derf

I had an XJ with limited slip front and rear. It did fine on trails rated up to about a 6-7 in Moab. Went all over hell's revenge with it. No problems. I did bypass the harder lines on the obstacles. As soon as you get a tire or two in the air, you're not going very far. So I couldn't tackle everything in that Jeep. My old J10 had Eaton E-Lockers front and rear. My 2012 JK had them as well. My new Rubicon has factory selectable lockers. I love having selectable lockers. They are easy to drive with and lock up quickly when you push the button. And then you can get yourself into all sorts of trouble fun. Unlimited budget, I'd do selectables front and rear. And I'd probably do Eaton E-Lockers instead of ARB since I don't need an air source (saves several hundred). That tire rotation time really doesn't make a big difference on the trails in the real world. Next step down would be TrueTrac front, Eaton back. From there, TrueTracs front and rear. Below that, TrueTrac rear, open front. Last choice, open front and rear.

Over 800,000 dead so far, just in this country. I wonder how many more will die because they believe the disinformation.

My folks are in their 80s and both got delta variant. They had their shots. They both pulled through. Many of their friends in the same age group didn't get shots before getting hit. Not one of them made it. Regardless, I hope it's a false positive. If not, I wish you the best.

I didn't know anyone made 5.29 gears for those axles. The D30 has up to 5.13. Maybe 5.38s.

Some people have one of those days. I have one of those lives...

Disconnect the throttle linkage. If the idle goes down it's the cable/linkage. If not, it's the carburetor.

X2 on cleaning it. Also, there should be an idle adjustment screw that you can use to change how fast it idles. Also, is it a manual choke? If so, engaging it would bump up the idle. If it's an automatic choke that isn't working properly, that would hold it at fast idle.

I'd echo the recommendation for a TrueTrac. I had one in the front if my XJ and it did great all around. Good on dry pavement and in the snow.

The factory setup with 3.55s and 205-225 series tires was a compromise to get more fuel economy at the cost of driveability. Going to 32's, you'd want to run 4.10s. That would get you back close to stock type performance. The 4.0 runs best with 4.56 gears and 32" tires. It puts the highway RPMs up where they need to be to pull hills without down shifting while at the same time not running too high so they don't kill your fuel mileage. Personally, you'd have to fight to convince me to run anything but 4.56 with 32s, especially after I ran that combo for a few years in an XJ that I recently sold.

I had 4.56 gears with 265/75R16 tires (32s) in my 2001 XJ with a 4.0 and automatic. It was just about perfect for higher altitudes (Denver area) and highway cruising was good. No gear hunting happened. Went all over Moab (lower altitude) and never thought I needed more or less axle gear. With a manual I might consider 4.10s over the 4.56. It's important for the automatic that you have the correct speedometer gear in the sender in the transfer case. It affects shifting with the automatic I believe.

I'm in that kind of mood tonight.

Exactly

I have some but I'm going to paint it first.

Mine is a 97 as well. Low compression in 7 cylinders, one way low. With 300k of abuse it is time for a full rebuild. So that's my winter project. I'm going to bring it back to life. Rebuilt engine, added intercooler, ATS stage 2 transmission, rebuilt tcase, Dana 60 swap in place of the TTB50. Air bags in the back. It'll be a good tow pig when it's done.

The 12 PSI wasn't quite enough...

Well, in the back...

I remember when Optima moved their manufacturing to Mexico. Shot their quality all to hell for a few years. But at this point they have it all sorted out and they make a decent battery again. If you dig, you'll find that there's only like 2 or 3 factories building AGM batteries. Several brands will be the exact same battery with a different sticker on it and maybe a different color plastic case. Most of them are decent or better.

Follow up: This may or may not be 100% correct but Novak has a chart: https://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/np-nvg-input-gears/

It matters what kind of XJ you pull from. I'm going from memory here. Anyone who knows better, feel free to correct me. 4 cylinder manual definitely had 21 splines start to end. I'm not 100% sure on 4 cylinder automatics. Renix era 4.0 has 21 spline. HO era switched to 23 spline. The spline count may not perfectly match the switch from Renix to HO. I don't remember for sure. There are 3 different input shaft lengths on the 231. Short, medium, and long. I believe the AW4 pretty much used the medium length shaft. AX15 used a short input shaft. My memory is failing me on what used the long input shaft.

The average age of my vehicles (not counting the parts truck) is 20 years. But that's skewed by the fact that I have a 2021 Wrangler. The newest one after that is a 1997. It has 300K miles on it and is in the process of getting a rebuilt drivetrain since the existing one is shot.

Yeah, you have to wonder why he didn't use mandrel bends.