Dzimm

Crown Vic/Charger General Lee. I grew up watching the Dukes and my dream car is a General Lee. Since I can't afford a real 69 Charger, I want the cheap version I can not feel bad about beating on a bit. Believe it or not, this is a Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. Wheelbase is perfect and all the 69 Charger sheetmetal and most of the trim can be bought online for just under $10k total. Factor in a roll cage and donor Crown vic and you have a 69 Dodge Charger-ish for around $15k all in. I may be cheating with this one as I own it but I likely won't get to end goal for quite a while. I want an open canopy offroad buggy thing to drive around with, like a side-by-side. Something like this. I already own a wrecked 98 Suzuki Sidekick (with a clean title so it can be registered at some point) that I made run and drive, which is what I someday hope to finish. PS, solo recovery missions with two vehicles is very difficult.

Yeah that's a Dana 30. Its high pinion without a vacuum disconnect so its from somewhere in the neighborhood of a 95-99 XJ axle.

Agreed, looks like the short side of a Dana 30. You have a picture of the actual axle assembly? It'll be easier to identify with that.

Haha yup, never noticed. He's got enough other stuff going on in the front of that truck it's not too obvious at least.

I've always just thought that cross strapping would be better to keep the vehicle square on the trailer, never really thought about the physics of it. Just saw the BleepinJeep video on cross strapping vs strait strapping, definitely worth a watch. Could vary we'll save your life.

Wow I forgot about this thread. Stopped paying attention at the $10k at BJ part.. anyone know where this truck is at now?

84-maybe 87 had the "System Sentry" as jdog mentioned. Supposedly sucked because of all the sensors.

What Eagle said. Order the $25 roll of copper/nickel brake line that has fittings from Amazon. You can do nearly the entire truck with one kit and it will never rust or fall apart again. Bends extremely easy and no need for preformed lines as you won't get them in without having to bend them out of shape some anyway.

Just kill them. Get the powder, it works wonders for areas you can't directly spray the hive. Unlike other bees, your wasps aren't nearly as important to leave alive, plus they will continue to use that best all year and possibly come back in later years if it's not destroyed.

A stock MJ in good running order would have no problems doing it. You need to go through and service everything, inspect and replace any bad joints/bearings in the front end. As you say you have a wobble, you should probably just plan on replacing all the joints and bearings up front so it's done and you don't have to worry about it. Do ALL of Cruiser's tips as well as replace all fluids if you haven't already. I personally would be going through absolutely everything I could on the truck before the trip and bring tools with you just in case. Also would highly recommend having a contingency plan in place in case you break down. Driving it would be my first choice as well, the money you spend on the truck rather than a tow/transport service will be a much better investment.

No problem, that's what we are here for! Hope everything works for ya, but from experience I'll say there will likely be something not working when you go to start it. Just the way it goes.

This^^^ kind of a pain to drill them out but not too bad.

If you plan on using a factory cluster you could probably use any speedo that would work for the truck. There are some companies that make custom cluster inserts to make it all look cohesive or custom. There are all kinds of designs you can use.

Get your new shaft before figuring pinion angle, it will be much easier to figure out with the new shaft. Easiest way I have found to measure for a new shaft is to put the old shaft on the truck if it's long enough, which in your case it is. Then find the mark on your yoke where the pinion seal has been riding, it should be pretty obvious, measure from old seal mark to the new location of the seal on the yoke and thats how much more length you need on the shaft. It will put it exactly where it should be. Otherwise most websites that sell shafts have instructions on how to measure for it.

You have a 50/50 shot by just guessing. Otherwise stick the pushrods for cylinder one on the lifters and watch their position. Down will be valve closed, up will be valve opened. You could use a cardboard box to give them support if you have to as they may be too top-heavy to stand on their own, or have your buddy lightly keep them upright while letting them move up and down. For cylinder one the front pushrod is the exhaust valve and rear rod is intake. Turn it over and watch the rods move, when the cylinder is moving down the intake rod is also up, this will tell you the next time the piston moves up will be your compression stroke and thus be TDC at the top.

Worst thing that would happen is the shaft could grab a hole and send itself through the bed of your truck and possibly send you off the road. Not gonna instantly send your truck end over end but definitely could total it. Mythbusters did a test on the driveshaft pole vault years ago and it's pretty gnarly what it can do. T-case drop won't do anything and you don't need it. The best option is a longer shaft, longer yoke will work as well. Get it towed as stated above, I'm surprised you made it as far as you did if you are really that close to reinserting it without removing the axle end.

Unfortunately you will be much further ahead by getting it put together and then measuring for the driveshaft. Being that you have an sye you will likely have more wiggle room with the measurements but you want to be as close as possible to perfect. You'd be surprised how much the slip joint moves and you really don't want it bottoming out or falling out. With that combo, I doubt anyone will have the measurement and even if they did, I'd measure it myself just to be sure. You may also get lucky and find out the length of shaft you need is sitting on a store shelf somewhere. That's how it worked out for my street truck and I had the brand new shaft at my door a few days later.

The big question here is what year XJ did you get and what axle does it have under it? No point in swapping over a D35 or a 96- C8.25 because it's a 27 spline axle. if it's a 97+ XJ you will have the much stronger 29 spline C8.25 and is good for swapping into the MJ. Second major question is the MJ 4x4 and what gears does it and the XJ have? Your gear ratios MUST match front and rear. As stated you need to move the perches no matter what you do with the XJ axle. Do you plan on lifting? As stated above you will get quite a bit of lift from going spring over, stay spring under if you want to stay stock height or less than 6" of lift.

We need to bring all the stuff over from the street Comanche Zoho site. I have an airdam off a California S/C, can't remember the number off the top of my head. I believe its the one stroker got his part from as well.

No reason to, nobody can remember everything that lives here. I only knew of this one because I was communicating with the seller of #12 throughout the sale to OGJeep.

#12 belongs to member OGJeep on here. He's got a tread in the build threads. Definitely should be brought over here tho.

Yes it is. I took the third row out and built a cover for it with hinges so it functions as an underfloor storage compartment and it's perfectly flat with the rest of the floor. That alone is the size of the trunk of an old Cadillac.

I've never personally seen any issues with Subarus, a few buddies have had them and my mom has had two Outbacks, only got a new one because she wanted it, sister got the old one. As long as maintenance is done and it's not driven like a racecar it'll last a good long time. Also trust me, vans ARE cool! Just a different kind of cool. And they are so functional, it's insane. Best vehicle. I think the best match to tick as many of your boxes as possible is going to be some form of crossover.

I will also throw in the, just get a minivan opinion. I was against them as well, traded the wife's Commander in on a 2018 grand caravan last year. So nice and would actually daily one myself, the cargo space is freakin super nice. To fit within your rules above, I have to ask SUV or car and is 4x4 a consideration at all? I know you said no Ford's but my first instinct is Crown Victoria. They are cheap, safe, large, and have decent enough gas mileage. They are also everywhere so parts are cheap and easy to come by as well. Very good option would be a Subaru outback. They are extremely safe, extremely reliable, and get good gas mileage. The also have fairly decent legroom in the back. Will be at the top of your price range tho.

I missed where you said that which is my bad, it looked to me like you were implying to put the offset shackles on both ends of the leaf spring. If there were a good solution thought up for the front, a no-lift bolt in XJ axle swap would be awesome and I'd be all over that, would make life so much easier, it's just not a reality right now. Not trying to perpetuate any sort of argument over it.