Eagle

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.

You missed - Pioneer - XL - XLE But I agree on the Honcho. I never heard of an MJ "Honcho II" edition.

I have it in an Excel spreadsheet, and I don't know how well formulae transfer to a web page. Let's see if I can make this look like it makes sense: (leaf width x number of leaves / 72) X (1820 x leaf thickness / spring length)

I have seen only one MJ that broke, and it broke where all pickups do -- just behind the cab. I was told by the guy who bought the truck (for parts) from the original owner that it was habitually overloaded, so you can't really fault the truck for breaking. I think this is LESS of a problem with MJs than other brands. My brother's 92 Nissan broke, and he never hauled anything heavier than a couple of 50 pound bags of bird seed in it. Look at Chevy PUs on the road and you'll see that the frames on a LOT of them aren't quite ship-shape and Bristol fashion. And any frame that breaks can be repaired, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It ain't necessarily cheap, but it can be done. Little bro's Nissan is whole again. There's a shop near us that specializes in that. (And since there aren't a lot of MJs in this area, you can extrapolate from that that MJs are not the only trucks that crack frames.)

I've had decent luck using Aircraft Stripper (that's a brand name, from Auto Zone, not a generic description) to take off all the clear coat, then polishing with a good aluminum polish. If the aluminum is pitted I start with fine emery cloth, and then polish. Eventually I'll use some rattle can clear coat but for now I just clean and re-polish occasionally.

But on the other hand ... the mother and step-father of a Jeeping friend of mine recently bought a Dodge diesel crew cab to haul their 30-foot 5th wheel trailer. Then they discovered that the Dodge 2500 isn't rated to carry/tow that much weight, so they sold the Dodge and bought a Ford. According to my friend, the Ford carries a much higher load capacity than a Dodge of "comparable" series. Anybody know if this is true?

Is this the big junction block/connector behind the left side headlight? Simple fix would be a 2-wire trailer-type connector or just a simple bullet connector w/ female receptable. Splice a wire that jumpers right over the connector and connects on each side, with the bullet connector in-line so you can still unplug the complete harness if you need to. Better would be to get a junkyard connector and splice it in to replace yours. More work, but it's the "right" way to do it.

Don't forget that the system changed when Chrysler took over. Forget the articles that say the take-over was in 1987. That may have been when they shook hands, but my 1988 Cherokee was bought new and delivered in January of 1988. ALL the papers say AMC/Jeep/Renault. The Chrysler stuff didn't take effect until around March or April of 1988 with regard to warranty support by factory reps, etc. The actual production changes, as we know, didn't start showing up until the 1991 model year. I have the original MJ FSM, which includes only the 4-banger and the V6, so it's from 1986. First digit = lists only '1' indicating United States as manufacturing country. 2nd digit = J for Jeep Corporation 3rd digit = Type 'T' for truck 4th digit = Engine type .....H = 2.46L TBI 4-cyl .....U = 2.46L carbureted 4-cyl .....W = 2.8L V6 .....B = 2.1L Turbo diesel 5th digit = Transmission/transfer case .....L = 5 spd manual floor shift / part time .....X = 4 spd manual floor shift / part time .....B = Auto floor shift / part time .....C = Auto floor shift / full time .....S = 4 spd manual floor shift / 2WD .....D = Auto floor shift / 2WD .....W = 5 spd manual floor shift / 2WD .....E = Auto col shift / part time .....J = Auto col shift / full time .....A = Auto col shift / 2WD 6th & 7th digit = Series .....65 = 4WD Comanche .....66 = 2WD Comanche 8th digit = trim package .....7 = X .....8 = XL .....9 = XLS .....F = Custom (metric Ton Pkg) .....G = X (Metric Ton Pkg) .....H = XL (Metric Ton Pkg) .....J = XLS (Metric Ton Pkg) 9th digit = check digit 10th digit = year of manufacture .....G = 1986 11th digit = Plant of Manufacture (shows only T for Toledo)

The XJ roof has ribs. It will probably create more problems than it solves.

Over the years, Jeep used three different types of rotors and calipers on the XJs and MJs. Only two should apply to the MJ, but if a previous owner didn't know and swapped in parts from a late-model XJ, things could be messed up. The problem is that the relationship between/among the steering knuckle, hub/bearing unit, caliper and rotor all have to match up. Replace any one of those with a part from the wrong group of years, and the calipers will be off-center on the rotrs, resulting in a drag condition you can't get rid of. What you need to do, IMHO, is to somehow get access to an XJ or MJ of the same year as yours and compare all those parts (knuckle, hub, caliper and rotor) to be sure that yours are all the correct parts. If anything doesn't match, you'll know where to start replacing. I'll guess that most likely either the calipers or the rotors (maybe both) are from the wrong year.

Small world department: Eric Giordano (a.k.a. JabbaThaHut) used to work at my dealership and we used to wheel together. Then he left the dealership and dropped off the face of the earth. None of the guys at the shop or in his old club have any idea what happened to him.

From the I-6 FSM: 1st character (year): 6 = 1986 | 7 = 1987 (presumeably 8 = 1988, etc) 2nd & 3rd characters (month): 01 - 12 4th character (engine type): M = 4.0L 5th & 6th characters (day): 01 - 31 My FSM only covers thru 1987 on the engine, but I think it's safe to assume that 8 means 1988 and 9 means 1989. I would read your code number ... 903mx17 ... as 4.0L built March 17, 1989. I don't have a clue what the 'X' means. The FSM makes reference to an additional code 'E' or 'W' for vehicles sold in Georgia or Tennessee, but these codes include numbers and are not IN the engine date code (example: E-1197277)

Yeah, there was a TSB on replacing the wire harness between the CPS and the ECU with a pair of direct wires, and it happens that I bought the CPS that comes with that replacement harness. I'm thinking that I just may have to dredge up a copy of that TSB and do the upgrade. The other thing I'm wondering about is that this truck still has the C101 connector on the firewall. I hay try unplugging that a couple of times to see if there might be a bad contact inside that can of worms.

I agree the reason is to maintain control of the Jeep at hi speed. Well, I should have qualified my statement with " ... on the road," but I won't go so far as to limit the sway bar's application to "high" speed. Remember, Shaun rolled his XJ at 30 MPH. That magazine that rolled their test Libertine did it in a low-speed slalom, not on the highway. I agree that a sway bar limits suspension articulation and is a hindrance for low-speed off-road use. But it is essential for safe operation on legal roads, IMHO regardless of speed unless you routinely limit your speeds to under 20 MPH.

I know they say time flies when you're having fun ... you must be having a blast. September 22 @ 8:25 pm to September 24 @10:02 am is a WEEK? WOO HOO! :cheers:

As I said, your lack of age is showing. :D 10 or 15 years is "recent," not "always." I started driving in the late 50's and high test gasoline was around 20 cents/gallon. The first artificial gas shortage was in 1973 (IIRC), and it was about then that the price of diesel mysteriously overtook the price of gasoline. Back then Volkswagen, Mercedes, Peugeot, and even Oldsmobile had diesel-powered automobiles, and the gas companies didn't want any part of vehicles that got 40 MPG on cheap fuel, so they put the brakes on it. They pushed the price up until a diesel Rabbit wasn't economically viable, and VW dropped the option in the U.S. Mercedes also stopped importing diesel cars for a long time, but nowhere near as long as VW, which just started bringing in diesels again a couple of years ago.