AZJeff

I have a similar setup, except my lift is about 3.5”, and I get about 18mpg on the road. In town, it’s about 13-15🥴

I have been sidetracked helping my son redo the cam phasers and timing chains in his F150 with a 5.4L engine, but I got time to take some pics people were asking for.

My MJ developed the infamous popping sound near the steering box that I have traced to two issues: 1. The upper/front steering box mounting bolt is pulling through the outside wall of the “frame” rail. Adding a washer did not spread the load enough to prevent further damage. 2. Upon disassembly/inspection, a previous owner welded up (nicely) a crack across the top flange of the frame close to this same mounting hole, and the crack is slowly reappearing. My plan is to weld in a tubular spacer into the mounting hole, and the weld a plate on the outside of the tube to spread the clamping load of the bolt. I am also replacing the cast AL box spacer with a steel one. For the top flange of the frame, I will stop drill the crack, and reweld. Then I will weld on a bolster plate that extends Several inches fore/aft of the crack area. Any other suggestions to avoid further issues? I am no rick crawling with this thing, and I only run 32” tires.

As others mention, those are aftermarket. They are made of aluminum, and I would bet are just installed with big (currently rusty) sheet metal screws. if you want the most durable cosmetic result, clean the alumnium up with a wire wheel and scotch-bride pads, and paint them with an epoxy paint. Use stainless steel fasteners to re- attach, and put a thin piece of plastic between the aluminum and the painted surface, to prevent abrasion of the paint once reinstalled.

I followed Dzimm's advice when I put the Dakota tank on my SWB MJ, and he is pretty much spot on. I will add, though, that you cannot directly use the tank mounting that the original MJ steel tanks used. You will need to devise a mounting to make sure you avoid any potential interference between the new tank and the propeller shaft and rear axle. In this mounting method, make sure your mounting system pulls the tank towards the "frame" rail as well as upward, and you won't have any issues.

Ty-wrap is a brand name like Kleenex. And when I was in the electronics industry, we just used that term generically for all brands of wire ties.👍

That's a good list, but I have some added ideas: Dress your wires as neatly as possible, and keep them from vibrating or chafing against sharp edges. I like to use "Ty-wraps" (nylon wire ties) to hold my wire bundles together. If you need to protect the wire harness beyond dressing, I am a big fan of the corrugated wire looming that is used on many newer cars.

ZJ cables might work. Not guaranteed....just a suggestion.

Unless you are planning on having your Jeep judged to "concours" standards, replicating everything the way AMC/Chrysler did it isn't always the best solution. There are some things that can be done to our MJ's that are just plain better than the original factory approach. A notable example is the wiring for the headlights, where the OEM approach not only resulted in really poor lighting, but eventually can result in your MJ becoming a rolling road flare.

I don’t understand the issue. I can get a wrench on the “nut side” of the track bar bolt to hold it while you torque to spec. The “flag nut” is a production convenience. It’s not mandatory.

These are VERY good points. I didn't realize the OP's engine was modified to generate more HP than OEM. The fact is, the OEM cooling system is designed around OEM power output levels. An engine that puts out more power than OEM will need a larger-than-OEM cooling system. Given the fact that the MJ/XJ already barely has space for the OEM cooling system, this could be a challenge.

Quite frankly, I have never had a problem with the OEM type setup used in the later MJ/XJ's. The engineers designed the system to work at temperatures up to probably 120-130* with the vehicle stationary and the AC on. There are a few caveats to achieving that performance though: everything in the system MUST be performing LIKE NEW. That means: --clean coolant with 50/50 mix, --a radiator that isn't all corroded internally --a pressure cap for open systems set for EIGHTEEN pounds --and a mech. clutch fan that locks up properly I will say one thing, and that is I am not a big fan of the plastic end cap OEM-style radiators, and I replace those with all metal ones. Otherwise, I run the OEM setup. Here in PHX, my MJ gets toasty hot under the hood when it's 110* out. In fact, it gets so hot that I cannot touch the front part of the hood when I open it for more than 1-2 seconds without gloves. It's fun to watch me pop the secondary latch, and then shuffle my hands over to the side of the hood to get away from the heat from the radiator and avoid burning my hands. In spite of this, I have scanned the thermostat housing with an infrared meter, and never seen the temperature climb above 215* at that point.

I ordered a RockHard 4x4 front bumper to put on my MJ, and will be using it in conjunction with the OEM type front skid plate. My front fenders/grille are 97+ off of an XJ, so no cutting needed. The below photo from RockHard shows how that bumper mates up with the factory skid plate, and was part of my reason for choosing that bumper.

And yes, longer wheel studs on mandatory on all of the D35 and D44's used on MJ"s.

Yes, I am referring to ebrake issues. The standard cables used on most older Jeep ebrakes have an outer jacket that passes through a hole in the drum brake backing plate. There is a spring clip that is attached to the end of the jacket, and it contains prongs that lock the jacket into the backing plate. When those standard cables are used on the Teraflex kit, the casting that supports the caliper contains an "ear" with a hole that this ebrake cable is supposed to pass through, mimicing the way it does on a drum brake backing plate. It's intended to be locked into this "ear" with the same spring clip prongs as mentioned above. The problem with the Teraflex kit is that the casting where the "ear" is located is WAY too thick for the spring clip to have it's prongs pop out and lock the cable in place. And NONE of the cables available for MJ's or XJ's use a clip that is dimensionally compatible with this thicker "ear". I talked with Teraflex tech. support about the issue, and they claimed that this is the first they heard of the issue. But, they also admitted that none of their replacement OEM-type ebrake cables would lock into the "ear" on the casting, so they acknowledge the problem, but claim no customers have complained. Realizing I was wasting my time discussing the issue with Teraflex, I designed a retention bracket of my own, and drilled and tapped a hole in the casting to allow this bracket to be bolted on and retain the ebrake cable from the outside of the hole in the "ear". My solution is a secure mounting of the ebrake cable, but does not rely on a spring clip like an OEM system (like that used on my wife's KJ) would.

The Teraflex kit is “ok”, but if requires some “aftermarket engineering” to make it OEM quality. i am a retired professional mechanical engineer, and have been working on cars for 50+ years, so doing some “custom adaptation” is not beyond by skills. If you are looking for “plug and play”, the Teraflex kit isn’t quite there.

I put this Teraflex kit on my MJ, which has a D44 in the back. I encountered two issues: 1. the spacer needed to provide the preload for the wheel bearing (the one HOrnbrod talked about in the post earlier in this thread) is mandatory, and does not come with the kit. 2. normal XJ/MJ/KJ/ZJ type parking brake cables (with the spring clip that slides into the hole) will not properly lock into the lug on the brake backing plate casting that Teraflex provides. I talked to Teraflex about this, and they claimed I was the first to report the problem. I asked their tech. support guy to check his stock of these backing plates, since I assumed I got defective ones. After he did so, he admitted they are all machined incorrectly. I ended up making my own bracket to retain the out parking brake cable jacket on the backing plate, and it's been fine since then.

Yeah, the backup plan is to get some heavy gauge steel bent and I drill it, but that’s more work, of course. I am hoping for the easy route.🥴

I am looking for a pair of the OEM angle brackets that Go between the “frame horns” and the front crossmember below the radiator. I don’t want the ones that actually are used to attach the tow hooks themselves. I checked eBay, but no luck. Any suggestions for a source? Boneyards around here are pretty much cleaned out of this part.

There are rubber plugs in the floor of the cab that can be used to route wires to the back on each side.

If roll pins bother you, consider “spirol” pins. https://shop.spirol.com/viewitems/coiled-spring-pins/inch-sizes-heavy-duty

I used these in conjunction with relays: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07MRB4R3D/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07MRB4R3D&pd_rd_w=3GNmU&pf_rd_p=60f4d8bb-ce34-4daf-9823-4864ac29e442&pd_rd_wg=XTY8q&pf_rd_r=TS7E10ANJCH1NDBMPKBD&pd_rd_r=ed70d297-09cf-4a43-8bbe-fcbbe6fb3d28&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFJODI5RFVSU1RRQVMmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA0NDk1OTgyT1BXUlUzWjJRS1YxJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAyNTE0OTYzR0Y0SlNWWlc4MUU1JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

VERY good point. And the KJ discs are plug and play, once you adapt some appropriate parking brake cables.

Yup. A KJ 8.25 is just as usable as one from an XJ once the spring perches are changed to accommodate MJ springs.

Yes, it's a Dana 30 on all MJ's with 4WD. And yes, the "carrier" must be removed to remove/install the seals, and sometimes is referred to as "the pumpkin".