Eagle

Well, that is (I assume) $1200 Canadian, so the equivalent in American dollars would be a bit less. But not enough less to make it at all reasonable. I bought a completely mint shortbed box, complete with taillights and bed liner, for $500 a couple or three years ago. I thought that was a fair price.

You don't. There is NO need to remove the tachometer to get at the speedometer cable. The speedo cable is a push-on connection to the speedometer head. You squeeze the two sides of the white nylon retainer and the cable comes right off the speedo.

For valve springs I recommend going to the Mopar Performance Catalog. They have excellent dual-coil valve springs for the 4.0L engine, and usually the stuff through the MPC is much cheaper than comparable parts through "name" companies. Not necesarily. If the engine was set up for conventional vee belts, the snout will likely have to be cut. If the engine originally had a sepentine belt it won't have to be cut. Physically, yes. But they won't flow enough for a 4.6 with a cam, so you'll need injectors with more output. Yes. Yes. You said you have the entire harness for the "new" motor. You'll need it. No. The spline count on the transfer case input shaft is different. You'll need a transfer case from a '91 or newer.

Yes, the change was between 90 and 91. The 86-90 was a Renix-based system, 91 and up was Chrysler.

Just pull the starter motor and take it to Auto Zone or Advance Auto (or Checkers, or Shucks, depending on where you live) and have them bench test it. It sounds like you have a bad starter. However, it's also possible that the engine is all rusted up inside and the starter doesn't have enough power to make it turn. Remove the spark plugs, put a wrench on the crank pulley bolt, and see if you can turn the engine over by hand.

Are you sure of the year and engine in the Wrangler? The Cherokee and Comanche went over to the Chrysler injection/ignition system beginning in model year 1991. I thought the Wrangler was changed over to the MPFI 4.0L the same year. If it's a 4.2L it'll have a carburetor, and despite the added cubic inches the 4.2L puts out less power and (I think) less torque than the injected 4.0L.

With a fresh battery, it's possible to drive normal short hops for several days without the alternator putting any charge back in the battery.

It should be on the tag on the edge of the driver's door, and also on the metal VIN plate under the hood. An early '88 might have that on the firewall, above the brake booster. Otherwise it's on the upper radiator cross-brace.

I think Pete's on the right track. You didn't say what you did about transmissions and bell housings, but the flywheel and CPS for the 91+ Chrysler engines is totally incompatible with the flywheel and CPS for the 87-90 Renix system.

The MJ doesn't have amber turn signals, so it's all set for a direct splice connection to a flat 4-wire trailer connector. Remember, that's 4 wire. There's no such thing as a 2-wire trailer connection. You need one wire for taillights, one for left brake/turn, one wire for right brake/turn, and a ground.

The difference in the flashers is that the stock turn flasher is a load-sensitive type (unless you have a factory tow option). They do that specifically so that the flash rate changes if any bulb burns out. That's supposed to alert you, but most people don't seem to know that so they ignore the fact their turn flasher is blinking twice as fast as it was yesterday (or half as fast, or not at all, depending on the flasher). The hazard flasher is the heavy-duty type, which will always flash at the same rate, regardless of how many bulbs it's pushing. They use the same one on the turns if you have trailer wiring, so the added lights of the trailer don't have the turns flashing at 60,000 hertz. The sockets are the same, so they will interchange. If the flash rate changed considerably when you swapped the blinker modules, that's a clue that there's a problem. The stock turn blinker would NOT be happy with a bad ground, which increases resistance in the circuit and puts more load on the blinker module.

Even we olde phartes have our moments. They just become more sporadic ...

Pull the plugs and fill the cylinders with a good rust penetrant. I don't know if PB Blaster comes in a liquid form. Kroil does, but it's expensive and hard to find. Maybe just put the nozzle of a spray can of PB Blaster in each hole and let 'er rip. Repeat spraying in the juice daily for about a week. Then try turning it with a long breaker bar and socket on the nut at the front end of the crankshaft. do NOT try to use the starter motor. If that doesn't work, you'll have to pull the head. Remove the head, repeat the soaking with PB Blaster (or equal, but NOT WD-40) for a couple of days, then get a length of round hardwood rod. Don't get dowel stock, it's too small. You want the stuff Home Depot sells for closet rods and/or stair handrails. You could also use a utility grade 2x3, but that's soft wood and a couple of whacks may trash the wood. Cut the rod to about 12" to 15" long. You're going to put one end of the rod on the EDGE of the pistol, on line with the wrist pin (which means at the front or rear of the piston, not on either side). Push down to make firm contact, then smack it a couple of times with a big hammer. Do the front and rear of one cylinder, then repeat for each cylinder. If one cycle per cylinder doesn't break it loose, soak it some more and repeat the next day. If you do get it broken loose (it can be done), remember that there's a lot of rust in there. If it were mine, what I would do next* is buy, rent or borrow a ridge reamer (to cut the carbon ridge off the top of each cylinder bore) and a cylinder hone. Hone the walls of each cylinder, with the crank and pistons in place. Clean everything out as well as you can. Clean up the valves, install new valve seals (since you have the head off that's easy to do), get a head gasket, and put it all together. The rings will have to reseat -- which they might do, or they might not, in which case you'll always burn a little oil and maybe lose some compression, but it will run. * Truth in advertising disclosure: This is what I would do if I were you. If I were me, I would already have the ridge reamer and the cylinder hone, because I have already gone through this exercise.

I think it's usually an optical illusion. The flares aren't vertical, so there's no accurare reference line. The only way to know for certain is to take it to a good alignment shop and have them take rthe readings. Next best would be to park on a known-flat & level surface and put an angle finder on each wheel. They should both read zero.

Hornbrod beat me to it. The ballast resistor is the grey-white ceramic block on the inside of the driver's front fender, tucked in bwtewen the air box and the fender. Two fairly heavy (12-gauge?) wires to it. Just jumper the two wires together. If it stays running, that's your problem.

Define "power" as you mean it. Are you looking for low-end torque (pulling power), which would indicate one type of cam ... or are you looking for high RPM horsepower, which would dictate a very different cam. Like most things in life, there ain't no "one size fits all."

I still wish I had bought one of the original (2-door) Wrangler Unlimiteds when they came out, with the 4.0L engine. DUMB! :wall:

Is this an early (1999 or 2000) WJ? If so, the problem is that the rotors are composite (stamped steel center "hat" with a cast rotor around it. The dissimilarity in the material reacts badly to heat and they warp, badly and often. I had a '99 WJ for about 9 months and 14,000 miles. In that period, the original rotors were recut once at the dealership, then they were replaced (under warranty), then the replacements were recut, and when Chrysler bought the thing back from me the rotors were due to be replaced again. Unfortunately, any stock-type replacement is going to be made the same way and will have the same problem. You need to get into some higher quality aftermarket stuff, such as Power Slot rotors, to have much chance of beating the problem.

If you take EVERYTHING off the 'new engine, of course it'll work. The basic short block is the same. The problem is that I know going from Renix to HO on the 4.0L engine they redesigned the head and manifolds, so the old manifold ports won't line up with the new head. There are several work-arounds, the simplest being to use the Renix head on the HO block. I don't know for certain, but I assume that the same applies to the 2.5L. You can tell easily enough -- yank the manifolds and see if the ports are the same shape and the same height relative to the top of the block. If you get lucky, it might be as simple as adapting the Renix throttle body to the newer intake manifold. After that it would be a piece of cake. You would, though, have to swap the old flywheel/flex plate onto the new engine, since the trigger tooth pattern is totally different. If you can't adapt the TBI throttle body to the new intake manifold, you then have to either adapt the old manifolds to the new engine, or swap the old head onto the new short block. I have to wonder why you would want to run the Renix TBI if you have the stuff to convert. The MPFI setup runs a whole lot better and produces gobs more horsepower, which is a lot more benefot in the 2.5L than it is with the 4.0L, which had adequate power in the Renix version.

Doesn't the "new" 231 still drive the speedo sensor from the same hole in the tailshaft housing as the old ones? I'm pretty sure it does, since even the 2000 adapts to different gearing by changing the speedo gear in the same place. Just remove the sender with the commectors, and insert your speedo cable quill.

Front, rear, or both? Just for future reference ...

I believe it is possible to run the Chrysler system as a stand-alone, and not have to get behind the dashboard. The Mopar Performance Catalog lists a conversion kit to change the old, carburetted 4.2L I-6 YJs to MPFI. The kit, as far as electrics and fuel, is basically the MPFI system from a '94 YJ, along with some extra parts to make it fit the older engine. The '92 MPFI 2.5L is just a 4-cylinder version of that same system. If you can run an old 4.2L as a stand-alone, I don't see any reason you can't do it with a 2.5L. You would have to get a fuel pump from a 91 or 92 MJ, though. The MPFI system requires a significantly higher fuel pressure than the TBI. I don't know if the old fuel pump is capable of producing that much pressure with the regulator from the new system ... I sort of doubt it.

Gents, adding shims (as nicely shown in CW's pics, thanks for that) increases caster, which can help alleviate death wobble. But if the wheels appear to be tilting in (or out) when viewed from the front, that's a camber issue, not caster. Shims won't affect that. It's considered non-adjustable in the XJ/MJ. The only fix, if the camber angle is really out of spec, is to replace the ball joints with offset ball joints.

Gotta be either fuse or ground. Did you disturb any wires back there when messing around with the rear proportioning valve? By the way -- are you certain your side markers alternated with the turn signals? They were't that way from the factory until 1997 in the Cherokee. I don't believe the MJ was ever set up to do that, unless an owner modified the wiring. I KNOW the '88 isn't supposed to work that way. Did you by any chance disturb the switch on the brake peddle when doing the master cylinder? It's a mechanical switch, not run by hydraulic pressure. If it's not set correctly, it won't activate the brake lights when you step on the peddle. I don't think this should affect the hazard warning lights, but be sure to eliminate all possible variables.

The block is the same, so bolting it in is easy. The '86 uses a Renix-based throttle-body injection, while the 92 uses a Chrysler multi-port injection. That's a better system, but using it will require rewiring the entire engine compartment. Which one has the AW-4? Can't be the '86, because Jeep didn't start using the AW-4 until '87, and I wasn't aware that they ever used the AW-4 in the Wrangler. Are you certain that's what the automatic is? Any way you look at it, the blocks are the same so any transmission off one will mate to the other with no adapters. You just have to be sure the flywheel is correct for the injection/ignition system you want to run, because the Renix flywheel and CPS will not work in the Chrysler system, and vice versa.