Garvin

The long arm setup moves the mounting point of the control arms farther back (most kits have a custom cross member incorporating the control arm mounts). Moving the arms farther back make them longer and more parallel to the ground which removes the binding that short arms cause on the suspension due to their angles from a lift. Long arms also make on-road manners a lot better due to the bumps not forcing the arms straight into the frame (the issue that short arms have), making the springs and shocks absorb and dampen the loads like they were designed to. The only issue with long arms is that once you go long arm, it's a pain to go back to short arm due to having to cut the factory lower control arm mounts off to clear the long arms.

The only experience I have with long arms is the Rusty's y-link setup. I ran that on my Cherokee for a little over 2 years and the only complaint I had was that they used poly bushings on both ends instead of a heim on one end. They have since redesigned it slightly to put a heim on one end of each of the links. From a lot of research I've done lately on designing my own, I think that was the only reason why I didn't top 1000 on the RTI ramp. After learning a lot about the geometry and stresses in the kits, I would stay far away from the Clayton kit. They use the factory crossmember bolts to hold the new crossmember in, which hold up fine for the factory cross member but with the stresses of the long arms now, I'm sure they would snap in no time if abused (not like any of us do that...). There is a reason why every other kit includes the side bracing and the crush sleeves inside the frame. I haven't heard anything bad about the new RK kits but I, personally, don't like them either. The mounting brackets hang down a good bit below the frame and will end up getting beat up if you do some actual rock crawling. My person preference, if I was to choose an off the shelf kit, would be the TnT Customs kit. The only issue with that is the radius arm setup (essentially 2 bolts holding the whole front end in). When I get the Chevy 350 all built and test fit it, I'm going to be building a custom 3 link setup. The difference is I'm going to be using 2" x 0.25" DOM tubing on all three arms and am going to set the mounting points up a bit to protect the brackets. No matter which kit you choose, just keep in mind that the lower arms are going to be used as a slider, doesn't matter if you go mudding or rock crawling. Keep in mind that I'm looking at this from both the offroad and daily driven truck as that's what I'm doing with mine, also.

That link is for the newer style, they changed the wiring harness when they redesigned the whole engine bay in '87. I plan on keeping this Jeep till the Jeep or I am dead (hoping not for a LONG time) so if I do end up having to cut into the factory, I'm going to be soldering and heat shrinking everything to do it the correct way. My Jeep didn't come with the factory radio so that part doesn't concern me, I just don't like cutting the factory harness up if I can avoid it (not like there is much of one to start with in an '86). The main issue comes down to which color wire goes where. :???:

Anyone know where you can get one at, if they make them? I have searched everywhere, including Amazon and Ebay, and can't find one. I also did a search on here and all it says is you have to splice into the factory wiring harness. I really don't want to cut up the wiring harness if I can avoid it. Any help is appreciated.

You would do better to explain how you are better than to get jumpy. They're just pointing out how it's an odd coincidence with the names. If you can prove the quality with pictures of your product or other installs, I'm sure you would have a bunch of sales on this website for full kits.

On an MJ with 4.5" of lift, you don't really need the shims or transfer case drop kit. Since our wheelbase is much longer and driveshaft is much longer, we can get away with a larger lift without worrying about SYE or drop brackets and whatnot.

I did that on my '90 XJ and had issues with the flow. The Jeep would end up popping the rad cap off the closed system overflow bottle and spew coolant out. When I looked into it, the lines are run slightly different. I think this is only an issue if you keep the heater valve though.

Just putting my two cents in on that part. I ran an 8" LA lift from Rusty's for 3 or 4 years on my old Cherokee and the springs held up great. I beat the crap out of my XJ, too. The only issue I've ever had was the bushings going bad after about 3 years, but that was due to the mud and abuse. I ended up hitting an F350 with my XJ in the front and totaled the Jeep. When I removed the leaf springs, there was still nothing wrong with them (I hit hard enough where it ripped every D30 axle mount atleast half way off, pushed my driver side tire back about 4 inches, and ripped the crossmember to pieces due to it being a LA system). I personally love Rusty's lifts, and especially love their front coil springs (moved them over to the Comanche). OME, BDS, and Rusty's are the only leaf springs I would really go with if I were to replace the rear ones in my Comanche (currently stock springs, SOA and will have 2" shackles to level her out). The Rusty's control arms flexed great, but this time around I want to go with the TnT kit because the control arms are tucked up farther with a longer belly pan. Now that that little rant is over...I would stay far away from RC. They make great kits for the price, but you get what you pay for. I have had a lot of buddies replace the bushings in those control arms within 6 months of getting them, and they didn't abuse their Jeeps anywhere near the amount I did. Not to mention they ride rough and don't flex all that well due to the stiff springs.

You are correct as the 4.0L will not fit into an '86 MJ. They redesigned the whole engine compartment in '87 to fit the longer 4.0L in there. I've seen GM 3.4L and 3.8L engines swapped in place of the 2.8L but haven't seen too many 4cyl's upgraded. There was an AX-5 behind the 2.8L in mine but that was only cranking out a whole whopping 140hp. I chose to swap in a Chevy 350 instead of fighting with the 4.0L (was looking at putting more power in there so was either going to be a 5.7L V8 or 4.7L stroker). Novak makes adapters to put an AX-15 behind the engine and they make motor mounts to fit, but the motor mounts will have to be slightly modified to fit the '86. I'm not sure exactly what you're planning on doing with this Jeep but you will need an AX-15 5sp manual trans if you intend on going with anything larger than the V6.

I can vouch for that. I ended up bending the D30 up front on my old Cherokee while wheeling it. Then when I totaled the Jeep (hit an F350), the accident ripped all the brackets and bent the new axle. :mad:

Thanks for the reply, you might be right on the 4wd thing. I did some more snooping and found a bit different numbers on '92's but the same for '91's, but it also says 4x4 only, haven't been able to find any 2wd numbers. 1991 - 5,188 (TOTAL) 1992 - 3,142 (TOTAL) That's from JeepForum.com. The main reason I'm asking is because my '92 is an 08/91 build and was just curious on the number made.

I see everywhere that 952 '92 MJ's were made, is that model year (08/91+) or is that the production year of 1992?

Going along what btm24 said... What do you plan on doing with the Jeep? What you plan on doing with dictate which lift, the height and the tire size and selection.

If you're swapping it into the rig in your Jeep and it's a stock axle in yours now, then you have 3.55 gears. You will need to find one from another 4.0L with an auto transmission for the same 3.55 gears. Pretty much any year Dana 30 out of an XJ or MJ will fit. You will want 91+ without the CAD but 99- which are HP. The ideal axle would be out of a '97-'99 since that has the larger u-joints. If you still have the CAD setup and use it, you will need to get one out of an 84-90 (some 91 and 92's came with CAD also).

The 4.7 is not junk. Your recommendation of a carbureted SBC leads me to believe you are a redneck. I'm not going to get into a bunch of reasons why, but you'd be better off with a 4.0 than a carbureted SBC. If carburetors were so cool, they'd still be using them. Just cause I'm doing it and am a redneck doesn't make everyone! :thwak: Also, just cause they went away from carbureted vehicles doesn't make them complete junk, it all matters what you plan on doing with it. The reason I'm going carb is because the 2.8L I had in mine before was carb and instead of running a ton of custom wires, I can easily just swap in another Chevy engine and be done with it fast. The 4.7L is junk though. I work at an auction and they come through all the time. The motors are underpowered and like to leak like all hell.

There were actually four styles. The fourth is like the regular XJ ones except they come to a small point at the end. I believe they only came on '86 MJ's (maybe 84-86 XJ's too), I'll have to take a picture of them tomorrow.

Motion Offroad beat me... :fs1: The automatics in Wranglers are 3 speed transmissions compared to the AW4 that has the 4th gear in there. Basically, the Wranglers don't have overdrive while the Cherokees and Comanches (and '93 Grand Cherokees) do.

And 93 ZJs :thumbsup: I always forget about those. :oops:

The transfer cases are the same (assuming both 23 spline), the difference is the tailshaft housing on the transmission that is drilled differently. AW4's only came in XJ's and MJ's so the transfer case will only sit in one way, no matter the year the AW4 is out of.

I beleive the year they went external was '93.5 or '94, but as Geonovast said, it should be external already. All you would need to do is swap the input shaft between the two then you can use your '88 t-case with no issues. I did this to my old '90 XJ. I got a trans and transfer case from a '94, and since my t-case had a SYE in it already, I just swapped input shafts. I got mine out of an early '94, so the NP242 input shafts will work too (up to '94.5 I think it was), all the NP231's will swap.

When I did my conversion, I just bought a brand new overflow bottle for the open system. I believe I got it from Advance Auto for like $20 or $25.

The above posters are correct about the cab being welded to the frame. Comanche frames are considered unitbody frames, from what I've read, since the front half is unibody while the rest of the truck is full framed. The front half is just like a Cherokee, except a Comanche has a beefier frame and reinforcement pieces welded on top of the floors.

I had the same thing happen to my '90 Cherokee, it ended up being the crank sensor. This is a fairly common issue with them. The info below comes from http://www.lunghd.com/Tech_Articles/Eng ... ostics.htm , really close to the end of the page.

At that point, you're probably better of just buying another engine. A full rebuild kit will run you $200+ for a quality one, not to mention the time to fix it if you do it yourself, or the cost if you pay someone else to do it.

That's weird. I'd be interested to see the inside of that thing. The question is it stuck in reverse or only has reverse? If it's stuck in reverse then it could just be a syncro. If it only has reverse...I'd almost be willing to travel a little bit to just open that. :hmm: