Eagle

I think a 231 with a true neutral IS fairly common ... but not in an MJ. It is my understanding that some time in the mid-90s Chrysler changed the 231 (and the 242) to make the neutral into a true neutral that disengaged the driveline completely. The earlier ones worked as you describe ... they disengage the transfer case from the engine and transmission, but they lock the front and rear drive shafts together so they both spin while being towed.

The Grand Cherokee was introduced in 1993 (actually late 1992, as a 1993 model). The last Renix models were the 1990 model year. Unless someone did a major swap, there ain't no such critter as a Renix Grand Cherokee.

The previous owner may have grabbed the right-hand switch panel out of a Cherokee. I haven't seen an MJ yet that had any switches to the right side of the wheel. I used an XJ panel to get a couple more switches in my '88. I don't remember what they were for in the XJ, because whatever they were for I don't have. I rigged one for a broighter interior light, and the other is (at this point) a spare.

It sounds like it would be really tasty ... but it looks absolutely, grossly disgusting.

Yes, I've thought about it. For all of about 10 seconds. The fact is, Jeep (whoever "Jeep" is these days) does not currently make a single vehicle I might want to own, and in fact they don't really make a single vehicle worthy of wearing the name Jeep. It only takes 10 seconds to figure that out. End of discussion.

Block? Or head?

I believe you mean track bar instead of sway bar. Willy Right you are. Sorry, I was tired when I wrote that. I will edit my post but, of course, the quotes of the original will remain unchanged, as a permanent testimonial to my frailty.

Great. That tells us what diameter YOUR sway bar is. It doesn't provide any insight into what size HIS sway bar is. The guy asked a question because he was ready to buy parts. Your advice could cause him to buy the WRONG parts. I'm sure your intent was to be helpful but sometimes offering unfounded extrapolations is NOT helpful.

It can't be done. Your truck has a mechanical speedometer. The '94 XJ has an electronic speedometer. In addition, the polarity of the fuel gauge is reversed, so the '94 fuel gauge in your truck would show empty when the tank is full, and full when the tank is empty. You need a gauge cluster from an 87-1/2 to 90 Cherokee.

I agree with Hornbrod. The drag link and the sway bar should be parallel. The ZJ pitman arm drops the outer end of the bar 1", making it NOT parallel to the track bar. This introduces bump steer, which you don't want in a street-driven vehicle.

That photo is MUCH too small to see anythng

There is no way to KNOW definitively what diameter bar is on any XJ or MJ without measuring it. There were three or four different diameters. Buying bushings based on someone else's guess as to the diameterr bar on your vehicle is almost guaranteed to get you the wrong size bushings. Measure your bar.

I am not familiar with Z-Max. Lucas is basically a viscosity index improver (same thing as the original STP). All it does is make your oil thicker. If that's what you want -- save your money and just buy a heavier grade of oil. Since the demise of the old Pyroil oil and gasoline additive many years ago, IMHO the only additive worth considering is Marvel Mystery Oil. Whatever you do, stay away from anything that puts Teflon into your engine.

Sometimes there is no choice. When I bought my '88 MJ it had a 4" Trailmaster lift and a stock track bar. The axle end had been reloxated to a new hole that was uncomfortably close to the edge of the bracket. The stock bar was shot anyway, so I bought an adjustable and mounted it in the stock location. But ... the hole at the stock location had been badly worn into an oval shape, and there was no way the track bar was going to stay in one place. Auto tech buddies to the rescue. One of my friends from NAXJA is a VW shop foreman. Apparently around that time VW had some kind of recall or tech bulletin operation that came with a parts kit including some high-grade metric bolts and VERY thick, hardened washers of the same diameter as the track bar bolt (10mm?). And not all the parts got used in every operation, so my friend had a box full of these bolts and heavy washers. So I took the truck to his place one day and he welded one of the washers into the axle bracket over the original hole. Better than new. But it should have have been necessary. The previous owner was a teenager who must have pounded it through the woods with the track bar bolt loose.

Technically, the factory bolt is metric, so "Grade 8" would not apply. Much of the problem arises because many of the aftermarket manufacturers don't take the trouble to make their parts in metric sizes to match the application. So you either use a bolt that's too small for the hole in the track bar (leading to slop), or you drill out the hole in the frame -- thereby making it forever impossible to revert to a correctly-sized, metric part. Many of the control arms offered on the aftermarket have the same problem, as did the Trailmaster brackets that were on my '88 MJ when I bought it.

I think I can agree to that.

Maybe to tell the stupid upshift light when there aren't any more gears to shift up to?

The crankshaft position sensor is in the bellhousing, not the transmission, and it's on the driver's side not the passenger side.. And it has wires hanging off it, it isn't a "connector." And the speedometer is a mechanical cable, so it's not a connector, either. And it's also on the driver's side. I have no idea what the other thing might be.

How about asking him if he'd be interested in working with the CC to offer them here, so our members get first shot? We're the people most likely to be preserving Comanche history (some of us, anyway), so I think it makes sense.

The AX5 is a manual transmission and it does not have any sensors. Might you be looking at the switch for the backup lights?

Considering that the XJ was introduced in 1983 as a 1984 model and the MJ didn't come out until 1985 as a 1986 model, it's a bit counter-intuitive to refer to the XJ combination valve as "newer." With that: True, the XJ valve has the rear brake outlet on the bottom, which on the MJ is the emergency bypass outlet. There is no "nose" outlet on the XJ block. But if you're replacing both old lines to the rear with one new one, I don't see any advantage to having the outlet on the bottom, where it's harder to see and access, rather than on the front. The XJ combination valve does provide a proportioning function. I have slit one and examined it (same as the photo of the MJ valve above in this thread), and I still can't figure out how it works. Based on the position of the spring and O-rings, it looks like what it does is prevent any braking from getting to the rear except in very hard braking. IMHO that is exactly contrary to what a proportioning valve is supposed to do, which is to prevent premature rear wheel lock-up under heavy braking. Also, the XJ valve is susceptible to gumming up, so that you don't have ANY rear brakes. I have posted elesewhere that in my '88 XJ, if I stomp on the brakes in a snowy parking lot, the front brakes lock up and rear wheels keep turning. Cool -- I'll never spin out, but I'll also never stop. If I were going to install an XJ combination valve in an MJ, I would open it up and gut it. Which, of course, eliminates the primary reason for swapping it in the first place, which would be to get some proportioning. Which, in turn, explains why I have a box with five or six XJ combination valves in it that will probably never be used.

The AX4 and the AX5 are exactly the same, except that the rear section on the AX5 has a fifth gear unit and on the AX4 the rear section is empty. You should be able to remove the AX4 and bolt the AX5 right up in its place. But ... The '86 will have an external slave cylinder. Depending on what year MJ you buy, the truck may have an internal slave. You can get around that by either: (a) Using the '86 as-is and converting to the external slave; or (B) swapping the tranny to the other bellhousing and keeping the truck with the original setup.

There is a 'T' in the system now, but if you deactivate the height sensing valve and run a single line from the front (which is what we are discussing in this thread) you don't use that 'T.' The new hard line goes direct from the nose of the front distribution block to the upper (frame) end of the rear flex hose.

What are we looking at? WBBKrazy mentioned the stock air box, but it looks to me like this vehicle doesn't have a stock air box. Is there an arrow in that photo that I'm not seeing?