derf

I have driven my lifted 4 door JL on 37s across Nebraska in the winter with a steady north wind. That's less than fun.

So stock 215/75R15 with 3.08s runs just under 2300 RPM at 75. 3.55s with 31s will put you around 2400. 3.73s would be around 2500. 4.10s gets you just under 2800. I'm planning my long bed build with 31s and an AX15 and I'll be doing 3.55s. It will be an all around driver that I can do road trips in. For my chief with the AX15 and 35s, I'll have 4.56, which will run 2700 at 75 but it's going to be a rock crawler that doesn't see much highway time.

I'm assuming the 88 with the 31s has the automatic. If so, 4.10s would put you around 2,600 RPM at 75 on the freeway. That's about 100 more than the stock 3.55s with 215/75R15. That's about where I'd want to be.

They have more material in the ring gear so they add a small amount of weight. But they work fine when installed. Depending on the ratio, it may be hard to find thick cut gears. It is worth looking at them if you can find them.

Nothing special about that Dana 44. It's the same center section as any 70s/80s Dana 44 in any Dodge, Ford, or GM. Tons of parts available to do the regear. You can verify the ratio by spinning the pinion with both tires off the ground. Count how many times the pinion spins for one rotation of the wheels. A little more than 3 is 3.08. 3 and a half is 3.54s, 3 and 3/4 is 3.73, a little more than 4 is 4.09. Stock should be 3.08. But there's no telling what may have been done to the axle since it left the factory. Or even if that specific axle came with the truck.

Sounds like a good plan. You will need the ring and pinion, as well as a master install kit. I would replace the axle seals because you have to fully disassemble the axle to get to them and it will be apart while doing the gears. Same with ball joints. The disassembly labor is being done already. No reason not to do that too. Same with the axle shaft u-joints and unit bearings. If you have the smaller axle shaf u-joints, it's easy to upgrade while you have it apart.

East coast gear supply is my go to for parts. Great customer service. I will say that if you don't have the tools to do the installation right, it's a good idea to have a shop install the gears. Most people can do it but it's meticulous work that requires specialty tools and a lot of patience. If you're only doing one axle, it's cheaper to have a shop do it than to buy the tools. Any shop that does the install will have a good source for parts.

I could use a couple too.

Agreed. New weld on spring perches and shock mounts aren't hideously expensive.

As someone who has hit the trails around you in WI as well as out here in CO and UT, there is no comparison. If I was still living in Iowa, I wouldn't want anything over 35s. You just don't need it out that way. But that's a big part of why I moved to CO. The trails are bigger and more fun when you have a bigger Jeep.

We read you five by five, over.

I have a spare Renix distributor from a parts donor. I'd send it to you for pretty cheap.

In the US, YJs only had the Dana 35. Keep in mind that outside the US, there are likely variations from what was available here. Definitely looks like an 8.25 though. Could be that it came from something that would have had a different axle in the US. Maybe a Grand Cherokee or something like that.

That's still true to this day. My 2021 Wrangler has both a speedometer dial and a numerical readout. My dash will show 70 on the numerical display but the speedometer dial will be 68-69 or so. And they're being run by the same sensor data.

It's warm in the garage this weekend so I have been making progress. Still fixing the DSPO (Dip "Stick" Previous Owner) problems. They apparently rewired the tail at some point. They ran wires in a stretch of garden hose to push them through from one side to the other. Then they attached them with wire nuts. I'm running the Painless kit that is a direct bolt in for a CJ. So I am gutting everything and running new replacement wiring. So it will be nice again and run properly. To that end, I need to drop the gas tank to run the wires properly. I'm going to go ahead and replace the skid plate with aftermarket. May as well while it's out. The tank hangs low so more protection is never a bad thing. Also, I mostly finished setting up the engine wiring. The CJ harness is pretty universal on that end from Painless. So I had to integrate the Duraspark ignition and tie it in with the Howell TBI kit. And I went ahead and did the heavy power cable for all the aux wiring I'm doing. All tied in to the dual battery switches. Oh, and I needed two relays. One for the TBI and one for the manifold heater circuit (needed for emissions in Denver). It's a little over engineered but it's better than random butt splices all over. And the plugs let me service it in the future. The oil pressure sending unit is sitting there waiting for me to crawl under and put it in. I need to finish wiring up the radios (CB and GMRS) and a few other things. Should be ready for spring.

Full knuckle, hub, and rotor. I'm not going to assemble it all until the axle goes together. Brake parts are on the way. It'll take me a bit for the budget to be ready for the gears, lockers and shafts. Got the relay box wired up and ready for installation. Set up for the lights, lockers, and compressor I'm going to install. This is the box I used. You can get it prewired but I wanted to customize it a little. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07MR64XK1?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title&th=1

Really, torque is force. Power is force over time.

I agree. While my analog collection is pretty slim, I prefer to have a physical copy of my music. Digital is so easy to deal with and that's what I ended up standardizing on. Sure, it's not as warm as analog but I'm not enough of an audiophile to sweat the difference. I started collecting CDs in the 80s. I've been filling out my collection ever since. I'm up to almost 800 albums on 850 discs. I have a few LPs that were never offered on CD. And a few LPs where the CD release changed the songs. It would be a pain to re-rip all that music. But I have it in my possession and could do it if my storage and backup fails. And, BTW, if you store CDs yourself, DiscSox are your friend. They let you fit it all on fewer shelves.