Garvin

I've heard lots of bad things about Rusty's but I was running their 8" long arm kit on my Cherokee and never had a single problem with the kit (ran it for 2 years and everything except the cross member survived on a front on accident with an F350). Right now I'm running the track bar drop down bracket, front springs and front shocks on my Comanche till I go lower, which I'll be replacing with Rusty's suspension again. I've actually been looking at that bumper but, in all honesty, I'd go with Nates4x4 slimeline bumper instead. A buddy of line just ordered the slimeline bumper just under $600 with a few of the extras (it's $598 for all the options for our years). My buddy got free shipping on the Nates4x4 bumper, not sure if it's a special they're running or what but he ordered it a few days ago. Rusty's is $550 shipped so it's about the same price.

Technically they will fit but it is not the most ideal way of doing things. The intake and exhaust holes on the heads of the Renix and Chrysler don't line up perfectly with each other (I think the Renix was offset higher). I have known people that have done engine swaps to the newer Chrysler engines and left their stock intake/exhaust manifolds on it and know of a person that did it the other way with no ill effects. The only real issue that you would run into is maybe with the downpipe of the exhaust not lining up perfectly. If that is the issue, you should be able to get a downpipe from a '91+ and it should fit right on there. If I remember, I can check on the differences in length tonight between the two. I'm currently working on putting a new engine in an '88 Wagoneer and have a '91-'95 exhaust manifold kicking around that I can line up next to it. If no one else chimes in by tonight and I don't get a chance to measure, send me a PM to remind me.

What I usually do is put the axle where I want it (this includes the coil bow) and then center it from side to side. Make sure you have the caster and all that set and set the wheels straight. Then measure. You want this measurement to be at around the center of the adjustment to give you some leeway to both sides. If you're using the stock locations for the track bar, you will need the bottom to flatten out before it gets to the mount so that it will clear under flex. Are you keeping the inverted y setup for the steering? If you have a drop track bar mount, you will need a drop pitman arm. Run a straight line (string is the best bet) between the mounting holes of both the drag line and track bar and they should be at the same angle. It doesn't matter the shape of the arms as long as they clear everything but they must be on the same plane. The track bar and pitman arm bolts need to be level, also, that way you aren't going two different radius circles when you do flex, which could cause binding and death wobble. Hope that helps some.

I the IRO arms can be adjusted from 0" to 6.5" of lift so you can dial it in perfectly from there. If the Jeep has a drop pitman arm and the factory track bar mount on the frame, that could be the cause of the death wobble. You want the frame mounts to be on the same plane as well as the angles (between the mounting locations, not of the arms) to be the same between the track bar and drag link. If no one chimes in by tonight, I can measure a stock pitman arm I have kicking around to give you the stock measurement to see if you have a drop or not. If you do plan on going with a double shear track bar (which is highly recommended), you should also get a drop pitman arm to match the extra drop of the frame side bracket.

Was kinda assuming that the bell housing was coming with it...Try finding one from a '94 or newer for the external slave. If all else fails, I have an internal slave one kicking around that you can have for shipping. I pulled it off the '92 AX15 I had to swap on (with an adapter) the Chevy bell housing for the Chevy 350 swap.

I'm not sure on every single part but I can start off the list. You will need a new cross member (AX15 hangs down about an inch farther than all the other transmissions), new clutch and flywheel, new slave (believe the Wrangler AX-15 is external slave?), and most likely a new clutch line. Your transfer case will not fit as the BA-10/5 is a 21 spline output as all AX15's are 23 spline outputs. You will need an AX15 mated transfer case or '91 or newer mated transfer case. If you are going with the 4:1 kit, now might be a good time to get it and you can use your transfer case as it comes with new planetaries in the front with a 23 spline input. As for the clocking, I've heard a few mixed things. Some have gotten it to work without any issues while others have had to massage the floor a little to clear. At worst, you will need to tap a small portion of the floor up a little for clearances.

I'm just copying and pasting this from another forum again cause I'm being lazy, and don't remember every exact step and issue I ran into along the way. So if a few of the lines sound a bit weird, that would be why. This was also built over 2 or 3 days in my free time so if you see anything about tomorrow, that would be why. I had to pull the Comanche out to get a Wagoneer in there so the engine can be replaced so figured a few quick shots in day time were in order! A day time pic of the front end. Still need to bolt the stock bumper up for the time being till I get around to building a new front bumper (New Jersey and the needing a front license plate issue...). The winch cable needs to be spooled in and the lines and box ran and bolted in. Not sure exactly where to put the box yet to allow easy access for mounting the controller or might just do a remote controller to make life easy, haven't exactly decided yet. A nice side shot of her while she's out of the canopy. Still need to add the shackles to the rear. You can see the Mutts little brother in the background. That Comanche is going to be getting completely fixed (frame is rusted and floors are gone) and pretty much restored after this one gets done. For the time being, I need to throw the trans and transfer case back in and it's going to be a farm truck as it gets built up. Probably going to leave it stock or might do a SOA rear and then level out the front with 33's and short arms to help from sinking in on the farm, nothing drastic though. Will be picking up a few parts for the engine in the next week or so and hopefully get her running soon!

Thanks. Thanks. For the trans cross member, the bolts on the sides go through individual crush sleeves (6 sleeves total through the frame). The front cross member (probably should finish putting pics up of that...), I've added an extra crush sleeve on each side. The passenger side has the factory aluminum crush sleeve plus the added metal crush sleeve and the drivers side has the steering box crush sleeves (3 crush sleeves for the bolts) and the added metal crush sleeve. Both of the cross members are extremely tight fits (trans cross member has to be tapped into place), this essentially doubles for frame stiffeners to help keep the rails straight and away from eachothers. As for the rest of the progress on the front cross member... Sat there scratching my head for a few hours while trying to figure out ways to get all this to work, finally figured something out. Cut and bent the upper part of the frame down some and will be welding it back together and reinforcing a few areas. Called up Bulldog and figured out that the housing can be reclocked and it's simple as all hell. Also asked about mounting and the winch is now going to be mounted feet first. Going to make the whole front cross member out of 1/4" steel with gussets in it. It will go from the bumper mounting point to bumper mounting point across and have wings going back. Will also have a small section on 1/4" on the inside of the front bumper mounting points. The holes for the feet, winch line, and clutch lever still need to be cut. There will be another wing that will go behind the steering box to reinforce that area and am going to replace the aluminum spacer with steel that will be welded to the wing. Marked all the metal to cut out, what a pain that was to cut out... Everything got fit up and decided to bolt it on instead of welding it on (if you've ever tried to weld 1/4" to 18 gauge steel, you'll know why). With what's together, the cross member will be held on by three 3/8" grade 8 bolts and two 5/8" grade 8 bolts on the passenger side and three 3/8" grade 8 bolts and one 5/8" grade 8 bolt on the passenger side. Didn't snap a picture of it, but welded in a crush sleeve inside the rails to help strengthen the frame some. Still need two brackets to be made and welded on in the front (will add two more 5/8" bolts per side) as well as mounting the winch. All in all, the front cross member will be held in by 13 grade 8 bolts. Hoping to have the cross member all done tomorrow, winch mounted, and front end pieced back together. Got the winch mounted, wire hole cut and clutch handle holes cut. The handle sticks through for easy access. And if anyone is wondering, Bulldog (maker of this winch) has great customer service! He knew the answers to all my questions off the top of his head. Replaced the aluminum spacer plate with chunks of steel welded to the reinforcement wing. All painted and ready to go in. Can you believe that I cut all those brackets by hand? :D

There's a few reasons I put all the adjustments on the frame end. The first was that the mounts protect the threads from all the rocks and debris in the mud. The second is that, with a 3-link, you are running all hard joints (Ballistic Fab joints in my case). As mnkyboy pointed out, due to the UCA on the axle, the adjustable end has to be on the frame. That's unless you buy arms that adjust in the middle (forget who made them, think IronMan4x4?). If you're looking for a nice quiet ride, definitely go for rubber bushings on one side. If you're looking for the flex and plan on running M/T's all the time, hard joints are much stronger and flex better and you won't really notice the noise over the tire hum.

I'm actually in the process of removing a 4.0L from an '88 Wagoneer right now. I prefer to remove the header panel and radiator to make life a hell of a lot easier, also prevents any damage to them. I'm choosing to leave the trans in for simplicity sake. If you choose to leave the trans in, the upper two bell housing bolts are inverted torx, be real careful with these. If you end up stripping them, you will either have to try to get something in there to cut the bolts off or you will have to remove the trans with the engine. One of the bolts got stripped on my buddies 2001 XJ when we were swapping engines and we got an air powered cut off tool in there to cut it off, ended up nicking a few of the bell housing ribs but nothing deep enough to really make any effect on integrity. It's actually pretty easy of a job, just tedious and time consuming.

Must be a really late '86 MJ for the 4.0L or someone fought to fit that in there when they did the swap. Since the other two questions were answered, the high idle...Check for a vacuum leak. If you can't find any vacuum leaks, it could be the IAC (Idle Air Control) motor going bad. The best way to check for vacuum leaks is to use a can of carb cleaner and spray around the gaskets (start at the intake manifold gasket, also spray all the connections on the intake manifold). If the engine revs, that's where the leak is.

You looking for an off the shelf long arm setup pic or any pic? I have a custom 3-link on mine that I built that I have a few pics of.

I only ever use adjustable for both uppers and lowers. I love that option of dialing in what I want and where I want the axle, plus it lets you get the correct caster. When I built the 3-link long arm on the front of my Jeep, all three arms are adjustable on the frame end.

For comparison, I was running 36x13.5R15 Super Swamper IROK's and the 4.56's set the speedometer correct (had 3.55's from the factory). mvusse is correct that 4.11's would make the speedo correct for 36's. What you can do is get the speedometer gear out of a Cherokee with the AW4 with 3.55's and 4.11's should correct the speedo (or make it really close atleast).

what part exactly would the flange be? any idea on the part number on those or what they may cost? also do you think teraflex would sell just the caliper mount bracket along with the spacers? The flanges I'm referring to are the ones that are on the axle itself. You will need to press off the old bearings and seal, take the factory flange off and replace it with the Dana 44 Wrangler flange and press on a new seal and bearing. Just finished the swap on my buddies last weekend. He ended up getting Grand Cherokee rear brakes with new brake shoes, pads and rotors and we installed everything. If you plan on doing it yourself, you will need access to a press (or a shop that will do it for you) to put the new flange on. stu-offroad has a nice write-up of it that we followed (link below). The write-up is for a Wrangler but it's basically the same for any Dana 44. http://www.stu-offroad.com/suspension/d44brake/bc-1.htm I don't have any experience swapping 8.8 rear brakes but I believe the Grand Cherokee and Explorer disk brakes are really close to each others. I'm also not sure on the e-brake cables for the Explorer but the Grand Cherokee cables are the correct cables to fit on a Jeep (you will need to adjust the e-brake after installing the conversion but if you're tackling this job, you should be able to do that part fairly easily). If you have the Dana 35 c-clip, you do not need most of those steps as the Dana 44 swap as you won't need to reload the bearings with the flange. I believe (don't quote me on this) you can slap it on a c-clip Dana 35 without having to open the hole, since there is nothing really holding the axle in at the end (only the c-clips inside the differential). In that case, the 8.8 might be easier as the 8.8 is also a c-clip axle. Either way, if you decide to go this route make sure you get everything from the backing plates out, grab the bolts that hold on the backing plates (just in case) and make sure you grab the e-brake cables too.

I feel like the odd man out. :( My '86 Comanche X (2.8L V6, AX5, NP207, Dana 30/35 non c-clip) was 3.55's. Need to check the front to make sure the PO didn't decide to swap the rear and didn't match the gears though (was abused before I got to it but I got it cheap).

Had an issue with the hood where it was bent pretty bad in the back so it would hit the wiper cowl. Took the hood off and took a hammer and block of wood to it to straighten it out. Also took out some of the indents that a PO put in there, think it was from him trying to bang the hood back out after something fell on it. When I took the hood off, figured I'd look at the hinges too. Both hinges were messed up so I took the pair that was salvaged from my old Cherokee and painted them black and put them on. The hood still needs to be tweaked a little which I'll do this weekend, then the hood pins will be installed. Also hammered back a good portion of the frame part where the wipers connect to that was dented in from when the hood flew up, the rest will be filled in by putty. Painted and put the alternator brackets on the engine, painted and put the water pump pulley on the engine and painted the crank pulley and harmonic balancer. Put a new coolant temp sensor in. Put the carburetor gasket and carburetor on top just to figure out I don't have the right size bolts so it's just sitting on top to check clearances right now. Started to screw the interior together, need to get a new set of seat belts since a PO cut them. Put the blower fan in and connected that up. And for today... Got the new radiator in the mail today, nice and shiny! Test fit the radiator in. Doesn't fit! :wall: About an inch too tall... So I took it anger out on the Jeep. Where I stopped tonight.

Some teaser pics. Nothing is bolted up yet since the rad needs to be fit before anything is finalized. Pulled out the saw-saw and fixed the problem of fitment. With me being me, the Comanche now accepts a newer style Comanche/Cherokee radiator. :D You can kind of see the issue here why that radiator won't fit. '84-'86 actually offset the middle of the core support forward then brought brackets back (as you can see in my previous post pics) to mount the radiator. That's a stock '90 Cherokee radiator sitting there (same dimensions at the newer ones). And the front end fit back together after mr. saw-saw had his say. Still need to clean up and weld a few brackets together for strength but it all fits. There are no rubber isolators on this setup right now and plan on keeping it that way for the time being. When the recessed winch and front bumper get made, the lower core support is going to get modified and I'm going to offset it down a bit, as well as the very top of the front rails, to better fit the radiator. There is about 6" of clearance between the nose of the water pump (long nose style) and the radiator, plenty of space to add any fan I wish. It took a lot longer than I thought it would to finish up the front, trying to hold two parts and mark a hole at the same time by yourself is a pain. I have two holes to go on the top (cut the ones off the top to try to fit it another way and just ended up hacking off more of the core support) then all the holes are there for the rad. Even without the bottom pins in the rad (cut them off to make life easier on lining everything else up), you can shake the rad and the whole Jeep moves so I think she's mounted in there pretty tight. I took some of the metal that got cut off and cut it to size then stitch welded it to cap the ends of the upper core support for a bit more strength. Not sure if this was really needed but I did it. The caps look a lot better in person than they do in the pictures. After that, the test radiator got test fit and anything that needed to be tweaked got tweaked. Painted the headlight buckets (or whatever you call them), then put the rad back in and gave everything a once over with the paint. I think she turned out pretty well, kinda looks better than the later years where these were made to fit in there. :mrgreen: Started piecing together the interior. Still need to grab a bunch of screws but everything still fits! The e-brake assembly underneath the Jeep is soaking in PB Blaster right now to hopefully adjust the nut out so I can get the cables going from the brakes to that bracket back on the bracket and get the e-brake working again. I'm not really worried with the looks of the interior right now as I'm going to be slowly converting to a black interior cause I hate the red.

Figured it's time to update as a good amount has gotten done in the last two weeks. Fully welded the cross member and control arms. Replaced the front drive shaft u-joints. Got the arms painted and installed and finished up the reinforcement for the truss (I was going to make it fancy looking but then realized I had to make it...). Sitting around 8 degrees caster without adjusting the upper arm. :chillin: Also modified the clutch slave bracket to clear the floor, then got the slave and clutch rod installed.

You can also get the flanges straight from Chrysler for the Dana 44 Wrangler rear with disc brakes if swapping them onto a Dana 44 rear axle, think they might fit onto the non c-clip axles also but would need to check into that.

Just a question to help make the bumper a little easier to make. Have you thought about making the d-ring mounts closer to the frame? This would eliminate that pipe that goes across the front of the bumper, which could be an issue with the fairlead rollers if it sits too close (which it looks like it does). Also, is there any mounting points for the fairlead itself? From the pictures, it doesn't look like there is.

4" vs 6" would require steering modifications , done properly . I'm hoping at 4-5" , the ZJ upgrade will do . I hate bump steer with a passion . I have the WJ conversion on my ZJ with a OTK track bar . On the rear I raised the axle mount for the track bar , no bumpsteer I do have one question though , what is everyone using for spring plates ? I never noticed on the XJ what's there , but , appears that's where mine will come from . Just thought I'd bring that up :) I ran stock steering with an 8" lift without issues with all the stock brackets on the axle. There was a drop down track bar bracket on the frame end with an aftermarket track bar but everything else was stock.

You need to figure out which axle you want to use first. For measurement size, if you stick with the Dana 35 and do a SOA, you'll get ~5" of lift (assuming the springs aren't sagging. You can swap in a set of 2wd rear leafs and that will lower it an inch. The other option is XJ shackles, they drop it about 3/4" to 1".

I used to run the Rusty's long arm setup on my old Cherokee but have went with a custom 3-link setup on the Comanche. I prefer the 3-link but you would need solid joints on both ends to do a 3-link correctly. Blue XJ is correct on the binding issue, reason I went with a 3-link (well that and space issues). I ended up making a cross member that doesn't hang down below the frame and have the arms based off of that. I'm running an upper arm that is 2" longer than the lower to help keep the pinion pointed in the right direction at full droop. Either way, I had to cut off the extra brackets on the frame for the Comanche but the cross member is now held in with six 5/8" grade 8 bolts through the frame with another six 5/8" grade 8 bolts holding the arms in.

Today's work... (being lazy and just copying it from another forum post) Got the frame for the front truss built and fully welded together and to the axle. Then tack welded the axle side UCA mount to the truss and installed the upper arm. Let everything go and was sitting at a 5 degree caster, just need a few turns on the upper arm and will get back to 7.0-8.0 degrees and that'll solve that issue. Still need to build the front and back of the truss for strength but...ran out of welding wire. Flexed the Jeep out to see if/where anything hits. Got 22" of flex on the driver side and 24" on the passenger side (bottom of tire to ground) till the tire got stuffed into the front of the fender (you can see it better in the pic by what I mean), need to trim the fenders farther forward now with the stretch. The arms do hit on a small section of the frame side stock lower mount that's left and on part of the coil bracket on the axle. The stock lower mount is going to get a visit from a saw-saw tomorrow, same with the little overhang on the coil bracket. Going to pick up more MIG wire and drop everything and finish welding it, then paint everything and be done with the suspension. This is mainly just a reminder for me, need to put all the transfer case bolts in and tighten them now that I can drop everything down to access all the bolts. Need to also put the slave cylinder bracket on and get that all trimmed and the floor minorly clearanced if needed.