XJ Maki

I used a tow dolly from uhaul to bring my MJ home about 300 miles mostly highway. Getting going was a little slow, stopping even slower. The brakes on an XJ are barely adequate for daily driver duty. Once on the highway it was very comfortable at about 65.

I used the dots method yesterday and it works great and very accurate. Put a dot on each tire at the back half way up from the ground - silver paint pen works great. Measure, roll the vehicle forward till the tire turns 180* and the dots are now in front measure and adjust. Repeat as necessary. You want 1/16 to 1/8 inch toe in.

You can just keep filling it up and drive it for a long time like that, keep a quart of brake fluid handy...eventually your electrical system will start acting wonky and obviously there's a risk of fire. The longer you let it leak the less likely you are to save your stock fuse block and replacing that is a wire by wire PITA. The clutch master isn't hard to swap out, there's one stupid nut that pretty much requires 2 people to get but otherwise it's a one person job in under an hour. Also when it comes to bleeding the system you can save some time & aggravation with a vacuum bleeder kit (about $30)

I've got a couple of YJ yokes and they don't look like that. They have a rounded throat and the splines do run to the end....I'd heard that there were two different YJ slip yokes but I'd never seen the squarish looking one like Jeff's got.

These are 6" lift XJ Rusty's shocks. 12" travel I think. I could move them in at the top for a little more uptravel but they've worked well for me for a couple years mouinted like this.

For the style of bumper you're looking for I'll add another thumbs up for Rigid. Like pong said, excellent mounting system, documentation, hardware customer service were all top notch. Unfortunately his website is a little lacking, the bumpers he's been making for the past few years look alot better than the prototype on his webpage. If you're looking for a more stock look I'd also highly recommend Detours, super high quality work and service as well. Here's my Rigid FBW with light bar:

mine did it too for a while...it magically stopped on it's own I think it was the TPS, I never had any luck turning it of - on again but whenever it happened I popped the hood and wiggled the TPS a little and it would settle right down. :dunno:

I had my stock shaft retubed after twisting it up. It cost about $125 and they used a heavier wall tube than stock and made it 2" longer to correct for the lift. <-- Mitchell's in Shrewsbury, MA :thumbsup: The MJ doesn't usually need a SYE to address for vibes because of how long the shaft is and also I've driven alot on just the front shaft: 16 oz soda bottle and a hose clamp works flwlessly for that.

Those are some kooky gremlins! Worst I had was turning my headlights on would turn my radio off :roll: There was a thread on this very recently. I did the same thing as you...I just replaced the MC and pulled all the fuses and flashers, sprayed the heck out of the box with contact cleaners and a brass brush, dried it all off, new fuses/flashers and....the radio worked fine but no headlights at all. :nuts: Took it to my mech and he traced the problem to a bad power wire grounding out up front underneath the radiator, entirely unrelated to the fuse block. Yours sounds quite a bit more funky than mine though...I've been told that replacing the fuse block is a very tedious wire by wire operation, but may be a last resort.

sorry, on board air tank, either off an A/C compressor or an electric compressor. Also I meant to say 2.5 gal. not 5.

Where'd you mount it and how's that working out for ya? I know someone on here little while ago was talking about mounting a 5 gal. tank just aft of the rear axle where the spare was located, that's what I'd like to do. Has anyone done this? How's it work, safe from harm? How'd you mount it? etc.

One of the things I thought about doing...before I took it to the shop to get it sorted..was to take the leads from the burnt out fuse location (yeah I've got one too) and put them on a location that isn't currently being used, like 'heated windows' for example.

I'm trying not to do the same thing right now. Brake fluid all over fuse block...pretty nasty. Just replaced the MC, all of the fuses crumbled to pieces as I pulled them. After half a can of ectrical contact cleaner spray and a brass toothbrush it doesn't look too bad. I'll finish cleaning it Sunday and get the new fuses in and cross my fingers. I really don't want to rewire that thing.

You can use the stock MJ e brake cables, you don't need the MORE cables. It's a piece of cake, costs under $5 and takes like an hour, here's a good write-up on it You need a yoke to flang adapter that costs about $35 from NAPA, they'll probably have to order it (Spicer #2-2-1379). Or else you can get it from either Curry or MORE. The 4 bolts are a bit funky (12 point 12mm x 1.75) so snag the stock ones when you pull it or else you can pick them up at a Ford dealer for about $8 (Ford #N800594-S100). With a spring over 8.8 on stock leafs the driveshaft worked but it was ideally about 1 1/2" short. I used a YJ slip-yoke ($30 ebay) which is 3/4" longer and it was fine. Eventually I twisted the stock driveshadt and had it re-tubed with a heavier wall tube to the exact right length ($120). Also, since the MJ has a pretty large rear wheelwell, the slightly narrower axle was not a problem with both stock wheels and tires and off road wheels and tires. And the brakes are better...I have an 8.25 in my XJ and I hate the brakes, always sticking in the rain and they're weak, I've been thinking of upgrading it to an 8.8 just for the brakes.

Yeah the mustang 5.0 injectors are a popular swap because of the price not really because of the performance. I got a set of 8 Bosch take-outs off ebay for $35 + s/h... :brows:

I've only got 12.....but I live in an apartment :nuts:

Unless someone swapped it the tranny should be a Peugot BA/10 and the rear axle is most likely a Dana 35 and gearing should be 3.07. 8)

A roll pan style bumper like the one 87manche posted here would be slick. In the front maybe a late model XJ bumper with the front fairing and recessed fog lights, you could trim the bumper depth and push it in an inch or two to give a more flush look. Or convert the whole front end to the late model XJ and eliminate the vent window and the funky doors and get the nice power windows and locks :brows:

Looks like BrettM's leaf sprung MJ kickin butt :popcorn:

Racing MJ not exactly Archer Bros or Jeepspeed but pretty damn good

Maybe this is what AMC meant when they said "Easy to be a truck, hard to be a Jeep" :roll:

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I've been wheeling with Detours (Mark) for a few years now and we're in the same 4x4 club. So when I bought that MJ, before I even lifted it, I left it with him to prototype some MJ rails and the bumper since he'd talked about possibly making some MJ stuff and nobody was making it at the time. The rails use 3 legs and tie into the leaf spring front mount, very beefy and I'm not shy about banging it around either, those (SB) he's made a regular production item. The bumper came out super slick, it protects the rear quarters when they do take a smack which isn't very often because it tucks up so high. Unfortunately with the bumper I guess it was a challenging enough fitment that he couldn't make it a mail order type thing so I think those are essentially custom fabbed if you can drop your truck off for a week or two, you'd have to call him about that I don't really know for sure, although he has made at least one other one for a local wheeler.

Detours makes awesome stuff - that's my black MJ. :D

Silver no rollbar 8) I like the red too but like was said in another post, I think it'd be better if the hue or saturation or whatever was toned down a bit.