BabySpinach

great progress so far! deff going to learn lots this way you do know that your supposed to measure the tare torque without a seal installed right? the seal will add a few pounds extra. but other wise KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK. are you set on 32" tires? with those gears and lift you can run 35's all day long no issue, it will look more proportionate too, just food for thought. Oops! I had no idea about the torque and seal.. I had to hammer the carrier in, so I'm hoping that's enough preload. I think it'll settle a bit once I'm driving it. My XJ currently has 35x12.5 KM2s and gets about 10/11 Highway MPG. I wanted to go slightly smaller for economical purposes with this build. I've got 4.88 gears in the XJ too. My reasoning was that the 'manche will be a better DD as it won't have lockers like the XJ that I've been DDing. I think that the 4.10 ratio with 32s on the Chry 8.25 29 spline with a 4.5 in lift is basically the most perfect mix between lifted and economical. I'm hoping it has some kick to it. One thing about the 35s is that they're a SOB to push. Coupled with the 4.88 gears, you can't really get that stuck to the seat acceleration that I'm getting even from the stock MJ. While I'm not completely sold on the stock looking wheels, the tires only have about 100 miles on all 4, and they're already mounted and balanced. I got a decent deal for them, so what the hell. I think I'm going to paint the wheels black.

Too long! :D Honestly, the gearing part was easy.. getting bearings off and on was the most pain in the butt part. Not having the right tools for that was the largest time sink. I'd say I spent a good 2.5 WEEKS just figuring out how to press and remove bearings between the two axle regears. My town is full of rich idiots who have zero practical skill sets of any kind.. This means that parts and hardware stores are scarce. If you go a few counties over, their grocery store has more tools than our best tool store. When I say parts are scarce, I mean I spent 3 days going to 7 stores trying to find a piece of pipe that would fit over the 8.25 pinion to use as a press. Never did find one.. By complete chance, I noticed that the ball joint press kit had a sleeve that was the exact size I needed. Mind you, I only have a few hours here and there to work on this project. The regear took about a full day of labor per axle. I'm extremely technical and nitpicky and end up spending a lot of time double and triple checking over things, or adjusting. Things like checking backlash on every single tooth, while spinning and seating/oiling the bearings. If you're meticulous, you'll spend several hours with setup bearings just adjusting and testing different shims and patterns. The Dana 30 was actually the easiest to do. Everything is a nice size to work with and once you have your setup bearings, it's just time consuming and not extremely difficult if you understand the math and what you're doing. I made a boo boo and had to completely undo and remove my carrier once I had finally set everything up because the cross pin wouldn't cross the ring gear! I didn't have the tools to shave a tooth, so I just unbolted the ring and did the spider setup and replaced it.

This was my first time regearing anything. I really wanted to have the correct ratio in my axles for this build, instead of doing what most do and keeping the stock gears. I get a kick out of learning and figured, why not!? Ordered master rebuild kit along with the gears. Borrowed some tools from my company manager who was an old school machinist. The hardest part about regearing seems to be finding all the stupid specialized tools you need. He actually ended up gifting me this mike, along with several others! All new bearings and seals! Wohoo! Measured and organized all my shims. This pic is a tad out of order as i've already pulled the existing carrier bearings. Factory measurements, recorded. This is where the fun starts! I need the old bearings to make setup bearings for the shimming. This is how you MacGyver bearings off without the correct tools. This is using a rented front end kit. The old carrier will not be used again. Some NASTY pitting in the carrier bearings! Up next: The pinion bearing.. This took two hours. SUCCESS!! Race removal next: After spending about 3 days trying to find some basic grinding equipment, I found some grinding stones for $4 at a local hardware store! Setup bearings made and moving on to shimming. Started with the pinion install: Installed the pinion races: Installed the new ring gear on the new carrier: Spent a bit of time figuring out shims and testing the ring gear backlash: Pinion depth was PERFECT after I went back to using the OEM thicker oil slinger. The contact pattern: Installing seals: The other side: My work has a shop press. I was able to press everything on after finding some fitting pipe at Lowe's: I believe this was the final contact pattern after pressing on and installing the new bearings: Backlash is perfect. Gears state 0.006. Right on the money. Has a deviation of +0.001 at most. Final shims were something like 0.055 and 0.035 + preload. I think total was around 0.108. Pinion rolling torque is perfect. This is for new bearings + carrier preload. Very fun process to learn! The only thing I really struggled with was the lack of proper press and removal tools. Next up! Complete rebuild of the remainder of the axle!

Here's some more brutal rust removal from the D30 front. This thing was horrid! Help from the little sister! I actually had to bring this to the shop across the street to get the freaking stupid 12 point bolt out.. The other 5 came out with some effort, but this last one was a PITA! Success!! Here are the hubs and what's left of the dust shields!! :???: First real look at the inner housing: Next up will be the Dana 30 Regear!

I've already purchased an SYE kit for it. I'm retroactively updating this thread, as I've knocked out a ton of work on the build so far. I just haven't had the time to post!

Found a guy in the hills on craigslist who parts out Cherokees. Picked up ALL the parts I need for the conversion for $600 cash! All parts are from 1999 Cherokees: Heavily rusted Dana30HP. Great condition Chrysler 8.25. AW4 and NP231 from the same vehicle. The Chry rear and trans + t-case are all from the same vehicle, I believe. Looks like it had about 108k miles before being in an accident and parted out. The Dana 30 after some de-rusting.. Very intensive and impossible de-rusting...

There's virtually zero rust! Not even hardly any on the passenger floor pan.

Hello all, Ever since I first got into Jeeping, I've wanted a Comanche. As you know, they aren't always easy to find and they're not always in the best condition. Having almost given up on ever finding one, my friend linked me to a Comanche on a facebook group that wasn't more than an hour or so drive away. Being the enabler that he is, he drove with me and I purchased it on the spot. Some stats: It's a 2wd LWB 1990 with the 4.0L and AW4 Automatic transmission. Mileage is only 146K! Idiot light gauge cluster, plus it shifts from the column. It has a Dana 35 rear. My plans for the 'Manche are to convert it to 4WD, while completely rebuilding new axles for it with new 4.10 gears. I'll be lifting it 4.5 inches and adding 32x11.5 KM2 tires. I'll be bolting on a Dana 30 HP in the front and a 29-spline Chrysler 8.25 in the rear. I have a ton of cosmetic plans as well, but the major components get the focus first.