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:thumbsup: :thumbsup: but I gotta say I'm on the fence, since I REALLY like the Ravines too. :yes: Did any of the caps I sent end up cleaning up good enough to work? I know atleast one was in really tough shape.

This. :yes:

If you flip a SWB's leaf springs around you end up with pretty close to the LWB's wheelbase. Not saying flipping the leafs is a good idea, or that it would let you put a longbed on a shortbed frame, but just throwing it out there.

Weird, but referring to ALL FSJ Waggy's as "Grand Wagoneers" doesn't bother me, and seems kind of natural (even though I know it's not). Just an easy way top avoid confusion with XJ's, but calling the 73 & earlier J-trucks as J-10 & J-20's always bugs me (I'm trying to get over it ;) ). Good tip on the PS pump, I was trying to think of any other sticky points (which is why I mentioned the trans, for the flexplate/TC differences).

I like the 4.7L/WJ combo, being the last of the (non-TJ) solid axle Jeeps, I'm leaning towards a 4.7L Ltd WJ for my next daily driver. Hopefully I'd be able to find one that had been taken care of, since it does seem like neglected 4.7L's tend to die an early death. It would make sense that Chrysler Tech's don't see many of those, since owners that neglect their Jeeps would probably be too cheap to take them to the dealer for service.

No real difference, swap away. 1970-1991 AMC 360's had minor changes over the years, but, other than the funky crankshaft flange on 1970 & 71's (which would require an adapter), any one of them will bolt into a late model GW. 1970 & early 71's also could be had with high compression, but they didn't put them in Jeeps, so you're not that likely to run into one. FWIW, if the GW in the junkyard is a 1970's, it will have a GM TH400 tranny, and possibly a 401, instead of a 360. (I got one out of a 74' :brows: ) 1980-91's got Chrysler 727's.

It's just Chinese Flowmaster copy, by Thrush, 2.5" tubing, offset/offset. The muffler openings for the 2.5" tubing were way oversized tho, so I had to cut some pie slices out of them, and weld it closed to fit the 2.5" pipe, so I wouldn't recommend it. It does sound good though.

Lots of people have done TJ flares on the back of MJ's, from some of the pics it looks like the TJ flare is a little shorter top to bottom than the MJ flare, but that just might be because of the way they were installed/trimmed to fit. (I haven't tried it myself). Smoothing out the lines on factory MJ flares is a good solution too, but you have to be careful not to blow right through the flare when grinding the lines off.

Upcountry/off road package XJ's had their rear sway bars deleted from the factory, that might be where the confusion (as far as if Limited XJ's had bars, or not) came from.

The rear overhang distance is longer on an MJ, and like Dasbull said, the XJ rear flares themselves are smaller. You can get XJ ft flares to work (flipped around, of course), but XJ ft flares look a little funny on the rear because of the way they widen towards the front (now towards the rear when mounted out back). You can kinda see what I mean here: I hacked part of the 97-01 bumper end cap off to make it's length work on a SWB MJ: I was more, or less just seeing if it would work, looks OK from this angle, but that's it: Others have 'plastic welded' two sets of bumper ends together to get the right distance, and adapted the smaller rear flares to fit, but I didn't want to give up the big wheel openings.

If the gas door is centered between the cab and the rear wheel wells, it's a short bed. Image Not Found

People who measure 15x7's as 8's are usually are just measuring from the wrong location. Outside to outside, 7" wheels measure ~8" wide, (tire mounts inside the wheel so that's where they should be measuring from). It does get confusing when you measure backspacing tho, since for backspacing you DO measure to the outside of the (inner) wheel edge (wheel mounting surface to outside of backside of wheel, if that makes any sense). But yeah, those wheels are 15x7, with the typical 5.25"BS.

My first Jeep (73' FSJ J-truck) was white over blue just like that. :thumbsup: looks good on an MJ. Nice find.

When I try to vote:

I tried to choose 'no', but it kept coming back 'invalid', and wouldn't let me vote. I'm on the fence, it looks alright, but I'm not completely bowled over by it. My rule of thumb for accessories is, if it looks just as good on, or off, leave it off. :yes: I could see myself leaning more towards keeping it if you had other tubular add-ons that matched, but to be honest, big tubes on the bumpers & steps are old school now, so I probably wouldn't go that route, unless I was shooting for the old school look.

I cut that one off my old MJ: and the rocker was NOS from Jeep (now unavailable):

I posted this before, but I made a redneck car crusher to fit one in a 1/2 size dumpster:

How hard is it to put it into gear when the engine is off? If it's tough with the engine running (esp reverse), and it grinds when it shifts, but goes in smoothly with the engine off, I would suspect the clutch hanging up. Does it want to stall as you slow down with the clutch in?

Was I that transparent? ;)

I have some old pics to check though (bumper has been on since 2004), but I haven't found any backside,or installation pics yet.

If you need them for one of your own projects, you can have these: Lower left one's decal is in tough shape, but the rest look like they could be cleaned up (they're straight out of a box in the basement).

As for the rear winch bumper, \ I think that already has it's own thread here (somewhere), but it started out as this ft bumper kit: That I butchered into this: and no, it's not done yet. :doh:

Dave made this bumper in Feb 2004, so it's a little tough to pull everything out of my memory, but IIRC he made it out of a single sheet of 3/16", with 1/4" mounts. The side plates bolt to the 'frame', and then the plates bolt to the bumper. Some people don't like that it has support bolts in shear like that, but I don't see it as a problem. I like the design, since I have no idea how I'd mount the whole thing in one piece, and it makes the depth adjustable, depending on where you drill the holes in the bumper/plates. Here's the rest of the pics Dave sent me: Jeep #1 Jeep #2 Jeep #3 Jeep #4 I opted out of the shackle plates, so I could use the D-rings, but they were std equipment on most of the other bumpers Dave built. It was built for a feet forward M8000 style winch, and that's the winch I ended up getting for it. I'm looking around for install & mounting bracket pics but I didn't have the greatest camera back in 04'. Hopefully this was what btm24, akamcbird & case5412 were looking for. :cheers:

I've been a bad CC'er, and have 3 unanswered emails asking about my ft bumper. :fool: (to me) I had to cut out the ft part of my crossmember to fit the winch (uncut in pic): This was the website I got the bumper from (dead link now :( ) http://www.wnccustomjeeps.com/pages/wha ... oducts.htm Dave, at WNC built it for me (35XJ on Jeeps Unlimited: http://www.jeepsunlimited.com/forums/member.php?u=16498 This is the condition I got it in (horrible camera, sorry): Then I played with D-ring location till I found where I wanted them: eventually I settled on these locations: Dave sent me a ton of pics of other customer's bumpers, so I could decide on options (if i wanted a bar, bumper width, stickout, etc). Some others of this design built by Dave at WNC: