AZJeff

I painted mine with “trim black” and it looks great. But... my wedding ring (made of tungsten) wears off the paint on the inside. Oh well.....

I also recommend lubricating the release cable. Take the cable off the bell crank, and use some lubricant down the end of the cable and work the cable back and forth. i use a lubricant intended for bicycle control cables. Doing this lessens the pull force quite a bit.

The method Dzimm is suggesting works quite well, and can be tucked up next to the rail of the "uniframe".

Anything better than a rattle-can paint job needs to have all rust neutralized/removed and any holes repaired before painting, or it will come back quickly. if you plan to add oversized fender flares, any cutting, etc. for those should be done before painting.

That is a REALLY FIRST CLASS job of fitting that OHC into the MJ roof. I had an XJ with that long console, and the one I have in my MJ now came with the vehicle (but not connected) and is the "mini" one, with only some map lights, and no thermometer/compass. I like yours much better!

Down here in AZ, there are a bunch of smaller (semi-micro brewers) who offer some good IPA's: San Tan Brewing "Moon Juice Galactic IPA" (Chandler, AZ) Dragoon Brewing "Dragoon IPA" (Tucson, AZ) Mother Road Brewing "Tower Station IPA" (Flagstaff, AZ)

Add washers to space it properly. Crushing the shackle will make for problems if you have to disassemble it later.

I would definitely recommend the ZJ steering parts (tie rods & drag link). i do not think there is any difference between ZJ and MJ/XJ ball joints. i hate the design of the factory track bar where it attaches to the bracket on the chassis. If you can afford the scratch, I would upgrade to an adjustable track bar and corresponding bracket that does away with the ball and socket joint on the chassis end.

I have labeled the chassis pieces in the attached photos you took. I suggest you go to Rock Auto, because they will show you pictures of the parts offered, and you can match not only the names of the parts, but you can confirm the appearance.

Good point, especially if you are running larger wheels and tires and/or have a significant lift.

There isn’t a kit, per se. you just purchase all the pieces for each subsytem. —upper and lower ball joints for the axle —tie rod ends and drag link Ends for the steering —complete track bar i would go to Rock Auto to get the parts. The Moog brand would be among the selections available, and is a very good choice.

Ahhhh.....OK. So can you send us a pic of your cowl and the hole that needs plugging? WIth more details, I might be able to suggest a solution other than welding.

Does the photo you supplied show this "other hole", because I don't see anything that looks very large and needing to be plugged.

Agreed with the suggestion to clean the gunk off. The oil on the rubber bushings for the shock will cause it to deteriorate. Time to get some foamy engine cleaner and the hose, and go to work on the engine compartment.

Do you want OEM equivalent to attempt to restore your MJ to factory appearance, or just good seat belts? I used these guys, and their belts are perfectly acceptable, but they are not a perfect match to OEM. However, I went with the type of female buckles that are attached to a stiff cable, rather than the fabric type, as they are easier to find with a bucket seat and a console.

No need to take the metal studs off that are welded to the frame around the windshield, but I WOULD remove the little clips, especially if they are the steel kind. They have a tendency to cause rust, even when they are not holding anything down. I am assuming you are having a auto glass shop put the new gasket (molding) in at the same time as installing the windshield itself, because the rubber fits over the edge of the glass prior to being adhesively bonded to the window opening.

I haven't seen anyone talk about this here, but based on my experience with XJ's and my MJ, the cooling system for the engine is the Achille's Heel of the vehicle. Not taking care of your cooling system can result in getting stranded somewhere (which is annoying) or, worse yet, an overheated engine with head cracks and/or head gasket issues, (which is expensive). Take care of your cooling system: keep the coolant clean, and use distilled water when mixing the antifreeze keep the radiator in good shape. One that has corrosion in the tubes cannot transfer heat. Keep dirt/bugs our of the fins by washing it with a hose nozzle once in a while watch your hoses for soft spots or bulges use a good working pressure cap on your cooling system. The ones in the "closed" systems are especially prone to failure, as is the plastic pressure tank. A cooling system that won't hold pressure will overheat sooner. keep the factory shroud for your mechanical fan installed as from the factory. It helps the fan pull air through. this has been mentioned before, but DO NOT change your thermostat to something with a lower rating than the 195* original level. A lower temp. thermostat WILL NOT make your engine run cooler.

If that is a standard MJ cylinder, they are universal for both sides. It's been so long since I looked at an MJ/XJ wheel cylinder, I became confused and gave the wrong answer in my above post. In thinking more, I answered that there were different for each side based I what I remember about FORD wheel cylinders, which, of course, doesn't help much for an Jeep owner. Sorry for my bad information above.

Usually, the right and left wheel cylinders have the bleeder location and inlet tube location inverted from one side the the other, and thus are side-specific.

Tru dat. But most former owners probably did not follow that rule. Proof of that is the “custom” wiring we see on older MJ and XJ vehicles, using twisted wires and electrical tape, or wire nuts. An owner that would do that wouldn’t worry about distilled water in the cooling system😢

Flushing radiators can be hit or miss, as it all depends on what sort of residue is clogging the radiator to begin with. For example, out here in AZ, our water is VERY alkaline, and radiators that are filled with that water WILL develop lime residue in the tubes that will eventually clog them. The only thing that removes lime residue are acid flushing agents, and acids can and will attack the metal of the radiator as well as the lime inside the tubes. That means the flushing process might result in a radiator with holes in it, or worse yet, one that does not leak, but one that has weakened walls that will burst once it's put under pressure and temperature. Bottom line---flushing may or may not improve radiator performance.

That snaps into the hole in the firewall. On the older MJ's, I think the firewall will need to have the existing hole expanded to accept this new bushing/boot.

The console in my MJ came with it, along with a very sad looking headliner, when I bought the vehicle. It wasn't hooked up correctly at all, but from what I can determine, it came from a later XJ. It's not the same overhead console that was in my 2000XJ "Classic", which was long and contained rear maps lights, so I don't know exactly what year it may have been donated from. The console has a central courtesy dome light, and two map lights, all of which work now. It is fastened to an XJ headliner board that I cut down and recovered with new headliner material. The back of the headliner does not curve down to connect to the rear of the cab like a MJ would, so I added in an aluminum channel (covered in black cloth) that is attached to the inside of the cab with structural adhesive. The blunt end of the back of the cut-off XJ headliner slides above this aluminum channel to be retained in the rear of the cab.

The rear bumper is a complete, from scratch, fabrication using rectangular tubing. After welding/grinding, the entire thing is coated in bed liner. The rear receiver hitch is relatively light duty, but the clevis lugs are serious, and pass through both side of the tubing and are welded on both sides, making them pretty substantial. They are also located very close to where the bumper mounts to the "frame" of the MJ. Here are a couple of pictures.

The front bumper is actually a fabrication using several MJ/XJ front bumpers as pieces. Notice that the contour of the front bumper is segmented, showing that various pieces were cut and then butt-welded together to create the angles needed to match the curve of the front grille. The end caps (which I am not really happy with) were further butt welds with some flat sheet stock to finish the end proper. The entire bumper is covered in bed-liner, so the welds/grinding are concealed under the final coat. Because the bumper is made from factory pieces, the attachment method is factory. BTW, I wouldn't actually use the front clevis' for serious towing/pulling, they are mostly for looks.