gogmorgo

Does it come back partway or is it just jammed in the run position? On my automatic it would sometimes let me turn it back far enough to shut it off but not far enough to pull the key out, because the shifter interlock wasn’t disengaging. Gently pushing the shifter forwards past where it grabbed park was enough to get the interlock to do it’s thing, and there was a bit of audible feedback when it released. The fix was adjusting the shift cable so the trans positions better matched up with the shifter positions.

Are you just looking at the trim panel on the shifter? Floor or column? If so, I don’t think it’s connected to anything other than the shifter handle. As to the trans error code, I’m not sure. You don’t mention if the trans was swapped along with everything else, and if it wasn’t, it won’t necessarily play nice with the OBD2 system. Because the trans is standalone from the ECU in older systems it’s easy enough to leave the Renix trans controller in place, which will trigger a check engine light in an OBD2 system that’s looking for the trans and can’t find it. I don’t know what codes it will throw, though, having never done the swap myself.

Knee pads, if you’re not already using them. I used to be able to kneel on hard surfaces no issue, but it’s starting to get uncomfortable for me, and I’m only 30. Most hardware stores sell them for contractors to kneel on comfortably all day, and it makes a huge difference spreading the load out instead of focusing it on a couple hot spots. They can seem spendy, but it’s well worth it. The sports variety aren’t so effective for work, given their lightweight nature and only being intended for occasional impacts, not constant stress. My boss can’t even kneel on softer surfaces without knee pads any more, and he’s still an active skier, out on the hill more days than I am. Good to hear you’re recovering.

You also can't get the diesel with a stick shift.

You can get a pretty good idea of gear ratio by lifting one rear wheel off the ground, and counting the number of driveshaft rotations required to turn it two full rotations. Just over four driveshaft rotations will be a 4.10 ratio, 3-3/4 will be 3.74, etc. So long as you're reasonably gentle with it, a d35 will hold up to 31's for... an amount of time. They definitely aren't the toughest axle out there, but they aren't exactly made out of glass, either. As best as I can tell the one under my longbed is still original at over 300,000 miles, so as long as it's not worn out, it should hold up long enough to either find or build the axle you want to run, so long as you're not abusive to it, although I'm setting a pretty low bar myself on gentle treatment. 3.55's are also more than tolerable, but they're definitely on the taller side for 31's. They're OK for a daily driver, especially one that sees lots of highway miles, but if it's a dedicated offroad toy you'll want something deeper for sure.

Because it hasn’t been mentioned yet, the MJ-specific procedure on a factory system is to open one of the front bleeders and leave it open while bleeding the rear, then closing the front bleeder, bleeding the rear again, then bleeding the front. This simulates a front brake failure, shuttling the valve and sending fluid through the prop valve bypass to bleed it out. If the bypass isn’t bled out, you’ll just compress any air bubbles in it instead of building pressure in the main system. The second rear bleed with the front bleeder closed then bleeds out the regular service pathway through the proportioning valve. Something else to watch is to make sure the linkage on the rear axle is hooked up correctly. The rod hooked to the diff cover should be vertical, the bar on the valve should be pointed just above horizontal. I don’t know how or why, but they do sometimes over-centre, or the rod goes missing, and your brakes will be horrific with the valve pointed straight down and dangling. If ride height has been changed, the length of the vertical rod needs changed the same amount. It’s also reasonable to tie the bar in position and leave it disconnected from the axle, although then you won’t benefit from the load sensitive proportioning, not really a huge concern if you’re not hauling heavy loads.

I've also used 5 or 10W30 in the trans in a pinch, seems to have worked just fine, as did 15w40 although that took a few blocks to warm up before it started shifting nicely. I'm currently running Royal Purple Synchromax in all my manuals, and it does very well. I found it shifts slightly smoother than the Redline MT90, and I find it easier to come by up here as well, although plenty of us are happy with the Redline. I can't say I've ever attempted to measure trans temp, though. I can only remember the trans tunnel over the ZJ's AX15 ever getting warm while I was towing 5500lbs up double-digit grades over a mountain pass, which I really shouldn't have been doing anyhow. The XJs and MJs I've owned always seem to pump heat off the trans tunnel, no matter if AX5, AX15, or AW4, no matter what fluid was in them... but then I've never been scientific about the measurement.

An interesting point that came up in class today, the extreme pressure additives in gear oil that are necessary for the sliding contact between ring and pinion in the diffs can decrease friction so much that synchros in a manual transmission won’t work so effectively. I would guess that’s part of the reason friction modifiers are necessary with clutch-style limited slip diffs, and also why Mopar started recommending engine oil over some other form of gear oil in a manual transmission.

Are you trying to run it on the ten-year-old gas that's in the tank? It would help to know year, engine, trans, etc. Also that's a pretty complete checklist and if you have all those systems working it should run. Perhaps elaborate on how you checked everything to see if you missed something?

They work alright for the most part but if you snatch sideways off them it might bend the brackets. If you're just putting them on to have recovery points just in case, they'll do the job just fine, but if you plan to use them repeatedly every trip out you'll want to find something that ties into both sides of the front end.

Looks like it sits at the same temp as my '91 2.5 gauge does. The temperature at the thermostat housing sits just shy of 195°F, confirmed by IR thermometer, and the gauge does still climb higher if I run it with low coolant so I'm not too concerned about it. The factory gauge set isn't intended to be precision scientific instrumentation, and it is 30 years old, after all.

This stuff? https://gonmf.com/technologyj Plenty of people are getting incredibly long lives out of their components just running regular fluids, without something that magically makes sure everything is negatively charged so it doesn’t get attracted together. I won’t say that the NMF does nothing, but I’m not convinced that it can actually do what they claim it does, or even if it did, that the effect would be of much benefit. Just pick a good quality oil and filter if applicable, and change them per the regular maintenance schedule. If you’re installing aftermarket components, check the aftermarket manufacturer’s recommendations on fluids and schedules.

Depends on your jurisdiction. Mine doesn’t care, the towed vehicle counts as part of the trailer, and just needs to not be dangerous. But it’s good to confirm anyhow, some jurisdictions don’t register or insure the dolly so it counts under the towed vehicle’s reg and insurance.

“What oil should I run?” is one of those questions you can ask six people and get ten answers. I don’t see any reason not to run it. The big concern is making sure it’s safe for yellow metals for a manual transmission, and it claims it’s safe for all synchros. It also claims to be up to the task of handling the sliding friction that’s going on inside a diff. My personal opinion is that specialized fluids exist for a reason. I run a dedicated manual transmission oil in my manual transmissions, and an extreme pressure gear oil in the diffs. I’m sure a one-size-fits-all approach will work just fine, but good for everything usually means not great at anything. It also bills itself as a racing oil. Racing, a context where things are torn down and rebuilt incredibly frequently, where fluids are dumped after every event, and the convenience of being able to grab the one jug to top up every single fluid in a hurry is a big advantage. I don’t know what your plans are for your truck, but “Factory Transmission, rear end, and diffs” doesn’t exactly scream “racing” to me.

4.10 is a factory option, standard with the 2.5's, on like, 27" tires. It's loud at highway speeds, but not going to blow anything up on 31's.

Check your fuel pressure. I've had a few things cause similar behaviour. One was the cam sensor in the distributor. It was a little while driving with it doing that before it triggered code 54. When you had the cap and rotor off, did you wiggle the distributor shaft to see if there was any play in it? The other thing that immediately comes to mind is when the fuel pump was dying. I know you've just changed all the fuel parts, but there are things that could cause all new parts to fail, and it needs eliminated.

Other than showing up with someone else's truck to pick it up, unlikely you can make it happen. Uhaul's internal tow rating calculator says no vehicle can weigh less than 80% of the towed weight, regardless of what the truck is actually rated for. The Uhaul car haulers weigh around 2300lbs, meaning the heaviest car they'd allow you to put on one behind a 3500lb truck would weigh around 2000lbs, for a total wieght of around 4200lbs. But also, they won't let you tow a car hauler with any vehicle weighing less than 3500lbs, and the published curb weights for the MJ are all below that. I've also tried to get the calculator to allow it, but haven't come up with a way. Regardless, it's not the best idea. Uhaul's car hauler forces you to keep the weight of the car all the way forward, which will put more tongue weight on the truck than a properly loaded trailer would, which will exceed what your suspension is rated for. This is probably part of the reason they have their seemingly dumb 80% rule. And regardless of what you might get away with, you can't legally exceed the original rating of the truck, regardless of the upgrades you've done. If you look around you might be able to find another trailer rental company in your area that can set you up with a much nicer trailer to use. Uhaul will also allow you to tow a car dolly with the correct vehicle on it, but then you've got to remember that all the weight behind you has no brakes.

Have you checked for fault codes?

Double check where the shims go on the kit you end up with. Sometimes they go between the carrier and bearings and (also between pinion and bearing) but sometimes they go under the bearing race, which means you don't need to remove the bearings from the carrier (or pinion) to change the shim pack. But it's also very likely the pinion shims go under the bearing pressed onto the pinion, in which case you'd also want an inner pinion bearing for setup as well. Confusingly when I redid my D35 just over a year ago, the instructions in the kit said to never put shims between the bearing races and the housing, but that was also the only place the included shims would fit. I didn't need the extra set of bearings I ordered at all because I never had to take the bearings back off. But it doesn't hurt to have an extra set on hand on the off chance something gets damaged. Also something I ran into, the etch numbers on the pinion were in millimetres, not thousandths of an inch. Took me a bit to figure out what was going on. I'd second 4.10's, but don't forget you also need to regear the front to match if you are regearing. I chose to stick with 3.55's on my ZJ on 31's because I didn't want to spend the money to do the front at the same time, and it gets around just fine. I'm also a big fan of the Eaton Truetrac... there's also one in my ZJ.

Just go to your preferred parts store and get whatever they sell as OE replacements? Monroe's usually reasonable quality. If your rear springs are sagged you'll be pegging your bump stops all the time and your ride will be $#!& no matter what shocks you're running.

Cleaning the throttle body is a good next step, sounds like an IAC issue. Wouldn’t hurt to hit the ignition maintenance parts either, spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor, if you haven’t done those yet.

I’m not 100% but I think the orange RTV looking stuff is for sealing the axle tubes. I don’t know if it’s worth worrying about. The factory original carrier shims are cast iron spacers, not a stack of individual shims. An advantage of assembling axles by the million is you can have shims on hand that are the correct size instead of assembling a stack from a set. Makes it a lot quicker to put them together. Spider gear wear is pretty normal looking, consistent with lots of one-tire-fires off-road or in snow, or if you drive like I do. If it’s in the plans, now is going to be the time for a regear and a locker.

I won’t profess to be an expert on the Saginaw box by any means, but the “creaking” noise could be an internal hydraulic leak. If it was assembled wrong, I think it would be noticeable. You’d have a lot more travel from centre in one direction than the other. There’s only three teeth on the sector shaft, so being out by a tooth is a big deal. I would think any other assembly errors would most likely lead to the box binding up, or losing power assist.

My only concern on the furniture dollies would be wheeling them across multiple surfaces. That said I once dropped a shrub and it’s entire root ball of dirt onto one and then dragged it behind the zj for a half block and it held up just fine, other than the plastic dolly wheels getting chewed up a bit by the asphalt. If it was me and I was stripping it down, the axles would be the last things to go. Rolling it around on a furniture dolly, even those wheel dollies, is fine on a shop floor, but if it’s going to be rolling in and out, into the yard, any solution with little dolly wheels will make it a chore and then some to move around.