Eagle

Probably not a bad idea ...

Don't know why, but that seems to be a pattern in the auto dealership world. My brother (now retired) was a service writer/service manager. He encountered that same situation at least twice -- good relationship with a boss, that boss moved on (or was shown the door), new boss found every excuse possible to fire all the old staff and bring in his own people. It stinks, but it is what it is. Do NOT in any way think that you have let any of us down. You haven't. You are still a part of this community -- your work situation doesn't change that.

I think the MJ "frame" is up to the weight. Anybody remember the old AMC SC/Rambler? It was a 1969 Rambler American with their [cast iron] 390 cubic inch V8 stuffed under the hood. The Rambler American, the Javelin, and the AMX of the same era were all unibody vehicles not that different from the XJ/MJ. I've owned 390 AMXs, and my brother owned a SC/Rambler. Just change the front springs to something appropriate for the weight. The springs out of a V8 Grand Cherokee would be my first choice, probably from the 5.9L if you can find them. What engine are you going to use? I've seen any number of XJs with small block Chevy V8s installed and they ALL had severe cooling issues.

What new added weight? You're replacing a cast-iron in-line 6-cylinder engine with a cast-iron block and cast-iron exhaust manifold. Whatever V-8 you're planning to use, it probably weighs less, not more.

I don't know if this is going to help us, or if this is going to save Caravana.

I just noticed this one. What do want to bet that's one of those "homeowner" snow plow rigs? There are a number of light-duty snow plows for small pickups and SUVs that use a UTV winch to raise and lower the plow, and the blade angle is set manually (by getting out of the vehicle and kicking the plow to where you want it).

That's nnice, but it's not a Comanche. It's a modified XJ -- what we generally refer to as a "Cheromanche."

Here's the breakdown on mix-and-match. [This is from the manuscript for my book. It is copyrighted, and by posting this part here I do NOT give anyone permission to copy it and pass it along. You may post a link to this thread.] In general, the parts to be concerned with in keeping the front brakes compatible are the steering knuckles, the hub/bearing assemblies, the rotors, and the calipers. (There is a more complete enumeration of the interrelationship of these parts in Chapter 6, Axles.) Only two steering knuckle designs were used: 1984 through 1989, and 1990 through 2001. Left and right side knuckles are different part numbers within each group. Three different hub/bearing units were used. The hub/bearing units are the same for both sides of the vehicle. The different years for hub/bearing assemblies were: 1984 through 1989; 1990 through mid-1999 (composite rotors); and late-1999 through 2001 (cast rotors). Three rotor types were used: 1984 through 1989; 1990 through mid-1999 (composite); and late-1999 through 2001 (cast). Only two caliper types were used: 1984 through 1989, and 1990 through 2001. Left and right side calipers are different part numbers within each group.

The heavy-duty rear axle for 1986 was the AMC Model 20. The rear cover on the Model 20 is perfectly round. That axle is not out of an '86 MJ. From '87 thru '89 the D35 and the D44 both had 10" rear brakes. The D53 were 10" x 1.75", and the D44 were 10" x 2.5". The backing plates are different, so you can't just buy 2.5" drums and shoes and slap them on a D35.

I'm sure I have mentioned more than twice that my original XJ was a 1988 XJ that I purchased new. I bought an XJ only because the MJ wasn't available in an extended cab version and I needed a bit more enclosed storage space than the MJ offered. Hypothetically, if an enterprising young lad (which I am not) had an MJ, an XJ or three, and access to some steel tube and plate, how would you lads go about creating an extended cab Comanche?

The later J-10s and J-20s all had that style roof rather than the military style, squared-off roof. One of the guys in the Javelin/AMX Sports Car Club of Connecticut, who worked at Stahl's AMC in Derby, had a really nice one.

Great video, and a super concept. When I was active in NAXJA I participated in a couple of trail clean-ups in the Pine Barrens in New Jersey, and one clean-up of a power line trail in Rhode Island. None of those were nearly the scale of the Gambler 500, but they were multi-club events. And yes, it's astonishing how much trash trashy people throw out. For the Rhode Island clean-up, one of the guys worked for a trash hauling company. His boss donated the use of a 40 cubic yard dumpster, including the tipping fees. We filled it -- and beside it we had a mountain of trash large enough to fill two more 40-yarders. Tires are a problem. I'm envious of 9 FREE tires per day. At my town's transfer station, they charge $10 per tire -- and the tires can't be on rims. Small wonder people just drop them on the side of the road.

More like 50 bucks for the whole set.

According to TP-Link, the dongle I have is version 2.2 and, despite what it says on the box, versions 1 and 2 do NOT support Linux. Version 3 does. I found a different dongle on Amazon that's plug-and-play for Linux kernel 4.4 and newer. My kernel is 5.1, so it should be good to go. I have ordered it (actually two, because I have another old machine I'm also setting up on Linux), and I expect delivery around Thursday.

Montana doesn't do it, unless they've changed. The '88 SporTruck I recently sold was registered in Montana. I bought it in Rhode Island, so I had a bill-of-ale but no title, becvause Rhode Island doesn't issue titles on vehicles more than 10 (15?) years old. I fixed up an '88 XJ for a former GF in Montana and drove it out there, so I took the paperwork for the MJ with me and registered it in Montana, using her address. No problem. Until it was time to renew. My check had my Connecticut address on it, so the Montana DMV declined to renew my registration. By that time I had a Montana title so I was okay, but I would have preferred to maintain the Montana registration. In retrospect, I should have sent the paperwork to the ex-GF and had her send it in from her mailing address and paying with her check with a local address. But that's the lesson learned the ghard way.

My '88 Chief has the factory tubular bumper (what's left of it -- they were pretty thin metal and rather worthless as a bumper) but I never looked at the brackets. Maybe the tubular bumper was only an option on the shortbeds?

Neither the oil pressure gauge nor the temperature gauge reads in percent. The oil pressure gauge reads in psi, and the scale is linear. The temperature gauge reads in degrees, and the scale is NOT linear -- it's logarithmic. Telling us the gauges read 'X' percent is meaningless.

Looks like we can't register our rescue MJs in Vermont any more.

?@?@?@?@? Thanks, but ... I know YOU know what that all means, but I don't have a clue. It's not your fault -- I know people who know this [bleep] have touble remembering what it wass like before they knew how to do it. To be honest, you might as well be speaking Greek to me.

And then what? Remember -- I don't know ANYTHING about Linux. And Linux ain't like Windoze ... If I can find the drive rand put it on a USB stick, then what?

I have figured out how to log in as "root" so I can install programs. I tried to install Thunderbird, but it's not available as a package in this distro of Debian. So how do I get Thunderbird onto this computer? I also found a reference to a TP-Link USB WiFi dongle that has a Linux driver. How would I install that driver to see if it will work with the dongle I have?

Tourist dollars at work. There's another steam train that runs up into the Rockies, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway, from Chama, NM to Antonito, CO. Chama isn't a big city -- I don't know about Antonito. https://cumbrestoltec.com/

Doesn't work. The dongle is a TP-Link. Comes with a CD/DVD with drivers, but the instructions only discuss Windows and MacOS. I think I'm out of luck.

Back again ... Progress, of sorts. It's running on the Xfce desktop. I don't like it, but it may be more than I can handle to change it. I have determined that the LAN port is active, and I can open and use Firefox to access the internet. This computer doesn't have built-in WiFi. I have one of those USB WiFi dongles -- they are plug-and-play in Windoze, but will Debian recognize and configure it if I just plug it in? I would also like to install some "universal" fonts, such as Arial, Calibri, and Times New Roman. I know Debian and LibreOffice include equivalents, but I think people coming from other platforms might not be happy having those fonts available. There's a package called MSCoreFonts that's intended specifically for this purpose. However, when I tried to install it, I got an error message that I don't have rights to run sudo. So how do I get myself set up with admin rights? I would need the same thing to install an alternate desktop, so this is important. For now, I have the user password cleverly set as "password." If I'm going to adopt the machine out, there's no sense in me setting something more secure. How would an end user change the log-in password? Thanks, gents.

Great music to accompany views of ghost towns!