2.5L rewire

Have a friend who had a engine fire in a 88 2.5 MJ. Needs to get on the road again. Burned up to the fire wall. Didnt go in side. The hard parts arent a problem but the wire harness burned up to the fire wall too. Cant find a complete harness, all burned or cut up. Whats the cheapest way to get this thing going again? Shop book shows early 84-86 XJ with 2.5 had vacuum advance distributor. Could I use that style distributor and a spare 4412 carb on a carb 2.5 intake to get this thing going again? What would you guys do? Besides sell it cheap for parts to you guys.

The book is wrong.

The '84 and '85 had a carburetor. The '86 had throttle body injection, but I have an '86 XJ and an '88 MJ, both 4-cyl, and the under-hood wiring is totally different. I haven't seen an '87, but my best guess is that the harness changed in '87 to match up with the introduction of the 4.0L engine. So I believe you're looking for a harness from an '97 thru '90.

In '91 the 4-banger went to multi-port injection and a Mopar ECU, so that won't work either.

There's a small shop in RI that specializes in XJs. Call Charlie at 401-762-9494 and ask what he has available.

Also, one of the guys in the North Atlantic Chapter has an '88 4-banger that he is threatening to convert to a 4.0L. That would free up the under-hood harness. If you don't have any luck with Charlie, send me a PM and I'll find out if the swap is going to happen and, if so, when.

i wish you lived up in NY because the local yard 15 minutes from my house has an '88 or '89 MJ 4cyl 5sp and everything is in it and the harness is good. If i had spare money i'd go pull it for ya and pay them for it then just have your friend send me a check for it but i've unemployed still until next week and am dead broke for now.

Eric

thanks for the help will try to call charlie then check about the swap. Thanks. T.