Eagle

Ther fan speeds are controlled by routing the circuit through a set of resistors with different ratings. Full speed doesn't go through a resistor. The lower speeds do. More than likely your resistor pack is burned out, so the lower speeds aren't sending any juice to the fan.

Internal or external depends on the year, not the tranny. All the BA10/5s were internal.

Nope, on stock rims 12.50s won't work. The 31x10.50s on mine would rub the inner shoulder of the tread on the inner fender well when the rear suspension was crossed up. There would be new black rubber marks back there after every wheeling trip. I don't think 12.50s would even clear the leaf springs on OEM rims. You definitely need either different rims, or spacers.

Differentiated or not, when you shift a 242 from 2WD into 4WD you go first into 4 part-time, and THEN into 4 full-time. It is best to limit the speed at which you shift to what the owner's manual says, or a bit less. Also, keep your foot and neutral throtlle when making the shift, dom't shift when applying power or coasting under compression braking.

^^^ Check. Center pivot, but only a 90-degree swing (actually, even less than 90-degree). No way it can spin like an airplane propeller. There are pins at both limits

Yeah. You can get it in there, but there's no way to make it "right" at the back edge where you have to cut it for length. My red '88 doesn't have a headliner, and that's better than a butchered XJ headliner any day.

You need rims with more backspacing. I ran 31x10.50s with a Trailmaster 4" lift and no trimming. Other guys in the club have run 33x9.50s with no trimming and 3" to 4" of lift. In fact, on stock rims you can run 31x10.50s with no lift at all.

Other negotiating points: From the later photos, it appears that it has the big gas gauge and not a tachometer. That's wrong for a Pioneer. The Pioneer cluster should have had a small gas gauge and a tach next to the speedo. The Pioneer 5-speed also had a mini-console, which is missing in this truck. He has some aftermarket shifter boot that's just screwed to the floor. That deer catcher could be factory, but it's missing the extensions that protect the headlights. Could also be aftermarket. I don't know what the factory used in '89, but the factory one on my '88 Pioneer doesn't look anything like that one. And a Pioneer should have a chrome front bumper, not black. Going back to look more closely ... There should be an engine ID on the tailgate -- either 2.5L or 4.0L

My '88 XJ is currently at 267,000 miles, the head has never been off (heck, the valve cover has never been off -- knock wood), and on a recent trip from CT to NC and back I averaged about 20-1/2 MPG. 204,000 is nothing for an AMC 4.0L -- we had numerous guys in NAXJA with over 300,000 on their engines. My original clutch went 204,000 miles. The release bearing went bad, so as long as it had to come apart (internal slave) I decided to replace everything while it was open. I still have the clutch somewhere -- the old one looked as good as the new one. Got a better photo of the tires and wheels? The wheels in that first photo don't look like factory rims. IMHO, anyone who wants well above blue book for an old truck should be offering it in showroom condition, and that means authentic Jeep rims, not el cheapo Rock Crawler POS rims that bend if you look at them cross-eyed. Stock rims on an 88 Pioneer were the 15x6, silver-grey steel rims with 9 rectanular slots, and stainless trim rings. The optional rims were the 10-spoke alloy "turbine" rims.

Rubber line is fine when it's new, but if it softens with age it collapses and then you get no vacuum. I prefer to use steel or copper tubing (copper is much easier to bend, but more expensive and you won't find it at an auto parts store, you probably have to do to a plumbing supply house), and just use a short elngth of rubber to make the connections at the ends.

The oxygen sensor is the one that's most likely to put the fuel mileage in the toilet. A tune-up never hurts, but won't usually flush the mileage THAT badly unless it gets to the point that the engine hardly runs. A bad O2 sensor, on the other hand, just leaves it running rich all the time. Fast idle is usually the IAC or the TPS, but it can also be rust in the throttle linkage bellcrank on the driver's side of the engine, down below the master cylinder. Try spraying that with a good penetrating lubricant (NOT WD-40).

This is in an 87? How can the gauge have spun like a propeller -- it isn't a center pivot gauge, the 87 should be a bottom pivot gauge and it only swings through about a 90 degree arc. I had an 84 XJ 4-cyl that DID have a center pivot gauge, and that one gyrated wildly. Turned out the connector that pushes onto the top of the sender was fubar. I cut it off, soldered on a ring connector, and used a nut and lock washer to make the connection (the post on the sender is threaded, thankfully). End of problem.

LOL I have three dial calipers, two digital calipers, and a couple of micrometers. But front sway bars are usually dirty and messy, and I just don't see the point of measuring to three decimal places when the tolerance is an eighth of an inch. The open end wrenches are handy, easy to use, and easy to clean up after "measuring."

Don't feel too bad. Many years ago I had a friend who was a carpenter for a construction company, so he was always driving his pickup around construction sites. Which, of course, meant rocks, stumps, and "stuff" all over the place. The "best shop in town" replaced a rear axle brake line for him, and they did it just like you did -- except that they left it hanging DOWN with about 2 inches of ground clearance. Ron couldn't understand why I went ballistic and told him they were idiots.

Keep in mind what other guys told you. On the 88 that plastic coolant bottle is NOT an "overflow" bottle. It is an integral part of the cooling system, coolant flows through it, and it is under pressure. do NOT remove that cap when the system is hot and under pressure.

All four were not used on the MJ but they were used on the XJ. The biggest one was used on the XJ Wagoneer Limited. To measure I just use a set of open end wrenches. Whichever one barely fits onto the bar (and sometimes it's almost a light press fit) is the size of the bar.

For starters, you are NOT overheating. The normal temperature for a 4.0L is 210 degrees. You did the plug and unplug deal and the gauge responded, so it's not totally fubar. Inless you have some resistors that you can use to test the range of the gauge, the next thing would be to replace the sender in the head. Wait -- there is another test you can run. The gauge is basically an ohmmeter. The temp sender for the 88 has a range of 0 to 88 ohms. I think it's zero when cold and 88 to max out the needle on the gauge. So you can use a multimeter to check what the sender is sending. Connect one lead to the head, and touch the other lead to the tip of the sender, where the wire pushes on. When the engine is cold it should read close to zero. At normal operating temperature, it should be in the area of 42 to 45 ohms.

Yeah, they do. I have three sets for an MJ D44 in a box in my garage. Took them a couple of tries to get it right. The first time they said "Yeah, we have a pattern. No problem." I think the pattern must have been for a J truck. So I returned those along with the original lines off an axle and they matched them up pretty well.

You can get stainless. In the back of all the car and 4x4 mags there are two companies that always advertise. One is Classic Tubing, and I don't remember the other. They specialize in making up custom sets to the OEM bend profiles (sometimes they even do it right), but I believe they will also sell lengths of straight tubing.

Which coolant temp sensor did you replace? If your MJ is a 90 or earlier, there are two. The one on the side of the block supplies input to the ECU but not to the gauges. The one for the gauge is the one in the rear left corner of the head. Could also be a bad wire. If the wire is shorted it'll go all the way to one side of the gauge, if it's an open circuit it'll go to the other side. Don't remember which way, though.

Two things to think about: (1) The tilt columns are prone to having the internal lock screws loosen up, which then requires pulling the steering wheel, horn mechanism and lock plate to tighten up so the wheel doesn't flop all over the place. There are write-ups for this all over the Internet, as it affects all that vintage GM steering columns, not just the XJ and MJ. (2) For the vast majority of people, the "straight" position is the most comfortable position anyway. Knowing the above, there's no way I would spend money or effort to install a tilt column in place of a standard column.

I towed a LWB home with my SWB. Towing wasn't too bad, except up steep hills, but stopping was a problem. I've never seen a dolly with brakes but if you can find one I would highly recommend it.

This is why converting to rear disc brakes doesn't make any sense to me. Even in an XJ, which has more weight over the rear axle under normal conditions, the rear brakes only do a small percentage of the actual stopping. In an unloaded MJ, the rear brakes do almost nothing. Converting to rear discs and then having to deal with the resultant fluid and pressure issues just seems like an exercise in futility. I guess if you're doing the 8.8 conversion and it comes with disc brakes you're sort of committed, but IMHO it's cheaper and easier to use a Chrysler 8.25 out of a 97+ XJ and leave the brakes alone.

Both bgred2 and Twisty are in Massachusetts, so I'll suggest you both head over to Henry's in Blackstone, MA. It's a combination u-pull and "they pull" yard. I haven't been there for awhile, but they generally have a huge area of XJs and MJs back in the u-pull section of the yard.

All the XJs use rear drums. I suspect the 8.8 calipers require a LOT more fluid than the old wheel cylinders. The ZJs used rear disc brakes. I would suggest getting the master cylinder and the front combo valve from a disc brake ZJ and using those.