Eagle

I bought a running, pretty solid '86 4-cyl 4-speed for $100. I paid $500 for an '88 4-cyl 5-speed with a solid bed. I probably paid too much for that one. That may give you some guidance as to price range.

Before you buy the tank, be sure it's not leaking from the fuel pump mounting flange. I replaced the tank in my '87, drove it to the gas station to fill up my nice, shiny new tank -- and was horrified to see gasoline running out from under the truck while I pumped.

That looks like it will be a VERY interesting truck. Are there a lot of MJs in Mexico? My wife is from Chile, and in all the trips I have taken to visit her family, I've seen only one Comanche. I've seen lots of older Cherokees, but only one Comanche.

Yeah, but we really need to formalize that data bank. Perhaps we need to start a thread in which people can post what year and tranny they have, and what the spline count and length of the shaft is. Mostly we all just sort of vaguely think "21-spline" or "23-spline," and we know that Jeep changed around 1991 (or so) -- except they didn't change the 4-cyl (unless they changed the shaft length), and ... Yeah, a comprehensive compilation of permutations and combinations would be handy for reference.

What didn't work? Are the splines on the output shaft different, or is the driveshaft length wrong? I was of the opinion that the same front yoke would fit all trannies and/or transfer cases.

That's sort of what I was thinking, but I don't have any way to confirm. Thanks for the info.

That means your clutch master cylinder is leaking, and that DOT 3 is extremely destructive. It WILL ruin the fuse panel if you don't get it corrected ASAP.

The 207 was the Command Trac (part-time only) transfer case for 1984 through 1986 (or 1986 only, for the MJ). It was used with the 4-cylinder and the V6. I have heard conflicting reports as to whether the 207 was used for part or even all of the 1987 model year, and I haven't crawled under the one 1987 MJ I have to look. It's very similar to the 231, but the oiling isn't quite as good and the low range is 2.6x rather than 2.7:1. The reason I asked about year is that for the 231 and the 242, at least behind the 4.0L Jeep changed the spline for the tranny-transfer case interface from 21 splines to 23 splines as of (IIRC) 1991. If that also affects the 4-cylinder models, a late model AX5 won't mate up with a 207 transfer case.

I believe you are mistaken. Most modern cars in my experience use some sort of pendulum mechanism in the door post that locks the belt only when the vehicle is decelerating sharply. The old ratchet type locks to which you are referring were used back in the 60s and 70s but they were prone to breaking. Just checked with the guru at my dealership. He confirms that the XJ/MJ belts are inertia reels, not ratchets.

Limited slip plus some weight in the bed makes a HUGE difference. I really like the True Trac, but even a Dana TracLok is a huge improvement over an open diff for street use.

The title of your post says no "brake" lights. Why are you fooling around up front if the problem is at the rear? Check -- in oder: 1. Burned out bulbs (it happens) 2. Corroded sockets 3. See if you have 12 volts TO the rear lights. 4. Bad ground at rear harness.

???????? :huh???: The stock MJ belts are combination lap & shoulder belts. What came in yours?

Re-read your law. The law in CT (which is the only one I'm familiar with) also requires back seat, IF there is a back seat. The law specifically allows front seat carry in a pickup that has no rear seat.

Either your belts are broken, or you don't understand how they work. The XJ/MJ belts ARE inertia belts. That means they lock either when pulled rapidly, or when the vehicle itself is stopped rapidly enough to exceed a certain G-force. I'm pretty certain the XJ/MJ belts are of the latter type.

Heh, heh. Tell that to the guys trying to pull upgrades on the Interstate with a 4-cylinder 5-speed ...

242 all the way. A few years back I was in a relationship with a gal from New Jersey. About every other weekend I would leave work on Friday and head down to her place. We had a lot of snow storms that winter. Between the NY State Thruway and the Interstate in NJ, there were innumerable stretches where a half mile would be deep snow, another half mile would be plowed (or wind-scoured) to bare pavement, and then every few miles you'd hit a stretch of ice just to keep things interesting. My Cherokee had a 231, and I got a real workput on the right bicep rowing it into and out of 4WD as I went from dry pavement to slippery stuff. I would have been SOOOOOOOOOOO happy to have had a 242 and just shove it into full-time and leave it there.

It should. What year 207, and what year AX5?

Qui Gon-Jinn -- Might I ask what you paid for it with the external drive? I'm seriously considering one of those little guys, but the lack of a CD drive is a serious drawback. But I don't always need a CD, so having an external for when I need it would probably suffice. What operating system came on yours, Vista or Xp?

Based on the steering wheel and (lack of) armrests, it's a base model. That's not a bad thing, just a comment. It'll have idiot lights instead of gauges, but that's a quick swap with a junkyard instrument cluster and changing a couple of sensors and you can have full instrumentation. Looks very solid. Those aren't original MJ rims -- I suspect they may be Ford rimes, which means they stick out a bit more than factory rims, but that shouldn't be an issue. They look good on the truck. Nice rig. Did you buy it? Even if the floor has some rust -- you can buy replacement floor pans. That's much better than having the quarter panels rusted out. AFAIK you can't find replacement quarter panels anywhere, at any price.

The cross member is the same. The transmission mount is different.

The 231 is slightly stronger than the 242. The 242 is both larger and heavier than the 231. The advantage to the 242 is the full-time option, which is used generally only on pavement. If you don't drive a lot in snow and ice conditions on the road, you probably would never have a use for the full-time option. Take your pick. Several of the people in my NAXJA chapter had 242s and nobody broke one, not even rock crawling at Paragon.

4WD wouldn't have helped. It's a common misconception among people who are new to SUVs. They don't understand (until they learn the "HARD" way) that 4-wheel go does not necessarily equate to 4-wheel stop. The ones with ABS are even worse, because they don't understand that on ice all ABS does is prevent the wheels from locking -- which means if you have zero traction the ABS will automatically ensure that you also have zero brakes.

You may notice that a certain thread on the subject of people getting their feelings all hurtie, and other peoiple using a bunch of naughty words, and various other somewhat loosely (or not) related topics ... has disappeared from your radars. The simple reason is that, AFTER we discussed at some length that there is no need to use a bunch of 4-letter words on this site ... some of you decided that it must be a good idea to use such words. Shelbyluvv didn't wave the magic wand over the thread this time, I did. There was no simple, easy way to clean up the individual posts so I zapped the whole enchilada. Do us all a favor, Gentlemen, and take the hint. We now return you to your normally scheduled programming.

Can you post a photo? The double cardan joint in the front driveshaft should certainly be able to handle a 2" lift with a low pinion axle. Ummm ... I hope this is a foolish question, but ... your front driveshaft DOES have a double cardan joint, right?

3.07s are a bad ratio even with stock tires. 3.54 isn't terrible, and 3.73 is quite acceptable with both stock tires and 30s. I ran 3.73s with 31x10.50s and I wished I had 4.10s -- only reason I ran that combo was that I had already bought the gears to go with 30" tires, then bought the MJ with a lift and 31s (and 3.07s -- UGH!), so I put in the gears I had. 3.07s are too ugly to even be good paperweights.