Eagle

Typo alert. Stock Jeep wheel backspacing is 5.25" or 5.5".

They are the same thing. I bought my 2000 XJ as a factory order with Up Country suspension. When it came in, I took the codes off the springs and went to the dealer to order a set of coils to put into my '88 XJ. The parts guy recognized the number -- "Why are you ordering Grand Cherokee springs for a Cherokee?" So he looked, and he confirmed that the standard ZJ V8 coil is the same part number as the XJ 4.0L Up Country coil.

The Mopar perches are longer than stock, although not that much. But if you're using the entire original spring pack, axle wrap is a false concern because with those overload leaves in there, there's NO WAY you're ever going to have axle wrap. IMHO I think the Mopar Performance perches are the way to go. Keep in mind that the Mopar perches are available only cut for a 3" axle tube (which fits the Chryco 8-1/4 axle but is larger than the Dana 44 or Dana 35). However, they can be ground to fit the smaller tubes.

Measuring from the ground is an invalid reference. Center of hub to lower lip of flare completely eliminates variables due to tire size, tire wear, and inflation pressure. 22" for a Metric Ton sounds about right.

Well, speaking only for myself, I want you to do it. Read my signature -- IMHO any MJ that still remotely resembles an MJ is worth trying to save. Remember, they aren't making any more Comanches. There weren't that many to begin with, there's a lot fewer today than there were at the end of 1992, and if we scrap every one that's not rock solid -- well, the ones I have will just become that much more valuable, I guess. Living in a salt-belt climate, I understand the problem. It's easy for some of you to say "forget that one and find a solid one." But pay attention to where freakjeep lives. There probably isn't a solid MJ chassis within 500 miles of where he lives. There's NOTHING wrong with repairing a rusted frame. As I mentioned in the post about my brother's Nissan, there's a shop near me (and near CW) that specializes in precisely this type of repair. Certainly it can be done, but it requires attention to detail if it is to be done correctly and ... most importantly ... safely.

For some reason, the link doesn't work for me. It's live -- I click it and it goes to a new screen with that URL showing in the address window of the browser, but ... no image, no error message, just a blank screen. :???:

The calipers should be the same (although I have heard conflicting reports on this) but you have a conventional spindle and wheel bearings, and the ones with a separate hub/bearing unit do not have a spindle at all. The hub/bearing unit alone costs over $100 (and IMHO it would be foolish to buy a used one because it could fail on you next week), so I don't see much point in trying to make this conversion. To change over, you'll have to pop your ball joints and replace the entire knuckle. Seems like a lot of work when the conventional spindle is probably the better system if you don't have 4WD.

I VERY much doubt that you have 3.07 gears in a 1986 4-cylinder. They should be 4.10s. You have asked multiple times about the stock "power band." "Power band" means the range in which the engine produces the best usable power. The 1986 throttle body injected version produced 117 horsepower at 5,000 RPM and 135 foot-pounds of torque at 3,500 RPM. That means that your power band is from roughly 3,000 to 5,000 RPM. Is that what you were asking?

Then you can't possibly know what you're welding to. The success of your repair is going to depend 90 percent on the preparation. You are not doing yourself any favors trying to "save time" by skipping important steps.

My brother's Nissan pickup was broken that badly a couple or three years ago. He had a shop that specializes in that type of repair fix it. I was hoping I could get some photos, but he said it's parked in and surrounded by mowers and other stuff so getting access to the frame for photos isn't going to happen. Basically, though, the shop plated the frame. The repair was done with the box mounted. Removing it is great if you can do it, but not necessary. But you DO have to wire brush and/or grind all surface rust off before you even think about putting new metal on. What's going to happen is that the holes are going to get a lot bigger, but you need for that to happen so you can see how far you have to extend your plating. The plating has to restore the vertical sides of the frame as well as the bottom. You CANNOT weld to rust. Period. Ain't gonna happen. You MUST be certain that you are welding to solid metal, or your weld is nothing but an illusion. Did you understand the comments about "fish eyes"? That means be aware of stress concentrators. Don't end any piece of plating in a straight line that runs perpendicular to the frame. All you're doing with that is creating a weak spot. Think "football." The ends of all your plates should be oval-shaped on the ends. That distributes the stresses of the welds along a length of the frame rather than on a single line. Do NOT use 1/8" plate. That's much too thick. Ideally, you would use sheet that's approximately the same thickness as the frame you're welding to. That way, both pieces heat up the same and you get equal penetration on both the plate and the parent frame. Somebody mentioned 12-gauge, and that's probably about right. Maybe 10-gauge if you can get it. What's the temperature where you are? Are you working outdoors? You need to preheat the metal before you even start the weld bead. If your father is working with you, one of you should hold a torch and play it along the line you'll be welding to get the metal somewhat up to temperature so there's at least a chance of getting penetration. I am not the world's best welder, but I have taken classes and I have done some welding over the years. I'm afraid I am with the majority on your welds -- you have no penetration. Those are cold welds. Your "beads" are basically lines of slag that's stuck to the surface. I'm sure if you tapped them with a slag hammer the weld beads would break right off. At lest part of the reason is welding to cold metal. I think you're right to worry about burning through the frame metal, but trying to get a balanced weld on two pieces of greatly different thickness, in freezing conditions, is about as bad as it gets. Make life easier -- use similar thickness metal for your plates, and preheat. I am all in favor of saving any MJ possible, and your truck is no worse than my brother's was. BUT ... if you want it to be safe, you'll have to make it safe, and that means spending a lot of time on thinking out how you plan to do the work, prepping the repair areas, and cutting your plates to fit the area to be repaired.

Got any photos of holsters he might have made? Preferably for semi-automatics.

Radiator? You are VERY lucky it didn't explode the block.

Whoa! The "open" system is the antiquated system. That's been around since they added radiators and water as a cooling system for internal combustion engines. When and where did Jeep engineers admit that the closed system was the worst mistake Jeep ever made? If it was such a horrible mistake, why did they go back and make it again on the Liberty, and why does it work on the Liberty? Why does it work on so many other cars and light trucks, from the other manufacturers? The real problem with the Renix closed system isn't the system, it's the funky plastic bottle with a plastic pressure cap. When new it works fine. Eventually, the cap can't seal to the bottle, the system won't hold pressure, and thet's where the fun starts. I converted my '88 XJ to a Moroso aluminum surge tank in 1999 or 2000, and I haven't had any problems with it at all since then (other than winter salt taking out the radiator -- which is an unrelated issue).

The vent windows always leaked. They were an extra-cost option, which I foolishly ordered on my '88 Cherokee. When they leaked and I took it to the dealer under warranty, the zone rep said the factory had a fix -- they would replace them with the fixed windows. But they wouldn't refund what I had paid for operable windows. I gooped up the channels with silicone grease from NAPA and that stopped the leaks, but only if I didn't open the vents. I had a/c, and I don't smoke so there was no need. Since you'll have the door apart anyway and you have a parts truck with the fixed "vents," I would advise that you take the opportunity to swap the fixed windows into your good MJ. Otherwise, get some clear silicone RTV and glue 'em shut.

Undergeared. In stock trim (running stock tires), highway cruise in 5th gear is around 1650 RPM at (IIRC) 60 MPH. 75 MPH may be about 2000 RPM (again, IIRC). 31s, in terms of revolutions per mile (which is what really counts when you're arguing gearing) are approximately 10 percent larger than stock tires. That means with 3.07s and 31" tires a true 60 MPH (not what the speedo reads if you haven't corrected for the bigger tires) will have you turning 1485 RPM at 60 MPH and 1800 at 75 MPH. You can do it -- I'm currently doing it with my '88 Cherokee -- but it's not pretty. 5th gear is essentially useless, and running up through the gears is like driving an old, tired 4-cylinder MJ with a couple of engines in the back for ballast.

But if you're talking XJs (which we were), the NVG 3550 wasn't used until the 2000 model year. And Jeep only made an extremely limited run of the 5-speeds at the very end of the 2000 production run. I have one. According to my dealer, it's the only 5-speed 4.0L Cherokee in all of New England. It was on order for something like 8 or 9 months. The factory kept delaying production, I think hoping that those of us who had them on order would get tired of waiting and cancel the orders. Some of us held out, though, and I finally got my 2000 XJ 5-speed. So for Cherokees, the AX-15 is found in late 89 through 1999 Cherokees. But the early ones still had the infernal slave cylinder. Best choice, if you have a choice, is 1994 through 1999 so you get the external slave. However ... free is a very good price -- if it runs. There's gotta be a reason why it was abandoned.

I think it depends on the locker. If it's a "lunchbox" locker, you could remove the guts and leave the empty carrier. I don't think that would work with a true locker like a Detroit. Does it have an axle disconnect? If so, leaving the axle disconnected takes the right side out of action, so if you pop the left side hub off and remove the inner axle shaft, you can reassemble with just the outer stub shaft holding the hub/bearing unit together and drive it like that. The differential will be totally isolated from the wheels.

31" tires through 3.73 gears results in exactly the same speed-per-RPM as stock tires with 3.55 gears. IMHO that's a good combination for street driving. For street and light towing, either that combination or 4.10 gears. For rock crawling, 4.10 gears is better and 4.56 or 4.88 preferred.

Oh, yes ... it'll do quite a bit. It will very effectively coat the entire engine in hot coolant. There is a way to burp it via the pressure bottle, but you don't drive it. You fill the system as well as you can and get the bottle about half full. Leave the cap off (or very loose) and start the engine. Let it idle until the coolant boils and you see/hear bubbles in the surge bottle. Shut off the engine and wait. After 2 to 5 minutes as the system starts to cool down, all of a sudden you'll see the coolant in the bottle getting sucked back out the bottom, into the block. Pour in more coolant. Don't fill the bottle, but don't let it get sucked dry or you have to start over. Once it stops sucking, refill to half, start the engine, and repeat. It usually takes between four and six cycles of this to purge the air out of the system.

The scale on the temp gauge is not linear, so that position on the dial is not 155 degrees. My '88 Cherokee has been running there for at least six or eight years. Faulty gauge. Plenty of heat (until the heater core started peeing under the carpet and I had to bypass it).

You can't judge just from the number of coils. The rate is a function of the number of coils, coil diameter, wire diameter, and free length of the spring. Unless you have all those variables for both springs, you cannot compare them.

If you have a 4-cylinder, I doubt that your RPMs at 70 MPH are 2500 to 3000. What transmission do you have, what axle ratio do you run, and what tire size are you on? And what are the actual RPMs reading on your tach? Are you saying the needle is pegged at the end of the scale?

XJs and MJs are the same under the hood. The heater valve for 87 thru 90 is different than for 91 thru 92 (MJ) and 91 thru 2001 (XJ). I don't recall if the 86 uses the same valve as the 87 thru 90. Suppoedly the 87 thru 90 XJ/MJ heater control valve crosses to a Chevy valve that's available at all the parts chains, but I don't recall where I read that and I don't have the part number.

Friends don't let friends buy from Rusty's

Now that you mention it, I have seen yellow Romex at Lowe's. Never paid attention to see if it's only in 12-gauge. Might be. I just figured it was their way of identifying their house brand wire.