AZJeff

Any decent fastener supply shop should have them. Amazon will have them if you like. You can also try W.W.Grainger. They are on line and have a store in Des Moines.

Christmas tree clips are available in bulk on Amazon. I have a bunch of various sizes as spares to deal with the numerous issues that show up with them breaking here in the Arizona heat. the type that Jeep used on the MJ have a cruciform cross section, and are more fragile than the common type on Amazon. If you replace one, do them all, since the old design sucks.

There are shipping services listed on eBay Motors for those persons who buy vehicles across the country. Many of them are used to dealing with vehicles in non-running condition. It's not going to be cheap. The prices you have been quoted don't seem to be grossly out of line.

The "new" Cherokee Latitude (and other sub-models) is VASTLY different in mechanical layout than the older Cherokee that was produced up until 2001. Unless you are willing to take on a VERY complex conversion, don't even think about using parts from that vehicle to upgrade your MJ. Pete M is givng you the best advice on how to modernize the driveline in your MJ.

Nice work, but one comment: sealing up boxed sections of a frame is a VERY bad idea. Moisture that is inside the frame at time of welding can now just sit there and go to work creating rust. This is one of the big issues that plagued early unibody cars. It's MUCH better to have vent holes, and plenty of them. Ideally, they should be at least 1/2 inch in diameter, and located on bottom surfaces where water can run out.. Just make sure you locate them where wheel splash won't force road dirt mixed with water into those vent holes. I know this sounds very counter-intuitive, but you will have FAR less rust on frame with plenty of open holes for air circulation that you will on one that is all sealed up.

Just about any engine that will physically fit into the engine compartment is a candidate for conversion. However.....the further your alternative engine is from the original one(s) for the MJ, the more money you will spend getting the conversion to function correctly. For example, the new (fake) Cherokees you suggested are designed to be front wheel drive first and foremost, with all wheel drive being the option. That means the engine/trans is really a FWD setup. That would make a conversion of an MJ using this engine.....challenging to say the least. Your best bet is to find a decent used engine from a junkyard XJ or MJ, and install that. It is the closest to "plug and play" as you can get.

Sand blasting (or better yet, bead blasting) would clean that up quite well. then coat it with a paint that is tolerant of constant exposure to gasoline.

The following tools make this job easier (but not totally painless): automatic centerpunch to create a correct starting point SHARP drills starting at about 1/8” or less drilling up in size at about 1/8 inch increments until you get to about the correct tap size a clean sharp tap of the appropriate size to match the biggest sized hole you drilled PATIENCE I just retapped all of my trans crossmember bolt holes using these guidelines with no broken taps or drills.

I never have heard of bad experiences with Moog, and always thought of them as a "Tier One" aftermarket supplier of suspension parts. Please give us a summary of why you think Moog isn't so good.

I have successfully spray painted interior stuff in place, using that previously recommended SEM Color Coat. You need to do it in a garage or the like, where there is no breeze. You also need to cover stuff nearby with old sheets or other lightweight drop cloth materials. The SEM paint dries very quickly, so it's not like the airborne droplets remain sticky for very long.

Thanks. It's odd that when I shop for this on Amazon, it says it does not fit my MJ. I guess you cleared that up.

Are the wiper linkage bushings on the MJ's different than those for XJ"s? And are there more than one type of bushing that was used over the various model years of MJ/XJ? I am having trouble finding bushings for my wiper linkage at the usual on-line sites.

Thanks for finding that table. I knew it was out there, but had no idea I had already been shown this in response to a similar question before. Chalk it up to age. Yeah, that's my excuse.

I seem to remember this topic has been covered before, but I cannot seem to find it by searching the forum. For a 3.5 inch lift, what sort of choices do I have for decent rear shocks? I know one way to figure this out is to measure the max. axle droop and the height when against the bump stop, but I am also hoping someone has found some brands to be better than others, especially for a MJ that rarely carries any load.

That’s cute. I have never seen one before. I am not a bit fan of drilling and tapping resins. That’s why most manufacturers use brass inserts when they need threaded holes in plastic resin pieces.

The method I would use is tedious, but would duplicate factory retention capabilities: 1. With Drexel tool or similar, grind surface of broken stud so a flat surface is present. 2. Using a punch, carefully create a divot in the center of the dressed stud face to allow drilling. 3. Drill a a small pilot hole (3/32”) on the divot. After the pilot hole is about 5/16” deep, start making the hole bigger with larger drills until the stud is entirely drilled out of the fiberglass header. 4. Clean the hole out to remove all drilling residue. 5. Cut a piece of “all thread” of the same diameter and length as the drilled-out broken stud. 6. Using “JB Weld” or similar, glue the stud into the hole. Allow to dry, and enjoy the results.

The amount of lift on a vehicle (above stock ride height) will also decrease fuel economy. I discovered that when I lifted my first XJ. Fuel economy dropped about 1.5MPG by adding 2 inches of lift.

I got tired of buying crappy reman'd boxes for my old F150 from Autozone. They would get loose after about 2 years. When it came time for my MJ to get a new box, I went with a AC Delco reman from Rock Auto. I figure Delco probably took over the responsiblity for the Saginaw Steering gear products from GM, and I surmised that they might actually know more about how to do a reman correctly. So far, so good, but it's only be about 18 months.

I think you are confusing things here. The weight on the axle is NOT intended to deal with engine vibrations as much as it's designed to deal with some sort of interaction between the rear axle and the chassis (frame). Engine vibrations are usually dealt with by motor mounts and/or placement of mounts on the engine block. A 90 degree V6 that has no counterbalance shafts or split connecting rod journals has a weird type of vibration. If you were to be able to view a running V6 from the front of the crankshaft pulley, the engine will have a rocking couple that tries to make the crankshaft rotate about an elliptical path, with the narrow side of the eclipse being vertical. This is why, when modern V6's get very big in displacement, they tend to add in counterbalance shafts, because not reasonable amount of motor mount compliance can hide that second order harmonic elliptical vibration. This in the mechanical engineering explanation for V6 engine vibration. If you already knew all of this, I apologize, but it's worth noting that, for those of us who cruise around using a 4.0 engine, we are spoiled by it's inherent smoothness, and thus tend to forget how shaky a V6 can really be.

My wife drives a 2004 KJ with the V6. For all of it's life until the past year, the engine vibration in the cab was very minimal. Then, over the past 12 months, the engine seemed to have developed more vibration, and thought it was some sort of misfire type situation. It turned out to be bad motor mounts. After replacing all the mounts, the vehicle is back to being very smooth considering it's a V6. If you feel any significant vibration in your KJ when it's idling, check your motor mounts. I would bet they are collapsed, if they are the original ones.

Precisely. Who knows what sort of vibration the Liberty had in the rear end. The manufacturers put them on special shake fixtures to analyze the chassis for such types of behavior.

Keeping that weight on the 8.25 when installed in any vehicle except the KJ may actually INCREASE the NVH in the vehicle. Those weights are VERY specific in mass and mounting location, and are designed to deal with some unique vibration that was found on the KJ during development. (Notice how the weight actually hangs off only one side of the axle housing) i remember my ex-wife has a Ford Fairmont with a 4 cyl. engine it it that had such a NVH weight on the tail shaft housing for the automatic trans. My buddy had a Fairmont as well, but with a V8. The V8 Fairmont did not have that NVH weight. Different driveline, different vibrations.

That is a chassis-specific vibration damper. It's for NVH--noise, vibration, harshness. In other words, it's needed on a Liberty, but not on any other chassis. Take it off, and enjoy it as is.

SIdebar question here: The brackets you are using to lower the front sway bar mounts to the chassis I assume are a commercial item you installed. Who made them? I ask because when I was looking for those for my MJ, the ones I saw did not have enough of an "offset" to shift the mount location far enough forward to keep my extended sway bar links vertical when the tails of the sway bar were in their proper (horizontal) position. Because of this, I ended up making my own which was a big PITA. Just curious.

When you turn those on, I bet the engine stalls due to the load on the alternator