Pete M

Yeah, I'd say breaking the laws of physics would make me pretty skeptical. :D

I won't have my hands on them for 2-3 weeks, but I'll jot you down for one. :cheers:

I'd use car-part.com to locate a junkyard near me. Then I'd research each junkyard's warranty and determine which is best. Or, I'd hunt down a whole car that had a running engine (maybe a rear end collision or the like) which would allow me to determine the shape of the engine before buying and swapping.

I'd never had hi-beams on the 88 until one day I read about someone else having difficulty with theirs and it was pointed out that the lever you pull on the column is connected by a long bar to a switch located at the base of the column. In my truck that bar had become dislodged from its proper location and I had to loosen the switch and realign the parts. Took a minute to figure out how but it was pretty simple and now I have hi-beams. :D

The YJ t-case will be clocked up slightly higher than MJ/XJs and you'll still need all the clutch stuff, pedals, and trans mount from an MJ/XJ.

Sweeeeeeet!

How? :eek:

My 99 TJ AX-15 has a small breather cap on the top right behind the shifter. It's the kind of breather cap that prevents splashing from entering the hole. Likely not very effective if you submerge the whole truck, but I left it as is since it's so high up on the trans. I ran hoses from my t-case and axles up to the engine compartment and into a small valve cover filter assembly.

My vote is for bad spider gears. :D But definitely shake and check the driveshaft for slop before popping open the diff cover.

Which rims are too be used is very important here. 235s on stock steel or stock aluminum rims probably won't touch anywhere 30s on stock 6" steel rims might touch the control arms, but not too bad if they do 30s on stock 7" aluminum rims probably won't touch anywhere 31s on stock 7" aluminum rims will probably touch the control arms 31s on stock steel rims will likely touch the control arms, possibly pretty bad 30s or 31s on aftermarket rims with less-than-stock backspacing (or the stock TJ 8" rims) and you probably won't touch the control arms anymore, but the tire will probably start rubbing on the flares, possibly very badly. And this doesn't even take into account the differences in tire sizes across the various manufacturers. :roll:

:eek: Great, now I have to up-armor my floorboards too?

I ordered a few extra just for this sort of thing. :D PM me your addresses and include a list of what you want.

If I remember right that's a torx bit. You can borrow mine if you wanna swing by. I'll PM you my address.

Riverview. I'm just south of you.

I ask because I hate to see any decent MJ parted out. Most of what you want could be removed and the truck would still be usable, but if you cut off the doors, that makes it much harder to find the truck a new home. I'd be happy to help you find some good doors at the junkyard if it meant keeping the cab of this new truck intact (assuming the cab is worth saving). Keep me posted. :thumbsup:

Is the body in decent shape or rusted out?

Last couple times one of my trucks cranked slowly it was due to not enough electricity getting to the starter. That was all I could think of. :dunno:

Careful when eying a parts-truck. You'll want to take stock of what you're needing, what it has, and whether or not those items will work for you. I originally purchased my 86 as a parts-truck, only to realize later that very few parts actually swap to my 88. :( Thank goodness it has worked out fine as a "whole-truck" so far. :D Turned out to be far better for me to search out the individual parts I needed for my 88 and 90 projects. That way I could pick the best stuff rather than settling for what Jeep put in any one model. I'm in Riverview if you want to swing by this weekend.

Can I get the Cliff notes version of the story? :brows:

20 year old Jeeps at that. Everything has a lifespan and rust cuts into that considerably. Repeat after me... Old trucks are fun, old trucks are fun, old trucks are fun, old trucks are fun, old trucks are fun... :D Oh, and I attached my last shifter nob with epoxy.

How old are your battery cables?

Definitely hit them with some quality primer. I envy you guys out west. I can do all the prep work in the world and still the steel rusts. :( I now just hit the bumpers with their springtime coating of black paint to cover up the rust.

Almost all of us have run into "PO" issues. :D

If you're going to swap in a new front axle, nows the time to contemplate finding one with better gears to accommodate the bigger tires you'll eventually have. What rear axle do you have? Manual or auto trans? Do you know what gear ratio you have now? That front axle looks to have been swapped in. Are you in Lincoln Park, MI? You could probably just swing by my house some day and we can poke around the truck to see what's up with it. :cheers: