gogmorgo

Jegs, summit racing, etc will ship orders under $25 for $6. You should be able to find the right perches at any place like that. $20 is nothing compared to most of the shipping costs I end up incurring...

^pretty speedy slug...

The handle uses a few torx bolts to hold onto the back of the tailgate. Probably your best bet for hooking them back up. While you've got the handle off, give it a good cleaning and shoot some white grease or something in there, make sure all the pivot points in it are working smoothly. If you check out the top corners of the tailgate, you can see where the latches are. You can stick something skinny in there to push them back in to unlatch the gate. You should be able to get one side at a time, but if not you may need a helper. Had to do this back in September.

Could be I suppose, although why would you just use the factory mercury switch? Alarm makes more sense to me. Remote starters also usually use a hood switch so it can't be accidentally pocket-started while someone's working on it.

There is still an improvement in ground clearance over stock. Moving the axle to the other side of the springs also means the spring plate moves above the axle, so all you have below it is the u-bolts.

Make sure the threads are clear of any oil or grease. While you've got the bolts out, check that they're not necking or otherwise compromised. I suppose you could use lock tight, but I never have, and haven't had an issue yet. Also make sure the hub is seated properly. There shouldn't be any gap between the hub and knuckle. There could be some kind of debris or possibly a mangled dust shield preventing it from seating.

... I see "viola".

MJ and XJ drivetrains (and just about everything ahead of the doors) are identical, so the ECU's are the same. The difference between the early and later Renix ECU's is down to programming, so they're plug and play. I'm curious as to which map the Standard one uses, but probably no one there could tell you.

I value my rear window a little more than that... On the topic of all that weight high up, I saw a sled deck on a jacked up 3/4 ton, at least a foot of lift and had to be 40's with barely more than stock width, two sleds on the deck, plus what looked like a home-brew trailer bouncing along behind it with two more sleds on it. Fun for the whole family!

Probably just holds the gears longer... You've got what, nine of them? Can't imagine it's pushing too hard in "regular" mode, just bouncing to the next gear without revving too high, but in sport mode, you'd get all those gears holding it in the power band, instead of an "economy" band.

I bet it sells a whole hell of a lot better as a Cherokee than it would if they called it a Compass... Which is why it got the name. And frankly, if you compare it's origins to the XJ's origins, it's basically the same, just more modern. Face it. Most XJ's were sold new because people wanted a truck that drove like a car to haul around their 2.5 children in the snow. That's what the new Cherokee is.

My January 22nd '91 built Canadian-spec MJ doesn't have the timer...

Don't think the NSS could kill the motor. When it's perfectly operable, it runs in all gears. Maybe if it controlled torque converter it could lock and stall at a weird time, but I don't think it has anything to do with the tc.

I may have pulled my maint req bulb and forgotten (and/or it could have burned out) but I'm not sure. After having it sit for over a year with a dead battery, and then swapping the motor, new exhaust and o2 sensor, it's no longer illuminating. I'll be putting a bulb into the full-time 4x4 spot cause I swapped in a 242. I'll check when I pull the cluster. Maybe this weekend?

Can't run a 265/75/16 on my stock rims, now, can I. But yeah, I've thought about it. BFG's ko2 is available in a 33x10.5, and it's snow rated, but I haven't found any others, and we've got the KO2's on a couple trucks at work, and they don't do so well on the gravel out here, keep getting rocks poked through them, leaving pretty big holes, otherwise that might be my choice because they're decent everywhere else, although I don't much care for the way they look. I'd much rather go up to a 33 than down to a 31. Hopefully by the time I've got everything for the lift and regear sorted out there are more options on the market.

The body lines didn't change. Just the way they're lined up. When I first got my MJ, the panels didn't quite line up, but nothing interfered. Then I had a mechanic r&r my motor, and the hood didn't fit quite right when I got it back, couldn't get it to line up properly, and there was a negative gap (the hood and header touched). Then I pulled the header panel and upper radiator support while changing out the radiator, and no matter what I did after that, the negative gap was worse. Then last summer I pulled it all apart again when I put in another motor, hood off, header off, rad support out, and when I put it back together it all lined up perfect, without me even trying. None of the panels were replaced, the fenders haven't been removed or even adjusted since I got it. Couldn't tell you why what couldn't line up suddenly did all by itself. Moral of the story, just mess around with it. You'll get it eventually. I think I would try lining up the fenders with the header panel first, and then getting the hood to square in the middle.

How soon is soon? Going to be in Regina for training from tomorrow till Thursday, which reminds me I still have a pair of taillights I'd pulled with you in mind. Don't know if you still wanted them though.

Good looking truck! As much as people in California complain about the emissions regs, it also seems like there's a pretty good system in place for dealing with modifications. While the EPA is all "don't touch it ever!" California recognizes that some people are going to mess around with it, and allows them to do so.

And some more progress. Finally got my krusty's hitch installed. Pain in the @$$ to do it, but entirely not Krusty's fault. His hitch is excellent quality and I highly recommend it if you're looking for one. My problems getting the hitch on were pretty minor, to be fair. They just caused big headaches for me because I wasn't properly equipped to handle them. Broken bolts, then the PO's spazzy snot welds, and then getting the unnecessary tow ball out of the bumper... would have left it but the nut on the bottom interferes with the new hitch. Also finally slapped on another bumper I picked up over a year ago. It's not perfect, but at least it's structurally sound. Looks a lot better than the old one for sure. I still need to put in trailer plug wiring. I'll probably end up redoing the whole taillight harness though... When I was under there today I got a look at the connector, and frankly I'm amazed I have taillights at all. Looks like trailer lights may have been twisted and taped on there at some point, and then removed, leaving all the corroded wires bare. Not great. Also realizing I need to replace my ball joints ASAP. They're separated on the driver's side, and the whole steering knuckle drops when weight comes off that wheel. I noticed this issue quite a while ago, but I never got around to addressing it, then the truck sat parked for sixteen months waiting for the new motor, and I guess I forgot. Tempted to go with cheap ball joints to save cost, seems pointless to spend a couple hundred bucks on good ones when I'm planning on swapping this one out as soon as I find a D30 with 4.10's in it and a matching rear axle. But at the same time that might be a while... And I wouldn't be swapping in the 4.10's until I had my lift and 32's installed, which won't be until the current tires are toast... so it's a long way from now, and I really don't want to loose a ball joint, as much as I don't want to throw out good ones...

Haha, not quite. Seattle's over 30 hours of driving from here. I'm about 200 miles north-east of Minot, ND. I just happened to be going there on a family road trip. And the hitch is finally bolted on. It's been one headache after another, none of which are your fault (and all of which should have been foreseen). Between broken bolts, the PO's pointless snot welds, and the fact that every time I have time to work on it I've either had no daylight or it's been below -20F without the wind. But at some point I think you mentioned you didn't know it didn't touch the shackles on a long bed, so here's a pic of that: Came inside for a cup of tea while trying to regroup on another problem I had when trying to put the bumper back on... Again something I should've foreseen. The hitch ball on the bumper has been bolted in place for likely over 20 years so obviously it's not coming off, and obviously it interferes with the hitch. My impact wouldn't budge it. It's soaking in PB'laster right now. I'll give it another half hour and if that doesn't do it I'm cutting the bastard off. But again, none of the problems I'm having have anything to do with krusty, or the quality of his hitch. It would have been a perfect fit on any other truck but mine.

Yes and no. The specs pages will all quote a higher number for the KL than for the XJ, (around 8.5" vs 7.5" but I'd have to look up the numbers and I'm lazy) however the measurement is the absolute lowest point of the vehicle. On an XJ, that's the diff. The KL's independent setup tucks the diffs up into the body more, giving you more clearance under the diffs, but it's got a pretty flat bottom, so you don't get much more clearance than 9 or 10 inches anywhere. Contrast this to the XJ where most of the body is sitting around a foot off the ground. http://truckyeah.jalopnik.com/which-is-better-off-road-a-brand-new-jeep-cherokee-or-1737783085 Worth a look. I still respect the KL for what it can do, given what they started with.

Went through the Canary Islands, didn't it?

Well, I changed my mind about ordering the SMS headliner. a1500ram hasn't been active on here for a couple months, but mostly I decided my separated ball joints need addressed first. :oops: So that's where this month's parts budget will be going. This gives me a bit extra time to look into recovering again. My issue is I don't really have a decent place to do it, and am not a particularly crafty person. Also there are some holes from the PO's attempts to hang it back up (I just put on a hat and let it sag) that I'm not sure are salvageable. But mostly I just like the idea of it being brand spanking new.

Times two. You've got the lights upside-down. The white lens for the reverse lights goes at the bottom, facing back.

I'm planning something similar... for eventually. I'm wanting 32x10.5's on stock rims, but I'm having trouble finding a severe snow rated tire in that size, so may end up having to go with 33x10.5's. Supposedly a 32 will fit on a stock truck, with some rubbing, but I was still wanting to shoot for the 4-4.5" lift neighbourhood. As far as rear springs go, so far it's a toss-up between the Hell Creek 4.5" full leaf pack, or the General Springs military wrap metric ton springs (as advertised in the vendor section) paired with some longer shackles. As I'm leaning towards the latter, I haven't put much thought into front springs yet, as I'm not quite sure where it'll end up, and how much lift I'll need to keep the factory rake. The main appeal to the General Springs metric ton's for me is that I'd be able to get them sooner and run them till they settle in while saving up for everything else, find out where they put my rear height, and then order everything else. Also since I'm not sure I want to go all the way to 4.5, I'll be able to fine-tune that with shackle length to stay around 4 inch, I hope. This should more or less maintain factory ride quality as well. But that's just my rambling thoughts. I've got a long way to go before any of this happens.