AZJeff

I got a set of the new lenses from Key Parts. I also have got a "spare" set of taillights with really crappy lenses that I was going to experiment on. Can you elaborate more on exactly where you made your cuts? I have some small saw blades for my Dremel, and was thinking they might be the ticket for getting the old lenses off the reflector housings. Some close up pictures of where you made the cuts would be really helpful. Thanks.

OK. I looked at the charts in the journal.pmed. (I don't consider NPR an unbiased scientific source, so I skipped them.) You ARE correct that there are some long term effects. The most common one is "anxiety". As a suffered from anxiety myself, I will not dismiss this as not an issue, but HOW MUCH of the anxiety is brought on by our government's fear-mongering that I mentioned originally? I also notice that many of the symptoms listed for "long covid" can also occur in influenza survivors, too. (The rate is not as high with influenza victims, notably.) My point is that nobody carries on about "long flu", and yet it's also a possiblity for influenza survivors. We must balance the realities here. Covid is serious, but it's not the 21st century version of the bubonic plague.

The part in black is incorrect. I "may" prevent death, but it is NOT certain, especially if there are serious co-morbidities. The part red is STATISTICALLY INCORRECT. The majority of Covid deaths occurred in the first 14 months of the pandemic, as the below chart shows. We didn't even reach 50% vaccination rates among the US population until mid-2021

Can you point me to a legitimate source for the statistic of 10-20%? I know there have been "a few" cases of weird aftereffects from Covid, but I have NOT heard of any statistical number being documented and publicized.

CAVEAT: I have been vaccinated, so don’t think I am against the vaccine, per se. However, the following comments about the vaccine and it’s roll-out are my observations. In a former life, before I retired, I was a mechanical engineer for 40+ years. The last 10 years of my career was involved in product/process quality. As such, I dealt with a LOT of statistical data, and our decisions in industry were based on that data. My point with saying the above is the way our government is approaching dealing with this virus is pretty much ignoring the statistics related to it’s impact on people as individuals. Instead, like it often does, our government is trying to apply a “one size fits all” solution for the entire population. We now have PLENTY of data that shows that, statistically, this disease is not the same for all people in terms of risk of infection, risk of hospitalization, or risk of death. But, you wouldn’t know it from the message our government is sending related to this virus. Government agencies have almost COMPLETELY hidden the fact that in general, this illness has a 99.7%+ chance of recovery, even without any sort of vaccine. Furthermore, your chances of being serious ill or dying from Covid is HIGHLY dependent certain specific risk factors, including the following major ones: 1. COMORBIDITIES – if you are diabetic, or very overweight, or have COPD, or CHF, and a few other serious medical issues before becoming infected, your chances of dying from Covid are FAR GREATER (by orders of magnitude) than for someone who does NOT have those issues. The information being disseminated about this virus via government press releases and most media completely IGNORES these added risk factors. 2. AGE – Persons under the age of 45 or so are very unlikely to be seriously affected. Yes, they will get sick, but the chances of dying are quite low (assuming none of the comorbidities mentioned above). If the person is under the age of 18, virtually NOBODY will die from Covid. In spite of this, we have the government and the media clamoring that all school children MUST be vaccinated, even though they are in the LOWEST RISK group. In addition, we have a large percentage of the population was initially told (and still believes) that getting vaccinated will protect you from catching this infection. If you “read the fine print” when the drug makers introduced the vaccines, they never said that the vaccine would PREVENT the infection. Instead it was intended that the vaccines were designed to LESSEN THE SYMPTOMS and thus hasten the recovery. Additionally, those who study viruses and vaccines to control them have stated for years that viruses tend to mutate, and a thus vaccine that is effective now may not be effective with the next mutated strain of the virus. (This is why flu shots are different each year.) Yet, for a long time, the government and media never told us that vaccines for Covid would be a “forever” thing. Instead, they act like they were caught unaware of how the vaccines don’t deal well with the mutations of the original virus, and thus additional boosters are now required. What I am trying to point out here is that our government “leaders” (I use that term loosely) have engaged in a campaign of “selected information” to distribute to the citzens. To compound this, they have engaged in fear mongering, trying to induce EVERYONE to get the vaccine. Worst of all, they have even resorted to economic terrorism, by threatening to shut down businesses that won’t FORCE their employees to get vaccinated. The vaccine is not totally bad. It carries risks for some portions of the population, but then again, so does the Covid infection. However, the way this vaccine has been rolled out and presented to the population is a case study in government incompetence at it’s finest.

I agree. Any competent welding shop can repair a broken aluminum casting with the appropriate welding method and filler. The cost would probably be less than the cost of a used transmission for a case donor.

A warm (not hot) clothes iron will also help remove the wrinkles.

Those belts will be ok if you have a bench seat. With buckets, thought, the buckle end will flop onto the floor when it’s unlatched. I prefer the belts that use the stiff cable on the buckle side of the belt when installed with bucket seats.

Just a tidbit of nomenclature: what is being referred to as the “splitter“ by many of the posts in this discussion is properly called the “equalizer” in parking brake assemblies.

I went through this issue as well, as a previous owner had done a half-a##ed job of repairing cracks caused by some super-swamper tires that were on the machine when I got it.. You should be aware that the MJ/XJ steering box attachment is designed to "just barely" work with stock tires and stock ride height. Changing any of that will stress the frame where the steering box mounts to the point where cracking is a potential. The chances will increase if you do things like rock crawling. Part of the reason the "frame" cracks around the steering box is because the OEM GM/Saginaw box is only mounted with three bolts. Most recirculating ball boxes use four bolts, and that spreads the load on the frame against four points rather than three, lessening the load on each mounting bolt. Four-bolt Saginaw boxes CAN be installed, but it's a lenthy project, and unless you are doing serious off-roading with big tires, it's easier to just bolster the mounting of the three-bolt OEM box. The best thing to do is the following things to resolve your issue, even if you don't plan on doing any of the things I described above that can increase the risk of cracking: 1. ditch the OEM steering box spacer bracket that is made of cast aluminum, and install a steel steering box spacer. There are tons of suppliers for this part, and it helps to distribute the forces on the "frame" over a larger area. 2. increase the thickness of the outside (wheel side) surface of the frame. Some guys weld-in a reinforcing plate, but a good bolt-in plate will do the job if it's thick enough. I extended by RockHard bumper mounting flanges rearward to cover all three bolts for my box. The bumper flange was about 3/16" thick, so adding that layer over the relatively thin "frame" rail wall (that is probably only 1/16 or 3/32 thick) will considerably bolster that outer wall. 3. Use hardened washers under longer grade 8 bolts to attach the steering box. It will spread the clamping force out better on whatever you do to reinforce the outside wall of the "frame" There are two types of cracks that can occur in the MJ/XJ steering box area of the frame: 1. those that radiate out some distance from the mounting bolt holes. These can probably be addressed effectively by the steps I outlined above. 2. If the frame cracks are in the top or bottom surfaces of the "frame" rail, the cracks should be welded, and doubler plates should be welded over the repaired crack. Such cracks will NOT stop when the steering box mounting is repaired, and will continue to get worse. These types of cracks MUST be repaired via welding, as any of the three steps I described above won't really do much, if anything to stop the crack once it has started.

While we are on this topic, tell me about the Transgo shift kit.

Five minutes after I made my post, I saw Eagle’s chart. I drive about 85% in town, and the rest on mountain grades at highway speeds. 4:56 seems a bit overkill for occasional use, but convince me I am wrong.

BACGROUND: My MJ is equipped with an engine & control system from a 2000 XJ, and is thus OBD2. It also has a D44 in the back and a low-pinion D30 up front, with 32” tires. The current axle ratios are 3.55:1 Out here in AZ, when I am driving in the mountains on the highway (65 mph), the trans keeps shifting down as soon as the slightest grade. I end up having to lock it out of overdrive to avoid this annoying “hunting” for the best gear. I am thinking a rehearing of the axles would help to solve this. The question is: what would be the best ratio to install? BTW, I am not looking to make a rock crawler here, so I am looking for the lowest numerical ration I can install that will get rid of the struggle to stay in high gear on the highway.

Yeah, this is often a terminology issue among posters on many automotive forums. For an engine to truly start, it's a two-step process: the starter must rotate the engine, and then the fuel and ignition systems must provide gas and spark at the right moments. When a person writes "my vehicle won't start", he may mean one of two things: 1. there is no cranking of the engine when the key is turned to the "start" position (I call this the "no-crank" condition.) 2. the engine "cranks" as the starter turns it, but the engine does not actual "catch" and begin to run (I call this the "no-start" condition.)

I think in general, unless you are just "fed up" with all fact that you have a vehicle you poured money into, but now had a dead engine, you would be best off doing a "back yard" rebuild. The 4.0 is amazingly tolerant of repair methods that would be rejected by newer/fancier engines. It is quite possible to polish the crank and throw in some undersized bearings (using Plastigage, of course) and wind up with a viable engine. It wouldn't be a job I would be proud to do, but it would create a functional engine.

Cruiser…any advantage to your favorite swap over the classic 95-96 XJ booster/MC?

I agree that that the rad. drain is in a HORRIBLE location. Most guys resort to removing the lower rad. hose where it connects to the radiator. I agree with this approach. It is what it is....

I assume since the one photo shows the Chrysler pentagon logo that the block you are talking about is not new, but is "REMANUFACTURED" from an existing used engine. Otherwise, someone making a "new" replacement engine would not be able to use that logo, as it is copyrighted to Chrysler. If it IS actually a NEW engine block, one possible explanation is that what you see is part the permanent mold sand castings that are used for cores inside the water jacket during the casting process. Essential, the permanent mold is a mixture of sand and a resin binder that holds the shape while the molten cast ironl is poured around it. After the cast iron hardens, the permanent mold sand pieces are broken up and removed from the holes in the water jacket by ultrasonic vibration. The texture/color looks very much like what is in your photos.

Here is a follow up to my steering box issues, for those of you who are interested. The remanufactured box I installed in my MJ 30 months ago was defective. Unfortunately, the warranty from Rock Auto was for 24 months. I purchased a NEW box (ouch), and I installed that, along with designing and fabricating a steering box brace similar to, but slightly simpler than, the one offered by Ironman4x4Fab.com The end result is that the Jeep steers like a new vehicle. It's smooth and sensitive, and best of all, no creaking/groaning sounds!

You need a wiring diagram for the 1987 model year. I have one for the 1988 model year, if it is applicable. Others on this forum can confirm if it would applicable to your needs.

Is there a reason you. MUST have AGM? I ask because down here in AZ, the AGM construction does nothing to extend the life of most batteries, which die due to excessive heat in this environment.

Carbide gasket scraper this will solve your problem without lots of aggravation.

That is correct. I intercepted the line heading to the rear end of the vehicle, and made a splice there in the cab. Then I fished the line up inside the trim on the "B" pillar, and across through the headliner. I used insulated spade connectors to actually joing the light wiring to the new connection. The Ford light came with a wiring harness with three bulbs and a custom connector that attached to the normal Ranger wiring harness. I cut off that connector, and attached spade connectors. For a ground, I added a ring-tongue lug to the Ford ground wire, and attached that with a sheet metal screw inside the boxed in section at the top of the cab at the back. One last thing I did was to switch to LED lights in the sockets. I did that to lessen the chances I will ever have to take the light assembly back out.

Yes. The hole I cut is about 2 inches high, and about 9 inches across. However, with some masking tape and a sharpie pen to outline the cutout, it's easy to use a Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel to make the actual cut.