Eagle

I honestly don't know what I would do. If there is "the usual" rust around the rear wheel flares, that means there's a lot more rust UNDER the flares, and who knows where else. So it is not "rust free." Without seeing it, in person, I would not want to offer an opinion as to how much I think it's worth. My opinion, though, doesn't mean much. What counts is how much it's worth to you, and how easy it might be to find another MJ in equal or better condition for the same price. Being the ornery olde pharte that I am, I would probably walk away from the deal, because to me a deal is a deal. If you tell me I can have it, fixed, for $600 and then you come back and tell me you want 50% more, that's what I call bait-and-switch, and I don't deal with people who pull that crap. However, if I had been looking for a year or so and this was the only half decent MJ I could find, I might be forced to back off my principles and cough up the extra 300 clams. For reference, a friend recently bought an '88 BJ base model with the Peugeot 5-speed, no rocker panels remaining, and a busted rear leaf for $1300 ... and he felt he got a decent deal.

Cooper Discoverer ATR 235/75-15 = 28.9" Cooper Discoverer ATR 30x9.50-15 = 29.3" Cooper Discoverer H/T 235/75-15 = 29" Cooper Discoverer S/T 235/75-15 = 29" Cooper Discoverer S/T 30x9.50-15 = 29.35" All specs directly from the Cooper Tire web site. The bottom line is, we've had multiple threads documenting that 31x10.50s will fit -- on stock Jeep rims. How can there be any question whether 30s will fit?

Actually, most 30x9.50s measure 29-1/2 in diameter. They are VERY close to 235/75-15s in size. The diameter is almost spot on, and the 30s are typically a hair wider.

IIRC, the horn relay is under the dash, near the foot brake. BUT ... The problem may well not be the relay. My 1988 MJ had no horn when I bought it. That is, it had two horn units mounted in the usual places, but no noises emanating therefrom. After wasting a lot of time tracking down the relay, I found that I had power in, and power out. I then did what I should have done from the start -- check power to the horn. Hmmm ... I HAD power to the horn (when the horn button was pressed, of course). So I removed one horn, cleaned up the mounting area and the ground (it grounds through the mount), reinstalled, and it worked. And has continued to work for severl years.

Up "nawth" where you are, you probably should be running 5W30, at least in the winter.

Keep in mind that most of us are Amuricans, so some of the official terminology will be slightly different than what you use in Canada, eh? :) Plus things have undoubtedly changed some in the U.S. Army since I was in. "Basic" was just Basic Training. "AIT," as noted, was Advanced Individual Training. AFAIK we still have "Basic Training" and it is still called "Basic" for short. Blanket party: http://www.answers.com/topic/blanket-party

Not true. The original Mobil-1 was synthesized from "stuff" other than oil. Other brands, including Castrol, were synthesized by heavily modifying the molecular chain of petroleum base stock. Several years ago, Mobil took the other companies to court and claimed that they should not be allowed to advertise their products as synthetic, since they began life as petroleum products. The court reviewed extensive petroleum industry and SAE documentation as to what the definition of "synthetic" was, and how its properties differed from conventional oils. The court's conclusion was that the other brands had all the same enhanced properties of Mobil-1 and satisfied all functional descriptions and definitions for "synthetic" oils. Mobil lost the suit. Within a few months, Mobil-1 had new packaging announcing a new "improved" formulation. Which was putting their spin on the fact that they switched over to making their synthetic oil the same way the other guys were making it. They are not just highly-refined dinosaur juice with an additive pack, and they ARE significantly better than conventional oils. http://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/Oils1.html

There is no way the Fey bumper is beefier than the factory bumper. I have three of them, I should know. And the Fey brackets are fine for holding a bumper off the ground, but nowhere near as strong as the factory brackets. Nonetheless, I would get a receiver hitch.

If not -- there's always a blanket party. Which is why you do NOT want to be the screw-up.

You will probably also encounter some instances of being punished "unfairly," for things you didn't do (or things you didn't not do, depending on the circumstances). Drill cadre are famous/infamous/notorious for punishing the whole group when one or two or three guys mess up. Whatever you do, try not to be the guy who brings down the wrath of the DIs on your platoon. Next, when the wrath of the DIs does fall on your squad or your platoon because someone else messed up, don't give in to the temptation to whine and say, "But it wasn't my fault ... HE did it." That probably didn't work with Mom when you were a kid, and it definitely won't score bonus points with a DI. What they're teaching you (or trying to) is that an army unit is a team. Each member of a team has a job to do, and if any member of the team fails, the team suffers. In basic training, the result of one guy not having his boots shined for inspection could be that everyone's boots get soaked in a hot shower for several hours. Pretty rough and unfair, right? But the underlying idea is that if a team member messes up out on the battlefield, some other member(s) of the team get killed. They're teaching you to watch each other's back, and to realize that YOUR actions have consequences that affect not just yourself, but your entire team/unit. It's surprising how some stuff sticks with you. I have been OUT of the Army for 41 years this month. Got to talking with my brother-in-law over Thanksgiving dinner. He's been out about 30 or 35 years, I think. My sister was amazed because we could both still recite our service number without a moment's hesitation even though we haven't used it since the day we got out.

On another forum I help moderate, the forum owner made it a rule that ANY public discussion of a warning automatically earns a 30-day (I think, maybe it's 60) time-out. There is no reason for anyone to discuss in public their own warnings and/or bans, or warnings or bans imposed on other members. IMHO, gloating because another member got his wrist slapped is just as immature as some of the other on-line antics we have seen here. We don't allow flaming other members. Why would anyone think that publicly rubbing someone's nose in the fact he earned a time-out might be a good thing to do? This all boils down to the fact that we are a large group of people, and we do NOT all know everyone personally or well enough to assume that we can insult another member on-line and that everyone will "know" we were "just kidding." I've said it before -- if a new member sees insults flying, they have no way of knowing that the insulter and the insultee are best buddies, so they get the impression insulting other members is okay. It's not. This site has a private message system. That's what it's for: personal messages that really should be private.

No IMHO, high mileage oil is a scam that some of the oil companies use to charge more for what is essentially the same product. Whatever type and brand of oil you choose, do NOT use a straight weight (30, or any other) in an MJ. The factory spec was 10W30 or 10W40 for most climates. You want the thinner viscosity (the first number) for getting early oil flow to the critical areas on cold starts. You want the higher viscosity (the second number) to maintain a good oil film when the engine reaches operating temperature. For my '88 MJ at about 125,000 miles, I run Castrol Syntec full synthetic 10W40. For the '88 XJ at 280,000+ miles, I'm running Castrol Syntec 20W50. I switched the XJ over to synthetic at 175,000 miles. I bought the MJ used with 99,000 on the odometer and started using synthetic in it when I bought it.

That was the early XJ Wagoners, the ones with the same 6x9 headlights as the XJ Cherokees. The later ones with the quad headlights had the horizontal grille. I liked the early one better.

Right as rain. I made E-2 out of Basic, which very few managed to do. So I went on to AIT (Advanced Individual Training) as an E-2 instead of an E-1 ... big deal, I was still a "trainee." Then I made PFC (E-3) out of AIT, which even fewer managed to do (since if you didn't make E-2 out of Basic you couldn't possibly make E-3 out of AIT). So after AIT I was no longer a "trainee," I was now [cue drumroll] a Private First Class. Which is another way of saying low man on the totem pole just about anywhere in the U.S. Army. Especially at a guided missile artillery unit, where anybody who was anybody was at least an E-4, and we had a freakin' COOK who was a Staff Sergeant (E-6) after only two years in service. Don't get me wrong. It's not all bad ... but it may feel that way at times during Basic. Just keep in mind that's it's all a head game. Don't let them get inside your head, and you'll be fine.

Correction - You are going in as a "trainee," and don't ever forget it (not that they'll let you). You may become a mechanic after basic training, but in basic everyone is the same ... in the eyes of the training cadre (at least, according to what they allow you to see as their attitude) ALL you trainees are lower than whale [excrement] on the bottom of the ocean, and probably not smart enough to tie your shoes if they had Velcro laces. Don't let it get to you. It's all part of the game. Think of it as a fraternity hazing on steroids and you'll survive.

Pretty sure it was ten. Who has a picture of an 84-86 XJ or MJ grille?

I hear you, Pat, but completely removing one wiring harness, putting in a completely different wiring harness, and THEN making up a home-brew connector to make the front half talk to the back half sounds a lot like "rewiring" to me. And it also sounds like a helluva lotta work if all you really need is to bolt an automatic tranny up to the existing engine, install the free-standing TCU, and drive it.

Putting the engine and transmission in is the easy part. Obviously, it's a direct swap. The issue is that the HO engine uses a totally different computer, injection system, and ignition system. To do the swap and be able to gain all the increases of the HO, you'll have to rewire the entire engine compartment, and many people think once you go that far it's better to rewire the entire chassis. If you aren't good at and don't enjoy wiring, trying to convert a Renix to HO is probably not a good idea. If there's nothing wrong with your engine, the HO really doesn't put out that much more horsepower than the Renix, and hardly any more torque. But it raises the torque peak from 2400 RPM to 4000 RPM. That's a trade-off that never made any sense to me for an off-road truck. Why don't you just swap in an automatic tranny?

But it's better than for it to have gone to the great junkyard in the sky ...

If you are using the accessories from the 2.8 rather than converting the electronics, you'll use the distributor from the 2.8L.

:agree: The stock carb on the 2.8L isn't even heavy enough to be useful as an anchor, and unless you spend more than it's worth in carb cleaner you can't use it as a paperweight. I don't know what it's good for.

The 2.8L is a GM engine that Jeep purchased from GM. The bell housing is the small GM bolt pattern, which is why the 3.4L GM engine swap is a slam dunk -- it's the same block. Use the manifolds and external brackets and such from the 2.8L and you should be good to go. The only thing to watch out for is the the 2.8L was not a well-designed engine (duh!). GM got it to balance by using an eccentric weight on the flywheel/flexplate to compensate for the fact that the engine was not balanced interbnally. By the time the 3.4L came out, they had figured that out and the 3.4L does not use the eccentric weight. So you'll need to have the flywheel or flex plate neutral balanced.

Well, yes ... sort of. And also no. Aren't you aware that after Chrysler (later to become DaimlerChrysler) bought Jeep from AMC but did NOT buy Hummer and AM General, AM General (and Hummer) was acquired by Generous Motors. Whereupon DaimlerChrysler tried to claim (in a lawsuit, IIRC) that Hummer could not produce vehicles with seven vertical slots in the grille because that was a "trademark" of Jeep. Which totally ignored the reality that over the years Jeep produced innumerable vehicles with grilles having other than seven vertical slots. The XJ and MJ are only one (?) example. The XJ/MJ grille was ten slots from 1984 through 1987. In 1988 it went to eight slots, and it didn't revert to seven until the 1997 facelift. How about the grille on that Honcho that's in another thread right now? Or the horizontal grille in the early XJ Wagoneers? So, to reiterate ... yes I was kidding except that I wasn't.Sort of. In a manner of speaking. Somewhat.

It must be built on an MJ chassis -- the grille has ten slots, not seven. [slight dig at DaimlerChrysler's idiocy over the 7-slot grille being a "trademark" of Jeep]

Oh, Lord ... I SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO want that Honcho!