coolwind57

nice floorboards. https://cincinnati.craigslist.org/cto/d/dayton-1988-jeep-comanche-rust-free-4x4/7224611738.html

Same here, my Brother is the talented musical virtuoso of the family. He can pick up a dog turd and figure out a way to make music with it. He's a pianist, guitarist, drummer and most recently a Bagpiper of all things. Just one day decided that bagpipes sounded cool so he went out and bought him a chanter. 3-years now and he has a couple of sets of stunning bagpipes, a full uniform and can play all the major pipe hits. We were in various rock bands growing up. After military retirement, I once again picked up music and began to perform with my limited skills. For reasons only known to him, he's perfectly content with staying at home and goofing around with a home recording suite. He has zero desire to get out and gig or studio record and it is a shame. He should be famous with that gift the Lord gave him.

You got a cool thing going on, Carter. You guys have merch? I'll keep an eye on you and your band. Tell your parents that i admire them--they'll know what I mean. Keep rockin'. --PMac

I'm the electric bass player and backing vocalist for Hush Harbor (hushharborband.com). We're a faith-based rock band in the Kentuckiana area. We'd gotten some radio play over the past couple of years and our stuff is on spotify and iTunes. We've been active for 5-years. The coolest thing is performing with and getting to meet and hang out with the big guys you hear on Christian radio, some of my musical heros: Rhett Walker, Sidewalk Prophets, JJ Weeks, Carrollton, etc. That's me, the bald dude with the crazy shirt and the cheesy smile.

122K for me.

Yea buddy. Picked her up a couple of weeks ago. Brand new 4L60E Monster transmission and only 109K original miles. Love the sound and the balls of the LT1 engine. Wife and I really needed a backup vehicle, as I'm working and in school--both full time. I don't have much time at all to address a vehicle issue. I also LOVE all the room this bad boy has. I no longer have to install my MJ topper just to haul my music gear around for gigs. This thing is a SWEET highway/towing/vacation car. So far, I'm having as much fun working on it as I have been working on the MJ over the past few years of ownership.

After hearing your updates, I'm still leaning towards a head gasket issue.

I used to own a ceramic coatings business where the vast majority of my work was for exhaust components. Here's my experience: One of the issues with using header wrap is that it causes so much thermal damage to the headers. Ceramic coatings allow for adequate, normal cooling after the engine is shutdown. Wraps hold that heat in, causing significant thermal damage/fatigue. I've unwrapped SEVERAL headers and 9 times out of 10 it isn't a pretty sight. Usually flaking, rotted out material and busted welds. I thinking one is asking too much of the metal when you put it under those conditions. Ceramic coatings are actually good for exhaust components--cuts down on underhood temperatures quite well, and it is purported that they affect exhaust gas scavenging--you may get get a horse or two just by the coating. Your underhood temps get dropped, which is good in many ways--even helps to preserve your little plastic connectors and tubing from aging so much and shattering as you mess with them. I'm a big Bricklin fan. I once bought #360 on eBay, a '74. I officially owned the car for less than an hour. I reneged on the deal as it turned out to be such a basket case. It was terrible what had been done to that car. I once talked with a guy that worked at the factory. Fascinating stuff he told me. Great, yet bizarre automotive history. I still long to have a Bricklin one day.

Man, I'd love to have that roll bar. You scored a sweet deal.

One other thing to consider is that you may have a head gasket issue. I had this symptom on a Mercedes Diesel once. The blown gasket leaking over-pressurized the coolant system and my hoses swelled like a balloon. Don't know for sure if this could happen on an MJ but might be worth looking in to.

Well, all done. Here's my experience. 1. Obviously, the harmonic balancer was approaching death. But that wasn't the noise-maker. It was the water pump that I put on less than a year ago. Autozone honored the warrantee and I got a free replacement. Hand spinning the water pump make it obvious that it was the culprit. 2. There was no need to remove the radiator. The center dampner bolt is below the bottom of the radiator anyhow. The traditional harmonic balancer removal "loaner" kit gave adequate clearance just behind the rear of the front bumper to get it off. I was able to break the center bolt by gently wedging some locking pliers in between the harmonic balancer pully and another pulley. Removal was smooth. I even forgot to spray the area with break-free before I installed the removal tool. Pulled off with ease. 3. My front seal and timing cover was dry as a bone. I left it along and I lubed up the new balancer contact area real well before installing to try to protect that seal. Took JustEmptyEveryPocket's advice: 4. I saw your advice after I got the job done. I'll see how it goes. It wasn't nearly bad a job as I expected, so God-willing I won't have to remove it again. I'll keep an eye out for leaks. 5. In additional to the removal kit, I also rented an install kit. That was a good move. Went on as smoothly as removal. 6. Fired her up after all was re-installed and she's as quiet as she can be. TONS quieter. I appreciate all the advice fellas. Once again, I benefited from coming on and asking some questions.

Thanks man. I appreciate you sharing your experience. I suppose my post was a little premature, as I just thought to find a youtube video and found a pretty good one that did a good job of showing it all. Any good ideas on how to keep that engine crank locked while getting that center bolt out? Dude on the video mentioned automatic trans guys removing a spark plug and sticking a rope inside to hold it from turning. I'd like to think I can get an impact in there.

So 3-4 days ago I noticed some noise coming from the engine. Sounded almost like some knocking at first but as I looked more closely, I narrowed it down to belt-driven area. All looked ok, with some noticable wear on the idler pulley and maybe a bit of movement of it with engine running. I figured the bearing was going out; an easy swap so I dropped a 20 and quickly swapped it out. The new one turned better with zero noise, although the old one wasn't really that noisy to begin with. Fired it up and I hear the same noise. Water pump is probably less than a year old, with no weeping. Alternator visually looked good, as was power steering pump. A closer visual inspection found what you're seeing in the pics below. I haven 't confirmed with 100-percent certainty, but I'm thinking this is my issue. It kinda looks bad, huh? So, what am I in for? I hadn't pulled a harmonic balancer before. Is it as simple as removing the center bolt, getting a puller in there, and pulling it off, slapping a new one on and getting it aligned the same as the old? Looks like there may be a keyway on pics of new ones, so perhaps alignment and timing isn't such an issue? Of course I'm really not optimistic that its all that simple, so for you that had done this replacement, please spill the goods to hook a brutha up.

Hey, you got the Dana 44!

Here's a full write-up that I did that you may get some ideas from:

i hear you on this, schardein. My situation was a little less-than ideal and i kind of had to make things happen in short order. I'll explain: I had no idea of what size leaf center pins I had or needed. Hell, prior to reading about the swap here I didn't even know my leafs had pins. Because my wife and I have no backup vehicle, I had one weekend to rip that D35 out and make the D44 happen in time for the upcoming workweek. i knew what size head I needed for the D44 but that's it. ...no clue what size the D35 perch hole was or what diameter bolt/pin shaft I had prior to my target swap weekend. I could not pre-order anything not knowing what I'd actually require, if anything. Doing what I did may be an option for those whom find themselves in less than ideal knowledge levels AND less than ideal time situations, let's put it that way. How's your D44 project coming along?

yea, it actually states "Limited Slip Friction Modifier Included" on the front of the bottle.

I did see the spiral metal stuff for sale, but I used factory double flared ends. And I read that the stuff is really designed for non-preflared tubing. I figured the plastic loom would be cheaper, easier and no issues with any possible dissimilar metal corrosion if that would even be a concern. By the way, one thing I failed to mention: I did not use any friction modifier. I thought I'd start off with Mobile 1 (75w90) and do some figure 8 before adding anything. So far, looks like I'll be ok. Mobile 1 was on sale, 2 for $10 and states that it already includes LSD additive.

Ok done. All together and took her for a spin. No differential whining anymore. All smooth. Figure 8s in the local church parking lot and my Limited Slip gave me no chatter. My brakes still need a bit of adjusting/bleeding. I want to still run some wire loom over my new brake lines. My drums had been coated silver Chassis Saver and it does not look good when viewed from the side through my turbine wheels, but I'll take my tires off tomorrow and shoot some black spray balm on them. I'll remount my spare tire too, which will mostly block my axle altogether but that's fine. I'm pretty pumped up. Nothing exploded apart on the test run! Yea! First full drive to work tomorrow morning.

Wow. Now tripled, at least in my area. I clocked out at $110 total today. So here's a pic of my newly shortened driveshaft. They went ahead and replaced the front U-joint, as they had to remove the old one to do the work. That's their standard practice it seems and it only cost me like $11 so I didn't sweat it. Kind of like removing bearings, they automatically replace U-joints if they remove them as well. My rear It is my assumption that they chopped the front end and not the trailing end of the shaft to shorten the requested 1". The welds look great. They went the extra mile and smoothed up my slip yoke seal surface and shot some black paint on the driveshaft. Not really much to see with my pics below. I wish I had a "before" pic. I did notice that to balance, they must have had to remove one of the two balance weights that used to be on at the D44 end of the shaft. Anxious to get home from work to install and see where I am on this project. Man, I'm hoping I'll have her back on the road tonight.

Wow man! I'm going to be on the lookout for one to trade you for that 7-3/8! If you ever change your mind about selling it, then I'm your man, Pete.

Good find. A couple of years ago, I replaced my gas tank and used stainless steel eyebolts and cut a hook with a die grinder. This may be another option. I just didn't want to have to fight rust again in the future.

update: I've got two quotes for shortening my driveshaft this morning, both saying they can do it by COB today. One quoted at $150, the other at $97.00. This is providing that no additional parts or odd issues arise. Heading there now.

It would be interesting to see if the factory torque specs were a bit too high for the design of the early 2-piece spring plates. Or they were just under designed. Generally, a 9/16" U-bolt should require an even greater torque than 14mm, depending on the alloy and manufacturer perhaps. Since you do custom-made U-bolts, Eagle do you also replace your spring plates as standard practice? I'm hearing that most people are commenting on the forum that theirs are slightly deformed, just like schardein and I. In fact, I now have two sets: One from the D44 purchase and the other set from the D35 axle. Both show signs of deformity equally. As for drilling out the reinforcing plates, yep I did. Sort of. I used a deburring tip on a hand drill to slightly elongate the hole towards their center--towards the pairing end of the U-bolt. There isn't a lot of material there towards the outer edges of the plates, so good thing I didnt need to go in that direction. It was minor, but I hated the thought of forcing those nice new U-bolts through and boogering anything up. Those massive washers helped put my mind at ease with the thought of removing some minor material. Is it the '91+ models with the single piece design? They're shaped different. I wonder if the new design just more heavily relies on mass over design. Wonder if they changed torque specs over the years. Anyone hearing of new 1-piece design distortion? Has torque values changed over the run? I'm still curious if Jeep used the 14mm U-bolt regardless of the axle (amc20, Dana 35/44, & metric ton springs) throughout their run. Honestly the thought of replacing the entire spring plate assembly didn't even enter my mind. Reading the forum, a lot of people here reuse theirs. I suppose I figured that as standard MJ-owner practice. Now that I've taken the time to eyeball some aftermarket spring plate options, I am a bit intreagued. My desire for nice shiny new ones does not override the labor of removing my old ones now that I've got her all together. I'm comfortable with what I done above. My truck rarely goes off-road. I rarely haul anything other than trash and maybe a load or two of firewood each year. I have a feeling that I'm not going to be reporing a problem here for several years. Really, I wasn't out shopping specifically for 5/8" U-bolts. I was shopping for Dana 44 U-bolts and found them at Barnes and like what they were saying on their website. .

Yea, they were 5/16" carriage bolts. I couldn't remember exactly at the time I originally wrote this thread and stated I "thought" I used 1/4". Regardless, I did replace with flanged head 5/16" Grade 8 bolts. They seemed to be a good fit for the holes in my spring, as I did have to slightly tap them in place. Regardless of the axle used--Dana 35, AMC 20, Dana 44, metric ton opton? I bought mine from Barnes 4X4, marketed specifically for Dana 44. The only "mod" I had to do was to marginally elongate some bolt holes on the secondary "hat" cap of the leaf plate assembly. The U-bolts were a tighter fit there than on the primary leaf plate And honestly I'm thinking this was also due to distortion of these plates having been previous torqued down. The U-bolts were a tighter fit there than on the primary leaf plate. Overkill? Maybe if you don't use "inappropriate" in your definition. I feel the 5/8 X 2-3/4 was not an inappropriate fit. Barnes 4x4 price was not at a particularly higher cost than other aftermarket sellers of U-bolts. I also like how the washers provided were massively thick as were the nuts. The nuts specifically were longer than standard, about the length of 2 or 3 total. I kinda dig overkill if there appears to be no significant disadvantage. By the way, here's some stuff Barnes put on their website. I had read discussions regarding "torque to yield", "rolled threads" "alloy grade" and such on this forum. Reading this paragraph was what sold me on them. Most other aftermarket U-bolt suppliers didn't give much detail on their product: Barnes 4wd u-bolts are anything but standard! This u bolt measures 5/8" X 2 3/4" X 10" and are a great fit for Dana 44 axles. The biggest misconception with U-bolts is that they are all the same; this could not be farther from the truth. We feel that U-Bolts are the most important component of a leaf spring suspension and this is why we are so meticulous about the specifications of our U-bolts. Our U-bolts are made from a cold drawn 1541 alloy that is stress relieved. This produces an alloy that has grade 8 strength but not grade 8 hardness. The threads on our U-bolts are 5/8"-18 fine threads and are manufactured with a smooth rolled thread. The mating Hi-Nuts are hardened as well as the thick washers and are manufactured with sharp cut threads. When a U-Bolt is tightened the U-Bolt threads stretch as they mate with the Hi-Nuts. This insures proper tightness of the fastener is maintained. This stretching is not visible but a U-bolt should never be reused because removing the tall nut will cross thread the U-Bolt. Our U-bolts bolts have a torque spec of 150 foot pounds and should never be tightened with an impact gun. I sure appreciate all the guidance and knowledge I get from the forum. It is my hope that perhaps others can learn a bit from my experience. And my mistakes! I'll call around and get some prices on shortening my driveshaft tomorrow and I'll post results. I really need to choose someone than can turn that sucker around quick. My wife and I don't have a 3rd backup car.