Pete M

Shot in the dark here, but try unplugging the battery for a while. In newer cars it resets the computer. For the life of me I can't remember if the old 'puters retain anything. What year is your truck?

IDK Pete the only thing I found was the complete axle for 1300,,, for front or rear. On another note, I found out the offset is around 44.45 on those wheels. $1300 is a good price for a brand-spankin'-new complete M44 axle. But I guess if it's out of the budget, it's out of the budget. :(

Out of curiosity, have you pulled up the carpet yet?

Was the vacuum line that you plugged into the vacuum canister plugged before or open?

What about those little peep mirrors I see on hotrods? The ones that mount to the drip rail.

Before you spend any more money, look into the brand new JK Rubicon axles being sold by places like 4wheeldrive hardware (4wd.com). They have the 5 on 5" pattern and have 4.10s in them. I don't think they have lockers though and you'll likely have to weld your front bracketry onto them, but it's hard to beat the price for complete and brand new axles. :D

You may be over thinking this one. I think you'll see a huge improvement with even a tiny cooler since you current system has no way to efficiently dump the excess heat. But on the other hand I don't think there is such a thing as too much cooling... :dunno: :D

That might be hard. I've seen some wicked long parades of corvettes and VW bugs.

I bought a trans cooler from the junkyard that I'll be installing in the 88 some day. Cost me a dollar. No idea what car it came from though since it was in the aluminum scrap bin. :(

If the engine is in good shape, I would keep it and do the build up around it. There isn't a ton of power, so you'll want 4.88s (just don't keep the Dana 35). You can build up the entire suspension and axles now and do the engine swap later, so it's not like you need to tear apart a perfectly good truck just because you think you need to do it all at the same time. Also, the 207 will survive just fine behind the 2.5L.

I've discovered the "brine soak". :D I made a chicken with this method a couple weeks ago and it turned out so well that I was suddenly put in charge of the turkey this year. Guess I did too good a job. :roll:

Just be sure to replace the U-joints. They tend to dislike any changes to their operating angles.

Either way I wouldn't let them touch my truck ever again, let alone pay them to do it. :mad:

High angle? You're thinking of XJs and other short wheelbase rigs with their tiny driveshafts. :D

Sounds like a whole lotta work for a half-ton axle. One question though, if you're going to get custom shafts, why does the current bolt pattern matter? Wouldn't you be looking in to a disk conversion of some kind? Seems to me you could pick whatever axle you want, narrow it, get custom shafts with the 5 on 4.5" pattern, and adapt Explorer disks to it. :hmm:

I'm not convinced that your engine is bad. How loud is the tapping? It could just be a loose lifter. Tapping/ticking noises are fairly common in the 4.0L. And the warm up hesitation could be a simple fix.

I've heard that the really early dakotas have a 5 bolt pattern. You'll need to confirm that it's a 5 on 4.5" and that the width of the axle is comparable to an MJ, and that the gear ratio is usable, and that the axle is worth the effort (for example I'd never put that much effort swapping in a Dana 35).

As long as you remember which part is from which year... :D

go to Comanche Club Image Hosting and follow their instructions for uploading pics to their site. Then you can copy/paste the pic's addy here, highlight it, then click on the IMG tag. It might take a couple tries but once you get it it's easy. :D

At the very least you should dump some octane boost into the gas tank. Fresh gas would be better.

Anyone can put pics in post #1. :D

I see if i can look into that tomorrow. I did stop by today and he had the prices for me. $16.40 per hat, $50 set-up fee, and I'll work out the shipping costs soon. I'll look into cabelas and one way or the other in a couple days I'll start a new thread to take orders so I can get a head count (pun intended :D ).

Only 2-door XJ's seats flip forward.

210 is totally normal for a renix 4.0. It could just be that your previous sender was not calibrated properly. :dunno:

Are you at stock height?