for spark i need another person and no one was around, for fuel i couldn't get the fuel line off at rail and didn't try too hard as the lines were never disconnected and that jeep was running fine a few days ago(aside from the bad knock from a piston) and was a dd a couple weeks ago so i figured that it was still getting fuel. so i looked up other things to do. thanks

 

Fuel should be easy enough to check. Spark plugs oughtta be wet after cranking.

 

I have a question about my new-to-me 2000 XJ Sport 4-door. It's stock, except for a 2-inch spring lift & Cooper Discoverer tires (30", I think). I don't know any details about the lift beyond that. It was installed by a PO to the guy I bought it from.

Anyway, I took it off road for the first time today, and to get there, I had to drive over some pretty gnarly washboards. I always expect to have to be careful on washboards, but man, I was all over the place, even more so than I was when I drove my brother's beastly CJ-8 on the same road, which I would expect to handle far worse than my Jeep.

Even while driving straight over the washboards, the back end was skittering sideways it seemed like upwards of a foot or so at times, mostly towards the left. Front end was pretty skittery, too, but not quite as bad. I'm wondering if I need new shocks, or maybe the suspension geometry is off or something (alignment seems fine while driving, and I get no shaky Jeep at any speeds up to 80 mph on the freeway, haven't gone faster yet).

I also get a pretty bad clunk sound up front on the passenger side while driving over the washboards or any rough patch of road. I'm thinking this is probably a bushing somewhere, possibly even a related issue to the above washboard behavior if it's a bushing on the shock absorber or control arms.

I just want to know if you guys think I'm on the right path with my thinking here. Also, any recommendations for replacement headlights? I know the basics with the wiring harness, and headlight options, but I want to know if anyone has a specific set they have and love.

Thanks guys!

 

Tire balance question for you guys. Just balanced 285/75/16 treadwright guard dogs on 16x8 black rock d-window rims (steel). 3 out of 4 wheels took over a pound to balance them. I ran only the rim on the balancer and it showed the rim was less than one ounce off. Would this mean the tire was manufactured with its balance being over a pound out of round or can the rim being slightly out of round multiply the true out of round of the tire?

 

Just a rim is probably not enough mass for the machine. Have you tried balanacing one wheel/tire then breaking it down rotating the tire 180° on the rim then trying it again?

 

Thanks for the reply. I aired down two of the tires and rotated them 90*, rebalanced, and continued turning 90* until I was back to square one. I even removed one tire and flipped it over. Neither of these methods helped at all. For the record I have these set at 30psi. I am set on removing the wheel weights and adding 8oz of airsoft bb's to each wheel this weekend. I am curious to see how they balance out with the bb's.

 

ah yes i did pull a few different plugs to see what they looked like after cranking, and they were wet, forgot about that.

 

Check your tire pressures. Someone may have set tham at MAX istead of recommended pressure as stated on the door jamb.

As for headlights, Autopals work fine, the e-code ones, with the harness from Putco or others. I have 80/100 Phillips bulbs in mine. Work fine and not offensive to oncoming traffic.

 

That would be the same fuse I stupidly cut out thinking "I don't want to have to track that down later". I spliced a new one in after I fried something. The blue wire that comes from that fuse goes to the driver side and turns into a blue wire with a black stripe after going through a clip. That wire goes into a white symmetrical clip directly below the steering column and then goes out of that as a black wire, this is the wire I had to replace because it boiled its casing when I cut the fuse out. It goes into the taped wire bundle and meets possibly one of the weirdest things I've ever seen behind the headlight switch. It joins like a dozen other slamm black wires and a thick black wire all with the last half inch stripped. All these look like they have been melted together with a hot clamp and they go into two thick wires and after two inches goes into a mirror of the top and then off to wherever. This was all taped.
Also is there an at home diagnostic machine for the 87? Or will I have to go to a shop?

 

Will do, Cruiser54, thanks!

 

Just curious.. I just recently bought a 1993 XJ Country. From what I can tell, everything is pretty stock. I bought it as a secondary/winter vehicle, but it's such a fun change up to my RX8 that I'm considering keeping it full time rather than just to get me through the winter.

I plan on doing 2" budget boost lift, and keeping it on the stock tires with some black steel wheels.

But if I decide to keep it, I would like to go bigger, my only concern is that its just a shade over 200,000 miles. If I put too much tire under it would I be slowly killing the engine? Even if I do keep it I probably would only go 31-33 so nothing real extreme.

I just wanted some opinions on wheather this is a good idea or not.

Any input is much appreciated,
Thanks!

 

Slap a set of gears under it and the engine won't know the difference. There's tons and tons of people on this site running bigger tires on older engines. You'll be fine.

 

Just driving it normally is "slowly killing the engine", right? I mean, you'll never reverse wear unless you redo it. If you don't mess with the gears, the difference (might) be the time that it lasts. (I'm not going to give figures since I have none to give.) but really, if you do gears like lowrange said, you'll be a-o.k. (And if the engine does blow eventually, you can redo it the way you want, like I plan to eventually do. Heck, you can get a decent spare engine, redo it in your spare time, and you'll have your dream engine ready to swap in the moment your current one blows.) (If it blows.)

 

Just got a 97 XJ sport. It has the Chrysler 8.25 in the rear. Is it a good axle?

 

As long as it's not a Dana 35 it's a good axle.