Rymanrph

I'll have to measure again, but I believe its about 1.0-1.25" I have 3" springs I could install instead, but I'm not sure they'll be tall enough. 3.5" springs probably would have been sufficient with the ACOS, but my RE 4.5" springs were less than $75 shipped brand new so its hard to argue with that. Plus they may settle some. What is the difference in height between the 2wd and 4wd leafs?

It looks pretty clean. What color did you end up picking for paint?

I'm just working on getting it drivable at the moment. I had to re-flare two of the brake lines and the rental tool from the parts store did not work very well. Every time I tried to tighten down the press to make the flare it would just push the tube right out of the clamp no matter how tight I made it. The rear wasn't too bad because I could remove the whole line from the junction, but the front line was a pill to work on in the fender well. With a little bit of heat, I made some pretty ugly flares so I'm just hoping they'll hold OK. I still need to install the JKS sway bar disconnects, replace the brake shoes on the rear passenger side, shim the axle and install shocks. I leveled the front with the ACOS, but I'm still higher in the front and I don't have any more adjustment. I guess I'll just have to get a heavier bumper at some point (unless someone just has some stock 4wd leafs laying around). I will get a professional alignment once I'm done but I want to get it pretty close myself before I drive it at all. What is the typical thought on centering the front axle in the wheel wells? If its centered at ride height, then under compression or articulation, it obviously won't be any more. I haven't measured yet, but I think I'm slightly offset to the rear at ride height. I have plenty of room to adjust with the Clayton kit; I just want it to be correct. I haven't driven it in just a week and a half and even though I have my XJ its just not the same. I can't wait to get the MJ back on the road!

Congratulations Rob! I'm sure it was well deserved.

My '97 donor had been in a front end collision recently before I bought it. The PO had purchased new airbags, but hadn't connected them and the light was on. After swapping in a new module (it was $10 off ebay) and clock spring, I connected the air bags and haven't had any issues since.

Wow, just wow. It makes me wish I had spent more on my paint job :drool:

Since its so tall in the back, you could swap in some factory shackles. Do you know what leafs you have in the back?

Thanks Ryan, it is alot of work but I'm lovin it. I'll be the only cat in town with an MJ man. :jump: By the way you're an @$$ :headpop: now you've got me thinking about long arms !! :ack: If I hadn't done long arms an LS1 was on my mind. Still might happen one day.

All of these conversions say 231 but I have a 242. Do they work just the same?

I may end up needing the SYE and CV drive shaft, but shims are cheap, so I'm going to try them first. I spoke with Rob at 4wd today and got my shocks ordered. They are Rubicon Express branded Bilstein 5100 series shocks. Apparently RE has swapped to Bilsteins and they are slightly cheaper because they don't say Bilstein on them. I've still got a little work with the brakes to finish up; I just ran out of time. I picked up a hitch from another member on the forums. I'm not sure why the picture is so hazy. The finish on it was horrible. The metal is pretty pitted in a lot of places. I stripped what I could and gave it a coat of paint. I'll snap another picture when I get around to installing it.

Crap. I thought I wouldn't have to worry about the SYE. Its only money right...? The good thing is the pinion angle on my rear axle is about 6° above where it should have been for the regular drive shaft, so it probably won't need shimming for a CV drive shaft. I pulled a string from the axle yoke and as best I can tell it hits the transfer case at the base of the output shaft. 4x4 Group Buy has a 242 SYE and CV shaft for $450 after a $400 core charge. Tom Woods isn't open on the weekend, so I'll have to call on Monday.

I had to run my track bar to almost the shortest. I probably could have gotten away with the other, but it worked out OK. I had to measure for shocks, so I conducted the ultimate poseur photo shoot. It may have had a little more flex in it, but I was hitting the limits of space, my lift and my comfort. I took a ride height measurement, a compressed and a flexed measurement, so hopefully that will get me pretty close to what I need. I measured the pinion angle of the rear axle last night and unfortunately, its 6° above the angle of the output shaft on the transfer case. The local stores can't get me shims big enough to make up that difference so I'm going to call around to some shops tomorrow to see what I can find. The front driveshaft didn't fall out while flexing, but there isn't much room left on the slip, so I'm a little concerned. I haven't reconnected the rear shaft yet, but I've got a longer slip yoke somewhere that I can swap to if need be. The front end is sitting about 1.5" higher than the rear. I've got about a half inch that I can take out of the ACOS and I'm sure my new springs will settle some. I can always swap in 4wd leafs n the back or longer shackles to make up the difference.

When I towed the '88 home, I disconnected the drive shaft and tied it up out of the way. It worked well for me.

I got the rear axle out tonight. I was able to swap the shafts from the old 8.25 to the new 8.25. Here is a shot of the TrueTrac: I've got it loosely bolted in the truck. It doesn't have any brakes or shocks, but you get the idea: I think it might be slightly high in the front, but my springs are new so they may settle some. Next I need to install the new adjustable track bar and sway bar disconnects, swap to the new longer brake lines, replace the shoes on the rear axle and then measure for shocks. I'm a little worried that my drive shafts might be a little short, so I'll need to evaluate them as well.

:rotf: Thanks for the laugh.

The flare nut that goes into the rubber hose right where its held in place with the C clip. I have a new longer Dakota hose to swap in.

I got ready to swap out my rear brake line for a longer line last night and when trying to remove the flex line, the fitting was giving me some trouble. It seemed to be somewhere around 3/8", but my 3/8" line wrench was way too big. Maybe 11mm? Anyway, I sprayed it down with some PB Blaster to let it sit for a while. I just don't want to round off the fitting trying to remove it. Can someone tell me what size line wrench I need to get it off?

Here is a taste:

I made some progress this weekend, but not quite as much as I hoped. The front end is pretty close to being finished. The old control arms mounts are gone, the long arms are in, the 4.5" springs and ACOS are in, but I'm still waiting on my track bar to arrive. I need to swap out the brake lines too. Here are a couple observations that made this weekend rather frustrating. First, the Clayton long arm mounts on the cross member were too narrow. I couldn't get the bars in at all. So a little bit of grinding, heat and prying and they found their way home. I didn't have any problems with the radius arms. The kit came with 6 bolts instead of 8, so I had to reuse the factory hardware on the axle side of the lower arms. Secondly, a little clearer instructions with the ACOS could have saved me a couple hours. The directions note that the bump stop cups are either bolted on, or welded on. After observing mine, there didn't appear to be any sort of bolt holding them on, so my brother and I began the arduous task of drilling a hole in the bump stop washer (or what we thought was the washer). Yeah, the whole bump stop cup is the bolt head. It just unscrews. I wish I had know that because I think I dulled every drill bit I own trying to drill through it. Otherwise, everything went rather smoothly. Drilling out all the spot welds on the frame for the control arm mounts was rather annoying, but necessary. I'm planning on going home one day this week to hopefully finish up the front and hopefully get some work done on the rear. I need to get far enough to measure for shock length so I can order those. I took just a few pictures, but forgot my camera this morning. More to come.

I have a set of 31x10.50x15s if you want to go for a little more tire and I'm just down the road from you.

My '99 XJ is about 1000 miles from the same, but it doesn't show tenths of a mile.

OK, so the re-gear is done, the new perches and shock mounts are welded on and the Clayton cross member is welded on. I picked up a set of longer brake lines for the front yesterday; the longer rear line will be in tomorrow. I originally ordered the Rock Krawler track bar for 4-6" of lift, but realized it wasn't going to be enough, so I took it back to 4 Wheel Parts and had them order one for 6-8" of lift. Unfortunately, Rock Krawler has taken their time and I won't get the new one in time to install it this weekend. It was a long shot that the truck would be driveable by the end of the weekend, but now its pretty much a certainty :(.

How is yours broken? The arm was broken on the shaft of mine. It was a pretty simple fix.

I just talked to the shop re-gearing my axles. They can't get the chromo shafts fast enough to have them installed so I can work on it this weekend (I have Friday off). So, I'm just going to plan on robbing my current shafts and pray that the this axle has 29 spline shafts (it came from a 2001, but I got it from the same junk yard). The local pull a part prices on axles shafts are about $20 a piece with the core charge, so I'll just have to hope I can get some from there so I can resell my current axle.

Murphy's Law has run its course. I just got a call from the shop saying that my 29 spline 8.25 has 27 spline shafts in it. So, I called the junkyard that I got it from and he swears it was pulled from a 2000 XJ. It was my understanding that any 8.25 past late '96 should have 29 spline shafts. So, either my understanding is wrong, the axle didn't really come from a 2000 or someone swapped rear ends on that particular XJ at some point. Since he sold me a working axle from a '97+ XJ like I specified, the junkyard will only sell me another axle for $100. My options are to buy a set of chromo shafts for $240 or rob the shafts from my current axle. I was hoping to sell my current axle to offset the cost of buying this second 8.25. Here are my scenarios: $100 for new 8.25 (27 spline shafts) and rob shafts from other 8.25 = $100 $100 for new 8.25 (27 spline shafts) + $240 for chromo shafts - ~$150 for current 8.25 (29 spline shafts) = $190 $100 for new 8.25 (27 spline shafts) + $100 for another 8.25 from the same junkyard - ~$150 for current 8.25 (29 spline shafts) = $50 I don't really trust this junkyard and they've screwed me before, so I'm not leaning toward option three. Suggestions?