Eagle

Saving that tee fitting is potentially a huge mistake. You'll still be connected to two lines, doubling the possibility of a rust-through causing a loss of rear brakes. It's far better, whether you keep the MJ front metering block OR convert to an XJ front proportioning valve, to rip everything out and run one, new line from the front to the rear hose.

Somewhere in one of my FSMs there's a description of the official, factory measurement for correct ride height. Too late to look for it tonight, but I'll try to find it for you.

It can't flow any more into the bottle after you shut it off. The bottle should be filled to the halfway mark with the system cold. The coolant expands when hot and pretty much fills the bottle due to compression of the air in the bottle. What may be happening is that once you shut it off, the coolant isn't circulating so it gets hotter in a couple of places and raises the overall pressure in the system, which would compress the air even more. Once you've left it parked for awhile, does the coolant level in the bottle go back to the half-full mark? If so, there's no air trapped in the block. Does it overheat when you're moving, or only at traffic lights? If it runs okay but heats up when you're stopped and idling, you need a new fan clutch.

Did you bleed them according to the specific procedure in the link someone posted? If not -- then you wasted your time. There are TWO lines going from the front of your truck to the rear brakes. If you don't follow the exact procedure spelled out in the factory service manual, there's a good chance there's air in the other line and that's why you have no rear brakes.

Neither AutoZone nor Pep Boys nor Advanced Auto had body plugs -- or even knew that I was talking about. But ... AutoZone did have in the "HELP!" aisle a GM master cylinder cover gasket that looked like the right size. I bought it, hauled it home, and it IS the right size. For the first time in years, I am actually looking forward to the next rainy day. Dang, if this works I'll be psyched to put the correct transfer case shifter in and see about carpet. Woo-hoo!

Got good spark? Take a cup of gasoline and dribble a bit into the throttle body, then try starting it. It's no different than a lawn mower -- you can start it and even keep it running by pouring gas right down the throat. Just be careful -- you don't want to be holding an open container of gasline over it if there's a backfire.

You have asked two things in one thread. Do you want to bleed the rear brakes, or do you want to remove the rear proportioning valve? Personally, I blew up my rear proportioning valve so I had to remove it. But you should realize that if you remove it, when you slam on the brakes like in a panic stop, there's a good probability that your rear brakes will lock up before the fronts, and that usually results in a spin-out. Being the olde pharte that I am, I grew up learning to drive decades before cars had proportioning valves, so a bit of fishtailing in a panic stop is normal to me. To you younger folks, it's probably better avoided if you're not expecting it and ready to deal with it. Try adjusting your rear brakes and then bleeding according to the link provided. If that doesn't work, then consider removing the rear proportioning valve.

Not just for making this place possible. I bought the red '88 MJ in November of 1999 and put it on the road about a year later. It has ALWAYS had a leak -- the driver's footwell fills up with water any time it rains harder than a heavy fog. This probably explains why the carpet had been removed when I bought it and there was no floor on the driver's side. I've had no luck figuring out where the leak originated. I had pretty much convinced myself it must be the windshield -- except that the leak was obviously on-going, and I had to replace the cracked windshield when I registered the truck for the first time. The guys who did it have done multiple windshields for me, and they NEVER screw up. So as an experiment, during a heavy rain over the past weekend I put an old shower curtain over the cab, ran it down to the cowl and clamped it in place with the wiper arms. The windshield was completely protected ... and the footwell filled up with water. Pete has mentioned tracing leaks in one of his, and it sounded like a similar place so I've exchanged a couple of PMs with Pete about exactly where his leak was. He said something about "gaskets" where things go through the firewall. Hmmmm ... so this afternoon, I popped the hood on the MJ, and on the '88 XJ parked right alongside. And what to my wondering eyes did appear? Well, what did NOT appear before my wondering eyes is a body plug in a hole about 1" in diameter through the firewall right next to the clutch master cylinder. The hole is factory -- the XJ has it, too, but the XJ has a body plug in the hole. If Pete hadn't said the magic woid, I probably would have looked at that hole another hundred times, seen the rubber pad behind it, and assumed that's the way it's supposed to be. Now, I believe I've found my leak, and I'm about to head off to AutoZone to see if they have body plugs in that size (or in an assortment). If that's all that was causing 8 years of aggravation, I may just have to shoot myself.

Yeah, I don't know what it is, but I'm sure it's intended to reduce corrosion, and I also hope it works.

None of the measurements you have provided tell us anything, because any tire size other than "stock" (which could be any of several different sizes) means measurements to body parts will be affected even with no lift. If you don't want to cut the coils, what DO you want to do? Are you looking for advice on replacement springs to buy?

The lines I recently bought from Advance Auto have some kind of coating on them. I just put 'em in the MJ a couple of weeks ago so it's much too soon to know how well it will resist corrosion. Next winter will be a good test. Whatever the coating is, I made up my bends using a hand-held mandrel and the coating did not ship or crack at the bends.

And in "Monsters' Ball" Billy Bob Thornton gives an MJ to Halle Berry :drool:

Be careful. If you let the tool contact the glass and put pressure on the edge when twisting the tool to lift up the trim, you WILL crack the glass. We won't discuss how I know this ...

Do you still have the rear height-sensing proportioning valve? If so, there is a special procedure for bleeding the rear brakes. I posted it verbatim from the FSM a few months back. A search should turn it up -- I don't have it bookmarked or I'd give you a link to the post.

There's no point to putting it on the full length of the lines -- it won't stop rust where it's exposed. I always slide the fittings back and put Never-Seez on the tube in the area that the fitting covers and on the flare itself, and then I put it on the threads before I attach the line.

Measure from the center of your front hubs to the bottom edge of the flares. That's your reference dimension. Take out your front coils and cut a half coil off each spring. Put 'em back in and measure again. That probably won't drop it as much as you want, but it'll give you an idea how much drop you'll get per coil. Just remember that when you cut, the spring gets stiffer. If the coils are 1" apart, cutting one coil probably won't drop it a full inch. Measuring someone else's coils won't help you much. Coil spring rate is a function of a complicated formula that includes the free length of the spring, the number of coils, the diameter of the wire and the diameter of the coils. I don't have the formula in front of me, but one of those variables in the formula is to the 4th power. If any factor of another spring is different from yours (wire diameter, for example), comparing them is a waste of everyone;s time and effort.

Congrats on getting the job. I can't advise on salary negotiations. It's been a LONG time since I was in school looking for a summer job. My recollection is that I was so happy to have a job I took what was offered. For a couple of months, it doesn't make a lot of difference anyway. Just be sure you don't try too hard and negotiate your way out of a job.

The computers are different, but the harness is the same. My 88s (MJ and XJ) are 5-speeds and they have the unused connector for the tranny TPS harness that would go to the TCU.

This is what I did: Nicely done! What's the steering column out of?

Can you elaborate on this? Any write-ups on adjusting the tach? I just did this to my 4-cylinder, but a cluster from a 4-cyl was impossible to find, so i settled for a 6-cyl, but obviously the tach is off. thx.. They aren't all adjustable. At this point I'm not certain which is which, but I believe it's the early ones (84 thru 86 or maybe partway thru 87) that are not adjustable. The "other" ones have a potentiometer on the back of the panel that adjusts the tach for 4-cylinder or 6-cylinder. I talked a friend in Greece through doing it. He had another tach he could use as a reference. His XJ was a 4-banger and he found a tach cluster out of an 88 or 89 XJ. He figured a way to make the cable connection work, then we tackled calibration. I have no idea if they're all like his, but he said ultimately it seemed that all the way to one limit was the 6-cylinder setting, and all the way to the opposite extreme was the 4-cylinder setting.

Are you saying to cover the entire cable w/ grease before you put it in? or just the end where it connects to the cluster? Do NOT grease the end where it inserts into the cluster. Lay the cable out straight, then pull the inner core out of the outer sheath. Apply grease while you slide the core back into the sheath.

I'll have to poke into the other boxes. The two I have open at the moment only have PCI slots. The 486s had some ISA, of course, but they were too old to be worth the effort it would have required to check them out. Brent, what type is that WD hard drive? What's the older type, EIDE? If it's that, I'm interested. The newer type (SATA?) won't work. These machines are too old.

Try white lithium grease on the speedo cable. Also, check the cable routing to make all bends as smooth and wide as possible. Tighter bends are more prone to the cable "whipping."

I think a couple of modems is all I'm lacking. I have video cards, I have network cards, and I have a few assorted DIMMs. Fortunately, all these boxes (except the 486s) seem to be of similar vintage and they all use the same DIMM configuration, so scavanging and cannibalizing are proceeding apace.

Guys, I need some help. The church my wife and I attend is in a nearby city and has several outreach programs to help the poor, including a daily soup kitchen. One of the assistant pastors recently mentioned they they would like to be able to make some computers available to kids in families that can't afford to buy them. At about the same time, I heard that the town where I work part-time was going to be clearing out the attic of Town Hall, and dumping several old computers. I mentioned the church to the system adminstrator, she mentioned it to the Board of Selectman, and I received an e-mail telling me that I could have the stufff if it was gone within a week. Two and half Cherokee loads later, here I am. I have more monitors than I can possibly deal with. Tons of keyboards, and lots and lots of mice. I've already scrapped two OLD computers that were 486 processors and wouldn't have a prayer of keeping up with even Windows 98, let alone 2000 or XP. I'm playing musical DIMMs to try to get a few boxes that run and that have enough memory to make it even worthwhile turning them on. It appears I'll possibly end up with maybe four, possibly five boxes to turn over to the church when I'm all done. I took the first up last week, and I'll deliver the second Monday or Tuesday. The problem is that I'm way short on modems. The town's computers were all on a network. Most of the boxes had network cards, but I can't be sure these low-income families will have access to DSL. Probably most will have cable TV, but I don't know if that connects through a standard network adapter. What I'd like to be able to do is have every box set up with both a network card and a plain-vanilla old dial-up modem. So ... does anyone have their old PCI modem card sitting in a desk drawer or on a closet shelf somewhere? If so, how would you like to send it along for on of Saint John's Church computer outreach boxes? Thanks in advance, guys. Please drop me a PM if you have anything.