JustEmptyEveryPocket

x2 nothing like making angry pixies melt metal to cobble-fab that together.

Best sound I ever had from my truck was when the pipe broke at the front muffler weld. So it was basically a straight, short pipe. Amazing rumble, although it had a slight drone. I still loved it. The wife ... "encouraged"... me to put a muffler back on. I might have left it otherwise.

My own personal xp: I bought my MJ sight unseen, knowing it had been sitting for three years. The person I bought it from put in a battery and balanced the tires. I flew in and drove it home, about 1200 miles. My first stop once hitting the road was Orielleys. Bought a full set of tools, a mini fire extinguisher, a 5 gallon gas can, and some random fluids. However, it drove home with no issues. I was probably very lucky, but I wouldn't hesitate to do it all over again. *shrug* YMMV Like MiniBeast says, you will learn everything you need to know about the vehicle on the way. Necessity is a great prompter for fast learning.

*joking only* Did your truck not come stock with mirrors? If not, they make a great improvement for rearward visibility. Highly recommend them! Truthfully, I don't think I ever look out my back window unless I'm hauling something in the bed I want to keep an eye on.

From the above post, you said the truck wasn't running well to start with. I would guess that any refreshed head with better seals + new gasket would have given the same seat of the pants xp. I doubt it was just the fact its an HO head. This seems like a common misconception across the forum. HO parts (or similar) don't give substantial gains (or any gains really) besides the fact you are replacing old worn parts with newer less worn parts. Not saying its bad to do, just keep in mind you are comparing 30+ years of abuse to new. *shrug*

This is the super basic thing I was missing. Thank you very much. I made my best guess at timing and installed the distributor. At my working speed I will know if I made the right call in a few months when I try to start it

I can't know valve locations since the head is currently off of it. Unless I am missing something?

I made some silly decisions and agreed to help a friend do some repairs. Long story short, I'm working with an 01 WJ 4.0L block with no head currently installed. Its out of the vehicle on a stand. I want to install the distributor (in place of the funky coil pack distributor thingy - no idea what its called -) since its easy to access out of the truck. And I'm lost on how to time it properly. I know normally you find TDC by watching the harmonic balancer and feeling for pressure from the #1 cylinder sparkplug hole. However, since I don't have the head on, how can I tell between compression stroke and exhaust stroke on #1? Most likely I am being dumb and overlooking something easy. Let me know how you would do this. Thanks in advance.

No personal xp here, but I have read that a rubber erasing wheel mounted in a drill or similar will remove stripes quite easily. Something like THIS maybe?

I've wondered about doing something to my shop floor. How long does epoxy last and do you have any words of wisdom? or semi-wisdom?

I had the stock 4x4 BA10-5, NP 231, rear D35 set-up in my truck. Swapped a 1996 AX-15 + NP 231 combo and rear Ford 8.8. There was no change in lift. With the adapter plate on the Ford 8.8 pinion my original rear driveshaft fit, but was uncomfortably tight. Granted, I did drive the truck to the shop, then dropped the driveshaft for them to cut. But I was SUPER CAREFUL driving there and was sweating bricks the entire time. I kept waiting for a huge bang and the destruction of my new transfercase. The shop took off off ~3/4". Been driving it like that for years with no issues. Front driveshaft fit in no problems at all. Please note: I do not wheel this vehicle at all. The most it does is trundle around my pastures. So I have not tried flexing to see what happens, but I doubt there would be any issues. Hopefully the above can help you figure out measurements. Good luck! Also, as @omega_rugal says, you might have issues with the 2wd driveshaft. The stories I have read is the rubber core leads to shops refusing to work on it. Never know till you ask though.

Well hell, since we are talking about super complicated ways to solve simple problems, why not talk to a spring manufacturer. Get them to design and bend a spring that has two bends, one front and rear, for each leaf. Make it so that those bends move the eye ends over compared to the centering pin. That should compensate for the 3/4" difference in axles. Easily reversible and completely bolt on.

This was my first thought as well. If she parked next to an office tower with a bunch of reflective windows you could get a focus effect that bounced off a mirror and burned the interior. If you figure it out, please update this thread. I'm curious now.

Fair enough here. But it is meaningless to anyone else. Including Maveric. There is a lot of tolerance on what will work for the truck. Hence my statement about using your gut feeling to get the correct tension. Please elaborate on your method. How do you measure your deflection? How much pressure are you using to create your deflection? What type of belt material, thickness, age, etc applies here? Without specific values, tools, and procedures it is completely worthless. Might as well say "just go until its tight" as that means the same thing. Unless you can give me answers to the above questions (good scientific answers not My Uncle BillyJoeBob says... type answers) then I stand by my statement of meaningless. Lets make an analogy. If you are tuning an old fashioned small engine carb you go by sound. Will everyone tune it to exactly the same sound? Nope. Will telling someone the sound you go for mean anything to them even though it means something to you? Not a chance. Does that mean no-one but you can tune a carb so that the engine runs fine? Well of course not. So the moral is that your explanation of the sound doesn't mean anything, and in fact won't matter to anyone else who is tuning their carbs. The tolerance values built into the product allow for everyone to find their own working pitch. Same thing applies here with belt tension. Either get a tool that will allow us to talk about comparable values, or realize that what you are stating is not useful, nor pertinent.

No offense, but this is meaningless. When tightening a belt you have three options: The manufacturer installed a tensioning pulley to keep the belt in spec and life is golden You tighten it by cranking on a bolt and listen to your gut for when its "good enough" Buy a belt tension gauge as listed above.

I disagree with this statement. I think the CAD is great, as long as you ditch the vacuum actuated system. Install a posi-lock, like THIS item. Doing so guarantees 4x4 engagement when you want it, and it allows you to use 2WD low. To be honest I use 2 low WAY more often than 4x4. Maneuvering in tight spaces, backing up in blind corners, taking off on steep slopes, backing trailers, driving out in my fields and pastures, etc: all of it 2WD Low is AWESOME. Highly recommend that over other options like locking the CAD or one piece axles. But I feel like this is the minority opinion. do whatever you like.

If they just shift that truck back on the trailer by 2-3ft that will remove the tongue weight. Then it will be just fine to drive down the road.

To add to Eagle's post: remove the temperature sender at the back of the head during your first cold fillup. This will let air escape easier. Just be ready to cram it back in in a hurry as you watch your precious coolant flow out the tiny hole and down the block.

I'll answer your questions as asked, then ask one of my own: For the "can you" question --> Yes. Yes you can. For the "all I need to do" question --> No. Mounting points, hangers, bolts and bolt locations, extending wiring, etc. Plus there will be A LOT of the "oh $#!& what do I do about . .. . " that happens with this. Then you need to consider you are replacing old components that are worn out with ... old components that might be worn out. And going through all the effort to do that. Now my question: Why the @#$% would you ever do that? Put in correct stuff and quit bitching over a few $$$ upfront. For the ease of install, ease of future fixes, and reliability in the long run its worth every peny. Or ignore everyone on this thread and do your own thing. Maybe your idea is awesome and we are all just too stupid to see it.

They should be plug and play. So lets see whats going on. Did your old cluster have a temp gauge? If not, did you replace the temp switch with a temp sensor? Are you sure the connectors on the back of the gauge are fully seated and clipped in? Check operation of the gauge by removing the wire from the temp sender and seeing what happens on the gauge, then ground out the wire and see what the gauge does.

At this stage its time for the blue tipped wrench + pulling the bracket. If you are good with the torch you can cut the nut off the stud and then hammer out the remaining stub.

Oh, did you pre-order the T-25 torx nails? I've been looking at those. How did it work?

Any vehicle that I buy (regardless of how good it looks and yours looks quite nice) gets all the fluids flushed and refilled. I recommend you do that as well as refresh all grounds ASAP. Brake fluid, coolant, diffs, engine oil, tranny, everything. That way you know whats in there, and hopefully you are putting in the good stuff. Grounds can always be better on these vehicles. So start with those maintenance items before chasing anything else. Once you get them all done, report back on how the pedal feels, and if anything else came up during your inspection.

Personally I like: Having a discussion with an idiot is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter how well you play it will just knock over all the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around thinking it won.