the radio from that connector and see if things go back to normal.

MJ rear shocks are longer. I took the cross pins out of a set of almost-new XJ rear shocks and tried to put them into a stock MJ. With the shocks fully extended, they were 1/2" too short to even go onto the mounting studs.

10k for a clutch is brand new. The original clutch in my '88 XJ was replaced at 204,000 miles. The slave cylinder failed, so I replaced everything while the tranny was out -- but the old clutch didn't look any worse than the new one. AFAIK the cross member is the same.

All the same, XJ and MJ, both engines. But it's not really an "engine" skid -- it's more to protect the steering linkage. The skid plate ends about where the oil pan starts. Not a tranny skid, it's a transfer case skid. They are the same for the XJ and MJ. I believe the skid for the 242 transfer case hangs a bit lower than the one for the 231, because the 242 is bigger. I'm running a skid from a 242-equipped XJ on my '88 XJ and it seems to be perfectly fine. If you have a 231 transfer case, grab any one you can get. No interchange anywhere. XJ gas tanks (and skids) are totally different from the MJ.

:???: Are you aware that the mounting for rear shocks, XJ or MJ, is completely different than the front shock mounting? You can't use rear shocks of any length from an XJ or MJ in the front.

The 2.5L 4-speeds came with 3.55 gears. The stock tire size was probably either 195/75-15 or 205/75R15. Those sources you listed are wrong. The XJs and MJs all came with P-metric size tires, right from the first XJ in late 1983, so the letter-series tires are flat out incorrect. And the largest tire the factory ever put on an XJ or MJ was a 225/75-15 -- and that was only with the 4.0L engine.