mnkyboy

I think we may be the only ones on this thread that have even bought anything from RRO. Why did you decide to go with drop brackets over a long arm kit?

I had thought about going frankenstien,My F250 had a tree fall on it last winter totalling it and the gears started turning. I ended up giving it to my brother,he wanted some parts for his Bronco. His YJ is getting the full frankenstien treatment going to a 351W,C6,NP205 and Dana 44 front and rear. Hes really into 4X4 stuff and has had some nice rigs over the years.

It may have been a Tj lift i saw that on,I was looking at all sorts of long arm lifts to see pros & cons. JeepcoMJ i don't remember claiming to know anything about lifts, alot of this is new to me. Ive turned wrenches for years but started playing with 4x4s somewhat recently.

I saw that with some of the long arms,looks like alot of repairs would be a bit more difficult with them. 89 eliminator,I'm sure it depends on the kit but i saw some that required some extra work including completely rerouting the exhaust system. I drive my truck on the road most of the time were as far as i can tell DBs or LAs are gonna be pretty close on road although i think the DBs may work better then some of the more offroad designed LAs. Off road I'm usually driving out into muddy fields or on dirt trails,so far i havent had any trouble getting anywere on my current set up so i think either lift is gonna be ok. I think i need to get out and see the different lifts in action,before i make up my mind on what to get.

how are you pulling off 33mpg thats about 600 miles per tank. i get about 18-19mpg with the TBI 2.5L as does my brother in his 2.5L 5spd YJ with MPFI 33mpg hwy is about what i get in my 07 Focus with 2.0L duratec and 5spd.

i concur I wasnt talking about stock arms with drop brackets, I'm looking at adjustable uppers and lowers with johnny joints. so James750 you like the TNT long arms,i will have to look at them. I have no doubt that you have more experience with this then i do. As for RRO I never claimed to have credible knowledge of these systems,i believe at one point i said this is fairly new to me. I was only commenting on my own experience with them and their products,which so far has been good. Ive been reading a little about the 4 link vs. 3 link,i did notice that some people prefere the 4 link,looked like there may be a little more work to installing them then the 3link though

At this point we are discussing long arm vs. arm drop, not so much RRO as any companys product as they arent the only ones who sell them. I don't care if you like RRO,its your opinion. If what they say upsets you then call or write them an e-mail about it. I want to know about long arm & arm drop in general Long arms are the latest craze are they really that good or a bunch of hype. is one overrated or one underrated. then does it matter where you get them are all long arms better then all control arm drops. is a poorly designed long arm still better then a correctly designed arm drop? Is there anyone here that has a good deal of experience with both setups?

i would guess they are toed in,that would be because you changed the distance between the axle and the steering box,remember the steering linkage is between the two. when you lift the truck it pulls the steering linkage up which would toe the wheels in a little,you may also notice the axle now sits a little off to one side now too due to the track bar. the toe in will go away with an alignment as Pete said but you can't center the axle again without an adjustable track bar. not sure how far out it would be at 3" i had to adjust mine quite a bit at 5".

Ive read a few of these too,no one seems to really dislike either. I think if you have drop brackets everyone says to get long arm so people get them,ive read were people get the long arm and don't notice any difference over the brackets,but after the conversion whos gonna go back if its about the same. besides don't you usually cut off your control arm mounts when you go long arm,that would make going back really hard. if you took two identical jeeps except one is long arm and the other one drop brackets with adj arms do you think one is really gonna be that much better then the other? I'm guessing they would be pretty competetive. wonder if anyone can find a real unbiased comparison RRO says 4wheel drive &sport utility magazine and JP magazine have both done it and both said drop brackets are better but i havent seen either article and RRO is trying to sell brackets. here's RROs theory on the subject. http://www.rocky-road.com/xjcad.html

from where my trucks at now i can go either way on the front arms. Long arm VS. drop brakets is a confusing topic, I find info going either way. alot of people like drop brackets and alot of people like long arm, some people say they are night and day different and some say they perform about the same. when you go to a site selling long arm they compare them to short arm without drop brackets,the companies selling drop brackets also compare them to short arm with no drop brackets. they never compare each other,except RRO who refuses to sell long arm and say thier drop brackets are far superior to long arm. not sure i buy that. It almost seems like a Ford VS. Chevy debate. is there any solid evidence that one is better then the other besides just opinions?

on 86's the rear line off the valve cover should just go to the air box the front one goes from the pvc to the throttlebody and a second line from the pvc goes to the pvc canister it should go to the first fitting on the canister and also T's off to the third fitting on the canister. on 87+ the rear goes to the airbox and the front one is an orifice that just goes straight to the TB this is according to my haynes manual,which is funny because it says my truck is backwards.

never hurts they are cheap,this would be a good time to change it.

the harbor frieght rivet guns seem ok, i bought one for larger rivets as the name brand one i have didnt do the larger sizes and i didnt want to add anymore to my already too high snap-on account(way too convienent). I bought thier nicer one,looks the same quality as thier rivnut gun and figured i would use it till it breaks and so far its been doing fine. Harbor frieght has some ok stuff but you have to really watch what you buy as they have alot of crap too.

you make it sound as if my truck can't be driven because i bought "half a lift kit" Depends how you look at it. it is complete as in you can buy it and install it on your truck and it will work. i can now clear larger tires,it flexes half decent,drives down the road ok (actually better then it did before,and can go places and do things off road that it couldnt do before. for the average person it probably could be considered a complete kit. I bought the lift with the intention of upgrading it to the adj arms and drop brackets later,this is nice for me as i only put out about half the money and can still enjoy my truck(which is much improved) while i get the rest of the stuff i want. If you buy the lift knowing what you want out of your truck you can build a nice lift out of thier stuff. compaired to something like the RE lift someone posted on this thread i feel in the end I'm getting the better lift. the prices will be about the same but i will have long travel shocks and adjustable upper and lower control arms where that RE lift has fixed arms and no shocks,(it also says it uses an XJ drop brackets,which as far as i know shouldnt fit). with that lift you also have to pay the $1200 up front were i get to use my truck and upgrade as i can afford it,which to me should be a major plus for some people. the only arguement i can see for the RE lift is weld on perches,Mine look alot nicer and can easily be welded on too. I don't see why this lift shouldnt be considered,especially for people on a budget or someone wanting to do it all themselves at home as its all bolt in and pretty easy to install.

My brother is over in coos bay,he can bend you up a roll cage. i think thats about 3hrs from you.

my sisters ex had an XJ like that,it was forest service green and he had two toned it with black spray paint. it also had the back window knocked out.

years ago i worked at an import shop,the shop owner had a new toyota solara with the 3.0L V6 he had put a TRD supercharger on. it went pretty fast,so he had a smaller pulley made and it went faster,he did this 3 or 4 times,I kept reminding him that his cast pistons won't live long but he disagreed. finally he had the thing running a little over 10PSI and it started doing exactly what your MJ is doing so he did pretty much the same thing you did. It ran ok other then the oil blowing everywhere,so he drove it awhile like that. eventually he decided to open the engine up,we found 3 pistons with broken ring lands, the car had about 30,000 miles on it. your nifty bottle made me think of that so i thought i would share it.

Ive looked at that one in the store,should work ok.

rivnuts work pretty good,ive used them on a few different things. these are what alot of lift truck manufactures use to hold various brackets and lights on to forklifts so they hold pretty well. you can also get a cheap setup like the one your looking at,at any harbor frieght store. they also offer the rivnuts in various sizes.

Found these pages on the 2.5L they have alot of good info. http://www.offroaders.com/tech/jeep/gnu-engine-factory-150i4.htm http://www.allpar.com/mopar/amc-25.html

That would be good, i see quite a few MJs around. It would be nice to meet everyone.

How well does the engine run? does it smoke? alot of times you get this due to blowby,if your cyl's are loosing pressure into the crank case it will cause what you experiencing. I don't see it much but you can also cause this by having way too much oil in the engine. You might check compression and if you have the tools a leak down test would be good too. this is good to do anyway as it will help to show the condition of the engine. i usually do compression test and leakdown first just to see were the engines at,this will either confirm or rule out alot of things.

your welcome,not a bad looking truck.

It is comanche specific. check out mfpdm's build "Wrenches Gone WILD" he has some good pics of it in various stages of the install.

this would be good to know for sure. just because the heads will interchange doesnt always mean they are identical,so i would be curious to know of any differences between the TBI and MPFI heads. I'm getting a complete engine,wiring, and ECU from a 95 TJ and I'm going to convert my MJ to MPFI.