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The power door/window switches are from a 2dr XJ 94-96 I believe as they are all black. Looking forward to trying you panels out. I plan on sanding them smooth and finishing them in the factory texture to match the interior.

The novak or any other new ax15 for that matter is just a new tranny from Aisin. There’s no real upgrade aside from some minor tweak of the gear material which never were a strength issue. The parts Marlin manufactures for these are substantial upgrades but require a complete tear down as listed above. Here are the parts from Marlin Crawler: https://www.marlincrawler.com/transmission/parts-upgrade The “R” series parts are applicable to the AX15. The bearing retainer and thrust washer are the key strength upgrades but the shift forks are a nice complement for a built tranny also. Been thinking of sending them an ax15 core for a rebuild and have them add those components. Just not sure

My original thoughts were wild but I need to wrap things up soon to get ready to ship out. Was thinking of a pair of w7 subs with the boxes built into the bed. Not sure how I managed to whittle my way down to a little 6.5 sub lol

Have you seen what Marlin does with these tranny’s? They’ve been pounding 550 lbft of torque through their builds through KOH, Baja and the drag strip. The ax15 gearset is quite impressive across all the years but the 1st gear thrust washer and the rear bearing retainer plate upgrade really increase the torque ratings apparently. The Marin crawler board has a ton of tech in these trannys in their Japanese model numbers: R150/151f and the R154 in the Supra. https://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=103716.0

@Minuit has been at work behind the scenes on the head unit. But it will be completely stock looking. Going to be running a DSP (possibly the JBL 8 channel). If I use the JBL it will be setup as active crossover on the front components, band pass on the rears and the last two channels feeding 60w @ 2ohms to each voice coil of a small 6.75” sub inside the oem center console. My TJ rubicon had a center console sub as well which is where the idea came from. It’s by no means going to be an all out spl build at all. It should just be a good sounding well rounded out system for daily driving. The DSP amplifier allows me to really tweak the sound and even “time align” the speakers. The DSP along with some specific installation techniques really do make a massive difference in the sound quality of the system.

Yeah I’ve rocked plenty of similar setups but I couldn’t go with something like that on this build. The MJ cab is a bit tricky to get to sound right. When it’s all said and done though, you won’t see this system at all and it will look completely stock.

Audio: after more research than a sane person should do, I settled on a pair of KS series Kicker component 5.25’s up front and 4x6 rears. Tough to find speaker with just the right physical and audio specs for this system. I went through all the Morel lineup, Focal, Infinity, JL and others. I’d don’t like the sound of any of the Focals I listened to. The Morel sound is excellent in pretty much the entire lineup but the physical size specs didn’t meet what I needed. The Nano Virtus series would have worked depth wise but I would have needed to cut a larger hole in the door panel. The goal is to keep everything completely stock looking. So I’m going with Kicker KS components, in the doors, tweeter in stock accusound locations in the knee panel, coaxial speakers on the b panels. I’ll be doing a lot of dampening work with all the panels and will also be working on isolating the front of the speakers from their backs which is a big issue in the b pillars. For amplification I’ll be going with a DSP amplifier and adding a 6.5” sub to the stock center console in a very stealth custom box. Just want a clean factory style system. Something that would have been installed if Comanches were still around today.

An option if all else fails: https://www.quadratec.com/products/72503_800_07.htm They also have most of the other grill pieces if needed.

We’ll call it a “traction aid”

Have you tried the 5000x series? Rancho had a pretty bad rep until they made these shocks. They are truly a great shock for the price.

I’ve seen several articles written by chatGPT recently. You can tell it was written by a bot but the info was very thorough

The 5000X is a great chock for the price. Do you do any high speeds on rough roads, gravel, washboards etc? Stock axles? What size tires? Any added weight to your MJ?

You've got an XJ 8.25 axle there. You can see the remnants of the old SOA perches.

Upon further research, it looks like it should handle quite a bit of torque. I’ve been toying with the idea of heads, cam, lifter and maybe bumping into the low 400’s range on HP but I think I’ll keep it stock for now and have Marlin build be a tranny down the road when I decide to do the engine upgrades. I don’t think it should have any problem handling the torque of my current engine build.

Thanks for the clarification, I edited my post to prevent confusion

Of course it did lol. I forgot the 2.5 was in the YJ in those years.

Not sure if I ever posted this before or not. Had it for some time now. NOS bronze coin:

You’re talking about running your Renix MJ 4.0 in a 94 YJ correct? As far as the electronics are concerned you might as well swap to obd1 as the YJ never had Renix (they had a carbed 4.2 from 87-90. 91 switched to obd1/4.0HO.

I agree, keep it as-is. But to address some of your questions: Assuming you want to keep things all Jeep, The AX15 can handle quite a bit. Wouldn't be concerned at all until over maybe 400lbft of torque but it can be upgraded to handle a decent bit more. Th ax15 is basically a Toyota R150/151 transmission. Marlin Crawler offers bot only rebuilds of the AX15 but also two crucial power handling upgrades: first gear thrust bearing and rear bearing retainer plater. They have a few other items they offer as well but the actual ax15 gear set is plenty stout and able to handle a lot of torque. Also, use good fluid in it such as Redline MT90, Amsoil MTF or similar. NO GL5 oils though. The "strongest" rear axle is really subjective but if your wanting to stick with oem or at least the oem theme, go with either an original Dana 44 or an 8.25 from a later model XJ or KJ liberty. The liberty is a nice swap as it's wider than stock and actually fits the MJ remarkably well. Also has decent disk brakes. The KJ 8.25 has a ton of extra brackets that need to be removed. As for links and write-ups, browse through the members builds and also the epic build section and you'll come across a lot of different build to gather ideas from.

Cerakoat is good stuff! I’ve been using Migliore ceramic coating on NOS ones and had zero UV fading.

That’s possible, I’ve never had good results with sem color coat but I’ve heard great things about it. I’d personally try some polish and dremel though first. On NOS ones, I add a ceramic coat to the face.

It’s tough to get anything to stick but a bit of heat with a torch may help along with some back to black finish

The last of the last fog/cargo/tranny/sports bar switches. All NOS original batch

That’s just it, there is no separate lens on these cargo lamps. The entire lamp is a lens, just a clear plastic lens that is painted black in areas. It’s really not a good or durable design but it could be improved on. The housing is just too fragile. Perhaps it could be designed around an existing LED so the bulb holders and contacts would need to be remade.