derf

He's the one who bought my second project MJ and is registered here. I sent him this link and he'll respond here.

I might know someone with those parts. He'll look and get back to me.

I've had half a dozen full size Jeeps over the years. I've done a lot of the AMC V8s mostly. Enough to never want to do another. Parts are just about impossible to find. Small block Chevy/LS swaps are well documented and stupid easy. Both the 4L60 and 4L80 fit well in the tunnel. An NV4500 works well too. You can do a floor pan swap easy enough. Dropping or clocking the tcase is easy enough too. Lots of info on the FSJ forums. http://www.fsjnetwork.com and http://www.ifsja.org are the two big ones. And of course groups on facebook.

Heater core is a good candidate.

Does it have a drivetrain in it right now? Is it the 230 straight six or the AMC 327? Or is it a swapped in drivetrain? The axles are passenger drop from the factory. It's not too difficult to change that over to driver drop. The floor pan changed in 1980 when Jeep did the swap to driver drop so they could fit the transfer case easier. But it changed seat brackets for bucket seats. Brackets to swap in an LS are available in the aftermarket and you can find a bolt-in radiator to support Chevy engines. Buick 350s were offered in the late 60's and early 70's so that's an interesting somewhat unique option. Of course, AMC V8s were introduced in 71 or 72 so you could easily swap one of those in if you feel that Buick parts are too easy to find. Universal weld-in brackets work too and you can fit any small block easily. Big blocks can fit but they're tight and may require some tweaking. The transmission tunnel is a good size and will easily fit a TH400 or similar size transmission. There are two different core supports available. One for the straight six and one that fits a wider radiator for the V8. They are mostly interchangeable from 1963-1991 though the later front sheet metal got extra holes as well as brackets welded to it. It's easy to swap the front sheet metal from one core support to the other so you can keep that style grille (the Rhino grille). If it was a running and driving vehicle in good working order, I'd give $2,500 for it. Not running or driving, I'd start taking off from that price. Missing drivetrain would have me drop it down to $1,000 or less. Yes, it's a rare old Jeep truck but it's not in high demand so the price support just isn't there. If the frame and body panels are in good shape, it's worth something and would make an interesting project vehicle.

As it turns out, the radon system wasn't the cause. The PO ran some storm drains into the sewer. The junction got clogged and caused the backup. Good news is that the plumbers have made the first round of repairs. So at least I can use the facilities now. But we have to solve the other drains. I'm going to have to have a conversation with the home inspector and the crew he subcontracted the sewer inspection out to. And then maybe call an attorney.

I was giving serious thought to a ZR2 S10 in the late 90s before I bought my first Jeep, an XJ.

Both axles can go with 3.07, 3.55, 3.73, 4.10, 4.56, 4.88, and 5.13. The numbers may be off by one like 3.54 or 3.55. Those still go together. One thing to think about too is to consider swapping in a stronger rear axle. A Dana 35 is somewhat weak and something like a Dana 44, Ford 8.8 or Chrysler 8.25 would be a good upgrade.

The only dumb question is the one you don't ask. The math you use is actually simple. You just multiply the gears together. Pick a transmission gear and whether you're in high or low range. Then multiply those two numbers times the axle ratio. That gives you the overall ratio you're running. That website shows you all of those calculations in the chart done for you so you don't have to remember the math. Any time you change the axle ratio, you affect both high and low range. When you go with shorter (higher number) gears, it's like down shifting. If you regear but you want the same type of performance off road in low range, you're just going to have to upshift the transmission. Say you liked running in first gear low range. Changing to 4.88s would have you doing the same stuff in 2nd or 3rd gear instead. If you are used to running in high gear (4th or 5th) in low range, you may consider putting it in high range in 1st or 2nd gear after the regear. Just about every person I talk to who has regeared said they loved the fact that they got effectively more low range than they had. Even if they didn't use it all the time. They liked having it available. And the only people who didn't like it were people who took their regear too far.

4.88s would get you back to stock-ish performance. 5.13s would be an upgrade. Go to http://www.grimmjeeper.com/gears.html and put in your info. AX5, NP231 for the trans and tcase. Then plug in gear ratios and tire sizes and you can see side by side comparisons.

F*** cancer. Rest in peace Eddie.

It fills a space in my garage and will suck money in for years. I might be able to drive it eventually.

Lesson #1 with Jeep projects. They are never done.

That's just it. I shelled out for the scope. Then they installed the radon system and may have broken it a few days later.

The easiest way to do it is to find an Cherokee or Comanche donor vehicle. The Cherokee and Comanche have the same drivetrain and swapping that is "easy". Find one with the same engine and transmission as the one you have now. There are some changes to the vehicles as you go from year to year. The big change from first gen "Renix" (Renault/Bendix) fuel injection to Mopar or "H.O." injection happened between 1990 and 1991. Best bet is another 87. But 87-90 is "easy". For those years, you only need the transmission and transfer case, along with other bits. If you get a 91 or newer, you can still do the swap but you will want to swap the whole engine, transmission, and transfer case along with all of the wiring. A lot of little things changed like the intake manifold and some other things so it's easier just to grab the whole engine but it will bolt right in. The transmissions are the same except at the very back. The 2WD and 4WD versions have unique tail shafts. It's a matter of just dropping the transmission and installing the replacement. A rebuild while it's out may be a good idea. Once the 4WD transmission is in, the transfer case bolts up. The front axle from the donor would bolt in with no modification but you absolutely must ensure that the gear ratios in the front and rear axle match or you break things in 4WD. The front driveshaft from the donor will bolt in (replace the u-joints while it's out) but you may need to modify the length of your rear driveshaft. If you have a Cherokee donor the rear driveshaft is too short. Any drivetrain shop can shorten your original driveshaft to fit. There are many opportunities to do some upgrades as you go. Some are more "important" to do than others. There are plenty of threads on here talking about them. Spend a bunch of time looking around here and be sure to ask plenty of questions.

It's unlikely he'll get that much for it. A lot of people ask for a lot more than they can get for things. It will be interesting watching the price come down. It will all depend on how patient he is. He's just a handful of miles from me and I have thought about going to look at it.

Oh, and I have "limited use" of the facilities until the slow drain issue is resolved. So the first thing I'm going to do is put the rest of my chili in the freezer until this gets fixed. No one deserves to deal with that...

It's weird how the drain pipe snakes around under the basement. It goes around and comes in exactly the opposite direction you think it should. And right where they put in the radon system after the inspection...

So it's possible the people who put the radon system in hit the sewer pipe. They're going to bring a camera in to inspect ot tomorrow and verify.

Looks like it's been relisted. https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/aurora-rare-jeep-comanche-pioneer-150k/7207750516.html $10,900. Price dropped a hair.

Given 2020 as a whole, I guess this doesn't surprise me in the slightest. A few weeks ago I noticed a wet spot on the basement carpet away from anything that could have spilled. And the basement started smelling musty. Great. A water leak. Turns out it's a partial backup of the sewer. The water was coming up from the floor drain after a shower or running something like the dishwasher or clothes washer. The water drains away within a couple of hours so by the time I bothered to get down to the basement to look the water was gone except for where it soaked into the carpet padding. I checked after a shower last night and sure enough, there was just a little standing water right by the drain. Enough to get out under the wall into the carpet in the neighboring room. So yeah, I get to replace the ugly carpet sooner than I wanted. The plumber will be here in a couple of hours and figure out exactly what the blockage is. Hopefully it's not a tree root. I'll be pissed if it's that. But if they don't have to dig or only have to dig up the yard, that would be better than trying to fix a pipe under the basement slab. So since poop water got into the padding the plan is to pull the carpet and throw it in a WM Bagster Bag, then grab some of the adhesive backed carpet tiles from Home Depot that are basically remnants from industrial supply randomly thrown into a box so you get a scatter pattern of different carpet styles. Hey, it's under $1 per square foot and it's easy. If they have to dig inside the house, that will change. If this is the worst that happens to me this year, I'll be grateful. Still, it bugs me I have to deal with this right now.

I do like a challenge. But I also don't like friends who want me to show up and figure it out for them and then do it for them too. I would have just walked away from that pile of metal.

No real progress. I just wanted to take a picture. I'm going to get started with Cruiser's tips to get this Renix 4.0 back to life. I haven't tried to start it yet but I want to head off the obvious problems first.

I've seen people break JK 30s on stock tires. It's all in how you drive. The more careful you are, the bigger tire you can run safely. I had 35's with my JK 30 and it's still alive 8 years later. If I'm running big tires, I don't want to have to baby the axle to keep it from breaking.