Eagle

1984-1986 XJ Wagoneer. I had one. I think it's still alive (barely) in Massachusetts.

Just my opinion, but while keeping the TBI is less work in the short term, converting to the MPFI will give you better performance and probably better gas mileage. Since you were unhappy with the performance before, why do it over again? Here's the skinny on the 2.5L engine (copyright, me -- permission to reproduce is NOT granted)

That's the problem. I made the rear springs for my championship autocross car that way, but I wore out a lot of hacksaw blades. Are those 3" XJ springs out of the vehicle? If so, what's the arch on them? I think Rancho's catalog is available on-line, and IIRC in the back of the catalog (or maybe in the catalog itself) they list specs for replacement (stock) springs. I'd be interested in comparing the free (unloaded) arch of a stock MJ spring with the arch of those 3" Rusty's XJ springs. I'll bet they're actually pretty close.

That's news to me, and I used to hang around the Jeep shop all the time when the Cherokees first came out. I also ordered my Cherokees new from the factory and I have never seen a front LSD offered. Got a link to your source?

Got any local stock car tracks in your area? A VERY looooooooooong time ago, the girl I was dating came into possession of a classic 2-seat AMX. However, it wasn't stock -- instead of the stock 14x6 5-spoke painted rims, this one had 14x7 chrome rims by the same company and in the same spoke style as the factory rims. And one of the rims had been trashed by vandals before she bought the car, so she had a 3-wheel AMX. I took the damaged wheel to the shop that made rims for the stockers who ran at the local tracks (we three or four around here in those days). They looked at it and said, "Yeah, no problem." Their solution was to take a stock Ford cop car rim and cut the center out of it. Then they cut the trashed rim away from the AMX center (which thankfully was intact) and welded the AMX center into the new rim. They said if the original rim had been intact and all we wanted was to widen it, they could also have just sliced it and welded in a spacer ring. For the AMX wheel I then took the repaired rim to a chrome plating shop and had it plated. Came out great. Working on alloy rims is dicey. Steel rims are a lot easier. Just make certain that whoever does the work is set up to true the rim before they give it back to you. Otherwise you'll be like Bill Cosby's famous "woogley woogley cart" going down the road.

Explanation, please? The sending unit is a float on an arm, and two push-on spade connectors. There are no supply tubes or any other kind of tubes on the sending unit. Are you perhaps referring to the fuel pump?

a) The photo is too out of focus to read the tag B) can you take a photo of the complete diff?

Nope. Absolutely not. XJ springs sit basically flat in the vehicle. MJ springs (stock) have a couple or three inches of arch at unladen curb weight. Match up a Comanche main leaf with the other leaves out of an XJ and you'll have the other three leaves pulling the main leaf DOWN. You won't even get normal MJ curb height. With Rusty's crap 3" "lift" springs ... you might get stock height. For reference -- Rancho sells the same add-a-leaf for the XJ and the MJ. Look in the Rancho catalog and it says this same AAL provides 2" to 2-1/2" of lift in an XJ or an MJ. That's impossible, of course, since one is SOA and the other is SUA. So I called Rancho and talked to one of their suspension engineers ... who talked to another suspension engineer ... who brought in a third suspension engineer. In the end, they said the catalog is wrong, it provides about 1" to 1-1/2" in the MJ and 2" to 2-1/2" in the XJ. Sou you're looking at taking springs that will lift an XJ a half inch more than this AAL, and using the parts with a STOCK MJ main leaf. I don't think this is a great combination.

Good luck. The 1988 electrical manual is a separate book, it's fairly large (although not as large as a full FSM), and even my dealer doesn't have one. And they were selling Jeeps back in 1988.

Wahoo, does your '88 still have the big C101 connector? If so, it'll be a LARGE electrical connector block high on the firewall inside the engine bay, directly in front of the driver. All '88s had it. There was a TSB out for cutting it out and splicing all the wires -- if yours has been updated, you'll have a metal tab/shelf there that looks like a mistake 'cause it's not holding anything. That's where the C101 connector goes. The point being -- if you still have the C101 connector, your dash harness is completely separate from your engine room harness. You can replace one without touching the other. Actually, I think the dash harness may be separate even without the C101 but I haven't gotten that deep into the under-dash wiring yet.

Don't use a bead blaster or a wire wheel on a 2.5L with a plastic valve cover.

No. It sounds like a lube additive. No. Specifically, a Detroit TrueTrac is good but may require riding the brake to get it to engage. The TrueTrac is a gear-operated limited slip. Any clutch-type limited slip is engaged at all times until the traction difference between the two wheels becomes too much and causes the clutches to release. The clutch types are nowhere near as effective as the TrueTrac. In reality, for use in the front a locker is much more effective than a limited slip. On the street in 2WD a mechanical locker is never engaged because you're never putting power to the front diff, so in daily driving it's completely "transparent." I've known serious off-roaders who strongly advocate locking the front axle before doing the rear because they feel it's more beneficial. Whatever might be in there is NOT factory. The factory limited slip was a Dana Trac-Lok. I just checked the Reider Racing web site, and there is no Trac-Lok offered for the Dana 30. That was my recollection, but I wanted to confirm. http://www.reiderracing.com/danatraclok.htm Please let us know what you find when you open it up. BYW -- are you certain it's a Dana 30 front axle? There's no chance a previous owner swapped in maybe a Rubicon "Dana 44"?

Losing everything when the ignition switch is in the ON position rather than the START position makes it sound like there's something amiss with the ignition switch. Which is NOT at the key -- they key is only a tumbler mechanism, the actual electrical components are in a switch module at the base of the steering column. What about headlights? Do you also lose headlights when the key is turned on? If you plan to keep this truck for any length of time, it might be worthwhile getting a complete wiring harness from a junkyard and starting over. Inherited problems due to jackass wiring are exceedingly frustrating, and you never know when the next one is going to bite you in the posterior.

First, Grasshopper, eliminate the obvious. It is tempting, since you've been mucking around with wiring, to assume there's a wiring problem. But ... at 200,000 miles, your alternator is definitely past it's projected life span. I would first test the alternator to be sure it's producing enough current to keep the battery charged. Don't forget, you're running an electric fuel pump and electicrally-fired fuel injectors, as well as the ignition coil. All that sucks out a lot of power in a few miles. If the alternator checks out, then check to be sure the battery will take and hold a charge. In fact, maybe reverse it -- check the battery first, and then test the alternator if the battery is good.

The high pinion D30s don't need or use any special lube. You didn't read the tag, then? The fronts usually have a tag on the outside with the gear ratio stamped into it. Is that perhaps what you saw?

You should not have both lines going to the rear. You should block off the rear outlet on the combo valve/metering block and run a single line from the "nose" of the metering block to the rear. If you get premature lockup of the rear wheels, either use smaller diameter rear wheel cylinders or buy a Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve from Summit Racing and put that in the single line to the rear.

Nope. It was definitely not bored through. BTW, I just replumbed my rear brakes. I plugged the lower (bypass) outlet and ran a single, new hard line from the "nose" outlet directly to the rear axle hose. It's amazing how much of a difference having rear brakes can make.

SOME 2.5s have a remote reservoir. I don't remember the years, but I have seen them with the same (visyally, valving may be different) integral reservoir as the 4.0L.

Guys, before you give out one-size-fits all advice -- all I see is that he owns an '89 with a 5-speed. It might be a 4.0L, which does hold 6 quarts with an oil change -- but it might be a 2.5L, which would be a quart over full with 6 quarts, and that causes the seals to blow out. Remember -- we're dealing with Jeeps. There are no absolutes.

You found one with a limited slip TAG? The factory never offered a front limited slip. What does this tag say and what does it look like? If the axle has a vacuum disconnect, having a limited slip in there would pretty well defeat the purpose of the disconnect. BTW -- limited slips suck for street racing. A couple of burnouts will wear out a LSD in no time at all.

You mean does 4-wheel disc limit the fkuid to the rear? No way -- a disc brake caliper requires a lot MORE fluid than a wheel cyinder for drum brakes. Also, disc brakes are not "servo assisted." Servo assist has to do with the way drum brake shoes are arranged. When you apply the brakes, the shoes try to rotate until they bind up against the pin, then they stop the drum. The geometry is set up so that in the forward direction they tend to draw the shoes into the drum harder. This is why the parking brake is more effective when you park nose downhill (forward) than when you park with the nose uphill (backward). My understanding is that ZJ and WJ systems for 4-wheel discs do not have any proportioning valve. In fact, I don't think any vehicles with 4-wheel discs have proportioning. So your WJ conversion might provide more braking to the rear than you want (as difficult as that may be to imagine after driving around with substandard brakes for awhile). Drive carefully when you first get it installed, and be mindful that the rear wheels may tend to lock up prematurely. Try some panic stops in an empty corner of a big parking lot and see how the brakes behave before you take it on the highway and forget about it.

Keep in mind that the WJ master is set up for 4-wheel disc brakes. You will most likely need some sort of proportioning valve for the rear. Since I don't trust the stock load/height sensing proportioning valve since mine blew out, and I also don't trust the XJ proportioning valve, I'd suggest a Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve from Summit Racing.

Does anyone know where the cowl drain is located for the XJ/MJ? The leak into the driver's side footwell of my '88 MJ seems to be getting worse. My brother mentioned that when he worked at BMW the cowl could overflow into the passenger compartment if the drain got clogged. It's worth a look -- if I can find the drain. I had the cowl cover off a couple of times and I don't see anything that looks like a drain. Has anyone who disassembles these vehicles seen where the drain is located?

You don't have to remove the tranny to tighten the bolts, if they are loose. If the flex plate (flywheel) is cracked, you have to slide the tranny back to replace it. I did it without actually removing it from under the vehicle, using one of those Harbor Freight Tools manual transmission jacks. Don't have a clue. I've never heard of it as a problem with the smaller, 3-speed tranmissions, only the 4.0L with the AW4.

The fenders were included in my list