CWLONGSHOT

Pop picked up the tail pipe for me today as I was at work and didn’t get out till after they closed. But I cannot use it. Looks like I have it too hi and the bend for the axle tube clearance hit’s the bed. That’s OK I can return it. But it proved that I am able to run a straight pipe from the muffler to the rear bumper with zero clearance issues. I was able to fix a leak at the cat flange… When I took it apart last night I found that it had been leaking. The header pipe has a 4 bolt flange whole the HI-Flo cat only has two holes. I cleaned the surfaces with the die grinder, both nice and smooth. BUT, the flange must be warped as it leaks. I found a removable two piece flange. I put it on the cat side of the pipe underneath of the existing flange. Then ran the bolt threw everything. I also added a second gasket for good measure. The bolts on this flange are also bigger so the clamping strength is much more. PROBLEM SOLVED!!! No more leaks!!! I took off the short piece and turn down I added yesterday. MAN what a difference!!! This thing is LOUD!!! I have a hard time believing that fixing the little leak and removing 12 inches of pipe and a 8” turn down makes such a huge sound difference!!! Hopefully Monday I can get a 8’ stick of 2.5” muffler pipe. It’s a quick job putting this in. I already have the hangers bent up and ready to weld on. Going to use factory mounts with home bent “hangers” ½” cold rolled stock. Stay tuned.. CW

JACKED88, I must admit I never even considered these till you mentioned them.... I had a set of Pep-Boys MT's back in the early '90s on the TJ as I was building that up. They worked quite well but wore fast... But you offer some very good points. (Made by Cooper. 40K warranty, $$$ ) The one negative, 2ply side wall... NOT TO ME!! I ran BFGs for years with ONLY a 2Ply side wall!! :yes: I will head over to Pep Boys next week and look at these! The $$ plus buy 3 & ! free is mighty tempting!! It's a good looking tire as well! There is some real popularity with them!! 90% good positive replies! Thank you for posting! CW

Your not going to like it one bit if you ever engage 4WD on the street. Its gonna bind and somethings gotta give... may not be purdy. I would only ever consider welding (or spool) ANY differential for an off road only vehicle. CW

Thanks for the post. Very informative and helpful!! The only thing up in the air for me is actual mileage. Ito have run these newer Good Years and find that there mileage is shorter then my beloved BFG's. But along the way they are just as good. Its almost that the BFG's last too long. :D CW

I would have been interested too... BUT my local club, www.jonfund.com is having its 3day FIELDTRIP trip to New Hampshire that weekend!! I'll be there... CW

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers: GOOD JOB!!! CW

We ran many sets of these on out plow thrucks. they don't wear very well, but did work well enough! We now use COOPERS, the tread is almost identicle, but the things are siped like nobodys business!!! Resemble a Blizzak snow tire!! AWESOME snow/rain tire!! Too mild for my needs on the MJ. CW

Tonight I stopped at Town Fair Tire. Now I don't generally like these guys. they heir kids with no knowledge and have been known to not balance, over tighten lugs and not mount correctly. Again, I don't need balancing, bring them rims in the bed of the truck. (Don't really want any of them driving my rigs either. LOL) will advise as to proper mounting. Yea, that little blue/white dot on the tire is the lightest side of the tire. its where the valve stem gets lined up. Anyhow, there prices where right in line with the online places once you factor in the shipping costs. ($150+-) $1250.00 for 5 Dura-Tracs, mounted. $1350 for 5 Cooper STT's. (I have been reading very good things on these too. :roll: ) Probably make the plunge next week... :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :banana: CW

I added a new muffler.... Flo-Master SUPER44!!! Sounds good with no tail pipe, but gonna go back to one. It should be here tomorrow. I'll post a sound clip once the tail pipe is on. Gonna chop the 90 Degree bend and make it exit straight back with a slash cup tip. Nice and high inside the frame rails. CW

When I was doing the header and repairing that hanger, I noticed the muffler wasn't doing well... It was just a Auto-zone Dynomax turbo nothing special. (Remember the whole JEGGS debacle?) OK sound, not loud, but louder then stock. Now I haven't been a fan of the Flo master, didn't really see the advantage sound/performance vs excessive cost. But I couldn't help myself checking out the sound clips on You-Tube of our engines and different setups of exhaust notes. Some really sounded great, deep low and mellow! Talking with a couple guys at work, I ran across a Super 44 from a one of the guys at work for $40. Its brand new! SO, I have a Flow master. :thumbsup: I unbolted the exhaust at the cat flange. Bought a new gasket and put in new bolts. Then welded up the first pipe and a couple welds on the free Flo cats heat shield. I think I could run a straight pipe right out the back to the rear bumper. But picked up a factory Walker tail pipe. I'll chop off the 90 degree turn and add an extension and a slash cut turn down. Keeping it as high as possible inside the frame rails. Its louder and much deeper. I made a sound recording, but don't have the tail pipe mounted up yet. So you will have to wait, but I think its gonna sound nice! CW

Yes, adding a lift means you need longer links. If you want to keep the factories you can chop in the middle and weld in a piece equal to your lift amount. If you have removable many are adjustable for different lift heights. CW

I'm no expert, but I have never had a problem with old shims. I mean, to my mind it's a piece of hardened steel, its use is simply its thickness, used to take up space. If it wears any it becomes thinner and worst case you would need another shim to make up the difference frm the wear. IMHO, a shim is a shim, some are thick others thin. Weather one is .010 new or was once .011 and now is .010 because of wear, they will both take up .010 in space. Now if you meant that using the exact set of shims for every carrier because it was good in the last one. I agree with you. You need to set up every different carrier you install. But for what your doing, if I understand correctly. You should be fine reusing the shims you have. You just may need to add or omit some of them to get the proper preload on your bearings and pattern on your gears. CW

Do you have a battery charger? You don't need a meter at all. Just do like I suggested. If it does what I said, the alt is shot. But check the cables first. That doesn't mean open the hood and take a gander... Take them off, clean the connections inspect the cables insulation reinstall with dielectric grease. Its copper wire, if its black its going bad. I have said it many times, copper wire is like a water pipe. The bigger the better flow anything tarnishing the copper is a restriction, get enough restrictions you have power problems. If yours is a renix it can cause many problems. CW

I'm gonna say that your alt is shot and you have been running on the battery which finally wend dead or lo enough not to start engine. The starter draws much more "juice" than the lights... Charge up the battery, the engine should start. remove the positive battery cable. I'm gonna bet that the motor stalls... bad alternator. Eagle is also on to something, check the cables first. It could be this and at the very least if they are original need changing... CW

I agree, I had a set of 30x95.0x15 Firestone's years ago and they worked very well in everything but the snow! :roll: Like I said at the beginning of this post, being practical, I need to stay with a AT, an aggressive AT. ;) ON ROAD performance and reliability is 80% of what these tires are going to be asked to do. I have a very well build TJ for the hard core wheeling. I also like the BFG's, but have always said that the MT's on road snow performance isn't that great. I've had BFG AT's, more than a couple sets. I like them, but I like change and want to try something else. I really like what I'm seeing with these new style AT tires. You get the aggressive "look" while still excellent on and off road performance.

Around here, bringing your newly bought tires to a shop for mounting is akin to bringing a steak in to the local resturant and asking for it to be cooked. :doh: :shake: I can mount myself. I'm only having it done as in most places, its included in the tires cost. That and These are MTR's on the rims now... I don't know if you have had anything to do with them, but MTR's are a MAJOR PIA to mount and dismount cause the sidewalls are so freaking stiff!!! As for the balancing, I run Centramatics, I don't need my tires balanced, so why pay for what you do not need. :dunno: ;) I know! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: CW

Stopped at the local Good-Year today. They didn't have one of these Duratrac's in house to see.... no MTR's.. as a matter of fact, not a single tire any of us would even consider for our trucks!!! I priced them in 285x75x16 size... $260 a tire!!! Then 50 bucks extra for removal of old tires and balancing mounting was included in tires cost. I told them I was keeping my old tires and didn't need balancing. The guy said take $25 off.... I questioned him again about his math. He said I still wanted them mounted right? I said yes, he said someone has to pay for it... I didn't say another word to this geneious... Guess I'll check out Sears and Town fair Tire. Worst case, I can get them for just under 900 shipped to my door. CW

I have removed carriers dozens of times for a half a dozen different axles. Some are just in there tighter then others. I have yet to find one that wouldn't come out. I never used or felt I needed a case spreader. One trick I can pass along to you. Loosen the bearing caps, but keep a couple threads in the case on each bolt to keep the carrier in the case. Get a socket that will fit one of the ring gear bolts. Put it on and hold it there while you rotate the pinion so the socket is lodged against the interior of the case. Now get something with some leverage that will allow you to rotate the pinion yoke. The carrier will be forced out. On REALLY stubborn ones you may need to pry a bit on the opposite side of the socket so it evenly comes out. Also have a soft blow hammer handy to adjust things so they done get wedged crooked. Good luck, CW

I put a set of those Goodyear Silent Armor tires on the wife's Libby. :thumbsup: I do like the tire, but as you mentioned. But like your son, I too want something a bit more aggressive.

A man is driving down a deserted stretch of highway in WEST VIRGINIA when he notices a sign out of the corner of his eye....It reads: SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION 10 MILES He thinks this is a figment of his imagination and drives on.... Soon he sees another sign which reads: SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION 5 MILES Suddenly he begins to realize that these signs are for real and drives past a third sign saying: SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION NEXT RIGHT His curiosity gets the best of him and he pulls into the drive... On the far side of the parking lot is a stone building with a small sign next to the door reading: SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS He climbs the steps and rings the! Bell . The door is answered by a nun in a long black habit who asks, 'What may we do for you my son?' He answers, 'I saw your signs along the highway and was interested in possibly doing business.... ..' 'Very well my son. Please follow me.' He is led through many winding passages and is soon quite disoriented. The nun stops at a closed door and tells the man, 'Please knock on this door.' He does so and another nun in a long habit, holding a tin cup answers the door... This nun instructs, 'Please place $100 in the cup then go through the large wooden door at the end of the hallway.' He puts $100 in the cup, eagerly trots down the hall and slips through the door pulling it shut behind him. The door locks, and he finds himself back in the parking lot facing another sign: GO IN PEACE. YOU HAVE JUST BEEN SCREWED BY THE SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS. SERVES YOU RIGHT, YOU SINNER!

OK guys, we have beaten this one to death. But the offerings are constantly changing. There is a new "trend" going on with a tread that's more than a AT but not quite a MT... The MTR was one of the first. If you didn't know its classified by its maker and an All Terrain tread. Pro-Comp has the AT EXTREME, now Good Year has the Dura Trac. This is what I'm very seriously considering for the MJ. I picked up a set of nice Ruby rims and tires as I want to go to 16" tires. As for size, thats narrowed to 285x75x16 (32.8x11.3x16) and 315x75x16 (34.6x12.2x16) sizes. I prefer a narrower tire, so the 285 is likely what I will end up with. Stuffing a 12+ " wide tire isnt easy. :roll: ;) As most of you know, I have been and supporting BFG tires for many years. If this was more of a wheeler the MT would already be on the truck. But its not, as much as I would LOVE a rugged MT tread look. Sensibility is creeping up on me in my "older" age. An AT is really want I should be putting on the MJ. SO, that's why my interest in these tires and this thread. When I began looking I was AMAZED to see the popularity of this new Goodyear Dura-Trac tire. (Just google it and see!!) Here is a 67 page thread on the tire... there are many more shorter threads. http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f15/good ... ac-701455/ Here is the tire in the 315 size: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp ... &tab=Sizes What do you guys think of these new designs and what size do you think, I should I go with? CW

That completely depends on the condition of the motor and its oil!! With a fresh oil change, my MJ with just about 90K will never go below 45-50. Near the end of the oils life and in the heat of summer it will hit 40 @ idle. OH yea, I almost always always run a WIX filter. (NAPA gold) :D CW

I couldn't believe it what I did mine!!! CW

Agreed, you are going to need them. If you get the master install kit for that axle it should have shims too, IIRC. CW

Welcome to the club! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: A 3:10 ratio is not a dana gear ratio in these axles. Its more likely you have 3:07 gears. For gears for 35's and a 4.0 I like to recommend a minimum of 4:56. The D30 is the limiting factor here. IMHO 4:88 would be better, but its a mighty small pinion. 4:56 may likely prove stronger. Also, you could get away with 4:10's if $$ where tight. (Grab the D30 w 4:10 factory installed and re-gear the D44 to match.) The other thing is 35's are nice, but its a big step for a number of reasons. You will find like most of us here, that 33's are a better option overall. Lastly, punctuation is your friend. ;) With out it, your post is kinda hard to read. :doh: My spelling/grammar checker had a field day with your quote! :rotf: LOL. CW