mvusse

After I blew up a (small) u joint I replaced the driver side shaft with one with the larger joint, while keeping the smaller on on the passenger side for a few months. Last may I separated an upper ball joint and in the process took out a two month old axle shaft. I was in the middle of nowhere, three hours from home and an hour from the nearest parts store. No junk yards open either. So I shelled out $95 or so for a Grand Cherokee passenger CV shaft and ran it for a month or so. I still have it and keep it as a trail spare now. Supposedly no stronger than the small u joint shafts, but lifetime warranty. Bottom line is they are all interchangeable, but depending on what unit bearing you have you may have to give the ABS tone ring a few good whacks with a hammer to remove it from the shaft.

So I'm in my purple Comanche, going to the grocery store. While sitting at a red light I'm checking out the Cherokee behind me when I notice a three piece slider. That's not a Cherokee, that's a Comanche! How often do you see TWO Comanches, unrelated to each other, right behind each other? Considering there are AFAIK only 5 Comanches within 20 miles of here, and two of those are mine. The other's are a nice red one, a REALLY nice, brand new looking blue one and a rusty black one. This was the rusty black one.

It is almost the same width as your D30. Depending on year it might be passenger or driver drop. If it is the correct side (driver), then you have to decide whether your going to adapt the axle to use the 4 link/panard bar coil spring suspension, or adapt your truck to use the axle's leaf spring suspension. Wheel bolt pattern is different also.

The very first one I didn't know better and spent four hours with a hammer, chisel and screwdriver. Every one since then (six or seven by now) I have used the above method.

http://www.stu-offroad.com/axle/unitbearing/unitbearing-1.htm

Stick a bolt or socket between the stub axle gear and inner c, then use the power steering as a hydraulic press.

So am I, thanks to all. I'll probably sleep better tonight. -meljr You definitely should NOT sleep better knowing you have a D35 under your truck.

I believe it's 10mm, but don't know the pitch.

I had bought a National one that lasted six months. The warranty replacements lasted 7. Then I moved to a Timken one and after a year and two weeks it failed catastrophically causing me to loose my passenger front wheel while going 60mph down I-77. Took out axle shaft, u joint, ball joints, steering knuckle, brake rotor and caliper in the process causing me to be without my toy for about a month and lay out over $100 to put the axle back together. I now get used OEM ones from the junk yard for $7. They seem to last longer.

I used one of their floor pans to replace my non-existent driver side floor. Ordered mine through Rock Auto, paid just under $50 including shipping. They are quite beefy, but are designed for a Cherokee. Cherokee and Comanche floors are non the same, so I had to make some modifications to make it fit. Still worked out better than trying to make one myself out of a flat sheet of steel like I did my F100 many years ago.

Another option is to use the original radiator with a universal cap adapter in the upper radiator hose, or use a HO thermostat housing, which has a temp sensor for the fan.

The (XJ, MJ, ZJ, YJ, TJ and possibly others) 35, 44, 8.25 and AMC20 are all the exact same width. Ford 8.8" is a bit narrower. Seems to work okay in a ZJ or XJ, but needs spacers in an MJ.

Now that's one sexy rear end!

In the Netherlands, gas is "benzine", in Britain it's "petrol". Because of the high prices, dual fuel propane conversions are very common, with propane prices about 1/4 of gas. Now back on topic, I filled up for $3.38 three days ago, then the next morning it was 3.59 and yesterday it dropped to 3.57.

$400 for both Dana 30 front and 44 rear ring/pinion plus master install kits sounds about right to me. Piece the same kit together at Summit Racing comes out to about the same price. What gets expensive is paying a drivetrain shop to install it.

The mounting studs on mine were long enough for the nut to go on the whole way with the swap.

The image car manufacturers have is that the general American population is not interested in diesel engines, so it is unlikely a diesel will be widely available here. The exception is FS trucks, where the diesel war is over HP, not mileage.

Jumped up to $3.46

A 29 spline 8.25" out of a 97 or newer XJ is close to a 44 in strength and much easier to find. I have abused mine with 35" tires off road for a year and a half now without a problem. It replaced a 35 that gave up when I was running 33s.

Did I mention yet I hate you? ;)

May be cheaper per mile, but maintenance costs for your 98 Appaloosa are probably sky high compared to your MJ.

Add hockey stick door handles and map pockets and that is the interior in my trail truck. Thinking of switching them with my other one, though.

I hate you! Here in the rust belt where they use salt on the roads, shiny clean metal will look like Pete's picture after one winter. Any unit bearing that has been in the vehicle for more than a year is rust-welded in place. You remove (or break off) the three bolts, breaking a few sockets ratchets and breaker bars in the process, and then you still have to break apart the weld holding the unit bearing to the steering knuckle.

I've done that trick and it works great. I've also backed removed two bolts and almost completely backout the third one, and use the same trick on the bolt head. First time I had no clue how to do it and spent 4 hours removing the unit bearing from the steering knuckle.

My 87 Pioneer has factory black interior with buckets. My4 cylinder 87 bare-bones base package (not even a cigarette lighter or dash clock) had a black interior with a bench (ZJ seats now), but not sure if it was factory or swapped in at some point in time.