Incommando

Sorry to confuse you but I mean a 1986 Vw rabbit pick up called caddy aswell I'm sure he was aware what you meant. Besides, there's already Cadillac trucks: flower cars from the funeral industry. Not to mention that Escalade EXT thing. Hey it has an open bed and is far more of a truck than a VW Rabbit would ever be...

Maybe it would fit in one of them flat rate boxes at the postal office?

oops

Morris 4x4 had the cheapest prices on spacers that I could find but that was 2 years ago. I got Alloy USA for $89/pair then. Less than $200 to do all for corners but sometimes adapters are more $$$ than spacers. If you got a great buy on JK tires and rims I think you now know why. The market for them is just not there. JK steelies don't sell at all and often wind up scrapped around here. 90% of the factory tires are not very desirable either. The S/T, SR/A and Dueller A/T's that are spec'd for the JK are street tires. I frequently see CL ads where someone is trying to sell his 1,000 mile stock tires and wheels from a JK for $800-$1,000 just because hey, they are new! And I paid $1700 for the aftermarket stuff!

So many of those cars got converted to gas engines as the engine is dimensionally the same as a 260, 307, 330, 350 or 403 Olds while using the same mounting locations and patterns.... and the diesel really sucked. Last time I checked a rebuilt starter for one was like $150 versus $22 for a gasser. In the early 80's I bought several cheap Olds cars and pulled the small-block Olds motors to sell them to a local machine shop that also specialized in de-dieseling the Oldsmobiles and Chevy trucks that came with that diesel. With crappy reliability and 105 hp/205 ft/tq it was nobody's favorite.

In the "Did I Really Just Read That" File: Someone is complaining about 22 MPG in a 5,500# 4dr Wrangler???? When the EPA sticker rates it at 17/21 mpg? :dunno: A V6 Camry only averages 25 mpg combined by most reviews. I don't see where the 3.6 would be any harder to install than any other modern engine as far as electronics goes. The only difference would be that other engines have already been swapped into more vehicles so you wouldn't be blazing a whole new trail with one of those selections. Chrysler made great engines and transmissions. The 727 series was as good as it got. However for most late model jeeps they spun around a caravan transaxle for rwd orientation and it sucks. If your tranny has "43" in the name anywhere you have a van transaxle not a real transmission. Better automatics were available at the time, such as the 45 series, but were used sparingly in jeeps. We are spoiled by how fantastic modern vehicles are now. During the height of the 60's and 70's getting 100k out of your car before it was junk was a milestone let alone 165K on an auto tranny. Today even an econobox will outperform many "muscle" cars from that era in several categories while being easy to drive and return great mileage for long periods. Heck a V6 Camry will dust most every small block "SS" Chevy made if you go back and look at actual numbers and not rely on "my '72 ss350 Nova ran 14.30's stock. All I did was flip the air cleaner lid upside down" fish tales. The Camry will legitimately run 14.30's all day and out turn, out stop, and out comfort that Nova, as well. As to the Camry choice: I am not a fan of Jap vehicles. I chose it as it came up first on a google of mid-size vehicles. It is also been one of the 3 the best selling cars here for years. And is considered a mediocre performer in its class.....

Converting to 4wd is super easy.... :thumbsup:

The Spartan has been getting good reviews as well.

WD40 sucks. It draws moisture from the air and rusts everything. Hell, it isn't even worth a a crap at loosening bolts.

OOOOtay... It is called the water inlet tube. Apparently the Renix era engines used a tube that ran straight up and stopped. it is apparently no longer available. You can apparently use a '91-newer tube and either cut it to the length of the early version or leave the elbow on the newer version and shorten your rubber heater house. Another option is a barbed fitting from the hardware store. All of this info is mined from the net so I actually have no first-hand knowledge with it. One version of the newer tube: http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_water-pump-inlet-tube-(no-gasket-needed)-dorman--help_10098963-p?navigationPath=L1*14922%7CL2*15018 Write-up on using the barbed fitting: http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/water-pump-inlet-tube-99960/

When comparing the Yota to the MJ people keep mentioning longevity but without adding that the 4.0 easily puts twice the power to the ground as the 22RWhatever. Maybe power means something to the driver, maybe it doesn't. But it is worth mentioning. Although many Toyotaphiles deny it the 1st gen 3.0 V6 had numerous issues with Toy quietly fixing things way past warranty, extending warranties, and buying vehicles back. Of course Jeep had issues too, they just didn't have as well funded of a PR department to cover things up...:-) In my neck of the woods MJ's have rust issues. Yota trucks don't have rust issues they have "my truck disappeared into a pile of dust" issues. This may be less pronounced in other climates but if the Yota's rust issues declined there so would the MJ's.

Having trouble locating the hard metal hose from the water pump up to the valve cover that the rubber heater hose attaches to. Heck, not even sure what it is called ( coolant tube?) but my meager web search abilities have turned up nothing. A friends son messed her's up replacing a hose. Any help/instruction/suggestion or anything would be appreciated Is it possible this tube started with the 91 and that is why no one lists it?

An Illinois boy for the Obamanation...let me put on my surprised face... :brows: he he he In all honesty you would be hard pressed to call the Caliber triplets good cars. I had hopes for the Dart but it turns out the independent reviews find its mileage and performance much below claims. One of the mag's review showed a best MPG of 28, far less than the 40 claimed. FIATS are not world class cars elsewhere in the world, why would they magically be so here? As to the 47% percent: If folks saw the unedited version instead of the carefully selected clips that the mainstream media spoon feeds viewers they would see what is abundantly clear: He would be wasting time and money to target those already firmly entrenched for B. Hussein Obama and he needs to target areas where he can actually gain. He was describing campaign strategy, and I can't fault his logic. Either way, even if you have payroll taxes deducted and you get it all back and more via refunds, EIC, etc.... you don't actually pay Fed. taxes. And to be perfectly clear: those totally addicted to government hand-outs are NEVER going to vote for someone who will stop the manna from heaven. That is just common sense. :thumbsup:

A dana 44 front and 44" tires....tick tick tick tick BOOM. Actually, that is probably way too many ticks before the boom.

No because oil and water do not mix..... Far easier to rebuild a good engine then one that has been grenaded.

The truth is apparently that production would not be moved to China, additional production would begin in China. China already produces almost exact-copy replicas if several jeeps that are pure piracy. China is going to be too large of a market to ignore and the Chinese people are tired of accepting the trash quality of the home-grown's and the replicas now that some have the cash to afford better. IMHO Chrysler, as it was when owned by Diamler Chrysler, is no longer an American brand now that over 50% ownership has transferred to the Italian government backed FIAT. Just as Honda or Toyota are not American companies and therefore their products are not American no matter the assembly point. You don't hear BMW's or M-B's called "American" although some of each are assembled here and it is only the jap-o-philes that I hear making the ridiculous claim that the jap companies products are American. So, Chevy was pimped out as a pay-off for organized labor's election support and Chrysler is owned by a foreign government.... Yeah bail-out! A resounding success!

Good call. It would make more sense for it to be a complete drivetrain swap from a '70's to mid '80's Chevy. That would give the pass. drop solid axle that this truck sports as well as the TH400. The T-case may be a 203 if it has a full-time provision ( the word "loc" on the shifter knob is a good indication) or an NP205. If late enough it could also be an NP208, the early version of what would become the 241.

"Nailhead" is actually the term applied to the early 60's Buick V8's prior to the last gen small block/big block V8's. I am fairly sure that the pattern on the tranny is the B.O.P. that fit Buick, Olds, Poncho, and Caddy engines. Chevy had its own bell housing pattern. Sometime around '74 or '75 Jeep finally started getting TH400's that had an AMC-specific case to do away with the adapters. The earlier TH400's bolted to the 225 in Commandos as they were originally a Buick engine and they bolted to the Buick 350 that Kaiser bought straight from GM to put in the FSJ's. Both of these engines were called "dauntless." These BOP TH400's used an adapter to the AMC-patterned engines starting with some of the I-6's.

With the info you described it is probably a Dana 20. It would have the shifter on the pass. side of the tranny tunnel. Hard to say for sure as that year of truck would have had a TF727 and an NP208 but it would have been a driver's drop front, not the pass. side like pictured. The TH400/D20 was available in the early seventies so it could all be a swap or the 401 may have come attached to a quadratrac and it was adapted to a D20 as that is not uncommon. With something that modified it is hard to say what it is for sure.

I was right behind that silver MB/McLaren SLR last night. Could't get the cell out in time to take a pic. I wonder if he looked in the rear-view mirror and upon spying my Sonic became envious of my MPG? Yeah, probably not...

I could work with that

In my experience the PowerTrax No-slip is by far the smoothest drop-in out there. It is a lot more expensive then the cheapies but IMHO it is worth it if you DD your rig and next to invisible operation is important.

I have been using TP on a certain part of my anatomy every since reading this and I have yet to notice any measurable change... :dunno:

yeah about that... :thumbsup:

Yep, trak-loks were an option in the rear axles. You probably have a D35 rear and that may make it tougher. I do not know of a way to tell if an XJ has a track-lok or not short of spinning the axles. The engine doesn't matter and in fact a 4.0 jeep stands a better chance of having the optional diff. Most 2.5's were more low-option.