Eagle

Part of the key for that (and for the front control arms as well) is to drop the chassis back onto the wheels (or onto jack stands supporting the AXLES, not rhe frame/body) before torquing the nuts. This tightens the bolts with the suspension at its normal ride height, whereas if you torque everything down when the axle is hanging by the bushings, you effectively pre-load the suspension.

I have never tried OME shocks, but like my compatriot I hear only good things about them. The downside is the price. I can afford Monroes. FWIW, a few months ago I finally replaced all 4 SensaTracs on my '88 XJ. I can't find the records to be certain, but my brother and I figured they probably went about 150,000 miles. They didn't blow out ... they got extra stiff. Advance Auto replaced them without any question.

Nope

You need Marcus (a.k.a. GoJeep). http://gojeep.willyshotrod.com/HowtoAlignment.htm Bookmark his site -- he has a wealth of XJ information on there, and a lot of it will translate over to the MJ.

My friend in PA is running Ranger alloys on a 4WD MJ. Dunno if he had to enlarge the center holes or not. Backspacing is less than factory MJ, though.

What are you running for shocks? My '87 and my '88 are both SWB. The '87 rides a lot better than the '88. The '87 is on whatever shocks were in it when I bought it, the '88 is on a set of Gabriels that I installed new about a year ago. Try a pair of Monroe SensaTracs on the rear. Taking out leaves will soften the ride, but it'll also lower the truck and reduce your carrying capacity.

No, my '88 has the sphere. The sphere has only one chamber, the ovoid has two chambers. It was used with some extra options, usually cruise control (which uses engine vacuum to regulate the speed).

I have a friend in Greece who runs the Weber conversion on his 2.5L 4-cylinder Cherokee. He reports that it generates a lot more power than the old carburetor it replaced, which is similar in design to the one on your 2.8L. The Weber is a good carburetor ... I think it's worth trying it. Just be certain that the engine itself is in good condition before you convert. It would be unfortunate to spend the money for the conversion and then blow the engine.

Yep -- you have a vacuum leak. The heater controls use vacuum to control the flappers, and the default position when they lose vacuum is the defrost position. On an '86 I don't think you have the round or oblong vacuum ball or "blimp" that the later models have, located behind the front bumper on the right side. I believe yours should have the tin can vacuum reservoirs -- look under the hood, on the right side of the vehicle, probably mounted on the inner wheel housing. Follow all the vacuum tubing and look for cracks and/or splits.

I don't think there's enough demand to gear up for it. First, the tank for the SWB is different from the tank in the LWB, so to cover what is already a very limited market you'd have to tool up two separate models. Secondly, original configuration replacement tanks are readily available for a bit over $100. The gas tank in an MJ (especially a SWB, I haven't wheeled a LWB) doesn't seem to be particularly vulnerable. I've hit the skid plate on my XJ numerous times, but I've never touched the one on the MJ. Speaking only for myself, it wouldn't be worth more than maybe $150 to me. That's already a 50% premium over a stock replacement -- there's no way I could justify paying any more than that.

Don't tap the power to the voltmeter off a skinny accessory wire under the dash, like the radio circuit. You won't be getting an accurate reading because of voltage drop. The best source would be where the battery positive cable attaches to the main power center under the hood, and you want to run the biggest wire you can. I would run 14-gauge as a minimum. Try to run your ground wire as close to the battery as you can, too, so you have a good connection. Funky gauge readings with the stock gauge cluster are often caused by a bad ground from the cluster to the chassis.

You have to be sure you use the correct bolts. The clearance between the CPS and the teeth on the flywheel is only a couple of thousandths of an inch. First, I hope you reinstalled the bell housing with the locator sleeves/pins on the two lower bolts. Those are necessary to establish the correct relationship between the bell housing and the block. Then, the two bolts that hold the CPS are shoulder-type bolts that are a very snug fit in the holes of the CPS mounting flage in order to maintain that critical location. If you dropped or lost those bolts and substituted whatever you could lay your hands on, you may have too much space for the CPS to generate a signal.

The fuel gauge should work properly when swapping gauges for idiot lights. However, both the temperature sender and the oil pressure sender have to be replaced. The ones for the idiot light cluster are not sensors, they are simple on-off switches. The ones for the gauges are variable resistors. The tach should also work with no modifications or external connections.

CPS (Crankshaft Position Sensor)

Nope.

What size RADIO? I like the compact radios. If you remove the ashtray, you can screw the bracket into the panel at the back of the ashtray recess, then mount the radio right there. If you remove the radio in the future, put the ashtray back in and you can't see the mounting holes. For hard wiring, do NOT tap off the vehicle radio. Best is to run a dedicated wire direct to the battery, with an in-line fuse, and a dedicated ground. I often removed the radio between wheeling trips, so I put a cigar lighter adapter on the power cord and just used the lighter as a power socket. My older Radio Shack compact had a mechanical channel selector so this worked fine. When the Radio Shack bought the farm and I replaced it with whatever I could get (Midland, IIRC), the channel selector was electronic and required power to "remember" what channel you had it set for. It defaulted to channel 9 whenever I turned off the ignition. Not a big deal, as long as I remembered to punch it back to channel 4 (or 19 for use on the highway) when I started the engine. I also tried a number of different antennas. For trail use I settled on a short, magnetic-mount "rubber ducky" type on the roof of the cab. I used a longer steel whip on the highway.

If it runs okay for about 2 miles, then starts acting funny, think oxygen sensor. The O2 sensor isn't used when the vehicle is warming up -- the ECU operates in open loop mode w/o input from the O2 sensor. Once the temperature reaches about 165 degrees, the ECU switches over to closed loop mode and starts reacting to sensor inputs.

Ditto what he said. If the original speedo had been "jumpy" I'd suggest that the cable needs lubrication (and that wouldn't hurt anyway), but if the problem began after the swap, either the cable is kinked or has a tight radius somewhere, or the and isn't firmly engaged in the speedo head.

That's pretty good, actually. The POS Chinese TRE on my Rusty's adjustable track bar lasted less than 4,000 miles before the truck was uncontrollable on the highway.

Correct

:???: :???: Third pole? Voltmeters only have two poles, one positive and one negative.

Rob are you aware that the rear drum brakes are what used to be called "servo assisted," and that by design they work much better going forward than they do in reverse? That's a big part of the reason one shoe is longer than the other, and why it's important not to mix up the long shoe and the short shoe. Parking brakes that are properly adjusted often don't hold worth patooties if you park heading uphill on a moderately steep slope. Ain't no way around it, it's the nature of the beast.

My '88 came with a YJ AX-15 and the YJ transfer case linkage still on it -- and the floor pan/trans tunnel badly hacked to allow the YJ transfer case shifter to extend up through it. Were you able to use your stock MJ transfer case shift linkage? Did you need to make any modifications? Which transfer case did you use, XJ or MJ? (I assume you must have used the one that matches the AX-15, because of the spline count issue?) I'd really like to get mine looking a bit less redneck on the inside, so any advice regarding the transfer case linkage would be appreciated.

Wasn't there a thread on this topic about a week ago? Listing a whole bunch of possibilities? I think the one the author chose was from a Dodge truck, but don't rely on my memory unless you have a death wish. Search might be your friend in this case.

Three magic words: Crankshaft Position Sensor