gogmorgo

Well, ranting is over for now I guess. Totally off topic. It it took some tetrising to get the axles into the Saint, and he's squatting pretty hard under the weight, but hey, $250 POS so I don't care. Now I'll have to bribe my roommate or something to help me get them out of there, haha. No issues at the border, either,which is shocking. Given the radical paint job I was expecting to get the whole thing torn apart in both directions. And no it's not a yoga mat. Insulating pad for a sleeping bag. I brought my tent and camping gear along just in case, most of the drive is following the continental divide and you never know what you could get this time of year.

Well I didn't put them there but these little guys hang around and are pretty cool to look at.

I switched to royal purple's synchromax when I noticed my Lada's transmission wasn't shifting quite as nicely as I thought it should be. It worked a whole ton better than the air I drained out of it.

Nope, not you. Photobucket is and always has been a piece of $#!&. Don't know why anyone ever used them... but now they've decided not to let anyone use their hosting service for third-party stuff without paying $400/year.

Yes, US citizen. I phoned the registry back home, and they were confused I couldn't get temporary registration to leave the country, since theirs were perfectly valid, even overseas. But they also confirmed that my registration was no longer valid even if I left Alberta, until I could once again be considered a Manitoba resident. My issue isn't so much the inspection process, it's more the double standard nature of it. Once a vehicle is in Alberta it's good, and you never need to have it inspected ever again. In Manitoba vehicles need inspected every time they change owners. Both of my vehicles passed with only a couple small repairs within the last five years. But that Ranger rotting out across the street with body panels that flap in the breeze and suspension that sounds like the world falls apart every time it hits a bump that obviously hasn't been inspected ever (new vehicles don't need inspected) is legal and mine that has passed an inspection two years ago can't be unless I get it inspected again? Everythng seems like a cash-grab here too. In Manitoba (and everywhere else) you can just go to your local mechanic who is authorized to inspect vehicles (95% of them are) and pay him for his time. Here, you have to pay $20 for the request for inspection sheet first, and then if you fail on anything you've only got two weeks to fix things before starting the inspection process all over again.

I'm a citizen already. No green cards needed. You've got much bigger issues than vehicle registration to sort out down there before I'd consider moving.

Well now I for sure won't be able to swap them in and pretend nothing happened. I got officially informed that I'm an out-of-province resident so my Manitoba registration isn't valid. Went to get a temporary registration in Alberta and was told the registry agent wasn't authorized to issue a temporary tag to leave the country. She gave me a number to call to get authorization. I called it, it was just the Alberta government switchboard, but I eventually got transferred around to motor vehicles. I waited on hold for 20 minutes, someone picked up then hung up immediately. I look up the number (faster than spending five minutes switchboarding back and forth because the registry agent is closing in three... only open till 4:30), call the number, and then after sitting through the messages about what they're doing with the recordings, and commitment to accessibility and equality, and no I don't need service in French, I get two rings and a recording saying the office is also only open until 4:30. @#$%ing Alberta. Seriously, the $250 POS Jimmy that had the driver's door striker torn out when I bought it is perfectly legal based on a chicken-scratch bill of sale and no one even asked to look at it before issuing insurance or plates, but just because my MJ is from outside the province it's horribly unsafe and I can't drive it ever? I have to hit the road tomorrow morning before the registry office opens. Guess I'll be taking the Jimmy...

The MJ has a little more leeway than the XJ as the XJ is limited by rear wheelwells which are larger on the MJ. You'll start rubbing the control arms before you get tires into fenders.

So I'll glean from the above two comments that not only are the MJ AMC 20's different from all the other AMC 20's, no two MJ AMC 20's are the same either Guess I just have to wait and see. I hit the road Friday before the crack of dawn.

36mm or 1-3/8", IIRC. The CV shafts I put in mine came with 35mm nuts. Use an impact wrench to bust them loose, or a 3/4" or 1" drive breaker bar... I broke a 1/2" one.

No one does their own work anymore. It costs less in labour to throw a new part in than it does to rebuild the old one. Ship the core off to someone who makes 30 cents to rebuild it. Gotta send trucks (boats) back to the plant anyhow.

Yeah I was reading your build thread. Looked like you did the ax15 swap separate from the AMC 20. Everything's stock with my d35 right now, I guess I've got a 242 instead of the 231 in there but they're the same length, but if you didn't need to shorten the driveshaft again when you put in the amc20 then hopefully I'm okay? I guess I'll find out anyway.

My Lada also calls for dot4 in the clutch. I'm guessing it's more for convenience. It probably doesn't need it, but it's also what's in the brakes and the reservoirs are right next to each other... It's also one less fluid you need to keep around this way.

How many cars out there on the roads do you think actually get their brake fluid changed more than every ten years? At least the stuff sitting on the shelf is sealed against the not-very-harsh elements of indoors.

When the engine is under load, usually there's much more air moving through the radiator. Cause you're driving. if it gets hot while you're driving it then maybe there's an issue but I'd say it's probably okay. What makes you think there's a lot of pressure in the hoses? Generally, yeah, things expand as they warm up...

This is exactly what I think any time I see a white vehicle. Blech. Boring fleet spec blandness. Mostly why my daily driver still looks like this: Back on topic, my '91 pioneer has the molding as discussed, with the chrome. Whether it's original or not is hard to say... Whoever redid the rockers (horribly I might add... they literally fell out) and resprayed the truck (also falling off...) didn't put them back on quite right. Looks like the chunks behind the doors when on either upside down or on the wrong side, or was cut horribly crooked, because they don't match the door seam or the back of the cab. Definitely don't do that. In terms of looks I think I'd be okay without it, but having a little bit of protection against rogue shopping carts or something isn't a bad thing. It's not really high enough for door dings though.

Which flywheel did you end up using? Needs to match the engine management. Mostly they don't interchange at all but for some reason I remember another member had a similar issue where it worked for a bit and then quit with an HO flywheel in the Renix system, and swapping back to a Renix flywheel fixed it. I also remember a thread from long ago about aftermarket flexplates with the timing windows in the wrong spot. If you don't remember which one you got, you should be able to tell by pulling the inspection cover and looking at the side. Renix has windows all the way around the edge, but HO is solid with windows only at the 120° marks.

Any of the AMC20 vs d35 lengths listed here take an inch out for the 20, so that's what I'm basing my guess off. Not sure how much lift would make up for it but it's probably best not to swap in unknown components immediately before a long(ish) drive, and I wouldnt want to get partway in and then realize I can't make it work and then have to reinstall pieces that didn't necessarily come off intact. That would suck. My plan with the 8.25 was that I'd be manual swapping it, at the same time which would make up for the extra snout length. It is however true that not much data exists on the MJ version. Well, that's not entirely true, but what is out there is so scattered that it's hard to tell what comes from an authoritative source and what is conjecture based on other applications. The fact that two other major applications in the Jeep world aren't the same as each other doesn't help much either. Maybe once I have it in hand I need to make a thread so you guys can

The SSBC kit looks a lot like it's mostly just the common DIYs with all new components. I can easily hack down the backing plates into something reasonable myself, but finding 30-year-old Nissan parts in a yard up here will be a trick. But I'll have time to figure it out. Just realized though my driveshaft will probably be too long... There goes my plan of swapping the axles in before I cross the border and pretending nothing happened...lol.

Heading south to pick these up next weekend. Thanks for posting!

Yeah I've seen a couple different variations on that. It doesn't really look like there's all that much room on the rotors for redrilling to 5x4.5. in my quick search I didn't really confirm whether the MJ axles were similar enough to the other AMC20's to make it work. I don't see why they wouldn't be but given the different bolt pattern it's hard to say. Not sure on the hub size/wheel mounting surface either, and wouldn't really want to end up lug-centric on either the wheels or rotors. In other news I'm driving to Montana next weekend. Seller voluntarily lowered his price to make up for the exchange rate so it's at the point where it's worth it just for the 4.10 d30 vs regearing the one I have or picking up something local.

Has anyone done it? I've seen some threads on here from 7+ years ago asking about it but if anything happened they were never updated. Generic diy's and full kits exist for the CJ and FSJ axles, but it's hard to say whether or not the MJ 20 is going to be the same as either of those. The inspiration for this is basically that there's an AMC 20/d30 pair with 4.10's currently about 600 miles away from me. I got the phone call today that my insurance in Manitoba is no longer valid so I need to get the MJ inspected in Alberta ASAP, and given my rear brakes need completely redone I'd rather not put money into drums. And other stuff needs addressed. I have an 8.25 with disks sitting back home in Manitoba but once you factor in gas I'd only be $200 up by going to get my axle, plus it won't bolt right in, and the extra $200 would also net me a matching front, instead of regearing so in my mind I'm already better off driving to Montana. But I'm still wondering about the disc swap.

X2 on the dropped valve, or something else interfering with the piston travel. I had a bike engine rebuild do that, spin 360° In either direction and then stop very solidly, turned out one of the high-compression pistons had a manufacturing error and was contacting the head. Took us a bit to find it too because once we had everything back apart everything was turning freely, and everything was where it was supposed to be.

My 330,000 mile MJ has been my daily on and off for the last five years. The only times it wasn't were when I was dailying a Lada Niva for a year (that since I quit dailying has spent more time on jack stands than it has drivable) while the MJ was down with some severe knocking after some severe abuse, and currently I'm dailying the $250 Jimmy that I picked up because I loved between provinces and it's entered a bit of a grey area whether it's still legally registered or not in my old province so I thought it best not to take the risk of running it every day. But if it wasn't for that I'd much rather be driving the MJ. Is it old? Yes. Rough around the edges? Yes. Unreliable? Well six months ago it made three 1000-mile runs, one moving most of my stuff out here, one driving back there, and another grabbing a couple more things and towing a car out here. If anything, the last five months with the Jimmy have taught me that life is too short to drive a boring car. I need to get the MJ inspected and registered here soon. I've only put 500 miles on it since picking up the Jimmy and I hate seeing it sit.

I'm interested. Except I'm not exactly nearby. And I currently have a poopy Bluetooth stereo in there that doesn't Bluetooth music, just phone calls, and doesn't pick up my voice worth a damn. But it also means that I no longer have my factory harness either... That's sitting in my XJ about 1000 miles away. But I'm very interested in Bluetooth capability without having a stereo that looks crazily out of place in my truck.