jteckmann

I've also been thinking about getting a set - pretty sure I've read all those same reviews on jeepforums :cheers: When I looked, 31x10.50 are the only size they carry for 15" wheels. They're $135 a piece, and you can order them online and have them shipped to a store if yours doesn't carry them. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Wrangler-Authority/11983156

If it's one of the trim pieces around the window frame, then a piece off a 4-dr Cherokee should fit and be easy to find. But my guess is you're talking about the trim on the rain gutter, above the door. (those could easily get ripped off by a branch. Heck, mine flew off in a strong crosswind on the Interstate). That piece is tougher to find. Search at a junkyard and see if you get lucky. What I did was found a roll of generic black trim that they sold at AutoZone that had a U-shape, and fit over the gutter. I cut and mounted my own on both sides of the cab so it'd match.

pug - One other thing I thought of - the PCV set-up drew air from the bottom (dirty) side of the airbox, and ran it through a breather filter on the back of the cover. The CCV hooks up to the top (clean) side of the airbox, so no separate breather, since it was getting air that had already gone through the airfilter. So when you're setting your new system up, you'll want to either grab the airbox from a CCV-style Jeep that has the hook ups in the right location, or adapt your old one. You don't want the system to be sucking unfiltered air into the engine.

IIRC, '86 2.5's were PCV, '87 and up are CCV, aluminum valve cover came along in '91. I think that's the way it went. Sorry my post was worded bad - I didn't mean to imply that all plastic covers were PCV. It's the year that matters, not the material of the cover.

I think it matters. My '86 2.5 has the plastic cover and PCV system. There is a hose that runs from the airbox to the breather filter at the back of the cover. The PCV valve is in the front of the cover, and there is a hose that runs to a port on the throttle body. This is where it gets vacuum, so it draws fresh air from the rear to the front. The valve prevents backflow. You now have a CCV system, which IIRC, works in reverse. The front elbow connects to the airbox, the rear elbow connects to the manifold. Air flows from front to back. There's no PVC valve in this system - the elbows and hoses are different sizes, and that maintains airflow direction. Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

:doh: Thanks for setting me straight. I should've known that.

I've heard that some of the first year XJ's autos were Chrysler A904 3-speeds - used with either the V6 or I4 (one of those classic AMC "hey, whatever's on the shelf" moments). The AW4 was the other auto available. Transfer case would be the NP207 Aside from that, everything thing else should be about the same. Same 2.8. D30 front, XJ D35 non c-clip rear.

That's also my understanding - If you want to replace the 2.5 with the 4.0, you need to use the 4.0's tranny as well. So you'll either need to get your brother's fixed, or find a working used one at the junkyard. From that point, the swap is pretty straightforward, and if you have both vehicles, you should have most the parts you'll need. Either way, you'll have to address the tranny for the 4.0. So it's your choice if you want to have one nice truck with a 4.0, or if you want a nice 2.5 and a beater 4.0 to drive. :cheers:

5-speed Talons/Lasers/Eclipses used the Mitsubishi 5M transmissions and Mitsu transfer cases: http://www.drivetrain.com/parts_catalog/manual_transmission_overhaul_kits/eagle_summit_talon.html. I believe the auto's were 4-speeds that came from Chrysler. The engines are also different. Non-Turbo's had a Chrysler supplied engine that was based off the 2.0 Neon. Turbo's got the Mitsu 4G IMO, debating whether they're Chrysler or Mitsubishi is splitting hairs - they're a huge mix of both. Mitsu designed the platform, Chrysler styled it. They shared Chrysler/Mitsu engines & drivetrains, depending on the model. Built in an American plant that Chrysler fronted most the $$ for, managed in the Mitsu style. There was so much cross-pollination between the brands in the 80's & 90's, it's hard to keep track.

A lot of Toyota transmissions are similar, because they're made by Aisin. I used to be in the Supra crowd, and they used the R151 (AX-15's cousin), and the AW-4 behind the 7M motors. I believe the 5Ms in the MKIIs used a cousin to the AX-5, as well as the smaller pickups with the 42RE motor. :hijack: Really? This is very interesting info to know. My first two cars were Supras: an '82 MKII with a 5-speed, and an '87 MKIII Turbo 5-speed. I gave the '82 to my Dad (after I bought the '86) almost 12 years ago. He used it as his daily commuter until just a couple years ago, when he decided to park it because the body was finally swiss-cheese. Despite that, the engine's still going strong with well over 350K on it. He wants to restore it, just doesn't have the time yet. The '86 is a different story - I owned it for about a year before I totaled it. Fell asleep at the wheel with the cruise control on :eek: and was extremely lucky to crawl away from the ensuing carnage. And the car + my own immaturity had got me in plenty of trouble before that. The wreck was a wake-up call, and I realized I'd be better off having fun in vehicles that couldn't regularly go +100mph. That's when I bought my ZJ and started getting into Jeeps :chillin: After the '86 was totaled, I pulled the engine, tranny, drivetrain, ECU and then had the rest of it towed off. The guts have all been sitting in a corner of may Dad's garage ever since. We always figured we'd eventually swap it into the MKII. So how similar are they? If you had a donor R151, AX15 and transfer case to swap parts between, would it be possible to have a Turbo'd 7M powered, 4x4 MJ? :brows:

I'm in the same boat. When I got mine, it looked like the PO had thrown half the JC Whitney catalog in it at some point - radio, CB, an aftermarket temp/oil/tach cluster, and 3 different 12v power oultets in the cab - then all of it pulled out before he ditched it, with wires left hanging bare. To top it off, the clutch cylinder had been leaking onto the back of the fuse panel for years without ever being cleaned or fixed. My electrical is pretty much toast. I've done some quick fixes to keep everything working and drivable. But a major re-wiring project is on my to-do list. Rather than try and keep the factory fuse panel going, I want to pull off the dash and wire in a whole new panel, in a more accessible and protected place. I'll probably sacrifice the glove compartment to do it - I never use it anyways.

:drool:

Looks like a good find! That's the same color combo as my '86. Glad the inside looks clean & intact, because tan interior pieces have been nearly impossible for me to find lately.

Just confirming what Eagle said - When I go to the dump or the gravel pit, my truck ('86, 4x4, long bed, no lift, stock wheels) weighs in at about 3600, give or take. Subtract my weight (about 200) and that's at 3400.

I've been very happy with my Gibson Superflow. I used it to replace a worn out cherry bomb that the previous owner had on there. I have the 2.5, and I really wanted to get rid of the fart-can sound. So I went Gibson because I had a lot of recommendations that they had a "deeper" sound. So far I like it - I've heard it side-by-side with a friend who has a Flowmaster on his 2.5 TJ, and mine sounds closer to a V6. Deeper tone at idle, less raspy when revving, and I don't get any drone in the cab. It doesn't start getting noisy until I'm up above 4K in rpm's. I'd imagine it'd sound even better on a 4.0. I found mine on sale through JCWhitney for the same price as the Flowmaster. I think I paid about $80, IIRC.

I don't know if the old ones I pulled out were OEM or from a previous owner. They were a different length - maybe 5/8"(?) But at the parts store, they only sold 1/2" and 3/4", so I just grabbed a pack of each. I was worried about bottoming out the 3/4", so I started with the 1/2" - and they worked fine. Just regular grade 5 bolts with a flange head and no shoulder.

I just replaced the gasket on my 2.5 I used 1/4"-20 thread, 1/2" long.

Sorry hornbrod - no luck. He sold the truck a couple years ago, and doesn't have any digital pics that show the topper.

Only other tip would be a small can of high-tack gasket sealant (I like the brush-on kind - not as messy, IMO). Holds the gasket firmly in place while you're working the valve cover back on. I don't know about the 4.0, but on my 2.5 it's very tricky to keep the back edge of the gasket in place. I also put a good coating of it on the bolt threads.

Sorry, no pic ... I just remember that we spent a whole day sanding down the boards to match the contours/width of the rails, and getting a clean spray paint job on them. And we raised it the bare minimum amount possible to clear the ribs. The truck was also black on black, which helped. But IMHO it looked good ... the cleats were the finishing touch - it didn't look like a "rack on stilts" but a more rugged/utilitarian look instead. Definitely didn't look home-brew. When you see those newer wagons & SUV's with the taller side rails, it looked very similar to that. (This was a few years ago, and when I lived in Atlanta. I'll e-mail my friend and see if he has any pics or if he still owns the truck)

Is it a width or a height issue? If it's height .. my friend had a similar topper on his Ranger. We used the rack and rails from a Grand Cherokee. Then we put a 1.5" thick board between the rails & the topper as a spacer. It lifted the crossbars up just enough to clear the middle hump/ribs of the topper. Painted the boards black to match, and then we mounted mount a row of those black nylon boat cleats down the sides of the board. Wound up looking pretty good, and with the cleats as anchor points, was very functional, too.

Hmm. Can you reach the nuts with a metal rod? Try some JB Weld on the end of it, see if you can get it to stick, and use the rod to hold the nut in place. Then soak the thing with PB Blaster and try and get the bolt out. I've used that trick with broken speednuts that were hard to reach, but I don't know if the JB Weld is strong enough to hold with a tough stuck bolt. Since the tank didn't leak till you filled it full, other possible culprits could be the gasket around the fuel pump assembly, or the vent hoses up top. Maybe where the filler tube attaches, too. I feel your pain, man ... I hate working around gas - I always get paranoid.

Yeah, next time I'm in Egypt, I'll pick one up :D This is really just a J8 Brute with a different hood, but I love the styling cues. I've checked out those Brute conversion kits that AEV makes for the TJ/JK ... too bad they're so spendy (for me) - an extra $10K over whatever it costs you to get the donor. And I'm just not that wild about the way it looks, something about the proportions of the Wrangler cab with a bed just seems a little off to me. But this thing looks awesome. Since it's just a new hood/grille, I wonder if AEV or some other aftermarket company will get the inspiration to produce something similar. :brows:

This man would be correct! There is a slight length difference and the cabin end of the cable is terminated differently if you have cruise control. Yup. Non-cruise has a one piece cable that has a threaded connector for the transmission and a clip-style end where it connects to the speedo. Cruise models have a slightly shorter cable with threaded connections on both ends for the transmission and speed sensor, then there's a short cable that threads on the speed sensor and then clips to the back of the speedo.

http://blogs.jpmagazine.com/6659709/editorials/jeep-spy-photos/index.html :drool: :drool: It's frustrating to see all these cool concepts that the Mopar Underground guys put together, knowing that Chrysler/Fiat/whatever will never build them. But one day .... maybe we'll get a production Jeep truck again. This one would be sweet.