derf

The AX15 is hard to beat. It's strong and durable. It's easy to swap. There's a ton of aftermarket parts to support the swap.

Yup. Everyone talks about how valuable your classic Jeep is until you put a price on it. Then they vanish like a fart in the wind.

Fire! Fire!

Yeah, people have been over doing lights for as far back as I can remember. I can remember seeing a K5 Blazer with a roof rack and at least 20 lights. And that's back before LEDs so when he had them all on he was drawing well over 100A with just the lights but didn't have an alternator that could keep up. And for the Old School look, if you aren't going with chrome wagon wheels, some white steelies would fit right in with your white letter tires.

I was able to get the drywall in this evening.

Yeah, previous owner covered up a lot with wainscoting.

Measure a couple of times, figure out you're using the wrong assumption, measure again, then cut...

Measure once, cut twice.

Yep. Early attempts at coil suspension left a lot to be desired. Modern coil setups (including the XJ/MJ) are hard to beat. All of the problems have been ironed out and it's easy to build it right. When you get death wobble (which I have gotten with leaf springs too) it's not hard to fix.

Yeah, for a less intense use case, the front Dana 50 isn't a bad axle to go with a matching sterling rear. I'm going with a 60 and rear 80 but that's because I'm going to run 40's or bigger...

It's a reasonable discussion. I ran a 2dr JK on 35's with a trussed and gusseted Dana 30 for years. Took some hard trails. It held up just fine. It all depends on how heavy your right foot is.

The SJ (Wagoneer/Grand Wagoneer/Cherokee/J10/J20) had a front Dana 44 starting in the early 1970's (D30 before that) It is passenger side drop through 1979. In 1980 it switched over to driver drop and ran through 1991. All low pinion. All leaf spring under axle. The narrow track version is about as wide as an XJ front axle. The wide track is something like 4-6" wider and was available in some but not all of the full size Cherokees (74-83) and the only axle width in the J10/J20. The J20 has the heavy duty version of the Dana 44 with thicker axle tubes and so forth. The rear axle in the 1/2 ton SJ was a Dana 44 through 1979. All had differentials offset to the passenger side regardless of transfer case (D20 or Quadratrac). The Quadratrac had an offset rear output. The Dana 20 had a centered output but the rear axle was still offset to allow the driveshaft to clear the gas tank. In 1980, they changed the gas tank and went to all center output transfer cases. They also replaced the D44 with an AMC20 with a centered differential. This axle has bigger and/or thicker axle tubes than the CJ, as well as 1 piece shafts so it's just as strong as a Dana 44. This axle ran through most of 1986 when they changed over to a centered Dana 44 towards the end of the model year. They kept the Dana 44 through 1991. The J20 used a full floating Dana 60. The 1/2 tons used 6 bolt Chevy pattern (6 on 5.5") and the J20 used the standard 8 lug (8 on 6.5). The narrow track rear is maybe 2" narrower than the matching front axle.

Slow progress. Got wires run and most of the patches for the drywall in.

I've got one. I can throw it into a flat rare envelope for $15 total shipped.

Of course.

Construction has begun. I decided to build in extra support for the TV wall mount. The cross supports are double deep so I can install the mount with eight 4" lag screws. The framing ties into spreaders between joists above and we set concrete pins into the footer. This wall ain't going anywhere any time soon.

Yeah, some kind of "googleusercontent" link. Can't see the picture or video. This board software doesn't like linking to other pages for images for some reason. I was able to put in a couple of boxes and get the splices covered. I also put a cover on the other box that I didn't show in my picture above. Still not 100% to code but at least the splices are properly covered and secured. This was a definite remodel by the previous owner. What used to be the garage is now a big living room and the wall between is now gone. There's tons of evidence of what used to be there. There's also another house on the block with the same floor plan that's still in the original configuration for comparison. You can tell the original owner just pulled the wires back from the outlets on the wall that was removed and just spliced the wires together to keep the other outlets in the circuit fed. I wonder how this work passed inspection but somehow it did.

Parking brake cables are essentially identical. Brake hose should be the same. Put a brand new one in as long as it's apart. Driveshaft is shorter (Dana 44 pinion sticks out further). It's easy to find a shop to do that. The speedometer will be off if you change the axle ratio and/or tire size. That means a gear swap in the speed sender in the transfer case.

I gave up collecting. If I can't use it I sell it, give it away or junk it.

Maryanne all the way. Ginger was pretty but not much more. Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath?

Getting ready to start framing the new wall only to find some really sketchy stuff...

In my case, beat to hell rust free. That's what on my trail rig project. Jim Rockford or Thomas Magnum?

Yes. Yes it is.

It's right by the wire nuts and stuff, bottom/floor shelf.

Ive been discovering more sins made by the dip "stick" previous owner. The basement had a bunch of outlets. Turns out there were a total of 13 outlets on one circuit. There also was a cubby for a small fridge and microwave, each with a dedicated 20A circuit. So I took advantage of the drywall work to reuse those two circuits and split up the basement wiring. I also moved one of the light switches to a better location.