Pete M

I don't think ive owned a vehicle with more nooks and crannies for stuff to collect then my MJ. The good news is, once it rots, everything falls out the holes. :D Brilliant! It's a built in self-preservation feature to slow the tide. That (combined with all the oil that our trucks leak) must have been Jeep's plan all along. :yes:

Maybe we'd believe that all was yours if you had changed the address of the picture. :D That's a pretty complex system JT. :eek: The best my plants ever get is I scoop in some Miracle Grow potting soil when I first drop them in. I've always meant to dig out all the crappy clay-based soil (my area was a swamp a hundred years ago) and replace it with real dirt. :doh: Although the tomatoes don't seem to mind all that much, especially the cherries. :dunno: As long as the cherries get water, they will easily overgrow their supports. Which is why I built the auto-waterer. Last year I left for a while and put a couple of the neighborhood girls in charge of everything. My dogs and cat were fine, but I came back to a decimated garden. I learned my lesson. Apparently my garden isn't cuddly enough to garner any attention from kids. :fs1:

The only sure defense against salt is to never let your truck touch it. :( Make sure you wash the area boxed in right above the rear wheelwells. Stuff gets trapped up there and rots the fenders from the inside out. Same with the front to a lesser degree.

Yes they are the same, but good luck removing one without cracking it. :( It's one of the few things that I would gladly pay a pro to handle. On a side note, I've read that the later model XJ window gaskets are an improvement for our older trucks, so look into that either way.

How much variation is there between the different crops? I've never really taken much of a scientific angle on watering amounts. Just as long as it's "enough". :D I figure the extra water will just go away on its own.

She just wants to get up and go regardless of what's being pulled behind. Makes me want to enter a tractor-pull competition. :D

The big reason they changed the fluid required in the AX-15 is that the old fluid would eat the yellow metals (aka the synchros) inside the transmission (other transmission don't have this issue). Chrysler certainly won't acknowledge that and so they say it's for "improved shifting".

We're real suckers for MJ build photos. :D It doesn't really matter how big or small the project.

The 231 gets ATF. The AX-15 gets 10w-30 engine oil (Chrysler changed it from the old stuff that would eat the synchros). There are other aftermarket choices, but I'll let the others chime in with those since I probably won't get them straight..

It used to look like a real garden, many years ago. But the raspberries took over the back half and I gave up fighting the rabbits, so you'll see raspberries galore, 6 kinds of cherry and regular tomato plants (rabbits hate tomato) and a few beans climbing the middle fencing. The biggest addition this year is the automatic watering device I whipped up just before I left for 2 weeks in Georgia. I bought a water timer and a couple cheap sprinklers, strung it all up above the garden hanging it from the top of the clothesline pole, and now my garden gets water at 5am and 5pm each day. I can't ever forget. And I planted a few beans and tomatoes in the planters box in the deck (note the small sprinkler for them too)

The 2.8 and 3.4L are the same block externally (except for the fuel pump boss which is missing in the 3.4 and you'll need to get an electric pump). The only other big difference is the flywheels are balanced differently and you'll need to get your old flywheel neutrally balanced. This page should help you out: http://jeep.off-road.com/jeep/article/a ... ?id=277008

Sigh, yeah I saw that it had finally come up. :( But I'm in even less of a position to buy anything than when I first saw it (declaring the big B soon). But if I can land an Engineering gig, I should have loads of extra cash this fall. :D That's the theory at least. :shake:

19-21 (according to the trip comp which means it was even worse). But I could have gotten better if I wasn't tooling along at 70 (running pretty much effortlessly I might add). :D I love that little diesel. :bowdown: I've now pulled the same trailer with similar light loads in it with both the CRD (MI to GA and back) and an 08 Libby with the 3.7 (GA to FL, coming back was loaded to the gills so that doesn't really count) and the CRD and its older platform just outperformed the newer stuff, hands down. :dunno:

Have you been looking at donor XJs too? For what it's worth, for a straight 4wd conversion, I'd go to the junkyards. 3.07 gears suck. Find an AX-15 and some 3.55 geared axles and you'll be much happier. :thumbsup:

I would focus more on diagnosing the problem. If it is a bad engine block, there are tests that can verify that. Don't go swapping engines willy-nilly.

No, you shouldn't be. But your post kinda made it sound like you were so I wanted to be certain. :D Bleeding an internal can be a real pain in the butt. I've never had the privilege of doing it, so all I can say is keep at it. :thumbsup: If it's anything like when I was bleeding the brakes of my 90, it might take a while. :(

I wouldn't even do that if I didn't think I needed the strength of the bigger joints. It's super easy to simply open the cover, slide the locking collar on the axle shaft over to the "lock" position, retain it using any one of the various ways people have figured out, then put the cover back on and remove all the vacuum lines (making sure to cap them at their source).Done and done. :thumbsup:

It might be important to at least diagnose the problem. Swapping in a whole new engine wouldn't fix, say, a fuel pump issue. It could be as simple as a bad ground on the engine block or corrosion in a wire.

Eliminating the CAD won't put you into 4wd. That will always be controlled by your t-case shifter. :thumbsup:

Rear axle is the essentially the same Dana 35, only with different brackets welded on. Keep in mind that it's still just a Dana 35. Front can be converted if you weld on XJ/MJ stuff (might be tough with the YJ CAD mount). Unless you're capable of doing a gear set-up, you might want to re-think trying to swap gears yourself. It's not as easy as just bolting them in (it can cost between 100 and 300 per axle to get it done right). You can sell the pair and put them towards an Explorer 8.8 and an MJ/XJ Dana 30 with 4.10s already in them.

AX-15 on the left, Peugeot on the right. Note the line of bolts on the top (and on the bottom) that split the Peugeot into a left and right half.

I've seen poly "SUV" boxes at the hardware store. I bought the larger size for my MJ, but they had smaller ones.

Ford radius arms ftw!. :D