Eagle

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.

I used to have one of those. Haven't seen it or even thought about it for years ... which probably means my brother "borrowed" it and has conveniently forgotten to return it. By all means keep it pristine as a memento. I'm long since divorced from my first wife, but her grandfather was one of my favorite people and I still have an old hammer I found in his garage. It's a straight claw carpenter's hammer. The handle was broken when I found it, but it was WOOD! Bought a new one at a local hardware store (her grandparents lived in rural PA, where they had real hardware stores), put it on, and that hammer was one of the best-balanced hammers I ever swung. Sadly, the heat treating wasn't great and the strking surface of the head started chipping off, so I ground it back to as close to round and smooth as I could get it and retired it with full honors. I still have it ... just don't use it.

What can I tell you? I'm an analog dinosaur living in a digital world. I grew up racing cars with artifacts called by strange-sounding names like "carburetor" and "points" and "condenser." This new-fangled electronic stuff baffles me. If I lived in a state with no emissions testing, I'd dump all that stuff and revert to an old AMC 258 ignition with a Weber carburetor in a heartbeat.

Won't work. The pitman arm only goes on the sector shaft (the steering box output shaft) one way. There's a locating boss that ensures that. The steering wheel can be put on the steering column any old way. Fortunately, it's a lot easier to pull the steering wheel than it is to pull the pitman arm. What you need to do is get your pitman arm lined up straight, then remove the steering wheel and re-install so that it's straight. Then adjust the drag link to get the tires straight when the steering wheel is straight. The bottom line is this: It is important to adjust so the pitman arm is straight when the road wheels are straight. That's the ONLY way you'll have equal turning to the left and the right, and it's also the only way you'll avoid damage to the internals of the steering box when you adjust the over-center lash screw. If the steering wheel is not straight when the pitman arm is straight (ignore the road wheels), your steering wheel is installed incorrectly on the steering column.

My '88 MJ 4.0L is dead. I need ideas. I went to use it a couple of weeks ago, right after a couple of days of heavy rain. Fuel pump runs, engine cranks, but go start. Once the rain had stopped, I did the unplug & replug on the CPS connection and it fired right up. "Great," I thought. Needs a CPS. I wasted several HOURS on Saturday installing the new CPS. (It's a 5-speed, and there's no way to get humanoid hands up past the clutch hydraulics. I have no skin left on my right wrist.) It's in, and I didn't even drop the upper bolt into the bell housing. That's the good news. The bad news is that it still doesn't start. My brain is fried. I can't check the new CPS by the method in the FSM, because they want me to test the ohms with the engine at operating temperature. How the blazes can I get it warmed up if it won't start? Any other ideas?

Wrong. Adjusting the drag link does not change the relationship of the pitman arm to the steering wheel. The drag link only changes the relationship of the road wheels to the pitman arm. If the pitman arm is not straight but the steering wheel is, someone has had the steering wheel off and didn't install it straight. The steering wheel should be straight when the pitman arms is straight, and vise versa. It sounds like you need to pull your steering wheel and re-center it. It might be best to have a front end shop do this, to be sure it's correct.

??????? You said this is an '86. The 1986 MJ 4-cylinders were throttle body injected from the factory. Either your truck isn't an '86 or it wasn't original when you got it. In any case, how would you expect an EFI computer to properly regulate the fuel/air mix if you're not using the O2 sensor that's designed to work with that ECU? Oxygen sensors are not generic, one size fits all.

Your age (or lack thereof) is showing. Diesel fuel in the U.S. historically was always considerably less expensive than gasoline ... up until the recent, artificially manufactured gasoline "shortages" when they arbitrarily pushed the price of diesel higher than the cost of gasoline purely as a way of preventing the market from demanding diesel powered cars and light trucks that Detroit doesn't want to produce for us. And the added cost isn't due to having to use low-sulpher fuel. My wife is from Chile and they have a LOT of diesel cars and light trucks down there. They also have stricter emissions rules than the US, because Santiago holds half the population of the entire country and has a huge smog problem. Diesel down there typically runs at least 25 percent less than regular gasoline. The diesel Liberty (which is sold as the "Cherokee" down there) is very popular.

Thermo-nuclear detonation?

Lifted ... not that it matters. Running without at least the front sway bar is dangerous, regardless of whether or not it's lifted. The factory doesn't spend money on things they don't need. If they could save 50 cents by omitting the sway bar and still sell a safe vehicle, they'd do it in a heartbeat. Those things are there for a reason. I see most of you have convinced yourselves that taking it off is somehow "better." You're wrong, but I don't expect to convince you so go right ahead. I just hope when you have the inevitable wreck as a result, the only person injured or killed is yourself. You have every right to risk your own life and safety any way you choose. You have NO right to risk anyone else's life or safety because you choose to make your vehicle unsafe. End of sermon.

It also depends on if it works. The one in my '88 worked ... until I had to make a panic stop. I guess I'm generally easy on brakes. The panic stop locked up all 4 wheels ... with 31x10.50 tires. It also exploded the height sensing valve, and they are no longer available from the factory. I don't know about you, but for me exploding when I need the brakes most does not fall within the definition of "functions properly." If I can't trust it to work when I need it, I'd rather not have it there. My other MJs include an '86, an '87, another '88 and an '89. The one that exploded was about two years ago, so the ones I have are ALL older than that one was when it failed. Assuming the failure was due to age (the truck only had a bit over 100,000 miles on it then), they all have to be suspect. Therefore, as I get them on the road they will all be divested of that part. I'm a careful driver, but I can't control other people. I need to know that my brakes will work if I have to make a panic stop.