Pete M

I'm saying that at 3" or more, I'd be getting longer-than-stock LCAs to correct my caster and re-center my tire. Also, I'm not likely to do any lift less than 3".

Ford radius arms. :D I designed my own radius arm crossmember and kept the stock Ford rubber C-bushings (the poly ones kill all hope of flex). The coil seats on the axle don't line up with an MJ's towers. Here you can see some of the adaptations around the coils. I made wedges to tilt the base back a few degrees and stop the bowing of the coils and angled the bumpstop towers out to line up with the base. Shocks lined up beautifully though. In the rear I went SOA (with an extra MJ main leaf) and stuck the shock mount between the leaf and axle and had it welded there. Those are stock MJ shocks in the photo. They cost me about an inch of up travel and an inch of down. Better ones are on the way.

WJ front LCA arms aren't any longer than stock MJ/XJ. They may not be long enough for for 3.5" of lift.

Hi, my name is Pete, and I'm an 'manch-aholic. :D

Looks like she's delayed in Ohio 'til Tuesday. :wall:

It's a sticky. :D

I bought a couple little donut gaskets at the auto parts store. :thumbsup:

I wish. So far I'm doing it on the hat person's time schedule. :( (which honestly wouldn't be so bad if only I knew what that schedule was.)

If nothing else, I highly recommend isolating the aluminum from the steel. Their interaction can be minimized if they don't touch and the proper material is used in the bolts (stainless maybe?). :thumbsup:

My guess (and this is just a guess) is that the Toy engine has a different bolt pattern and so their version of the AW-4 would have a different torque-converter housing (meaning there's a slim chance you could use a Toy AW-4 if you use a Jeep torque-converter housing). If this is the case, then you're probably not going to find a bellhousing that will match both the Jeep engine pattern and the toy manual trans pattern. :(

true. all I'm saying is do it once and do it right. Absolutely. :thumbsup:

Open systems are overrated. But having a radiator with a cap on it is cool. :D

I was told the hat company's rep was coming through Michigan this week and would be stopping by to pick up our order from the store owner (as well as give him the updated samples. etc). The store guy said he'd call me when that happened so I could swing by to be there at that time. Haven't heard anything yet, but he didn't know when the rep would be in town. :( I'll be checking in with him today to see what's up.

You're also running a much bigger tire than the 31s he's got.

And pray-tell how much does this "solution" cost? Someone better be calculating the costs here and comparing the cost of extra fuel you think you're using each week to the total price of swapping part/tires. :smart: And what happens when you do all this and find out you're not saving anything? How do we know that your previous mileage calculations weren't off? I hate to be the devils advocate here, but I have a feeling this is much ta do 'bout nuthin'. :cheers:

Find a local 4x4 club or website. That's how I've found people to do the important welding on my truck. Some will even do it for beer. :D

Spending tons of money to try and recoup a bit of gas mileage is rarely a wise move. My advice is to stop obsessing ofver the mileage and just go enjoy your Jeep. By the way, if I got 12 mpg in the Dakota I'd be happy. :( Too much dang power on tap. I just can't resist the call of the skinny pedal. :D

That's the kit I was talking about that was only half a kit. You'd still need to buy upper and lower control arms and they ain't cheap. You don't need the complex bolt-on thingy if you're going to weld anyway. And going SOA is a lot of lift for 31s. Are you prepared for the even bigger tires and new gears and a new rear axle? Each addition inch of lift cost way more than the last one did. My advice is to stick with your plan and try not to bite off more than you can chew. :cheers:

I know from personal experience that it's a bad, bad, bad thing to do. Made my bedside waaaay worse and rot out faster than before. :(

Honestly 3k isn't that bad. It should actually be working less hard now than before since 3.07s and 33s puts the engine real low in the sweet spot. Might just sound worse since you're so used to the previous tune the engine played. :dunno: My Dakota has 3.92 gears and little 28" tall tires and when in OD on the freeway it was usually around 3k. It always felt like the trans should shift again, but that's just the nature of the beast. 3k won't hurt anything. :D

How's your caster? Alignment?

Have you been switching your speedometer gears to make the speedo accurate with each gear or tire change? 4.10s with 33s should give you better mileage than 3.07s and 33s. RPMs of the engine is only part of the equation. More important than them is how hard your engine is working to maintain any given speed. Maybe your gas mileage went downhill because your Jeep was suddenly fun to drive? :brows:

When my rear lights stopped working one day, it turned out to be the connector in the wire harness. located right behind the drivers side rear tire. Corrosion inside the connector was the problem. I tried cleaning but had to splice in a generic connector I got at the parts store.

CJ-10A aircraft tugs are pretty rare. I think I read that 1800 were built?

I usually get the largest gauge I can get for regular vehicular applications and made my own to go with the HO alt in the 88.