AZJeff

When it comes to manifold gaskets, the OEM style are very finicky and marginal to get a good seal, especially with age. Someone on one of the Jeep forums turned me on to the special gaskets made by Remflex. They are the bomb.

I have always wondered if some sort of diversion dam could be made above the fuse box connector area, and attach it with some body seam sealer. Water that ran down the firewall would reach this dam and be diverted to the side, away from the wiring opening in the firewall.

When I did the conversion on my 89 MJ with the D44, I used the Teraflex kit. that kit appears to be combination of parts from ZJ and KJ parts. I had to take the two circular spacers they provided for the backing plate and shave the thickness a bit. I also had to devise a bracket to support the axle end of the flexible caliper hose. Othwise, the kit was pretty much plug and play. I converted my parking brake to the handle/lever type from an XJ, and used cables from a KJ to run between the handle and the actuator lever on the backing plate.

The self-centering function in the steering is controlled by the caster of the vehicles front wheels. The tendency to hold a straight line on a flat road is controlled by the toe-in of the steering linkage. before doing any fiddling with any adjustments, start by making sure both tires in the front are inflated to the same pressure. If that checks out, it’s time to start measuring caster angles (and toe-in, while you are at it.)

As a daily driver with incorporates light off-roading, a D35 is just fine. People break them when they install monster wheels/tires or do stupid stuff like dropping the clutch.

My machine shop told me to run 10w30 Dino oil for the first 500 miles, then change it. Then another 1500 miles with the same oil, and change again. At that point, run what you want. I personally will be running Mobil One 10w30, as the Oil Geek on YouTube says the ZDDP levels on the current blend of that is quite adequate for flat tappet camshafts.

My “2000 MJ” has the SKIM steering column, but I did not activate it. Having the dealer program SKIM keys was too much of an PITA in my opinion. Instead, I installed a fuel pump cut-off switch that is hidden, but very accessible, if one knows where to look. With this switch in the off position, the engine will run for about 5 seconds on residual fuel pressure before the engine becomes immobile. That’s pretty much the same behavior the SKIM does.

If the track bar bolt hole on the axle is "slightly" worn out, you can go a SAE (Imperial) threaded bolt to replace the metric factory one. The SAE type will be slightly larger in diameter and fill up the hole better. If the axle bracket is seriously oversized, welding on thick washers is the way to restore the hole to the proper size. The factory track bar setup at the chassis end is problematic because of the ball stud type of pivot. I would switch the bracket AND the track bar to a more conventional style with rubber bushings on both ends, and built-in adjustability

Tire balance (and tire quality) can have significant impact on DW. You put on new (different) tires, you say. What brand/size/type? New or (slightly) used?

I installed the LED taillights in my MJ even though I had reworked a set of OEM lights using the new KeyParts lenses. My reason for doing so was to increase taillights brightness, as the MJ taillights were never terribly bright, and I want people to notice my brake lights particularly. The LED light are an improvement, although they are not cheap. I give them a thumbs up for construction quality as well.

I don't understand the issue here. The MJ uses multiple filaments in one bulb for brakes and turn signals, the XJ does not, correct?. Just rewire the rear bulb sockets to duplicate the XJ bulb usage pattern. Yeah, the means possibly adding another wire to run to the rear of the vehicle, but that's not a hard thing to accomplish. Is the lack of the XJ dash wiring diagram the hurdle to overcome? If that is the case, I can provide that.

I sometimes suffer from mild vertigo in my left ear, so I know what you are experiencing. Your vertigo issue is probably caused by small crystals that form in the fluid of the inner ear. When you lay down, the crystals move around in the fluid, and contact small hair-like cells inside that part of the inner ear, and it triggers your brain to think you are imbalanced. An ENT doctor might be able to find ways to eliminate those crystals….

The flip side of avoiding the parts cannon, consider that our trucks are all pretty old, and unless they have already had some TLC, the front end parts are pretty beat up. That means virtually all the joints and fittings could benefit from a refresh.

Hardened washers are the way to go here. Or, as others mentioned, self-locking nuts. Newer vehicles have moved away from castellated nuts to self-lockers, to simplify production, so I would feel confident in that solution.

THIS IS SOLID ADVICE. The cost of the parts, plus the possible discovery of pitted bores in the caliper body (and no way to fix them yourself) makes the rebuild of calipers at home an exercise in frustration.

That rubber line is just barely long enough in the photo as is, where the vehicle is at normal static ride height. the first time that axle is unloaded substantially, the hose will be damaged, possibly catastrophiccally.

The steering column has electrical switches attached to it for the turn signals and the ignition switch. The turn signals are up at the top, right under the steering wheel. The steering column in your MJ was made by General Motors, so any writeup on how to disassemble a GM column would apply. Pages onwards through 4 of the following write-up should explain how to gain access to the turn signal switch in that type of column: GM column disassembly The ignition switch is on the top of the column down near the brake pedal, and it's easiest to drop the column to work on that piece.

I prefer to just jack up the front axle with a floor jack and cycle the steering linkage from lock to lock rather than trying coax the drag link off the pitman arm. YMMV....

A large piece of heat shrink tubing can be put over the body side of the tailgate hinge to make it a bit quieter. It helps “somewhat”🥴 on mine. I also have a hose clamp on the passenger’s side as a theft deterrent device that also helps a small amount with the hinge slop. overall, the MJ tailgate hinge is pretty hokey in the amount of clearance that is present even without wear on the surfaces.🤣

In Oder to answer your question, you need to tell us how much of the front clip you are removing. is the hood coming off? What about the radiator (and AC condenser, if present)? Is the front grille and grille surround removed?

My experience with rebuilt or “remanufactured” steering boxes has been ZERO percent good for multiple vehicles and from multiple vendors (Oreillys, AZ, Rock Auto, you name it. I tried to get a PSC during the height of the ‘Rona virus, and they were back ordered for months. I gambled and baought a new one from Crown. I have been quite pleased, and it’s an exact clone of a Saginaw box, minus the Saginaw logo cast into the housing. It’s not cheap ($400+), but it works exactly as designed, and I run 32’s.

If there is an Autozone or an Oreillys nearby, you can get the tool on loan from them to take off and reinstall the pulley. there are plenty of YouTube videos on how such tools are used to remove or install the pulley on to the PS pump shaft.

The 4.0 engine in the MJ/XJ runs hot BY DESIGN. With OEM cooling system parts, normal operating temperatures will be about 200* F, give or take 5 degrees, when using an OEM rated 195* thermostat. One should not trust the guage on the instrument panel (and I don’t, because they are only an “approximate” indicator or actual temperatures.) An infrared temperature measuring tool aimed at the thermostat housing will give you the best measurement of actual engine temperature.

I will admit I am not familiar with how the REM device actually measures voltage, so I cannot comment on why you are seeing that device reporting low voltage while the battery is just fine. sorry

For starters, do NOT rely on the guage on the instrument panel to give you accurate voltage readings. Instead, measure the voltage on the battery terminals directly using a VOM. Additionally, with the blower on full tilt and with all exterior lights on, those devices probably draw more current than your alternator can deliver at idle. That would cause a less than fully charged battery to begin to show a voltage slump. this can be confirmed by running engine RPM up to 1500 or higher, and measuring battery voltage with a VOM while all of those devices are turned on.