derf

Fuel economy standards.

I'm sensing a pattern here...

Nearly every "35 inch" tire is never truly 35 inches in diameter. And the advertised outside diameter is the tire in the air with no weight on it. And, frequently, even that is smaller. Most tires have in their specs "revolutions per mile". That tends to accurately reflect the real rolling diameter. Using that in your calculations gives you usually very accurate numbers that match your real world performance. The spec for the 35x12.5/15 BFG A/T and M/T both is 602 revs per mile. Both list 34.5" advertised outside diameter. 33.5" true rolling diameter is typical for most "35 inch" tires.

It's notched so you can slide the shield off without pulling the flywheel. But you do need to separate the transmission.

I am having a bit of a moment of indecisiveness right now. A stock manual transmission MJ with 215/75R15 tires has 3.08 gears. Do the math stepping up to 35x12.5/15 and you get 3.84 to keep the stock ratio. Step up to 4.10 to account for rolling resistance and weight. With 4.10s and 35s (602 revs per mile), I get 2437 RPM at 75 on the freeway. That's not terrible. And with the Atlas transfer case with the 4.3:1 low range, I get a respectable 67.52:1 crawl ratio (first gear, low range) I have 4.56 gears to swap in. That bumps me to 2711 RPM at 75. My crawl ratio drops to 75.10:1. Both would be decent overall. If I had 3.73s in the axles now, I wouldn't bother keeping them. But I have 4.10s. It would be easy to keep them. And it would make setup easy since the pinion shims would just go back in. The carrier is changing to a locker but that's not a huge deal. The 4.10s would be a little more friendly on the freeways around here that get up to 75MPH (80 on the way out to Moab). But this isn't a daily driver. So I would only be driving to the trails most of the time. 4.56s are a jump but not huge. The freeway RPMs aren't horrible. And I get a hair better crawling on the rocks. I'm just waffling back and forth right before installing the lockers. And wondering WWCCD? For reference, 4.10s and 35s is close to having 3.31s on stock tires. 4.56s are close to 3.55s on stock tires. And this Jeep is getting an AX15 to replace the Peugeot manual.

There is a metal rod in the seal itself. Make sure you have the brass drift hitting it and not sliding by it to the side. They do have a lot of stiction. It sometimes takes a bit to get them to pop loose. And be very careful sliding the new one in. Be sure it's facing the right way. And be extra careful with the sharp edges. They can shave it as you slide it in if you're not careful.

I expect that I will need to trim somewhere. There is another hole in the top of the housing. It had a bolt that held on the brake line tee. I'm going to see if I can hijack that for the locker line.

You can if you keep all the emissions and jump through hoops.

The truss basically fits. But there's a minor problem with the breather...

And then a couple hours with a grinder...

Some things are just easier with a plasma cutter...

Outers are disassembled. Everything from the ball joints out were going to be replaced anyway. The knuckles for the drum brake Ford are different than for disc brakes. But I am upgrading to Reid high steer knuckles anyway. The spindles are different too. I would have kept the originals but that wasn't an option. Time to finish cleaning off the tubes. I need to get the rest of the slag ground down and remove the track bar bracket. I did confirm it is factory 4.09 gears. Not quite enough gear for 35s. So they will get bumped up when I install the locker.

I do have to say having the right tools at hand makes working on 50 year old axles so much nicer...

You can Frankenstein the build to get bigger rotors. But really, with a 97+ booster and standard half ton calipers and rotors, I should be able to stop a Comanche on 35s just fine.

I went with Next Venture Motorsports out of Grand Junction. I'm going to stick with all Ford parts. It just makes life easier. And it keeps the 5 on 5½" bolt pattern.