mvusse

On 7" wide rims, for best handling and wear, the maximum listed on the tire. Don't know about 6" wide rims. Lower the pressure for a softer ride and better snow traction, but increased fuel usage and worse handling.

What rear axle do you have? What size tires are you running? Unless you actually mean mud, what kind of terrain? Not a lot of traction in mud, so not a lot of strain on the drivetrain, but it gets in everything. Plan on replacing both unit bearings fairly soon after a trip as the mud will wash the grease out of them. If it's gritty mud, it will also get inside the brake drums and sand all the brake material off the brake shoes. If it has gravel, most likely one or more pebbles will get stuck between the front brake rotors and the dust shield. Not serious, but will make a horrendous screeching sound. After you get home, check all u joints, grease all greasable ones and check for water in your axles. Starter and alternator are in a bad spot also. If you don't have AC, you might want to move the alternator up where the AC compressor would go. On anything else, it can't hurt to get rid of the central axle disconnect up front and upgrade to axle shafts with the larger u joints. If you are going to do this more than once and your rear axle is a Dana 35, start looking for a better one to swap in when it goes bad.

I prefer a manual transmission over an automatic for road driving, but off road I'll take an automatic any day.

Cut off remains of old tailpipe, welded on new one that'd been sitting on a shelf since spring, reinstalled exhaust.

Already backed out of a Wellsville trip on black Friday. Cost me about $60 in gas to tow my truck there and back. That's $60 I don't have until at least after xmas.

:wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: Broke, and no room for more anyway as I already have to store and trailer and one vehicle off site.

It definitely still has a rake to it, but IMHO it looks pretty good now. Throw a toolbox and a spare tire in the back along with an aftermarket rear bumper and you're ready to play. Even though some people think a truck should sit perfectly level, it's a truck. It should be able to carry cargo. And I think nothing looks worse than a truck with a few hundred pounds of cargo that's squatting down.

On a 231 pre 94 parts cannot generally be swapped into a 94 or newer case. This includes the input shaft. Don't know if the same goes for the 249. I do know the viscous coupling in the 249 is known to go bad, and replacing it is prohibitively expensive. Most people just toss it and swap in a 242 from behind a 4.0 in it's place. AFAIK the input shafts between the 249 and 242 (and 231) interchange on like years. But I don't own, and have never owned a ZJ. Just have two friends with one, a stock 93 5.2/249 and a lifted 98 4.0/242 now a 231 on 35s.

Sounds like your clutch is gone.

Put a new transfer case under it.

Replacing the stock rear axle isn't that bad or difficult. Replacing the front axle with something other than a D30 gets very costly because it will either be a Rubicon D44 which usually fetch over $1k and still have the D30 outers, or you pay $200 or more for all the brackets plus labor to install them on the new axle to use it with a 4 link suspension, or you spend more money modifying your truck to use leaf springs up front, which opens up a whole new can of worms (like keeping the steering links and leaf spring from trying to be in the same place at the same time. If you really want to upgade your axles, save up money while you do research to figure out what exactly you want to do, as in what axle and how to make it work, then start looking for and collecting the parts needed. Don't just look at an axle, say "that looks nice" and then worry about how to make it fit. FWIW, I am still running a D30 up front, locked with 35" tires. Yes, I've had to completely rebuild it once, have had to replace grenaded pinion bearings once and go through multiple axle shafts, u joints and unit bearings a year. But $8 for a unit bearing, or $15 for a shaft plus $27 for a new u joint (or $35 if I want to try the Alloy USA chromoly ones) are what I can afford. $600 for what I want under it I can currently not.

That would be the Chfrysler 8.25". It's been mentioned in this thread by myself among others. The AMC model 20 from a Comanche is rare (more so than a Dana 44) and doesn't have as much aftermarket support. The AMC 20 found under CJs are too narrow and have weak 2 piece axle shafts.

Removed Exhaust from the front pipe back and the transfer case.

Do the OBD I TCUs need vehicle speed input? If so, does the transmission have a separate output shaft speed sensor for this, or does it rely on the speedometer one? If it relies on the speedometer one, then how do you work around this, as his dash needs a mechanical one for the speedometer to work? [hijack] Out of curiosity (and for my own need, as i still need to get one to swap into Sparkles), am I correct, then, to assume for 96 it is part of the ECU? And more importantly, is the 91 through 95 AW4 transmissions fully compatible in a 96 XJ, or are there problems with missing sensors and/or different wiring harnesses. [/hijack]

I have used Chrome occasionally on the desk top, but that's it. I might try it on mylaptop,as I found Firefox 8.0 has a massive memory leak. After being open for 3 days it had over 600MB resident memory. Closed it down hard to make sure it came back up with he same pages and history and upon reopening only used ~100MB.

That would be an AW4, and I'm fairly sure for 91 through 96 that the TCU is party of the ECU. You'd want an 87 through 90 one with a stand alone TCU.

I don't see any problems with swapping in a 96 manual transmission (AX15). The 96 transfer case uses an electronic speed sensor, though, while your speedometer needs a mechanical one. I know the 92 and 93 transfer cases they can be swapped, but don't know if it's that simple in a 94 or newer one as they changed some things inside the transfer case.

Aside from the unit bearings, the D30 should survive okay as a daily driver on 35s. Run shafts with the larger u joints, use some quality joints like the Spicer 5-760X, or the Ally USA Chromoly ones keep the diff open. Although fine for stock tires you will grenade Duralast Gold (Autozone) and Neapco Brute Force (Advance Auto Parts) with 35" tires. Find a line on cheap unit bearings (like a local junk yard), because they get expensive replacing a few $100 new ones a year. Especially since most only have a 1 year warranty instead of lifetime. A rear D35 will hate you with 35" tires. If you have a D44 you'll be okay. If not, upgrade to a 29 spline Chrysler 8.25" or a Ford 8.8" with wheel spacers. They are both plenty strong and easy to find for cheap.

My best guess on the popping sound is a wallowed out hole on the frame end track bar bracket allowing the track bar to move when enough force is applied. This would also explain the death wobble. But it can't hurt to check the steering box mounting bolts as well as the frame around them and the tie rod ends. The vibration at 45-48 mph is probably tire balance. The hard shifting could be because of the clutch not or barely disengaging fully. Might be a problem with the slave cylinder, or could just need bleeding. Check your front axle u joints at the wheels.

Wheel spacers and/or wheels with less backspace for the rear tires to clear the inside of the wheel well. The Ford 8.8 usually uses a 1350 style joint while the Comanche uses 13010 series joints. 1350/1310 conversion u joints are available, or a flange yoke for a 1310 series joint could be swapped onto the axle. These could be gotten either new, or used (Crown Vic?). But since you're going with a SYE, as Pete mentioned you will need a new custom made driveshaft, so you might as well have it made with a 1350 series u joint at the back to solve that issue. On a side not, even though a good upgrade, the rear drive line is long enough to not need a SYE on a long bed, and probably not on a short bed. When you have the perches welded on, make sure that the pinion is going to be 2 or 3 degrees below straight in line with the driveshaft (SYE, assuming CV joint at the top of the driveshaft) or 2 or 3 degrees below parallel with the transfer case output (no SYE, stock style rear driveshaft) or you will get vibration at higher speeds which can eat transfer case and rear axle bearings and seals on top of being annoying. Don't bother installing the drop pitman arm until everything is installed, then run a strong between the end points of the drag link and a second string between the end points of the track bar to see what needs to be done to get these string to run parallel. If you do need a drop pitman arm, reinforce the frame around the steering box bolts (mine is plated with 3/16" steel inside and out, also going back to the next hole (which is used by tow hooks) and on the outside forward to catch the bumper mount holes) and/or a steering box brace to prevent the bolts from cracking the frame or ripping through it. Especially with larger tires and/or front locker off road. Unless you're going to use your old u bolt plates somewhere on the rear suspension I would suggest weld-on shock mounts on the axle for a cleaner look and better function. If you're planning to use this truck offroad I would suggest against the control arm drop brackets. Thinking of long arms won't be a bad idea. I'm running one inch lower with adjustable short arms no problem, though. If you do use drop brackets, make sure they come with braces, or order a set of braces to go with them. You may also need longer axle breather hoses and parking brake lines. With larger tires (I'm assuming you will be running something in the 33-35"range) steering upgrade (drag link/tie rod) to the beefier V8 ZJ Grand Cherokee units or aftermarket woild IMHO be a "Good Idea", as would be a brake upgrade. Lower axle gearing if you want 5th gear to be useful with larger tires.

Although, in 92 (93 model year) they did get another good, well selling vehicle on their lot. The Eagle Talon wasn't that bad of a seller either, as it was a sister car to the Mitsubishi Eclipse, but priced lower. The richer kids usually went for the Mitsu 3000GT, though.

Yes, that will fit an MJ. As far as being solid, I wonder how solid cold rolled steel would compare to .25 wall chromoly tubing like most other aftermarket track bars. Cold rolled steel is usually relatively soft, although they don't specify what grade.

I come through Wadsworth on weekends once a month or so heading to or from Cleveland. But I'm either driving Sparkles, or the Purple People Eater. Don't own anything red. Also go to Norton once in a while. Got a buddy living there that always seems to post up part for sale or free that I want. And I'd be up for a meet and greet with a little wheeling. Mu suggestions for wheeling would be Dover Dirt Trails (second weekend of the month when they open again) since it's 5 minutes from my house, or Southington Offroad (near Garrettsville) first weekend of any month for larger property, milder wheeling and a great family atmosphere; my daughter's favorite place to be. Who all of you take your truck off road, and how's it built?

I have an 87 4.0 and an 87 2.5, but unless someone will buy me two new hoses for the 2.5, I'm not removing the pump. The 25 year old hoses would not survive removal.

SOA in the rear with your stock spring will work well with 6.5" lift up front. If you want 4.5", Motion Offroad and Hell Creek (both members here) have 4.5" lift springs for Comanches. I think both their springs are the same, from the same manufacturer.