Jim Blair, Lynnwood, WA '87 Comanche, '83 Jeep J10, '84 Jeep J10 I've run w/o the steering stabilizer in my MJs since '00. I discovered it was more a combination of toe-in and caster (from lifting, it goes into more positive caster and camber often changes, even though it's a solid axle) that caused the wobble, along with power steering (took the belt off my son's to see if it went away and it did) creating a "snap back" response, which gets exaggerated by even slight front end looseness. The 1/2 shift on the AW4 is fiaxble with a kit from http://awshifting.com. I like the 242 tcase because it can be driven in 4 hi in any weather (unless in 4 hi lock). That makes for interesting cornering situations! <G> The D35 has 1 piece axle shafts and I may soon find out if they are a direct swap for the Eagle M15 2 piece ones. (I'll be swapping out the axle in the '80 Eagle I just got since it has the axle issue which was never dealt with) I haven't broken the D35 in my '87 Comanche yet and it had 33" tires on it with some major abuse at times (heavy loads, showing off on take off, etc) The one in my '86 Comanche (currently for sale for $1,000 with a 130K mile motor recently swapped in) went to the 275,000 mile mark before dying (the oil wasn't checked and some @$$#@T stole the rubber fill plug) From: adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Sandwich Maker) Subject: Re: [Amc-list] Best Jeep Cherokee? To: amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx Message-ID: <200811181749.mAIHn0321380@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> " From: Jim Boone <fljab@xxxxxxxxxxx> " " " " I'm thinking of finding a 4x4 Jeep Cherokee with a 4.0; trans I prefer manuals, but they are hard to find. Lots of these available used, but most are well over 100k miles. everything i've read praises them highly for long life, more than 300k without rebuilding in some claims. if it's not crashed and unrusted, i'd be concerned more with how it'd been used than how long, and how it'd been taken care of. one thing you may run across is the 'death wobble'. the xj's front end geometry *NEEDS* a functioning hydraulic steering damper/stabilizer. if it's bad, the effects at highway speeds are... but replacement is easy. another is the door wiring harness, if you go for an optioned model. it's common for them to flex-fracture in the hinge area leaving you without power windows or locks. " What years do you think are the best as far as what was underneath - trans (man & auto), transfer case, axles. Also consider what is easiest to service, get parts for, has best aftermarket support... earliest xj 4.0s got a peugeot ba 10/5 stick, widely reviled; by '89 they'd switched to the much better aisin warner ax15. that was replaced with the nv3550 about '00; it's stronger [variant used in v8 pickups] but noisier. they had an internal clutch slave/throwout setup [also widely reviled] until about '94-5 but it's easy to swap the later bell and setup to any ax15 if you ever have reason to do the clutch. auto was always an aisin-warner aw4. excellent rep. no separate 2nd-gear hold though, only d - 3 - [2+1], which shifts down to 1st asap then stays there. t/c with the stick was afaik always a nv231. front axle is a high pinion d30. rear axle is either an ex-amc d35 [nee' amc15hd], mopar 8.25", or [rare] d44. the d44 is clearly the class for strength and the mopar is nearly as strong, expecially after it went from 27 to 29 spline axles about '95, but the d35 is surprisingly tough for anything short of serious wheeling. ________________________________________________________________________ Andrew Hay the genius nature _________________________________________________________________ Stay up to date on your PC, the Web, and your mobile phone with Windows Live http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/119462413/direct/01/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://splatter.wps.com/pipermail/amc-list/attachments/20081118/682f17a2/attachment.htm _______________________________________________ Amc-list mailing list Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://splatter.wps.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/amc-list