dasbulliwagen

Going to have to contest with ya here... I have ran across a couple of Dakota's with the manual, and the 4.7L. Rob L. :smart: The Daks are sooo big now, I pretty much consider them to be a full sized truck. I thought about that after I posted, but didnt change it.

Good advice... Take it. When the GF was looking for an economic car, she finally decided on a Toyota Corolla. I have a friend who is a journeyman at the Toyota dealer, and I worked on them in tech school. We all has the same take. Thing will be a tank, and ultra reliable. It will rust out before it dies. I told her not to buy into any of that warranty crap after the remainder of the factory warranty goes up. She didn;t listen. Good thing she didn't, because a month later the PCM had an internal error, and went kaput. $1800 PCM. She got the biggest bestest warranty, so the tow, the fix and the happy Corolla didn't cost her a dime. (Except the monthly warranty cost :roll: ) Rob L. :D Shouldnt the PCM have been covered by what is called Extended Federal Emissions? I think it goes 8 years, 80,000miles, also covers the cat converter. Required by the federal govt to cover that stuff longer.

The 5.0 was offered in Ford pickups and Broncos also, so there should be plenty of manual trans with transfer cases available to bolt up to the 302. Youd just have to build a crossmember to support it all in addition to building the engine mounts, but I don't think it would be a big deal if youre going to do all that fab anyways And the Eco boost Ford engine would be way more trouble than its worth to put in an MJ. That engine runs direct injection, which means that fuel pressure at the injectors is greater than 2000, yes two thousand PSI. Enough to cut your finger off if you pointed one at yourself! All the electronics that go with that engine are what would make it a bad swap candidate. It would be cheaper right now too to find and swap in a Liberty Diesel, and thats still friggin expensive! I think the 302 would be cool though. A guy I work with is just finishing putting one in a ranger pickup. I know their engine bay can't be any bigger than ours! The 4.7 v8 youd have a much harder time finding a manual for. Youd have to look at Full size dodge pickups for a donor as they were the only models that offered a manual behind the 4.7, though the electronics for a 4.7 may be slightly easier to swap over from a grand but you may have problems with that too as the PCM was often also the TCM for the auto trans, so there may be running issues if you don't keep an auto.... Lots of questions!!! Lots of work! Good luck!

86 was really the only year for the V belts so theres not a lot of experience with them around, and the 4.0 was never offered with that style, so thats probably why there were no quick responses.

Sounds like it might be a rental return with that many miles.... PM me the VIN and Ill look it up for you through Chrysler to find out for ya.

Maybe this has been on here before but I can't remember. This is a youtube like to crash test pics from 1986 don't LOOK IF YOURE SQUEEMISH! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30iAyJR7rVk

Trans would be a 5 speed NP2500 aka New Process A535. I know nothing about this trans, maybe someone else will. Rear axle will be a 7 1/4" or an 8 1/4" ring gears... not sure what the axles are called though or if they are 5 or 6 lug. The line drawings on alldata are showing them both ways. Just buy it!

I'm thinking that you know that anything that didnt come from an MJ will not bolt right up, but I just want to make sure. Anything that doesnt come from another MJ donor will need perches welded on in the correct locations. And getting lucky enough to find exactly what you need already pulled is going to be next to impossible. Look at car-part.com to see what yards near you have what you need and they could pull it for you if youre unable or unwilling to roll around in the snow to get it. Youll pay more that way but youll find exactly what you want. Good luck and let us know what you get!

The only mid size/comapct pickup to be built as a unibody constuction..... Wait a minute... me being a VW nut would have to argue with myself and say that the VW Microbus pickup was first going back to the mid 50's... they too were rated in the 3/4 ton range. and then there was the Rabbit pickup but it was a true compact and based on a car... ala El Camino. How about the only american made pickup built on a unibody platform? Maybe look up crash test rating for the time compared to the ranger and S-10 and Dakota?

Yah, forgot to mention NO WIKI so says teacher :fs1: Thats because wiki can be changed and added to with no regard for accuracy.

Another story I heard about the Fords, was that Henry Ford was worried that he would end up paying warranty claims on Jeeps that he did not produce if there was no better way ro identify the parts. He put the F on all the bolts so that if there were any issues that he would only have to take care of the ones he made. Only makes sense to me.

don't FORGET THE 02 SENSOR... I TELL YA IT FIXED MINE!!!!!

Yes call other places for a 3.4 or go to car-part.com and find your own Thats still your easiest option.

Make sure when you get them to send us some pics of them! Because: :needpics:

^ is an arteest!

And the 2011 Grand Cherokee coming out in a couple months will have front and rear Independant suspension. :nuts: :nuts: :nuts:

Its not the 4.3 that you would want, it is the 3.4 from a camaro or firebird. I'm sure you could find one of those for $400 or less, even if you have to drive a ways to get it. Did you look at car-part.com ? You can search on there for just about and search radius you want of all the junkyards around. That engine will bolt right up and you swap all the stuff over from the 2.8 block, though youll need the flywheel nuetral balanced at a machine shop. That would be your EASIEST option and cheapest too I think. The 4.0 swap would be good, but I think it will end up costing you more in stuff like the rear driveshaft, radiator and core support... stuff like that. Good luck and let us know how it goes! I see Pete beat me to it!

I hated Stacy from trucks the most! He was the worst of the overactors on those shows... I'm glad he's gone! Isnt he on Speed tv now or something? I remember one time, I think he built a bronco.... they had the paint job all done and pretty and THEN, they cut the fenders to put on some bigger flares! don't you think they should have thought about that before they painted it? And shadetree mechanic was far from shadetree. How many people do you know that consider themselves shadetree mechanics that have a fully stocked shop with above ground hoist? I wouldnt have minded so much if they didnt call it shadetree mechanic! A real shadtree mechanic works on the gravel in his driveway pulling engines with a floor jack and some 2x4's and a pile of cardboard to lay on! Lets get real!

It should be an unwritten rule that to be called a Jeep, its hood should open to almost 90 degrees like the CJ's, Wranglers and our trucks. I was working on a Commander today to change the spark plugs and the hood only opens to about 45 degrees! It doesnt let any light in, and makes it difficult to work on stuff.... Just my 2 cents!

You can getthe studs from the dealer or just about anywhere else. But I would also do the very front one too, because they have the same problem. Do both so you don't end up doing this twice.

I like the fix it and drive it while fixing the other truck route, that way youre not out a ride. Nice buy too!

^^^^ I was thinking the same thing but didnt post. I agree they are more about the advertising than the builds. If they would spend more time with the actual builds maybe they wouldnt be getting knocked like they do with real car guys. Those shows are for all the guys who love to look at cars and stuff but have no talent or ability to work on them themselves. And don't even get me started on the OVERACTING!!!!! The only one that was ever good was extreme4x4, but now that Jesse is gone, that show has gone down the tubes too. And last weekend.... 2 whole shows on with nothing but RC cars! I like RC cars and stuff, but I don't think shows like theirs should be dedicated to it when there is soo much other stuff they could be doing!

I'm not sure how I missed this thread whn it came out originally, but theres a guy that workis in the body shop at the dealer I work at that has a 2 door cherokee that he did up in bedliner and he did his taillights like this with the tint and they are DARK! And if you are driving behind him you can barely see the brake lights come on, but it looks good! He definitely could use some brighter bulbs though!

I had a problem like this when I first got my truck, I put a ton of injector cleaner through it, put new cap, rotor, plugs and wires on it.... nothing helped.... till I put in a new O2 sensor, and BAM its ran great ever since. Just another thing to try. Good luck!