Incommando

The stock pitman arm works fine on mine

My muffler and then turn down are 2.5". I adapted up from the head pipe to fit the muffler.

There is no valid need for anything beyond halogen sealed beams at most. Just what the heck did you do before halogens? Seems like some in here need to give up driving after dark....(ducking and running)

I am cheap. I used the fully welded thrush knock-off version. People have actually sought me out to find out what my exhaust system was and twice to ask if I had done a v8 swap after hearing it

If factory both of those jeeps should be 3.55's

And to think I cut the receiver out of my hitch and plated it over. I then welded d-ring shackles through it to use as a rear recovery point. Who know someone would actually want them as a hitch?

In my sig is a link for the 2wd to 4wd conversion and SOA on a '91 SWB Pioneer much like that. In running condition with less rust than that one but with cosmetic only crash damage I paid $400 for it. I have had it for over three years and 10,000 miles by only changing tires/rims. Having had both Renix & HO MJ's I prefer the HO system for its simplicity and power. However rust repair is difficult and expensive to do correctly. If I had a functioning '88 with a decent body sticking with that one instead of rusted out truck with the potential for major component like a tranny failing would be a no brainer for me. If this guy has owned this for 5-10 years there is no way he accidentally bumped the switch from power to comfort and that the difference is enough to make him think the tranny is slipping. #1 the difference is not nearly that great and #2 you would think he had become curious and flipped that switch a time or two at some point and would realize that. Such thinking about the tranny and body makes me think that you are caught up in the euphoria of a new purchase but remember that is probably the #1 cause of buyer's remorse.

I hope anyone who reads this later finally gets it that Rough Country is a lousy company to deal with. Any research on here would have turned up an abundance of material on it. I, too, made this mistake 4 years ago. No extended sway bar links? They screwed me on that 4 years ago by claiming that even though they say that they are included they are no longer included in the kit but they haven't had time to remove them from then parts list in their advertising. All these years later and they still haven't found time...crooks. Having access to a welder I just chopped the stockers in two and welded in extension in both. On the current truck I went with disconnects. Using the re-drill method on the lower track bar mount for the track bar did work fine for me. I was able to get a decent alignment with the included fixed lower control control arms and stock uppers. Why would you even consider doing further business with this crap company for a track bar? The best deal I found for a double shear track bar was through WWW.mud flaps.com for a Rubicon Express set. I have a parts list in my build thread listing the best deals on quality parts that I could find when I did my SOA this spring.

Buy the pieces or a kit from RuffStuff or Barnes 4x4 and have at it....

That is a neat piece. I wonder how much fun it was to drive, though? A '78 Toy probably made about 60 h.p....

You will have to open it up if you are unsure of the donor. You can pop a c-clip and count the splines on the shaft or look for a date stamping on the internals. personally I don't buy axles that could be more than one thing without checking them first. Many people have bought axles that "have a locker in them" without chicken only to find a crappy welded diff. You can't be sure that a 27-spline axle wasn't ever swapped under a '98, either.

Those are some dandy pieces but are not even in the same league as the stockers

At least it doesn't have a YJ front axle right YXMJ? :brows:

TCU will work unless your donor was a very late model XJ IIRC. Assuming you get the correct tranny most of this should apply: http://comancheclub.com/topic/44377-2wd-aw4-to-4wd-aw4-swap/?p=451681 Spending a couple of minutes reading that may be of aid to you. I don't know if everything applies to the 2.5 but it is a good start and covers many of the bases.

Before you start spray everything down with PB Blaster or a good penetrating oil ( not WD40) several times for several days first. Well...the front is simple. Bolt off and on: brake hoses to the caliper, track bar, drag link, shocks, and the four control arms. That is pretty much it. The front coils will come out as you lower the beam axle. If you are swapping coils to the live axle they have 1 retainer & bolt on the axle side of each of them. Re-connect those same parts ( + plus a drive shaft) upon re-assembly. While you have the things apart inspect all of the front suspension and steering pieces you will be re-using. Pay special attention to the tie rod end on the body side mount for the track bar. The hole in the mount tends to wobble out and that is a common cause of death wobble. Remember to get the correct front shaft off of the donor vehicle for the engine/tranny/t-case combo you are using. Then it will bolt-in and be the correct length. Any XJ shaft with the engine/tranny/t-case combo you are using will work. Top two bell housing bolts on the tranny are these inverted torx things that are kind of a pain without the right tools. Support the tranny. Remove the shifter linkage and cooler hoses. Disconnect the electronics connections. Unbolt the bellhousing bolts & the flex plate to torque convertor bolts.The 4x4 tranny will re-attach in the same way even with the t-case attached. Depending on the year of the donor the electronics will be plug-n-play. You re-use the same cross member and tranny mounts.You will re-use the same tranny shifter linkage. If you want to add extended breather tubes to the tranny & t-case now is the time. Stop right here and get this: http://www.boostwerksengineering.com/231-HD-Shift-Linkage-Auto-Trans-_p_25.html to use as your t-case shifter. Piecing together a factory t-case shifter linkage is a pain even if all of the donor parts are "supposed" to be right. The tunnel mount for the factory set-up is especially a pain. Living in the rust belt just adds to this. I could not buy the parts to fab this locally this cheap and the function of this linkage is 100% better than stock. The stock shifters leave a lot to be desired, anyway. You still need to source the in-the-cab portion of the shifter, of course. The hole for this shifter is under the carpet and covered by a plate so you will not need to cut the floor. Unbolt the plate & bolt-in the shifter. Unless you can score a factory rear drive shaft from an MJ with the same wheel base, engine/tranny/t-case, and rear axle combo that you are swapping to (not an easy proposition) you have to shorten your factory rear 2wd drive shaft. The factory 2wd rear shaft is huge. It is basically an inner and outer shaft with a rubber sleeve between the two holding them together. Many shops report difficulty re-balancing them after shortening them. I went to the junkyard and for a few bucks bought a suitable donor with the correct u-joint ends. It made things easier and probably cheaper for me. The smaller diameter of the donor means less chance of hitting the shaft on obstacles off-road if that is a concern for you. The correct length of drive shaft that you will need for a stock-ish height MJ is pinned in one of the forums on here. Good luck. :thumbsup:

Funny but many CV shaft guys deliberately switch to u-joint style shafts for strength and longevity. :dunno: If you have swapped in a 242 and have AWD and/or you have a street rig then the CV's seem to be the way to go...if you 4-wheel it appears U-joints are the way to go. A quick google brought up dozens of posts.

Thanks Shelbyluv. TRE = tie rod end for those who don't want to clicky

Soak the stuff a couple of times for a couple of days with PB blaster. Pull it in front of your garage before lifting it. Mark where you front tires are. Turn on headlights on. Place a piece of tape where the brightest spot is. After your lift put the truck in the same spot and adjust you headlights to hit that same spot. While you have things apart check the TRE on the body side. Check the mounting hole in the bracket to make sure it isn't wobble out. These two things are often cause of DW so check while you have it part

8.25 is arguably equal to a D44 and 33's are no problem. It is much better than a D35. It has 3" tubes vs 2.75" for either MJ axle. Half of that is 1/8 inch so you won't notice it.

For one thing open exhaust does not scavenge correctly meaning the spent gases remain in the chamber. This not only hurts efficiency but can cause the cylinder pressures to increase which can damage valves and/or springs. Drag and other race cars get away with it by being tunable to compensate. Even so many drag cars are now running performance mufflers. My personal bracket car ran better with about 12" of collectors and turn downs versus just open headers even though I could easily tune the timing and carbs

I agree liability wise but again most anything you do can do that. I have found laws for TIRES requiring DOT approval but never rims. As I said before modified factory rims will be DOT stamped as well. Something is criminal ( which includes traffic although they are often separated) only if it states who it applies to, specifically describes the prohibited behavior, and affixes a penalty. Again, just as there are DOT requirements for factory bumper how many of us have modified bumpers with no DOT cert?

And everyone is getting excited thinking there will be a new jeep with a VM Motori engine because FIAT owns VM Motori... Fix It Again Tony

Yeah but that burns your data. SpectorMJ let me check tomorrow but I am pretty sure that I still have a complete Sirius set with a new antenna I can send you.

It isn't that hard to find ya or 99% of most people ;) ..

Nice