Eagle

The early Jeep injection/ignition system was a joint design produced by Renault, Bendix, and AMC/Jeep. Most of the design & development work was done by Renault and Bendix, so it is referred to as Renix as a contraction of "RENault-bendIX"

You may have water or sludge in your gas. That'll do it.

Those Rockcrawlers are the cheapest, most universally-available steel rim out there. You should be able to find them in a 7" width just about anywhere, and they won't be expensive. Worst case, you can live with an 8" width, but no wider for the tires you have.

Ummm ... the rear tire is not in any way "stuffed" in either of those pictures.

Probably

4.88 is the deepest ratio available for the Dana 30, unless things have changed when I wasn't paying attention. Last I knew, even 4.88 was available only aftermarket, because Dana-Spicer won't go beyond 4.56 due to the small size of the pinion.

Y'all forced me into it. I just Googled up the BFG tires web site and updated my spreadsheet to include 35" tires. New data, for 35x12.50R15 (and almost identical for 35s on other rim diameters) will be 3410 RPM at 70 in 4th gear, and 2558 RPM in 5th gear.

No, it won't be okay. At 4" of backspacing, your tires will hit the flares in the front AND the back. Lift does not affect this -- the tires still "stuff" into the same wheel wells. The only way to prevent it is to extend the bump stops far enough to stop the tires before they can touch the flares. That severely limits articulation, so it's a solution for a street vehicle but probably not a good solution for a trail vehicle. If you want 31x10.50s to stuff without hitting the flares and sheet metal, you have to stay with the stock rims.

"Too much?" As in, too deep a ratio with 35" tires? More likely, "not enough," but let's see. You don't say what tranny you have or what year MJ, so I'll assume it's a 5-speed manual with 4.10 gears. Stock tire size would have been probably 205/75-15 or 215/75-15. Using the 205/75 as a baseline, with 4.10 gears you would be turning 3607 RPM in 4th gear at 70 MPH, and 2705 RPM in 5th gear at 70 MPH. Unfortunately, my tire & gear spreadsheet doesn't even include 35" tires, because when I made it up several years ago I never thought anyone would put 35" tires on a street XJ or MJ. The biggest I have data for is 33" tires, so I'll post that and you can extrapolate. 4.88 gears and 33" tires, in 4th gear you'd be turning 3638 RPM at 70 MPH and in 5th gear you'd be turning 2729 RPM at 70 MPH. In other words, VERY close to the same RPMs as stock tires with the stock 4.10 gears. Jump it up to 35" tires, and you will effectively be running less gear than stock. You'll have a hard time holding 70 MPH on the highway, not because you're over-revving the engine but just because the engine probably won't be putting out enough power to handle upgrades.

It's more likely the cable. Try squirting penetrating oil down it and working it -- a lot -- with the hood open and no resistance from the latch mechanism.

The drivers side floor was completely gone on my '88. I found that some of the steel patch panels in the hardware aisle at Lowe's were the perfect width to fit in there. Lowe's offers (or did at the time) two thicknesses of panels. I think it was 24 ga and 20 ga. I chose the heavier. Harder to bend, but easier to weld. I was blessed that the father of one of my friends in NAXJA is a professional welder, and in compensation for some help and parts I had given his son he welded the panels in for free. Still good several years later, but the leak is still there and I have to be sure to dry off the floor after a rain. Sure would be nive to be able to put a carpet in, but not until I find the leak.

????? You said you put in an '89 axle, right? So don't go looking for 90+ rotors. You said the rotors wouldn't go over the hub? Something's wrong, because even the wrong rotors will go on the hubs. The difference is in the thickness and height of the center "hat" section. Put the wrong year rotors on, and they won't be centered in your calipers, resulting in bound-up brakes. We know this to be true, because more than one person in NAXJA has managed to put the wrong rotors on. Double-check what's happening before you spend money.

Correct. Swamper -- Is this the '86 MJ listed in your signature? Which engine does it have, the 2.5L 4-cylinder (which is throttle body injected) or the 2.8L V6 (which is carbureted, with a POS of a carburetor)? You may have more than one problem, or you may just not be describing the symptoms very well. It would help to know what engine/tranny combination we're dealing with. It would also help to know how it died -- you mentioned bringing gas out -- did you run out of gas while you were playing around out there?

Put a jumper around your neutral safety switch and see if the problem goes away.

You will need new carrier and pinion bearings, a new pinion seal, and while it's apart you should replace the axle bearings and seals on both sides. 4.10 is a good ratio if you won't go beyond 31" tires, but it's not enough gear for 33s. I put 3.73s into my red '88 MJ ... because I already had them. I had chosen that ratio because I thought it was the ideal for the XJ running stock tires or maybe 30x9.50s. When I got the MJ, I used what I had. The overall final drive ratio with 31x10.50s and 3.73 gears worked out to exactly the same as stock tires and 3.55 gears. So going to 4.10s with 31" tires is only a very small increment. 4.10s and 31s is a good compromise setup for street use and mild trail use. The crawl ratio isn't as low as I'd like, but it's quite livable. Move up to 33" tires, and you're back to the functional equivalent of stock tires and gears, except you're trying to spin a MUCH heavier hunk or rubber. If 33s are on your radar, I'd suggest 4.56 gears.

My ex-wife had a Reneault Le Car back in 1980. We bought it for the gas mileage, and because it was cheap. The gas mileage wasn't great (around 30 MPG highway), and we quickly found out why it was cheap. It was possibly the worst car I ever drove. She loved it, though. The Honda 1300FE we bought in 1982 got 40 MPG highway, rode better, drove better, and was big enough for me to fit behind the steering wheel. It's a puzzler to me that, if Honda was able to make a civilized car 26 years ago that got 40 MPG with a gasoline engine, why aren't they making cars now that get 50 or 60 MPG? The only answer has to be -- because they don't want to.

This is why I won't advertise the MJs I need to sell anywhere but here. I've seen what idiots do to irreplaceable vehicles. Most of the reason I buy these excess MJs is just to keep them away from twits who use 'em up and throw 'em away like Kleenex. Went through the same thing years ago when I was in the Javelin/AMX Sports Car Club. We had one member who seemed to total out another classic, 2-seat AMX about every six weeks. He was lucky there were laws against intentional homicide, because he was on the list. The sad part was, he was a nice guy when sober. Unfortunately, the times when he was sober were few and far between ...

CW, the hole is definitely smaller than 1/2". In fact, it's hardly a "hole" at all, you have to look a bit to even see it on the outside, and it's virtually invisible on the inside. I was in Pep Boys while they dismounted it for me. That's where I bought the truck patch kit I just got, but it doesn't have any spike in the center of the patch. I didn't see anything like that. BTW -- Pep Boys used to sell inner tubes, but today I couldn't find any and the drone I asked said "Not since I've been working here." Did they stop selling them? If so, where can I buy a tube for a 30x9.50R15?

The starter is not part of the ignition system. A bad ignition module won't cause it to not turn over. You need to test to find out if you are getting power to the starter solenoid when you turn the key. If not, your problem is the ignition switch, or the neutral safety switch. Since you already had a problem with that, I would begin there. Try hot-wiring past the NSS and then see if the starter will turn over.

There are three parts required to replace the entire CCV system. They are available through NAPA for a lot less than Jeep dealer prices.

My brother found an almost new 30x9.50 Michelin tire on a Jeep alloy rim at his town's transfer station, so he snagged it and gave it to me. The rim is in good shape, and I can certainly use that. The tire looks to have virtually no wear on it, but there's a puncture in the sidewall. I had Pep Boys dismount it for me today and I'll check it out under some bright light tomorrow. So far, it appears to be more of a puncture than a slice. I know it's illegal for a shop to put a patch on a sidewall, but that's just what I'm thinking of doing. I wouldn't use it as a highway tire, but it might be suitable for a spare. I bought a truck tire patch that has a 2-ply, cord-reinforced patch. What are my chances of that holding -- or should I apply the patch and then find an inner tube for a belt-and-suspenders repair?

AFAIK the short block is the same for all years. The 2.5L was changed from a Renix-based system to a Mopar injection/ignition in 1991, just like the 4.0L, but I don't they made any significant changes to the block.

"I love it when a plan comes together." - Hannibal, The A-Team

Keep in mind that you aren't certain this was the problem. Thanks to the guy at the tranny shop talking you into yanking the distributor, you now don't know if the distributor is installed correctly or not. Before you start grinding on the locator tab, I suggest using the information in this tech bulletin to see if you can get the distributor reinstalled correctly and see if it aligns correctly with the notch. If so, there's no need to remove the locator tab. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

It may clear, but not "just fine." With factory Jeep rims, 31x10.50-15s rub the inside shoulder against the inner wheel well on even non-aggressive trail rides. The Exploder axle may clear with stock tires if you ONLY use it on pavement and both rear wheels always move up and down together, but get it even slightly crossed up and you have an interference fit. I'm not saying don't do the 8.8 swap -- but if you're going to do it, be sure you understand the limitations and compromises that come with the narrower track width.