kastein

Quite glad you did! :cheers: I'm kinda splitting the difference on the modification vs restoration bit - I refuse to do any kind of irreversible modification, i.e. no welding to the frame / cab tub / bed, no drilling, etc. Bolt-on stuff I'll do IF it improves performance or utility. For instance I added two cigarette lighter sockets up under the dashboard so I can plug in a cellphone charger and a GPS unit but I didn't drill any holes or modify the wiring harness to do it, I ran separate wires and hid it as best as I could. I would also love to convert the transfer case (Rockwell T138 iirc) to air shift but not if it means modifying the housing significantly, and refuse to bob it. Speaking of which... it now has windshield wiper blades (had one really dried out one before), a roof, a functioning tach, a functioning temp gauge, a fully functioning headlight (lowbeam is burned on the right hand bulb still), new battery terminals, new hood hooks, and I vacuumed the pile of potting soil out of the cab and scraped the residue off the windshield. Latest: (that's where I park it - my apartment is the one you can't see because the truck is in front of the windows, but it's immediately below the two windows behind the tree) EDIT: and I completely forgot - I changed the diff fluid all around. Took ten gallons of new fluid :eek: two five gallon pails, only a tiny bit left in the bottom of the second one when I was done.

d'oh! I knew that. :oops: I swear. :D S'ok. We have the same issues with gear ratios. Drives me nuts every time I see 3:55 instead of 3.55. Yeah :fs1: 3.55:1 is even better, 3:55 just drives me nuts. I see it so often I mostly just ignore it now though. Minor nitpick... Xeon not Xenon :waving: Xenon is an element (a noble gas to be specific) while Xeon is the trademarked processor family name. Firefox really, really loves to suck up large quantities of memory when you leave it open for weeks or months at a time and have 4-5 rows of tabs open :rotf: I actually noticed a difference going from 1 to 2GB due to this. Also, you usually won't see any change (on a 32 bit OS) going anywhere above 2GB unless you've specifically tuned the OS configuration to take advantage of it, and almost certainly won't see any advantage on a 32 bit OS going anywhere above 3GB or so without those configuration changes. Anything above 64GB requires a 64 bit OS but then again, if you can afford and justify 64GB you probably know way more about computers than I do.

minor nitpick... it's 512 :thumbsup: All memory sticks (except USB flash sticks and SSDs, etc) are powers of two, so 1/2/4/8/16/32/64/128/256/512 megs, or gigs, or I guess in the future terabytes :eek: I used to run Win2k on a Pentium I class laptop with 64MB of RAM... I can't believe I did that for as long as I did. My desktop, when I get around to installing FreeBSD on it, will have 8GB. I'll likely be running a few 32 bit virtual machines under a 64 bit VMM since I can't get nVidia video drivers for 64 bit FreeBSD nor 32 bit w/ PAE enabled FreeBSD.

Probably. Sign up on steelsoldiers.com and check the 2010 VIN info thread: http://www.steelsoldiers.com/members-ri ... hread.html Post up your info and within a couple days he'll hopefully have an answer for you. He can only look up stuff that was in certain branches of the service though.

x2, I was real confused for a bit while wiring a dryer outlet a while ago using an existing run of 10ga romex (had been cut off and left on the ceiling in the basement going from the dryer outlet to 10' from the breaker box.) Measured it and it read 110V on both hot legs, but I knew I had traced it right... traced it again to make sure. No matter what I did it measured 110 but after tracing it a few times I was sure it was disconnected. It even tested out as electrified using one of those field detector gizmos. So I grounded all the wires temporarily as a test and whaddya know, it read as 0 volts and no longer triggered the field detector. I generally am NOT afraid to run a new wire even if I have to punch a couple holes in the drywall to pull cable, drywall doesn't scare me anymore after I did this: http://alum.wpi.edu/~kastein/wall_fixing/

saturday I woke up at 7am without an alarm... drove the massivemobile about 200 miles, got home and was gonna relax and got a call from a friend who went wheeling alone and got his @$$ stuck, so back into the massivemobile I went and hauled his @$$ out, then went home and fell asleep. Woke up at 9am today feeling like I was beaten badly.

Is it all knob and tube? I hate that crap... got rid of all of it on my parent's first floor except a couple light fixtures and stuff like that that you mentioned, ran all new Romex and metal boxes. Without trying to interpret the "what works when" and "breaker blows" bits of info, my bet is that the 90 volt line is either a hot wire going through a lousy connection, or the cold wire from the kitchen lamp (which is now floating since you disconnected it from the cold line to the panel.) The extra resistance makes it measure as less than 110.

I know of a 97 MJ as well. Do they issue a new VIN when stuff like that is done though? Does it match the normal scheme or is it from a separate "pool" of VINs? I would like something like this just so I could walk into a parts store and ask for parts for a 97 Jeep Comanche and watch the counter guy stare blankly at his computer.

I'm trying to keep it under 50" because I really don't want to murder my already terrible mileage too badly. Getting this many rims is gonna bend me over and ream me out :( EDIT: A guy with access to some military equipment databases looked things up for me - my M54A2 was originally an M54 (knew this already) with an NSN of 2320008358348, serial number 3396 (same), registration number 5B5126, manufactured in 1958! Originally used by the 1186th MP Company in Salem, OR, was then surplused and shipped east to Lakehurst NJ by DRMO to be sold by GovLiquidation. Was sold by them in late 2000, went through a number of private owners (at least two) before getting to me. Originally sold by GL for $13561 (not sure I posted that already.) I am going to see if I can get it retitled as a 1958 so I can get antique plates. We'll see how the Mass RMV responds to that...

Swap em out already then :yes: I want to see this run... PS, I have an old 2.slow that I am going to be using as an air compressor eventually - it will run rough on only 3 cylinders but I don't care! If it doesn't do very well I will turn it into a very strong drill press / lathe type setup using the AX4 I got with it and some semi-redneck ingenuity. What are you gonna do with your old one? I think it would make a good go-kart or coffee table...

Yikes, how long has that diff fluid been in there with water in it (maybe?) Never ever ever run more than a day with water back there! It can rust and wash out your bearings in a real hurry. A friend of mine got water in his rear diff and by the time he got home it had already done minor damage, the axle has a little bit of a whine now. You would have noticed the terrible noises back there by now but still, take a look ASAP.

Yup! This guy: http://www.100dollarman.com/ Looking at his prices right now I only see tires for $200 and $250 each. I'm eyeing the 200 dollar ones because I like the price and the tread/size as well. It's going to see mostly highway miles (going to rausch creek and back) but I want it to remain at least somewhat offroad capable.

Awesome I'll go take a look! And yeah my springs on the MJ are pretty bagged, and 2wd ones so they're weaker in the first place. What I had in the back - stock steering, 3ton hydro jack, 70lb toolbag, two 6ton jackstands, a couple gallons of fluids, a railroad rail plate, about ten gallons of coolant, the toolbox full of junk, and a couple random toolboxes besides... a lot more than two, and yes. I have a new windshield in storage but I need to spend a whole weekend (a sunny one) pulling the windshield, removing rust, replacing a chunk of metal where it's completely rusted through, and then painting, priming, and gluing the new windshield in. So for now I just drive it as little as possible. If they did I want to know where. Far as I know windshields interchange, I hope they do because I got one off a 97+ XJ! What do you do about spares anyways? Seems like a real problem since the front rims and the rear rims are different right?

Some more pics... MJ(s) for scale (my white one is stock 2wd with a few hundred pounds of junk in the back, subieracer05's blue one is stock 4wd with no gas tank in these pics) :

How much would you want for em? Or what parts in trade? (I can start looking for tan cloth buckets to fit MJ rails...) deziped, mine will accelerate to 90mph going uphill with an entire spare drivetrain, tools to install it, all spare fluids, and all my camping gear in the back

Seats look like the leather ones out of a RENIX era Limited. I've seen em in the JY before, just in much worse shape :( would have grabbed them otherwise.

If you weren't so far away I'd definitely take those seats for $100, at least if they are the ones with the nice comfy side bolsters like the ones in my 91 :yes:

Hate to say it but how do you know you didn't bend a rod? Did you drop the pan and check them? Plastigauge the bearings? Usually when you hydrolock, you'll at least tweak one. May not be a significant bend, but it screws up the angles the rod bearing and piston wrist pin are running at, and puts a lot more stress on the connecting rod, and after a random amount of time, KABAM it blows in half and you have a real big paperweight. Sometimes they give warning via knocking noises, lifter noise, etc etc but sometimes they don't. They still blow up eventually. Seriously, pick up a spare engine ASAP.

I went the other way... in college I generally got 4 to 5 hours a night and did at least an allnighter a week, sometimes not even for school reasons, just because I felt like it... now I go to sleep around 10-11 and wake up at 6 to 7.

Nice! I gotta get my desktop running one of these years... built it last august and still haven't installed an OS :dunno:

Pete pretty much nailed it. TTB = Ford deciding that live axles and full IFS weren't cool enough, so they basically stuck a U-joint and a hinge in the middle of a live axle. It's pretty goofy looking. And yeah I would only go for it if I found a non-TTB one, along with a rear axle with the same gearing (gearing I wanted, probably 4.10 or 4.30), liked the width, and had wheels lined up for cheap. At that point it's an OK deal because it is stronger than stock axles, gets you better gearing, etc all in one, and they aren't as likely to be snapped up at the junkyard and sold at a premium because no one runs em, everyone goes for the 44s or 60s. Don't really count on resale value after you're through with em though.

Yeah... bandwidth is EXPENSIVE! Learned that real quick once upon a time :ack: FYI, I find imageshack a lot easier to use than photobucket, and if you don't want to you don't have to sign up for an account to use that one. Just tell it what image to use, click upload, copy the forum thumbnail text (click in the box, it'll select it for you, just hit ctrl-c) then paste it in here and delete the "uploaded with imageshack" bit they append to the code now.

You know you drive a Comanche when... ... you think it being valued at 6k is a huge deal :rotf: (not raggin' on you so much as raggin' on all of us at the same time!)

I woke up a bit after you... hit lowes for parts to fix a friend's MJ... headed for work. 7 hours till I get outta here and pick up a new spare engine! Not having a spare on hand for nearly everything in a vehicle makes me nervous.

Make sure it's a live/straight axle not a TTB, other than that, if it has the gears you want, go for it. EDIT: the right width, driver drop (vs pass drop), and wheel bolt pattern are also important IMO