DirtyComanche

What year ranges had a 32 spline front? The last one I pulled apart was quite old, it uses the two piece gear design like the other cases with 32 spline fronts, but I believe it was still the smaller yoke/spline setup. Unfortunately I was only opening it up for the input gear and threw the rest of it out. I don't know if I have any other ones left to look at. WJ only for 32 spline rear then?

I hate whoever invented scotch locs, and I hate people that use them almost as much.

Made two decisions. I am going to run JK wheels, so 5x4.5 to 5x5 adapters. I'm going to go with the G2 ones because they're cheap. I will buy an AA HD SYE for the 231. I would order both of them right now, but I have some Summit bucks around here somewhere... But I don't know where they went! Why can't they just apply them to your account automatically??? Hmmm, seems I didn't order using my account last time (odd?), so maybe that's why?

Keep me in mind when you wind up pulling it off. I haven't been to the island in years, but ya never know. A short box will fit entirely inside the box on my Dodge, so it's super easy for me to take it home. :laughin:

If you want to test the head gasket, you're best to pull the rad hoses and heater hoses off and plug them. There is kits with expandable plugs sold for doing this, and one will have the adapter with a gauge to pressurize it. Any other symptoms that lead you to believe it's the headgasket?

As I understand it, the later blocks still have the boss for the knock sensor, you just need to drill and tap it. Not that it really matters in this case.

I saw replacement box panels for sale, fairly inexpensive too in case if you want to repair it. http://stores.zmjeeps.com/bed-side-mj-comanche/ It's not worth it because of massive shipping costs (I am not in the US). There is one in the junkyard here and I keep meaning to go look at it. I don't remember if it was a SWB or LWB even. My cab isn't in great shape either, I'm not sure what the bondo is hiding. I need to actually pull the truck in an assess what is going on before I make any real commitments. As it sits my plan of throwing it together for the winter is workable. It's just a question if I want to try to go farther with it (as in, actually make it nice).

The donor driveshafts should work. Everything in those year ranges is pretty well swappable as far as the hard parts go. IMHO, what you want to do is fairly straightforward, it's just involving. Basically pull the donor in and strip it down to nothing, then install all that stuff in the other one. I would take ALL of the wiring personally, there was changes between 88 and 89, and some (later?) 89 models vs other 89 models.

I really don't even plan to really wheel this thing, I just want the tires covered so it is legal, and the bed has some ugly stuff that should be covered. As my (hypothetical) build thread might allude, I'm still hammering out the details of what I want out of this. It actually would be a good candidate to build tube fenders for since the box is not really repairable (short of new bedsides), so really you might as well just hack it up at that point.

Yeah, the harness and ECU is different. Easiest would be to swap everything.

Has anyone tried fitting up stock JK rear flares? They're fairly easy to come by since so many people take them off. Edit, it looks terrible. Forget I asked.

Thanks for the thoughts guys, I'm leaning towards the Napier ones since they're most likely to do what I want. The video on their site of rubbing the tree is promising too, it looks like they should hold up for a long time. Otherwise I think I might pull out the pipe mangler and the 1" sch40 and make something. I'm not going to get to this for months anyways, so it's not any sort of hurry.

If I had the extra space and time (money isn't really an issue) I would buy one and throw my spare 4.0L/Renix setup I have in it.

And are they any good?

As I've mentioned in a few posts, I'm a little out of touch with what the aftermarket has done for the MJ (and the XJ) in the last 10 years. What is available for fender flares at this point? How well do they fit? Do any allow for spectacular amounts of trimming? And do they hold up to mild abuse? I'm not limited to plastic/rubbery flares. If there's good tube flares around for a reasonable price, I'd like to hear about it. I know Bushwhacker has long since discontinued their "Look at 'em wrong and they break" fender flares that were popular 10 years ago. The new ones sound like they're much more flexible.

If I was going to spend that type of money it would not be on a rear D60, especially not that setup. I will post the long form answer of my reasoning if you want.

I'd run the 8.25" with 33s. Better ground clearance, less weight. Depending what the D60 is out of, it might be a half mile wide too (well, 65"+).

He said 'filler' not 'filter.' :laughin: I believe he means something like this: http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Inline-Die-Cast-Filler-Neck-1-5-Inch-Hose,9010.html Which allows you to run a rad cap even if your radiator doesn't have provisions for one. I used one of these on my old MJ when I went to a remote rad, since I was still using the Renix rad.

http://www.northwestfab.com/NWF-Eco-Box-Billet-Planetary-Doubler-Case_p_2403.html I highly suggest phoning them and talking about you specific application, as they will point out whatever issues you might have. And read the instruction manual before ordering so you know what you're getting into. You need a 10+ ton press to assemble it (they say something like 30, you can get away with less). One thing is they don't (or didn't) offer a 21 spline output. This is okay because you don't want to run that, IMHO, but it means you can't bolt a pre-91 4.0L tcase to them. So what you're going to wind up doing if you're in that situation is taking the input gear out of your 231, and using it as the input gear in the EcoBox. Then if you buy it as a 23 spline output shaft you can bolt up any later NP231J out of an XJ. The EcoBox is just a case that you can put the planetary set out of a NPwhatever aluminum tcase into. It comes with whatever output shaft you need, the shift fork, and a stud/hardware kit and a few other things. You will have to get a tcase to steal the planetary set out of, but you can use the one you have now if you pick up another to use as the 2nd tcase. You will probably have to physically destroy the case half to do this, as not many people have the needed press too to get it out, YMMV. You then need to press the ring gear you stole into the EcoBox, make sure you have the proper press tools when you do this as you do not want to damage it. Then you drop your planetaries and input gear into it, then assemble the two halves of the EcoBox together, figure out your clocking, seal it up, install the input seal housing (also stolen from the donor tcase), and then you can then stick it onto your transmission, and bolt whatever tcase you want to use to the back of it. As I said, I would avoid using a NP231 as the second tcase. If you're gentle with it, it should be okay for at least a while though. Also, they will recommend you use a 6 pinion/planet reduction set in the BlackBox, which I would agree with, however it's far more important that the second tcase has this. You will probably be okay just using a 3 pinion set in the EcoBox, especially if you only plan to use a NP231 behind it. I didn't document assembling my EcoBox very much, as it was fairly straightforward. But there is some threads on Pirate and other places that show it in reasonable detail. Make sure you're up for it before you do it. It isn't hard, but you do need a press. Also you will have to build a shifter setup or buy one, so be prepared for that. For my EcoBox I bought a blank shifter and boot from JB Custom Fab and welded it to the supplied fork adapter, it fits between my center console and the passenger seat tightly, and I had to bend it a bunch in my press to make it just right. My NP205 twinstick setup (pictured in my prior post) is not really relevant to you, I believe you would just have to lengthen the one rod on your stock shifter setup to be able to shift the 2nd tcase. I hope my post makes some sense, I'm supposed to be sleeping right now so I'm not firing on all cylinders.

Yeah, I think the EcoBox is a good deal. I think it's worth it in the long run to just spend a few more bucks rather than messing with the ones where you hack up a regular ol' tcase.

Image Not Found Only picture I have that shows it, but the EcoBox has more material around where it bolts to the tcase, as they left the case at full diameter between the reliefs for the studs/nuts and the shift rail on the other side. Has anyone broke a Behemoth? No idea, don't really care either, since it's now obsolete anyways.

I always like the look for the new style front end. Your paint body work looks amazing too.

I don't want to argue about it, but I've met the guys there and was buying NWF products when they designed the original BlackBox. It was designed around being bolted to a NP205, it's internally nearly the same as a Behemoth, but the case was made stronger around where it bolts to the second tcase, and minimal material was removed to clear the NP205 shifters. This was to avoid problems with having the case break from the weight of the NP205, even though they recommend you run an additional mount on it (you will break most aluminum transmission tailhousings hanging that much weight off them). I never asked him specifically why they made the Titan, as in if guys were having failures, but it's obvious that it's marketed to the big $$/HP crowd. The Titan has not been around for nearly as long as the BlackBox, which makes sense because the big $$/HP crowd is something that's relatively infant compared with tradition rockcrawling.

Who is TMI? The umm, Mad Rooster? design has been cloned and made by various companies over the years. The problem is all of them seem to go broke. So one day you can order one, the next day you can't, the day after that you can get it somewhere else. The EcoBox/BlackBox was really meant to be used with a NP205, it's honestly stupid overkill to bolt a NP231 to it. Of course, they then offered their Titan setup for whatever reason, I'm guessing somebody with 1000HP and 40" tires managed to break a normal BlackBox. Behemoth went out of business too, right?

I think I will order two Bilstein 24-188197 shocks for the front. They should be correct for approximately 3" of lift. Hornbrod used Bilstein 33-185606 for his rear, but I think I will wait and look things over a bit better before I even take a guess at what should fit. I will have to look around and see if I have anything on the shelf anyways, there might be something that is workable. I don't feel that the rear will matter as much anyways.