Eagle

On another forum where I hang out, I am frequently reminded that "assume" means @$$-u-me. As Ronald Raygun once said, "Trust, but verify."

No signs of any accidents. Whoever made the plow frame designed it with the right plow light hanging at a 30-degree angle.

You can't. Not without getting the steering wheel off-center to the steering box.

The AX-5 bellhousing will not bolt up to the 4.0L block. If you manage to adapt it, you will have to drive very gently or you'll blow the tranny -- the 4.0L generates a lot more torque than the 4-cylinder the AX-5 was intended for. If you want a 4.0L s-speed with an external slave, look for a 1994 or newer XJ AX-15.

:cheers: "I love it when a plan comes together." (Colonel Hannibal Smith)

But if you do it that way the steering box will not be centered when the steering wheel is straight. That has two problems. First, you won't be able to turn all the way to one side, because you'll hit the internal stop in the box. Second, as was noted a few posts above, the worm-and-sector steering box is set up to have minimum lash at dead center and to be looser off-center. When you set the steering wheel out of synch with the box, you'll be driving with the box in a looser position when you're going straight. If you tighten the adjustment to "correct" that, you'll then cause binding when the box goes over the center point. Just ... don't do it.

You don't do this. It appears I misread what Pat wrote. However, the net result of moving the steering wheel on the shaft is the same as moving the pitman arm on the pitman shaft -- the steering box will no longer be centered when the steering wheel is straight. This is NOT an appropriate way to center the streering wheel. That's what the adjusting collar on the drag link is for.

There have been several threads discussing this. If it's not adjusted properly or not connected ... it's not working properly and there's a good chance you have NO rear brakes. I had one blow out on my '88 in a panic stop. Between that and the fact that adjusting it requires replacing a part that is no longer available ... I don't want it on my truck. My choice, which may not be right for everyone, was to eliminate it. That means I now have full braking power to the rear wheels at all times -- which can cause early rear wheel lockup, and a spinout. I'm willing to accept that because I'm older than dirt, so I grew up with vehicles that had no proportioning valves and all acted like that. To me it's no big deal. To some of you younger guys, it's a factor to consider. For you guys, I recommend eliminating the rear load-sensing valve and using a Wilwood manual adjustable proportioning valve in the line to the rear axle.

I've never figured out how to remove a rear window without trashing both the glass and the gasket, so I don't know. The tough part would seem to be the two sharp turns on the bottom corners. I wonder if you could take a pair of gaskets from the fixed side windows on an XJ and splice them together to make a gasket for the MJ rear window.

Have you checked the setting on the rear proportioning valve to see if your back brakes are even being used?

This is NOT the correct way to do an alignment. The previous statement that the steering box is tighter over-center is correct, and moving the pitman arm on the shaft sets the box so it isn't on-center internally when the wheels are going straight ahead. You ARE correct that if the drag link needs a large adjustment, it can result in an incremental (tiny) change in toe-in. Usually the change is so small that it can't even be measured, or if it shows up it's not worth readjusting the toe to take it out. But, centering the steering wheel SHOULD be done with the adjusting sleeve on the draglink, not by moving the pitman arm. The toe-in should then be re-checked, and corrected IF necessary. Do not attempt to align by removing the pitman arm from the steering box.

Tempered glass cannot be cut -- period. It doesn't cut, it shatters. But laminated safety glass can be cut. That's what ALL automobile windows were made of up through the 1950s and maybe into the 60s -- don't remember just when I started seeing tempered glass windows. I wouldn't have any problem using laminated glass for a rear window -- and it would be considerably more resistant to theft, because it WON'T all drop out if broken by a rock. Or Lexan -- but you need to allow for more expansion and contraction due to temperature with plastic than you do with glass.

Ain't it the truth. That's the trouble with the world today ... nobody wants to think. If it isn't in a catalog, "It can't be done." Unless you know somebody who has done it ... On another forum, just yesterday somebody posted a link to a video of an excursion by some journalist to an illegal arms center (meaning the entire town, not just a building) in Pakistan. They have pics of young kids making ammunition by hand with a hammer. They showed a deaf mute making 9mm pistols entirely by hand -- not a CNC machine in sight. The video is probably a fake. After all, anyone knows you can't make guns without CNC machines. See if this link works http://www.vbs.tv/full_screen.php?s=DGF ... sc=1363196

As noted, the 'X' was '86 only. The 2.8L V6 was a dog of an engine, but if the body is reasonably solid, IMHO any MJ is worth $100. You can always buy a junkyard Camaro 3.4L and swap it in ... the block is the same, so it's an easy swap to a much better engine. Interesting ad. The fender flares are stock, factory parts. I guess maybe Jeep did refer to those wheels as "Rallye" wheels at one time, but they are actually the base level, 15x6 steel rims. Fortunately, all MJ, XJ, ZJ and YJ 15x7 aluminum rims fit, and are readily available.

Gee, I think I said that about six times above. :D Which, "cathodic" or "cathodic"? Don't tell me you're one of THOSE people who fail to appreciate bad puns?

I agree, it's a sad commentary that you had to do the postal service's work for them, but at least you got the ball rolling and they have found the culprit. I don't suppose they're going to invite you to be there when they slap the cuffs on her? That WOULD be sweet.

Going back to the original post -- most of the things people blame for death wobble do not (and cannot) "cause" death wobble ... but they CAN make it easier for death wobble to happen. The cause remains something that makes a front wheel start wobbling, and that's usually either tire balance or a bent rim. In my first episode, it was a warped front rotor. One of the things that makes it easier for death wobble to happen is insufficient caster angle. And it just so happens that when you do a lift, the front axle swings down and back around the frame end control arm mounts ... thus reducing the caster angle. Experiencing death wobble after a lift is quite common, because the first stop after a lift should be the alignment shop and most people skip that step.

This forum has had classifieds for as far back as I can remember. It only makes sense that items for sale and items wanted should be posted under that umbrella. Pat, I don't know what other forums you frequent, but I'm an admin on another forum, and having people try to sneak blatant for sale posts into all the technical discussion areas (even though we have a more structured classified area than here) is a HUGE problem. The people who do it complain when they get their wrist slapped, and if we don't slap wrists ... the people whose threads get hijacked complain. There's no win-win solution to it. So ... we enforce the rule. For sale stuff goes in the classifieds.

Don't glass shops CUT glass any more? Back when I was restoring a 1939 Hudson, I took it to a local glass shop and they cut sheets of flat safety glass to make new door windows, new side windows, and new vent wing windows. This is going back a number of years, but it was no big deal. The rear window is flat -- it shouldn't be hard to make one.

Here's a link to the JC Witless product: http://www.jcwhitney.com/EASY-TO-TRIM-R ... _10101.jcw

Maybe the torque converter isn't engaging? A friend in NAXJA found that with his 89 XJ with AW4. He never noticed around town and going from home to Paragon, but when he hit the highway to Moab it was immediately obvious. He wired in an override switch to lock the torque converter IN, not to lock out the lockup.

The printed circuit board is not the same for the gauges and for the idiot lights. In fact, the printed circuit is different for gauges with the large gas gauge than for gauges with the tach.

Either you're not getting overdrive or your torque converter isn't locking up. Or you have the wrong speedo gear. With 4.10 gears and 33" tires, the RPMs at 70 MPH in overdrive should be about 2200. With 4.56 gears it would be 2450, and with 4.88s it would be 2600. Which is nothing for that engine. Don't forget, that's the way the engine was originally designed. Most cars didn't have overdrive in 1964, when the original 232 (3.8L) version of that engine was introduced. I had a 1966 Rambler American with a three-speed manual. The gearing with stock tires worked out to 24 MPH per 1000 RPM, which meant that 60 MPH was 2500 RPM exactly, and 3000 RPM was a 72 MPH cruise. I sold mine long before it got tired, but my brother's 70 Gremlin with the same gearing was at 318,000 miles when we last got any feedback on it.

I would not waste MJ (or XJ) flares on such a project. JC Whitney has rubber universal flare material that will easily conform to the Explorer fender contour better, with a lot less work.

The simple, expedient solution is the add-on PRNDL that gets screwed to the top of the steering column. The more elegant solution is to modify the new cluster to accept the PRNDL out of the old cluster. And the way I would probably go would be to change the whole mess over to an MJ floor shifter.