jpnjim

1986 is tough, since that was still the AMC era. (one of the few things that Chrysler was head and shoulders better than AMC was in their FSM's). IIRC (going off the top of my head here), for 86' you need: The Comanche 'Body' manual, maroon colored, just covers the body. there were newer generations of this for 86-88. Same book, just updated depending on the year it was printed. In 89' Chrysler released a very nice set of 3 red books for XJ/MJ's I'm thinking there was also seperate 'Mechanical' manual specific to the MJ, but can't picture it right now. An engine manual (more like a thick brochure). I never had any of these loose 86' engine books, there were a few different ones for the 87' 4.0L (one just for the fuel injection). A Tranny manual (for whichever tranny you have). There was also seperate wiring diagram manuals specific to each vehicle, and probably more I can't think of right now. :dunce: Imho, EVERY MJ owner should atleast have the AMC MJ body book, and the 89' Chrysler 3 book set. IIRC, in 1990 they went to a single fat book, and stayed that way for a few years.

Great idea. :smart: I'm surprised it hasn't been done yet, I have a 71 Javelin/AMX, and there was a guy who started a registry for those a bunch of years ago. Only really required a form to fill out, (with your VIN, year, model, original options that you are aware of, build date if you know it, how long you've owned it, modifications, etc, etc), the data base, and the time by someone to create & maintain it. There were so many MJ's made, you couldn't track all of them, but a cross section of xx% built would be helpful, and you could try to track the rarer models: max option MJ's, Eliminators, 91/92's, etc. I like it. :D

I've been taking my time with this, but I think I found a decent balance. since I started with a ft bumper kit, the angle for the wraparound section was totally wrong for the rear corner. I segment cut it, so I could push it back, and have less of a tree magnet: I'm planning on angling the end a little further out than the original design, to protect the corner better: Back view: I still have to trim another 1/8" off the sheetmetal, so I can level the bumper end.

X2, nice writeup. I've had two MJ's with broken center glass, both times I 'fixed' it by popping in a piece of plexiglass in instead (easy to bend, to pop into the track.) Didn't come out as nice as your tinted setup tho. :cheers: Side benefit/theft hazard with the plexi, If you have kids (or a 28 waist :D ), you can even pop it back out, and send one of them in, when you lock your keys inside. :dunce:

I swapped a (1970's-80's) 3 spoke AMC wheel, with a 1970's style 'Jeep' center cap on my old MJ, looked good (& retro), but was a little thin compared to what else you could get. 1980's Camaro's had pretty thick wheels, but they might look out of place in an MJ. Though you could probably adapt either the old, or new style center cap to it without much work.

I should add, if I were building something with a full size Diesel engine, I would defiantly put a D60 underneath it upfront....... but, to be honest, I'd probably build the whole thing around something other than a uni-frame MJ. A nice flat fender Jeep pickup cab, on a 76+ FSJ frame would be a good place to start. :smart:

Unless by good fitting, you mean 9", or so wider than stock, there's no factory 60 near the stock width. Only 60's near our 60"ish width would be out of something weird, like construction equipment/man lift, etc, tho then you have other issues, like lack of brakes/closed knuckles/weird bolt patturns/centered diff, etc, etc. If you want full width (~69" wide), the 78-79 Ford D60's are the most XJ/MJ/TJ friendly: the short side is fairly long, so there's plenty of room for the coil bucket. Later Fords have shorter 'short sides' (better choices if you want to narrow it, but not much room for the coil bucket on the drivers side). Some have claimed it's tough to build a usable D60 for us under 63", or so. I never tried, but would look to building a 9"/D60 hybrid if I wanted to stay near stock width. FWIW, even later Fords have ball joints (instead of king pins), and unit bearings, good, or bad depending on what you're looking for. Chevy & Dodge D60's are passenger drop (and low pinion), and don't work for us unless you get a pass drop T-case & move the exhaust (if you're keeping the 4.0L)

Thanks for digging up that pic, very interesting. There's three types that should work, without moving the heater controls, the smaller screen one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/821-EONO ... ioQ5fVideo and a 7" one, that goes down, instead of up: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1015-EON ... ioQ5fVideo and an 8.5" one that goes down: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1022-EON ... ioQ5fVideo This 'brand' has gotten OK reviews, even from some car audio boards. It also gas some complaints of failures, and high return shipping charges for DOA's (auction says you pay return shipping to Hong Kong for failures in the first 7 days).

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I always thought about getting one of these 'back in the day' (when $500 bought a cheap one, and good ones were $1200+). Now cheap ones are ~$150, and you can find off brands with good reviews for ~$200. I'm thinking one of these would work nicely with the center mounted kid's racing seat in the MJ, for long trips, also thinking about using the back up cam option many have. What do you guys think, anyone run one, love them, hate them? I'm looking at the ~7" motorized screen type (not the tiny faceplate mounted 2-3" screen size) You can get a good size drop down monitor for cheaper, but there's really no room for that in an MJ. :smart:

The cross braces in my pics (welded to the floors) are for late model XJ seats. They take care of the ft two mounts (& are stronger than stock MJ mounts, to take the impact of the airbags deploying), for the rear, I drilled two holes in the floor, & used large fender washers on the backside to keep them from pulling through.

Reason #150brazillion no one works on my junk but me. :fs1: I can imagine the poor guy who stops at quickie lube to get an oil & dif change before a long drive & trail run. They punch a hole in his cover, and the plug ends up on the trail somewhere (no where to be found).

Wow! That is the worst one I've seen so far.

If you put plastic wrap under the lid, it comes right off. :D FWIW, The last BRAND NEW, UNOPENED can I opened had the lid stuck on it. :headpop: I had to completely destroy it to get it opened (inside-outed the inner lip). First time that's ever happened to me with a new can, I got 2 other cans from the same batch, hope I don't have the problem with those too :fs1:

What frame are you powdercoating? and powdercoating vs painting the axles probably won't make much difference in how long they last, since surface rust usually isn't what kills axles. POR-15 is tough as nails, and should be a durable axle paint if you want something very strong, but most of us just hit them with some rattle can (satin) black, and then hit them again in a few years if they need a touch up.

:rotf:

Strange, the 4.0L's I've torn down were all pretty hard on bearings, even an 80k mile Renix I had been saving was showing copper in the center of the bearings. If there's no reason not to trust the guy, and he says it's OK, I'd go with it. :thumbsup:

I've seen RT Dakota's this color. That's definitely 'Purple-purple' :D

Purple-purple? or the Jeep Maroon Sienna 'purple'?

Thinner than that, I'm thinking 16 to 18 gauge. Really tough to cut with tin snips, but still workable. The cutout was for a doubler that I decided against later. Donor floor used for the drivers side:

Forty here (not that anyone asked :waving: :typing: )

Also, the LA one doesn't have the MJ cab corner trim (PA/Mass one does).

I used three strips of flat sheetmetal on one side, and a cut out floor from an XJ on the other. The '3 strips' side came out way nicer. 1 strip, with a 90* bend on one side <----- goes from the 'frame' to the rocker 1 flat, kinda wide strip <---------- goes from the driveshaft tunnel, to the 'frame' 1 thin strip <--------- goes on top of the 'frame' capping it off, and connecting the two other pieces. I'll try to pull up a pic later.

My advice would be to make sure the framework behind the metal you are replacing is where it should be. I didn't realize that my inner cab corner was pushed in a little above the door handle. It's not horrible, but I need to pull it out so the door seam will line up right. I wasn't looking for 'damage' that far up, and everything else was so bent, I didn't have a reference point to tell it had moved in. It would've been VERY easy to pull that out before the cab corner went on, now that it's welded on, it needs either a frame rack, or some high quality redneck engineering. :D As far as welding sheetmetal, get a MIG (gas, not flux core), set it up with the thinnest wire it'll take, turn the settings down, and practice alot. Some days my welds come out just the way I want, other days not so much. I welded some thin-ish gauge the other day (ammo cans), first one came out perfect, second one I was on cruise control (+ it was getting dark, and I couldn't see the work as well), when I lifted my mask, I had blown right through the can. :ack:

Cab corner before & after: Burned in after the rocker pics: You can see the seam here: