jpnjim

:bowdown:

:rotfl2: :rotf: :rotfl2: :rotf: That's awesome: I love Craigslist. :thumbsup:

It's 70* here right now. :cheers: (first time in Boston this year). Happy Spring.

It's a 73'. Early 80's would have drivers side diff's, and no 'visor edge' at the front of the cab roof. It has the 73+ bed/tailgate/taillights & dash (with late model GW seats swapped in) but has the early 62-73 ft suspension (narrow leafs, even in the quick shot you can tell the difference between 2.5", and 1.75" wide leafs), SOA ft axle, and old style badging. Plus, 5 lug wheels are a dead giveaway (62-73 only)

Maybe it's because I grew up in the greatest country in the world, and still live here, but I found that somewhat insulting. Tho I'm guessing you probably didn't mean it to be. :dunno: I have a job, that pays my bills, so anything I do beyond that, I either do it for free, or I don't do it. Not all Americans are greedy, and not all greedy people are Americans.

I connected my NV3550 without the linkage. I never really got past the 'temporary mock up' stage (since there's still a ton of other work left to do on this MJ), but it has worked fine like this since I did it. Of course this flips the shifter the opposite way I used a D300 shifter handle to give it a different look. There's a thread on here somewhere where someone else did the same thing, and I added my pics to that one two. (tho search is down :dunno: )

Since it OK for others to post their non-Jeeps in this thread ;) ignore the 401 badge, it's a 360 4v 4spd/3.91 Go-Pack car (401 is still in the basement). Hasn't changed much in 18 years (pic taken Sept 1992) Jan 1991:

:thumbsup: nice. Nothing like finding a Mustang Fastback in a Barn. :cheers: The wheels do look like they grew there, and the 2bbl heads are better than the 4bbl anyway, so it's win win. :yes: The only strike (for me) is the FMX, be careful pushing that thing too hard, it's pretty much the Peugeot of Ford auto's. ;) The 2.75 gear's aren't making life any easier on the poor thing. :D Good luck with it, and more pics. :yes:

A man was at the country club for his weekly round of golf. He began his round with an eagle on the first hole and a birdie on the second. On the third hole he had just scored his first ever hole-in-one when his cell phone rang. It was a doctor notifying him that his wife had just been in a terrible accident and was in critical condition and in the ICU. The man told the doctor to inform his wife where he was and that he'd be there as soon as possible. As he hung up he realized he was leaving what was shaping up to be his best ever round of golf. He decided to get in a couple of more holes before heading to the hospital. He ended up playing all eighteen, finishing his round shooting a personal best 61, shattering the club record by five strokes and beating his previous best game by more than 10. He was jubilant.... Then he remembered his wife. Feeling guilty he dashed to the hospital. He saw the doctor in the corridor and asked about his wife's condition. The doctor glared at him and shouted, "You went ahead and finished your round of golf didn't you!" "I hope you're proud of yourself! While you were out for the past four hours enjoying yourself at the country club your wife ha s been languishing in the ICU! It's just as well you went ahead and finished that round because it will be more than likely your last! For the rest of her life she will require round the clock care, and you will be her care giver!" The man was feeling so guilty he broke down and sobbed. The doctor snickered and said, "I'm just ****ing with you. She's dead. What'd you shoot?"

That was my thought too (after reading this thread). The replacement hubs were Timken branded? Or where they a store brand (Autozone, etc), rebuilt using Timken bearings? I'm just wondering. :dunno: Timken has moved some of it's production overseas, so I wouldn't be shocked if brand new hubs they built came apart, but I'm thinking it would be more likely to see used (worn) hub assemblies, rebuilt by a third party (using Timken bearings) pull apart.

They're close enough to Jeeps. LR guys like to feel superior to 'common' Jeeps, but they absolutely did start out as "Jeep Copies", pretty hard to deny when the very first Land Rover was built on a WWII Jeep chassis. :dunno: And yep, that truck is very cool :yes:

Without a doubt, but the only way the factory could economically produce these was to make huge expensive dies for every separate body panel, and stamp them out of sheetmetal. God knows where the dies ended up, but without them, I'd be scared to think what it would cost someone to reproduce the complete 1-piece MJ bedside stamping. That's why when someone found a complete NOS bedside, I figured the best place for it was hanging on a shop wall, since you will likely never ever see another production run of them.

Must be a 'Jim thing' :clapping: I can remember laying under there, thinking how much of an idiot I was for doing it this way, but I wasn't going to pull it all back out, and pull the T-case off after all that struggling. The worst part of all was that I pulled the Tranny & T-case because the (internal!) bellhousing bolts had come loose, and you had to pull the whole thing out to tighten them. (BA 10-5). I was out of work, and didn't have the $$ to do the clutch/PP & throwout while I had it apart. Within a month, the (internal) hydrolic throwout bearing failed on me, and I had to pull it back out again anyway. :doh:

Pull the T-case off first, it may seem like more work, but it's not. First time I R&R'd an XJ t-case & tranny I left the T-case on, was NOT worth it. :rotf: (not afraid to admit I was stronger then, bench pressed the combo up, as I spun the t-case yoke with both my feet to line up the input shaft into the clutch plate... really. :yes: :nuts: ) I cut a 1/2" (13mm?) combo wrench in half to get at the upper T-case bolts, and it made them easier to remove. Those external torx are a PITA, but I never gave them the satisfaction of buying the right tool (again :nuts: ), I always banged on a 12pt 3/8" (I think). Have a separated T-case yoke, or a plug to keep the tranny fluid from pouring out. Best to swap it quickly, and duct tape it in place. A bag + some duct tape will work too, but it's usually alot messier. Also make sure you get the complete T-case linkage. When you putting the combo in your MJ, try not to kill your motor mounts by letting the weight of the tranny & t-case hang down too far.

x2 on this, since you had your 13 year old daughter with you. And I learned something today, if it feels like a ft bearing is pulling/locking up/maybe seizing..... stop right away, and check it out. I never heard of this happening in this way before.

Wow, that's not cool. :eek: I'm glad no one was badly hurt. :cheers: Was it showing signs of looseness? There was a stub shaft in there, right? (hard to tell from pics). Was this an OEM hub, or an aftermarket one? Again, glad it was just the truck that got messed up (and/or a pair of trousers ;) ).

Trim to fit patch panels are usually just a good starting point for a repair. (not to answer for Zach, since I've already put my foot in my mouth atleast once in this thread :waving: ), but adding bends that xx% might not need, or use adds cost to everyone who buys the part. Usually with patch panels, they try to cover the most bases, for the lowest cost. I could see someone making a separate (smaller) 'bed-corner' piece that had all those compound bends in & around the taillight, but a detailed piece like that is tough to do (= $$$)

I've had the drivers side mirror on my Jeep for a week now, so here's my 'review' of them: For the record, I think the seller of these is a D-b, but this is still my honest thoughts on the mirrors. 1) They are bigger than the originals (duh), but some of the benefit of that is lost on the drivers side if you still have doors with the wing windows. the black upright (that separates the two pieces of glass) ends up directly in the middle of the mirror (so you are looking at 2/3rds of the mirror through the wing glass, and 1/3rd through the main pane). not horrible, but I had not considered that. 2) These particular replacement mirrors are VERY lightweight. My MJ idles pretty smoothly, but the drivers side replacement vibrates at idle, to the point where everything is slightly fuzzy. The stock (early style) mirror on the passengers side does not vibrate at all at idle. 3) These particular mirrors 'fold in' extremely easily, like push with 1 finger easy. They DO NOT fold in from the wind as you drive, so it's not really a negative, or positive point to me, but worth noting. (the factory 97+ mirrors on my XJ & other MJ require about 10 times the force to fold them). This might be a good thing on a trail truck, since any obstacle that hits them will easily fold them :dunno: 4) These are manual/non-heated mirrors, and they adjust as they should (by pushing the glass), and I have had no problems with them coming out of adjustment. Overall, I would rate them as cheap replacements, probably perfect for a trail truck looking for an upgrade over the small 84-96 mirrors. IMHO, tho, there are enough used factory mirrors on Ebay, that for the same money, used stock would be better than these new replacements. (again, honest opinion, not based on crappyness of seller :D )

:banana: Awesome! goodluck & God bless. :yes:

I've seen this setup before. Kinda hurts to say it, but THAT is a professional conversion. :rotf: Hopefully they disconnected the passengers side airbag.... because that steering setup WILL be traveling THROUGH your face, and out the back of your skull .002 seconds after that airbag fires. :eek:

There's been a few who went to 97+ XJ taillights, it looks good. I haven't seen anyone convert to 84-96 tails, but I'm thinking it wouldn't look that great. :ack: The all red early XJ Wagoneer taillights might look good, but those are probably tougher to find than MJ taillights. :dunno:

The funny thing is, the truck builder gave up all that D30 clearance by adding all those steering dampers. I'm digging the steering linkage tho, I don't know why we don't see 4 foot drop drag links more often. :D I think that's still gonna need a few more dampers. :yes:

:clapping: Translation, come get this thing before the D30 explodes. It's probably a CJ D30 (= weaker than what we run, but with weak lockout hubs to match). I can hear those D30 wheel bearings crying from here. :rotfl2: It might be a fun truck with less lift & some one ton axles. :yes:

I've broken two of them (well, really the same one twice), and had yoke issues on another. The spiders were first, after wheeling the D35 with 29"AT's, 32" AT's, 31" Swampers, and 31" GY MT's it never gave me a problem. As my daily driver, I went to go pick up some wheeling pictures at the drug store (remember having to do that? :D ) Wellllll......... they exposed them, and poof, a weekend of cool pics were gone. :headpop: I got in my (4.0L/5spd) Cherokee (on the 31" GY MT's), nailed the gas, dumped the clutch (out of pure stupidity & anger), and did not move one inch. :rotf: Spiders turned to powder. :( Shifted into 4wd (front wheel drive now), drove home, and swapped spiders out of the spare 35 I had tucked away (both 1985 3.73 D35's). After thoroughly cleaned the bits out of the housing. Another time, I'm not even sure what happened, but I heard clump clump clump................clump clump clump................clump clump clump, as I was driving to work. When I got home (work was literally 'up the street'), I pulled the cover, and noticed the shiny oil right away (tiny chunks of metal). Took a little longer to see the 3, or 4 missing ring gear teeth. :ack: This was 3, or 4 years after the spider issue, so I'm not sure they were related. I swapped the spare 35 in, and tossed the broken one where all 35's end up eventually. :D When I built the next Jeep, I skipped over the 44, and went right for a 60 rear. :thumbsup:

There is a long delay, because the electricity in our trucks is 20+ years old now, and has slowed down over the years. Longbeds have this problem especially bad , because the electricity has so much farther to go to get to the taillights. :D The type of switches used on the Renix's was strange (like others posted), I replaced mine with a Ford style plunger switch, after a little tweaking of the plugs, it actually plugged right into the old harness. I had to weld an L-bracket to the side of the brake arm to give the switch a nice flat surface to work off of, and also had to make a clamp to hold the switch. It would probably be easier to swap in later parts, but all I had was 97-01 pedals, and I didn't want to swap the whole pedal set just to get a better brake switch. :dunno: