Pete M

you drive over small Japanese cars.

you shouldn't have any issues in 2wd. posi in an explorer 8.8 is pretty random. there may have been some sort of rhyme or reason back in the day, but I don't know what that was.

a front locker can result in turning issues once in a while. it's the trade-off for the insane amount of traction you'll get. but automatic lockers are designed to engage and disengage automatically as power is applied. spools suck. they are engaged 24/7. plus if you really didn't like it, they come right out as easy as they went in. :thumbsup: If you have a posi rear, I say drive it like that for a while. if you find yourself getting stuck a lot, then maybe shoot for the front locker.

I've never had any sort of redirection, but I'm tired of the webring :typing: issues. soon as I re-figure out how to alter the front page, I'm eliminating it.

a front automatic locker should be pretty much invisible if no power is being applied to it (aka 2wd).

checked the fuse yet? does the fan work on high or not at all? when last did the fan run?

if it has a posi, I would leave it as-is, and look at adding a drop in locker to the front.

a full locker replaces the carrier and requires gear setup. this eliminates the stock carrier as a weak point, but costs gobs of money more. a "lunchbox" locker simply replaces the spider gears and requires no re-setup of the ring/pinion gears.

haven't used either, but I can tell you that it's always prudent to have some healthy doubt about what a company says about their competitors.

4x4 XJ front springs should work for you too. car-part.com can help find XJs and MJs in junkyards near you. you might have difficulty searching for coils though. not sure how many yards would list that. but if you look for other typical XJ/MJ parts, you might find yards near you that have the Jeeps, and then you can call and ask about the coils. :thumbsup:

in this neck of the woods, rust-free MJs for reasonable amounts of money are somewhat scarce. :(

why go through all that effort when a lunchbox locker is like only 200 bucks? besides, spool + 260 U-joints = trouble

preperation is key.

can you hear the pump running?

it all depends on what kind of project you're looking for. did I have to swap in those ford axles? did I need the headaches of adapting the radius arm suspension? inventing my own parts? hell no. my truck is not significantly tougher than a stock MJ with a 44 rear and upgraded front U-joints. but I wanted a project (and lord knows I got it :D )

great info. :bowdown: When I can finally get around to picking up the cause again, I've got a ton of food for thought. plans keep morphing, but it looks like dad will be coming back up here for a bit in December. it'll make my decision making process soooo much easier to actually have him here. :D (I keep having to remind myself that this is his saw, not mine.)

even por-15 won't stop our trucks from rotting from the inside-out.

a complete running 4.0 equipped XJ or MJ donor. just about everything has to go, from the wire harness, to the dash components, to the drivetrain. pretty much everything but the seats and axles.

and when they say "regearing", they mean swapping in an axle with better gearing. it can cost 600 to regear an axle and you should never ever sink that much money into a Dana 35. 3.55 gears are found behind the most common XJ package out there; 4.0L+auto. also make sure your air filter and your cat are not clogged.

"cleaned" the o2 sensor?

I found a couple nagging leaks in my trucks using baby powder. sprinkle it around in the suspect areas and the water will make little tracks through it. then you just follow the tracks backwards to help narrow down the location. :thumbsup:

new bearings? knocking is generally a very bad thing. but even then, the 4.0 has been known to keep on truckin' for many, many miles. :bowdown:

if you can get it to run good, then that is all that's important. :thumbsup:

yup, pretty sure it's the 88-07 :thumbsup:

are those stock springs?