Eagle

Why? Do you routinely run it without oil? Do you periodically fill it with steel shavings? Do you use it for target practice with a .50 BMG sniper rifle? My '88 XJ has the "dreaded" Peugeot tranny. I'm at 270,000 miles and (knock on wood) it's still doin' its thing. I'd say unless you make it a point to abuse your equipment you should be good for at least another 100,000 miles or so.

No need to get insulting, Mate. My stepgranddaughter brought her games with her from Chile and she doesn't have the original packaging. Anyone else care to offer demeaning and unhelpful suggestions, or can we now return to finding the most cost-effective way to getting my step-granddaughter a box to play her games on?

You won't have any issues. The ECU will continue to run the engine, and you'll abandon the TCU and harness. The 94 XJ will not have a disconnect front axle, so your 4WD indicator light on the dash probbaly won't work. I don't know how to make it work, but there's probably a way.

It's more likely that some bearing is seized up, which is what fried your old belt, and with a new belt properly tensioned the starter has to try to turn the seized bearing. I would loosen or remove the belt and check to see if the a/c compressor, water pump, idler pulley, alternator, and power steering pump all turn freely.

I knew RAM was the key -- and Dell screwed me yet again because both the desktops we have won't recognize any more than the 512k I have installed. And they are old enough that I don't think it's worth buying a new motherboard. So I should be looking for 2GB of RAM? Most of the lower priced boxes I've found still have 512k, and a few are 1 GB. Maybe I'll just have to hit the next computer fair -- if they still have them around here. I haven't been to one of those for maybe five years.

I use Catco direct-fits, from Summit Racing.

The GM 3.1L or 3.4L out of any rear wheel drive vehicle (Camaro, Firebird, S-10, etc) will work.

The water pump problem is that Jeep sold the 4.0L engine in the Cherokee and Comanche while they still offered the 4.2L in the Wrangler. ALL the 4.0L applications used a serpentine belt, but the 4.2L used the standard belt ... and a water pump that doesn't spin in the "reverse" direction. Since the blocks are essentially the same, you can install a 4.2L water pump on a 4.0L engine and vice versa. The 2.5L engine in the XJ and MJ came with either a standard vee belt or a serpentine belt, depending on options. I don't know if those water pumps are the same as the 4.0L or 4.2L pumps, but it wouldn't surprise me.

My wife's 12-year old granddaughter is staying with us for awhile -- like, several months, and possibly longer. Like all kids that age, she's addicted to computer games. I know I'm a technophobe and a dinosaur, but even so I was astonished to discover that neither my wife's desktop box nor mine, nor our Dell notebook, will run ANY of the kid's games. So today I went looking to see what's out there in the way of affordable boxes. Keyboards I have (and she needs a Spanish keyboard anyway, and fortunately I brought a spare home the last time I was in Chile), monitor I have and can probably scrounge something better from the computer graveyard at my part-time job, but I have to face the music and realize that to run games, we're probably going to have to buy a new computer. So -- first stop: Best Buy. They had a few desktops on display, and after some poking and probing I was able to determine that they will actually sell you a box, rather than an entire system. Cheapest one they had was an Acer with 1024 MB of RAM and a 320 GB hard drive, and a CD/DVD read/write drive. Is that enough horsepower to run games? The price was $449.95 Next stop was Circuit City. Are they going out of business? The store looked stripped, and there wasn't a single desktop computer in the place. Oh, well. On to CompUSA and their going out of business sale. Two or three months ago, I was in the same store and saw two desktop boxes priced under $400 -- one was an eMachine at $349, and the other was perhaps an Acer at $399. Not today. Today, the cheapest desktop box in the store was $899, less a whopping 5% reduction. Thanks, but no thanks. Anybody got any suggestions as to where's the cheapest place to get a half-decent box that has enough Moxie to run games?

Agreed Both will rub the lower control arms, though. The largest tire that (usually) fits with NO rubbing is 235/75-15

What a great team we are. Looks like we now have it narrowed down to ... everything! :cheers:

I don't trust platinum plugs. I've heard too many stories of the tip breaking off and taking the top out of a piston. I use nothing but plain-Jane NGKs.

How are the u-joints in the rear drive shaft? Disengaging the clutch would remove any loading from the drive shaft ...

For an '88, I believe you need a cluster out of a mid-87 or newer XJ, up through '90. As noted above, in '91 Chrysler went over to the electronic speedo. You can also use the '84-early '87 clusters, but you'll need to replace your speedo cable with one for that year XJ. For the tach adjustment, it's a potentiometer not a switch, and there is no position for 8 cylinders. My friend put an '89 6-cylinder cluster into an '84 4-cylinder XJ. The '89 cluster has the potentiometer -- the early ones do not, so if you get an early cluster it will need to be from a 4-cylinder to match your vehicle and generate the correct reading. For the potentiometer, what my friend in Greece reported was that the pot (that's short for "potentiometer") was adjusted all the way to one extreme. To calibrate it to the 4-cyl he found that it required turning it all the way to the opposite extreme. I would use an idle tachometer to verify, if you have access to one. In my friend's case he was changing just because he preferred the style of the newer cluster, so he was able to connect both and compare the tach readings.

Lies. All lies. Or wishful thinking. And before someone asks -- old Dakota taillights don't fit, either, although they look similar from a distance.

Older S-10 caps fit. There's a thread on here about a month or so old that tells exactly what years. Found it -- look for the post by Pathkiller: http://www.comancheclub.com/forums/view ... highlight=

I've done the '88 XJ once and the '88 MJ twice. The MJ took about a half hour each time. The XJ took an hour. The XJ still has the splash shield in place, so I had to work from above.

:redX: The 2WD 2.5L MJs had 3.55 gears if they were 4-speeds.

Did I understand you to say that you had the distributor out? If so, are you CERTAIN you replaced it correctly? Just because you have spark at #1 cylinder doesn't mean you have spark at #1 when you need it. Remember, this is a 4-stroke engine. The crankshaft goes around twice for each ONE revolution of the distributor. If you put the distributor in 180 degrees out of phase, you'll be firing #1 when the piston is up on the exhast stroke rather than when it's on the compression stroke. When you mention backfiring with the starting fluid, that to me sounds like a hint that the plugs are firing when there's an exhast valve open. Which ain't supposed to happen.

Call your state department of motor vehicles and ask them if a known emissions RECALL (not a tech bulletin, which is only advisory) can "expire."

Actually, the rear only needs the spring perches. The shock mounts are built into the stock spring plates on the MJ.

Wrenching on old XJs is considered therapeutic ...

That seems to work for the US Postal Service. Theirs are nicely wedge-shaped, though, and they have high-tech solid handles.

Agreed. Why bust your knuckles when the dealership will do it for you?

You find a friend who is a decent welder. Then you get a hardened, "heavy pattern" washer of the correct size (I believe it's 10mm but hopefully someone will either confirm that or correct me) and you have your welder friend weld it to the face of the track bar bracket. That's what I did. It's been there for 10,000 miles, 8 years, and numerous off-road excursions. The washer I used came from a Jeeper buddy who is a VW technician in his secret identity. It came out of some suspension kit they use in the shop that often results in a few parts left over. Don't Rusty's arms accept stock bushings? They'll last a LOT longer than polyurethane, because they flex more.