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Just got word that my parent's power was just restored this afternoon. My sister sent a video she uploaded doing a walk-around of her house shortly after the storm. They had a good dozen big trees down to one extent or another. Most of them fell harmlessly to the ground. A few of them were very close to the house but missed. One missed the AC unit by like 2 feet. But one of the trees came down on their detached garage. The damage didn't look like it was extensive but it wasn't unscathed. Probably an easy fix if they can find a contractor to do the work. I suspect builders and contractors are going to have their hands full for the rest of the year into next year. If you're looking for work in the building trades, the upper Midwest would be a good place to set up shop for a while.

That would pay for my entire LS swap on tons and 40s. Including buying the Jeep in the first place. Still, it is cool in its own way. That would be a "lottery money" purchase I could see myself making.

I think the Liberty got the 42RE. The 42RLE is a different transmission that started life as a FWD transmission and was modified. It's in the same class as the Dana 35 and Peugeot BA10/5. It can live in a stock vehicle that is maintained and not abused. But it's only just strong enough for that. It doesn't survive hard use for very long. There are a few upgrades for the 42RLE. But there's only so much room inside the case and the small parts have limited strength.

That does look handy. Another good way to get reference voltage is to look at power supplies you can find in ham radio catalogs. I've been eyeing one so I can run one of my extra car radios in the house. They let you adjust the voltage so you can run the 13.8V or whatever you'd get while the vehicle is running.

I have a channel with a couple of videos. I'll be documenting my MJ build once it gets rolling. https://youtube.com/channel/UCRlFNFE4b0-xdmPaABnQIiQ

It's becoming far less common for people to buy a completely stripped model any more. Thing is, manufacturing something with variances costs more money. That's why you see so many options grouped into packages these days. If they can keep cranking out a vehicle with fewer differences, they can do it faster and cheaper. And now that so many things are functions of the vehicle computer, it's just a matter of a software change to add/remove many features. Manufacturers are "encouraging" consumers to take the "standard package" so they can cut their manufacturing costs. That's the big driver behind why work trucks have so many upgrades these days. They're actually saving money by upping the standard equipment and reducing their overhead. I've been looking at buying a new truck to be my daily driver/tow pig for my MJ project once it's done. I have to say that the base model Ford XL/Chevy WT/Ram Tradesman models are getting to the point where I would consider one for a daily driver since I don't need the luxury stuff.

1. Yes. People ditch fuel injection for carburetors. It ends up not saving them any money and it doesn't make the vehicle any more reliable than a properly maintained fuel injection system. You end up losing horsepower and fuel mileage. And then you get all of the "fun" of cold starts and trying to get it to behave until it warms up. In many people's opinion, carburetors are a huge step down in all respects. 2. Yes. People TIG weld intakes. It's not terribly common but it does happen. If you can TIG aluminum, you can basically do anything you want in that arena. Aftermarket intakes and/or adapters, if they are available for your engine, are a good option as well. 3. If you keep fuel injection, you can't delete sensors or the CPU. Fuel injection needs those to run. If you go with a carburetor, you'll probably want to delete most of the sensors and the CPU. 4. If you start with a compatible donor that has the manual transmission you want, the swap is pretty straightforward. It's usually easier and more cost effective just to sell the automatic equipped vehicle and buy a manual transmission vehicle to replace it though. But if you can't find a manual equipped MJ, you can probably find a manual equipped XJ donor. From there it's not hard to swap the drivetrain over. It starts getting really expensive if you want to install something that wouldn't have come from the factory. (i.e. Chevy transmission in Jeep, Ford transmission in Chevy, etc.) But an XJ to MJ swap is pretty much a bolt in operation.

Random update but I got to toying around with the measuring tape under the bed this last weekend. The X brace on the frame doesn't leave much distance between it and the end of the frame, at least on a short bed. Maybe 12" or so from the frame end of the X to the back of the frame. If you're willing to let the tank hang down under the X brace you do have quite a bit of room. Enough to fit a TJ tank easily (hanging pretty low though), with room to spare on the sides and front to back. If you bias it towards the rear bumper, you have plenty of room for a wheelbase stretch and/or upgrading to one ton axles. I'm probably just going to pull the bed off and do some custom welding on the rear frame. I'm going to a triangulated 4 link with coil overs in the rear and I'll probably end up cutting out and replacing the X brace to make room for things while still having some structure to replace it. I like the idea of the TJ tank as long as I can tuck it up close to the bed floor so that's the route I'm leaning towards right now.

Sounds like trees down and some damage to my parent's house from one of them but no tree trunk in the living room or anything that bad. My other sister has trees down but no word on damage. Sounds like it's light damage at most. Looks like they will come through fine.

Family is OK. No word on damage. Power is out. The neighbor's detached garage didn't survive.

So my sister posted up some damage pictures from her neighborhood. Looks like what you'd get from a low grade tornado. No pictures of her house, just what she can see out the windows. One garage collapsed from what it looks like, another roof with half the shingles missing. A little bit of debris in the yards. Neighbor's deck railing off and a few feet away in the yard. My other sister and my parents are in more heavily wooded areas. I hope no tree came down on a house or anything like that.

I have family in Cedar Rapids, IA. I'll have to check up on them...

Yeah, I'd also suggest that you run it as-is with the lift. Tcase drops and SYEs are good ways to solve a vibration. But if you're not feeling any vibration, no need to change it.

To me modern popular country music is just pop music with a country twang and southern accent. Then again, country music from the late 80's and early 90's was changing from more traditional country music as well.

I grew up in Iowa and spent a couple winters in Minnesota. I also visited the grandparents in North Dakota over Christmas break way too many times. The front range in Colorado has very mild winters by comparison. It's the best of all weather here. 4 real seasons so the weather does change. But it never gets really hot in the summer or super cold in the winter. The lack of humidity makes it perfect here.

Best bet is to find a copyright lawyer locally and start with them.

I do believe (someone else should confirm) that the JK Rubicon Dana 44 uses the same internals (gears, carriers, and bearings) as the Isuzu. It's important to note that the JK Wrangler Dana 44 from non-Rubicons is the same differential casting but they are machined for the older, smaller carrier bearings from the old generation Dana44 and also the same carrier but with larger bolts. The Rubicon uses 32 spline shafts, the non-Rubicon uses 30 spline shafts. But they both use the same gear sets. And just for fun, with the old carrier in the non-JK you use the 3.73 and down carrier for all ratios from 3.21 to 5.38.

Best way is to clean off the round tag on the back of the case. It will be stamped with something like 231J. Behind the manual transmission in 1987, you'll most likely have the NP231. It's what would have come from the factory. There's an off chance that someone swapped out the factory case for something else but it's unlikely.

I can totally understand the motivation to make an air conditioned cab for a lawn tractor. I lived on the east coast of Florida for a few years when I was a kid. I remember how miserable it was in the summer. We would spend most of the day inside at friends' houses. Winter was a lot milder and easier to live with. Living in the upper midwest I got to still deal with quite a bit of humidity. Not as bad as FL though. But after living in Colorado for a while, I doubt I could ever go back to heat and high humidity to live again. It doesn't get really hot here at elevation and the humidity is pretty low. The dew point is 45 degrees today. If I ever become a "snow bird", I'd spend my winters in Arizona but I'd leave before it started to get too hot.

Sounds a lot like when I was trying to get parts for an old Grand Wagoneer. Half the time the part number in the book came back "part number not found". Now is the time to get a parts book so you at least have an idea what it is you're looking for. Some parts houses will cross reference old part numbers.

Yeah, it won't ride like a 70's Cadillac. But it won't ride like a 70's 1 ton pickup either. It's a solid axle but it's coil springs. So as long as you stay close to stock, it won't be that much different than a mostly stock XJ/MJ.

I always wanted to try the bumper dumper...

JK Rubicon axles are also Dana 30 outside the differential. They're marginally stronger than the TJ 30 but still not as strong. I've been eyeing putting a late 70s F150/250 Ford high pinion front 44 in a project. It's high pinion so gears are strong. Its old school so the tubes and knuckles are strong. Tons of locker options. Sure, it's 5 on 5.5" with an option to run 6 on 5.5" or 8 on 6.5" pretty easy. So matching rear axle would be needed. but I'd rather do that than any factory Rubicon axle. But the aftermarket axles are a good, if expensive, option as you can get them as strong or stronger than a "real" Dana 44 but built at the right width and with all of the brackets in the right place and the right bolt pattern.

Yep. The only difference between the 30 and front Rubicon 44 is the center section. The first gen TJ Rubicon 44 is low pinion driving the coast side of the gears. And the locker is "meh" at best. The money you save buying a non Rubicon can go towards an aftermarket Dana 44 using JK high pinion gears along with stronger tubes and inner C's.