Duner

Follow Pete's advice and bleed through the coolant temp sensor. I don't usually run the engine while doing this, I just open it up after the engine has warmed. Also check the radiator cap on your surge tank my MJ eats those things up. If they're not sealing it will never hold temp. Please don't give up on your MJ now the cooling issue is just a temporary inconvience. The closed system works well but does not tolerate any system pressure leaks and it can always be converted to the later open cooling system.

I don't remember the number of coils in stock springs but when new they should measure between 17.8 to 18.6 inches of free height depending on 2wd, 4wd, 4wd eliminator package. So your springs are typical of the 3 to 4 inch lifts readily available on the market. You would have to have your stock springs installed take measurements then install the lifted springs to see what the net result actually is due to differences in spring rate, number of coils, gauge of wire coil, etc.

Ok partsamerica.com indicates that the TRW CC782 and CC784 are XJ/MJ replacement springs and that CC816 spring for the 76-79 f-150 and bronco 4wd is similar height but much higher rate 271 vs 146 to 158 for jeep springs this woud probably yeild some lift 1.5 to 2.5 inches but the ride would be a bit rough.

I'm not sure that the flywheel is actually dished. The service bulletin just refers to the surface being special which is probably related to a crosshatch pattern in the finish and most shops cut flywheels straight. We this in the brake rotors as well now. I don't know for sure but maybe some of the jeep experts could answer this, maybe jeep did something special to try soften drive train shock like the dual mass flywheel on ford's powerstroke and most of the exotic german cars.

Desert Racing premieres in Texas Saturday March 24th just east of El Paso http://www.westtexasbaja.com

What year f-150 springs are you using? when I checked specs on a few different years they don't seem to be anywhere close other than diameter, ie they were shorter overall and twice the spring rate.

Are the f-150's coils the same diameter as the XJ/MJ? what about overall height versus installed height? and the respective spring rates or is it to stiff to drive on the street? I'm always looking for cheaper quicker solutions for lifting these trucks

Does anyone know why the aftermarket does not flatten the curved portion of the u-bolt like the factory? Is it just because their lazy and cheap? Common sense tells me that the more surface bearing area the the more secure it is against slipping and less like to crush or dent the axle tube, I think that if it was not necessasary the factory would not do it but this is the main reason that I have for re-using factory u-bolts with loctite instead of new aftermarket bolts. Inspect your bolts thoroughly always. If you need longer u-bolts measure your tube diameter and hunt the local pick-n-pull.

Try quadratec.com they have both the pacesetter and borla for the 87-90 model 4.0's and their cheaper than pacesetter's site but take some time and shop the internet and ebay once you have the part numbers to get the best price and shipping.

The only thing my dad said about doing the mount that way was it would have been easier with a plasma cutter rather than the cutoff wheel (our small compressor wouldn't keep up with the grinder and he had already moved the big compressor to our ranch. Otherwise the whole SOA job is very easy. Now if I can just get my hands on a D44 for the front I will really be happy.

Ok got home and got the pic. The spring plate is notched front and back and placed over the leaf creating a very secure setup and placing the shock in almost the exact location from the orig. SUA.

My dad came up with a good solution when we did the SOA for my MJ, we never intended to go SOA as my dad didn't want to lift the truck that high but after reading about all of the pitfalls with D35 and larger tires we decided that it would be in the best intrest of the project to replace the D35 with something stouter. Fortunately on the day we chose to go get the front axle we ran across an 89 XJ with D44 so plans changed immediately. Anyway we had the perches cutoff and relocated to MJ specs. (44" cen to cen on the 89 XJ, 42" cen to cen on my 90 MJ) and bolted it in. First time we just swapped sides and flipped the spring plates over and bolted everything together. It was beautiful 6.5" of lift but 1 lap around the neighborhood said this needed modification (stock shocks were bottoming out). My dad studied the problem for about ten minutes when we got back and said he had a solution but I would have to leave the truck with him that monday so he could fix it (tough to do when your seventeen and just lifted your truck over the weekend and all your buddies are waiting to see it) besides he said he needed to measure the dshaft angle and shim the rear pinion angle. Solution: Instead of installing the spring plate between the perch and springs which is an obvious fix my dad said that it would be too weak and allow the springs to possibly twist. So he took the spring plates and notched the front and back to slide over the leaf stack. (yes we did cut up the original spring plates no turning back now) This placed the shock mount very close to the original location plus it keeps the leafs from twisting on their perches. Needless to say this works wonderfully the ride and axle articulation great plus I get to use stock shocks on the rear. I have carried my uncle's 750 LB gun safe 150 miles on some very rough roads to our ranch with no problems from the shocks or anything else other than the brake proportining load sensing valve decided that the truck was still loaded. (we just disconnected it for now) I will snap a photo and post them to this thread later when get out of class. We used a 4 degree steel shim to adjust the pinion and a braided s.steel line for the brakes. all in all SOA is definitely easy on the MJ it would be even better if the perches did not have to be relocated

I would expect them to bend to help absorb some of the shock so that's normal but didn't want to spend big money and unintentionaly crunch it and then have it puke fluid all over the trail. When I go wheeling I like to have a good time. I don't won't to repair something that I thought was protected but its good to know that it worked when it was supposed to. Our upcoming jeepspeed project will have a reinforced diff housing where the tubes join so we will have ample mounting surface for a bolt on skid plate to protect the diff and strengthen the axle. This is what gave me some ideas for a bolt on diff protector that want cost an arm and leg.

Ok my 90 mj has the metal push type you just hold it down and the cable practically releases itself. I asked my dad he said all his experience has had the metal clip but hey mfgr's are always looking for cheaper solutions.

My uncle the truck mechanic agrees that it is very important to have a good ground at the mounting point. he also reccomends that you find a good cb/radio shop in your area and spend the 25 to 40 to have them test and tweak your output range. He says you can have 1k worth of equip and can't talk two miles or vice versa 50 bucks equip properply tuned can reach hundreds of miles. So find a shop that really knows what they are doing (ask around) so that your not stuck 3 miles in on the trail and can't reach help when you have an emergency. (ok I gotta quit teaching red cross lifeguarding classes I'm starting to sound like a public safety announcment) but it's better to be prepared with working equipment than a bunch of junk that just takes up space in the truck.

has anyone ever truly tested on these diff/ring protectors it seems that if your jeep slipped during rock crawling the weight and impact could still damage the ring or cause the cover seal to fail and how strong are the cast covers that some companies sell they look good but do they really work otherwise I have some ideas of my own on how to build a skid plate to protect the diff with out giving up to much ground clearance or spending that much money.

check all of the u-joints and if its 4wd check that the shift slider bushings are still on the shift fork there may be nothing left of them and this can cause a deep vibration at 40+ mph. I was amazed that mine gave up so quickly on a low fluid issue in the transfer case.

Ok couldn't find the old cps yet (lost in garage) but my dad followed the forum advice and unplugged the connector and cleaned it with electrical contact cleaner and wallah it runs again. So a little di-electric grease and were back in business. In the meantime I will continue searching for the other cps or go and buy a replacement and carry it with me. For now it looks like I dodged the bullet and bought some time and your right anytime an jeep begins to act like a normal car I start worry and load the MJ with tools. Jeeps have character and thats why we drive them.

Ok this sucks, springbreak I have worked all week teaching lifeguarding classes, today I sleep in late do some things around the house for my dad and jump in the truck to run down to the store and dam no start. My dad pulls a plug wire and I have no spark so now I have to search my boxes of parts for the spare cps my dad said that he saved from the other trans. At least it only breaks when it is in the driveway (knock on wood) I should have known something was up last week when it started right away instead of waiting the usual 5 to 6 seconds before firing.

you can use anything that fits in your budget. In our family we have run the gamet of radios pioneers, aiwa, dual, sony etc. the only ones that did not give up is the sony and my dad's pioneer from 1979 all of the others have had some kind of issue with their cd players especially cdr's. I remember when our zj's factory radio gave it was two years old my dad bitched all the way to the zone office until they replaced it because the car was only out of warranty for 2300 miles and it sucked listening to only AM in that car. Just keep them simple and cheap for offroad use. I'm thinking about just getting an interface panel just for my ipod as I just don't use my cd player or tuner much any more so I question why I had to have a flip down screen to load the cd.

My biggest concern was the wiring connectors since jeep decided to experiment with positive grounding during some of the years. I just didn't want to over complicate the project so if the 91-94 columns work it just increases the selection. I have intermittent wipers now but the switch is getting changed because I'm not getting enough voltage to the washer pump and the switch has been a problem since day one with the turn signals and wipers besides I want the tilt for when I add the mastercraft seats.

Just find yourself a 4.0/ax-15 XJ donor or MJ if your truly lucky (I did find an 89 MJ in the yard after I had completed my conversion). Get everything. I thought my dad was crazy because he was grabiing every nut, bolt, clip, bracket, shifter, etc. and get the front driveshaft we learned the hard way that the shaft from the auto trans is longer than the ax-15 version. And take along some friends to help you haul it out of there my little red wagon bent both of it's axle shafts (must have been D3.5's lol) and we could barely lift this stuff into my uncle's f-250 after 4 hours of wrenching the trans and d30 out of the donor. in fact we should have just bought a running driving xj and done this at our leisure but hindsight is 20/20 and my budget meant wrenching it ourselves and $350 goes a long way at the pick-a-part.

Has anyone converted to tilt steering? I need to replace the wiper control stalk in my 90-MJ and thought that I would just grab a tilt column from an XJ. Do I need to get an 89 or 90 model or can I use a later year?

What dia. wheel are you running? the shallow backspace helps but a larger dia. can help as well.

That's exactly what my dad thinks, if they were in car not being used offroad they would probably last 100k or more but used in the mud, sand and water that we see around here and at our ranch I'm sure it won't live that long due to being non serviceable. My uncle used to work at one of the best 4x4's shops in the country (they built pre-runners for Roger Penske) said that they would only use MOOG or Spicer u-joints. He's now a heavy line mechanic on dump trucks and concrete mixers and the only thing that keeps their u-joints in place is greasing them at least twice a week. He said if you don't grease them often they will fail in a matter of weeks in that offroad environment.