Eagle

This place is tough on moderators. Went to bed Saturday night and felt some (slight) pain on the left side of my chest when lying on my back or on my left side. Tried taking a hot shower to loosen up congestion, went back to bed ... same thing. Got up researched heart attacks, and my symptoms didn't seem like a classic heart attack but they also didn't clearly spell out "SOMETHING ELSE." All articles on heart attacks say to get help sooner rather than later, so I went to the VA hospital emergency room and told them I was concerned that I might have had a mild heart attack. EKG was completely normal. Then they did a chest x-ray. TA-DA! I had a collapsed lung! The treatment for that is to carve a hole into your upper chest cavity to insert a tube, which they hook up to suction to pull air (and other stuff) out of the chest in order to allow the lung to re-expand, and to seal up any leaks. From the ER I was taken up to a room -- which I subsequently found is the surgical ICU. Spent Sunday and Monday on suction. Tuesday they removed the suction, but they kept the tube in place just in case. I awoke every morning to an x-ray technician, arriving between 05:30 and 06:00 for progress photos. Today they decided things looked okay, so they pulled the suction tube out. Two hours later they did a follow-up x-ray, which looked okay, so they sent me home. Got home at 5:00 p.m. this afternoon. Left arm is basically useless for a week or two because the incision for the tube is just beneath the left armpit. You do NOT want to go through this. The tube was inserted in the ER, and using only local anesthetics, not general anesthesia. Translation -- I was awake, and it HURT!!!! I have never experienced pain anywhere near that bad. Anyway, I'm back ... not that anybody missed me.

Clogged catalytic converter?

Good fix, BUT ... If you read the comments, it is noted (somewhat indirectly) that this fix eliminates the fuse for the gauges. The OP then comments that he needs to add an in-line fuse ... to which I would absolutely agree.

Correct. But, as Jeep Driver mentioned, someone has put the grille in upside down.

A SOA modification is going to lift the rear at least 5-1/2 inches, so you're going to end up with a very visible rake.

The angle of the drag link has to match the angle of the track bar (the straight line from end joint to end joint, ignoring the bends in the bars). If you change one of them without changing the other, you introduce bump steer. There are several older threads with photos to illustrate that. Irrespective of length (which is what an adjustable track bar changes), if the frame end hasn't been dropped you do NOT want to use a dropped pitman arm. Bump steer is an unpleasant phenomenon at best, and can be dangerous. If you are concerned about stress on the steering box, get a steering box brace. Actually, IMHO the single best thing you can do for the steering box (and tie rod ends) is train yourself to NEVER turn the steering wheel unless the front tires are rolling, even if it's only a 1 MPH.

Why do you want a drop pitman arm? Did you lower the frame end of your track bar? If not, you DON'T want to drop the pitman arm.

Pretty much.

I'm pretty sure the 4.7L V8 wasn't offered with the 242 -- only the 4.0L I6. The 4.7 was only offered with QuadraTrac (or the optional QuadraDrive, which added the gerotor packs on the differentials). I absolutely have to disagree with you on the tranny -- and, remember, I speak from [unfortunate] first-hand experience. The entire drive rain of the V8 '99 WJ was trash. Mine spent nearly as much time in the shop as it did on the road, which is why I was going to go lemon law with it. I easily qualified, based on how much time it was in the shop.

What parts do you think you'll be able to use? I owned a '99 WJ -- for less than a year before Daimler-Chrysler bought it back to stop me from going lemon law on it. The transmission is trash. The rear axle is the aluminum case "Dana 44" that's possibly the only live axle in the universe worse than a Dana 35. The wheel lug bolt circle doesn't match the MJ/XJ. Doesn't sound like a bargain to me.

Of course it helps. An internal combustion engine needs three things to start and run: fuel, air, and spark. If all you know is that it won't start, you don't know what to check first. If you can pour gas into the throttle body and it starts, that verifies that the ignition system isn't a problem. So you DON'T worry about CPS, ECM, coil, or distributor. Also, it's getting air so you don't worry about valves or camshaft. So you're down to a fuel delivery problem. Focus your attention on troubleshooting the fuel system.

Military wrap has the second leaf wrapped around the front bushing as well as the main leaf. Photo from Rough Country web site

I wonder if it's 4WD or 6WD ...

And an '86 CommandTrac was probably an 207, not a 231. Low range was 2.6x, not 2.72

Holy moly! A stick shift? WOW!!!!!!!!!

Some of the aftermarket "metric ton" springs sit higher than factory ride height, but they shouldn't. That's actually a bug, not a feature (except for people who want a lift, like you). The factory Metric Ton (Tonne) springs did not ride higher than standard springs.

But you have no idea what type of paint was used, so we can't do more than offer guesses. Why don't you try the alcohol test suggested, and report the results to us? One step at a time.

They shouldn't add any lift. They were for load capacity, not lift. Unless your existing springs are badly sagged and you consider getting back to factory height a "lift."

Looks good. Obviously, I need to get busy.

Buy it. Are you certain it's a 5-speed? A 5-speed should have 4.10 gears. There was also a 4-speed manual, and those came with 3.54/3.55 gears.

Don't replace the springs if they don't need to be replaced -- aftermarket springs are always a crap shoot as to whether or not they'll match the factory ride height. Quick check for the front -- measure from the center of the axle/wheel/hub straight up to the bottom edge of the flare. The stock measurement should be 17-1/2 inches. For the rear, I don't know what the corresponding dimension should be for an MJ. I use 21-1/2 inches as a ballpark, but that's not precise. The factory says to measure rear ride height with the gas tank full. Measure from the top of the axle tube up to the underside of the frame rail, inboard of the bump stop. The factory dimension is 8.2 inches for 2WD and 9.2 inches for 4WD -- both dimensions with a tolerance of +/- 1/2 inch.

The first crop. Not this one.

The old broken wire trick will do it every time. Never overlook the simple when diagnosing. Many years ago, my pony car developed a funny skip/stumble. I had just done a tune-up, and the miles were getting up there, so I assumed (bad idea) that it must be something serious. So, I bought a junkyard engine, did a full rebuild, put it into the car -- and I had the same skip/stumble. Okay, it must be carburetor. So I bought a new carburetor and installed that. Still had the same skip/stumble. The problem was the $2 condenser from the tune-up kit I had just installed. Replaced the condenser and all was well. So, basically, I spent over $1,000 because I didn't take the time to diagnose a $2 part.

I've got enough space in my yard for at least ten MJs -- I've had a lot more than that here for a NAXJA-NAC BBQ. It has to be no earlier than mid-June, though -- the front yard is pretty soft and swampy until then. If anyone wants to trek to southern Connecticut, let me know and we'll get something together.

Turning over is the same as cranking -- the engine is being turned by the starter motor. That is NOT "starting." If you dribble a little raw gas into the throttle body, or use starting fluid (ether), will it start and run for a few seconds? Have you checked for a spark at the spark plugs? BTW -- the 2.5L engine is an in-line 4-cylinder, not a V4.