Eagle

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.

The riser mechanisms are different between the two styles of glass, and so are the locations in the door where the riser mechanism attaches. I think I remember quite some while ago that someone in NAXJA reported that they had swapped one-piece glass into the early doors, but after replacing the window moter and mechanism in my wife's 2000 XJ and comparing the door with the earlier XJ/MJ doors, I don't see how it could be done. On the other hand, although Kejtar is a pal of long standing from NAXJA, I have read his write up on swapping the new styles doors into the old style body and it did not seem to me to be a particularly sound way to approach it.

The PO probably lifted it without adding shims to bring the caster angle back up to where it should be. I would agree on starting with tire balance, though.

Ahhh ... I've seen 2" x 20' snatch straps (the kind with the fabric loop) in Wal-Mart. Not the greatest -- I think theirs are rated 15,000 pounds and most are 20,000 -- but a lot better than nothing and a new 15,000 pound strap is probably better than a ten-year old 20,000 pound strap that been drug over so many rocks it's barely hanging on by a thread. It's amazing to me how little regard some Jeepers (and other wheelers) have for their own lives and the safety of the people they run with.

If you can even think of describing it as "benign," I respectfully wonder if you had genuine death wobble. The real deal as CW said, usually doesn't abate until you come to a complete stop. By that time, your life has flashed in front of your eyes and you've wet your pants (at the least). I've had it twice, once in a brand new WJ Grand Cherokee and once in the '88 MJ. There is no way I'd describe either incident as "benign."

If anything, it would make it run warm. However ... ... if you don't have a sealed system, you may have air in the system. Ait migrates to the highest points -- which happens to be where the temp sender is. You may be running hot and not know it because your sensor isn't getting any coolant flowing past it.

I watched Clayton install one of his kits on an XJ. He cuts the ears off the brackets with a grinder and cutoff wheel.

You can lock the axle in the engaged position. Someone posted a write-up, complete with pictures, awhile back. It's easy to do -- we've done it on trail rides. As Longshot noted, though, that only locks the axle. If the transfer case is jumping out of 4WD, you have other problems than the axle disconnect.

I agree.

If it's an '88 and you haven't converted the cooling system, you don't have an "overflow" bottle. That plastic bottle on the firewall is part of the pressurized system. It's an expansion tank -- it should be half-full when cold, and just about full when hot and under pressure. If it's leaking air, your system won't hold pressure. You can get a replacement bottle (with cap) from Quadratec for about $20.

Not exactly. The front and rear circuits are independent. If you lose the rear brakes, you will still have front brakes, but they will only provide as much braking as they did before (which is probably about 60% to 75% of the total in a 100% functional system). If you lose the fronts, though, it gets sticky. In the MJ, the front combo valve does NOT perform any proportioning. Proportioning is all handled by the height/load sensing valve at the rear. However, the front metering block DOES include a bypass feature so that if you lose the front brakes, the rear proportioning valve is bypassed and you get full braking to the rear wheels. That's not great, of course, since the rear wheels only contribute a small portion of the total braking force, but at least you get all of that portion. However, when I sliced and diced an MJ front metering block to see how it works internally, I was dismayed to find that the bypass passage was not drilled through. In other words, the vehicle that valve came from would NOT have had any bypass function if the front brakes had failed. I plan to simply eliminate the proportioning valve, plug the outlet in the from metering block that goes to the bypass circuit, and route the hard line direct from the normal outlet for the rear circuit to the flex hose on the rear axle. Under some conditions that may result in too much braking at the rear, but I grew up and learned to drive years before they had proportioning valves, so I think I can deal with that better than I can deal with only having front brakes. You said you put in a new master cylinder? Did you bench bleed it first?