Pete M

I got new plate tags for the 86 and 90 (and dakota). It's a big reason I don't look forward to my b-day. The cash output to hold on to my trucks is not insignificant. :( They all have to be licensed and insured even if they never leave private property. Stupid city. :headpop:

As a matter of fact, yes I did. :D I picked up a sweet craftsman GT-5000 garden tractor. :drool: I can only hope that I'll be able to use it a couple times up here in Michigan before I drag it down to Georgia to attack Dad's acre-o-grass. :clapping: Yup. I added a fender and washed the dickens out of it. :D Oh, and I re-inflated the flat tire. Next trip I'm bring down a pile of parts from home and probably POR the floors. :thumbsup:

Don't confuse high-dollar and high-quality with hard-core. A good kit will ride nice and perform nice under all situations, offroad or on (and good road-manners can be more difficult to achieve than offroad prowess). A good kit will install easily and properly and do it the first time with no modifications necessary. A good kit will not turn to rust after one winter. A good kit will contain all the parts necessary to do it right and not cut corners to simply achieve a lower up-front price. A good kit will leave you smiling the day you install it and still smiling 3 years later. :D

I got a rust free fender for my project truck. :D Unfortunately, only one day was both warm and dry. Seems to be the rainy season down there. :shake: And yeah, next time I'm down for any length of time I'll be a bit more proactive to arrange a meet-and-greet. :thumbsup:

I do appreciate all the various opinions. Really I do. :thumbsup: I always take every one into consideration. But it's impossible to give every individual the forums that they want. I can only provide one and everyone needs to share it. This includes the people that feel I'm too loose with the rules and the people that think I'm too strict. It's all about the love for the trucks and don't y'all forget it.. :thumbsup: Everyone here helps out., Just because shelby is a mod doesn't mean I value his opinion any more than yours or hornbords. If I could take away those silly titles I would. He is simply more towards the other end of the spectrum as you on this topic and because of that, he is more passionate about enforcing the rules that we do have. That's why I asked him to help out with what he's doing. Because he likes to do it. :D We just needed to get on the same page about how to do it. Oh, and we now have a strict no-deleting policy. Mods may move, lock, or warn, but nothing is to be deleted (except for double posts and obvious stuff like that). I've set up a special "hidden" forum so anything that's really offensive can be moved there temporarily. It's a trick the more experienced members showed me. That way, when I sit down and open up the forums, I'm not deluged with angry PMs and have no clue as to what on earth happened. I seem to have hit a snag in that not all the mod people can see it, but we'll figure it out eventually. The menus that came with the forum software update are vast and complex and I may have done something wrong. Lord knows it's happened before and Lords knows it will happen again. Sometimes I pine for the days of the old forum setup that was nice and simple. But then I remember how many spammers we got every day and I remember what it took to delete each and every one... and then I no longer regret the upgrade. :D We haven't had a spammer since.

I don't mind it when threads go off topic either. Happens a lot around here. :yes: But I also don't understand why this shouldn't be seen as a simple separation of forums. Why shouldn't the classifieds stuff be in the classifieds? It's not like I'm suggesting that contact can't be made. Anyone can send a PM to the person that needs the stuff. All I'm saying is that it is my humble opinion that the Tech forum is not a place to advertise that one has stuff for sale. There's no threat of anything. No punishment if anyone keeps doing it. I've been reminding people about what goes where since we left the yahoo setup and finally had more than a single mishmash forum. I don't see this as anything different, although I admit I wasn't clear enough when I was first talking with shelby. I apologize for that and I think we've got it all straightened out. And yes, I made shelby a mod while I was in georgia and needed help. I also made Qui Gon-Jinn an admin. They need to be mods and admins in order to help out with tasks as they pop up. It's just the way the forum software is set up. :thumbsup: We just had a bit of a teething problem and got off on the wrong foot. As I said earlier, I've been an "admin" for a while now, but that doesn't mean I've got enough experience to foresee every problem. I go to Eagle and Taz and other guys for opinions and guidance and then make a decision on whatever the matter may be. This particular one was my idea from the start. But with Jeepco's and others' opinions thrown into the pot, I think I've come up with a fair compromise. No? And as much as I like the concept of being a free spirit, there are always rules. Being friendly and keeping in mind that this is a family friendly site is rule number 1. :thumbsup:

A 242 and a CAD should never be together. If the CAD failed and opened up while in AWD mode, you can kiss your 242 goodbye. :( The 242 has an extra setting and more internal parts than the 231. In Full-time mode, there is a slight differentiation allowed between the front and back tires, allowing for some slip when turning corners and such. But in a tight turn in a parking lot, you can still get a tire to chirp if you're in fulltime. It only allows something like a 48-52 split front to back.

I forget the year cutoff, but early Elims were 2wd and later on they expanded the name to use on 4wd versions too.

Are you offering to put one together? :brows: There is a sticky for links.

This site has that converter program too, but also shows you which speedo gear to buy so your speedometer and odometer are accurate. http://gojeep.willyshotrod.com/HowtoSpeedoGears.htm

yes

Ya know guys, we do have a classifieds. :shake: My 90 has one and someday it'll end up on my 88 (which is the offroad toy, but started life as a 2wd). Seems tough enough to take on the occasional log. but also seems like it would hold on to mud and create a rust-prone zone for the gas tank. :dunno:

Yeah, I always meant to go in and try and figure out how to tweak some of the individual colors. It's not exactly a straight forward procedure though. I used an online program to tweak everything in one fell swoop and there was a certain amount of compromise in the process. I'll work on it. (or, more likely, I'll ask Qui to do it. :D )

Amen to that. The minispool in my front axle causes nothing but arm-aches. :shake:

The easiest way is to buy the trans and t-case as a matched pair. Lots of XJs came with the auto/242 setup.

Yup. :doh: I fixed it.

Then I guess you've read this thread? :D viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13881 But anyways, you can make a metric ton MJ out of any MJ. You just need some heavy duty springs, shocks and rear axle. But for the camper, you'll likely need even more than the metric ton leafs can give you (like the sir springs that Luke added). And more braking than the stock system can give you. Personally, I'd look for a longbed that was as close to stock as possible and ran very good and build it up with all the fun upgrades that are out there. I'd add a disk braked 8.8, the double booster mod, some sort of disk brake upgrade up front (I wonder if liberty brakes can be adapted?)... Maybe it's for the better that I don't have any money. I'd be blowing it on building more MJs. :D

Good points. But have you ever heard of the unibody frame/no frame issue mentioned by the OP? I can't see how a slide-in camper would present any unique stress issues for the frame, separate from the load capacity/suspension strengthening/stability issues. I was always under the impression that it was a problem with how small the MJ was. Light and thin do not make a good base for a tall wind-catching camper. That uniframe should take anything you can throw at it (assuming it hasn't been bitten by the rust bug).

I thought some '86 models came with a full time 4wd option? Yup. the 86 brochures advertise an option of the selec-trac system.

I would also upgrade the front swaybar with a v8 ZJ unit and try my best to adapt a rear one in. And for what it's worth, "load carrying capacity" is only one of the aspects that make a vehicle safe when carrying a slide in camper. :thumbsup:

Why would anyone want to keep the CAD? Just so it can fail on ya further down the road? :hmm:

No. But as Phoenix said, some guys will need to either swap to a front valve that's a proportioning valve (the factory unit up there that looks like a prop valve is just a junction box), or swap in an aftermarket adjustable prop valve (my preferred method).

Are you asking about converting a 2wd to 4wd? Or specifically converting it to AWD?

I now have a spool in the back of my 88 (ford 9") and it makes a LOT of tire chirping noise just pulling out of the driveway and going across the street to park it in the parking lot. Plus it leaves light skid marks in my dad's driveway. I can't image driving it around town like it is. I bought an open 3rd member (it was cheap) that will be swapped in if it looks like I'll ever drive it much on the street.