Eagle

It's the cap on the plastic bottle back by the firewall, on the passenger side. Common misunderstanding. That bottle is not a typical overflow recovery bottle. On the 87 - 90 XJ and MJ 4.0L engines that bottle is part of the pressurized cooling system. Do not EVER try to loosen that cap when the system is hot. Don't fill the bottle to the top. "Full" is to the halfway mark when cold. The air space allows for coolant expansion.

Huh? Racial stereotype? http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... =jerry-rig http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-jur1.htm In fact, the expression has no racial connotations, and has nothing whatsoever to do with those panels of six or twelve people in a courtroom.

When in doubt, resort to old-fashioned (crude) methods. Pull the spark plugs, squirt a small amount of gas into each hole (a half eyedropper in each should do it), reinstall the spark plugs, and try it. It should fire on that much gas. If it does, you'll know your ignition is good and that you have to focus on fuel delivery. How's the pressure in the fuel rail?

So what's happening? It's been 12 hours since the original post, and I don't see any pictures yet. Slacker!

I should add that I also never allow dealerships to touch my wheel lugs. I do almost all work myself. When I have tires mounted or dismounted, I take the rims and tires to the tire shop, off the vehicle. They do their thing, then I bring them home and I put them on the vehicle. Aside from preserving the lug nuts, using a torque wrench helps prevent warping the front brake rotors.

When you checked for timing, did you make certain that the #1 piston was on the compression stroke when the #1 sparkplug fired? Don't forget it's a 4-stroke engine. It's an easy thing to put the distributor in 180-degrees out of phase, so it's trying to fire on the exhaust stroke rather than the compression stroke. I've tried it several times and I haven't gotten one to run like that yet.

What makes you think you need a rear sway bar? And what makes you think you need one more if you change to rear springs with a higher rate (the metric ton springs)? A Cherokee has a lot of weight fairly high up in the rear -- steel roof, and lots of glass. That makes for a high center of gravity. An MJ doesn't have ANY glass back near the rear wheels, and no roof back there. The center of gravity is much lower than on an XJ. The factory didn't use a rear sway bar because they didn't think one was necessary. Depending on how you drive and how you intend to use the truck, a rear sway bar might be a good idea. But be sure you understand what the implications will be. With automotive suspensions, as you stiffen up the suspension at one end of the chassis you induce over or understeer at that end. In other words, if you make the front stiffer (either with a bigger front sway bar or with stiffer springs) you increase understeer -- the tendency for the nose to "plow" off the road in turns. If you make the rear springs stiffer and/or add a rear sway bar, you increase oversteer -- the tendency for the rear end to lose traction and spin out on curves. Going from standard rear springs to metric ton rear springs increases the spring rate approximately 33 percent. That's a big difference, and if you drive anywhere near the limit (meaning the limit of the vehicle's ability to stay on the road, not the speed limit), you will definitely feel the difference. You may not like the difference, because you may get more oversteer than you'll be comfortable with. If you add a rear sway bar on top of that, I'll almost guarantee that you'll have serious enough oversteer that you really won't like it. On the other hand, if you don't drive near the limit, none of this will matter and there is no reason for you to add a rear sway bar. Just toss in the metric ton springs and call it good. Adding a rear sway bar is for tuning a competition-oriented suspension and IMHO should not be done by 98% of the people on the road.

Almost all the aftermarket lug nuts available are chrome plated. They are solid, so you don't have to worry about that thin cap shearing off ... but after they've been hit with an impact wrench a few times, the chrome will be chipped and broken, and they'll start to rust. Also, a great many of the aftermarket lug nuts need a 13/16" socket, where the OEM lug nuts take a 3/4" socket. My '88 XJ, which I bought new, still has most of the original factory lug nuts intact. The reason is that I never use an impact wrench. I remove with a good old-fashioned spanner, and I install using a 6-point socket and a torque wrench. The reason the factory used that thin cap is that it's stainless steel. Those won't rust. The ones I have left (about 17 out of the original 20) look as good now as they did six months after I started driving the vehicle. Pep Boys used to sell the OEM stainless cap type for $3 each. Take your pick. There's a lot to be said for a solid, one-piece lug nut -- but I think they look horrible when the chrome has turned to rust, and I prefer not to deal with it.

Before you rip the engine apart, give the magic rebuild in a bottle a try. http://www.cpillinois.com/yale-automotive.htm Third one down, the EOK engine reconditioning kit. JC Whitney used to sell just the pellets and I have used them on tired engines with good (not "spectacular," but definitely good) results.

My '88 MJ came with the wiring for factory fogs but the kid who had it before me destroyed the actual lights. The relay on mine is on the driver's side, next to the radiator on the back (engine) side of the radiator surround.

I like Cooper tires, and they are made in the U.S. The Discoverer A/T is a great all-season tire with a tread wear warranty on top of its other advantages.

Passenger side could be windshield, cowl leak, or (ugh!) heater core leak.

I have never heard of an 8.25 hd axle. No. See response above. :agree: Between 5 and 5-1/2 inches.

Other arguments aside, I don't like the fact that the computers in new cars also act as "black boxes." They keep a record of how you've been driving, and that can be extracted and used as evidence in an accident. The way I drive that could only help me, but I object on principle. The newest ones are reported to also allow the gummint to track your vehicle. Supposedly OnStar allows them to shut down your vehicle by remote control. Sorry, I'll stick to driving my own car, thank you. Take good care of the XJs and MJs, and replace an engine every 300,000 miles or so. Let somebody else stimulate the economy.

And the Part-time NP231 is "Command-Trac". Rob L. As was the NP207 used from 84 thru 87

"Selec-Trac" was nothing but Jeep's name for the optional 4WD system with full-time 4WD capability. For the 84-86 Cherokee, the 228/229 transfer case was "Selec-Trac." For the 87-01 Cherokee, the NP/NVG 242 was "Selec-Trac."

This is for a '91 2.5L MJ? Don't you already have 4.10 gears?

One what? Comanche gas tank? They are readily available. Auto Zone and Advance should have listings. I got a new one, with new straps, for my '87 shortbed from a local radiator shop. I bought it two years ago and IIRC I think I paid $150.

The one I was looking at had fixed yokes, not a slip yoke. It listed comanche as one of the vehicles but I had never heard of it. thats why i started this post It did have a fixed output yoke, not a slip yoke. It was available for the MJ only in 1986. In 1987 it was replaced by the 242 t-case. But it was not the Borg-Warner Quadratrac case, and was not called Quadratrac.

The 228/229 was offered in the 84-86 XJ and 86 MJ as Selec-Trac. Both of those boxes were 2WD transfer cases with the option for full-time 4WD. They are not the same thing as the old Borg-Warner Quadratrac.

Camshaft

No. A 242 is what Jeep calls Selec-Trac. It offers a 2WD position. Quadratrac is full-time 4WD, and the old ones (as I noted) did not always include a low range. There is no 2WD position for a Quadratrac transfer case.

Doors from 4-door Cherokees fit the Comanche. Preferably earlier Cherokees. Somewhere along the line they changed the height of the latch/striker. I know it's different from '97 and newer, but I don't know about 95 and 96. It sounds like you may have aftermarket variable rate springs in the front. Take a measurement from the center of a wheel hub straight up to the bottom edge of the flare. Stock height should measure 17-1/2 inches.

You must be looking at a transfer case out of an old full-size Cherokee or pickup. Quadratrac is Jeep's name for a full-time 4WD transfer case. The old ones with the passenger side drop were made by Borg-Warner. Big, very heavy, some had a low range and some did not. My old Cherokee had the low range. It was shifted by a little lever that half hid under the driver's seat. The lock function was controlled by a vacuum switch inside the glove box. The new Grand Cherokees also have an option for Quadratrac, but the current (and recent) versions are New Process/New Venture Gear units that are driver's side drop. They do not have a slip yoke eliminator.

You really should spend some time reading the many threads on this site that discuss lifting the Comanche but, to get you started, your sources are very badly in error. Cherokees have the springs over the axle, so the rear springs have a lot less native arch than a Comanche rear spring. Plus, they are 5" shorter. Using Cherokee leaves is unlikely to produce any serious lift. In fact, I think that using a Cherokee main leaf in my Comanche springs (with the eyes cut of the XJ leaves, of course) will get me extra capacity without generating any lift. Converting the MJ rear axle to put the springs over the axle is an (comparatively) easy way to lift the rear. But ... you will be lifting by the diameter of the axle tube, plus the offset of the spring perches x 2, plus the thickness of the spring pack. In general, the MINIMUM lift you'll get that way is between 5 and 5-1/2 inches. That sounds like more than you want. If you just want to level it out and get a bit of extra capacity, get a Rancho full-length add-a-leaf kit for $50 and call it good.