Eagle

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?

Your scoutmaster must have been related to mine. It's been a good many years, but I am still of the opinion that if the knot looks like a bowline when finished, it doesn't really make a lot of difference how it got that way. In my case, my sailing instructor was an Englishman who had sailed solo around the world. He definitely knew his stuff, even if my idiot scoutmasters didn't agree with him.

You guys put me to shame. I went through Cub Scouts all the way, but I quit Boy Scouts after a couple of years. I was a sailing instructor in the summers, taught "marlinspike seamanship" (knot tying, splicing, rigging, all that good stuff) to a whole bunch of people -- and they failed me for my knot tying merit badge because they didn't like the way I tied a bowline (I tied it by the book, then and now). So I quit in a huff, and never went back. But I was post advisor to an Explorer post for a few years, a long time afterwards.

The shifter for the YJ Wrangler bolts directly to the transfer case and seems to be much more positive in operation. Unfortunately, with the stock Wrangler shift lever there's a bit of an interference fit with the ashtray, but with some heating and bending, or perhaps cutting and welding on an offset lever, you'd have something that might be what you're looking for. My '88 has a YJ shifter in it -- it was that way when I bought it, and I plan to remove it and install an XJ/MJ shifter so I can patch the floor back together where the butcher (errr ... "previous owner") hacked it up. If you want the YJ shifter, you're welcome to it for the price of shipping. How much of a hurry are you in?

Good point. The turn signals use a separate blinker "can" than the hazrads, so the fact the hazard blinkers work normally doesn't prove much. By all means, try a new blinker. As a check, you can just swap the two -- they fit the same socket.

Heh, heh ... six of one, half a dozen of the other. Either tear the engine apart or tear the vehicle apart. But you make a good point. It's a function of what you're most comfortable doing. I hate tearing apart a perfectly good interior, and with all the miles of spaghetti in a modern vehicle, to me replacing the entire wiring harness rates right up there on my scale of favorite things to do next to getting run over by a truck, or falling out of an airplane without a parachute. On the other hand, the engine will already be out of the vehicle. If you'd drop the '92 engine in without tearing it down if you were swapping the wiring, why would you need to tear it down if you DON'T swap the wiring? Leave the short block intact, and just swap the head and manifolds. There are people who have just used the Renix manifolds on a complete HO engine, but the ports don't match and to me that's a bastardized solution. Taking off one head and putting on another seems to me a LOT less work than gutting the entire interior and replacing all the wiring. Take your pick.

I think your problem is the parking light sockets. The ground has gone bad, so they either won't work or they try to find a ground by back-feeding through the dash indicator lights.

The block is the same, so bolting the engine into your truck is easy. Beyond that it gets more complicated. The entire ignition and injection system is different, the manifolds are different, the CPS and flywheel (or flex plate, if it's an automatic) are different. If I were doing it, I would put the Renix flywheel, head and manifolds on the '92 short block and keep it a Renix. Otherwise, you're looking at a whole lot of wiring and makeshift adaptation.

Looks like I'm a little late, but ... CONGRATULATIONS!

For anyone looking into this for me, I don't think that even at academic prices I can afford full AutoCAD -- especially since I would need the Architectural Desktop version, not plain vanilla AutoCAD. What I'm looking for is AutoCAD LT 2007 (or 2008, if there is such a critter). I could probably do okay with AutoCAD LT 2006 if that's all that's available. Thanks again for checking, guys. I appreciate it.

I've been wanting to build one of those out of one of the XJ hulks I have around here for about 5 years, but I don't have the time or money or workshop to pursue it. I wouldn't use a longbed box though, I'd use a stock shortbed. That one is very nicely executed, though.

JeepCo, what he's really saying is that (as usual) there are too many variables to answer your question directly. Until you know what you have to start from, you can't assess what something else will give as a result. His answer is, basically, that you'll have to remove one of the factory springs and measure its free arch before you know what your starting point is. It's like the dweebs who tell ya to "throw in a set of ZJ V8 springs and you'll get 2" of lift/" Yeah, sure. Was that ZJ 5.2L, ZJ 5.9L, with or without Up Country suspensions ...? Not to mention that if you started with an XJ that had Up Country, a standard ZJ V8 spring is the same part number, so someone who follows such advice blindly could spend a bit of money and waste a bunch of time for exactly zero gain. According to what HellCreek has provided, one size does not fit all.

Try siphon bleeding rather than pressure bleeding? I've seen those "Mighty Vac" brake bleeder kits somewhere recently, perhaps Auto Zone or maybe even Wal-Mart.

Writing in coherent English might be a good start. Posts looking to buy belong in the classifieds, anyway. Case closed.

Unless he took your money for those parts, I'd be inclined to think that he doesn't think you bought them, and the police and local prosecutor probably wouldn't think so, either. What you're telling us is that you intend to commit larceny. Your choice. I value my self-worth more than to engage in stealing.

Tenneco is Monroe ... and Rancho. The complete Monroe catalog is available on-line, and at the back are the physical specs for each shock, including the compressed and extended lengths and the end fittings. Pick the one you want.