89 MJ

Being that the 88 currently has 3.07s and based on his signature, looks like the 88 has a 5 speed. Personally, I think 4.10s are a lot of gear for a truck that lives on the street. If I were to do my truck again, I’d probably run 3.73s with 4.10s. I’d probably even try the 3.55s before regearing at all. With 4.10s, I find a lot of speeds that I do are right between gears. 30 mph feels between 3rd and 4th and 45 feels between 4th and 5th. Not to mention, my 1-2 shift is usually in the middle of an intersection, which I don’t care for.

Gotcha, thank you. So real no major downside for an application like this.

Not to hijack, but are there any disadvantages to this?

I say remove it

For the most part, a D44 rear should be the same as most other D44 rears. 3.07s were standard with a 4.0 and a 5 speed.

Vintage Air stuff is the bees knees. It’s expensive, but it’s what I’ll use in place of even factory air stuff in restos.

I really like that interior. It does seem to be a high quality build. Even the engine compartment is painted to match the rest of the Jeep. The color choice makes it look like they forgot paint and cleared right over the primer, but at least it seems to have been well done.

Looks like a very straight and solid truck. What are the long term plans with it?

If your friend has done a lot of diff work, it might be in your best interest to see who he uses for gear suppliers.

I’m not computer guy, but I don’t think that’ll cause an ECU to die. You’ve got something else going on here, IMHO.

If I recall correctly, yes

No chance I’d even consider fixing that. Good on you, I’m looking forward to see the progress.

I bought the pre bled unit for a 95 XJ. No complaints with it.

It's a shame that those shoes have that cracking. They have a good amount of friction material left.

I'm pretty sure I have one on the shelf. It's very affordable if you want it.

Bring it to the cactus cruisers car show at the end of March. @eaglescout526 and I will be there and we could listen to it, as could Dan from AZ AMC Restorations.

I don’t think you’ll have any ill-effects from not having it. It would protect from minor impacts, but really won’t protect much off road. You could even argue it’ll trap dirt and moisture and rot your fuel tank out quicker. I get why you’re sad about it though. There also was a metal skid, but those are hard to come by. Thinking you want another plastic skid?

I've also found myself listening to a lot of Don Williams.

Lots of Marshall Tucker Band, Waylon, and Conway Twitty for me lately.

No luck with my ECE friend, unfortunately

Not quite, my MJ needed an engine at around 150k miles. It was knocking and I still drove it another 10k miles, roughly. It never blew up, I just found another to swap in. I would definitely do more diagnosing though, these engines are pretty easy to work on. That said, if this engine ever starts having problems, my truck is getting an LS. It's considerably more expensive, but its over 100 hp more, will result in the same or better fuel economy, and I've never seen one that needed more than a starter or exhaust manifolds, and I've been around a lot of them. The 4.0 has an exaggerated reputation in my opinion. They're not powerful, they're not good on gas, and they can be a pain to keep from leaking. They're a great engine if you want to beat it and not have to take care of it, but don't care about leaks or power or fuel economy. In short, my opinion is diagnose the problem first. If you can get away with fixing the engine, go that route. If you'll need to pull the engine apart and fully rebuild or replace it, drop an LS in it and never have to work on it again.

Glad you're able to keep it! Congratulations on the scholarship!

Let me check with a friend of mine at school. Hopefully he'll be able to help.

At least the hitch was used! No worries, I got it fixed

Tucson has a fairly large AFB near it (Davis-Monthan for those curious). There are planes constantly in the sky, but this is the first time in years I’ve managed to get a picture.