Pete M

get what you can get while you can get it. then worry about getting the stuff you can't yet get.

don't remember the cutoff, but there are long ones and short ones. that measurement pairs with how far the clips are apart above the mirror.

after a single public post the private messages open up to you. after 10 total posts the classifieds do the same. apologizes for any inconvenience, it's an anti-spam measure.

happy turkey day!! do remember to leave your bird on the grille until it comes up to engine operating temperature for thorough doneness.

great to see it on the road again!

in my old 85.5 Escort you pulled the stalk towards you for washer fluid and click it up for wipers. they were completely separate functions. this allowed you to soak the salt/ice/bug covered windshield til your heart's content before ever engaging the wipers.

that's why I dropped the tank. much easier to do on the ground rather than up in the truck.

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.