Eagle

Harbor Freight Tools sells a manually operated transmission jack for around 50 clams. I wouldn't buy it if I ran a shop but for the weekend warriors like us ... let's just say it beats all heck out of bench pressing a transmission while lying on a cold concrete floor (or a gravel driveway) with about 2.79 inches of clearance above your nose. Don't forget -- getting the tranny OUT is not half the problem. It's barely a quarter. Coming out is easy -- to put it back in you have to align the shaft on the tranny with the clutch release bearing and the pilot bearing or bushing in the end of the crankshaft. If you don't get things lined up and try to force it -- well, that's how you bend clutch fingers. Oops -- http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=39178 Looks like the price went up since I bought mine. Still money well spent, IMHO.

Yeah, that's the simple version. But ... it ain't that simple. There's a bypass involved. The ballast resistor is in the circuit when the engine is running, and when the key is first turned on, to run the fuel pump and bring the system up to pressure. When the key is turrned to START, the ballast resistor is bypassed and a more or less parallel circuit sends full 12 volts to the fuel pump during starting. Once you release the key and it's back in the RUN position, the bypass is de-energized and the circuit again goes through the ballast resistor.

I don't know for sure, but I do know that I have the hulk of an '86 XJ 2.8L automatic here, and that definitely has 3.73 gears. That would be my first (and last) guess.

Good news, Rusty -- thanks for reporting back. I hope the new job works out for you. As for the miscarriages -- there's no point in questioning God's will. My mother had two (or three?) miscarriages before I came along. Who knows, by the time I was an adult and on her own she probably wished more than once that she'd lost me, too. But after me she had another son, and then our little sister. One miscarriage doesn't mean much more than that your wife had one miscarriage.

ZJ V8 coils add 1" to a stock XJ or MJ. A long time ago I verified with the parts guru at my dealership that the 2000 XJ Up Country coils are the same part number as stock ZJ V8 front coils. And the Up Country option in an XJ rides 1" higher than stock.

Ummm ... Blue Loctite is not permanent, that's the red stuff. And Loctite is a thread sealer as well as a thread locker. If you want to seal it AND be sure it won't unfasten itself, blue Loctite would be a good choice.

All the 4.0L engines use a 2-piece seal. The 2.5L uses a 1-piece seal. I don't accept that the "right" way to replace the RMS on a 4.0L is to pull the transmission. I've never known anyone to do that, and there's absolutely no reason to remove the transmission since it doesn't in any way impede access to the seal.

That's not exactly what he said. The bolts that hold the tranny to the bellhousing are accessed from inside the bellhousing. You can't remove the tranny without removing the bellhousing. What he meant (I think) was that you can remove the bellhousing from the tranny and put it on the engine temporarily to ensure that everything is lined up. Once that's done, you have to take the bellhousing off the engine and reattach it to the transmission before you put everything back together.

Probably wouldn't happen within a week, but a build-up of crankcase pressure can push oil through the rear main seal. It's more of a problem at higher speed/RPM. A couple of trips to the corner store with a light foot on the throttle wouldn't be an issue, a 3-hour drive at 75 MPH on the interstate ... you're pushing your luck.

Keep in mind that Jeep changed calipers, rotors, hubs and knuckles a few times over the years. If you slap in a newer axle and try to use the older calipers, they'll lock up. You have to keep all those parts matched by "generation." I've posted the run-down several times.

I believe JeepcoMJ meant extensive rework to the transmission. The gears part of a 2WD tranny is the same as that for a 4WD tranny, but the 2WD has a standard, tapered talishaft housing and a tailshaft that ends in a spline to mate with the drive shaft yoke. The 4WD tranny doesn't have a "tail" shaft -- it has an output shaft that's configured to mate up with a transfer case, and instead of a long tailshaft housing it has a shorter housing with a flange to which the transfer case bolts up. In theory you could remove the tailshaft and tailshaft housing from a 2WD tranny and replace with the parts from a 4WD tranny, but ... where are you going to get the parts, how much will they cost, do you know how to do the work, and is it worth the cost and effort when you could just go to a salvage yard and buy a tranny with a transfer case already bolted up to it and call it a day. You canNOT just buy a transfer case and bolt it onto a 2WD transmission.

The 2WD trany has a tailshaft in a long housing. The 4WD tranny ends in a flange, to which the transfer case gets bolted.

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It's just above the rear axle, on the left side of the differential. There should be (but very possibly won't be) a round rod connecting a lever arm on the proportioning valve to a ball stud on the differential. If that rod is NOT there ... someone else has been mucking around with your brakes and you have zero idea what's going on with them because you won't know what the previous mucker around has done.

Main bearings +/- $85 Rod bearings +/- $45 Pan gasket $21 Rear seal $16

Start by testing the wiring. On the early XJs and MJs, the sender has an ohm range of 0 - 88 ohms. Zero ohms is empty, 88 ohms is full. So -- gauge reading empty could be a short circuit (zero resistance). The official test procedure from the 1988 FSM is: 1. Disconnect C139 -- Needle should go to Full. If the ground to G197 is okay. replace sender. If not ==> 2. Connect C139. Test C203 terminal 15. Reading should be between 0 and 88 ohms. If okay, replace gauge. If not okay, repair open to sender. The simplified version of that is, unplug the 3-wire connector outside the fuel tank. That gives you an open circuit on the sender (infinite resistance). The gauge should read Full with the connector unplugged. If so, jumper the small wire (violet?) to black on the chassis side of the connector (zero resistance). The gauge should swing to empty. If that doesn't work, try jumping the violet directly to the chassis (making certain you get a good ground). On the tank side of that same connector, put an ohmmeter on the violet and black wires. That's the circuit through the sending unit. The reading should be somewhere between zero and 88 ohms. (I don't think the scale is linear, though, so don't assume that a half tank will read exactly 44 ohms.)

HOW?!? My turn to rely on all you lads for advice. I'm a 5-speed guy, but due to my own stupdity I have to drop the pan on an AW4. I've got all the bolts out, but the pan appears to be RTVed in place. I can't find any way to get a knife or anything in there to start prying it off. What's the secret? Do I have to drop the front drive shaft?

The original XJ/MJ blades were ANCO, and there's a small recess on the top, next to the mounting pin, that has in it a little wire thingie that you lift up with a small screwdriver to release the blade from the post. There is no star washer, or anything similar. There is no latch beneath the blade. It sounds a lot like some of you have various aftermarket blades and don't know it. On the other hand, the guy asking the question also probably has aftermarket blades and doesn't know it. Yes, I know that my description is for the originals because I bought my XJ new in 1988 and I have made absolutely certain that I retained the original blades and arms. In fact, I just put a pair of aftermarket (ANCO replacement) blades on about half an hour ago because I haven't been able to find refills for the originals, so I am absolutely certain about how the originals come off.

Read, gentlemen. Max range for a properly-tuned legal 5-watt CB is probably 12 to 15 miles in flat terrain. When he's talking about reaching other continents, he's not talking direct, line-of-sight transmission he's talking about "skip" transmission (bouncing the signal off the bottom of the ionosphere), which typically works only at night and under perfect atmospheric conditions. Even with an (illegal) amplifier, you can't boost a CB to transmit 100 miles or more under all conditions. CBs are intended for short range communication. If you want to reliably reach out farther than 10 miles, get a short wave and a license.

Lifters "tick." Rod bearings "knock."

What's rounded off, the bolt heads or the nuts? Nut splitters work great on nuts, but they don't (and can't) do anything for you on bolt heads. Are you sure you're using the correct socket? The control arm bolts are metric, not SAE.

The knock could be one of three things: rod bearings; wrist pins; auto tranny flex plate. The flex plate always quiets down when there's load on the tranny and comes back when idling in neutral, so that's probably not the problem with yours. Bad wrist pins are unusual in the 4.0L engine, so the likely culprit is the rod bearings. Those are not expensive and can be changed with the engine in the vehicle, just by dropping the oil pan. It's a good idea to do the main bearings and the rear main seal while the pan is off. Do that and you're probably good for another 100,000 miles.

The deal with Fiat can't possibly be any worse than AMC's deal with Renault, and Fiat cars aren't any worse than Renaults were. As I understand it, the initial deal will give Fiat a 40% stake in Chrysler. That's not a controlling interest, so it's not the end of the universe. Hopefully, sane minds will prevail and somebody will remember what a Jeep is and why people used to want to buy a Jeep -- as opposed to a "Jeep."

Which DMV office do you go to? If you're in Cheshire, you're midway between Waterbury and Hamden. Stay away from Hamden. Go to the Waterbury office and ask them yourself if there's a lien. The last MJ made was in 1992. I find it incredible (in the literal sense of the word) that Chrysler corporation would still have a lien on a vehicle that's at LEAST 17 years old. In other words -- I don't believe the story. Let me know what they say in Waterbury.

Yep. It's a function of today's "instant gratification" society, unfortunately. It's another aspect of the same personality type that posts an obscure question at 3:47 a.m., and if they don't have 15 on-the-money responses by 7:00 a.m. they're posting stuff like, "Well, doesn't anybody here know ANYTHING?" How many times have we seen posts from newbies that start off with something like, "I know I could just use the search, but I'm in a hurry so I figured I'd just ask." Right -- so because you're in a hurry, *I* should use the search to find the link you're too lazy to look for yourself. Not. Some days it's a real struggle to remain civil. Some days I lose the struggle.