gogmorgo

Depends on the dolly. Some are articulated, so the bit the wheels sit on pivots. If you have one that doesn't pivot, I imagine going around corners would put a lot of stress on the steering wheel lock pin if you leave the steering locked.

Pretty sure it wouldn't run at all with the wrong flywheel. Completely different mechanism. The Renix flywheel has a bajillion windows consistently around the edge, the HO has three fairly spaced out groups. Should be pretty easy to verify by pulling off the inspection cover.

I understand the last few batches of '86 MJ's came with the later firewall, and the 86's did have some unique and therefor rarer options. But fewer people will cry if you chop an '86 to bits than any other year, it seems. People may hate you for tearing apart a 91+, though...

There's got to be a practical application for this: Figured it was time for a small update. Nothing much has changed. I've got an 8.25 out of an '03 2.4L KJ, 4.10's and discs. Picked up the whole KJ at a salvage auction, but my landlord wouldn't let me keep it around to part out, so I didn't get to recover much of the cost. (She also decided out of the blue when I showed up with the KJ that after 8 months knowing it was there I couldn't hang onto my parts XJ either). I'd hung onto the KJ suspension links etc. as well thinking I'd want to swap in the links and coils, but for reasons of fewer headaches (and cost) I think I'll just stick with the MJ leafs. I also emailed General Tire complaining about them not making the AT2 in a 32x10.5x15 (or even a 33x10.5x15) and explaining I didn't want to get rid of my factory wheels, they advised me I should get rid of my factory wheels. Unless something else comes up between now and when it happens, looks like I'll be going with the 33x10.5x15 BFG KO2's. Ah well. Plan is still the General Springs mil-wrap MT springs, chev drop shackles, and 3-4" lift springs (to match the rear but keep factory rake) in the front. Short arms for now for cost reasons, maybe something else in the future, longer track bar, shocks, drag link(?) to match. Planned upgrades for the future in no particular order still include: -ZJ steering box, plus upgrades to other steering components (at least fix the sloppiness) -Rear sway bar, probably the junkyard-parts DIY Hornbrod posted a couple years back -Figure out some rockers that aren't rust or bondo -Set up a trailer harness and eventually a brake controller -Fix the damage from having slid into that ravine (at 2mph if that) back in November. -A winch would be nice, but I haven't found a bumper I like yet... May end up designing my own... I need to get a welder, ha. -Also the ball joints. Those stupid separated ball joints that I keep forgetting about. Every time I'm in the city it seems all the parts stores (there's like three of them) have their press sets rented out. -And I still need to either find a 4.10 geared non-cad hpD30 or else rebuild and regear the 3.55 I've got sitting in the shed, which will likely end up with a trutrac given I have to change carriers anyhow... Brake upgrades are in order, possibly more light, better stereo, build my original 4.0 into a stroker... The list goes on. I suppose that's what happens when you choose to drive a 25-year old truck with 500,000 km on it. Hopes and dreams I tell you. I'd like to say my incoming tax return will go towards a bunch of this, but it's already pretty well spoken for, as the Lada needs a $#!&-ton of work before it goes down to Cali for the LeMons Rally. As hilarious as it would be driving around with 3/5 gears, I'm not sure the trans will live for the 5000+ miles I'll be putting in it, so a new one's on order. But I've got a better paying job starting in a couple weeks and my weekends will be on weekdays from the sounds of it which means I can actually go to the only decent junkyard around without having to call in sick take a vacation day.

I wouldn't be too concerned about "fixing" the weight distribution of a truck. It's designed and fully intended to carry extra weight around in the back. Empty sure, you're looking at around 60/40 f/r. Add some cargo, and you'll shift that down towards a 50/50. If you start out with a 50/50 and end up actually using your truck as a truck, putting weight in the bed just gives you a rear bias, which is definitely less than desirable. It's also a hell of a lot of work just to reuse a gas-tank-skid that doesn't work. It'll be much easier just to make a new one.

Heh... Minuit would probably faint if he saw the rot on my MJ... Which I don't think is all that bad considering. Everything's fixable if you're crazy enough. It wasn't meant to be an attack, no, but the sentiment still holds.

If you just need a new gas tank the MJ ones are still being produced by the aftermarket. Check on RockAuto for parts numbers at least.

As I said, the 27-spline really isn't any better than the d35, and it's the same amount of work to swap in any other axle. Unless you get a killer deal on it, (free or better) it's not really worth the effort.

Even a rotten body... Chop up an XJ for parts. MJ's only get sacrificed to keep other MJ's going. Makes no sense even when decent-running XJ's can still be had for <$400. You'll also find you want a later HO model, '91+, for better results.

Depends on what it's out of. Perches are cheap at the dealer, mopar performance P4120074. Brakes can be as cheap or as expensive as you want them to be. It's a pretty easy upgrade (or so I'm told) to swap on the discs from a KJ. However, if it's a 27-spline axle, I think up to '95-ish, pass for sure as it's not really any better than the d35. You want the later 29-spline version.

OEM scissor jacks are junk quality, designed to be as light and compact as possible and built as cheaply as possible, for maybe a total of ten uses in emergencies only. I would never rely on one. I've found the screw jacks are generally of much better quality and are more reliable for repeated use, but I'm lazy and much prefer the hydraulic ones...

Most places likely don't want to take on the risk of breaking the window while removing it... they can be right buggers sometimes, and any good business operator would feel obligated to pay for the replacement window themselves. Not worth it to them. But in the case of the windshield, even if it's not cracked or broken, you'll notice a difference. If it's original it's probably pitted to hell, especially if it's seen use on gravel or somewhere they sand the roads. At work the trucks see probably 50% of their miles on gravel, and life expectancy of a windshield is around 40,000 miles. The ones that go 50k or 60k are just about impossible to see through when the sun's shining.

Tire balance is a solution, not necessarily the solution. Anything that can cause a vibration that could get bounced back and forth between the wheels. Worn tie rods ends, ball joints, weak (i.e. flexible) tie rod, wheel bearings even, and of course tire balance, among other possible problems. Rotating your rear tires forward to check for tire-related issues is pretty simple, but not a guaranteed success... won't do you much good if your rear tires are out of balance too.

After haven driven with 1 turn of the wheel lock-to-lock, it's kinda addictive. You get used to the quicker ratio pretty quickly. At the same time you shouldn't be driving in such a way to properly take advantage of the quicker ratio on the street, but not having to turn the wheel as far is definitely a good thing, in my mind at least. But I guess quick-responding agile vehicles aren't for everyone?

That's all well and good, but the MJ/XJ/ZJ doesn't use a rack and pinion... it's a recirculating ball gearbox. Completely different animal. The steering column turns the worm shaft deal, centre-right in the photo below, corkscrew looking deal. It's got all the same pitch because you would have to change the diameter of the ball bearings on the fly (good luck) to get any variation in ratio at this step. To the left of the worm shaft left is the shaft that turns the pitman arm. There's what, three teeth on it that are relevant to steering ratio, and you can't exactly change pitch in a symmetrical system that only uses three teeth. The balls in the worm shaft push the "rack" (for lack of a better word), right above the worm shaft in the photo below, which as you can see has very few teeth and even gear pitch as well. Here's a close-up of the "rack", everything's the same there: And here's the engagement of the gears: As you can see there's no variation in anything there. It's a fixed ratio box, for sure. That's not to say there won't be a variation in effective ratio due to steering geometry, i.e. the pitman arm moves through an arc and therefore will have faster travel on-centre than it will towards the edge of its travel. But the box itself is a fixed ratio. Image source: http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f13/how-rebuild-your-saginaw-zj-steering-gear-1287958/

:thumbsup: I was kinda wondering, looked a bit compact for 80 actual watts of led, and also not very bright. I've got 72 actual W of led on the front of the MJ, and it's like staring into the sun. :D These will for sure get tossed into my next amazon order.

80 watt bulbs? Geez, that's not much of an increase over the 26W 1156's... I wouldn't be comfortable tripling the power of the bulbs on factory wiring. As far as the lights themselves go, I'm kinda tempted. I do too much reversing in the dark, and I've always wanted something more substantial. How do you conclude less than an amp draw? 80w/12v= 6.7A, per side.

Wind chill factor don't mean a damn to a machine, it just cools off a little quicker. I'd say you'll be fine with 10w40.

Which pan did you get? There have been a couple posts up recently that put the quality of parts-store-brand pans into question.

Going from 5w30 to 10w30 isn't going to do anything for your oil pressure except at cold startup. I'm currently running 5w40 in mine, and am a little overdue for a change, but winter's hanging on pretty good this year (got more snow again yesterday) and I'm waiting till it warms up a bit more so I can switch out to 15w40 for the summer. I don't know where you live or what the climate's like but if you don't really drop below freezing too often you can likely get away with running 15w40 year-round, or if you don't see temperatures too often that would require a block heater, probably 10w40 will do you. In my own climate I run the risk of -40 from October to March, so 15w40 is right out, and then in the summer mid 90's aren't unusual, which is pushing the upper limits of comfort for 5w40. I'm also running Rotella diesel oil for the higher zinc (anti-wear) levels, and since the 5w40 is only available in synthetic, I can save a bit of money by switching back to conventional for the summer.

Distributor gasket?

You misunderstand the sentence. It wasn't the clearest, but I was just identifying what the three cables were for, which was how the question was worded. But good to know. :thumbsup:

Year/motor? Sorry, doesn't look anything like my 4.0 HO Auto w/cruise.

The 2.8's don't have the best reputation. If you get a good one, it'll be good, but of you get a bad one... Yeah. They aren't a significant gain in torque over the 2.5L, and actually made less horsepower. Most 2.8's seem to end up getting swapped out. The camarobird 3.4 is a common swap, given that it's externally the same it's completely bolt-in and you don't absolutely need to swap any wiring or anything if you want to keep the carb setup, but it's still going to do you better if you pull the wiring and fuel system for the EFI.

What exactly are you looking at? Every MJ will have the cable from the gas pedal to the throttle body. Automatics will have another for the throttle valve, they'll run from the throttle body down to the driver's side of the trans. Cruise control equipped models will also have one running from the throttle body to the cruise unit on the front passenger inner fender.