Eagle

How's your gas? If the stuff in the tank is old, it can cause backfiring. By the way, I hope you didn't put Slik 50 in with the new oil. That stuff is DEATH IN A CAN. All it does is clog up the oil passages.

There's an O-ring kit you can get from any Mopar dealer to fix that. I think it consists of two O-rings. Not expensive.

Heck, according to your signature you have a '91 MJ. That's not "old," that's "new." I briefly owned a '99 WJ (Grand Cherokee). One of my (many) complaints was that the trip odometer in the overhead almost never read the same as the one in the dashboard after a tank of gas. It wasn't off by much, but it was usually off by a couple/few tenths. I mentioned this to a factory rep and he said they don't get their input from the same source. That was for a '99 WJ, which didn't use an "ECU" but an integrated PCU (power train control module). I suspect the older ZJs, from the same vintage (mid-90s) as the last of the MJs, probably used very similar ECUs, and the computer functions from one of those consoles might be patchable. At the lest, I suspect there's a way to get elapsed mileage, although getting fuel consumption might be more difficult. That's a great idea -- not being into Grands, I wasn't even aware that they had a "mini" overhead console. Hmmmmm ...

woah man! noone needs to know about your choice (or neglect) of underwear! ;) :D And besides ... what's that got to do with looking for VIN numbers on aging motor homes?

I'm basically here to talk about MJs, too. If I wanted to discuss politics I'd go to a political forum, and if I wanted to discuss religion I'd go to a religious forum. But that's begging the immediate question, though, of how off-topic things should be allowed to stray in the Off-Topic forum. I'm currently an admin on one other forum, and I was a moderator on NAXJA when I was a director of the club. NAXJA doesn't prohibit politics and religion in their discussions. I don't spend much time on the NAXJA forum any more -- it has become a fairly unpleasant place to hang out, IMHO. That's sad. I was a founding member (still have Life Member status), but it has deteriorated. The other forum, where I am active as an administrator, has a strict rule against discussion religion and politics -- for the aforementioned reason that they are both "loaded" topics, about which some people seem incapable of hold civil discussions without ultimately resorting to insults and name-calling, if not outright threats. It seems to work. I think we're over 11,000 members at this point, and flame wars are virtually non-existent. We have enough moderators to snuff them out quickly if they erupt, but the bottom line is by not allowing those two "hot button" classes of topic, we obviate the probability of a flame-fest breaking out. I was rather astonished to see that thread pop up on here. My immediate reaction, I will admit, was to delete the whole thing. The other forum has a special area, available only to the moderators, where we can move things as a kind of quarantine while the "staff" discusses backchannel whether or not to allow it, lock it, or nuke it. We don't have that here, not do we have an entire cadre of moderators, and the software isn't as sophisticated. And it wasn't against any rule I could find. So I just PM'd Pete and asked what we should do with it. He decided to lock it, and I support that decision. I think it is extremely unlikely that it could have run more than a day or two without getting ugly. To be honest, I also think it was poor judgement to put up a post like that on a Jeep-oriented forum in the first place. Off-topic should be used for emotion neutral things, like the weather or what you did at the lake over the weekend. Politics? Bad ju-ju. If you absolutely must discuss politics, go to one of the 15.7 zillion political forums out there on the Internet and join the fights. We don't need 'em here. That's just my opinion, by the way, and does not represent the opinions of the management (which is Pete).

Roger that. And Pete is correct -- the engine should run at 210 on the gauge with a 195* thermostat. Don't forget, the whole purpose of a thermostat is to keep the temperature UP, not down. If the factory had wanted the engine to run at 180 they would have used a 180-degree thermostat. Trying to "cure" a cooling problem by running a colder thermostat is only attempting to mask the symptoms, and probably doomed to failure. After all, if the cooling system isn't capable of keeping the temperature down to 195 (210 at the gauge), why would a rational person think that same system would run any cooler with a colder thermostat in there? Open is open ... once it opens, it can't cool any better.

There were no 8" steelies available. The base level steelies, the ones with 9 rectangular slots out near the rim, were 15x6, and the 8-spoke "wagon wheels" were 15x7.

I think you need to find one of those clamp-on meters that can measure the amperage in the circuit while the fan motor is running. I'd check it at all speeds, too. I don't think there's any resistor at the highest speed setting. Either your fan motor (or a resistor) is adding WAAAY too much load, or the alternator isn't putting out as much as it's supposed to. What do you mean by "discharges in the red"? If you have gauges, they put numbers on them for a reason. What's the voltage? Even if you have gauges instead of idiot lights, though, they aren't especially accurate. I'd also suggest a quick test with a standard multi-meter, reading voltage at the battery terminals. Check it with the engine idling and NO accessories turned on. Then check it with the fan turned on, at each of the three speeds. Assuming this confirms your observations on the dash cluster (voltage below 13 volts with fan running), then turn off the fam and run some other accessories to build up some load and see what that does to the voltage. Maybe turn on the headlights (on high beam, that draws more) and the flashers, and the radio and the interior lights. Check the voltage at the battery again. If the other accessories also drop the voltage way down, it means the problem is the alternator rather than the fan or the resistor pack.

But valve stem seals are NOT "seals." They will not prevent pressure bleed, but I don't think that's the cause of your problem anyway. The proper name for valve seals is "deflectors," and that's all they are. They're little plastic umbrellas that just prevent oil running down the valve sten. They don't provide a positive seal to anything.

Ohmygawd! CUT sheetmetal. He actually suggested c-c-c-cu-cu-cutting the body! :eek:

I seriously doubt that any testing station would look for that thing, or even know what/where TO look. It isn't an emissions sensor and it isn't connected in any way to the emissions systems. As has been posted above, it's nothing more than a timer. It's calibrated to turn on the light after the number of ours that they figure an "average" vehicle will take to reach 80,000 miles, which is the recommended interval for replacing the oxygen sensor. If you pass the running test, your O2 sensor is okay so there's nothing to worry about.

Nope. They're all 35c. The 'C' stands for "Customer," and it was Dana-Spicer's way of denoting an axle that was shipped partially assembled, for "Customer completion." The older ones have the threaded pipe plug, the newer ones have the rubber plug.

It could be a worn track bar, worn tie rod ends, worn drag link, and/or worn ball joints. Or even a failing hub/bearing unit. However, the steering box can be adjusted. You can check it by parking with the steering wheel straight ahead (this is VERY important), and the engine off but the steering not locked by the ignition. Stand beside the driver's door, reach in through the window, and turn the wheel back and forth gently. The goal here is to not turn the tires, but to see how much free play there is before the tires actually start to turn. If you find much, the next step should be to have a helper continue to turn the steering wheel back and forth while you crawl under the vehicle and check every tie rod end fitting in the steering linkage. The helper should put just enough pressure on the wheel so the tire just starts to move at each extreme. Wear latex gloves and actually put your hand on each tie rod end -- often you can feel it flexing even when you can't see it. Don't over look the frame end of the track bar or the pitman arm end of the drag link. If all the tie rod ends are tight, then you can attack the steering box. It's easier to see if you remove the air box, but not entirely necessary. On the top of the box is a cover plate, held on with three bolts and with a fourth stud sticking up out of the middle. That middle stud is the over-center lash adjustment. To adjust, you loosen the locknut on the stud, then put a hex wrench (I think it's a 3/16 but I don't recall) in the top of the stud and gradually tighten it while you turn the steering wheel back and forth. I prefer to do it with the air box out of the way so I can use my right hand to turn the steering shaft while my left hand turns the adjusting screw. This allows me to feel as well as see how much slop is left. You want to tighten it to where you almost remove all the free play. The box needs a little free play to operate without internal wear. The box is designed to be tightest over the center of the range (hence the name of the adjustment), and that's why this adjustment has to be made with the steering set straight. If it's turned, you'll tighten the screw too far and the box will self-destruct quickly. Once you have adjusted out the slop, hold the Allen key and retighten the locknut. Replace the air box and you're done. If the adjusting screw bottoms out without removing the slop, the steering box is toast.

Three (or is it four) of the MJs I have here (all 89 or older) have sliding rear windows, and all are the single-slider, 3-pane type. I don't think a 4-piece in that vintage was ever a factory option. I suppose a truck might have come from a dealer that way, if the buyer wanted a sliding window added and the dealer had it installed locally because it came from the factory with a fixed rear. BTW -- the clips are almost impossible to find because they come as part of the glass. I've been looking for one for my '88 since I bought it 8 years ago and I haven't found one yet.

So did I. I was totally shocked the first time I crawled under Miguel's XJ and saw a Dana 30. And a Chrysler 8.25 rear. Then I asked him about the stories of all the South American XJs all having D44s all around and he told me that was only the ones built in Venezuela. Still as stupid as usual, I then asked him where the heck his XJ came from, and he said "Off a boat. It was built in the same factory yours was." The interesting thing for me (beyond that revelation) is that almost every XJ (and the two MJs) I've seen in Chile had the factory hidden winch option. Apparently any SUV-type vehicle in Chile with a winch on the front gets taxed as a "work truck" rather than a family car and the difference in fees is significant. I've never seen a hidden winch in the U.S. but down there I see them in the parking lot at the market on a regular basis.

The disconnect was continued right to the end on the YJ ('94), but not on the XJ/MJ.

That's probably the most ridiculous statement I've seen on this forum. YOU may not like stock, but stock does not "suck." Unless you do hard-core rock crawling or run nothing except VERY difficult trails (and don't take it on the street), stock is just fine, and has the added advantage of forcing you to learn how to drive rather than just using big tires and a mega-lift to roll over obstacles. My mates who go with NAXJA to Moab every year tell me that probably 75% or more of the trails around Moab can be done with a stock XJ. Having wheeled both, I think the stock MJ wheels just a tab better than the stock XJ. My MJ (the '88) came with a 4" lift and dropping it back to stock was the single best thing I've done to the truck. And for a young person just learning to drive? I wouldn't let him have ANY lift. Until you have a few years and a couple of minor "encounters" under your belt, you have no idea what really driving is about. You cannot know the limits of any vehicle until you have exceeded them. With a stock vehicle, this may result in some bent sheet metal but hopefully nothing more severe. With a lifted pickup, especially a small truck that's relatively narrow compared to the height, the result is more often than not a roll-over. I've seen a few XJs turn turtle on the trail at very low speeds, and the drivers were able to crawl out, but I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope of surviving a roll-over in an MJ at highway speeds.

If the track bar is missing or disconnected, the steering WHEEL will be very easy to turn, but you won't be able to control the vehicle at all. Do very definitely will NOT drive it down the road. The track bar keeps the axle located side-to-side under the vehicle. Even having the upper tie rod end fitting worn makes the steering frighteningly imprecise. Disconnecting the track bar would result in zero directional control.

Not stock everything, 'cause it's wearing '93 Grand Cherokee alloy rims and the Dana 44 axle wasn't used in 1986. For '86 the optional heavy-duty axle was the AMC Model 20.

No, they don't. XJs built in Venezuela for their local market had dana 44 fronts. The rest of South America got XJs and MJs right of the same assembly lines in the US of A that ours came from. I know that to be the case because my wife is from Chile and I have a friend in Chile who owns an XJ. And there are a LOT of older XJs down there I've looked over pretty carefully. Another urban legend ... down the tubes.

I've seen a photo of one other like that, but all the trucks I've seen "up close and personal" had three-piece windows, with a single sliding center section. The ones I have seen personally, though, are all AMC vintage. The double slider may have been offered in the '91 and '92 models that were built under more Chrysler influence.

Actually, Jeff, it's one pulse in 180 degrees. Don't forget it's a 4-cycle engine. The crank is set up with pairs of pistons 180 degrees opposed -- when 2 are up, 2 are down. When 2 are up, one is firing and the other is pushing exhaust.

I prefer a 5-speed myself, but that's not the point. The point is, if your transfer case is a Command-Trac, you aren't supposed to be in 4WD on pavement. The Command-Trac transfer case was the standard case with the automatic, and the ONLY available t-case with the 5-speed.

The axle disconnect would not affect steering effort. Don't confuse yourself by chasing unrelated red herrings. 99.99% of the time, if there's a problem after changing something, the problem is related either to what you changed, or how you changed it. It sounds like you might have reversed the two hoses, is that possible? I'm looking at your statement that As a matter of fact, non-functional power steering IS more difficult to turn than manual steering, because you're pushing the fluid against the resistance of the pump. If you managed to reverse the hoses, you're not just trying to push against a non-functional pump, you're actually trying to fight the pump. BTW -- you wrote that you have a '92 front axle in the truck. Jeep didn't use a disconnect in '92.

Are you running in 4WD with a 231 (Command-Trac) transfer case on pavement? If so, that's a big NO-NO.