Eagle

Okay, it's an '86 2.5L so that means it has the same coil pack and ignition (RENIX) as the 4.0L models from 87 thru 90. First off, are you wiring a factory tach, or aftermarket? A factory tach should work when plugged in, there shouldn't need to be any wiring. So, assuming it's aftermarket, the instructions for the Sun Supertach I put in my '88 said to connect the black wire to ground (duh!), the red wire to battery voltage (preferebly a fuse that's switched by the ignition), and the green wire to the NEGATIVE terminal on the coil. Perhaps you are connected to the wrong side of the coil?

Go to a political forum if you want to talk politics. Seriously.

Somewhere someone posted what the CPS should put out when you crank the engine over. Basically you disconnect the CPS and put a digital multi-meter between the two terminals. I think it's supposed to generate 0.5 volts or something like that. An '87 will be like my '88, with the wires from the CPS to the ECU going through the C101 connector on the firewall. The factory has a kit to bypass that with a replacement harness direct from the CPS to the ECU. I'd recommend it.

I don't appreciate your sense of humor. The BA 10/5 is a Peugeot tramission, made in France. Since when are the French shooting at us in Iraq? Why don't we stick to discussing Comanches on this forum and skip the gratuitous political insults -- especially if you don't even know what you're talking about.

That's a D35. Definitely NOT a Chrysler 8-1/4". Without the connecting rod, you have no way of knowing if the load/height sensing proportioning valve is set to allow maximum or minimum pressure to the rear brakes. The procedure to recalibrate it requires, in addition to a rod of the correct length, a replacement spring that isn't available. Personally, having exploded the proportioning valve in my '88 in a panic stop, I don't trust them. I have eliminated the one that blew up (no choice!), and I will also eliminate them from all my other MJs as time permits. I can live with too much rear brakes. I cannot tolerate no rear brakes.

Welcome aboard, Mate. I've only been to Nova Scotia once, and I never made it to the Cape Breton part. Gotta get back there one day.

Why would a bad speedo drive gear suddenly decide to work after driving 4 miles? It's an electrical problem. Clean all connections, check the fuse.

My grad school roommate was even more of a gearhead than I was -- to the point that friends would ask him (sometimes even PAY him) to negotiate car purchases for them. His ground rules were simple: Tell me how much you're willing to spend. If I think your bottom line is reasonable for what you want to buy, I'll negotiate for you. But you have to promise me that your bottom line IS your bottom line -- if I tell you to walk out ... we walk out. If the seller sees that you're at all flexible on what you "said" your bottom line is -- I can't help you. In this instance, I would NOT make the guy an offer. I would decide how much I was willing to spend for that truck. I would then go in, talk to him, explain to him that the old 2.5L 4-speed, 2WD is the least desireable model possible for a Comanche, which is not an especially desireable truck anyway (that's your story ... DO NOT tell him that you're a member of a Comanche forum and you've been searching high and low for one for five years!), so .... like ... "What's your bottom line ... really?" If his bottom line is within a couple hundred of yours, tell him you've got 'X' to spend and if he'll take it he has a deal, if he doesn't take it God only knows how long he'll have to wait for someone who's willing to buy an underpowered orphan of a truck. If he won't go for that, hand him a paper with your phone number, shake his hand, and walk out.

Yeah, and tire balance has always been my culprit (except in the WJ, where it was warped rotors), and for someone else it's insufficient caster... There is, unfortunately, no one thing that anyone can point to and say that THIS is the definitive cause of death wobble.

The Wrangler transfer case is "clocked" a couple of degrees more than the MJs. It should still clear the floor, but it may be a slight interference fit. Also, the transfer case shift linkages are totally different. You'll have to use the MJ linkage, unless you want to butcher the floor pan of the truck. One of the shift arms on the YJ linage goes up where the MJ arm goes down (or maybe it's the other way), so pay attention to how your linkage is set up before you start taking things apart, because you'll need to figure out how to put it back together.

There's a special 2-sided tape for this purpose. If there's a professional auto paint shop near you, they will certainly have it. If not, try the chains like Auto Zone, Advance/Shucks/Checkers, or Pep Boys.

The base pedestals for the MJ are totally different from an XJ. Bolt spacing is the LEAST of the problems. Use the pedestals out of the MJ.

Nope.

Yep. Not enough caster. When you lift, the control arms swing down and back, reducing the caster angle. Caster is what makes the steering self-centering. BTW -- 1/8" toe-in is too much. P.S. BTW -- what the heck kind of a shop changes out ALL FOUR ball joints and doesn't do an alignment? You really need to find a shop with a clue.

I have an '88 2.5L and it also has the 4-speed with 3.54 gears. That was the factory setup. To you youngsters that seems like it's churning a lot of RPMs, but in fact it seems that way only because y'all grew up in an age of overdrive transmissions. "Back in the day" American Motors routinely sold cars with manual trannies and no overdrive that were geared even steeper than that. My '68 Javelin had 3.15 gears, but the tires were E70/14s -- MUCH smaller diameter than even the relatively small tires that were stock on a 2.5L MJ. My brother's '69 AMX had 3.54 gears -- and the same E70/14 tires as my Javelin. My rig ran to exactly 72 MPH at 3,000 RPM and would run that all day long at 22 miles per gallon. My brother drives faster than I do -- he routinely cruised at 75 MPH, which would have put him at almost 3,400 RPM. Put in a tach. IMHO as long as you keep your cruise to not much more than 3,000 RPM and try not to go over 4,000 for your shift points and short spurts, you'll be fine.

Ummm ... the guy explaining why he's wrong is also from Ontario, Canada. Last time I looked at a map of Canada, it was all one province.

Ditto. Nice ones are already hard to find, and getting more so. There are ALWAYS clunkers you can make into "machines."

Won't work. The entire header has to be changed to use the newer style grille.

You can't really "adjust" one cylinder, but you could exchange that injector with a different cylinder to see if it makes a difference. But I think your friend's diagnosis is backwards. The lower compression suggests that the low cylinder may allow more oil to get into the cylinder, and the burning of that oil is likely what's making the plug read dark. That said, I've seen older cars that literally trailed a smoke screen behind them that didn't use a quart in 200 miles. It doesn't take a lot of oil to make a smoke generator. If you're going through a quart in 200 miles, there's something going on besides one cylinder with marginally low compression. How's your rear main seal?

Roger that. Same for clutch hydraulics, for those of you who drive standards.

What year? If it's a 90 or earlier, I believe it's set up just like the 4.0L in the same years, and the ECU gets data from a separate sender in the driver's side of the block. The sender in the head serves ONLY the gauge (or idiot light) and can be replaced with impunity. You could always get a late model thermostat housing. That has a boss drilled and tapped for a sending unit.

All of my literature says that it was a LWB-only thing. But since all the parts just bolt right in to a SWB, someone could easily have swapped it over. My 87 SWB Pioneer also has a Dana 44 rear axle. I bought it from the daughter of the original owner, and I'm 99.47% certain it was never modified. It has factory tow hooks and what passed for a factory brush guard on the front bumper, so my guess is that for '87 Jeep used the D44 with the off-road package.

I thought the chain from a Dodge truck 242HD was considered an upgrade. And what about the internals from a Hummer 242 (242AMG)?

Almost certainly a vacuum leak -- the flappers are vacuum operated. The line to/from the vacuum reservoir is a prime suspect, especially right near the battery, but if you don't find the leak there check the reservoir itself (might be a round ball about the size of a softball, or might be a sausage-shaped thingie that's like the softball extruded lengthwise -- also referred to affectionately as "the blimp"), and then the rest of the vacuum lines between the reservoir and the flappers.

Not quite. The '86 Selec-Trac was a 228 or 229 transfer case, which offered a full-time high range but did NOT offer a part-time high range. The '87 and newer 242 transfer case, which offered both full-time and part-time in high range, was also referred to by the factory as Selec-Trac. It's best to discuss the transfer cases using the numbers rather than the names, because between 84 and 2001 (for the XJ) and 86 and 92 (for the MJ) Jeep used five or six different transfer cases (with spline count changes within some of them just to make life interesting) but they only used two designations: Command-Trac and Selec-Trac.