Pete M

If all else fails, undo these bolts: They release the latch bars for the hood. Jeep on! --Pete P.S. for those reading this who's truck isn't in pieces, this is what it looks like with the headlight removed. It's a tight fit, but you should be able to get a ratchet inside to get the other bolt.

Well, considering that the truck used to be 2wd, I had to shorten it. This was a good thing, cause with the TJ t-case, SOA and 9inch, I doubt anything in the junkyard would be as perfect as just shortening the 2wd shaft. The Ujoint angles are far from perfect. I kinda just used the Bronco pads and widened them to fit the MJ spring location. I know, I know, that was pretty lazy of me. The Bronco had a Double Cardon joint and so my rear ujoint is at about 0* in relation to the driveshaft. This is NOT what it should be, but I have absolutely no vibrations. I think the key is to use new Ujoints. Old joints do not like to have their operating angles changed and most people seem to not take the opportunity to replace them when adding a lift so I'm guessing that's where the problems lie. Or it could be the shorter wheelbases of the XJ and YJ/TJs. A 5" lift changes their angles much more than the same lift on our MJs. Jeep on! --Pete

I've got plans. Hoo-boy, do I have plans. :D I'm certain that we all do. I just need some money. I kinda ran out of the cheap build-it-yourself stuff. All the next steps invove hefty purchases like gears, lockers, engine rebuild, etc. Jeep on! --Pete

I didn't think the transition from the yahoo group would be swift in any way. For the moment I'm content to spread awareness. I'll have more time to develop the website once the semester starts up and I'm stuck on campus for hours and hours with nothing to do. Jeep on! --Pete

I second the notion of adding a second main leaf to help supprt your original. I did it with great sucess! :D Make sure it's a main leaf, as doubling up on one of the others can actually hurt your efforts (based on my experience with the '88 ). I don't recommend removing the overload though, it helps combat spring-wrap. I haven't noticed any problems with uptravel what-so-ever. Your shock setup is far more likely to cause problems. I lose about an inch up and 2 down to my shocks (stock shocks with lower mounts sandwiched between leafs and axle). Actually, if I removed the stock flares for some aftermarkets I could probably gain even more upwards with the right shock setup. Jeep on! --Pete

If I remember right, get a Dakota rear line for the back, YJ lines for the front. But the YJ line might be the recommended line for a 3" lift. Blast this feeble brain of mine! I don't know of any stock shock that can be used up front, but I reused my old shock in the rear by sandwiching the shock mount between the SOA leafpack and the axle (meaning that it was still in the stock location relative to the upper mount). This limits my travel slightly both up and down, but nothing too bad. Just don't go jumping the truck. :D Jeep on! --Pete Ignore the lift block, that was a mistake that was long ago removed. Up is limited by about an inch or so. Down by about 2 inches. Flex is certainly adaquate, but it could be better. I modified the bumpstops to prevent the shocks from bottoming out, which is how a lot of shocks die in the offroading world.

I believe this is the one: http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.p ... hlight=e85 Jeep on! --Pete

Careful on the upper control arm bolts at the body. More to the point, careful with your 15 mm socket. I still have one rattling around in my frame. :D Soak everything in PB blaster (or other rust penetrant, but not WD-40) for a few days ahead of time to make life easier on you. There's nothing especially complicated with installing a mild lift, but rust and bad luck can quickly make things challanging. Jeep on! --Pete

Any 3" MJ add-a-leaf will work. XJ leafs are different and the XJ 3" leaf will only lift your truck 1.5". Rusty makes one, as should Rancho and Rough Country. You might have to call them to buy the aal separately. http://rustysoffroad.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=rustys&Product_Code=300MJAL&Category_Code=sus_xj_kit Jeep on! --Pete

Depends on the design of the hitch. Some do, some don't. Jeep on! --Pete

More time on the clock means more fun in the pit, right? :D Jeep on! --Pete

Wow, 3 total MJs?! That's gotta be rough. Heck, I've had that many at my house! But I would much rather own my 88 and not see any others, than see 1000 every day and not have one of my own. :D Jeep on! --Pete

I don't have any first-hand experience, but my impression is that it's a mid-level lift, not the worst, not the best. The picture has me a bit worried though, don't forget that you'll need new longer shocks with it and the picture is of an XJ kit, the MJ kit won't have the full leaf packs. Now that I think about it, I think I remember reading something a few years back in a 4x4 magazine about the parent company selling BlackDiamond products off. I wonder what ever came of that. Please keep me updated as to what you find out. Jeep on! --Pete

I found the one I bet you're thinking of just a few minutes ago. Dropping that engine into a 4wd truck sounds pretty expensive. I'm betting I can do this pretty darn cheap since it'll just be 2wd and I don't really care what the end result looks like. There's a ton of time between now and when I finally have time to do it so there's a chance I may find another decent bodied MJ to do this to. All I need is a reasonably rust free MJ with like a blown engine or something for dirt cheap. Oh, and near enough that I can go fetch it. :D Jeep on! --Pete

So I find out that my Uncle has finally given up all hope of fixing his early 90s S-10. It took a mild sideways hit to the front corner, just enough to destroy the suspension on that side and tweak the frame. He asked me if I could part it out for him. Apparently 2wd + 100k miles = not a whole lot. My research has shown that whole trucks that *haven't* been hit but otherwise don't run right for some reason or another go for $300 or less, high mileage engines don't exceed $200. I haven't seen the truck for a couple years now so I don't remember exactly what condition everything is in, so I gotta go check it out and help my cousin revive the poor thing before I make any final decisions. But if everything checks out, I think I can convince my dad to buy it so I can put the driveline in my 86 MJ (technically speaking it's *his* MJ since he bought it off me so I had a down payment for the Dakota). The swap won't happen till after the Dakota is sold and that 351M is sold and the 88 MJ is fixed again, but someday. The 86 is a 4x4, but that particular feature hasn't been used since I bought it 5 years ago (3 years ago I stole the shifter from it for use in the 88). The 180k+ mile 2.8L is most definitely on it's last legs and I was thinking of a 3.4L until this came up. The 86 is missing the dash, the wire harness was removed by the previous owner because of a wire fire, and overall there's barely anything I need to remove to make way for the 4.3L stuff. And I'm talking about swapping in ALL of the stuff. Dash included if I can. That should make my life easier since I don't have to splice two harnesses together or two drivetrains together. So far I've determined that I'll need to solve these issues: -Radiator. The old one is, well, old. I'll be trying a new stock Jeep one before I try a custom one. -Motor mounts. Advance adapters wants $170 for theirs. =:-o I don't think so. I'll be attempting to fab my own before I fork over that much loot. -tranny mount and crossmember. Shouldn't be too hard to fab something up. -exhaust manifold. AA says to use 78 MonteCarlo parts but I've read that an Astro manifold works too. -rear drive shaft. As long as a 4x4/longbed rear shaft is, taking the t-case out of the picture means I need an even loooonger one. -Wiring. I'm hoping to use the steering column and dash from the s-10 because I think fabbing it into the truck would be easier than splicing all those wires. Of course, the fact that I don't have any wires to splice *in* to makes the decision easier. Hmmm, anything else? Basically at this stage I'm looking for the questions that I should be asking, so if you can think of them, let me have 'em. Anyone know of a good writeup for swapping a 4.3 into the MJ/XJ? Jeep on! --Pete P.S. I love this stage of a project! Where absolutely *anything* is possible 'cause not a cent has gone into it. :-)

I got it now. I was thrown off by the fact that it has MY username in his spot when I go to his page. I deleted that and put in his, then invented a password for it. Thanks!! :D Jeep on! --Pete

To post a pic, you need to host it on another website that allows hotlinking. I use http://picturetrail.com but there are tons of them out there. See this thread for tips: Photo uploading how-to: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11077 My trucks: 88 pioneer, used to be 2wd, now has a TJ AX-15/NP-231 combo, 78 Ford fullsize axles with factory 4.10s, rear full spool and disks, front mini-spool (about to be swapped out for a regular locker), custom bumpers/rollbar/tire carrier/rocker guards, Co2 tank, 33" trXus MTs and sometimes 33" boggers, about 5" of lift, and more mods than you can shake a stick at. The tired 190k+ mile 4.0 is next on the list and will eventually be replaced with the reman-ed 4.0 sitting in the garage. 86 base with the crappy-but-alive 2.8L, AX-5, 4x4, metric tonne with the AMC-20 rear axle, 29" trXus STS tires in the photo (tires are long gone, running generic 31s now), no dash (cause dashes are for wusses who need vents and radios and such :D I'm a partial wuss though, as I duct taped the speedometer to the column) For a few months I owned this '89 2wd truck too. I took out the 4.0L, seats, and a few other things I wanted and gave the carcass to an MJ owner in need of a more solid body for his build-up. My new 90 Pioneer. 4.0L/4x4/AX-15 and just about every option you can think of. Lots and lots of miles on her and lots of stuff to fix, but I hope to make her into my daily driver. I miss being able to tool around in an MJ every day. (I'd love to drive my 88 every day, but the rear spool has pretty much killed that option. I've installed a 3.55 geared MJ Dana 44, matching Dana 30 from a 98 XJ (big joints, non-CAD), NP-242 and converted the AX-15 to external slave. I've installed a set of well-used MTRs on beat up Canyon rims. They may not look perfect, but they fit the truck nicely. I installed a set of WJ lower control arms to alleviate the rubbing when turning. My rust free empty shell. Used to be a 90, but since there's no title I refer to her as an 89 so as to differentiate her from my other 90. Nothing much to look at, but she's a lifelong Georgia truck that is solid as a rock and holds infinite possibilities. :D

I tried that and it kept wanting to change his user name to *my* user name. It didn't make any sense to me but I'll try again for the heck of it. Jeep on! --Pete

Hmmm, dang it, I don't seem to have that power. I guess you'll need to start over. Sorry. :( Jeep on! --Pete

in case anyone missed it, I set the avatar specs to 100x150 Jeep on! --Pete

I saw 2 on the way home today. One in good condition, the other was most certainly on life support. Poor truck. As with most MJ owners, I have that 6th sense and can practically feel them before I see 'em. :D Jeep on! --Pete

Solid front axles rock! :D Jeep on! --Pete

to help out with turning comancheclub.com into a real website. Thus far these are my thoughts for pages: -main page -MJ history -MJotM -original owners -page for members: something simple with just a truck photo and owners name -PowWows Anything else you guys/gals might like? I was thinking that if we could get a few people to do a page we'd be done in no time. :D I'm not looking for anything complex, I feel that simpler is better, but I'll allow free-reign for whatever the designer would like to do as long as it's easy to read and navigate. Jeep on! --Pete

The 8.25 should swap right in. Earlier models are a mild upgrade from the 35, later models are even better. I'm not so sure welding the spiders would be a wise idea, but that depends on what you plan on doing with her. Jeep on! --Pete

Yes it does, but notification of a specific thread is different than daily digests of every post. I'm still looking... Jeep on! --Pete