Eagle

A switch is a switch. It offers a way to interrupt current flow in the hot (supply) leg feeding a device (a receptacle or light socket or motor). By definition and by function, the neutral leg is the return from a device (a receptacle, a light fixture, or a motor) to the neutral bus in the breaker panel. How can you possibly have a neutral in a leg that's the hot leg?

No, this configuration is quite common. The main cable (BX or Romex, whichever) containing the hot, the neutral, and the ground, goes to the ceiling box, and then a 2-conductor leg is run from the ceiling box to the switch to extend and switch the hot leg. It's completely code-compliant as long as the white wire is marked on both ends with black tape so down the road someone (like you) won't open up the switch box or the ceiling box and think that white wire is a neutral when it's actually hot. To rewire it so the white functions as a neutral would mean removing the cable from the breaker panel to the ceiling box, and running a new 12/2 or 14/2 cable from the breaker panel to the switch box. In the switch box, the old and the new black conductors would be attached to the terminals on the switch, and the old and new white conductors would be tied together with a wire nut. If the house wiring is in good condition, I don't see any reason to go through all that. On the other hand, if the wiring is old enough that the conductors have fabric insulation rather than plastic, then I would rip it out and start over.

That's like a huge rigid digit to the Des Moines Register. I wonder if they'll be covering the parade and, if so, if they'll find it necessary to mention his old tweets again.

No. In a configuration where the power feed goes directly to the overhead light box and then the switched leg is run out of the ceiling box and then back into it, the switched leg does not have a neutral. It's just an extension of the hot leg.

I'm about 98.732 percent certain that there was no such thing as an "Up Country" suspension code in 1987. I think that's one of the option codes the Jeep has recycled since the early days of the XJ and MJ. [time out] I just looked up the build sheet my dealer ran for me on my '88 4.0L MJ Chief. Build code 'AWE' is described as "Off Highway Package." The truck has a gas tank skid plate. It also has front tow hooks. It probably also came with the front skid plate, but the kid who owned it before me had butchered it and there's no front skid now. (But there's also no hint of the heavy rubberized fabric splash shield that was used on vehicles that didn't have the front skid plate.) The Off Highway Package would also have includes the 15x7 white "wagon wheel" style wheels, and probably 215/75-15 OWL tires (Goodyear Wranglers). My build sheet also says I have a cluster with tach, and I don't. I have gauges (standard on the Chief), but no tach. In fact, I strapped a Sun Super Tach to the steering column, too. But my build sheet also says I have a driver's side airbag, and those weren't introduced until the 1995 XJ model year. But ... my build sheet was printed in 1999, so there had already been some code recycling by then.

Using 12/3 is a less expensive way to get two circuits to the same general part of the house. The NEC (National Electric Code) allows both red and black as the supply side. Google up wiring for 3-way switches. For those, you need 12/3 (or 14/3) because there are two "hot" conductors between the two switch locations. Only one is hot at a time, of course, but if you turn the light off from one switch and then turn it on from the other switch, you'll be using the other conductor when you turn it back on. In fact, never mind -- here it is: https://www.familyhandyman.com/electrical/wiring-switches/how-to-wire-a-threeway-switch/

There is no difference between switching the neutral, and switching the neutral leg. Everything between the circuit breaker and the outlet (light fixture or receptacle) is part of the hot leg -- regardless of what color the wire insulation is. Everything from the outlet (light fixture or receptacle) back to the neutral bus in the breaker panel is neutral -- regardless of what color the wire is. If you have two wires going from the light fixture box down the the switch and then back to the ceiling box, whichever leg they are on, they are both on the same leg. They are either both hot (supply), or they are both neutral. As I piece together your posts, it sounds like it is the hot leg (not the neutral leg) that's switched, but they didn't tape the ends of the white conductor in the 14/2 cable to indicate that it's hot. The fact that it's white does NOT make it neutral. If it's in the supply side of the circuit (upstream of the light), it's supply, not neutral.

Follow up: Folks from Iowa were NOT happy, and did some digging. Turns out the reporter had some questionable posts or tweets in his own history. The newspaper has been besieged with letters, online comments, ... and subscription cancellations. They have since fired the reporter, and they are in full damage control mode, busily trying to create some semi-plausible explanation why the guy's tweets (from when he was 16 years old, fer cryin' out loud) were even mentioned in the story, since they had nothing whatsoever to do with the beer sign, the money, or the contribution to the children's hospital. It ain't workin' -- people in (and beyond) Iowa are stillcalling for some editorial heads to roll.

That alone is a code violation. White is supposed to be neutral. ALWAYS. If a 2-conductor cable is used the way you describe, the hot white wire is supposed to be wrapped with black tape for the 6 or 8 inches that are in the switch box, as well as in the box where the white connects to power. You need to find out where all the wires in that room come from and go to. There should not BE an "unused" neutral. See comment above if you're going to use standard 14/2. Better (IMHO) would be to use two lengths of black wire. But ... what's the point of adding two wires from the light to the switch? You already have two wires. But your opening post said the neutral conductor to (from) the light is switched. Now you say the wire from the overhead box to the switch is hot -- that's not neutral.

Definitely not to code. Fix it.

That is another way to do it. Unfortunately, it's also illegal. By law, fog lights MUST turn off automatically when the headlights are switched to high beam. It is possible to take the trigger tap off the parking lights and still make it legal, but doing it that way requires two relays instead of one. If the aux lights happen to be "driving" lights, as opposed to "fog" lights, then they can be on ONLY with the high beams.

All you need is a relay. The fog lights get their power feed through the relay. To control the relay, tap into one of the low beam headlight wires, run from that to the switch, then from the switch to the control terminal on the light relay.

Don't you guys know about stickie posts/threads? https://comancheclub.com/topic/829-what-to-do-if-your-hood-release-cable-breaks/

I'm trying to figure out if this is even possible with a 4-stroke engine. The cam goes around once for each two revolutions of the engine. How can you eliminate the compression stroke? You would have to have one of the valves open on that stroke, which would mean that the corresponding cam lobe would have to be double-sided. Once you do that, you might as well make both the intake and exhaust lobes double sided, which would make the cylinders you're using for compressed air effectively 2-stroke rather than 4-stroke.

Well, aside from the fact that you now don't have a functional rear brake proportioning valve, and you have no idea if your rear brakes are now fully on, fully off, or somewhere in between ... no, nothing wrong at all. Why did you remove the actuating rod? Doing that can't possibly help anything, and in most cases will make any issues you have worse.

Okay ... PICS ... or it didn't happen.

The bottom two look like the caps the factory used to put over the idle mixture and idle speed adjustment screws on carburetors. The caps were supposed to prevent owners from trying to adjust the carbs. The upper bushing looks vaguely familiar, but I'm drawing a blank on where I might have seen its twin.

You're not alone. I thought it was going to be about installing rocking chair seats into an MJ, too.

Congratulations to both of you. Best wishes.

Did you rotate the headlight switch? It's a rotary dimmer.

If you have an '88, the switch for the idiot light is in the back of the cylinder head, on the driver's side. Later years used the PCM to control the water temp gauge/light, and those years had the sensor located in the thrmostat housing. So you can leave the factory switch to keep the idiot light, then get a new thermostat housing with the outlet for a temp sensor and use that to run your aftermarket gauge.

I've never seen a factory MJ rear bumper that didn't have that trim.

Actually, few if any people have gotten away with running GL5 for long periods. It does eat the synchros. Probably not overnight, but rather quickly. The factory recommended gear lube was GL3, not GL5. When the specs were changed and GL3 became GL4 and then GL5, with corresponding increases in sulpher content, the factory quickly realized what the issue was and changed the recommended gear lube to 10W30 motor oil. Is anyone running Pennzoil Synchromesh gear lube in an AX-15 (or AX-5, or BA 10/5)?

The stroker guru is Dina Savva. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=dino+savva+stroker&ia=web The biggest issue is compression. The deck height of the 4.0L engine is slightly different from the deck height of the 258/4.2L engine. If you just use the 4.2L rods along with the 4.2L crank and stock 4.0L pistons, the compression is too high. There are ways to deal with that. Too much to get into here -- follow the links in that search page I posted, and happy reading.

Here's the link to Monroe's shock dimension chart: http://www.monroe.com/downloads/install-instructions-guides/MonroeMountingLengthSpecifications.pdf Based on several different Monroe and Rancho shocks listed as OEM replacements for the rear of the MJ, you need to look for a Load Leveler with a compressed length of approximately 13.5 to 14.5 inches and an extended length of approximately 22.25 to 23.25 inches. The end mounts with the open eye on both ends is the L1/L1, but the two numbers we've already provided are the only two L1/L1 Load Levelers that meet those dimensions. So then what you need to do is find something with those approximate dimension that has end fittings that may be L1 (open eye) on one end and a cross pin (XP) on the other end, or even something with cross pins on both ends. You can remove the cross pins to use them on the MJ. Look in the models with part numbers in the 58xxx series -- those are the Load Levelers. (Pages 17 and 18). Number 58567 might work. It's an L1/L1 unit. Compressed length is 12.5", extended length 20.38". Check your truck to see if the distance between your upper and lower shock mounts falls between those numbers. 58574 has an L1 on one end and an XP7 on the other end. Compressed length is 13.38" and extended length is 21.25". Pretty close to what you need. Other possibilities: 58594. If you jump to page 97, you'll find a description of the different end mounting codes and dimension.