Minuit

I think I like Camel better. I imagine it's closer to the original color without 30 years of fading from the sun:

It's important to mention that on 4WD vehicles, the same adjustment controls pinion angle and caster angle, with a correct pinion angle having priority. On 2WD vehicles, dial in as much caster as you want, but on a 4WD truck, make sure the pinion angle is correct. The 1990 FSM specifies an allowed range of 5 to 9 degrees, with 6 degrees preferred.

Long shoe to the rear.

Keeping this thread alive, SEM #15323 Palomino is a very close match to the factory 1987 tan plastics - close enough that I'd feel comfortable mixing painted and original parts. The seat trim panel is an original 1987 interior part. The MJ kick panel is a grey one I painted with the SEM #15323. Compared to a seat: The plastics look lighter than the vinyl from the factory. The seat fabric is sun faded and would've been much darker when new. SEM makes a darker tan, Camel, and I was tempted to order it too but decided to go with this one. I may order a can of Camel and see how it compares. It might look good doing a "two-tone" like the factory grey interiors. BTW - my O'Reilly Auto Parts can order SEM interior paints and have them in the store same day. They ordered every tan color in the catalog and just sent back the ones I didn't think would match. The SEM paint is very forgiving to spray. It seems to work best doing a lot of very light coats, with about 10 minutes in between. If you spray too heavy of a coat, the paint will fill in the texture in the plastic, but even when I sprayed too much it never sagged or ran. It dries very fast. About 20 minutes after finishing up, it was completely dry to the touch.

I will be converting my '89 to have a "Honey" aka "Butterscotch" aka "Palomino" aka "the AMC tan color" interior. I am looking for the following parts: Door panels - any type with the "Hockey Stick" type armrests. Slight preference for a door panel with plaid fabric that matches this seat... ...but no big deal if they don't. They would have to be from a Laredo, and those don't exactly grow on trees. Male seat belts - these are MJ specific. No big deal if they are dirty as long as the seat belt has not been in an accident. To clarify, I need the part that bolts to the B-pillar and contains the retractor. I do not need the female part at this time. This is a serious long shot, but if you have a seat (passenger or driver) in the above fabric without rips or tears, I am very interested as well.

The working height of a spring comes from a combination of the stiffness and uncompressed length. The Rusty's spring is stiffer both because the coils are thicker and are more closely spaced, so it will compress less when the vehicle's weight is on it... probably about 2" less. Springs are complicated.

I think you should do it. That's easy for me to say, NOT being the one planning a 6k mile trip

I'll rephrase the post I made earlier: Automatic for "appliance duties" or when the vehicle needs to do a lot of work like wheeling or towing, manual for driving enjoyment, with a floor shifter much preferred for both. I don't think I'd love driving my 89 very much sitting in stop-go-stop-go interstate traffic for an hour a day. That's when I really appreciate the auto. As far as autos go, the AW4 is still among the best IMO even though it's a 33 year old transmission. Maybe I'm just used to it though. In most cases, it seems to shift when I'd shift if I were driving a manual.

Give me 3 pedals any day. If it's an automatic, at least make it an unobtrusive auto like the AW4. I think most bench seats are uncomfortable and lacking in support, so I'd much rather have supportive bucket seats and a floor shifter.

I like it.

Most of my door dings are a few inches below the door handle. I would judge that trim (and the factory stuff) purely based on whether or not you like the way it looks. I strongly doubt it offers any real protection.

Ditto. The spare tire instructions were stuck right to the rear cab wall on mine. Without looking at the brochures, I suspect the Pioneer package added the rear carpet (as it added floor carpet) and it was probably available as a separate option on otherwise base trucks.

I'm not gonna tell you how many times I've popped that fuse because of my Euramtec lights. I always forget about it until I need to pull those trim panels off for something.

As a side point, the "rivets" are in no way specific to the Eliminator. The '91 Jeep Book brochure (I think) shows an XJ Sport with what we think of as Eliminator wheels.

That looks like a 91-95 engine to me. The '96 valve cover is different. '95 up brake master cylinder. That steering column would be out of either a '95 or '96. That looks like the pre '95 power seat controls, but I don't really remember what the '95-'96 power seat controls look like. Looks like a '95 XJ was the donor for most of the parts.

Radio memory is on the DOME circuit, as is almost everything in the cab that must have power with ignition off. Dome lights, clock, radio memory, glove box light are what come to mind. Most aftermarket radios will not turn on without both BAT and ACC. From what I know, the clocks are the same way. Most factory radios will turn on, but will fail to remember the time or station presets. If I were you, I'd start at the radio. About 0.001% of people who install aftermarket radios in these things bother to do it properly. If you find a rat's nest of wire nuts, crimp caps, and other assorted crimes against humanity behind the radio, there you go. It's also possible that the radio is shorted to ground internally. I've seen that a time or two. If the radio turns up nothing, it's time to grab the wire diagram and go hunting. Do you have aftermarket dome lights such as Euramtec that use bare quick connectors?

A nearly identical problem in my '89 ended up being a pinhole in the vacuum line running from the throttle body to the MAP sensor. Very hard to see, but it was there.

I don't usually bother with the wave. If someone waves at me, there's a 90% chance I didn't even notice it, or by the time I noticed the wave it was too late to wave back. I'm not a total @$$ - if I see someone wave at me I'll wave back, but I almost never even notice. I was driving my MJ when I saw my first Gladiator in the wild, and the driver looked at my truck but didn't wave.

Man, I wish my red truck was 1% as pretty as this.

Never, if you're gentle on it. Some BA-10s have 300k miles on them without a rebuild. Some blew up young. I'm betting the difference was between the seat and pedals. With that being said, if the transmission can't handle being driven roughly, it's really not suited to the application anyway. But don't think your trans is going to blow up any day now unless you're doing burnouts or are doing heavy wheeling.

The fittings on the steering box were both 18mm for me.

The holes between the visors are for the front bracket for the overhead console. Not ever available on MJs, but very handy for those of us with plans to add it to the MJ. I strongly recommend the SMS replacement headliner. I have one and will probably be buying two more in the near future.

Try looking by the dimensions of the hole. You might get lucky and find something that'll work. Anything round is easy, but if it's the plugs I'm thinking of, it might be tough to find a suitable replacement new.

That's the spirit!

I used front flaps on the rear. Check my signature for details, or in short: flip the brackets around and drill 2 holes.