Eagle

Well, that works out well. I see nothing right with it ...

Oh, you'd know. When the RMS let go on the ex-GF's Cherokee, the oil hit the exhaust and I trailed a smoke screen all the way from central PA to Montana. It didn't all burn up, either. It poured out so fast that I had to wash an oil slick off the rear hatch at every stop. I bought a CASE of Wal-Mart's house brand oil in PA, and there was none left when I got to Montana. Sorry, I disagree. The RMS can affect oil pressure only if it dumps ALL the oil and the pump is sucking air. My '88 Cherokee (mine, not the ex-GF's) is currently a bit over 280,000 miles. The RMS was replaced once, maybe 100k back. Oil pressure started to look a bit low at around 175,000 with conventional 10W40, so I changed to full synthetic 5w50 and it's okay. Runs about 40 on the highway and idles around 20. When it was new, it ran 50 to 55 psi on the highway and idled at about 25 psi. The factory spec for oil pressure is 13 psi at idle, and anywhere between 37 and 75 psi above 1600 RPM. How's your CCV system? The RMS isn't pressurized by the oil pump and circulation system, but if your CCV system is clogged the crankcase may be under pressure from blowby, and THAT can force oil out through even a good RMS.

I think the RMS does effect oil pressure because when I first replaced it the pressure shot way up into the 40s, then it dropped again and was leaking out of the back of the oil pan. Same thing this time around. Nope. When I rebuilt an '88 XJ for my ex-girlfriend and drove it from the east coast to Montana, the rear main seal let go halfway across Pennsylvania. The oil pressure didn't change. You're looking at bearings, in addition to getting the RMS to seal. Are you using the seal with the double wiper?

My guess would be a vacuum leak in the brake booster, but I don't see how working on the springs could cause that.

Halle Berry drove one in Monster's Ball

The upper photo above is the same as any front hub/rotor for a rear wheel drive car. The XJs and MJs from the years that used that had a conventional (2WD type) front spindle, with standard wheel bearings thay you could (and should) repack every 10,000 miles or so. In the other years they used the same hub/bearing unit as the 4WD models, with just a dummy stub axle insert to hold everything together.

M715s aren't for going fast. The manual steering doesn't exactly lend itself to "spirited" driving, either. M715s are for looking kewl ...

Interesting. They didn't ask me for my phone number ...

Got the bent one out and replaced with one I pulled from one of the hulks. The opposite one, though, won't come out even when prying outward with a screwdriver blade under the shoulder. I'd guess that the "nut" is a riv-nut that wasn't properly expanded when it was installed, so the whole thing is now spinning. Oh, well ... it doesn't appear to be in danger of falling out. Wildman, I will try to return them, but I don't have the receipt so I can't prove how long I've had them.

It has no importance to overlook. The purpose of a steering stabilizer in an off-road vehicle is to prevent the steering wheel from snapping back on you if a front wheel slides off a rock or something. It serves no purpose on the street. The fact that it may mask the symptoms of death wobble is an unfortunate coincidence that causes many people to waste good money replacing stabilizers that don't solve the problem. Most "cars" don't even have steering stabilizers.

Check your wiring. The test is the same for both gauges. First, with the ignition on (but the engine not running), unplug the wire from the sender. That's an open circuit = infinite resistance. The gauge should peg to the right. Then ground the wire directly to the block or chassis. Be SURE you have a solid ground connection. That's zero ohms. The gauge should now move all the way to the left. If the gauges don't react this way ... you may have a wiring problem. If they do, you probably have either bad sensors or the wrong sensors.

If the wreck is a full-size Wagoneer, I don't think it has a Dana 35. It's much more liekly to be a Dana 44. However, it'll be a 6-bolt lug pattern.

Sorry, but I agree with BLHTAZ and CWLongshot. Since it is entirely possible to drive an XJ or MJ with NO steering stablizer and not have death wobble, it should be obvious that a wimpy stabilizer cannot cause death wobble. Rather than waste money on a band-aid, it's far better to diagnose the real cause and fix that. I would check wheel balance, caster angle, and track bar -- in that order.

I think the J-10 used the same GM 6-bolt pattern as the full-size Cherokee/Wagoneer. What was that, 6x5.0? The J-20 used an 8-bolt pattern -- I don't recall if that was also used on the J-10 but I don't think so.

It certainly would make sense to do the painting now rather than repair one panel, and then paint the rest of the truck later. That Cherokee color scheme isn't really silver, it's more of a platinum (at least the ones I've seen). I like it, but it looks better with the moldings in the platinum area -- and then they trap water and start it rusting behind the trim Catch 22. Whatever color you use on the flares, be sure the shop uses flex additive in the paint. The flares do flex, and without the additive the paint will crack and peel right off.

Yeah, I double-checked the listing on-line. The steel hatch has the strut mounts reversed -- the high one on the hatch and the low one on the body -- but the strut itself is about the same. And if you ever picked up a fiberglass XJ rear hatch, I doubt very much the steel ones are heavier. If anything, I expect they are lighter. But ... it's academic, because it looks like they sold me the correct struts. I just don't think they're right, regardless of the listing. I probably can't return them, but I think I'll get 'em from Auto Zone next time. Or the dealer ...

Over the winter the lift support struts for the hatch on my 88 XJ kind of wimped out on me. Finally got to the point that on cold nights or days they wouldn't hold up the hatch at all. On warm days, they wouldn't lift it but, if I lifted it manually, they would more or less hold it most of the way open. So I just bought a pair of replacement struts from Advance Auto and put them in three days ago. This afternoon I took the trash to the transfer station, went to close the hatch, heard a "SNAP!" -- and the upper end of one strut had popped off the ball stud. Worse, it actually bent the stud. These new struts are a lot stiffer than I remember struts being the last time I replaced them, and they don't use the OEM style of attachment. For now I took them both off and replaced the originals (thank God I forgot to take them to the transfer station with the trash). The hatch works -- but the upper ball stud on the left side is bent and the upper ball stud on the right is loose, and the ball is scored. I want to replace both but ... how do they come out? The one that's loose just spins with I turn it, it doesn't seem to thread into anything. Anybody know how these things work?

Hmmm ... Not exactly the same tire, but I just put a set of Micket Thompson Baja Belteds on the Cherokee, because two of the BFGs developed cracks in the sidewalls. The Baja Belteds seem similar to the Claws, and they very definitely do NOT ride well on the street. They are very loud, rough, and the steering doesn't track very well. I'm running them as an emergency measure, but they will be coming off just as soon as I find replacements. Did I mention that they are LOUD?

Yep - IF the fan works, and IF the temp sensor in the radiator works, and IF the relay works, and IF the wiring is hooked up and IF the connections aren't corroded. On a 20+ year old MJ there are a lot more reasons why the aux fan probably doesn't work than there are reasons to think it might work. The fan didn't work on my '88 when I first got it. I found that the connections where the wiring plug went onto the relay were so badly corroded that one tab of the relay simply didn't exist. I had to cut all the wires, crimp on new female connectors, and attach each wire individually to a new relay.

:agree: Yep. 210 is normal. Needle straight up.

The "style" is also similar to the (choke) Liberty. Personally, I think it's fugly. Anything that makes an XJ look more like a Liberty is, by definition, fugly. Don't know if they still offer them, but Crown used to sell reproductions of the actual XJ European export taillights. Yes, they were different from the American taillights. I always meant to get a pair but I never quite got around to it.

Ummm, getting back to the toolbox ... Looks great.

The oxygen sensor is probably THE single most frequent cause of a "rich-run" emissions fail. It's unlikely a dirty air cleaner could possibly make an engine run that rich. The O2 sensor is supposed to be replaced every 80,000 miles anyway -- it's a maintenance item. It's also a LOT cheaper than that one injector. If the O2 sensor doesn't correct the problem -- be sure you're sitting down when you price that injector.

Second one I've heard of. A friend from upstate picked up a hulk that had broken in the same place. Looks like a good place to inspect carefully, and to consider adding either plating or boxing of the frame at the "hinge."

:agree: