Eagle

If anyone is cruising the pick-n-pull junkyards, please be on the lookout for a 97+ Cherokee with a factory gas tank skid. My wife's and my 2000 XJs both have the Up Country package, but I recently picked up a (somewhat) low mileage 2001 for our daughter, and I'd like to Up Country-ize it. I have the springs, I have a transfer case skid, and I think I have a front skid. I need a gas tank skid. TIA

Whatever they call them, the 2000 XJ Classic and Limited came with 16" rims and 225/70R16 tires. That's not a typo -- the 70-series 225s in a 16" size are the same outside diameter as the 225/75 in a 15" size. The same 16" rims were used on the Liberty for at least the first couple of years of production.

Don't misunderstand. You might get 5-1/2 inches, but realistically you should figure on 6 inches MINIMUM. If you aren't prepared to go that high, then don't do a SOA conversion.

Mostly it means the previous owner(s) probably never changed the oil, and did a lot of low-speed, local driving. Start cleaning with a narrow putty knife and a shop vacuum. You need to keep the vacuum running so whatever you scrape loose gets sucked up rather than fall into the oil passages. Or ... pull the head and send it to a shop to be hot tanked.

I'm sure some of the aftermarket companies still make electric fuel pumps that produce 7 psi for use with carburetors. It would have to be mounted externally but no regulator will be needed. Check Summit racing.

The rear bumper was an option. In '86, the 4-speed was probably an AX-4 but it could have been a T-4.

Extended sway bar links. Adjustable track bar.

That size is equivalent to a 31x9.50. You don't need any lift to run those tires, so don't lift it unless something changes to create a need.

As already asked, why are you considering swapping the transfer case? The ratios are the same, so there is nothing to be gained by doing that. Just swap the axles. If it's the vacuum port on your transfer case you're worried about -- just cap it. Next question: why go SOA? Do you **NEED** 6 or more inches of lift? That's what a SOA is going to give you, as a minimum. To match that in the front, you'll need adjustable control arms (or long arms), an adjustable track bar, extended sway bar links and/or sway bar drop brackets. You'll need much longer flexible brake hoses front and rear. I'll probably catch a lot of flack for saying this, but IMHO running 33" tires on a daily driver is dumb. They are big, heavy, don't wear well, and expensive. Your gas mileage is going to suck, even with the swap to 3.55 gearing. For a daily driver you'd be much better off with about a 2" lift and 31s. Moreover, what size 33s, and on what wheels? Remember, 31x10.50s on factory rims ride VERY close to the springs and the inner fender liners. Mine rubbed any time the rear axle defelcted more on one side than on the other. If your 33s are any wider than 10.5" you'll need either spacers in the rar, or aftermarket rims with less backspacing than the factory rims. And rims with less backspecing then create other issues in the front. Consider ALL the implications of what you're going to do before you start doing.

First, what wheels do you plan to use? Factory Jeep rims, or aftermarket? If aftermarket, how much backspacing? It makes a difference. Also, do you plan to -- or are you willing to -- remove the flares and cut the sheetmetal, or do you want to keep the body intact?

^^^ What Geonovast wrote. Not just a standard transmission MJ. A 4.0L (6-sylinder) standard transmission MJ.

Agreed. Classic symptoms.

But the majority were NOT 3.07. The 3.07 came ONLY behind the 4.0L with the 5-speed. The 3.55 was used with the 4.0L and automatic, and behind the 2.5L with the base 4-speed manual. So it should be pretty easy to get an initial assessment of the ratio -- if the engine is (or was) a 4.0L, look for a clutch pedal. If it has a clutch pedal, it's probably a 3.07. If the vehicle has an automatic (4-cylinder or 6-cylinder) you can be 99.97% certain it doesn't have 3.07 gears. Shocks are not a problem in the MJ. The lower shock eye mounts to a pin on the spring plate, not to the axle. The shocks mounted to the axles in the Cherokees, but not in the Comanches.

The difference is what I commented on a number of posts above, but the year break is not 1994. The early XJ and MJ Dana 35s did NOT use c-clips to retain the axle shafts in the assemblies, they used retaining plates at the outer ends, where the outer wheel bearing seals are located. Beginning in (I think) 1990 they changed over to a c-clip design. The c-clips snap onto the inner ends of the axle shafts, inboard of the spider gears. I'm fairly certain that makes the spiders not interchangeable. What I'm not sure of is whether you can use the c-clip spiders in a non- c-clip axle.

If your MJ is a Pioneer or Chief it should have it. If it's a base model it does not.

What's the condition of your ring gear and pinion gear? That's going to be the crtical factor. The problem is that every differential housing is different by a few thousandths of an inch, every pinion gear is different by a few thousandths, and every carrier housing is fifferent by a few thousandths. So it's not just that "new" gears have to be set up from scratch, it's ANY gear set you put in your diff housing that's not the original. Use your old gears on a new carrier (such as if you install a limited slip unit) ==> reset the gears. Change the ring gear OR the pinion gear to another used gear ==> reset the gears. If ALL you need is spider gears, you can swap those with no problem. If your ring gear and pinion gear are in good shape, you can buy a new bolt set and mount the ring gear back on the carrier. If you have to replace the ring gear, you will have to check the backlash and the engagement pattern. It might drop in with no adjusting, but you can't count on that. You posted earlier that 11 of the 12 bolts holding the ring gear to the carrier were broken off. Can you get the broken off stubs out of the carrier?

PLEASE don't use smaller type than the forum default. The default is difficult enough to read -- yours is just about impossible.

Let me clarify/correct this slightly: What does NOT change about toe-in is that we always want the tires to be parallel (straight ahead) when the vehicle is driving stright down the road. The ideal toe-in is always zero, and the spec is always whatever will result in zero toe-in (or toe-out) when driving. The "spec" does not change. However ... due to the geometry of the steering linkage, the actual toe-in DOES change when you lift an MJ. Lift results in more toe-in -- lowering (or removing lift) results in toe-out. A 4" lift changes the toe-in sufficiently to wear out a set of front tires within a few hundred miles.

It sounds very much like your D35 is thoroughly trashed, and I would very much advise you not to spend a single penny on trying to repair it. If you found a good junkyard, find yourself a rear axle out of a newer Cherokee (there must be some in Texas with 5 speeds). The axle will be the correct width, and the driveshaft yoke will mate right up with your driveshaft u-joints. ALL you will need to do is pay a welder to cut the spring perches off the Cherokee axle and remount them in the same position as on the D25. You should even be able to use the old percehes. That's probably one to two hours of easy work for a decent welder. Then just bolt it in. The nose of the Chrysler axle is about an inch longer than the D35, so you might need to have your driveshaft shortened a bit. If your truck is lifted an inch or two, the extra length will probably just compensate for the lift. I think the Chrysler XJ axle route is, overall, going to be a lot less work and a lot less money than fighting a trashed Dana 35, and you'll have a better, sttronger axle when you get finished.

I've been driving (legally) since 1960, and I can remember my parents commenting on the shimmy kicking in at 55 MPH on my mother's 1958 station wagon. Intuitively, it would seem that different size tires should start to shimmy at different speeds, but it's always around 55 to 60 and seems to be independent of tire size. (Caveat: the largest tires I've ever owned have been 31x10.50-15s.) Properly balanced tires do NOT shimmy at 55 MPH. If rotating didn't chase it away, it just means that at least two of your tires are out of balance.

That depends on whose add-a-leaf. Rancho, for example, sells only one AAL for both vehicles. There may be some companies who have a special AAL kit just for Comanches, but I don't think I have ever encountered one.

I still don't know what you think "lifted specs" are, and I can't tell you because I have no idea what that means. Alignment specs typically cover three things: Caster angle, camber angle, and toe-in. Toe-in should be as close to zero as possible UNDER DYNAMIC CONDITIONS, which means with all slop in tie rod ends, etc, pressed out the way the wheels would be rolling down the road. We typically set toe-in to about 1/16" to 1/8" with the vehicle at rest to allow for that slop, but a good front end machine will push the tires out to get a more accurate setting. This doesn't change because of lift. Camber is not adjustable on the Comanche, and because a lift doesn't move the axle relative to the road and it's a solid axle, this also doesn't (and can't) change as a result of lift. What DOES change due to lift is caster angle. Our trucks need around 6 degrees to 7 degrees of positive caster. Lifting the truck moves the control arm pivots relative to the axle, thus affecting caster. Too little caster contributes to death wobble. Adjusting it back within spec (preferably as close to 7 degrees as possible) **may** help alleviate death wobble. I don't regard that as "lifted specs," I regard it as adjusting it back into spec after the lift puts it out of spec. As to tire balance -- if you had a wobble at 55 to 60 MPH, your tires were (and still are) out of balance. That's not negotiable -- that's a fact.

I have never heard of death wobble that stops by itself without your slowing the vehicle down to a complete (or almost comple) stop. What's your idea of "lifted" alignment specs? Why do you think the wheels should be pointing any different on a lifted truck than they do on a stock truck? If you didn't have problems before the lift, and you do have problems after the lift, then obviously the lift changed something and you need to get it aligned to find out what. Lifting a Comanche affects the caster (which is critical), and also (to a small extent) the toe-in. Both can contribute to death wobble. So can (and does) tire balance. And if the alignment is marginal, then tires that were balanced "okay" before suddenly aren't. Those "slight vibes" you had before at 55 MPH? That's tire balance. It doesn't seem to matter what tire size, improper balance ALWAYS seems to result in shimmy at between 55 and 60 MPH. Your truck needs to meet the front end man.

An AAL generally produces lift regardless of whether it a SOA or SUA. For example, Rancho sells the same full-length AAL kit for the Comanche and for the Cherokee. It produces about 2-1/2" of lift in a Cherokee, and about 1-1/2" of lift in a Comanche. An AAL is not just a spacer. It's an additional leaf in the spring, and how much lift it produces depends on how strong it is and how much arch it has. When I bought my '88 Comanche it had a Trailmaster 4" lift in it. The rear lift was from a short AAL kit, nothing else.

No, because the additional leaf increases the carrying capacity of the spring, causing it to bend less due to the weight of the vehicle. Some AALs have more unloaded arch than the leaves of the stock springs, so they actually force all the veaves to bend (arch) more even before weight is applied.