DesertRat1991

More details on the HP44? Source? What is the width?

Yes, it was offered, per the 1987 Jeep brochure:

No A/C here. By now, you've probably discovered that the vent setting on the cab blower is useless -- unless you like being blasted with hot air from the engine bay. The rear slider helps a lot. I honestly don't know how you guys without rear sliding windows survive. The truck would be undriveable without one, IMO. In the summer time, I usually take the bed topper off to maximize air flow through that window. Whenever I see guys trying to reduce cab noise by going crazy with Dynamat and new door seals all I can think is --- what's the point? All the windows need to be open anyway..!

Wow. Stunning photos!

Needs bigger tars...

Welcome aboard! You can pilfer black windshield trim from any suitable XJ you come across in the junkyard. The drip rail trim above the windows is a different story. Bright drip rail covers are sought after by many enthusiasts. Somebody might be willing to trade you black for chrome, but you also run a good chance of deforming or destroying yours when you try to take them off since they are glued on. Your best bet might be to tape off your roof/doors and plasti-dip yours while still place. You can find the belt mouldings for the door windows here: http://teamcherokee.com/complete-window-wipe-seal-set-jeep-comanche-mj-1986-1992/

That tire carrier came out great! Sounds like you have an awesome trip ahead of you, but Moab in July?? Good grief! Take more water. IRO boomerang shackles are greasable, rebuildable, made in the USA and longer than stock even on their lowest setting. On the longest setting, they would raise you about ~0.75".

Follow this lead...

I'm updating this thread for archival purposes since it seems like a couple of people have had this same problem recently. There is no great solution to this problem. The rear shock mount is not easily removable, nor is a replacement readily available by part number. On the bright side, the threaded part of the shock mount doesn't bear the brunt of the shock load so any repaired threads should just need to be strong enough keep the shock from sliding off the mount. I ended up ordering a threaded rod in the appropriate diameter and thread pitch from zoro.com, then had a shop weld it on for me. I did not grind off what was left of the broken stud. The welder said that would have been a bad idea. Instead, the guy welded up over what was left of the original stud and mated it with the new piece to ensure a solid bond. Below is the only picture I could find at the moment. The fix was still a work in process at this point. After this photo, we made sure the stud was straight and level, then did some shaping of the weld joint with a grinder and a file to make sure the shock bushing could slide over it. The fix has held rock solid for nearly a year now with several wheeling trips.

The helper springs on the coil overs will do what they are designed to do -- reduce leaf spring squat by helping to support some of the load over the rear end. They don't "add" any payload capacity or magically permit you to exceed the GVWR of your frame and drive train. Who needs load leveling shocks? 1) Vehicles with tired leaf packs that squat excessively when carrying a load within their rated capacity. 2) Guys who dicked up the rake on their factory suspension for cosmetic sake and now need to keep their @$$ from dragging when pulling a trailer. You probably don't need the load leveling shocks unless you really intend to put your leaf packs to work. They may also extend the break-in/settling period for your leafs since they are helping to support some of the load. The Stem/Eye shocks would need a bar pin for our front shock application. They do not ship with bar pins, so good thing you ordered the BPEs.

Select shocks, based on their extended and compressed lengths, to give yourself the appropriate amount of travel for your intended use. Guys who do a lot of high speed off-roading may want a lot more up travel than down travel. Guys who do a lot of low speed crawling over seriously uneven terrain may desire significantly more down travel than up travel. For mostly on-road and light off-road use a 50/50 or 40/60 disposition between up travel and down travel would work great. So, you have your static ride height measurements @ 21 1/2" in the front and 23" in the rear. Select shocks from the Bilstein chart below that will give you appropriate travel based on their specified extended and compressed lengths. Then, modify your bump stops accordingly. You will want Eye/Eye shocks for the rear and Stem/Eye shocks for the front (unless you intended to run Stem-Eye conversion brackets in the front). Based on your measurements, it looks like either 33-104652 or 33-185569 would work well in the rear. And 33-230351 or 33-230375 would be good options for the front.

Where out west are you headed..? Are you planning to sleep in the truck bed? If so, I wonder where you will mount the gas cans?

Great story and the truck looks great too! Welcome aboard!

Interested! But how do these mount? Can you keep the factory tow hooks and front skid plate in place?

Agreed with longer links. The sway bar should be angled upwards at 15 degrees.

I like to monitor the closeouts deals for items to throw in my offroad spares kit. How to quickly find all closeout parts offered for a specific car without clicking every parts category: 1. On the rockauto.com home page, click on the big red start button to start the "Interactive" catalog. 2. Towards the bottom of the page, look for "Catalog display problem? Click Here for the traditional HTML version." This will take you to the older style catalog search. http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/catalog.php 3. Search through the catalog till you find your specific car model. 4. Your address bar should read something like "http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carcode,1333381" The numbers at the end are your car's code #. 5. Use this link, but replace the Xs after "carcode=" with your car's code. "http://www.rockauto.com/RSS/vehiclefeeds.php?carcode=xxxxxxx&m=wc&l=en&html=true" This will pull up all the close out deals for your car. Bookmark the link in your web browser. Enjoy.

ahh..... welcome to the club. It's a very exclusive club that requires just the right combination of bad luck and swear words to join... I guess I never posted the final solution in that thread. I ended up ordering a long threaded rod from zoros.com and had a shop weld it on for me. I did not grind off what was left of the broken stud. The welder said that would have been a bad idea. Instead, the guy welded up over what was left of the original stud and mated it with the new piece to ensure a solid bond. Below is the only picture I could find at the moment. The fix was still a work in process at this point. After this photo, we made sure the stud was straight and level, then did some shaping of the weld joint with a grinder to make sure the shock bushing could slide over it. The fix has held rock solid for nearly a year now with several wheeling trips. Good luck.

Here is the Bilstein 5100 series chart. As others have said, measure first. Then select an appropriately sized shock from the eye/eye options for the rear.

https://www.jcroffroad.com/product/MJRK-P.html

Heads up -- Looks like Alexia has an OEM short bed spare tire winch in the pile of "junk" he's looking to get rid of. If you want to install it on a long bed, you would just need to unbolt the winch assembly from the V-shaped bracket.

Same size on both sides. Spicer part number is below. A 36mm socket seats around the seal perfectly and gives you something to tap on to drive the seal into place.

The problem you describe is almost always a vacuum leak. I wonder how you verified that the vac system was sound? The HVAC check valves prevent leaks in the HVAC vac lines from compromising engine vacuum. Did you inspect every inch of the line in the diagram below? I would also recommend pulling out the blimp and inspecting all sides for cracks.

I got sand everywhere.

I see a parking brake pedal in the foot well and a transfer case shifter on the trans tunnel.