jage

I just love looking at pics of other peoples' garages. Now gaze with wonder and say to yourself, "Mine's not that bad after all..."

Well I went to figure out which bolts go where for putting the tranny back and I seem to be a few bolts short. I usually at least try to pay attention, but this time I just dropped the bolts in on the floor as each one came out. Reckoned I'd figure it all out later... Well now it's later and the bad news is I have 8 holes and only 5 bolts. One of those is the lower stud, so I seem to be missing 2 bolts which makes the puzzle a little harder than I'd've thunk. :wall: So, anyone tech-head-packrats out there have a little diagram or the measurements and locations for the 8 bolts between a an AX-4/5 and the 2.5L? Thanks! Jeremiah

Well as you can read in "FedEx Horror Stories" I've had mighty woes trying to get FedEx to bring my Autozone clutch kit to my door. They finally said it was probably missing so I should go ahead and get it somewhere else. I called NAPA yesterday and they said they'd have it at 8 am today. This morning I dropped by to pick it up. Just to be sure I pop open the box, and guess what? Someone has cut into the packaging and pilfered the pilot bearing. The guy offered to give me a little discount on the clutch kit (less than the cost of the bearing) and let me buy the pilot bearing separate, but at that point I just wanted a complete new kit and I didn't want to get screwed out of any money to put a part back into a kit that it should have come in. So he calls another store and I hear him ask, "Is it unopened?" "Are you sure it's unopened?" Tells me it will be there around 2pm, they'll call me. They don't call of course so I headed back out there and sure enough we open the new box and - already been installed once. Yup. There is grease smeared all over it, random dirt, the whole thing is nasty and the grease seals are broken. Oh it's all there, but it's not pretty. He says, "Well the other one looked way better than this." as he grabs the pilot bearing and throws it in the original clutch box. I pull out the bearing, and of course, it's already been installed and removed too. I'm like, "So you think this is enough grease?" He says "Yeah, of course..." as he starts to poke around the pins with his finger. Then I don't know if he just was sick of me, gave up on the whole thing, or felt sorry for me, but he pulled a new pilot bearing and threw that in the box instead. So finally I could walk out of there with a new clutch kit, complete with all new pieces for only the price on the shelf plus tax, which is $40 more than the Autozone clutch I ordered 13 days ago. What a total nightmare! Someone please tell me it's going to go in like butter and it will all be worth it!

Well sure, just like not everyone wants the same tube chassis buggy or roll cage, and yet there is a market for Snipers and companies like Poison Spider. I agree with what you're saying, but I still don't think that doesn't make this a candidate for "Future Possible Products". You should move to Indiana. No inspections. You could probably cut a comanche in half and just drive the front half around, cept for the lack of taillights and the metal sparks...

Well after daily calls to FedEx and several excuses (it's on the truck, we didn't have your phone number, someone will call you, blah blah blah) they are now prepared to admit that it probably won't be found. So I'm getting an Autozone credit for $148 buying it locally tomorrow for $174 and not even a "we're sorry" for screwing me out of a week of working on my comanche. If they'd just admitted it was lost before I'd at least have saved 2 days and the weekend, not to mention today. But no, every day they started a new investigation and none were ever conclusive (apparently). Thanks for the stories! Keep 'em coming, I'm sure this isn't the end of shipping woes!

See that's exactly why someone needs to design a kit! Ditto with the exo cage. :D

I can think of two things you could offer- 1. A bolt on exo-cage for the MJ - you could expand it to the XJ later 2. A complete DIY truggy kit. Basically like half a Sniper. Cut here and here, and bammo! Insta truggy. I know all the guys who like to preserve comanches are cringing right now...

Hey everyone, my 'manche clutch kit is tied up in Fed Ex for the seventh day in a row and my truck is in pieces and I really can't move forward on the project. I've heard every excuse from they got my phone number wrong to them insisting my neighborhood is new (house built in 1974!) - plus I've had deliveries here before and I've seen the FedEx truck in the court more than once while waiting for my package. So, while I wait for them to find their butt, why don't y'all entertain me with some "Shipping Horror Stories"...

Yeah except when the package arrives 3 weeks late and has a different shipping number (and not like 1 digit different like ALL different)....

Good looking work. What did you use to notch the tubes?

Yes! Yes! OMFG He so did that to me! I'd forgotten!

But the 4-speed would be a direct fit so it might not have been factory? I'm not sure because FEDEX is a week late with my clutch plate with no indication it's going to get here, so I can't speak from experience yet. :mad: (putting a 5 speed from a 2.8 on a 2.5 that had a 4 speed). Also I have to second about the tcase. I've been trying to give away a 207 for years now. It's just a big paperweight.

Buy it for the bar and see if you can sell it. Having the 2.8L suxxor though. I don't know about the MJ but the XJ version has a different cross member mount location (about 14" difference IIRC). At worst park it for spare parts until you get inspired.

My 2000 TJ manual says put Tranny in gear (manual) and Tcase in N.

Sure ask what they'd be shipped to Indianapolis. If he's interested give him my email (jage@jage.com) Thanks!

About Rusty's: NO - fitment issues, wrong size bushing, easily bent or damaged - all parts were broken, bent or replaced within a year. most on the first time out. Some never fit. Others were never sent. About Rusty's: The ride quality was unknown because I had to change the 2nd set of rear springs after the first time out and the front springs after the 3rd (driver's side sagging 2") About Rusty's: As originally delivered the lift didn't have the right bushing in one leaf. The skid plates never fit (chop and weld!) I can't speak to the parts that were never sent. And what I wanted was to fit 32" tires and the 6" lift did not do that. It turns out that is because I had the 3" lift parts at the 6" price. I was told to cut my fenders to make it fit before I got replacement pieces (which were also crapola) About Rusty's: To fit 32" tires and trail ride at the Badlands and Haspen. About Rusty's: Eventually the stuff that was modified did hard trails, however there wasn't much Rusty's left by the time I started doing the tougher stuff. The lower control arms held up until a rock dented one and I think the rear shackles are O.K. About Rusty's: Yeah that too, but Rusty's "sway bar disconnects" were just lowers and later was told I was supposed to cut and drill my stock mounts (that's some hard *ss metal for a hand drill). So the sway bar wound up disco'd until I replaced them with RE discos - so not much 'round town driving. About Rusty's: Well the rear springs wound up having a dump truck leaf about 2" thick to prevent wrap (they wrapped around the ends anyway) so they were pretty stiff. The front coils allowed for pretty good articulation in the front, until one of them stopped and coming back all the way from being compressed. And I'm super glad you didn't ask about their customer service! :mad:

LOL... my fault I was trying to use ASCII art, but the / in this font is too steep so I used "Code" to make it more of a 45° angle. :nuts: I'm not sane. What can I say.

Oh I saw. I had the 2.8 in my XJ originally and I'm on my second 2.5L comanche. My old 2.5 manch had 31" BFG Mud TAs on 3.54s. It would do about 80 if you were veddy veddy patient... I day dream about having a 4.0L trail rig :drool:

Actually those are XJ curved seats with MJ bench brackets. I'm still on a quest to find stock MJ buckets or something with a thinner seat... Unfortunately these were less comfortable than sitting on a rim. So the search continues!

Divvy, it'd be tits if it was a 4.0L. Good luck.

There is a cheap project MJ over on JeepForum http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=280921 Says no title - $350 It's not my ad so I'm putting it in "Pub"

What are you in China or something? :) The link works fine for me. :hateputers: Just put: lower control arm drop in Google and it's the 3rd thing. Rubicon Express comes up 4th. Unless you're using Google-China of course!

Like today when I was moving the new drivetrain (trans/tcase) for my 2wd/4wd swap around on the back of my 'manche bed so I could reach a stud on the other side for the 4th nut on the tcase stud and the whole thing FELL OFF. :mad: Luckily it fell off very slowly, and I got it standing on end, yoke down transmission pointing up. But I was alone and had to balance it with one hand while finishing the rest of the nuts and tightening (only have so long on gasket maker). After I managed to get that done, it took me like 2 hours to move it. I was trying to use my engine hoist with a block of wood instead of the front arms and I couldn't be a ballast and direct the drivetrain. It kept wanting to come down and flop back on the tube elbow no matter what I did. Everything's cool now, it's on the tranny-jack and ready to go, but like Jeff said... it's those little things...

Specifically most Long Arm kits (except Skyjacker).... Short arm kits use the existing mounts or even the stock arms. And some companies make a drop mount kit as an alternative to the long arm kits. (I don't know this company, it was just the first google hit: http://www.rubiconusa.com/store/product.asp?productnum=RE9900) So... don't go hacking your mounts off just yet. Anyway, I'm sure you're sitting at your desk going.. but why? Why use a long arm kit and why is a mount drop an option instead? Sure you are! I'll pretend you asked! If you look at a stock coil sprung Jeep the lower control arms (LCA) are supposed to be parallel to the ground. I know, it's startling when you're used to seeing all these lifted rigs. When I heard this after wheeling the XJ for a few years I had to go look at my TJ to see if it was true. Anyway, the reason is the LCAs form the radius which the front axle moves around. If the wheel needs to move up, it is also moving back around the arc of the LCA (more or less). Enter some 4" lift coils. Now your LCAs looks like this / more or less. Now to go up the tire must also go forward as it follows the arc. You can pretend your fist is a tire and your elbow is attached to the frame. You can see how your fist makes a forward arc as it comes up from below horizontal. Now imagine your (my) little D30 with those meaty 32" tires coming up to that boulder and now the tire has to go forward to go up while your Jeep is also trying to go forward. So if you do the same fist/arm trick but use your shoulder instead, you'll see that the fist has to travel much less forward for the same amount of up-travel. Basically the drop mount or the long arms tend to restore the geometry closer to horizontal. The arc is less pronounced and crossing the same boulder the tire has to travel less forward. See, and you didn't even know to ask yet. Headache anyone? :cheers: Now that I think about it this probably has something to do with IFS in race trucks.....hmmmm....

3 cheers for packratting :papers: thanks!