mvusse

I ran my Comanche (6.25 front, SOA rear) without a front sway bar on the freeway twice. 75 miles there, 75 miles back. Only did it because I ran out of time to put it back on after fixing my frame after the steering box decided to crack it and start ripping bolts through, and I had to go wheeling. The experience was almost suicidal. Put it back on and it's all acting nice again.

Crazy thought here, but if this thing is going to be dedicated for Bonneville, and not be street driven, you might save a lot of weight by getting rid of the transmission. No starter, no flywheel, no clutch, no gear case. Slip joint drive shaft straight from the crank to the axle. You will need to push it to start it and get it up to 50 or so mph until you have enough rpm to accelerate by itself, but you could possibly save 500 pounds of weight.

Take both wheels and drums off, and walk back and forth between the two sides putting it all back together one piece at a time.

Despite all the warnings, I am still running a D35 with 33s after 1000+ miles, 4 wheeling trips, and more abuse than I should put it through on a few trails. It's so full of water it comes pouring out as soon as I loosen the drain plug, but as I'm (have been) intending to put that 8.25" that's been in my driveway for a few months now under it "real soon now", I'm too lazy to pull the cover, drain it, and fill with new oil. Still hanging on just fine. Maybe D35 axles really aren't all that bad after all, or I have the one good one out of the lot.

I just measured a main leaf I have in my basement, and difference between front and back is about 26" versus 31". I don't think you'd accidentally install them backwards.

Depending on which way the bolt goes in, the driver side may be the easier one. I replaced both of mine recently, and the factory seems to have a habit of putting the passenger side bolt through back to front. Taking the bolt out, the oil filter adapter gets in the way. I ended up having to unbolt the mount bracket from the engine to be able to remove it. Then put the bolt through the new one front to back.

Changed a bad u-joint on the Cherokee: But what does this mean? "Pink + Alum"

Yeah, that was quite the can of worms I opened up up there, wasn't it? All because I posted a picture of what my truck looks like.

Stuck in the mud on the trail in an OHV park in Ohio. Tread lightly, stay on the trails. Safe-Legal-Fun, JeepSkool's motto.

Can't tell for sure, but it looks like you don't have AC. Why not mount the alternator above the mechanical fan, in place of the idler pulley. (Where the AC compressor would have been).

The point is to keep the suspension the same between 2wd and 4wd, only having to make one chassis for either drive train. Cheaper production, and easier for us to swap.

Guy in Youngstown has one for sale for $200 on Craigslist.

I wouldn't buy a kit. Get a shaft from the junkyard, use a jigsaw to cut a piece of steel using the vacuum disconnect housing as a pattern, drill 4 holes and (with help of some RTV to seal it) bolt it on using the original bolts. If you get an ABS shaft, or 97 and newer you will get the larger u-joint as a bonus. Just beware with an ABS shaft the ABS ring may have to be cut off to fit in your hub. 2 minutes work with an angle grinder and a cold chisel. You will have to pull the carrier out of the differential to install an oil seal in the axle. Stock replacement non disconnect seal will not work. My build thread (link is in my signature) lists one that works as I just went through this a month or so ago. I paid $15 for the shaft, $30 for a Spicer 5-760x u-joint (40% stronger than a 5-297x). Autozone carries lifetime warranty u-joints for about $15 if you're not worried about trying to be bullet proof. Already had the RTV, but a tube is about $4 or so, piecd of steel is just a few inches in size, I'm sure you can find something somewhere. I used 1/4" hard steel because that's what I happened to have laying around, but that's overkill. And about $10 for the oil seal ordered from NAPA.

Stay away from Skyjacker shocks if you want comfort. I have a set on my stock XJ and it makes it ride like an 80s 3/4 ton pickup.

How are you getting 18-19 highway with a 2.5? I can get 22mpg highway out of my Renix 4.0 (60mph) and 21 out of my 4.0HO (75mph). Both I get 17-18mpg mixed driving. Or I did before I moved to 33" tires anyway.

Yep, now you know what the term "Death Wobble" means. If it is set off by a bump, I would rule out tire balance. My guesses are track bar (frame end), ball; joint(s) or lower control arms (or mounts) in that order. To check the track bar, put the front wheels between concrete blocks and slowly move the steering wheel left and right. If the truck slides left and right over the axle, do it again with someone under the truck looking at the track bar frame mount and see if it moves. It is quite common for the hold in the frame mount to become elongated. A lot of slop creates loose steering. But just a tiny little bit is usually enough to set off an oscillation -> DW. Lower control arms I know of no way to check other than taking them off and inspecting them. Rubber bushings could have deteriorated, control arm could have worn out not holding the bushing in tight, mount bolt holes could have elongated etc. Frame end mount holes are supposed to be elongated, but the little bracket inside (with alignment spacers behind it) should have perfectly round holes snug around the bolt. Ball joints can be tricky. I could not find any play in my passenger side wheel, even with a crow bar. But when I took it apart anyway, the lower ball joint was about to fall apart. Replaced and wobble fixed. Good luck!

I believe 84 and 85 might have been carburated. This may or may not make a difference. Then again, I could be wrong.

Peterson's Ultimate Adventure came to JeepSkool, my favorite monthly wheeling park this past Monday. All pictures are from Petersen's 4 wheel Blog.

Wasn't Dave Stewart half of the Eurythmics?

When I bought my truck it had a 23.5 gallon tank and a sender with the long arm. I got a short arm sender out of a junkyard MJ to use while I was fixing my original and it read full anywhere over 2/3 tank. Put my original long arm back in after I got it fixed and it works correctly again. So why would the 23.5 gallon supposedly have the short arm one when mine came with a long arm, and only the long arm will read correctly? Would the short arm maybe be for the 16 gallon tank? I can't remember the size tank I took it off.

That's not a fuse. That's a self resetting circuit breaker. If that's for the wipers and causing the problem, the wiper motor is pulling too many amps. Might want to take stuff apart and grease the joints.

Remind me when we get closer to then.

I had Jensens in my F100. I agree, they were crap. Pioneer used to have a bad rap back in the 80s, but a friend has a pair of 6x9s in his Monte Carlo and they sound pretty good.

Drill it out.

If they make you sign a release, then they must allow it now, making it legal. It used to be they didn't care enough to prosecute people, but not officially condoning it. Pretty much that meant while it wasn't explicitly illegal, it technically wasn't legal either. Kind of a grey area. Glad they made it fully legal now as Ohio needs more legal areas to wheel, now that we lost half of Wellsville due to construction of a power plant and Painted Rock from a bank foreclosing on one of the landowners. But yeah, you probably won't see me at Baumhart unless I have a trail only rig and a tow vehicle to get it there and back.