Pete M

I snapped a J-bolt on a rust free truck dropping the tank. and they are not available at your local parts store. dropping the tank SUCKS and you will only want to do it once. especially since any number of things can go wrong and leave you without a truck for days while waiting for parts. spend once, work once, reap the benefits down the road.

after seeing the condition of the 88 I worked on (an otherwise clean southern truck), I'd just buy a new tank, whole pump unit, a few feet of fuel hose, brand new tank straps with J-hooks, and then replace it all along with adding a new ground near the tank. do it once and know it's done.

I may be biased I love it because it's incredibly cryptic to anyone not already in-the-know and yet remains the only thing that clues you in that there's a freakin' turbo diesel under the hood. who decided on that?

if I remember right, the fuse box is sealed against the firewall from the factory. eventually the material degrades and ya gotta take it apart and reseal. not a fun job.

what's the tire pressure? I added an adjustable prop to the rear brakes on the 88 I've been fixing up.

no clue. she had recently purchased the truck and I'm not sure if she even went through half a tank. but lord knows that in my driveway (that has a slight grade) it was exactly at the point of pickup and caused me all sorts of headaches trying to find why it ran fine getting to the house, but suddenly kept stumbling for me. finally worked my way back to the pump and discovered nothing came out even though it had gas showing on the gauge. figured it was a bad pump but discovered the reality when I dropped the tank. the XJ crap was both not sucking up the last few gallons, but also showing the wrong level on the gauge due to the XJ float arm! ended up replacing the tank too due to corrosion inside.

be careful of any that say they are for both an MJ and an XJ. the XJ one will technically work in an MJ tank, but the bend isn't 90* and it won't suck up the last few gallons of gas. guess what I found in the tank of that 88 that was causing me so much headaches and intermittent driveabilty.

there are a bunch of sellers on ebay. here's one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/355720940735 for 55 bucks it was worth a shot.

came with a pump of unknown quality. I bought a more expensive assembly first, but it didn't have any attachment point at the bottom of the pump and ended up coming apart in the tank. the cheap ones had a positive clamping for the pump and I rolled the dice. still works a few months later.

I dropped a cheap ebay full assembly into the 88 I was working on and it's done great so far.

don't overfill your new big-fat-tires to regular-tire pressures. tires are the first thing that absorbs road imperfections and larger tire generally need less pressure to hold your truck up. especially if they are tougher tires.

fuel pump dying? have you accomplished all of cruiser54's MJ tips yet?

MPGs were a concern in the 80s

I got my last set of tires through walmart. I kept an eye on the tires that go on sale and ended up getting half off. theoretically I got a much better tire for my limited budget. so far I've been very pleased with them.

having the automatic trans will mask it a bit, but you'll notice the change. each inch more doubles the headaches. this goes for lifts and tires. but it all depends on what you want in the end. might be worth it to you. I managed to stuff 265/70s (roughly 31s) under my stock Liberty. it wasn't at all easy, but I am happy with the results.

buy a beater XJ and wheel it bonus points if you can find one that is from the same era as your truck so you have a ton of spare parts later on.

just popped up on facebook but FB dropped me off the page before I read anything about it. not sure if it was a sale post or a post from the new owner or what. but I managed to snag the build sheet!

what size tires? are you going to regear?

comes with a back window, you're good to go!

AALs will stiffen the leafs up as they force them into a different arch. new springs will have more stiffness to them vs old springs. hopefully you can get some opinions from someone that has tried this combo, but it sounds like a harsh ride to me.

all depends on your plans for the truck. brand new springs are going to be stiffer than what you have right now. unless you plan on carrying heavy loads all the time, the heavy duty springs are likely to be too stiff. how much choice is there for 4.5" lift springs?

got a link to what you're looking at? 4.5 is right in the middle. going spring-over nets 5-6" over your current height. meaning if your springs are really tired this might be a good match for a 4.5" up front. but if they are in good shape, you'll get too much. most AALs give 3".

yup. be prepared that Ujoints don't like changes to their operating angles, so you might get vibrations if you don't swap in new ones.

SYEs are common place in TJs and XJs, but MJs have a much longer wheelbase and so the angles of the driveshaft are much more tame. guys have been known to go 6-7 in lift and still run the stock setup. although at that much lift you start to run into the driveshaft not being quite long enough.