terrawombat

I've only seen one other 2-door limited in my searches and it was beat up pretty bad. That Jeep looks to be in pretty good shape. I love that he set a price of $800, but gave away what his bottom dollar price is. Although, even knowing that, I'd still offer him $400.

I appreciate the responses, guys. Every state is different on how they handle this, but I did a little bit of legwork and in Ohio you just visit the BMV (Bureau of Motor Vehicles) with a notarized title and bill of sale and you apply for temporary tags. Cost is $18.50. Dunno how long they're good for and it doesn't matter as I'll be taking care of the paperwork on Tuesday when I'm back in NJ.

I gots one of those, but it's red. Saw a white '88XJ Olympic Edition at the pick-n-pull this past weekend. Here's mine:

Two of my friends have them, but I haven't the slightest idea on what year they are. I've ridden in them maybe half a dozen times and I always thought it seemed like a cheap econobox SUV. It also didn't feel very solid to me when we were traveling on bumpy roads. None of the vehicles I own are luxurious in any sense of the word, but I felt like the Escape really cheap'ed out on the interior. A co-worker of mine has a '03 or '04 Liberty Limited, which surprised me how nice it was on the inside. I don't make that much fun of Libby's anymore :D

Yea, was everything just hand tight or attached with rods/cotter pins? I think the only thing that was bolted were the wheels. I also want to know their shut-off valve setup for the radiator so they don't spill a drop of coolant. I must lose a quart of coolant on the ground every time I need to drain the coolant to do some cooling system-related fix...

For future reference, when at the junkyard, always look at the sticker on the right hand side on the firewall (see yellow highlighted box in the picture) for the vehicle year. It should say something like, "This vehicle conforms to emission levels for 19XX vehicles" or something along those lines. Sometimes the yards get the years wrong...a lot of yards don't care about properly organizing and categorizing their inventory.

I'm sure one of the reasons for replacing the bed was because of rust. Seeing as it's a northern NY truck, I'd be curious as to what the frame looks like. Hope Wildman picks her up :D

Backlit keys would come in VERY handy on my netbook carPC. Sometimes have to pop on the interior lights just to see what the heck I'm typing. Nice score on the Toughbook. You got that at a very decent price. Before I found the custom metal case for my netbook, I was searching e-bay on a daily basis to try and score a CF-29, but they'd always close at $175-$250, which was about $100 more than I was willing to spend.

Went back today - axle was a D35 from that MJ. Thought they took the shock mounts, but they were under the truck - took those as my shock mounts are busted on my MJ SporTruck. I'm actually not sure what was taken from the thing since all of the parts were there... Got a set of 97+ mirrors in good shape, cruise control from a '98XJ and the steering wheel buttons. A bunch of misc. 97+ interior parts for my XJs. Also went to another yard down the street that had TWO MJs in their yard. Didn't take anything from either, but there are some decent parts on them if anyone needs maroon or tan interior pieces. The one MJ had a very interesting paintjob... Maybe I should have held out for this headliner? LOL The other had some sort of battering ram device attached to the front. The outside of this MJ was beat to hell Both MJs were 4-cyl. 5-speeds. I think they were both 2WD.

I've used stuff similar, but not necessarily made by Eastwood, although they do put out some good products. It has worked very well on my MJ and YJ floorpan repairs and, as mentioned above, is completely paintable. If you look close, you can see the seam sealer smeared around the edges of the patch panels I put in my MJ floor: A word of warning with this stuff - It is POTENT. If you're going to apply it, do it outside or in a well ventilated area. If neither of those are possible, which was the case with me, buy a respirator. I got a cheap, but good one online for around $25. This stuff will knock you out if you're working in a small cab like an MJ.

Great read - thanks for the link! I enjoy drinking just about every beer on that list. When I'm outside doing yard work and drenched in sweat, there's nothing like a cold, cheap beer to take the edge off :D

I went with a set of Sealed Power rings from Advance Auto for $37.99 plus I had a list of other things I needed to get for the rest of my fleet and they have a 40% off coupon when you spend $100 bucks so I used that. Rings came out to $22.79 plus tax (shipping was free since I spent over $75). So we're about $23 into this build...hope to keep it under $30! I'm going to be borrowing a hone, ring expander, and ring compressor from a guy I work with. Crossing my fingers that the bearings are good!

Well, I'm not a Mainer BUT there is an emblem on the back of the tailgate on my '88MJ SporTruck for Charlie's Subaru in Augusta... The emblem looks very old and weathered, but I looked up Charlie's and it's still around! Looks like they stock a few used Jeeps. My '88 may have originated from somewhere up there and then got sold on Charlie's lot as a pre-owned.

If I were in your position, I would look for someone that has a complete 4.0L for sale and it's still in the truck so that you can start it, hear it run, check oil pressure, compression, and make sure everything is in good working order. Most people will say to just go to a junkyard and purchase an engine, but they're generally more expensive than private party sellers and I've been burned twice on 4.0L engines that were supposedly 'good running engines' that turned out to have significant problems that required time/money to fix.

After doing some research and talking with some 'old time' engine rebuilders, I think I'm going to splurge and get new rings. What is incredibly confusing is how the auto parts stores are listing the rings for each engine. Apparently there is only one set of rings I can get for an '01 XJ engine - Sealed Power Part #E925K. But if I look up ring sets for the '00 TJ Engine, I get a variety of rings to purchase, including the Sealed Power rings I just mentioned. So, what I gather from this is that I can use TJ rings in either engine, but XJ rings are specific to XJ engines only? What also doesn't make sense are the ring thicknesses they list on the parts sites. Some sets are in Imperial units while others are in Metric, but they are not equal? Both sizes, regardless of what unit of measurement they're in, do not fall within the Specification ranges in the factory service manual. Doesn't make much sense at all, so I'll have to do some of my own measuring once I pull this all apart.

They do. I'm going to have to stop by one of the branches to get temp tags after I get a signed and notarized title - cost is $18.50.

I saw a couple nice leather three-spoke steering wheels but didn't even think to bring my puller. It'll be in my tool box for next time.

Tonight I realized that this isn't going to work. I'll need to use the flywheel that's in the MJ right now since (I believe) the Renix CPS needs that flywheel to work properly.

Yeesh. Glad the service tech there is a cool guy! I've always wanted to get my hands on a DRB-III scantool/programmer, but man are they expensive.

Yea - he is. That's going to be interesting when you take that to the dealer. "I'm sorry sir, but there is no way your 1992 Comanche will work with this keyfob." I'm going to need to do the same thing once I get my XJ stuff swapped over to the MJ...

Good point - the spring perches were spring over so it's probably from one of the nearby XJs in the yard. Yeesh should have just taken pictures of everything :D Ordered one of those shirts. Thanks!

Believe me, I would LOVE a parts XJ. I can almost justify getting one for all of the nuts, bolts, screws, and other miscellaneous hardware I could steal from it so I can keep my MJs as close to factory as possible. HOWEVER, I need to be realistic. I currently own six cars - 5 Jeeps and a Mitsubishi - and two motorcycles. I'm extremely fortunate that my father is the person that is he and has literally given me an old barn to call my 'shop.' Even though I DO have the room, I don't know if I can bring another vehicle into the fleet. I'm not going to live where I live forever and I may be moving as early as the summer of next year and it's a 99.9% shot that my new home will not have a 5,000 sq. ft. barn to store stuff in. I need to start getting RID of my assets rather than continue to collect them. One of the other ulterior motives of this budget engine rebuild is so that I can transfer the good parts from this otherwise busted TJ block into a good block and maybe make something out of nothing. Once I finish the transferal of parts, I'm going to take the TJ block and XJ crank to the scrapyard.

Is this what referred to as 'sentry lights?' I love using this feature for the exact reason that sinkrun described above. I usually get back to my house when it's dark and much later than the rest of my room mates so I always get the parking spot furthest away from the house. I'll do this 'trick' to leave the lights on for a minute so I can see where the heck I'm going. I've avoided stepping on a rake, shovel, and a water sprinkler because of this feature...

You lost me at rod bearings... :D I'll cover a few items that I wasn't clear about. I'm going to leave the system as a Renix and will NOT be using the horseshoe intake for this - I'm saving that for my XJ to MJ swap. The TJ engine has a confirmed 83K miles on it, which is low for a 4.0L, but like you said, it can still have significant wear. Obviously, if the bearings on the TJ engine look trashed, then I need to reconsider my options. The XJ engine has 154K confirmed miles and originally came out of my '01 and it had spun a rod bearing, but if you couldn't hear the obvious clanking in the engine bay, you'd never know as it ran fine and, most surprising to me, the oil pressure was absolutely 100% normal. I've seen plenty of spun rod engines in the past (This is very common with the 3000GT/Stealth V6 3.0L DOHC engines) and they all had extremely low oil pressure. This doesn't really have anything to do with my situation at hand, I'm just throwing in some love for the 4.0L engine :D On to the camshaft. I have not inspected either cam. I also do not intend on checking or replacing the camshaft bearings. I don't have the proper equipment to change cam bearings out nor do I want to spend any money on them. In my engine rebuilding experience, unless there was a total oil pump failure, camshaft bearings hold up well over time. It makes sense as there is little thrust on the cam bearings as opposed to the rod bearings which are constantly getting hammered. My plan for the camshaft is to leave the XJ one in the engine with the original camshaft bearings. They've been together for 154K miles and saw good oil pressure even after a spun rod bearing so I'm not going to upset their 'chemistry.' :D Unfortunately, three of the lifters on the XJ engine fell out when I was getting it up on the engine stand. I do not know the order in which they fell out from so I'm just going to have to guess... Remember, this whole idea is contingent on the fact that the rod and main bearings are in good shape. If they're not, I'm looking at $61 for the mains, $30 for the rods, and $92 for the rings (prices are from RockAuto) for a total of $183 plus shipping...yuck. I hate spending that much money on an engine that I know I'm not really putting together the "right" way.

The stock oil pump is a weak link? That's the first time I've heard that (not being pompous, just honest). My understanding for the purpose of a high volume oil pump is for vehicles that spend a majority of their time off-road, in low gear, at low RPMs so that the engine will have a higher volume of oil while it is being taxed at low speeds. The MJ that this engine is going into will see paved roads 95% of the time.