Eagle

Nope. The spool valve is at the "top" of the box -- the end facing the input shaft. I'm pretty sure the "thingie" I'm referring to is properly called the "ball nut." It's at the "bottom" of the box -- the end toward the radiator.

I bought everything I need to repair it for 170dlls, including the complete front bumper :brows: SHAZAM! (Note: Before you young, urban yoots accuse me of posting a vulgarism, allow me to 'splain you the origin of the word "Shazam." There you have it.)

Somebody on NAXJA several years ago (might have been Woody, one of the former presidents) IIRC did a single shaft replacement for the CAD and actually used a Dremel to hog out the inner end of the axle tube so he could use the same seal as the driver's side. There's a LOT to be said for using the "correct" part, but it takes a brave man to do that machining with a Dremel. (Although I suppose if you set the seal with enough goop around the outer diameter, the goop will compensate for a bit of gap-itis around the bore of the axle tube.)

You can't estimate revolutions by engine sound. If you had a 4-cylinder tach connected to a 6-cylinder engine, it would be reading too high, not too low. Why? Because all the tach does is count pulses. A 4-banger makes two pulses per revolution, a 6-cylinder makes three pulses per revolution. So the 4-cylinder tach would see three pulses and say, "Hmm, that's 1-1/2 revolutions." Borrow an idle tachometer and use that to verify the actual RPMs at idle, and how it calibrates to the tach in the cluster. No, the old style ("Type 1") tachometers do not have the potentiometer. Check your voltage with a voltmeter. It isn't in the red, and normal operating voltage should be between 13.6 volts and ... ??? 14.2 volts??? ... don't remember the upper limit off the top of my head. Suffice it to say that the system is nominally a 12-volt system, but it doesn't actually run at 12 volts. I don't know what to say about the temp gauge. After the vehicle has sat long enough to completely cool off, does the needle drop to 100 degrees (fully to the left) when you turn on the ignition? If the ignition is on (engine NOT running) and you remove the wire from the temp sender, where does the needle point? If you then ground the wire directly to the engine block (or head) where does the needle point?

You have to remove the dash bezel. Behind that, the rectangular panel that the switch is in is held to the dashboard by three (IIRC) screws. Remove the screws to access the back of the panel and push the switch out.

I think for a road race truck I'd be inclined to use a manual steering box. GM/Saginaw manual boxes should be bolt-ins -- the earliest XJs and MJs actually came with manual boxes (with something ugly like a 24:1 or 28:1 ratio) in the base models unless you bought a package with power steering. I've seen a couple, but never owned one. Back in my pony car racing days, Javelins and AMXs came standard with 20:1 Saginaw manual boxes. The optional power steering box was a 16:1 ratio, IIRC ... and there was also an option for a 16:1 "quick ratio" manual box -- which is what I put in ALL of my Javelins and AMXs. Trying to parallel park with wide tires was a bit of a nuisance, but once the vehicle was rolling even a couple of MPH the steering was schweeeet. (Although I don't think I'd recommend it for rock crawling with 33" tires.) One of my friends used to race a modified AMC Rambler American. By the time he switched over from drag racing to road racing, the QRM boxes were no longer available. So we made one out of a power steering box. We plugged both hose ports on the top of the box. That would have blocked fluid movement and bound up the box, so we removed the plug from the bottom of the piston thingie in the box (don't remember the correct name -- "recirculating ball nut," perhaps?) to allow the fluid to just slosh back and forth as the piston moved, and all was good. Hmmmm ... Available again, but a bit pricey: https://www.borgeson.com/catalog2/produ ... 1680fd32c4

Old age definitely has an effect on eyesight. Yeah, thanks for the reminder. As if I needed more reminders. Trouble is, in my case it's affecting both near and distance vision. There was a time when I could read a JC Whitney catalof without glasses. No more. Oh, well. That's why they make scopes for rifles (and shotguns).

Another factor is that, if I understood the question correctly, these are the front hard lines. Those have to punch through the inner fender walls. The hole is just large enough for the tubing, it isn't large enough to pass an end fitting through. To each his own, but I would rather keep the small hole and make a flare myself rather than butcher the sheet metal so I could get a pre-fitted end through the fender.

The only wiring for a 4WD of that vintage is the vacuum switch for the 4WD light on the dash. The light is already there (although it may not have a bulb in it). For simplicity, you don't actually NEED a light. Set up the front so you either use an axle with no disconnect, or shim the disconnect so it's always engaged, and skip all the vacuum garbage. After all, you have that big lever in the floor. If it's forward, you're in 2WD. If it's sticking up, you're in 4WD.

Put those tires on again, and mark where each one goes. If you have the shimmy problem, rotate ('X') them, and try again. If that doesn't stop it, rotate again, but this time just move them front to back and back to front on the same side. The goal here is to try to isolate if one tire is the culprit.

How does WHAT pull out? Are you referring to the fuse? It's in the fuse panel, which is UNDER the dashboard. You just grab it between the thumb and finger and pull it out.

Here comes the Dutch uncle again: You guys are ALL overlooking the obvious - changing the tires eliminated the problem. Ergo, the problem is either the tires, or the rims. Just because you paid someone to balance the tires does NOT mean they are balanced. I have had to take some tires back three times before they finally got them balanced well enough not to shimmy at 55 - 60 MPH. Many years ago, I had a set of Dunlops on an AMX that one shop simply (the AMC dealer) could not balance. I had to forget the money I had spent and pay another shop to do it right. You are all assuming the problem here is death wobble, but with death wobble you have to nearly stop the vehicle to end the wobble. In this case, slowing down to 35 ends it. That sounds to me like "shimmy," not death wobble. And the speed at which it starts indicates wheel balance ... although a slightly bent rim could be a factor. A good balance technician would notice if a rim wasn't running true, but today there ARE no good balance technicians. Just minimum wage guys who are pointed at a tire machine and who think the machine always does a perfect job. Not! Is that what the technician told you? That's garbage. Balancing a wheel involves both the correct amount of weight AND putting the weight in the correct location(s). There is no such thing as a tire being "out of balance by 'X' ounces." If there's any weight at all on a wheel, it is often (but not always) possible to correct a balance problem just by moving one or more weights on the rim. If this is what the shop told you, IMHO it is proof positive that they don't know what they are doing.

Showoff! I doubt I could even see a .410 hull at 25 yards.

If you remove the fuse for the tranny controller, you are left with a transmission that you can shift manually ... with 1st, 3rd and 4th gears only (no 2nd). Try that, and see if it shifts cleanly when you move the lever from Lo to 3 to OD. If it shifts okay under manual control, the tranny should be okay and the problem is either the controller or the feedback from the TPS to the TCU.

That's quite a recoil in the first video. What the heck kind of cannon were you shooting?

I am perhaps the primary objector to TXT SPK, and the original post in this thread was NOT in text speak (well, except for the "any1"). The proof of that is that I could read it. THe 2.5L is an excellent engine, but not overly endowed with either horsepower or torque. If it's a 5-speed it probably has 4.10 gears, but the 4-speeds came with 3.55 gears. With a 5-speed, 4,10s are acceptable (but not great) with stock tires, but 4.10s are what we typcally advise for 31" tires with the 4.0L 6-cylinder. Personally, with a 4-banger I wouldn't go bigger than 30x9.50s ... or just 235/75R15s, which are very nearly as big as 30s, a wee tad narrower, and several dollars less expensive. If your goal really is mud, you might be better advised to skip the 2.5L rebuild and just get a 4.0L out of a Cherokee and put that in. It'll be more work, but the results will be more satisfying. As to axles, Cherokee and Comanche axles are identical except for spring perch location. In an '86, you most likely have a Dana 35, non C-clip version. There is a very small chance that you might have an AMC Model 20, which is a very strong axle that should be plenty adequate for mudding ... especially with a 4-cylinder. The D35 isn't a great axle, but if you don't really beat on it, it'll last you for awhile. The original D35 in my '88 Cherokee has been wheeled all over the northest and is now at 285,000 miles. The only maintenance was to replace the Trac-Lok at around 175,000 because the clutches wore out.

Friends don't let friends buy Rusty's stuff.

Bleeding the tube in the mechanical gauge is not necessary. It's a pressure gauge. It doesn't know or care if it's reading air pressure, water pressure, or oil pressure. It responds to pressure. Any air in the line will compress by the amount the oil pressure creates, and the pressure will then be the same everywhere in the tube. It appears from your description that you have oil pressure at driving speeds, just not very much. That's possible. I once drove a race car transporter from Connecticut to Maryland and back with a mechanical gauge that showed 7 psi at highway speed. That was (apparently) enough to keep some oil flowing and the oil was "oily" enough to keep things sliding inside the engine. I have no idea how long it had been like that or how long it lasted after that trip, but the owner told me before I left that the oil pressure was low and "don't worry about it" ... so I didn't. I still think your bearings are gone. It may already be too late, but if you catch bad bearings in time all you have to do is put in new ones. Once they wear away the babbit material, you have harder metal from the bearing shell wearing directly on the crank journals, and that can score the crank. At that point, in addition to needing new bearings you also need a new (or reground) crankshaft.

There are a couple of ways to eliminate the axle disconnect, and if you're having this done on your truck it would be a good idea to clarify up front exactly what "they" are giving you for your money. (1) The simple, quick-and-dirty way is to remove the vacuum shift mechanism, slide the collar (it works just like a synchro collar in a manual transmission) over to the engaged (or "locked") position, fix it in that position either by shimming with washers, moving the 'C' clip, or even putting a hose clamp on it -- then reinstall. The two-piece axle then remains permenently engaged. (2) Remove axle disconnect mechanism, remove inner and outer axle shafts, and replace with one-piece axle shaft. This requires finding or making an inner seal for the right side of the differential housing, because with the CAD the seal is located outboard of the disconnect. The downside to this is that the seal may be a special seal, which could be difficult to find if it needs replacement. (It can be even more difficult to find if you don't know what it is.) (3) Variation on #2, same procedure but replace with newer year axle shaft that has the larger U-joint at the outer end. This obviously also requires replacing the stub shaft that goes in the hub/bearing unit. Approaches 2 and 3 eliminate the CAD entirely, so they would call for a blank cover plate to replace the vacuum motor mounting plate.

I don't think that's correct. And don't forget they reversed the polarity from 1990 to 1991. I think the older ones were 0 ohms empty and 88 ohms full, and the newer ones were 5 ohms full and 105 ohms empty.

There is about a foot of difference in the wheelbase. There is no way to put a short bed on a LWB chassis and make it look at all "right." Simply chopping the back of the frame isn't the answer.

Diagnosing sounds from written descriptions is almost impossible but it sounds like you are hearing the clutch release bearing.

There were no details, which is a good thing. It means the DA prefers to try the case in court rather than through the media, which is the way it should be. That also probably means he feels he has a very solid case. One of the alleged killers is the girl's ex-boyfriend. Talk about "With friends like that, who needs enemies?" The world today is such a sick place, it isn't even safe for teenagers to date any more. Back when I was that age, the only thing parents had to worry about was that some stud might get their l'il darlin' knocked up. Today, parents have to worry about date rape, drugs, gang rape, "good" old fashioned RAPE rape ... and now ex-boyfriends being so hinky about breaking up that they'll kidnap and kill the girl. Sick.

It wasn't my truck, but on one of the NAXJA North Atlantic Chapter wheeling trips in the Mohawk Trail area of Massachusetts Earle had one of the control arm brackets on his XJ tear off the frame. This was on an afternoon early in the weekend. Somehow we got it back to the campground, but it looked like he was done for the weekend and wondering howe to get his XJ from western MA back to RI. The next morning everyone was clustered around the truck and having no good ideas when a group of guys came through the campground on their way to the local fishing hole. There are a lot of wheelers in that area, so they stopped and asked what was going on. When someone explained, one of the guys said, "No problem. I'll be right back." Turned out he was a welder by trade and he had an industrial grade welder in/on his work truck. He came back about 15 minutes later, fired up the welder and crawled under the XJ, and half an hour later it was stronger than TrailMaster had ever dreamed it could be.

The Durango box is possible worth pursuing if you plan to do a lot of heavy rock crawling. For most uses, even moderate 4x4 on a frequent basis, the standard Jeep box with 14:1 ratio is more than adequate. Personally, I spend more than 90 percent of my time on pavement, and a large percentage of that on highways, so I am more interested in getting the best control on the highway. The ZJ box with the 12.7:1 ratio is the preferred solution for that. Either that or buy a 12:1 box from Borgeson.