mjeff87

Once more....good to see you around again. Cheers.

It's kind of hard to ignore the elephant in the corner of the room, ya know? All three of our vehicles are getting a fill up tonight, plus an unmentioned number of 5 gallon cans in the shed will get topped off. I'll probably drive the KJ to work tomorrow.....not sure when the next time it will get out to play. LOL.

I don't want to get political, but get yer lube out. It's about to get much worse. Releasing about 30% of our SPR right now is the absolutely WORST decision I think I've ever seen made, for more than one reason.

I'll give you a second "atta boy" on the binder clips. That's a nifty little idea

I know this isn't classifieds section, but I've got a 2.5 fuel pump assembly i can let go for a modest price. You'd just need to put a 4.0 pump in it. Hit me back channel if you want to. edit: Greg....where the heck you been man??? Good to see you posting again.

Completely agree. And as a Focus driver, even moreso. I know for a fact that if I'm ever in a serious enough crash in mine I'm probably toast. Fantastic little car to DD for an experienced driver (the auto trannies suck in them, though), but they sit way too low. Sitting at a stoplight with the bumper of the Ford Subdivision in front of me above my eyelevel does not inspire confidence. And I seriously doubt my 2001 era front and side airbags would even deploy if needed after 20+ years. I drive it for the phenomenal gas mileage anyway. KJ's are tanks, and the fuel economy shows that (maybe Pete's oilburner is better than the gas 3.7L). Plus they don't make enough power to be much of a danger to a new driver . I'd recommend a Ford Ranger with a 2.3L. I'm quietly looking for one to have around myself.

Way back when, my buddy calls me up one morning (I didn't start work until 11AM that day). He says, let's roadtrip somewhere today. I call in sick, he picks me up and we start driving with no apparent destination. Then we get the bright idea to go visit Niagara Falls (*germane to the story is that we lived in Johnstown, PA which is about an hour-ish east of Pittsburgh in SW PA). So we headed north. There may or may not have been libations present. He's blowing up the interstate north of Buffalo and gets pulled by a NY state trooper for doing like 90 in a 55, I took over driving from that point lol. He crumbles up the ticket he got issued and throws it out the window (to this day, it is still unpaid as far as I know). Anyways, we get to the falls (Canadian side) and it was so foggy that you could hear them but not see them, bummer. We went to a hotel bar to get a beer and they were phenomenally expensive, so we only had one each, hopped back in his car and promptly drove to Buffalo and stopped at the first place that had neon in the window. Then I decide we should go visit my (now) wife, who was a freshman at Edinboro University since we were in the general area....so we drove to Edinboro, visited for a bit then started heading back home. Coming down I79 with WDVE playing on the radio we hear that the Allman Brothers are playing that evening at Starlake Amphitheater, wihch is a bit southwest of Pittsburgh, so we detoured and went to the concert. Ended up getting home at about 0400 the next morning, and I had to be at work at 8. It was a rough day.....

You pretty much have to pull the seat and the carpet/cargo mat. That cable snakes along the rocker panel area (take the trim piece off on the sill, then makes a left turn and feeds through a hole at the back of the cab. You *might* be able to pull a new cable blindly, if you tie a long wire to the bed-end of your old cable and pull it backwards through the cab. Use the wire to pull the new cable....if you can. (I used this trick to swap in a new hood release cable on my car...it snaked all through the engine bay and I wasn't about to spend a whole day unbolting everything it ran underneath to route it).

You could use a drop kit, yes. But you'd end up losing that amount of clearance under the crossmember (if that's important to you).

The AX-15 crossmember is specific to itself. The center of it (where the mount bolts) is "notched", not level straight across like the other crossmembers. The other ones will physically fit, and the AX will bolt to it, but it causes the trans to sit too high in the tunnel. If you are 4WD, your TC shifter linkage will not line up, and the rubber isolator for your exhaust hanger won't either. Ask me how I know this. On the shifter, the actual shift rod is shaped/bent differently, and may contact your lower dash when shifting to 1, 3 and 5 (I might be thinking of a YJ on this one, can't remember......maybe someone else can clarify). Also, if you are 4WD, you'll need the TC shifter bits and pieces also. Specifically, the bracket that bolts to the trans tunnel, the bracket that attaches to the trans, and the shift rod that connects the bottom of the TC shift lever to the mode bracket. All three of those pieces are AX-15 specific as well.

Interesting......glad I don't have an extra $200 lying around to waste on that. One of the commenters said he made is own fluid pump out of an old engine oil pump. That's crafty.

All that, plus the shifter may not play nice with your interior. You can swap in an MJ/XJ shifter, though. I've got a spare one still if you pursue this route.

I was watching an Eric O. (SMA) video last night, and he had the coolest fluid transfer pump I've ever seen. Uses your existing Dewalt tool, it fits into a holster of a sort, and you insert a hex bit to power the pump. Slicker than frog snot. He says it's a MAC tool, and showed the part number that I forgot to write down. So I googled it this morning.......it's out of stock thru MAC (not sure who makes it for them to try to find an alternate source). But I almost fainted when I saw the price. I'll not be purchasing one of these anytime soon. https://www.mactools.com/products/pbt71196

Jack up one side as high as you can and slip a jackstand on the framerail behind the wheelwell. You should then have plenty of room to drop that size to swap the coil. Don't forget to unbolt the coil spring retaining clip. Your LCA will bind up when it gets as far down as it can go. Wish I still had that picture...... You might not even need the jack. If you have a buddy around, they can push the axle down for you while you get the spring(s) to slip out.

You don't need spring compressors for those sized springs. It's really not a bad job, but you need a small bottle jack. Unbolt enough stuff (lower shock mount, TRE, etc.) to get the axle to drop on one side (do one side at a time). Then insert the jack between the top of the axletube and the framerail and jack the jack up (or down, in this case). That will push the axle down and hold it, while you slip the spring out. Install the new one, un-jack the jack, bolt it all back up and then do the other side. I used to have a pic of that^^^^ but sadly all my pics went bye-bye in the Great Photoshop incident of whatever year they went stupid. I think Pete might have a pic, though.

The spacers are cheap enough, but keep in mind you have to remove the springs to install them, so.......you're going through the work anyway. I'd opt for the ZJ springs. Also, the front bumpstops (most of them anyway) are threaded into the post. You can spin them out with a pipe wrench (because they've probably never been unscrewed and are corroded into place).

Went down to the junkyard Saturday morning, that MJ is gone, gone, gone..... I'll give another look in my shed later on this week. I'm about 95% sure it's in there, I just can't find it. Saturday might end up being "clean the shed" day.

Checked my shed tonight after work, couldn't find the darn thing. That's not to say its not in there somewhere but I gave up trying lol. I have to run to the 'yard tomorrow to grab a rear brake drum/bearing assembly for my Focus, so I'll see if that MJ is still there. If it is, ill snag the neck off of it for you

92 was the last year of them, and they didn't make many. At all. Here's the breakdown by model year (mine was an 87, kinda right at the "height" of production): Production numbers: 1985: 29,245 1986: 33,386 1987: 43,070 1988: 43,718 1989: 25,311 1990: 9,576 1991: 5,188 1992: 952

Well, that takes option #3 off the table then I suppose

I'll try to get down there after work tonight or tomorrow. It's supposed to snow here on Saturday so I'm not going to be outside much over the weekend. I'll backchannel you and let you know either way. Anything I can do to keep these things on the road, I will. There's also a shortbed MJ down at my junkyard (at least there was last week when I was there). It's pretty hashed all over, but it should still have the filler neck on it. That might be option 2, but I'm not sure when I could get down there to check. You wouldn't happen to be local to me would you? (pro tip, it helps to put your location in your profile for stuff like this). I could point you to the junkyard if you wanted.

I *think* I still have a spare one in my parts pile down in the shed. Give me a day or two to get down there to look, and if I still have it it's yours for the cost of shipping.

My KJ is only the second vehicle I've ever owned that wasn't a stick. I do enjoy driving it (most of the time, lol) to give my left leg a little holiday.

My buddy, who recently retired as a plant maintenance foreman for a huge chemical plant around here got the tool for me to use from his equipment shop. It was a bear of a thing to use, I do remember that. It wasn't something you could pick up at the local Autismzone or similar. I basically had to use a floor jack to squeeze it. I do like your idea.

See if you can buy/rent/borrow the other style of rivnut tool, the one that looks like a pop rivet gun on steroids. I installed a couple rivnuts in mine to hang a transfercase skid a long time ago, and compressed the handle with a small floor jack. It worked great.