Eagle

It's not mine, so I'm not putting it in Classifieds. My brother spotted this a few days ago so while visiting I took a swing by the place. The truck is an '86 longbed, V6, 4WD. Body appears solid, and it has a sliding rear window. It's inside a fenced yard and the place isn't open on Thanksgiving, so I couldn't get close enough to see what model, or get a better idea of condition. If anyone is interested, it's in Bethany, Connecticut. It's at a place called Northeast Truck Equipment. It seems to be a place that mostly buys used utility company trucks and resells them. Dunno what they are doing with one Comanche among all the bucket trucks, etc, but there it is. Phone number is 203-393-0328.

Unless his XJ has sagged something fierce, he can run 30s with no lift. I ran 'em for years on "Old faithful" (my original 198 XJ that I bought new in January of '88).

Happy to help out. The musical parts guys at Jeep really had a lot of fun regarding the hubs, rotors and calipers. Once you start swapping parts, you have to be really careful to maintain consistency within one range of years. As you discovered ...

Did you disassemble and clean out the XJ combo valve before you installed it? What you describe sounds exactly like what my friend in PA went through -- with an XJ. He eliminated the stock combo valve entirely, put in a Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve in the line to the rear, and his problem went away.

You have to be sure you keep the calipers, rotors and hubs all matched to the axle by year. If you change any one of them to a different listing, you have to change all three. The following is from my forthcoming XJ/MJ book. Please note: It is copyrighted and I am NOT granting you permission to reprint or to distribute it. This is just to help you solve your problem.

Width is a real problem in the rear, though. The rule-of-thumb for tires is that the width should not be more than 4" greater than the rim width, which would mean an 8.5" rim for 12.50" tires -- but I know a lot of people who cheat on that by an inch or so with no problems. But ... if your rear axle is stock, or close to stock width, you'll have an interference fit. I was running 31x10.50s on OEM 15x7 rims on mine. In the rear, the tires were VERY close to the spring leaves, and when I would have the tires off I could see that the inner sidewall was rubbing against the inside of the wheelwell above the frame rail. Running tires 2 inches wider will put your inner sidewall 1 full inch closer to the sheet metal -- which will equate to being in contact with it.

If I Remember Correctly

Which leaf is broken? If it isn't the main leaf, you could use XJ leaves to replace the broken leaf and the corresponding on on the other side. Maybe toss in another XJ leaf on each side (perhaps the main leaf with the eyes cut off) if you need still more lift than the SOA gives you. If you replace an MJ leaf (maybe #2?) with an XJ leaf of the same length, you will lose a bit of height because XJ springs are designed to sit flat at XJ curb weight.

Correct. Swapping in a 4.3L is just as much work and requires just as much fabrication and/or aftermarket adapters as a SBC V8. There's a guy near me who had one. I asked him what he thought once he'd finished and his reply was 'NEVER AGAIN!" Go with the 3.4L. Just remember that the 2.8L used an externally balanced crank, meaning that the flywheel has an eccentric weight somewhere on the perimeter. The 3.4L is internally balanced, so you'll have to take your stock 2.8L flywheel or flexplate to a shop and have it neutral balanced.

As to the other parts, the steering stabilizer was stock. The factory offered a front skid and a gas tank skid as factory options, but they weren't stock on all MJs. The front skid is especially heavy.

a bad O2 sensor doesnt always trip the check engine light does it? Just noticed that you have an '89. There is no Check Engine light. The only light is the Maintenance Required light, and that's run by a timer to remind you to change the O2 sensor every 80,000 miles. The light usually gets disconnected the first time it turns on, because the factory says it can't be reset and most owners don't feel like buying a new timer.

What year and what engine? With nothing known about the vehicle, my first guess would have to be oxygen sensor. Second guess would be EGR, if you have one.

Pete beat me to it. The easiest route by far would be to get a short wheelbase MJ and build that.

A '94 YJ should be an AX-5. The transfer cases on the Wranglers were clocked slightly different from the XJ/MJ, but you actually may not need to hammer the floor pan -- or if you do, it's VERY minimal. My '88 MJ (4.0L) had an AX-15 and 231 from a YJ swapped in by the previous owner. He cut the shifter floor opening larger because he kept the YJ transfer case shifter, but I don't see any evidence that the floor pan was "massaged" to allow for the different clocking of the transfer case (and it IS clocked). He also retained the YJ transmission shift lever, and it works fine. Stands up taller and straighter than the original MJ shifter, but I've gotten used to it and it's not a problem in any way ... except that it doesn't look original. At some point I will exchange it for an XJ/MJ shift lever, but only because of aesthetics and "purity," not because of functionality.

The AW4 stuff should be almost stand-alone. How badly could he have messed it up?

I use a magnetic-mount on the roof. And it does occasionally get knocked off by trees on trails, but it hasn't been a problem on the street. Fiberglass whips are IMHO not a great idea if you're not driving an 18-wheeler up and down the Interstate.

It should work, but keep in mind that it may look different. All the 88s had the big C101 connector on the top of the firewall, directly in front of the driver (on the engine room side). The early 89s had the same connector, but it was eliminated mid-way through the 89 model year.

The black wire goes to ground and the tach feed wire comes off the negative terminal on the coil. At least, that's how the instructions for my Sun Super Tach said to wire it. What kind of tach did you buy that doesn't come with wiring instructions?

Sounds dumb, but for the rear lights ... start by checking the bulbs. If they're good, then follow the wiring harness forward from the rear lights to find the connector where the rear harness mates to the front chassis harness. If all the front lights work and none of the rear lights do, that's the most likely problem area.

Keep in mind two things: First, the guy who wrote that article was doing a WJ brake conversion, and the WJ calipers are totally different from the MJ calipers. What fits them may or may not fit an MJ. And secondly, he made up his list by looking at pictures on a web site. He says right in his write-up that he doesn't know if the ones he didn't use will fit. Advice like that is dangerous.

I used front lines (hoses) from a mid-90s Wrangler. The bend on the metal portion coming off the caliper had to be re-bent slightly, but the flex hose was more than long enough for a 4" lift.

Mate, if you don't have a track bar installed, there is nothing locating your axle under the chassis. You can lean on one fender and push that truck sideways across the axle, then go around and push it back from the other side. You do NOT use the drag link and/or tie rod adjustment to center the axle. That is the function of the track bar. 87manche stated it exactly right. After the axle has been centered with the track bar, and can't move laterally because the track bar keeps it in position, THEN you can use the drag link and tie rod adjustments to set your toe-in and center up the steering wheel. You can't adjust or center anything with no track bar. You also can't drive the vehicle without a track bar.

This is for the front. "Stock" height in front, measured from the center of the wheel/hubcap/axle stright up to the bottom edge of the flare should be 17-1/2". Rear is 17" for an XJ and around 20" or 20-1/2" for an MJ.

Sheesh. I made my own out of copper plumbing fittings. Started with a tee, sweated in a couple of very short pieces if straight pipe, added an elbow off the bottom, and I was done. I doubt it cost me more than ten bucks, and took all of 15 minutes to make up.

De nada, amigo. Muy interesante. Su camioneta esta super unica.