dasbulliwagen

here's my 2.5 87 MJ spring over axle in the rear and 5.5" Rubicon Express springs in front. The tires in both pics are orginal JK size takeoffs right at 32" tall.

You keep mentioning the steering. Other than the knuckles, none of the steering is swappable to your MJ. The WJ has a wider track, thus longer steering rods. And I don't think the steering box will swap over either, as Ive never heard of that as an upgrade. The ZJ steering and box are upgrades but not the 99 WJ.

For stock ride height, a set of nearly new JK take offs are an excellent choice. They only need minor mods to fit and they ride great on the MJ. I ran a whole set front and rear for several years before doing my lift last summer. They rode good and the price was right. They can be had cheaply or free if you find them right. The ones I ran were the black ones (non rubicon). The red ones from rubicons will work as well, they are all very close in length to each other. These might be a good option if you don't want to spend big money. WJ upper arms will also work if you want to do all 4. Only takes minor trimming. Theres a writeup somewhere. Another good upgrade is to a tighter ratio steering box like from a ZJ V8. I did mine, went from 3 1/2 lock to lock, to 2 1/2 lock to lock. Its bolt in other than the pitman arm.

It might be easier to ask what parts are MJ specific that you should look out for, as sourcing parts for the specifics are going to be much harder if they are missing. Things like the tail lights, the cab vents, the rear fender flares, fuel pump, tail gate. If all of them are there and in good shape, finding the rest of it should be easy.

I'm really sick of seeing these 6x builds, not just with the Jeep. I know they are promotional builds and all, but they have no practical use for most people. One thing I have noticed is that these builds get people (reporters) who know nothing about cars/trucks/Jeeps to talk about them and marvel! The only place I could see this as being even partially practical is in the sand where flotation and traction are needed. Beyond that, they are stupid. My 2 cents.

Yeah, not a Gladiator, but still expensive!

The 904 is a light duty version of the TF727. go to www.allpar.com and search that trans and youll get a to of articles about history and performance mods.

Its also possible the pads were mis packaged, and you got two of one style and none of the other, assuming the other side is correct.

Every once in a while, I will go out to start my 87 2.5 and it won't crank at all. No click, no crank. And if I move the shifter through a few gears without pressing the clutch, then re try starting, it will crank right up? Usually. and when it won't, if I move the truck by pushing it to a different position, then shift it, it will then crank, otherwise I try to park where I can roll start it if I need to. Has anyone encountered anything like this? The last starting issue I had was when I did my 4x4 swap. The starter wouldnt work while bolted in, but would bench test just fine. I added grounds at that time thinking maybe a ground issue, but I don't know what to think now. I havent been under it yet to inspect everything. I'm just wondering if anyone else has seen this and what fixed it. I did replace the starter when I did the 4x4 swap with an advance auto or autozone part, but its been several years with no issues. Thanks for the input.

Mine did the same dash lights out thing after I got it, turns out thge fuses had corroded just enough to loose good connection. I just wiggled the fuse and they start working again. It got to the point where I could just put my left foot up gently on the fuse box and they would work again. I would start there. The advice from the others is also good. Pete and Eagle (and others) do a lot for everyone here and we are grateful for them.

This swap isnt just the motor.... it is the motor, the trans, the engine harness, the dash harness, driveshafts, mounts, crossmembers and a dozen other things I can't think of. A complete donor with a side by side swap would be best, even then you may still need to modify the wiring and rear driveshaft depending upon donor vehicle.

When I did my 4x4 swap, I put in 4x4 front springs and an extra spring isolator on each side, this gave me about 1 1/2 to 2 inches of lift over the stock 2wd springs in the front. Which made the front sit higher than the rear. I extended (welded) a set of stock Chevy shackles by 3-4 inches and was able to level it out. I wouldnt go any longer than this with rear shackles though. You can buy Chevy rear drop shackles to bolt on the MJ for lift, and you might get enough for what you need. but if you want any more than that, youll need new springs.

Receiver winch mounts can be had on Amazon as well.

WIth only having a 2.5, I can feel the power loss as swell, compared to having the cad disconnected. I will now be looking into getting a cable kit to actuate the cad. I can't afford to loose much power. Every little bit helps.

I tried installing my Azzys transfer case linkage before the big snow we got recently here in North Carolina. Turns out it isn't going to work. The Azzys kit extends the shifter arm. It won't work because of my particular setup of the 2.5, AX5, NP207 combo. The shifter is right over top top of the transfer case and there isn't room to add the shifter extension. So I'll be installing the factory linkage when I have time to pull the seat and carpet out. I have new carpet to install in it anyways so I'll do it all at once. I also locked over the CAD while trying to install the linkage following the write-up here. That took a whole five minutes to do. I can feel the difference driving it now. There is a slight vibration from now having the driveshaft spinning. I have no idea if the u joints in it are any good, but I guess that's where I need to start with that issue.

It goes on the end of the slave cylinder push rod to reduce noise and give the correct length to the pushrod. Its a white nylon plastic cone looking thing maybe 1 1/2" long and presses onto the push rod end.

My comments arent related to the original post, but I saw where Hornbrod has the sway bar drop brackets. I never knew these existed. Ive been needing some of these for my truck but have had to do without. I unsucessfully tried to make some on my own that were just blocks using longer bolts to bring the bar down, but this created other problems. I didnt realize about the angle of the unibody at that point and that any brackets would have to take that into account. On an 87 4 cyl model, the sway bar is right on the bottom of the radiator. Ive been worried about it hitting and breaking the plastic tank on the bottom, even with longer adjustable sway bar links. Ive since searched them and found Rubicon Express brackets on Amazon and will be orering a set. Though these ones are different than what Hornbrod is using. The ones Ive seen like his are advertised for the rear of a JK. Anyways, Thank you guys for enlightening me and unknowingly solving my problem!

Here's what I did with the rear shock setup as I explained above.

I had a similar issue putting an 86 AX5 into my 87. I too ordered parts from rockauto. The 86 MC is different from 87 as the bolt pattern is different, and I installed the slave without the plastic cone on the end as I assumed the new one would come with a the new slave. I couldnt get full engagement because the slave wasnt pushing the arm in enough because it was too short without the nylon cone on the end. I finally figured it out and swapped the cone from the old one to the new one and all was good. That was several years ago, and now that slave cylinder is leaking!

The XJ Wagoneer doors fit, which is what is on my truck. The woodgrain can be applied to anything. Now if youre thinking about the SJ Wagoneer, then no, they are completely different.

I know the rear sway bar is Blazer, but what year Blazer? There are a couple different generations of those. Would be nice to narrow down the search. Thanks!

I finally got my rear Bilsteins on. The shocks were leftovers from a Ram 1500 kit where just the front lift was installed, but the ends are right for the MJ. I had bought weld on shock mounts but they were going to be mounted too high for the length of these shocks. As I was looking it over trying to figure out what to do, I realized the shock free length and the rear suspension at full droop were about the same, and if I used the original spring plates with the shock mount on them under the axle. This meant I would need another spring plate on the top (spring over axle) and get rid of the U bolts for straight bolts. I finally got all the parts together and got it working. Makes a big difference. I was temporarily running the modified JK shocks attached to the stock spring plates above the axle, and only had about 1 1/2" of spring before the shocks bottomed out. I was afraid I was going to bend or break the upper mounts if I ran it too long, not to mention not being able to carry any kind of load. Ill try to get pics sometime and load them.

If you zip tie it up, youll want to put it in about the three oclock position looking from the rear.

I did a similar thing. Assembled it with the springs and U bolts, but not tight, and set it down under its own weight. Took my angle measurement off the t case output and then set the pinion angle and tacked it. Then removed one U bolt at a time and burned it in.

I did spring over recently. I bought the 2.5" u bolts and some weld on shock brackets as well as the 3 hole spring perches that were made for the Dana 35. The shock mounts I bought didn't end up working for me due to the length of the shocks I had to put on it. They are Bilsteins but were made for a Ram 1500 2 or 3" lift kit. Proper length shocks might give a different result. I ended up putting the original shock mounts back in their original positions under the axle, installing new regular spring plates on top and used straight grade 8 bolts to connect them. It turned out to be the perfect setup for the shocks as the axle at full droop and the shocks at full extention ended up within a quarter inch of each other.