eaglescout526

Whats that in my driveway?

I think it’s the left most relay. Middle ought to be O2 and that third one is probably fog lamps or AC. But probably fog lamps since it doesn’t look like you have AC.

I used a dryer for it’s sheet metal to create a new floor pan in my XJ. Little bit thicker and already coated in anti rust stuff. But that’s just my broke self.

That car was an absolute blast to drive. Smiles per mile all the way. And he’s not kidding about people just casually asking you what car it is. Nuts!

I can without a doubt say he is doing better.

Sounds normal if you have command-trac NP231. The Selec-Trac cases have a differential in them that allows the front wheels to rotate at a different speed so you can use 4wd all the time if you’d like. At least that’s how the 228/9 works. Not entirely familiar with the 242 but I imagine it’s the same way.

Yeahhhh this has been a frustrating journey. Most of which I could’ve had corrected in the very beginning when I did the beam swap. But I’ve learned a lot. Also learned impact isn’t good enough for ball joints…anywho! I’m not confident in the new track bar and my clocking issue returned with the mopar bar. So I’ll probably get a new one at some point. Probably will get the tires looked at too. Just as a precaution. But I went a didn’t a sanity check drive. 45MPH on the rough road where it would trigger. Nothing. 60MPH on a road with sewer covers, nothing. I think it’s fixed. Alignment was an issue and didn’t pop up until the previous rookie mistakes were corrected.

Ok so track bar was swapped, steering was inspected and there was no change. How ever…. What are the chances of the toe in and toe out being too much and causing such? (Guess what I should say here is that the front tire alignment was about 53” and the rear of the tires was about 54 1/2” out)Cause I found them out of whack and dialed them in. So far trying to trigger it hasn’t happened at either 40 or 45. Nor 50 on a clean road. I’m still skeptical of the tire balance like you said Pete.

What a fun predicament! I miss running VINs.

This is one of those I don’t care how weak the set up is, I’d just like it for the cool factor and some slight functionality. If needed I can beef up what’s already existing.

I see a pumpkin in the pic of the MJ.

The switch on the case could be stuck forcing the CAD to remain in 4wd. Try disconnecting the vacuum at the CAD and see if the light turns off

Ugh. I’d love to have one of these kits.

I can definitely rule this out. I had my bolts loose and I mean loose to where the box moved on my XJ and noticed the steering wandering/slightly unresponsive. I should’ve had death wobble several times over in that case given nothing other than control arm bushings had been replaced on it. Brand new spicer joints I’ll put the mopar bar back in and see what happens. I’ve never seen anything move that shouldn’t be moving and vice versa when I’ve inspected the front end before. I was doing inspections on the front for my clocking issue and even though I found the track bar bracket to have moved, not once with the engine on did I see the bracket move cause only the turning force/momentum would force the track bar bracket to shift.

Steering wheel will shake but I can keep it under control. Front end vibrates/shakes violently. Won’t stop until I come down to 20mph and under.

While I do not have a manual steering gear, something I thought of when I read this was what if one had a manual gear? Running the engine wouldn’t yield much to them and wouldn’t such result in the same results if I was moving the steering wheel without the engine running with a power steering set up? Im just not seeing how running the power steering or not running it will net me more accurate results. Plus a running engine won’t allow me to really hear anything like a popping that I could be feeling in the steering column. What am I looking for at the frame bracket? I’ve made sure the hardware is torqued to spec and looked for the hole to be wallowed out. Frame is in great shape, no cracks or rust of any kind. Jeep wasn’t really beaten on prior to me.

This will be my next step if a better track bar doesn’t fix this. Also to add, I found my steering gear under torque spec.

Nothin with the steering wheel wiggle. The only sound I heard was the steering gear being rocked back and forth. I felt and watched each joint, nothin out of place. Felt the ball joints and observed, nothing.

No, has some pitting but not worn down or out. Nothing that compromises the strength of the bolt. I dont know, that joint feels kinda trashed and like it wouldnt help keep its position. I can always make a side by side clip of the two. Ill go have someone wiggle the wheel.

Process of elimination mi amigo! How ever I found exactly what I was going to expect when I removed the track bar. Bad pic alignment on the axle but they’re both completely round and as they should. Now I’d be damn impressed if the hole for the frame mount wallowed out. That that is some thick iron. How ever. Two things. One the tie rod for the track bar is rather loose. Compared to the old mopar bar still laying around, it’s really loose. The mopar bar requires some effort to move the tie rod. Another concern is the bolt thickness at the axle. Is a slight wiggle ok there? I feel like it is but I’d imagine the bolt is supposed to fit snug in the axle side. This is with the bolt in the bushing not the axle. Though there is some wiggle there but that goes away as your torque it down.

I do believe it. It’s on my list. I’ll go to my local discount and have them make sure the balance is correct. Im leaning toward track bar being an issue. What sucks though is it doesn’t seem like there’s alot of choices for track bars. Most are made by one company and the brands simply relabel the part number minus the 1147 portion of the number. How ever the same number is doing pretty well on the XJ…but the track bar on the MJ has gone through 5 death wobbles at this point.

Are any of the cooling system parts new? Hoses? Heater control valve? Intake coolant passage cleared?

You say the block is rebuilt. How rebuilt? Entirely to the point where the block was cleaned inside and out including the coolant passages?

Luckily there’s lots of info here and everyone is willing to help. Feel free to post any tech questions you have in the tech section or PM me as well if youd like

Lol. You can use any year radio you like. I believe 86 uses the same 84-85 pack-con connectors but I could be wrong. But those connectors are not easy to come by on the aftermarket scene. However 87-89 uses metri pack and there’s the Chrysler proprietary connector that should be readily available to adapt as well. I highly recommend not cutting up the radio harness unless absolutely necessary.