Incommando

Conventional wisdom is that you must use CAD brackets or long arms. Most of that is repeated by people who have no personal knowledge. You can achieve a good ride and good flex with adjustable uppers and bent lowers in the stock locations. I have pics to prove it as well as first hand experience. Those two examples may well be improvements but they are not required. Build in sig. Others areas that may need addressing are tthe rear axle if a D35 and the front axle shafts if they are still 260 u-joints. Some folks do fine on 33's with those components but from my watching them on the trail 33's are pushing the limits of Rhodes

it is hard to tell from this pic but this is in 28-30" of water based on where it hit on the tires

I have gone wheeling 3 or 4 times with it. Twice in deep water-filled mud holes & creek crossings. The airbox was totally dry after each trip. For me it was the cheapest and easiest way to correct the potential problem. And when side by side with a buddy's $400 ARB Safari Snorkle on his XJ the only difference in any of the parts is the lack of writing. They are identical in looks and apparently materials including the hose.

There is a sensor in the top of the t-case ( at least in the later 231's) that screws up.

Yeah that will work for retaining the spring. The issue is where it located the shock. You might be able to switch them side to side to get a usable set-up? Look at Pete 's set up and then the other. That short of shock travel in the 2nd seems to make it useless as a truck or a jeep but especially as a jeep truck. Pete's way is worlds' better.

They way Pete did it is workable. The way the OP's PO did it is not

You probably have no flex and the shock must bottom out frequently. If it is not blown already it probably will. It is cheap to get some shock mount tabs from Barnes4x4, ruffstuff, or the like and weld them onto the axle tube. Believe it or not when I was researching the SOA, members were actually putting the factory spring plate on top of the SOA spring pack and running that short of shock . So that is not the first time I have seen that set up on here. :doh:

How often do you have accidents ??? :)

very true, more power AND better economy... but it sounds sooooo much better when you're exploding all those gallons and gallons of gasoline inside a 5.9 :D Isn't that the truth

A *correctly working* CAD is fine. However they use the smaller u-joint. 35's is about the max size for a D30 with the bigger u-joints. If you are going to go that big i think you should upgrade the shafts and do the one piece change. Doing so while retaining the CAD housing would give you the strongest possible combo. On a side note: 35's are not needed for mild trail riding. Going that big will cause problems from gearing to axle stress. I go wheeling a few times a month and I run 32's. I would say that I go more than mild and rarely do the bigger tire jeeps go anywhere that I cannot. You might meet your goals at a lower cost in both money and time by staying a bit smaller

Are you guys talking about the heavier springs making the truck ride higher than stock or just higher than that truck's previous ride height meaning that the "lift" is just correcting sag? From the pics I have seen and posts I have read it is my understanding that the metric ton trucks sat at the same ride height as the standard payload trucks. If that is true thenwhy would a correctly made aftermarket spring add actual lift that the stockers did not? Just curious.

There is another recent post on here showing the stock specs of the rear springs.

I am at 5.5" in the front. The ride is fine and the flex is decent. But I honestly think that i am at he max with my adjustable short arms in the stock locations. To go any higher you would need control arm drop brackets or long arms IMHO. I saw 5.5" of lift from my SOA. I could not see getting any less than that. Net lift is kind of tricky. The advertised lift of a kit is from stock height. As our trucks are 25 year old or older and many with a ton of miles you will often see more of a height change than advertised as the lift returns the truck to stock in addition to adding the lift. The factory lists the same ride height for each of two rear spring rates and pictures of metric ton trucks from the factory show no greater rake than the others. So it looks like any "lift" provided by just using the new springs is a result of taking away the wear sag and/or the new springs not being exact copies of the originals. Correct copies would not provide true lift if the factory springs did not.

Many modern cars are designed to deform even in fairly minor collisions. That action absorbs the impact rather than passing the energy on, often to the passengers. That damage does not indicate that much of a collision. I'd bet that every fold, like the trunk deck, and crumple are exactly were they were designed to occur.

Isn't it amazing how much more power modern cars have? That high-end 5.9L of 15 years ago doesn't touch the current Grand's base 3.6L V6 for horsepower and efficiency let alone the two optional V8 gas engines' power and there is a diesel option as well. In so many ways this is the golden age of automobiles.

Oh: the 2.4L I4 is the domestically produced engine found in many Chrysler products like the TJ and PT Cruiser. The only differences between the Patriot and Compass are cosmetic. They even carry the same MK model designation The new Cherokee is a Fiat platform shared with the Dart & 200. There have been many niggling complaints especially the programming of the transmission. Frankly Fiat has a world-wide reputation for poor quality and that certainly hasn't changed with its offerings here. Check out the 500's reliability for an example. Square poop box Patriot. Hilarious. It's design was praised, especially by jeepers, for so closely mimicking the XJ on which the MJ was based. The exterior dimensions including height are nearly identical to the XJ. It differs greatly mechanically but visually? Park one of each side by side sometime. The grill is the biggest difference because of the round headlights

I am happy with my 4x4 "freedom drive I" '14 Patriot. The default setting is AWD but it can be locked into a 50/50 split like a real transfer case. With all of the electronic gizmos like traction control, stability control, and "brake lock differentials" it the best on-road bad weather vehicle that I have ever owned even when in AWD and not locked. It may not be a 'wheeler but it wasn't meant to be and very few will ever try to use it that way. The six speed corrects the complaints regarding performance, efficiency, longevity, and NVH of the earlier versions. To my knowledge the only domestic transmission ever used in the MJ was the '86 only 904 three speed auto. The AX series manuals and the AW4 were Jap while the BA sticks were French. So much of the renix era stuff was foreign sourced while jeep was a French-controlled company. Such parts sourcing is nothing new. I am much more confident in the Hyundai-sourced autostick 6 speed then that 43-series minivan sourced tranny used in so many jeeps the last 15 years or so. Do not get suckered into the "freedom drive II" package. It is mostly advertising BS and still uses that crappy jap-sourced CVT. Of course Patriots are also available as front wheel drive only.

Don't forget to search using misspellings. CherAkee is a common one. I always search for MJ parts as Comanchee and occasionally turn up things that others miss using correct search terms But yeah craigslist is is full of morons and scammers

I wish I was closer :(

Yes. Try to to set the pinion yoke angle as close as possible to the t-case output yoke angle if you are using a stock driveshaft set-up

The pleasure was all mine. Those working jeeps are so neat. I also wanted to mention how clean your SBC swap was.

BAE = before anyone else. It is an acronym