Dzimm

You are fine. ACDelco is a good brand and Rockauto is a good retailer.

The axle is in the truck and it's freakin low! I can't remember now what I measured at, I'll have to check again. Had to notch the nut on my repaired spring plate to fit a socket over the nut. Overall the repair is a success so far. I drilled a hole to mount the brake line connection. Double nutted the bolt so it won't come loose. I have to run to town this week to get some shorter 1/2" bolts to finish installing the sway bar. I found that I could bolt the mounts to the frame by drilling a hole and it lined up perfectly to use the factory hole on the underside to get at the backside with a wrench. Sitting on the ground with new tires and lowered springs. I measured the driveshaft to be 1-1/4" too long. I needed to either have my stock shaft shortened or to get a new one built at 51". I got on Google and found a PST shaft for $170 shipped and it is the correct size with correct u joints included. I just need to move the yoke over and it'll be good!! I will finish the sway bar this week and start on the front end! One other thing that happened.. torquing the front end of leaf springs is awkward and a PITA.. wrench slipped and smashed my thumb between the frame rails and torque wrench. I'll save you all from the gory pictures but it ripped everything apart next to the nail. Looks like I took a fillet knife to my thumb.

Sounds like a good excuse to buy a swb to me!

Thanks Pete, definitely will!

These can be found everywhere for cheap. It's standard across all trucks pretty much. The auto parts store will have what you need, probably out on the floor.

The 5/8" drill bit showed up today. Got the hole drilled out in the spring plate and new stud installed. Welded it as well just to keep it from moving. Ignore the booger welds. Spring clamps came in. Got them installed and the axle hung under the truck! The shackles are very short, should be sitting on all fours and real low tomorrow.

Agreed! Can't wait to see this thing complete.

You'll want to get it lengthened. You can have issues such as described by ghetdjc320 as well as the driveshaft falling out while driving. If the shaft were too long you could destroy the transfer case if it compressed. The length of the driveshaft is pretty important.

I would make sure the rear diff has fluid in it before towing if the truck hasn't been driven recently. Really you should do that either way because the gears will be spinning on a dolly.

Thanks! Lucky for cbrant, we only live about 20 miles from each other so he's got an extra set of hands if he wants.

Unfortunately that's a bit more than I have. If anything I've got a couple 2-3" sections of usable rocker. You'll want a solid chunk to do that much.

Ill have to look at what I kept from mine. I may have enough good rocker left to patch up yours if it's only a few inches. I was surprised on mine when I cut it open, the inside was clean.

How much rocker do you need? Pics?

You can also search for someone parting out an MJ outside the rust belt and have them cut out the rockers. I had both sides cutout from the front to back including the cab corner, cut them in half to bring size down, and shipped halfway across the country. Shipping wasn't too bad on it somewhere around $75 to ship plus $50 for the corners and they are factory correct.

Little bits of progress at a time. Sanded down the airdam repairs. Looks really good and everything blends together well. Bottom corner isn't perfectly square but it's close. May get another repair kit to square it off a little more. Started the repair on the spring plate. Got the broken shock mount cut off and the plate ground down flat. The hole is drilled out to 1/2", have a 5/8" bit on the way to finish it off. In the last picture you can see the bump out area I ground off. Reason for that is the stud kit has a nut on both sides to sandwich the plate. This inner nut will push the shock out from the bracket. That may make more sense once it's together.

That is sweet!! I've always wondered if they had an MJ magnet. I've got a stupid number of the magnets and have some duplicates, no MJ yet.

What the heck... The stupidity these days.

Yesterday I went into town and got some bolts to use as my center pins. Got them on and the leaf packs are together. I'm still waiting on some clamps, which should be here Friday. I can already tell the truck is going to sit much lower. The XJ leaves are thinner than the MJs and the pack is so much lighter/flexier. Cleaned up the spring bolts and shot those with primer and paint. On install the paint will mostly come off but I want rust protection where I can. The threads of the bolts I left unpainted. I started the repairs to the airdam. It had a crack on the back of the driver's side and the passenger side was missing the whole bottom corner from rubbing the tire. This airdam came off that truck in California with the bent bumper that went through that estate sale mess. To fix it I am using a bumper repair kit, it's like Bondo but stays flexible. This will get sanded smooth before paint. Passenger side Driver's side. You can see where the chunk was missing. I'm using part of a 97+ XJ bumper cap to patch it. It's not a perfect repair but it filled the corner back out so it looks better. I may need to get another repair kit to do some final touches on it but that will wait until I get it sanded down to inspect. This morning I ran into town and dropped off the wheels and tires to get mounted. Will have those back either tomorrow or Friday.

I was unaware of repop street MJ parts. Who was the manufacturer of the repops?

I was searching through some pictures of XJs with body kits for another thread and happened upon this. Article here https://www.junkyardlife.com/2012/12/lol-cars-transformed-jeep-cherokee.html?m=1 Quite the XJ for sure. If you notice the front end, it has a street MJ grille and airdam, meaning that confirms the death of another one. Anyone ever seen this Jeep before? Also curious if anyone has seen a Street MJ kit modified to fit an XJ? Wonder what that would look like.

Looking at the gap of the bumper by the flare gets wider towards the back and just the shape in general makes me think it is from a different vehicle, perhaps a newer Jeep, and just modified to work on an XJ.

Shift light for manual trans

I was also between megasquirt and AEM. Ultimately got an AEM because I got it for super cheap. I have yet to install or do anything with it but those are definitely the two choices for a Jeep from everything I have read. I would say you should talk to the tuner and see which system they have used or are more comfortable with, they may even outright say they won't work on one or the other so they may make the decision for you.

You won't have to do any welding on the axle, they luckily left the perches on the axle so yeah, just unbolt the ubolts and stick the axle back on top of the springs.

Got the bushings in the leaf springs today. The big bushings went in easy, just a 2x4 and hammer, couple firm hits and they went in. The small bushings however fought the whole way. Had to do a combination of c-clamp to start them, then BFH with a sacrifitial bolt until it was I'm far enough I could get this contraption on it to pull it in the rest of the way. That a pickle fork on one side, topper clamps on the other, and a nut/bolt through the center to pull it together. Took a lot of work but saved me the money of paying someone else or buying a press. I will someday buy a press though so really was it worth all the work? Had to do a new coat of paint to fix the scratches and scuffs from installing the bushings. Put the wear pads in the leaves as well. I tried to put a pack together but realized the center hole of the XJ leaves is 5/16" while the MJ is 3/8".. I of course have 3/8" center pins. I tried to drill the holes larger in the XJ springs and only succeeded in destroying drill bits. Rather than ordering a new set of center pins,I'm going to go buy some 5/16" bolts and make myself a set. Tonight I ordered a set of XJ style spring clamps. I was thinking of ways to reuse the MJ ones but I can't think of a good way of doing it without buying new rivets and going through the headache of installing them. I also didn't want the headache of finding and paying someone else to do it so I just payed the little extra to go the easy route.