Eagle

I don't recall the bolt size, but I've done it twice. You go up from underneath, using the longest extension(s) you have, and maybe a universal adapter at the upper end. Work carefully -- it is possible to drop the upper bolt into the CPS opening in the bellhousing, and if that happens you get to drop the tranny. The upper bolt should come out first, while the CPS is still in place, and should be replaced after the new CPS has been installed and the lower bolt loosely snugged up to hold it. It's easier with an automatic. The clutch hose gets in the way on the manuals. Worst possible case, you might have to unbolt the tranny crossmember and drop the rear of the tranny an inch or so to allow better access. Most folks, though, can do the job without resorting to this.

Aftermarket retrofit

Got gas? There's a low pressures sensor. If you are low on freon the relay won't allow the clutch to engage.

One of the problems involved is that the Dana 44 housing is larger than the Dana 30 housing. To fit the bracket for the left (driver's) side coil, you have to cut away a portion of the housing where the tube is pressed in, then fit up the bracket and weld everything together. The housing is cast nodular iron, not "steel," so it requires a bit more than your average backyard welder (meaning the operator, not the machine) to do it right. It's a very workable conversion, and Clayton's kit is probably the best way to accomplish it. But it ain't for the faint of heart. His shop/factory is in Waterbury, Connecticut. Give 'em a call and ask their advice.

So, does that mean by swaping the radiator without doing the thermoswitch thing the fan will never come on automatically? I only have the one fan, and it's not electric. What does it mean for me? It means that you will probably have overheating problems even after installing the new radiator, and it means that you will have to install an electric auxiliary fan and figure out a way to control it, since your new radiator won't have a place for the sensor used in your year. If you can live with manual control, the simplest solution is a relay and a toggle switch.

Only the U.S. military could possibly construe tire rotation as a "major repair." Sheesh! So you do a 5-wheel rotation. Only one wheel in the air at any time, and if someone asks, you thought it was looking soft so you're putting on the spare.

At 4" of lift the stock track bar will pull the axle off-center about an inch to the driver's side of the chassis. You can drive it like that, but it'll look a bit odd and makes for an "interesting" wheel alignment. You can get most of the offset back by drilling a new hole in the axle bracket, but the metal only allows you to move the hole about 5/8" so it isn't enough to re-center the axle at 4" of lift. If you go this route, drill carefully with the correct size drill. If you make the hole oversize, the track bar bolt can move around and it makes for very sloppy steering. My '88 MJ was like that when I bought it -- it's amazing how much slop you get in the steering from just a tiny bit of movement in a couple of places in the steering linage.

I own a couple of stock Cherokees with the factory front skid. It isn't weak, it doesn't particularly bother me when doing a lube job, and it seems to be pretty well designed to protect a STOCK front suspension/steering setup. It was NOT designed for a lifted vehicle, and after about 2" of lift it'll be pretty much useless unless you shim down all the mounting points.

Clayton's Off-Road has done a number of these conversions for XJs in Clayton's local club. I believe he now sells a bracket kit for converting the front axle from leaf spring to coils. Remember you're going from 5-lug to 6-lug rims so you'll be buying new rims all around.

It would take me a good half day to do a full count, but Pete -- I got ya beat in spades. Rough guess is that I'm at around 50 or 60. Yes, I know for a fact that there have been complaints to the zoning officer. Not about my tires, which can't really be seen either from the road or from the neighbor's house, but about the "junk" Jeeps. Fortunately, I know the zoning officer well enough that he has mentioned it to me. And I have explained to him that the same regulation that says I can't have any unregistered or unused vehicles in my yard also applies to everyone else in town, and also covers: boats, campers, camp trailers, work trucks, and motor homes. And he is well aware that the day I get a formal letter, I unlimer the camera and drive around town taking lots of pictures of other violations. I don't want to go there, and fortunately neither does he. And the chief complainant (my dear uncle) just moved to another town. :)

TJ springs don't lift MJs, they lower them. If'n you don't want to use spacers and you don't have a lot on $$$, either look in a junkyard for V8 ZJ springs, or buy "cargo coils" for an XJ/MJ from Carquest. Somebody on NAXJA posted the exact Carquest part number a ling time ago but I stupidly didn't write it down.

The Exploder axle requires welding on spring perches, AND doing something to adapt for the fact that it's narrower overall (wheel mating surface to wheel mating surface). If you run OEM Jeep rims on an Exploder axle, the tires will be rubbing the spring leaves and the inside of the wheel wells. You have to either run spacers, or use rims with less backspacing (which, if used on all four corners, then creates other problems in the front). IMHO I rank the Exploder rear as about #4 in desireability. #1, of course, is a rare MJ Dana 44. #2 is an XJ Dana 44, which is the correct width and requires only flipping the perches (or relocating them if you intend to go SOA). #3 IMHO is a late model XJ Chrysler axle. It will also be the correct overall width, and while not quite as strong as a Dana 44 it's a lot stronger than a Dana 35 -- about equal, in fact, to an Exploder axle.

It will rub, a little, but not "rub like hell." But it also depends on the wheels and tires. I ran OEM rims, and I've tried a couple of different brands of tires but no mudders. But what everyone forgets is that a 2" (or 3" or 6") lift by itself doesn't fix the rubbing when the suspension is stuffed. Unless you extend the bump stops by the same amount as the lift, the tires will still stuff up to the same point and rub. So IMHO there is very little advantage to a 2" lift compared to the DISadvantages of same.

Jeep stopped using the vacuum disconnect in the XJ and MJ as of 1991. They kept it in the Wrangler until the TJ replaced the YJ.

You don't need any lift to run 30x9.50s. I run them on my stock Cherokee for off-road. For 2" lift springs you can go to Carquest and buy replacement "Cargo Coil" springs. Stay with a stock track bar. Rusty's track bar worked okay on my MJ at 4" of lift, but at stock height after I removed the lift kit the track bar was an interference fit with the front diff cover. 2" lift would be questionable -- it would clear at rest, but I think it would rub any time the suspension compressed.

4-bangers? The rear main seal on the 2.5L engine is a one-piece seal that canNOT be replaced with the tranny in place, by simply dropping the oil pan (unlike the 4.0L). So it would be an excellent idea to replace the rear main seal while the engine is out and the back of the block is accessible.

Yepp, that's how you'd use line locks. Or you could set up a pair of levers running small hydraulic cylinders either in the cab or under the cab floor and run those through independent lines to each rear wheel. The catch is, though, that the rear wheels can't be hydraulically connected or applying pressure to one will apply pressure to both. So you would basically have to eliminate normal rear brakes, and have only the hydraulic cutting brakes. (Or you'd have to install a sophisticated system of one-way check valves ... it can be done, but at what point do you say "This isn't worth what's it's costing"?) IMHO cutting brakes are a very specialized application that have no place on a vehicle that gets driven on the street. If you have a trailer queen that sees a lot of use in sand, then maybe there's some justification for them.

Yeah, you can if you have good rear brakes and keep them adjusted. But a hydraulic solution provides more braking power, for sure.

Pretty much all cars and PUs have separate cables to the two rear wheels. Converting that to fully independent cutting brakes requires adding two levers inside the cab and separate forward cables. It can be done, but for probably 98% of MJ owners wouldn't provide any benefit. The same thing can be accomplish hydraulically, using a pair of drag racing line locks.

Yeah. Considering the heat above the headliner in summer, good duct tape should last at least two weeks, maybe three, before it completely peels off. The cheap stuff I'd give a week, tops. Not a good idea at all.

Those big, chrome (rust) mirrors were part of the tow package option. The standard mirror on the base model MJs was a single, "flag" style mirror on the driver's side door. Pioneers, XLE's and such all got XJ style mirrors on both doors ... except the MJ versions don't include the inside "manual remote" popsicle stick adjuster. However, XJ mirros bolt right on if you have them. (Andy in PA, you should know this. The truck style mirrors are the same ones that are on "Blue" that Mike gave Chris.) And yes, the MJ doors are the same as the front doors for an XJ 4-door ... up through about 1995. Somewhere around '96 or '97 Chrysler changed the latch location so the newer doors will bolt onto the truck but the latches won't line up.

If you go to the Monroe shocks web site, they used to have their full catalog on-line. In the back of the catalog is a section that lists each shock by upper and lower mount type, and compressed and extended length. It takes a bit of hunting around, but using that data you can find a shock to fit just about anything. I haven't been on there for awhile because I have the printed master catalog, so I don't know for sure that they still have it on-line ... but I can't imagine that they would have removed it, it's too useful.

Does this post have a purpose? What is it you're asking for?

Find a Carquest parts store and buy a pair of XJ/MJ "Cargo Coils" BTW -- There's no such thing as a Grand Cherokee V6 -- at least, there wasn't until this year.

Owning and having wheeled both XJs and MJs, I can tell you that a SWB MJ wheels very well ... and so does an XJ. There are a very few types of situations where the MJ is marginally better, and there are situations where the XJ is better. Even the SWB MJ has a longer wheelbase than an XJ, so the breakover angle on the MJ is worse than the XJ (assuming the same ride/lift height). Overall, I think the Cherokee is better and if I were shopping for a vehicle to turn into a dedicated wheeler, I'd be shopping for a Cherokee, not a Comanche. And not just because I think Comanches should be restored rather than wrecked. Personally, knowing how many more XJs there are than MJs, I cringe at the notion of chopping up a decent MJ to make it into a wheeler. I know for some who own an MJ and want to go wheeling it may be the only economically feasible option, but I still don't like it. But when you already have an XJ that's set up with the 4-litre engine and AW4, going to the effort to move all that over to a 4-banger MJ just to go wheeling sounds like a complete effort in futility. The 4-liter AW4 XJ is possibly the finest out-of-the-box wheeling machine you'll ever find. There is NO valid reason to swap that stuff into an MJ and ruin a perfectly good truck. Also, why would you do away with an automatic for wheeling in favor of a 5-speed? I mean, I LOVE 5-speeds -- all my vehicles have 'em except a couple of 4-speed MJs ... and my wife's XK Classic. But even I will admit that the AW4 is superior for wheeling. JMHO -- YMMV