1987Comanche

Thanks for the info. I'll look for the small holes when I pull the old bumper this weekend.

I had a great find this weekend...a set of OE foglights. Someone hacked up the wiring on the donor truck so I had to find another Cherokee to pull the foglight switch, relay, and harness from. Since neither vehicle was complete I wasn't able to see how the factory routed the foglight wiring from the header panel to the lights themselves. Am I correct in saying the wiring goes through the grille?

If you need the P/N of the 4WD tool I cut up let me know. Once I was able to actually center the press over the ball joint it came out.

Mine were a bear to get out too. My problem with the ball joint service kit was that it didn't fit squarely over the bottom of the yoke (lower ball joint). I cannibalized the 4WD service socket from my K-10 Suburban and cut the tabs off it so I had a nice, thick socket that fit the lower yoke perfectly. I cut the threaded part of the ball joint off (too long for my socket) and wrapped 2 wrenches on the press. If you pull the upper joints out first you can thread the ball joint press through the hole in the upper yoke. My uppers required a long cheater bar to get out. This was for the 2WD MJ but I'd imagine the 4WD is identical.

What color is the 3rd wire?? Can you post a pic? That might be a plug for the fog light connector, etc. The female factory wiring connector is located behind the kick panel on each side of the foot well and plugs into the door pigtail (male connector). The wiring for the pigtail is molded into the body grommet. I ended up running fresh wiring from the stereo and to each of the 4 speakers (body and dash). As it turns out I had 2 bad connectors and one bad wire so there wasn't anything to save. It seems to work pretty well so far.

I'm in Hendersonville too and have been looking for good junkyards since I moved here. The best I've been able to do so far is Pull A part in charlotte. It's a pretty good U pull it but I don't go very often because it's 2 hrs each way. I only found one place that will let you walk around in Asheville, Spartanburg/Greenville. It's called Charlie's scrap metal but the catch is they're only open M-F 9-5, which does me very little good. I'd love to find somewhere that's fairly close by and it open at least 8-12 on Sat. If you're hurting for parts Gosnell's is just off exit 53 on I-26 but everything is $$$$$$ there. If you find any good U pull it's closer than Charlotte PM me. It stinks not being able to run out and grab some piddly little piece you need.

That's a good theory. I looked through the wiring diagrams and didn't find a connector called out or a plug drawing for the vanity mirror. I dug into the dash a bit more and found the LH side actually has 2 plugs of these plugs wired in parallel. Both are disconnected and hanging under the dash.

I'm slowly adding options to my '87 MJ that were available from the factory but weren't installed on my truck when she went down the assembly line. None of them are essential but they're all the nice to have features. So far I've added the 3 spoke leather wrapped wheel, dash clock, under dash courtesy lights, dual tone horn, light on chime, & delay wipers. I finally came across an '88 XJ with the small in-dash speakers and want to put them in this weekend. The under dash wiring, however, is a bit confusing. According to the factory wiring manual I should see a plug on each side, Green and black w/ yellow tracer for LH and White and black for RH. These don't exist but I did find 2 small pigtails (less than 1/2" diameter plugs) in the speaker location that are both purple w/orange tracer and black. According to the wiring manual these shouldn't be under the dash at all. The color codes, however, say they should be a 12V source tied to the ignition on position. Does anyone know what these might be? Also I've read on the forum that adding a cluster with tach to an '87 4 cyl is impossible unless you find a 4 cyl with the tach, i.e. the 4.0L cluster won't work. Is this correct? And finally has anyone added the factory fog lights? The dash wiring looks like it's in place so I think I'd need the in-cab switch, the lights, and the harness splice that runs from behind the LH headlight to the fog lights. Correct?

So all I need is an 87-90 cluster...sweet! How do you adjust the potentiometer? Does it only have 2 positions or do you hook up an external tach and dial it in to match?

Will a 4.0 tach work correctly with a 2.5? When I did the gauge cluster swap on my Beretta I had to find the V6 cluster because the tach from the 4 cyl cluster didn't work correctly. If it won't work then I guess I'll have to live without a tach. I have yet to see a 4 banger with a tach in the jy.

Are you using a gasket or RTV? Mine won't seal with a gasket because they missed a machining operation on the head back in '87. For whatever reason they never finish machined the mating surface between the valve cover and the head. It's just gray cast iron and so it's not smooth.

Send me a PM. I rebuilt my driver's side floor out of 16 gauge steel and took a ton of pictures. I can send them to you

I believe it has the 4.10 rear but if I drop her into 5th below 50mph she's a dog. If I climb a small grade on the highway at less than 60mph I have to downshift to 4th. The P.O. put 235/75 R15s on it on it and the recommended size on the placard is 225/75 R15. Aftermarket CAT (no idea how old), most tuneup parts have less than 8K (including O2 sensor) on them but I'd like to replace the plugs & wires with Bosch Platinums when I have a chance. It's entirely possible the injector and/or injector O rings have issues. I don't see excessive fuel spray or dripping but the idle is a bit erratic when she's fully warmed up (hunts up and down about 150rpm). When I change the plugs I was going to do a compression test as well. What's normal for these engines? 130-150 psi? Any ideas why the range for these vehicles is 13mpg-23mpg?

I started tracking mpg on my '87 2WD 2.5L 5 speed MJ and it's only showing about 18.5mpg with mostly highway driving. With a vehicle this size and drivetrain configuration I was expecting something closer to 23-25mpg. Does this sound right for this drivetrain? What are other folks getting MPG wise? It's the SWB Sportruck with no A/C.

Based on my experience with my '87 2.5L 5 speed, the Bosch pump is the upgraded lifetime warranty part. As an upgrade it is compatible but not a direct fit for the OE pump. I don't remember exactly what I had to move around on the sending unit but everything does fit, given some time and patience. If I had to do it again I'd probably look for an exact fit pump but the Bosch one has been in there for 6 months+ and works ok.

I got it from Midway Auto Supply via amazon.com. It an Allison Rough N Ready Compact Bench Seat Cover, P/N ALL-65-6880 and it was $45.06 shipped to the door. It was kind of a PITA to install but I like it overall. If you want a pic of it in the truck PM me and I'll e-mail one to you.

I got a decent one for my '87 for just under $50 shipped. I had to cut holes for the seatbelts but it's not a bad fit. It was originally really tight but it's loosened up a bit in the past few months. Let me know if you're interested and I'll pull up the info on where I got it.

The '87 AMC 150 with 5 speed. 179,200. Bought her in April with 172K. Original mileage as far as I can tell but I think the motor is a transplant. Lots of orange overspray on the block.

Thanks for the info. I figured there was a point where Chrysler would have switched to the OHC 2.5 (stroked 2.2) in these since that was ominpresent in the late 80s/early 90s. Good to know they carried the AMC design until nearly the end...it will make finding a valve cover much easier.

What’s the interchangeability for AMC 150 (2.5L) valve covers? I have an ’87 with the thermoplastic cover and, if possible, I’d like to find an aluminum one to replace it with. It’s leaking and it seems likely the cover will crack or break when I pull it to change the gasket. Did Chrysler continue building this engine design for a number of years? I’d imagine the best donors (other than Cherokees & Comanches of course) would be Wranglers and perhaps the Dakota?

Yes, it's a center pivot gauge. Actually I think all the peripheral gauges are (oil press, batt voltage, etc). I changed the CTS but I haven't taken a close look at the connector in the wiring harness. What should I be looking for Eagle? Was yours just trashed or was it more subtle than that?

Not to hijack your thread but I’m having a very strange coolant temp gauge issue at the moment too. The gauge originally worked ok but was very active, it would bounce between ¼ and ½ and twitch around all the time. In July the gauge finally gave out and would spin wildly about, to the point where it would go 360 around and look like a propeller. I figured the gauge was shot. Last weekend I finally got around to putting my new CD player in the Jeep (thanks Santa!) and, while I was there, I pulled the cluster and replaced it with the spare that came with the truck. The new gauge doesn’t bounce wildly but doesn’t work correctly either. It won’t move until the truck is hot and idling. At idle it will creep to about 210 and will drop all the way to cold as soon as you step on the gas. I’m stumped

That's fine. The plastic tube running to the PCV system has been broken since I bought her so it won't kill me to wait. If you do end up making another trip up here let me know.

Thanks for all the info. I'll give Jake's a call and perhaps head up there in the next few weeks. I'll also look at the links JOMJ87 sent and see what they had to offer. JOMJ87: did you drive up past Asheville this past weekend? This is the first chance I've had to get online in a few days as the compressor in my Suburban locked up (pulley bearing). Since it's the familymobile I had to get it up and running first. I could really have used the air cleaner box though...oh well.

Right now I don't need too much except the top cover for the air cleaner assembly and the front of the exhaust system (pipe from manifold to the cat). I welded the current system back together when it broke at the flange but it probably needs to be replaced. I'm really just trying to figure out what's out there that I can pick from. I also like walking around looking for stuff that I didn't know I needed until I found it (e.g. the Eldorado seats I put in my old Isuzu pickup). Raleigh is about 4 hrs from here. I'm not sure about Richmond but I'd guess perhaps 6 hrs.