comanche09

Glad my '07 Aspen 4.7L is still good old drive-by-cable. Hemi is not. '99 XJ is known as "the best year" of the XJ. No low pinion front axle and no 0330 crack prone head, yet all of the best updates and no "decontenting" of the later years. I would try to find a good low mileage '99. May be mission impossible in your area of the country. I would search the South. Good Luck :cheers:

You could go with some KK 17" wheels. I believe they lose their "Trail Rated" status with that size though FWIW.

What type of paint did you paint it with? Thanks

Need a black driverside dash. Don't need the glovebox or pass side stuff or lower dash. Just a black dash top with no cracks. Let me know if you have one! Thanks

Wow, that black dash is in beautiful shape! :eek: I have yet to find one in the yard that wasn't cracked up and faded. I need a driverside black dash. I think they stopped making the black dash in '87 with the Chrysler takeover :(

Check your brake light switch and wiring. Taillights are working? License plate lights? Check your reverse light wiring at the trans.

I researched driveshaft donors extensively a little while back. Unfortunately, the aluminum crown vic DS use a slightly larger U-Joint. Ford Aerostars are another example. The regular (steel) crown vic DS uses the same 1310 Series U-joints. One could run "bastard" u-joints to use the aluminum ones, however.

Great job! I used a heat gun on my '88 Pioneer decals. It takes patience, but it worked really well on the 22 yr old decals and left no residue. It was a shame how beautiful the original paint was underneath them because I then had to take the rest of the truck down to bare metal...

:agree: That's what I did. There are some slight variations to how they look through the years. You could try aluminum polish on yours.

I painted my whole truck with that paint (See Avatar). So far so good, going on almost a year later.

Found a useful site regarding bed dimensions of various trucks: http://www.kanopykingdom.com/truck_bed_size_charts.htm It looks like the Ranger shortbed is pretty close to the MJ shortbed. There is a highrise (negates the cab height issue) one on CL near me I want to go check out. Hornbrod, on your drawing it says 93> S-10. Is the 93+ S-10 a closer fit or the 82-92 S-10? Thanks

I'm doing almost the same swap. '90 AX-15 and '98 NP 242. You can swap your cable speedo gear right into the NP 242. You are going to have to be creative with the T-case linkage. No AX-15 ever came from the factory with an NP 242... Autos only. EDIT: Oops thought that was an NP 242... Nevermind about the t-case linkages. 73-75 CJ-5 304 V-8 Pilot Bushing. '96 Clutch Master Cylinder and Slave assembly (one-piece). AX-15 Crossmember (Maybe if you have clearance issues) and trans mount. I am interested to see how your driveshaft works with the new style T-case Yoke. Please keep us updated.

Some Seafoam in through the brake booster vac line will show an exhaust leak pretty quick. Thats how I found my exhaust manifold crack. White smoke from the rear of the manifold. (I have the exhaust leak "ticks")

Check your Track Bar bracket bolts. They can work loose and cause tapping/clunking noise.

Thanks! :cheers: The seat belts are not attached to the seats. They are attached to their factory locations. That's one of the beauties of an MJ seat swap.

Finally got some pics of my Dakota spring plates and modified MJ spring mount setup:

Hey All, First thank you to mnkyboy and flyn2er for offering their experiences and tips. :cheers: These seats are from a 2007 (Passenger and Center) and 2006 (Driver) Mitsubishi Raider (Dakota Clone). I chose these because it seems you can't get the 05+ Dak seats in Black. They are SUPER comfortable and light years ahead of the original vinyl bench (as they should be) :brows: Thought I would share my install: I fabbed in the cupholder from a 2000 Dakota center seat. This is a close-up of the driverside front bracket. The driverside was the most difficult to fab in as you don't have alot of space to work with due to the hump/tunnel. For the rear, I bolted in the stock Dak rear bracket through the floor with a big carriage bolt. Had to repair the donor bracket (it was rusted away on one side), but this is another pic of the drivers side. Passenger side was much easier, I used the stock Manche brackets as a base. For the center console, I cut the Dak brackets, bent em a little, positioned em and bolted it through the tunnel. Back console bolts, I know about the washers, I was using hardware I had in my garage. I will get the right length bolt in there. :dunce: Front console bolts. Rear drivers side seat bolt. :cheers:

I thought that the prolonged crank time was due to the Renix computer waiting for adequate oil pressure before allowing spark? Mine takes about 3-4 seconds of cranking to start hot or cold. Once, started it goes to just under 1k rpm then settles to about 5-700 rpm in about 10 seconds.

Correct. I was refering to pinion angle, not perch spacing

I swapped in my 8.25 a couple weeks ago. I had to get my driveshaft cut down 1" going from D35 to 8.25 (the yoke was hard up against the trans), but I am at stock height SUA, you may not have to get it shortened if you are going SOA. I mounted mopar spring perches on the 8.25 using the same angle the D35 had (I left the XJ perches on the axle) When I was through the XJ perches were very close to the same angle. I recommend buying 2000 2wd Dakota U-bolts, they fit the 8.25 and are 1 inch longer than the originals. As a plus, they are formed at the bottom of the "U" to conform better to the axle tube. Get a '95 Dakota 4x4 rear brake hose, it is plenty long but you may have to open the mounting bracket hole a bit where it mounts under the bed. The e-brake cables swapped right over to the 8.25 drums. (What a PITA though...)

I have a '95 XJ Booster and my pedal is at the factory height. Just remember to grab the aluminum spacer behind the booster from the XJ.

Jimoshel, thank for the explanation. To the OP, sorry about the thread hijack :cheers: Under load (hot or cold) or at cold idle, my oil pressure is around 62 PSI on my mechanical gauge. At hot idle it is around 24 PSI. So my Rod and Main bearings are in need of replacement? Will I have to determine the clearances on each rod/main bearing and buy the correct bearing (with respect to clearance) for each? Thanks for your help. :cheers:

My 4.0L cold start idle and under load reads 62 PSI. At hot idle it reads 22 PSI. This is with a mechanical oil pressure gauge T'd in with the factory gauge. The factory gauge always reads about 10 PSI higher. How should I drive if I apparently have bearing clearance issues? Thanks

'88 4.0L / BA10/5 / 3.55 gears / 28" Tires / Heavy foot / 15 MPG Mostly around town.

I would love to see it done. :bowdown: I've got 74k on my '07 4.7 V8 in my other rig and its needed nothing but oil changes. Very smooth and great sounding V8 (sounds better than the Hemi IMO). The early ones had PCV issues that caused oil cap / sludging. But overall a pretty bulletproof motor IMO. Too bad Chrysler discontinued it this year. Allpar info here: http://www.allpar.com/mopar/47.html I think the Ram/Dakota 4.7 V8 was available with a 6 spd manual.