Eagle

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.

One of the early NAXJA members tried driving with out his front sway bar. He had to swerve to avoid a dog a couple of blocks from home, at 30 MPH. He rolled the XJ and totaled it. Driving an XJ without a front sway bar is scary, and I think due to the lighter weight an MJ would be even worse. It is exceptionally dangerous, because in an evasive maneuver at highway speed the vehicle will be virtually uncontrollable. Further, if you are ever involved in an accident involving loss of life or serious injury, you can bet there will be accident reconstruction specialits going over both vehicles with a fine-tootheed comb. If they find (and they WILL find it) that you were driving with a piece of factory safety equipment disabled -- in liability court you will be toast. IMHO it ain't worth the risk, and it's very foolish. I value my life too much to take the chance. I've survived three serious accidents in my life, two as the driver. In both of those in which I was driving, I survived because I could control the vehicle at highway speeds. Without a front sway bar at least one of those incidents would certainly have resulted in a rollover. (I did a 360 in the middle lane of the Schuykill Expressway in Philadelphia, in rush hour traffic, to avoid a moron who locked up his brakes in front of me FOR NO REASON.)

I think I see the problem. The speed sensor itself mounts into a housing, the piece I refer to as the quill. (The 2000 FSM refers to this as the "speedometer adapter.") The sensor is held in the quill by a bolt and can only fit one way. Then the quill mounts into the transfer case and is held in place by a forked retainer. For the vehicles with mechanical speedo, It is the quill that has the markings for tooth count; for the electronic speedos, the speed sensor has RANGES of tooth counts marked: 32-38, 39-45, etc. You are supposed to install the housing so the range that includes your speedo gear is at 6:00 o'clock, then install the locking clamp so the bent tips LOCK in the nearest slots in the housing (adapter). Installed correctly, the speed sensor cannot rotate in the adapter because it's bolted, and the adapter can't rotate in the transfer case because the tips of the clamp arms are engaged in the slots of the adapter to lock it in position. If you are trying to position it because you think it needs to line up exactly on a tooth number, you're probably not locking it in one of the three correct positions and it's not staying in place because it's not being retained by the retainer.

I don't think those are the only modern pickups to use something similar. I think most trucks do today. I didn't slice the height-sensing valve. I sliced the front distribution block, and I found that the orifice that should feed the by-pass circuit was totally blocked (had not been drilled out). With this defect, the rear proportioning valve would have functioned normally under normal conditions, but it would also NOT be able to provide full-power (unproportioned) braking to the rear in the event of a front brake failure, due to there not being a viable by-pass circuit.

Except there is a special procedure for bleeding the rear brakes when you have the height-sensing proportioning valve in the circuit, and if you don't have a factory service manual I'm sure you didn't follow this procedure. Which means if you lose the front brakes you may have NO brakes. Not good. I transcribed the bleeding sequence from the FSM on here awhile back. I don't have it bookmarked but I hope you can find it with a search. If you're going to retain that "thing" in the back, you really have to be sure to bleed the system properly.

I don't think it can jump off the proper setting. The quill is held in the transfer case by a retainer bracket. It's such a tight fit that I can't imagine how it could rotate. Are you sure you're talking about what Pete's talking about?

Monroe Sensa-Trak.

Your description probably makes sense to you, but I know how the system works and it confused the hell out of me. Here's how it works: There are two lines from the front to the back because one feeds the rear brakes through the height-sensing rear proportioning valve, and the other is a by-pass circuit that is supposed to deliver full (unproportioned) braking power to the rear in the event the front brakes lose pressure. Okay, so which is what? Start at the front junction box (combination valve), directly under the master cylinder. The two ports on top are inlets. The outlet ports at the rear of the brass block feed the front brakes. The port at the "nose" of the combo valve is the normal circuit feeding the rear brakes. The line from that is plumbed to the height-sensing proportioning valve. The forward outlet on the bottom of the combo valve is the bypass circuit. Nothing should flow in this circuit unless the front brakes lose pressure, in which case the slider that actuates the brake system warning light also opens a port to allow fluid through the bypass circuit. The two lines at the rear come together again because both circuits need to feed into the brake lines on the axle. One is proportioned output from the height-sensing valve, the other is unproportioned output from the bypass circuit. Having blown up a rear height-sensing valve in a panic stop, I no longer trust them. You have to do what you're comfortable with. I'm old enough that I grew up with vehicles that never heard of brake proportioing valves, so my preference is "keep it simple, stupid." That valve is one more thing to fail. I can live without it, very happily.

Confirmed -- XJ rear shocks won't work. I tried. I had a decent set of shocks out of a wrecked XJ so I punched the cross pins out of the rear shocks and tried to put them into my '88. With the truck sitting on it's tires, unloaded, the fully extended shocks were about an inch too short to connect the upper and lower mounts. You could get them in by weighing down the bed with some load, but the shocks would be topped out all the time and probably self-destruct in a couple of weeks.

Out of the question? Are you joking? The O2 sensor is the sensor that reads the percentage of unburned hydrocarbon in the exhaust and controls the amount of fuel the injectors squirt. A dead O2 sensor results in an engine that runs super-rich, all the time. I'd say that's FAR from being out of the question. It is, in fact, a very likely suspect.

I don't think the starter is going to be an issue. The problem is going to be, as you originally postulated, how to trigger the CPS. Depending on whether or not you can fit the 727 torque converter to a Renix 4.0L flex plate, HESCO may be the only game in town.

There is no tranny lockup switch. The switch sets the tranny in "Power" or "Comfort" mode. Basically, comfort mode makes the transmission upshift at lower RPMs. Later year XJs and MJs eliminated it and hard-wired the tranny in the "Power" mode. Put it there and leave it, the tranny will thank you.

Those are all valid reasons, and it should bolt right up. AMC started using that tranny in (I believe) 1970, and they reengineered the bolt pattern on the block that year to accept a Chrysler bell housing. They never changed the bolt pattern again (except when they came out with the 2.5L 4-banger). Going in reverse, a friend of mine recently got around to doing the street rod project he's been threatening for over 30 years -- a 1949 Hudson coupe powered by an AMC 390. He wanted a 5-speed, and the AMC 390s came with a T-10 4-speed. After we discussed it, he bought an AX-15 XJ tranny and bell housing, found a pilot bearing that fit the crank -- and it bolted right up. Your primary issue is going to be that the 727 wasn't used in any vehicle that had the same CPS as an MJ, so you'll have to use the MJ flex plate and probably redrill it to accept the 727 torque converter. OR ... you can get the conversion bracket used with the kit to change the older 4.2L Jeep engines to fuel injection. This puts a bracket at the front of the engine, uses a special harmonic damper with the trigger teeth, and relocates the CPS to the front of the engine (where, incidently, you can replace it without being a contortionist). If those parts aren't still available from the Mopar Performance Catalog, you should be able to get them from HESCO. A caution, however: The Jeep EFI conversion was to a 94/95 compatible Chrysler system, not Renix. If your MJ is the 88 listed in your signature, you'll need a different trigger tooth pattern. Chrysler won't have that in a front-end conversion, but HESCO might.

The 727 may be one of the best transmissions Chrysler ever put out, but that to me is like saying the Edsel was one of the best engineered cars Ford ever put out. I don't hold Chrysler transmissions in high regard. Rating it as being even close to a TH400 is IMHO delusional.

The 727 didn't have an overdrive, did it? I guess if you have it there's some logic in trying to use it, but the AW-4 is really a much better transmission.

This happened to me once with a 1939 Hudson I was restoring -- but that had a mechanical fuel pump on the block and the internal diaphragm ruptured. I can't think of any way that much gasoline could get by the rings in a fuel injected system, unless the injectors aren't functioning right and the system is pumping way too much fuel. How old is the oxygen sensor? Have you had the truck scanned to see what kind of readings the O2 sensor is sending to the ECU? The only thing I can think is that it's running in open loop mode and sending too much fuel, all the time. It isn't safe to drive it that way. Get it checked.