Garvin

When you replace the radiator, you remove the fan sensor in it (lower drivers side corner, towards the back of the radiator). The point of putting a new thermostat housing is now you're adding that sensor back in. It is also a two wire setup but you will need to splice lines in from the drivers side front corner to that sensor on the thermostat housing. When I put the sensor on, I ran to a junkyard to grab the correct pigtail and cut back as far as I can on that one. I ended up cutting after the connector (on the sensor side of the pigtail) of the RENIX style sensor and running from that, that way I'm not chopping up the main wiring harness. The sensor that you are referring to on the back of the block is the temp sensor.

I did this on my '90 XJ and it worked wonders. If you're looking at doing it correctly, you will need a bunch of parts (listed below, all from a '92). Radiator Thermostat housing Overflow bottle Heater valve Bunch of 5/8" hose (think I got 6' and it was more than enough) You don't technically need the heater valve, just posting it if you were to convert it completely. You will also need to reroute your hoses (will need to take a glance under a '92+ to see the routing, I just went to the junkyard and took pics and wrote up notes on them). If you do not reroute your hoses, you will run into the same issue I had where the pressure will push coolant out of the overflow bottle.

It sounds like something in the front end is busted, the steering stabalizer has nothing to do with turning. The first thing I would do is make sure nothing got loose under there, like the plastic inner splash guard. If everything is still connected and not interfeering with turning, lift up each corner and shake the wheel at the 12 and 6 o'clock position and 3 and 9 o'clock position. If the wheel is loose, then have someone shake it when you are under to see what's loose. The other thing you can do is look underneath and have someone violently shake the wheel (about 30 degrees from center, back and forth) and see if any of the tie rods or drag link ends are loose.

The u-joints aren't that hard to replace. The hardest part in the whole disassembly is removing the hub. Including the lug nuts, there are about 11 bolts (5 lug nuts, 2 caliper bolts, 1 axle nut, 3 hub assembly bolts). Replacing the u-joint in the axle, itself, is easy also. You can either use the two sockets and hammer trick or can get the actual tool. I personally use the two sockets and hammer.

I tried to remove one of the AW4 harnesses before and realized the hard way about that. You will need to swap the entire underhood wiring harness from an AW4 equipped Cherokee/Comanche as it ties into a ton of other circuits. You will also need the ECU, too. The wiring changed when the 4.0L went to HO. The most obvious change is that the ECU was moved from under the dasn to on on the drivers side from apron, right next to the air box. If you choose to swap in the HO harness, you will need the entire engine harness and dash harness (as stated earlier).

Head gaskets aren't too common on the older ones, from what I've seen atleast. The first thing I would do, if I were you, is check to see if the radiator fins are clogged (check behind the power steering cooler if you have one of those too). I had that issue on my '90 Cherokee and it was because a lot of mud dried up in the fins. If all the fins are clean and you can see light through them, then it's a flow issue. You can try flushing the system with a garden hose to see if you can get any gunk out. You can either buy the flush adapter or do it the poor mans way. Empty the system, disconnect the top rad hose, put a garden hose in the radiator and fill the system up with water, keep the hose running and turn the engine on and let it run for a while. Keep an eye on the Jeep to make sure the temp stays down while it runs. I usually let it run for about 30 mins or so checking it periodically. After that, just fill the system and see where it sits then. If it still runs warm, then you will need to find what is restricting flow. If could have a clogged thermostat, something cheap and easy to fix.

Wow, yea, I see where you're coming from now. Your best bet would be to get a Cherokee floor pan, weld the whole thing in (minus about 8 inches or so in the end where it's longer than a Comanche's), then weld reinforcement plates on the top. I got lucky where I'm only missing like 8-10" on the drivers side, in front of that side rib. It doesn't look too bad on yours, though, since it's mainly the floor itself (no firewall, rocker, ect.. damage).

My buddy and I did the easier of the two sides this weekend and prepped the other side. We're still trying to figure out what we want to do. Since mine is only rotted out in a section about 8 inches long in a spot right in front of the side rib, we might just cut the rest of the front part out, trim the Cherokee floor to fit in there and then weld a nice sized piece of metal over the frame part to box it back up. If you can wait till next weekend, I can post up pics of all the repairs and give more info once we figure out what to do, then set it all in place and burn everything on. I think there are a few crash tests of the Cherokee on YouTube but YouTube isn't loading for me right now. :( I'll snap some pictures of what we did so far in the next day or two to give you a better idea where I started from and where I'm sitting at with what needed to be and what has been repaired so far.

The XJ's actually had horrible crash test ratings due to the rocker in the middle caving up. Unfortinately I don't have the crash test video anymore, but it crumpled in the middle of the rocker and in the roof right above the driver in a drivers side front corner crash. The metal above the floor that was used for reinforcements is a lot thicker than the floor pan itself, two or three times as thick. If you look inside the hole, you'll actually see the stock floor pan in there with the reinforcements welded on top. These hav all been pinch welded together in many spots to create as close to a solid piece as they can. The floor pan, itself, on top will not net you any real gain of structual integretiy of the rail as it's so thin, that will just create the weak point in your frame in an accident. But yea, at this point, anything that you add will be a massive gain over what you have now.

It all matters how high the damage goes on the tunnel to how much work you really need to do. My rot was basically everything in front of the rib on the floor pan on the drivers side plus up the tunnel to the top bolts of the transfer case linkage bracket, and the front left corner on the drivers side. What I ended up doing was buying a full OEM Cherokee front floor pan. My buddy is a body guy so I got him to come over and give me a hand. What we ended up doing was cleaning most of the rust area, cleaned up the edges, primed it, then Por15'd the whole floor (only primed since I had to wait a few days for the Por15 to get in). he ended up cutting the Cherokee floor in half (so we can get it in the door easier), measured to the rails, then cut it to fit between the rails. After that we just patched the rest of it with the extra metal from the floor that was spare. Once everything was in place, we laid down some liquid nail and are letting that dry right now. he'll be back tomorrow to tack weld it together and weld from underneath the area that is rotted through to the new floor to create a nice seam (he knows how I go wheeling so we're trying to make this as waterproof as we can). This is still a work in progress (finishing it up next weekend), but the drivers side we will have to lay the panel in, then weld in another good sized piece of steel to reinforce the top of the frame. You will also want to do that last part since the top part of your frame rail rusted away. This will strengthen the frame back up by fully boxing the frame rail again (the 16 gauge, or whatever it is, steel for the floor pans will not do anything if you get into an accident. As my friend said, it can fold like an accordion if you get into an accident). If it is not rusted up into the tunnel area (from the looks of it, it is rusted up into that area), you can get away with just picking up a Comanche floor panel. If you do this, I still highly suggest putting that extra piece of metal in there for the ribbing to strengthen up the frame back to factory specs. I was pretty much just being his tool fetcher as he did the work but I kept a close eye to learn. It actually is very easy. You will definately want to get some seam sealer (we're using Locktite's version of liquid nail which should do nicely). I'm going to be snapping some pictures of what we've done so far and after he tacks this side together to put on a build thread I'm doing on another site, I can post some of them up here if you would like.

I was running 36's on my old XJ with 8" and wanted to drop down to 6", that was trimmed to hell though. If you want the full range of the flex, you'll be stuck with 36's and 6" with a ton of trimming. If you are just looking to shove larger tires in there with barely any flex, I'm sure you can fit 35's with a 4.5" lift with trimming the fenders and bed to all hell. I plan on running 37's with one tons under my Comanche once the funds permit (already have the axles, just need to rebuild them), but I plan on trimming and having all that space to fully flex. If you already have the dana 300, looking into an AX15 with the NP231 and run a doubler. You can get the transfer case gearing down to 7.1 that way. If you run the 4.1 kit in the NP231, you can reach 10.1.

If you can't get it to budge with a hammer, you might need to apply some heat to them to soften up the rubber a little. Last set I did I got frustrated and just melted them out, cut into the outside metal part with a sawsaw on opposite sides(careful not to cut too deep) and just tapped it out in two pieces. However you get them out, make sure you clean up the surfaces before the new one goes in. Then if you choose to use a hammer, pound the hell out of it and it'll be in. I used a piece of wood between the hammer and bushing to try to prevent some of the damage, you can also use a piece of metal, just something to spread out the impact a bit.

So that's what that sensor was. :rotfl2: I ended up breaking the pigtail off mine somehow on my old Cherokee but never bothered with it since the performance and gas mileage wasn't effected at all. That's what I love about this forum, they ask one thing and we all learn about other stuff. :clapping:

They actually have two sensors in some of the older ones. The actual coolant temp sensor is on the back, driver side head as Geonovast said. The second is the one that controls the fan. In the older Renix style, the sensor is in the bottom, drivers side radiator, towards the back half. In the Chrysler style (91+), the sensor is in the thermostat housing. If you have a sensor in the thermostat housing, check to see if someone converted your system to an open style cooling system (radiator has a cap on it to fill). That can save a lot of headaches later if you figure out now if they actually did swap them.

This is a pic of my '86 long bed when I first got it. Sorry it's not the best of angles but it's the only picture I have before I lifted her (click on the picture for a larger image). That front tire is actually an A/T while the rear is an M/T.

As Brandon said, they will fit. They will rub a little before full lock. I bought my '86 with 31x10.5 mud terrains on it with no lift.

D30 yoke nut is 1 1/8", don't know about rear axle (35/44/8.25/8.8 ). Transfer case fill and drain plugs are 30mm. On a Dana 35/30lp on the TJ I'm working on, the yokes are both 30mm, same on the transfer case. Besides being lp vs hp, the yokes should all be the same. Guess it all matters where it was built or something.

30mm sounded a bit small for that, knew it was one of those two. The driveshaft yoke nuts are 30mm then. That works but I'm not too much of a fan of putting that kind of strain on the outer axle, steering, ball joints, and everything else. The worst thing you're going to have to do is tap the dust shield back flat with the chisel vs having to replace something expensive (seems like only the hard to get and expensive parts break :fs1: ).

The adapters and whatnot for the trans I got cheap, found everything I needed for $200, then just bought a flywheel and clutch (which I was going to replace no matter what choice I made since I had it all apart). Just having that feeling of knowing the trans and transfer case are good, plus I don't need to customize the floor pan and linkages, gives me ease of mind (I took it out of my other Comanche after driving that for a while, that one is getting a full rebuild from the ground up so it doesn't need them). Also for AMC, don't forget the GM steering columns and that crappy 2.8L we have! :fs1: Thanks for the info. I'm way more of a Ford fan than a Chevy fan so never bothered looking up these things. That and I never had the reason since I found a set of Dana 60HP king pin and 10.25 ff axles from a Ford for cheap, won't be breaking them any time soon. :D

Every Chevy Dana 60 I've seen has been passenger side drop, guess they stopped putting those in in the late 80's/early 90's? And the reason I chose a Chevy 350 was due to the cheapness and availability of the parts. The axles are going to be Ford axles while the trans/transfer are going to be Chrysler. It's going to be an odd mix but that's what AMC is. :yes:

You want to go spring over for 5-6 inches, add a leaf for 2-3 inches, and extended shackles for 1-2 inches???? that between 8-11 inches of rear lift!!! Youll need long arms up front to make the front work properly.... and thats if you can find springs and shocks long enough to "level it out". Very ambitious.... and very expensive. If you can't afford to have a shaft shortened, you can't afford to lift the front that much. I'm not sure what your final plans are, but to keep things reasonable, I would stick with a spring over only in the rear, and a 4.5 inch kit in the front with a spring spacer, and control arm drop brackets with custom control arms. Still expensive, but within reason. Let us know what your plans are, I'm very curious! 8" isn't too bad, my old Cherokee was running that easily (I was running long arms though). There's a guy in town that runs about 11" on his Comanche with 40" Boggers and was running short arms. The Jeep ran rought but went straight down the road. He has since went to leafs all around with 3/4 ton axles.

Thanks for clearing that up. It's been about a year or so since I did one and couldn't remember exactly if you had to or not, I just included it just in case.

It's fairly straight forward. The hardest part is getting the hub off. You will need a nice sized hammer and flat punch (screw drivers work, not as well though), or an air hammer, to make life easy when wedging the hub out of the spindle. Since I was running wheel adapters adn 36" tires on my Cherokee while the front axle was getting built up (wanted to keep with matching rims so I only needed one spare), I was going through a few hubs a year. With it basically broken loose, I was doing a side in about 20 mins with air tools. If I remember right, you will need: 18 or 19mm socket (for lug nuts) 12mm wrench (for caliper bolts) 15mm wrench or socket (for caliper bracket bolts) 13mm 12pt wrench (for hub bolts) 30mm socket (for axle nut) Chisel Hammer

I'm not sure what you have around you, but the auto parts places around me do have a bunch in stock. It would just be a matter of taking the end to the store and having them match it up.

Just to add on the DW. It can also be the wheel hubs. If everything looks tight in the front end, lift up the front end one corner at a time and check. Shake the wheel left and right and up and down. If it moves, have a buddy shake it as you look behind it to see what's loose. If it move left and right, it's something in the steering or the wheel hub. If it moves up and down, it's either a ball joint or the wheel hub. Headers come down to how much you want to spend, you get what you pay for. I haven't heard anything bad about Dynomax headers though.