Andy in Pa

I was there last year as well, but didn't have the MJ there. This is a GREAT show!! I may have the MJ out there this year, we'll see. A.

It's more than "thinking of a run." NAC Fest is the big annual trail event put on by the North Atlantic Chapter of NAXJA since either 2001 or 2002. We used to hold it at Paragon until Paragon was closed. It will happen, and it's a great time if you can make it. Rausch Creek isn't really all that far from southern New England. From the New Haven area it's about 4 hours (for most of you -- a bit more for Mr. Speed Limit here). Take I-84 to Scranton, then south on I-81. X2 what Eagle said, if you come down for one day, make sure its that Saturday. We have our BBQ and raffle that evening, and there will be LOTS of cool things available (winch bumpers, HD diff covers, straps, gift certs, ....etc..) at the raffle. Go ahead and follow the link I posted above and register, and COME ON OUT!!! I would like to see more MJ's out this year!!! Andy

Wow, That is a clean MJ now!!! I saw it before Loco got it cleaned up, and it still looked nice, did you get it painted or did he do it? It looks great Lynn. I am sure everyone will be drooling over it at NAC-Fest. I am trying to get some more MJ folks out for the event, but we'll see. A.

LOL!!! OK, I guess thats forgive-able. Of the top 10 LEGITIMATE excuses for missing this event, that is like #1 or 2... :yes: Congrats on your soon-to-be new arrival!! :cheers: :cheers:

What are you doing from June 11-14th?? The NAC crew within NAXJA has a big event at Rausch Creek, it should be a great time!!

Come on MJ folks, its time to come out in force!!! My wife will be there wheeling our MJ, and there will be a handful of others too. This event is being held at Rausch Creek in Jolliett, Pa. There will be all levels of trails available, from mild trail rides to insane rock crawling. We are staying at a very nice campground close to the park this year, and plan to have a great BBQ and raffle on Saturday evening. In years past, we have given away multiple aftermarket front winch bumpers, rear aftermarket bumpers, lots of recovery gear, and even a few long arm kits, lift kits and XJ D44 axles. We are expecting 40-50 rigs, and hopefully at least 1/3 of them will be MJ's this year!!!!! Here is the link to the forum with all of the info: http://www.naxja.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=227 Also, I meant to add that Rausch is having one of their local Rock Crawling competitions (RCROCS) that weekend too, so you can wheel for a few days, then hang out and watch the comp on Saturday. If you have never watched a comp before, it is pretty impressive the abuse that some of those rigs take, and the crazy lines that they are trying to run!!! Here is a link to the Rausch Creek website: www.rc4x4.org Thanks, Andy

My XJ has 5.13 gears with the Tera-Low 4-1 and 35's, with an auto... and I LOVE it. This is with a HPD44 front, and XJ D44 rear. Its not hard to stop, I have upgraded my brakes with better components and it stops pretty well now. I don't even have to touch the gas to start crawling obstacles. I have played on a wide variety of terrain, but I would say 90% rocks with it. I VERY rarely ever went over 2500 rpms. If I needed that much wheel speed, I'll just put it in 4-Hi. I have had my 4-1 since 01. It has well over 40,000 miles on it, some of them VERY HARSH,VERY SLOW miles. It has ALWAYS whined, but works as well as the first day I put it in. That being said, if I had it to do over again, I would just do an Atlas now. Unfortunately, there were not many options back when I built my XJ.

Yeah, like MrSimon said, no problem for stock MJ's on the "green" trails, and possbily low blues. Who else is coming?? We gotta get a few more MJ's on the trail for a change.

We really need to work on the number of MJ's that come out to events!!!! The NAC group within NAXJA is having their yearly event (NAC-Fest), how many of you guys are coming??? The only 3 MJ's that I know will be there. My wifes, MrSimons, and Strokers. There HAS to be more around the area!! It is a 4 day event, and Saturday we have a BBQ and raffle. The raffle was second to NONE last year, and I can tell you from first hand experience that it will be just as good, if not BETTER this year. If you ever wanted to check out Rausch Creek, this is a great opportunity. Rausch Creek will also have their event (RCROCS) going on that weekend too. We'll have all levels of trails available, so if your just starting out, not to worry, we have some very experienced trail guides. We are basing our evetn out of a local campground. The campground has cabins for rent, and we also have a group tent site available too. As the president of the NAC chapter, I can answer any questions you may have. Here is a link to the info: http://www.naxja.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=227 Thanks!! Andy

If your going to run the springs with square u-bolts like that, than I recommend "Locating" the original SUA spring perch on the axle to the spring plate somehow. The simplest thing to do would probably be putting a 3/8" socket head bolt in the spring plate with a washer. Otherwise, one good rock on that spring plate, and you'll move those u-bolts/spring plate independent of the spring perch, springs and axle. Both XJ's and MJ's ALWAYS locate the spring, perch, axle, and spring plate with the center pin (and the u-bolts run front to back) so nothing can move/slide easily when the u-bolts loosen/stretch a bit over time.

LOL, this was the post I was waiting for someone to put up... and I would agree with this 8 times out of 10.... this is not one of those times.... A D35 is 2-3/4" diameter Mr Spobi-nator.... :shake: A whole 1/4" of difference = they'll work fine.

New U-bolts were installed when the rear SUA 3" lift was put on last Sept...

Just re-use the U-bolts that are on the truck now, they should still be in good shape. The axle tube diameter isn't enough of a difference, they will work fine for the 8.25 too. Any thoughts on modding the 3" springs to obtain a little LESS lift to work well for the SOA?? The more I think about it, this is what I would do. Maybe use a few of those stock XJ springs.

I am not sure what others have done, but I can show you what I did. I got the Mountain Offroad spring perches. With using the factory springs, I wanted an anti-wrap-type of spring perch. These seem to work well for my needs, no spring wrap yet. http://www.mountainoffroad.com/Catalog/ ... rdware.htm I used some weld-on tabs I got from Rustys for the shock mounts. I think they were R-116's. Just make sure you get at least 3/16" thinkness, and make sure the hole is 1/2". Here is the link to the "tabs" page: http://rustysoffroad.com/mm5/merchant.m ... Code=BP-TB It looks like Mountain Offroad also has the mounting tabs for the shock mounts: http://www.mountainoffroad.com/Catalog/ ... y/tabs.htm I then re-used the factory spring plate and cut the shock mount stem off of it.

Inchitis....its a disease!!! 6", you really fell off the wagon hard, I love it!!! I want to check out the JCR rear bumper, do you have a pic handy? Leahs MJ is getting a winch/ front bumper before NAC-Fest, and MAYBE a rear bumper, but I gotta get the XJ done first. You may be able to get those shock extenders (an adapter that screws onto the stem at the top, and spaces the shock down approx. 2") and continue to use the front shocks you have. The rear shocks are a different story, but since your doing an SOA (gotta weld new shock mounts onto the axle anyway), you may be able to use what you have. If you need any help with this let me know, I can run over and help. A.

I would put the stock coil spring isolators back in, between the 2" poly isolators and the body. Running JUST poly isolators makes for a harsher ride. The rear springs are fine. You MAY want to add a lift shackle to level it out, but they will work fine for a 4WD swap.

Bingo.... that is what I would do... Mine are 2WD springs, and they have plenty of lift w/SOA.

:wall: :wall: :popcorn: Sorry, couldn't resist...

I have a 91 and swapped in a 95 full gauge cluster. I had to use the white case HO cluster because I have the electronic speedo, and that speedo does not mount in the Renix blue case cluster (wish it would). AND the white cluster has no provisions for mounting the column shift indicator, so I was basically screwed. Would have much preferred to keep the original indicator in my new cluster as you did but could not figure out a way to do it. So I ended up doing it like the below: Ah, OK... I understand what you were talking about then. Did you have to buy the separate column mounted PRND21 indicator? How does that work? Does that just hook to the same wire?

No problem, but I am a little confused by your comments. So the later electronic speedo version has a white case (I have to do this to a 96 XJ soon too)? Are you swapping a 91-newer white case into a 90 or older MJ? Or do you have a 91-newer MJ with the shift indicator in the gauge cluster? I thought they all went to floor shifters in 91. Not sure if you had it turned around in your text, but it looks to me like the newer speedo won't mount easily in the older blue case... is that what you meant?

I will add pics later, but I just performed this upgrade on my 87 MJ auto on the column. I used a gauge package from an 89 XJ. I got lucky with the gauge package, as the odometer was within 200 miles of the idiot light version that was in my MJ. The very first thing I did was I checked all of the bulbs in the new gauge package. I used an extra light bulb socket I had (and a 12v battery), and tested each bulb to make sure all of the bulbs worked. I then removed the idiot light version from the MJ, and compared it to the gauge package. The PRND21 indicator bolts on separately to the blue housing, and the gauge package had the same mounting spots built in to the blue housing as well. The only thing that the gauge package housing lacked was the viewing hole in the tachometer for the PRND21 indicator, and the access hole in the bottom for the wire that controls the PRND21 indicator. I used a dremel and carefully cut both the viewing hole in the tach (use the fuel gauge in the idiot light version to judge where/how big to make this hole), and the access hole for the wire to come through the blue housing (again, judge the location and size of this hole by referencing the idiot light version blue housing). The tachometer is removed from the gauge package by removing 5 screws from the back. 2 hold the gauge in place, the other 3 (if your looking at the back of the gauge package where the tach is, there is a row of 4 screws and a row of 3 screws, remove the row of 3 screws)are contacts for a PC board that is connected to the gauge by a few wires. After removing these 5 screws, the tach will come right out. A quick note on the PRND21 indicator:::: This works on a wire connected inside of the steering column. It has a "return spring" that hooks to the indicator housing (the separate piece mounted inside the blue housing behind the fuel gauge in the idiot light version) on the left side (if looking at the face), AND the indicator needle on the left side. The wire from the column feeds through a plastic "alignment" piece on the right side of the indicator housing (just pay close attention to how the wire runs when you take it out of the idiot light version). The wire has an eyelet on it that fits into a notch on the red indicator needle, on the right side. This is easily unhooked/hooked back up, as long as it is done carefully ( I can see the red indicator plastic breaking very easily if the wire is forced). To put the gauge package in, you must leave the tachometer out and feed the column shift wire up through the blue housing. Then fish it through the right side of the PRND21 indicator and clip it back onto the red needle. Then the PRND21 indicator can be mounted down to the gauge package housing with the two screws that held it in place in the idiot light housing. At this point install the speedo cable and put in the tachometer with the 5 screws. Plug in the two plugs in the back of the gauge package and go and install the two sensors under the hood (the oil pressure and coolant temp sensors) and test it. Once your convinced everything works, finish up putting the dash together. So.... the moral of this story is the fuel gauge and the PRND21 indicator ARE SEPARATE PIECES.... and the PRND21 indicator can be easily removed from the "idiot light version" and installed into a gauge package version behind the tachometer. Two access holes need to be cut and thats it!! I'll put up pics soon... Andy

See this post on NAXJA..... http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=982543 Thanks, Andy

Hey Andy. I'm gonna go with the Hell Creek springs. Tommy's busy enough with my broken rigs to mess around with swapping springs on this one. LOL. Next on the list is find an awesome winch bumper. Yeah, Tommy doesn't sit still for long up there, always plenty to do. As for a winch bumper, my favs are Rigid and AJ's Armor. I run a Rigid winch bumper on the XJ, it has seen some HEAVY pulls, and has held up well.

Hi Lynn!! I would just get some SOA spring mounts for the MJ D44 and have them welded on ( I am sure Barry and Jim have something available in the way of spring mounts), and do a bastard rear leaf pack. XJ springs do not have as much arch to them, so I would remove a leaf per side and swap in the corresponding XJ leafs. Start from there and see how it works out. This would be much cheaper than getting entirely new rear leafs. Besides, this will give Tommy another project to tinker with too!! Andy

I have been wheeling on Claytons long arms for almost 8 years now (I was one of his guinea pigs...). I have hammered on them and they are badly gouged/scratched and otherwise ugly....but not bent. If you manage to bend one, he will replace it for free. Something tells me though that if you bent one of his long arms, you've got bigger problems. I have replaced the joints on both the uppers and lowers once, only because I swapped in a HP D44 front and thought I should put in new joints while I was at it. The old ones weren't loose at all.