mvusse

Speaking of which, Pete, are you joining us at Badlands the 25th?

Yeah, I'm getting 17 mostly around town on a 4.0 auto. 24 one the freeway if I don't go over 65, 22 when doing 70-75. Wanted to try the Ford motor sports injectors (and still might at some point in time), but I figure my mileage is already as good as it's gonna get.

:mad: And I thought I did well when I just filled up at $3.06....

Way to go Chico! After work I did some careful measuring and came out to a toe-in of almost 2"!!!! Got the sleeves on the tie rod ends loose, got the PB blaster out (do not get it in your eyes, that STINGS), tapped on it a little bit, repeat procedure 3 or 4 times. Managed to get one end loose, but the other end needed a swift kick to the end of the pipe wrench. Once I got it loose I could turn the tie rod with the pipe wrench, and after one full revolution it got a lot easier. I lost count how many turns I gave it, but to the best of my measurements, I now have 0 toe in. Also have the adjustable track bar back in, and one adjustable lca, set at stock length for now, and ran out of day light. I went for a drive, and hit my "guaranteed death wobble bump" at fully 60 mph without any effect. I then drove like a bat-out-of-hell (60mph also) on a very bumpy chip and seal township road, and besides having trouble keeping the truck on the road as I was bouncing all over the place, still no death wobble. Looks like alignment was it. Tomorrow the other lca will go in, after which I will finally finish my front brakes and get new longer shocks up front. I'm currently still running the stock ones with 3" extensions. Then after the adjustable uppers arrive they will go in followed by a professional alignment and I'll be good to go for Badlands

If you want to go those kind of speeds with ~4 liters of displacement, you will need to build a high revving engine, with torque near the top end. This will probably mean a custom designed cam, heavily ported and customized manifolds and heads. And just think of the kind of rods, pistons and even crank you need just to handle the rotationally forces at high rpms. To go those kinds of speeds, you're probably looking at 600-700hp, for a minumum. Think nascar engine with less displacement (nascar limit is 358 ci, or 5.9l), but the same kind of HP. I hope you have deep pockets, as I think you're gonna be looking at at least $30,000 under the hood.

I was standing in the bathroom, doing #1 when a light bulb suddenly came on in my head. I grabbed a flashlight and went outside to look at the @^$% inverted Y steering setup our trucks have. Sure enough, as you lift the vehicle, the steering in effect pulls up, pulling both legs of the Y together, creating toe-in. Specs for toe-in are 0" +- 1/32". I'm sure I got quite a bit more of that. I checked the tread on the tires, and they have definitely been scuffed. BAD. And I only drove maybe 30 miles since the lift. And with the caster, toe-in also creates negative camber. Like toe-in, camber is supposed to be 0. Caster is supposed to be 7.5 degrees give or take .5 degrees, but caster can not be adjusted without also adjusting pinion angle. When the two conflict, pinion angle is supposed to take precedence. Oh, and camber is bad enough it is noticeable just by looking at it. So I need an alignment. But I just ordered adjustable ucas, so I will attempt to get toe-in as close to 0 as I can get it myself for now, and take it in for an alignment after the upper arms have arrived and been installed. I'm guessing Chico was right. I probably just need to get an alignment done.

Are you firing on all cylinders? Could be moisture in the distributor cap.

%^#@&$# I have the stock track bar back on and tight on both ends, as well as the stock control arms. DW is still there. Sooooo, either the spring rate of the 4.5" coils is "just wrong" for my specific truck, starting an oscillation, or it is due to an alignment issue, or combination of both. I am ignoring the coil springs, because that would mean there is no solution other than to get rid of them. That's a last resort. I guess I'll get adjustable upper control arms (and hope I can get them delivered and installed before the trip) so both upper and lower can be adjusted and then let an alignment shop loose at them as well as the tie rod ends.

I thought alignment might be a possibility, but I'm fine until I hit a bump with the ps wheel. And it's got to be a substantial bump. Will put the original lcas back on tomorrow, which will align everything back to original (albeit shoved back a bit). If that works, put the adjustables back on, but adjusted to stock length at first, etc. Like I said, eliminate all possibilities one at a time, and then try to go back to all installed the best possible. If it is an alignment problem with the axle angle, I fear I may have to spring for adjustable uppers sooner than I was planning. Except for the angle of the axle (which in turn affects both pinion angle and caster), nothing has been changed as the tie rod ends have not been touched (yet). Either way, I will find out for sure where the problem is before I do anything that costs money, because I currently can't afford to throw money at guesses. I currently still need to get longer front brake hoses, longer front shocks, and an alignment. But I'm not getting an alignment until I'm done messing with the front. No point paying for it, and having to do it (and pay for it) again a week later.

Good luck Wade! DW can have 100 different causes and each one has a different fix! I am in the process of eliminating possible causes one at a time, as I did not have it before installing the lift. I hope I will fix it with at least the lift coils still on there :roll:

I think part of the problem is that my driveway is not quite level and makes it look worse than it does. The guys at work said it didn't look that bad, and if you look at the picture with the brush in the back, parked on the street it doesn't look bad. And that is before the shackles. It's not that I'm unhappy with the lift, just disappointed that it netted me 1" less than I believed I would, both by what MO had told me, and going by the FSM specs. Right now I'm battling a DW problem. I AM going to wheel it the 25th, but if I can't get this solved I will have to trailer it there and back. I don't want to have to, because I can drive it there and back for probably about $110 in gas, trailering it would be at least double that. Plus I'd have to find a trailer I can borrow for the entire weekend.

After installing your springs, I only measured 22.5". Being 1" off when installing 3" springs is a pretty bad job "guessing" as that is fully 33% of the total lift. If stock ride height is supposedly 19" measured from flare to center of wheel, why did you come up with a guess of 23.5", instead of 22"? Also: I measured the way the FSM specifies, between the frame rail and the axle, and measure 11.25" on both sides after installing the 3" lift springs. Stock for 4wd is specified as 9.2" +/- .5". According to those numbers the springs also lifted me 2" over stock, not 3". I know I'm being a pain the butt, but considering the majority of people would be lifting a 4wd truck rather than a 2wd, I believe the springs should be designed going off the stock 4wd specifications from the FSM instead of measuring a bunch of trucks and assuming the springs haven't sagged in 20 years of use.

Obviously because they were designed making a faulty assumption about the stock height of a Comanche. Or designed based on 2wd stock height. As to why my stock springs were higher than stock? After comparing them to another stock set very carefully, they are definitely stock springs. I guess someone must have had them re-arched at some point in their life.

I would definitely not drive it until the balancer's been replaced. Even if it grenades at idle it will at the very least take out your radiator, and quite likely some hoses and serpentine belt. You do not want to see the carnage they can do if it grenades at 4000 rpm, which is far more likely.

2.5 transmissions do not bolt up to a 4.0. Also older 4.0 transmissions have a different spline count on the output than newer ones. I believe the Pukegoat and early AW4 (as well as Chrysler 904?) had a 21 spline output, the later AW4 as well as AX15 had 23 spline. So a later transfer case may not fit on an older transmission. A 2wd transmission will also not bolt to a transfer case. Please correct me where I'm wrong, as I'm still learning myself. The easiest and probably cheapest way would be to get the drive train from a 4wd 4.0 Cherokee, or buy a cheap rotted or wrecked one with a good drive train for a parts vehicle. Use front axle, drive shaft, transmission, transfer case and all related parts off it. Keep your rear axle and have a shop shorten your 2wd drive shaft for you. Since you have a 4.0, you should have the AW4 automatic. As long as you look at 4.0/auto Cherokees, they will also be AW4. edit to add: There were 2 transfer cases available. The part time only NP231, which some consider to be stronger (better off road) and is physically smaller (better off road) these are on vehicles labelled Command-Trac. The other one is the NP242, which has a full time 4wd option. Better in slippery conditions, especially snow where there is dry pavement mixed in to help prevent/minimize skidding, since full time 4wd allows you to drive in 4wd even on dry pavement (think all-wheel-drive). Physically larger, and possibly weaker. These are on vehicles with the Selec-Trac badge on the rear.

I do the same with my Comanche. Whenever I work on it the bed becomes to tool table. I just close the tailgate and crouch down when taking pics :D

Problems with Photobucket last night prevented me from uploading pictures, but they are up now, so first two pictures of the truck before the lift, but with 1.75" spacers up front These two are with the 3" rear springs and 4.5" front springs. Since with the spacers up front the truck still had just a bit of rake to it, I thought this would work. Well, the 4.5" front springs lifted the front 4.5", but the 3" rear springs only gave me 2" over factory specs: Still the same setup loaded up to go to the compost site. This is the 5th (and final) load clearing the tree out of my lawn. So longer shackles went in: And here's my loyal helper providing moral support by licking my face whenever I was underneath the truck. He insisted in being in the pic with the shackles, but kept getting in front of them. Finally agreed to stand aside, but only if I took another picture of him: And the finished product:

Just came back from Tallmadge, and Canton, OH is at 3.12. Right here in town it's still 3.29

I'm pretty sure 92 was OBD-I, federal govenrment madates that all vehicles 96 and newer need to be OBD-II. So yeah, computer probably will be different, I'm guessing the engine itself is the same, but you may possibly need to swap some of the sender units over from the old one. I really know nothing specific about the HO, as my only experience is with the Renix (87 through 90).

$3.29 here. I thought that was good, but compared to you guys...

The shackles are in. After a trip from Ohio to New York and back to Ohio by DHL :roll: Anyway, the stock shackles were 4 1/4"; these are 7 3/8" and lifted the back by 1.5" exactly. I have before pictures, but not after pictures yet, as I ran out of daylight. Pictures should be up tomorrow.

A Camaro 3.8 (3800) may not be the best choice. JeepcoMJ, how many transmissions did you go through with that engine? To much power for an AX4/AX5.

X2 If not for being afraid to scratch the paint job I'd even wheel it.

:hmm: That wouldn't be me........would it :roll: :teehee: I wonder where that truck came from? When Wildman didn't show up when I expected him, and I didn't hear from him, either, I was contemplating driving to Mansfield, trying to find you, and impersonating him. Use the parts I want (shackles, roll bar), keep some spare parts, part out what's left usable and junk the rest. Figured i could break even no problem. Then he showed up and explained the van trouble he had. That truck got quite expensive I hear.

Who do you cheerlead for? Pants or skirt? :D Anyway, the bolt was somewhat loose, but it didn't fix the death wobble. Same bump as last night. I think the rubber bushing on the axle end is too soft, as it flexes a good 1/8" when my daughter moves the wheel. After taking the bar out of the bracket I can flex the bolt by hand. The stock track bar has a dense enough bushing I can't flex the bolt even with a pair of pliers.