Eagle

Could be a slightly compressed tranny mount allowing the exhast pipe to hit the crossmember. More likely is a worn bushing in the right lower control arm.

Ed Stevens on NAXJA long ago took the front springs out of a Cherokee and cycled the front axle through every configuration of motion possible, all the way to the bump stops, with 31x10.50-15s mounted on 15x7 Jeep rims. The only interference was the slight rubbing of the inside shoulder of the tire on the lower control arm at full steering lock. I had 31x10.50s on my '88 MJ and I ran them for awhile after I removed the lift. I am now running the same tires on my '88 XJ, which is the same in front and has smaller wheel wells in the back. As predicted by Ed's experiment, the only rubbing I have even encountered is the shoulder of the tire rubbing the LCA on tight turns. 15x8 rims would push the outboard side of the tire out by 1/2" to 3/4". Should not be a problem on the street but might be a bit of an issue if you go off-road and get the suspension really crossed up. 30x9.50s would probably not be a problem.

Not even close. CJ rims, for example, are 5 x 5-1/2. Full-size Cherokee/Wagoneer and J truck rims are 6 x 5 The WJ Grand Cherokee and whatever its successor is are 5 x 5 The new Liberty and the new Wrangler (whatever they call the one after the TJ) are also 5 x 5, I believe.

Dunno about anyone else, but I can't even SEE the ones you have in some funky color. All I see is a smudge of some funky color.

Some years ago, after I had worn out my welcome on the Connecticut autocross circuit making Corvettes look stupid by cleaning their clocks in a Javelin (actually, not to rag on 'Vettes, it was their drivers who were stupid, for thinking a vehicle with a HEAVY 427 was a suitable vehicle for a tight, twisty course set up in a parking lot), I used to run the New England hillclimb circuit. That isn't what you off-road types think. We ran on the paved access roads that lead to the tops of most of the big ski mountains, in the summer when the roads were open and not being used. So I went to one in northern Vermont, at Bolton Valley. I don't remember how long that course was -- 3 miles, maybe? It's not a race, it's a time trial -- one car at a time, against the clock. Practice on Friday and Saturday, timed runs on Sunday. So on my second practice run I get a green flag and floor it. I was running a 290 then, and the Bolton Valley access road was straighter than most. There was really only one corner on the whole mountain I couldn't take flat out in 4th gear. So off I go, have a decent run, get to the top and slow down to go into the pit area -- and I see steam coming out of the engine room. LOTS of steam. Uh, oh. Turns out the RPMs when I wound out in first gear off the starting line blew one of the small heater hoses. Mind you, they had corner workers at ALL the corners, and they were all in contact by radio. Do you reckon anybody would have flagged me down and told me I was screaming up a mountain with the peddle to the floor and NO COOLANT? Oh, hell no. By a minor miracle the engine didn't seize up. After letting it cool for several hours, I replaced the hose, refilled the coolant, and it started right up. But ... it had gotten hot enough to score the cylinder walls, because after that the compression was in the toilet and it burned oil badly. That was my cue to build a 343 engine and plug it in. I never found quite the ideal cam for that 343, but it was a nice engine anyway. I took an FTD in a time trial at Lime Rock with that engine. But that's another story.

Oh, should I buy it? What transmission is in it? I bet he just looked under it and saw a number and gave it to me. Buy it for what? Do you need a transmission, or a transfer case? If you need a transmission, don't buy a transfer case.

I don't understand your thinking. Haven't you ever heard of the theory that you should ALWAYS hack on the cheapest part first? I lower control arm (or two) is a helluva lot cheaper than a unibody chassis. Instead of paying the shop beaucoup $$$ to mangle your chassis, why not just pay them to narrow the control arms to MJ width? K.I.S.S.

The YJ 231 is clocked slightly different, but not "wrong." My '88 MJ Chief with AX-15 and 231 came to me equipped with a YJ tranny and transfer case. The doofus left theYJ transfer case shifter and butchered the floor to make it work, but that was just cutting a hole for the lever. Doesn't appear that any "massaging" of the tranny tunnel was needed to allow for the clocking. It might vary slightly by vehicle but the worse case would be a couple of taps with a hammer.

It might help if you'd tell us what year your truck is. Assuming a 4.0L engine, the Renix years were 1987 thru 1990. The AX-15 transmission started showing up midway into the 1989 model year. Midway through the 1989 model year was also when the C101 connector under the hood disappeared, so if your truck is a 1987 through early 1989, a late '89 or '90 would have the AX-15 tranny but the wiring harness would not be a direct plug-n-play replacement (unless you replace the complete harness).

An MJ with a 4.2L?

Clogged catalytic converter? Adjust tranny kick-down cable?

The XJ didn't get a driver's airbag until the 1995 model year.

Or not. The rear axles almost never had tags. Front axles did in the early years, I haven't paid attention to them after 1988. But if the axle was ever serviced, the tag may not have been put back. Simple rule: If the engine is a 4.0L, the 5-speeds came with 3.07 gears and the automatics came with 3.55 gears. 4-cylinders aren't that simple.

1984 thru 1994 There are several articles on the Internet on how to tighten a loose tilt column. Most are for Chevy but the XJ/MJ column is a standard GM Saginaw column.

Have you been having tranny problems? Your post indicates that you expected it to happen. Why? Shifting of the AW-4 is electronic, controlled by the TCU and also by solenoids. The factory troubleshooting method is to pull the fuse for the TCU and test drive. You'll lose second gear, I believe (or first). Other than that, you shift manually. Try that and let us know if there are any glitches.

Warn makes (or used to make) two versions of the conversion, Mile Marker only has one. The Warn conversion that maintains the 5x4-1/2" bolt circle is not especially strong. The Mile Marker is roughly equivalent to the weaker Warn conversion. The stronger Warn conversion requires changing over to a 5x5-1/2" bolt circle and a lot of machine work, it isn't a bolt-on conversion. Although I agree that the Cherokee and Comanche should have come from the factory with selectable (not automatic) hubs, there's no way either conversion will be stronger than the stock setup if you retain the 5 x 4-1/2" bolt pattern. Save your money and start saving for a stronger axle. Just to reiterate, Gator, you do not have automatic hubs. The hubs on the MJ Dana 30 are just hub/bearing units. There's no locking mechanism in there to break. If you broke it, you broke the bearing (or the housing).

Murphy's Law in action.

They are WHAT? Grand Wagoneers had 6-bolt wheels, whatever the standard Chevy pattern was. Was it 6x5 or 6x5-1/2?

They allow the springs to move through a greater range than they were designed for. This causes the steel to pass beyond the elastic limit (which is the range within which it can move and recover completely) and go beyond the yield point -- which results in permanent deformation ("sag").

Simple fix if you weld or have a friend who does. I have a friend who is a VW tech (actually shop foreman, I think). He had a bunch of VERY heavy pattern (thick) fender washers left from some suspension upgrade kit that VW sent out, and which apparently didn't require using all the bolts and washers. They were the correct diameter for the axle bolt on the MJ track bar (10mm IIRC). I drove over to his house, we took out the bolt, reinstalled with one of those heavy washers, and then he tack welded the washer to the axle bracket. Done.

Actually, the OEM Jeep rims are 5-1/4" backspacing. You can stop looking, because there aren't any aftermarket rims that match.

Automatics don't use a pilot bearing/bushing. No problem.

1. Extended shackles kill leaf springs. 2. I'll bet a Big Mac that the kit is actually a Cherokee kit, and the "extended" shackles aren't any longer thah stock MJ shackles. 3. $169 for two coil spacers and a pair of shackles? Who are they kidding? That's all you need out of that "kit." You can do a budget boost for half that. Buy the coil spacers wherever you can find the best price -- they're all the same. Get a Rancho XJ/MJ AAL or, if Heel Creek here on the CC has a 1-1/2" to 2" AAL for a similar price, get that. (The Rancho used to sell for $50 ... it's probably up to around $65 now)

He has already explained that is not an option, and why.

4" of backspacing is going to push those tires out an inch and a half more than stock on each side -- then factor in the the 31s are about 2" wider than stock and you're looking at +/- 2-1/2" on each side. You won't have to worry about changing the lower control arms. What you WILL have to worry about is that the tires will probably hit the lower rear corner of the flare in front on sharp (and maybe not-so-sharp) turns, plus on a trail the tires will crash into the flares when the suspension compresses. A 2" coil spacer will get you a little bit of help for the latter, but to save your flares you'll really need to either extend the bump stops, or remove the flares and trim the sheet metal. The tires will also be sticking out a lot in the rear, and interference with the flares when the suspension compresses may be a problem there, too. Again, you may have to extend the bump stops. You can't trim very far in the back, or you cut beyond where the inner wheel well liner meets the outer quarter panel. Once you cut that weld, there's nothing holding things together back there.