Comanche County

If the wheels he's throwing in are aluminum then they're worth 80-100 bucks in scrap. The axles are good ones, even if you don't use them, at $100 bucks for everything, you'd make a profit scrapping them. But I wouldn't. This is a great set of axles you can sell to someone running a D18 transfer case (the best case ever IMHO). I want to put a set of these in my next flat fender build. I'm always looking for these. The good thing about the rear axle is that it was under a Waggy/FSJ Cherokee with a Quadratrac TC and it has 30 spline axle shafts, that means post 1970. Most of the older offset D44s are 19 spline with two piece tapered axles. These can be redrilled to 5x5.5" to suit the CJ crowd too, they'd be perfect for a guy with an early CJ5 who wants wider axles or an 80s CJ7 where the owner wants to dump the AMC 20. This is a good buy, I'd be all over it. You advertise these on the CJ2a or 3a pages and they'll sell like hot cakes if you don't ask too much.

:agree: This my friend, this!

Nice find, that rear bumper is sexier than socks on a rooster.

Those things are just driveway candy for people who can afford to blow 50+K. Rubicons are overpriced to begin with, 56K is way to high for a jeep with no back seat and an essentially unusable bed. To me it makes the jeep less capable and worth less than a standard Limited model. Plus, 5.7 hemis aren't the bees knees like everyone thinks, I'd take a pentastar any day over a 5.7 in a Wrangler, better mileage and comparable torque. I know a dealership in TX that couldn't give their AEV conversions away. They finally sold it online to someone in New England.

Nice work and some great pictures too!

Like this?

The TX homestead, no street view in the boonies. There's two MJs, a CJ5, a 50' CJ3A and a 51' 3A. Only have the red MJ and the 51' now. The new homestead. Street view still shows my old white XJ when I lived here before.

My bad, how dare I anyway, self flogging commencing now!

Only one "G" in wagoneer Jim... don't get mad, I'm just jealous.

I believe that's in the picture thread in the DIY stickies also.

Don't scrap the turbines.

Very nice collection!!! Can you put up a pic of your hi-lift mount on your first truck's roll bar?,,, just want to see a close up of the mounting.

I had two sets of Turbines I intended to restore but ended up scrapping them. I was wondering if someone would do this DIY. Did you clear coat them yet?

The new CAFE standards are very worrisome. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07 ... latestnews There are European diesels that can get 50-75 mpg, but we won't see a mass conversion to diesels here in the US.

The external slave AX15 and bell housing is worth half the asking price. Maybe more depending on the local market.

and here I am having just moved from TX to GA, and now I have a two car garage when I was just working outside before and I hate it. I hate garages, too damn hot without a breeze. :fs1: Give me the shade tree or give me death. You'd have been better off planting a bunch of pecan trees IMHO.... :D :wrench:

Good to hear the trip went well! Comanches (MJs and Indians alike) don't quit, in battle they'd ride their horse until it died, then cut off of some horse meat, eat it raw and keep going on foot. There's also slight decrease in elevation, (about 800 ft) from N Texas to Austin since Austin is South of the Balcones Escarpment. Maybe that helped on MPG. Random Comanche fact to follow: The Balcones Escarpment is a general 800-1,000 ft rise in elevation that separated early settlements in Texas. The line goes from DFW, Waco, Austin, to San Antonio, generally the I35 corridor. Everything on higher ground NW of the escarpment was considered off limits in the early days due to a fierce tribe called the "Comanches".

Umm, I get gallons to the mile. :cheers:

Being an expert and world renown Ramen noodle chef...I'll share one of my secret recipes: one pack of "Rami", half a can of creme of mushroom soup, cook, then add something hot, then enjoy with crackers, whole or crumbled into the soup.

Good job sir!

Its just that the center line of the pinion gear and spider/side gears are centered in the AMC 20 and thus the axle lengths are the same for both sides. The Dana axle pinions are offset in the casting of the diff just slightly and require different length axle shafts. Dana/Spicer U Joints are supposed to be good for 21 degrees of rotation. But I think the most important impact to ujoints is torgue and rpm relative to angle. Somewhere there's a point of diminishing returns when it comes to drive shaft angle, sharper angles will create more heat and friction, thus cannot take prolonged periods of high torque and rpm like a jeep in 4-Low creates with a driver who's heavy on the skinny pedal. Shallow ujoint angles will be fine on the highway even at freeway speeds. Even extreme angles may be fine at low rpm and torque, but you put an extreme angle on an offroad rig's ujoint and spin it at 1-3K rpm (at the axle, 4-6K rpm at the engine) with 300 or more lbs of torque like some of the modified jeeps out there,,,,and what do you think is going to happen? Kablooeey! For longevity and dependability you want the drive shaft as straight as possible for street rigs or not.

I would re-weld it because now that the housing is centered, but the pinion isn't because the pinion isn't centered in the housing. It means, housing straight = pinion offset by .5", housing offset by .5" = pinion straight in line with the drive shaft the way it came from the factory. I know its not a big deal, but it would be one of those things in the back of my mind always making me wonder about that U joint's longevity.

It sticks out 1/2" on one side because it is offset by 1/2", not truly a centered diff. I take it you welded the perches at an equal distance from the differential housing. That's where the extra .5" comes from. I left the stock perches on my D44. I just measured it to be sure. The distance from the diff (where the tube enters) to the inside of the leaf spring perch is 12" on the driver's side. Its 12.5" on the passenger side. If you measure yours from backing plate to backing plate then you'll also see that one tube is longer than the other. I'd cut and move the perches.

:cheers: :wrench:

If you don't change the mounting points for the axle end mounts or the frame end mounts for either the track bar or drag link then the lift will not throw off the geometry much at all, the aspect between the two should remain generally parallel. You will need a slightly longer track bar and you'll have to adjust your drag link, which will result in a slight change to the aspect but it shouldn't be too bad at all with stock mounting locations. Your picture looks like the track bar isn't actually bolted up so its hard to see if its parallel. See Hornbrod's pic above, that's what your looking for despite bends in either the track bar or the drag link...parallel means mounting point to mounting point. Bump steer will be the result when they're not parallel. However, due to the nature of the stock Y steering design, there is bump steer when the suspension is really being compressed or extended. This isn't an issue on the highway. With 5" of lift though, your problem will be your passenger side tie rod end binding in full droop, and it will for sure. Check out Rock Krawler's website for their track bar mounts with the heim end. I believe they'll have something in the stock drop range. Or just call em up.