mvusse

And OEM style stock track bars are available at pretty much any auto parts store.

I wouldn't mind owning that 383 under the hood to put in my camper...

Are you sure that is roll bar padding, and not just part of a pool noodle?

The axle is tilted back too far due to longer lower control arms, but still stock upper control arms. Plus your lower control arms are too long. as the axle travels up it shifts too far forwards. So you need shorter (adjustable) lower control arms than you currently have, and you need aftermarket adjustable upper control arms.

Been steadily dropping for the past few days, down to 3.319 and counting.

Because it's RC. The cheap kits are cheap because they are not complete.

If the axle is not centered side to side that is because with 4.5" lift you will need an aftermarket longer (or adjustable) track bar. Not centered front to back would be because you need longer (adjustable) lower control arms, but doing that without the uppers will change the caster angle, and at the same time the pinion angle of the front axle. To fix that you will need longer (adjustable) upper control arms. Correctly lifting a 4 link coil spring suspension more than a 1"-2" "budget boost" is not cheap.

To post picture you have to upload them somewhere else, like photobucket or flickr, then link to them here.

I got an Advance Adapters HD one. Seems good quality, instructions were clear, install went without a hitch. Don't care who made it Don't care if it's the best or not Don't care who invented it I'm happy.

Driver side what is hitting the sway bar link? Did you get the correct length track bar for 4.5" lift? And please tell me you got the toe-in set correctly after the lift.

In my 94 I did away with the rear sway bar. As long as it is my daughter's only daily driver, my 96 is keeping it.

And the required pinion angle depends on the type of rear driveshaft. With a double cardan joint up on top by the trasfer case (commonly done with a slip yoke eliminator) like the front driveshaft, the pinion should be straight in line with the driveshaft (actually, about 2 degrees lower, so it will be in line under power when driving down the road). If you run a stock style driveshaft, the pinion angle should theoretically be parallel to the transfer case output shaft, or again 2 degrees below that in the real world. The two degrees is for leaf spring applications where axle wrap is possible. With ladder bars, a bam bar, or multilink suspension, the 2 degrees below is not neccesary and would actually be a bad thing.

The perches and u bolt plates I use also allow me to move the axle forward or backward one inch.

I run 5/8" u bolts. Torque them back down after 100 miles and again after 500. Never had an issue with u bolts yet.

What's left of my bed has not gone to the scrap yard yet. I'll try to remember to get it out next time I'm in the shop.

But at least in a Cherokee, the gas tank is centered.

There's two more you forgot about: the engine is centered, but both the intake and exhaust manifolds are driver side as well.

I never understood the point of u bolt eliminators. SOA with 3" lift springs will net you over 8" lift.

Should be, or close to it. I don't know if the rear axle is at the same height relative to the transmission/transfer case.

Front axle temporarily mostly hooked up. Springs are in, my old adjustable lower control arms, temporary oak upper control arms, and track bar bracket has been moved forward 2". Now to get the steering box back in, hook up the drag link, and see what I need to do to hook the track bar up to the axle.

33x12.50 are a problem. At least they were for me when I had 4.5" lift. 33x10.50 will probably work if you have adjustable lower control arms.

Even though it doesn't matter anymore, but even so, if you currently have a 90 231 and you were planning to swap that input shaft into the 95 242, it would not have worked. Around 94 the transfer case internals were changed, and the pre94 and post 94 cases have a different cut on the gears. I believe this change happened at the same time that the 231 gained a true neutral. I do not believe an auto bellhousing would fit on a manual transmission, but have no evidence to back this up.

When I was 6.5" over stock height, I needed a main tube on my shaft 1" longer than the original, but I also had a different, and 1/2" longer, slip yoke on it, and had swapped in an axle with a 1" longer nose. So with the original axle and yoke I would have needed 2.5". With 3" lift you could use one a bit longer, but stock length should work fine. Best thing to do, though, would be to do the swap, them measure what you need. Only fool proof way to be sure.

I bought an entire running 4wd truck with half the mileage for half that.

An Acquaintance of mine, named Troy, removed the "Cherokee" badges from his highly modified XJ, and replaced them with "Troy-bilt", off his lawnmower.