Eagle

So you're not asking about wires, you're asking about the speedometer cable? Auto or 5-speed isn't the difference. There are two issues: First, the 84 thru 86 (and possibly part of the 87 model year, I'm not certain) used a speedo cable with a metal end at the speedo head and a metal retaining clip that screws to the back of the cluster. The 88 thru 90 (and either all of 87 or possibly just the last half of the 87 model year) used a white nylon pinch connector to retain the cable on the speedo head. Second, at least for the 87-1/2 thru 90 types, the speedo cable w/o cruise control is one piece, but with cruise control there is a short cable about a foot long off the speedo head, which then mates to a longer cable that runs to the transfer case and also feeds the cruise control data. The short answer is that you can use an 88 - 90 speedo in your truck if you replace your speedo cable with one from the same year vehicle as the cluster. I think that's what you wanted to know.

Exactly. When you replace the clutch parts, use silicone brake fluid. It's pricey, but the system doesn't hold much and the silicone isn't nearly as destructive if it gets loose.

Auto? I think the 4-cyl YJ came with a 3-speed auto. I wouldn't expect more than about 15 MPG.

On your 5-speed? Your signature says it's an '86. That should have a mechanical speedometer -- there isn't any wire.

It's the nature of the beast that the parking brake holds better headed downhill than it does uphill. The brakes are designed that way. The rear drum system is what used to be called a "servo-assisted" design. All this means is that the geometry of the shoes, pins, etec is such that when you apply the brakes while going forward, the natural forward rotation of the shows when they contact the drum tends to jam them tighter against the drum, increasing the braking force without needing as much peddle pressure. This inherent "boost" only works in the forward direction. I've been driving and wrenching for just about 50 years now, and I have never EVER found a drum brake parking brake that will reliably hold in the backwards direction without either leaving the manual tranny in gear, or putting an automatic in Park. The only way to do it is to adjust the brakes so tight they drag all the time ... and that's obviously a non-starter as a long-term "solution."

Forget the clip. It's a piece of junk, and all it does is mount your 20-year old rear hose lower down rather than actually addressing the problem. The real solution is to buy a longer rear hose to run from the chassis to the axle. I think the one I used was for a '94 Wrangler, and others on this forum have posted (I think) that a Durango hose works. (Don't recall what year - sorry.)

Rancho also offers a long AAL for the XJ and MJ. Their catalog says it's good for 2-1/2" in both, which is impossible. I called Rancho and spoke with a product engineer, who went and talked to another product engineer, and then the two of them talked to yet a third product engineer. The consensus was that it's good for 2-1/2" in the XJ and 1-1/2" in an MJ. That kit sells for about $65 (maybe up to $75 by now). Check your local junkyards for YJ Wranglers. Front and rear leaf springs, and the unloaded arch isn't that far off from an MJ spring. You could cut the eyes off a pair of YJ main leaves, plus toss in the next longest leaf as a second AAL on each side, and probably get right about where you want to be.

I don't have any idea what he is talking about. I am old enough to have owned cars that actually had kingpins, so I know what they are, and I know for an absolute certainty that an XJ/MJ/ZJ/TJ Dana 30 front axle does not have kingpins. And if it did -- it wouldn't in any way relate to leaking seals. Those front axle nuts get torqued to something like 175 foot-pounds, IIRC, so it's not surprisng he's having a hard time getting them off. It just needs a LONG, heavy-duty breaker bar (or a cheater bar).

My wife uses Skype. How's your Spanish?

Any idea how much you were towing? Yeah, actually. The trailer weighs just about 1,000 pounds. The listed curb weight for an '86 Cherokee 4WD was 3,024 pounds, but the one I picked up had been stripped of a lot of the interior. I'd guess the XJ weighed not more than 2,200 to 2,500 pounds, so I was pulling not more than 3,500 pounds and that trailer was pushing the MJ all over the road. And I wasn't driving even at the speed limit.

You can't count on mixing calipers from one application with rotors from another application. Heck, you can't mix parts from different years of XJ/MJ front axles, and you want to start mixing from different vehicles? Not gonna happen.

That sounds like the characteristic behavior of a front turn signal socket that has a bad ground. I'd forget the cluster and replace your front signal light sockets. They're cheap, and I'd pretty sure that'll solve the problem. However, one other random thought: When the headlights are on and the indicator is lit, are the headlights on high beam? What happens when the headlights are on low beam? Is there any chance the high beam and right turn indicators are crossed?

Not really. MMO is still available. For me, that was a "recent" replacement for when Pyroil disappeared from the market. Pyroil was a far superior product ... which undoubtedly explains why it didn't survive.

ZJ WJ used a different bolt circle, so you'd have mismatched wheels. Libertine also used a 5 on 4-1/2" bolt pattern, I think. Did they offer rear disks?

I fully subscribe to the theory that voting for the "lesser of two evils" is still voting for evil, which I prefer not to do. I went through several elections not voting, as my way of registering a protest. Then I realized that they (meaning the major parties) had no idea why I wasn't voting, so I wasn't really "registering" any protest at all. Since then I have always voted for the person I think would do the best job as President -- myself. Yes, write-ins are still allowed, so I vote for myself. If anyone else is against both candidates and doesn't like the "official" alternatives, send me a PM and I'll give you my real name to write in. As to whether or not to allow political discussions here -- it's entirely Pete's decision. I was honored to be asked to help as a moderator, but this is Pete's forum, all the way.

Oil smoke is blue, not white. Either you didn't really find the problem, or you're nearly as color-blind as I am :)

The way I was always taught to do it (with Marvel Mystery Oil) was to pour roughly 1/2 to 2/3 of the can through the carburetor or throttle body slowly. The engine will start to smoke heavily and run very rough, but pour slowly enough that it keeps running. When you get to about 1/3 can (bottle) left, dump it in fast. The engine will choke and stall. Let the stuff sit and soak for about 15 minutes to half and hour, then start it up and run it to clean out the gunk. Did I mention that it will smoke -- HEAVILY?

Maybe on this forum we should stick to discussing Comanches. There's a reason why many forums don't allow politics to be discussed ...

+10,000! The operable vents LEAK. Count your blessings that you have the fixed windows and save your money for something that will be an improvement. I paid extra to get the optional operable vents on my '88 Cherokee. The XJ is now 20-1/2 years old. For 20 of those 20-1/2 years the vents have been glued shut with silicone because that's the only way I could stop the leaks.

shake starting at 55 MPH is almost always tire balance. I don't know why that's the magic speed, but that has been the case since I first started playing with cars, and that was over 50 years ago. Just because you paid some shop to balance your tires doesn't mean they are balanced. It just means they took your money and slapped some weights on the rims. Try rotating the front tires to the rear and the rears to the front and see what happens.

On the pre-97 XJs and MJs, the mirror control is a multi-directional switch mounted in the center console. There's no reason you couldn't use the blank switch panel to the right of the steering column, since on most MJs it has nothing in it. Get yourself a set of three single-pole, double-throw, center off toggle switches. Use one to control which mirror you're working with, one for the vertical adjustment and one for the horizontal. Or score an XJ mirror control switch and mount that in the aforementioned spot on the dashboard.

I made ONE trip pulling a borrowed aluminum car trailer with an already-stripped XJ body/chassis on it with my MJ. You do NOT want to be pulling a trailer weighing more than 5000 pounds behind an MJ. Seriously, Mate -- start looking for Plan B right now.

Depending on where it lets go, a blown head gasket may allow coolant into the oil, or it may allow coolant into the cylinders and skip the oil. Coolant in the cylinders results in white smoke out the tail pipe. The only reliable way to diagnose a possible blown head gasket is a compression test. You haven't explained where the white smoke was coming from. Ws it from the tailpipe, or was it under the hood somewhere? Please explain the comment about blowing all the coolant out of the overflow bottle so there was none. That's not possible. Any coolant pushed out of the radiator goes into the recovery bottle. If there's too much for that, then the excess gets pushed out the overflow tube on the recovery bottle. If there WAS coolant in the bottle, and then it was empty, either the bottle spring a leak or the system worked like it should and sucked all the coolant back into the radiator. That could only happen if you were seriously low on coolant.

To do it right, you need not only the grille but also the header (the front panel that the grille mounts in), complete with side lights and headlight buckets. You also need the 97+ bumper and splash apron. You will need the 97+ front flares, but you do NOT need the hood -- the hood didn't change.

Must have been one of the ones with a Ford engine, then. The originals used AMC engines, which were bullet-proof and bomb-proof.