jpnjim

Mopars look good with a mis colored hood I'd paint it flat black and just have fun with the car :yes: Awesome car by the way!! I wanted a Baracuda like yours since I was a little kid :) (I'd just put my paint fund money towards swapping in a 4 speed instead :D )

Not floppy at all I've been using it as my yard truck around here without reinforcing it, and its fine for now. I want to add angle iron to prevent it from bending if I drop something heavy right on the end of the bed, but its still plenty strong as is. BTW, I added reinforcements & the center square tube that runs to the frame X member, and the bumper is over 200lbs now. MJ's can use some extra weight back there for balance anyway, but building it this way defiantly wasn't the lightest way to do it :yes:

I don't have the dimensions, & the truck's buried in snow right now :) but here's a build thread; http://comancheclub.com/topic/17857-new-rear-bumper-thread/ I used YJ front winch cradle + a prefab front bumper kit + the brackets from my old bumper;

Good attitude about the Liberty/Minivan thing :yes: Some guys still get pretty defensive about their KJ's. I guess they don't know all the crap YJ and XJ guys got from CJ guys way back when...... so, in honor of your KJ build, I think we should have a Minivan/Liberty forum here :D "Your Project Minivans; Caravans, Voyagers, Town&Countrys and Libertys" ;)

No pics to post, but the old girl is getting her workout tonight/this morning :) I wonder how many storms she's pushed snow for in the last 60 years.

And full size Waggy rear axles are actually narrower than ours. XJ/MJ/YJ/ZJ axles = ~60.5" Narrow Track FSJ rear axles = ~58"

OK. The 'if' was my out (if the head is 9/16") I wasn't sure if they under sized the bolt head or not. But I wanted to explain why the hole had to fit the head, not the shank of the bolt. ...truth be told I don't use them fancy perch bolts, I chuck a regular bolt in a drill, and spin it while I hit the bolt head wth an angle grinder till it's round & fits the perch hole. Most of the time the bolt head itself isn't tall enough to fully engage the perch hole, so I spin a nut all the way down to the bolt head first, and grind the bolt head + the nut down to the right size. Not a recommendation for anyone, just 'splainin why I wasn't sure if the head or the hole was exactly 9/16" :yes:

Sorry Cruise, I couldn't help myself :D

The rounded head of the bolt fits into the leaf spring perch, so if the head is 9/16", you'd want a hole in the perch a little bigger than the head size.

Lol Yep, The M37's steering wheel looks like it came right off The Love Boat :) though, like Eagle, I drove manual steering Javelins years ago, and they had normal sized wheels (but I was stronger back then)

You don't "saddle a dead horse". Those clamps should be flipped around, Saddle should go on the tension end. Backwards; 3 backwards, 2 sideways, and one looks correct to me (2nd from top) Though the fact that the bottom 2 fit sideways like that tells me they are the wrong size clamps.

Lol The 60 year old, 7000lb PLOW truck on 35's has manual steering. Doing 25 point turns in the driveway brings big fun. :yes: It is tough to complain about the steering though, considering; A)My driveway is very steep and B)The truck only has a parking brake (no foot brakes) Roaring down the driveway of death without brakes makes you forget how bad manual steering is ;)

Provide enough MIG wire, cursing & stubborness, anything is possible. :D

What makes you ask? ;) :D

Ethanol's finishing the job that cash for clunkers started, getting the old cars off the road.

Your probably right Don, but even with all Viton gaskets, the FAA still doesn't trust Ethanol in aircraft. Probably with good reason --->>> http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/news_cut/archive/2009/08/ethanol_promoter_killed_in_pla.shtml

Wow Another big thumbs up for the more expensive*, corrosive fuel blends that get horrible mileage, destroy old vehicles & are being forced on us. *more expensive because although ethanol is cheaper for us to purchase than gasoline, that's only true because growing corn for ethanol is HEAVILY subsidized with tax dollars, hiding the fact that producing ethanol actually costs much much more than gasoline. Glad you & your Jeep didn't go up in a ball of flames Don (glad your cigar smoking dog wasn't helping you spin wrenches this time :) )

If you have a D44 rear, I'd put the locker there. If you have a D35 rear, I'd run the bigger Ujoints in the front axle do full circle clips if possible, and I'd run the locker up front. Rear lockers pop and bang when they feel like it, won't make a noise for a week, then BANG! like you blew it up lol. Spools are more consistent, and quieter, once you get the tire pressure & screeching figured out. But they wear your tires like someone hit them with a belt sander at a funny angle, and I'm not sure how even a D44 would like the constant stress of long term street driving around corners with a spool. (Probably ok if you weren't carrying so much weight that the tires can't slip, and scrub off some of the difference of distance traveled around corners)

The problem with swapping cams in a Renix is they're already running a pretty big cam for the amount of head flow they have. Proof of that is when Chrysler improved the intake head & exhaust in 91 they didn't touch the cam. It was already more than enough to supply the new set up. As a mater of fact, even with the high flow intake-head-exhaust they downsized the cam in 96' to better compliment the induction, and give back some low end torque. That tells me that the Renix setup was the limiting factor, not the cam. And once they got the improved HO ports, they realised they still had too much cam, and backed it off. So if your cam works best 2500-5500 and the intake-exhaust-head's sweet spot is 1800-4800, the answer isn't a bigger cam :)

The biggest problem with just machining a 258 crank & rods to use in a 4.0L, especially with aftermarket (4.0L) pistons is the pistons end up pretty far below the deck without decking the block. Then you get a low compression engine that still needs mid grade fuel, or it will knock. No sense getting custom taller compression distance pistons made, if you are going to go to the trouble of ordering custom pistons, might as well get them with a much shorter CD, to work with the longer, stronger & lighter 4.0L rods. ^^^slippery slope, cheap stroker turns into expensive stroker fast. Maybe someone has finally come up with good off the shelf pistons that work well with a stroker, but last time I looked, the aftermarket 4.0L pistons all reduced CD slightly from stock (in anticipation of having to deck the stock block during the rebuild), and that's a step in the wrong direction for using the 258 crank & rods. I haven't dealt with the engine management issues, I'll leave that discussion for the guys who are on the Stroker Board, and have been down that road 100 times already. :)

Fram, so its New Old S&!t

Thanks :) ^^^I don't know why, but I think these are cool too :yes: I'll take mine in a 40mpg Diesel 5spd please :yes:

^^^Idea stealer ;) I don't know how good/bad it would work, and the 2.3L bottom end is probably stronger than the 2.5L's But keeping the Jeep mostly Jeep is cool enough of an idea to make me want to do it. A 4cyl Dakota bellhousing will let you put an AX15 or NV3550 behind it, and will live longer than an AX5 Even though I would want the Jeep engine, I WOULD want to cut an SVO style hoodscoop in as tribute to the donor :yes:

^^^ By the way, A partial remedy for this would be a stripped down, rock bottom priced LWB JK with 2 doors, a HALF CAB,.manual trans, D44's, no rug, cheap seats, and limited options. Hell, they could even do just a special limited run of them in 2 or 3 high visibility colors, for people that wanted a real truck, anyone building a crawler, or even just for dealers to park on a pedestal in front of the showroom & bring in customers. But Jeep likes the image they have right now, they don't want to change it, or put any actual utility back into it. As long as people are still slapping 24" wheels on, and rolling through rap videos with them, and parking them across from the Benz's & Lexus' at the country clubs, Mission Accomplished!

Jeeps used to be rugged, durable, utility vehicles. Station wagons, open universals, and PICK UP TRUCKS. It was that way for almost 50 years, till Chrysler axed the Jeep pickup. Even when Kaiser & AMC moved the station wagons upscale, they always offered lower priced stripped down versions as well. In the 1960's when the "Super Wagoneers" had power everything, V8, AC, auto trans etc etc, you could still get a rock bottom priced stripped down sedan delivery version of the Waggy with just 2 doors, roll up Windows, and one seat. Same with pickups, No one offered full time 4wd, ac, auto trans, etc in a pickup in the 1970's when Jeep did. But just because you could get a maxed out J truck, didn't mean AMC stopped offering the cheap 6cyl 3 speed stripped down version for UTILITY use. Now, there are no stripped down Grands there are no pick ups, loaded, or stripped. theres really not even any stripped down universals anymore. Jeep = expensive = maximum profit = rugged image, with almost no utility use anymore. Luxury 4x4's with some token little Jeeps that get so-so mileage, catering to the Subaru crowd, and universals that keep some of the original focus alive, while being 3x's the size of the flat fendered originals. So inexpensive little Jeeps like the MJ bring back the OLD Jeep image of utility, Instead of the Ugg boots, gold chains, and purse dog image of Jeep today. Oh, and a pick up with JEEP across the tailgate is just cooler than a truck that says anything else :) /rant off :yes: