Megadan

That trucks in about the same shape as mine.... In my part of the world we call it "solid" when it's dented but not rusty. Rough here.... lol

Don't cheap out on bearings and hubs. I would recommend Timken if possible, or at least another quality USA made part.

For a 3" front lift, I would probably go with OME 2" lift springs and a puck style spacer. For the rear, lift leaf springs would be the easiest way to go. It really depends on what kind of budget you are working with.

At the very least he could mock up and tack weld it together to have someone else finish the welds. On another note, just received my completed hitch yesterday. Definitely worth the money. Now to go get it powder coated :D

I've been using this in my little parts washer for a couple of years with no complaint. It's about half the cost of the parts store stuff. Also, if you can rig up some sort of filter setup, you should be able to re-use the solvent for a while before it needs changed out. http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/crown-psc-1000-parts-cleaner-5-gal

I would rather buy from somebody with this work ethic and mentality than get instant gratification. I'm looking forward to getting off work tonight and hopefully unboxing my new hitch. Unless it arrives in the annoying 4 hour window where nobody is home, then I will dislike the postal people until I have it lol.

Just be honest and let her know what she means to you, and what that means you will do for her. I think lots of people tend to over think this kind of stuff and want to sound like poets. Just be yourself and be honest.

I've seen more cables fail than motors on winches, cheap or otherwise. I've also seen "cheap" winches last years of regular use, and warns fail. Proper care, storage, and maintenance count for a lot. I do agree with buying something good the first time, but you can also do well on a budget if you do a little research.

As long as you swap it over with the transfer case, then it should be fairly straight forward. In fact, with a whole parts car you could swap it over without having to buy much. You will need a pilot bushing/bearing to match your renix crank I.D. to the O.D. of the external slave input shaft. If you do a bit of searching you can find the bushing easily enough

I have a factory Tan interior in my 88 that looks almost identical to that. As was said the B pillar trim and headliner are going to be the only parts you need to source from an MJ, otherwise the rest should swap. If the wheel concerns you, try to find an early MJ/XJ wheel from a truck with a tan interior, that should match better. My factory wheel is tan and matches the dash.

Drop the change on the hitch Krusty is selling. For me it was $234 to my door with included hardware, and that is much cheaper than most used hitches are going for. Plus, it will work with long or short beds, which means less searching.

R12A is just a propane based hydrocarbon refrigerant (which means flammable). If you search you will see people who either love it or hate it. From what I know, it operates at lower pressures from R12, so following charge instructions for said refrigerant would be key to optimum operational efficiency.

I would imagine you could use the spring plates and shock mounts. I think you would have to swap them around to get the shock mount position on the correct side of the axle, but those plates look pretty easy as far as being able to rotate them 180 degrees and swap them side to side. I was looking to stay SUA as well and considered using the explorer plates. Definitely post up what you find, because that seems like the easiest/cheapest solution for shock mounts on a SUA setup.

Congrats. Sometimes you have to hit a few bumps before the road smooths out. Hope you both stay happy together for a long time to come.

You would have to build around taking advantage of the aluminum heads cooling capability. This includes the ability to bump the compression up a bit, and/or run lower octane fuel types with the same compression. If I were going to build a 4.0 I would consider the Edelbrock head.

Truetrac, and other helical type diffs, have an advantage of being very smooth and very positive engagement. Their own real downside is that if you do any sort of off-roading where one of the wheels leaves the ground, it will spin like an open diff. A nifty little trick to make them lock up again is to lightly apply the brakes though. As long as both wheels see even a little bit of resistance it will act like a limited slip. I want truetrac diffs front and rear on my truck someday...

If you have a photobucket account upload it there and copy the IMG tag. If you don't have a photobucket account, open one (it's free) and then do that whole upload and IMG link thing. www.photobucket.com

Right about now, I wish my AC worked. My problem is, the only thing I hate working on more than wiring is HVAC..

That's the one, but when I bought mine they were on sale for about $175 off of their website. It seems they don't actually sell any from the site any more and just sell through e-bay. I could be wrong though. I really love it. The shifter position is worlds better than the BA-10/5 shifter, and the throws are much shorter, but not ridiculously short.

I do know that the 4x4 BA10 and AX-15 shifter locations weren't that far off from each other, but I suppose you could easily get one from an XJ in the junkyard as well if you needed to. I completely forgot about that plate. :doh: I used the plate from the BA10 with mine, but the boot itself required a bit of finess to work with the hurst shifter body. Not sure how it would be with a factory shifter.

Definitely refresh the lines and hoses. They are probably as old as the truck and need it anyway. Do as many of the Renix tips as you can and see where you end up. When I first got my truck it was a nightmare, and aside from a couple of non-renix related mechanical fixes, most of my improvements came from doing Cruisers tips. Have you compression tested that engine? My truck runs a little rough too, but after everything I have done, including a rebuilt head (done for different reasons) the only thing left to really attribute to my rough running is the lack of, and very uneven, compression. My motor was rode hard and not taken care of well before I got it... At least it doesn't burn any oil.

Hurst Core shifter. Similar, but the shifter is made by a company that is licensed to use the hurts shifter core design in it's products. Comes with a hurst knob and everything, just not a true 100% hurst shifter.

the C2C Floor pan I got is made out of 18ga steel if I remember correctly. That should work fine.

Stock trans should have been a BA10/5. I have a 1988 and did the AX-15 swap utilizing a Hurst core short shifter for an XJ/MJ. It was a little tight to the body, but not close enough to cause issues. Not sure if they slightly changed the shifter hole for the years that had the AX-15, but even if they did...Mine worked out fine.

I sent you a PM. Definitely interested in option C. You had great timing on this, because I have been struggling for a while to get a hitch for my truck. I want to tow my little john boat and occasionally a car dolly, and I just don't trust my rear bumper. I was wondering though... Does it matter if we have a LWB? Will these plates or the hitch work with either?