Pete M

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:

There are 4 things I would gladly pay a pro to do for me: rebuild an automatic, machining on an engine block, welding on items with which my life is at stake, and setting up gears in an axle. The best advise I can give is shop around as much as you can for prices, experience and warranties. If the gears are set up wrong it can be disastrous. Make sure you use someone that will stand by their work. Oh, and if you're going to regear, don't skimp out on the ratio. Deeper is better. :D

You're going to do all that work and then not swap in the front axle? That doesn't make any sense to me. :dunno:

Yes, they should be 3.55 gears.

She just needs more practice, that's all. :D

So I went to the store to place the order and we discussed exactly how it'll look. Then he told me that the hat company will send him a proof. :brows: I didn't realize that I'd get a chance to examine anything before they were made, so the perfectionist in me is really geeked. I should find out in the next couple days as to when the proof will get here. I'll keep y'all posted.

I just heard that too. :D I'm not entirely happy that it isn't based on the Wrangler, but I'm holding final thoughts until I see it.

Got it. Well, if you're just looking for a front axle, I personally wouldn't buy that particular Jeep. The gear ratio is only 3.55 if it's an auto and 3.07 if it's a stick. I'd keep looking for a 4.10 gear set if the 2.5L is to be retained.

How much of a project are you looking for? You can't swap much in the way of individual parts in the drivetrain (2.5 and 4.0 don't share trannys and the t-cases should have different input spline counts), but you could swap over the entire thing including engine wiring harness and dash.

What engines/transmissions are we talking about here with the 2 Jeeps? Year of your truck?

Being poor and having no place of my own to store them didn't stop me from my 3rd MJ, but it has apparently delayed purchasing a 4th. We'll see how long that lasts. :roll:

:eek: :rotfl2: