jpnjim

I had some on my old J4000 (crappy pic): and I have a set tucked away for the Grandpa MJ :D

Absolutely amazing job on the front end. :bowdown: :bowdown:

My first Jeep was a 72' J4000, I daily drove that from 92-96, allong the way buying an 87' XJ for the girlfriend in 94. I really liked the downsized Jeep (and 20mpg vs 8mpg), so I kept my eye out for an MJ. Found a Black 89' Longbed MJ (Pioneer 4.0L/5spd/2wd) with 70K miles in November 96 for $2500. I offered him $1500, and he took it. Then I heard of a Red 88' Shortbed (Pioneer 4.0L/5spd/2wd) in December 96' for $500, so I bought that one too. Daily Drove the 89' for a few years, while I built the 88'. I really need to find & scan some pics of them both before I ruined them. :(

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Jeep-Che ... freshZtrue Hopefully someone on here. I watched it count down to zero, for $.01, Tho I can't tell if it's an 84-86, or the desired 87' only font full 4.0l gauge set. :dunno:

I put some sagged out Rusty's 3" coils in, and it leveled it almost perfectly (89' 2wd 4.0L/auto). (springs were good for 3" when new, but only 1.5ish now that they're beat)

This MJ was probably custom ordered. The power locks/windows and 5 speed combination pretty much give it away. My first XJ was an 87' Laredo: 4.0L/5spd, with A/C PW/PDL, chrome everything, etc (no overhead console tho).

Those aren't "FACTORY STEEL/CHROME RIMS" (factory 10 spoke Aluminum wheels) & is that a blue console lid on the tan console? Looks nice, tho 100% FACRORY (his spelling ;) ) might be a stretch.

I've taken my shortbed off & put it back on by myself a few times. :dunno: Getting it up over the tires & lined up straight was always the tough part. Also flipped it over, and carried it on my back like a turtle more than once. :yes:

Fronts were aftermarket, rears were metal, and hand made by the (old) owner. They do sell fiberglass bedsides similar to that tho.

Weird. I had an 01 XJ I bought new, and the wheels were equally spaced in the wheel wells. So the rears being more inboard than the fronts is an MJ thing? Mine's a LWB; is it same thing w. the SWB MJs? :hmm: There may be some complicated reason Jeep wanted the rear track width narrow compared to the body, but I think it was very simple. XJ's, MJ's, ZJ's & YJ/TJ's all have different size bodies, and different overall widths at the wheel wells, but they all use the same exact width ft & rear axles (& interchangeable shafts). When they wanted to make a pickup truck, they wanted the bed wide enough to be useful, but didn't want to go all the way, and create a unique width rear axle, so they compromised, and the result tucked the wheels a little further into the flare then the tires on XJ/ZJ/YJ & TJ's. :smart: That's my story anyway.

Yellow longbed, with no vents. tho I had to paste the address in another window to see it.

The 01' XJ radiator dropped right into my 88' MJ. I don't remember any issues, other than where to put the bottle, with the Renix engine controls (the coil & relays are where the overflow bottle wants to be).

Back to the Cowboy, I dug out the Kenosha '02 pics, and scanned some of them: the rocker panel detail was kinda interesting:

Owner seemed cool (I kept coming back over to bug him :waving: :wavey: :brows: ), if the same guy still owns it, I bet he'd rather someone 'save' it. :yes:

Scanned the rest: can you tellI liked the flares. :D the bed was done by hand, with tubing under the sheetmetal for form.

I saw it in 02 (Kenosha). :(

Just have the Cuban Truck Shipping company bring it over for you. :yes: They do pretty good work. :clapping: http://zmail4u.com/chevboat.htm

Hmm.. I forgot about the jute backing 'option'. I would get the backing if I was going to replace the carpet, hopefully the looseness around your tunnel was because they allowed extra room for the backing. I'll have to figure out how much more they want for the jute, and figure that into if I buy one, or not. Thanks for the review. :cheers: :thumbsup:

This info is directly from the factory Data Books, Parts books, dealer brochures, and other original literature when available (new model introduction packets, Media kits, etc). I won't guarantee it's 100%, but it's as close as I could get with the info that was available to me. Where possible, more than one source was used to back up each available combo. and those sources said you could get the 2.5L/AW4/4.56 combo in XJ's from 1987-1992. :dunno: (FWIW, there was some conflicting data concerning the 2.5/AW4 availability during the same years in MJ's)

It's a sickness, and Pete has it baaaaaaad. :nuts: :cheers:

Great writeup brdhntr :cheers: Hopefully I'll get to this soon. (or I'll be buying more pushpins to keep what's left up there off my head)

It's back in the 40's now. :nuts: 70 degree's, on a Saturday that I didn't have to work, probably won't happen again for a loooong time. :ack: Oh well, 40-50 is still 'good working on Jeeps' weather :yes:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... MEWAX%3AIT MJ carpet for $125.95. the seller seems legit, he's sold some MJ carpets, wondering if anyone here bought one? Feedback? When I pull the carpet on the Grandpa Jeep, depending on the condition of the (21 year) old one, I may just replace it. So, anyone dealt with these guys, or this carpet?

Just to add one more thing, I've actually been looking for a pic of this old MJ, around 96/97, with the spacers, and SOA, running those 31's on this type of (Rebel Machine) wheel: (4.5"bs worked pretty good with 31x10.5's :yes: ) Mine didn' have the trim rings, but were in a little better shape than these. :eek: FWIW, this auction for 3 wheels was the last I could find on Ebay, listing price was $1099.00 :clapping: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Rare-AMC ... ccessories I need to find that picture. ;)

OK, here's where I stick my neck out just a little. Back in the dark ages of XJ/MJ's (early 1990's), only two companies made XJ/MJ stuff. Your lift choices were: 3" Rancho coils (what I had) 4" Trailmaster coils (tho you had to buy the whole kit to get the coils). Then Tomken Machine started selling 4" & 6" (4" coils w/ 2" spacers) kits. These were the first XJ spacers made, and as soon as they started selling them seperate from the 6" kit, I bought a set (bumped my 3" XJ to 5" :D ) The spacers are steel, and simple to make, so I made some 2.5" ones & ran those. (the screw on bumpstop captures the coil on our early XJ/MJ's, so the coil can't go anywhere.) Then tried 'something' in the 3's, before going all out, and building 4.25" steel spacers. :yes: That was about as big as I thought would work. I had bought my first MJ by then (1996), it was 2wd, & I wasn't going to wheel it. So I SOA'd it, with a 4.10 YJ D35, put the 4.25" spacers up front (captured by the coil spacer), slapped some used 31's on it, and daily drove it like that for a few years. I am not recommending anyone make their own spacers, or to stack regular/available spacers up to 4"+, and run them, I'm just saying 14 years ago, I made some one piece 4.25" spacers, and ran them on my daily driver with the stock coils (& screw on style bump stops) . It rode nice, and no one died. Your results may differ. :D