DirtyComanche

That'd be a bit of a roadtrip... My place isn't as hacktacular as your's was. What you describe sounds downright terrifying. Mine is just bad enough that it seems okay (other than the obvious peeling plaster/paint) until you spend some time in it. I fixed most of the leaks that I saw in the plumbing, but it won't drain right because it's all kinda wonky. The paint all sucks, they obviously had no idea how to sand anything. It's a lot of small things that just make you shake your head. Of course, since I got all fired up and decided I should try to move, luck would have it that I'm actually working some hours for a change. I'm doing 9 hour days, 7 a week now... Shouldn't last, so I'm taking it while it's there, but it's hard to look for a place when you're at work every day.

I've never had american budweiser. But the stuff they sell here is pretty gross. The label spells it right out 'brewed with the finest wheat, hops, and rice'. Rice? That's for sake. And there is something in it that I'm intolerant to, makes me hurdle even if I only have two.

Yup. Limited market. Hell, there is plenty of car rags/reviewers that bash the wrangler for having two solid axles. Albiet, none of them are 4wd rags. I'm not worried. Why buy something new when there's plenty of old junk just waiting for a little love? I guess it'll run out someday.

Driving? I take it you're going the boring route (skit accross the praries to Alberta, then north-west to Dawson Creek BC, then north on the Alaska highway)? If you have time to burn, go back the other way on the Stewart-Cassiar highway. It might be basically the wrong direction, but you can go through Prince George, then west through McBride onto Edmonton, Alberta. Or you could go south from Prince George to Kamloops and east on the #1 to Calgary... See a bunch more stuff. Especially if you have time to burn.

Cool. I want to see how it turns out. That's a decent looking fuse panel... Kinda pricey though?

Some prototype that didn't/won't make it to production... Or something. There was a couple threads on it.

I'm pretty certain that came out of the Williams Lake newspaper... It's a town about 3 hours south of me, and they are feverantly opposed to wal-mart having anything to do with their town. But I could be wrong.

That said, a SYE is still a useful upgrade.

I didn't know you couldn't exceed 2500rpm in low range with it - that's totally useless. Unless they're getting at 'continuous' usage, even then that's pretty useless. I've said it before, I don't think it makes ANY sense to buy one. They're too expensive for what you actually get out of it. Which is a 4:1 low, and that's it. A rubicon NP241J (NP241OR) is similarily priced, 4:1, and has upgraded front and rear outputs from the get-go; you just need to do some flange changing and such. For the price of either option... I'd probably save a few more dollars and buy either a stak or an atlas. And I'm leaning towards stak there - the mini-monster 3spd is attractive as it offers a lot better gearing options (like, 5.4:1, and 3.8:1 for one set, or something like 4:1 and 2.7:1 for another). That way you have another selectable low gear. Atlas 4spds also offer some usage, but their gear split isn't as usable as the stak. Atlas is fully synchro'd, but it still doesn't shift worth anything when not moving from what I've seen. The stak isn't synchro'd, but you can shift while not moving with it. Parts in both are way more HD than anything ment for production vehicles.

Good deal.

I really do. I am so not suited for it... And the plaster job over the water-damaged wall cracked yesterday. It's now peeling back pretty bad. I think they might not have fixed the leak that caused the water damage in the first place. I did a little complaining, but I imagine I won't get anywhere unless I do a lot of complaining and start invoking rights from the tennants act. Everything in the building is half-assed, they made it look pretty when they reno'd it over the course of the last couple years (half of it is still being renovated, but they haven't worked on it in months). Being that it's located on skid-row and reserve st doesn't help either. Even more amusingly... I found a mls listing to buy one of the units. Listed price is 86 000. And it's 'recently renovated' just like mine! Guess I'm at the point that I'm pissed off about it enough that I'll find somewhere else to rent. Moving is going to suck...

Wow. I would like to see how my parent's cat reacts to a bunny that big.

I dunno about not being able to get welding done in a remote place... I figure the more remote it is the more likely somebody has a welder so they can fix their own junk. Look for a machine shop, or a welding outfit... Do the prep, sinch the ubolts down and drive easy. A job that big is pretty much a beer job in most shops that don't do small stuff. Or, just buy the 8.8 and weld the perches on, then swap it when you do the rest of the lift. Might as well not do the work twice.

Actually, that's why I bought my chevy (did I tell the story of that pile here? I know I've admitted I owned it), because I don't have either of my jeeps where I live/work and I'll admit I don't have a lot of hobbies other than trucks/cars/wheeling. I found I wound up in the bar (or drunk at buddy's house) way too often because I simply had nothing else to do. I figure its costing me roughly the same amount as a drinking habit - but I have a super redneck truck to show for it this way.

Besides the mentioned H1 beadlocks... Hutchinson makes a DOT approved double beadlock that is eerily like the H1, but aluminum. Which makes sense since hutchinson made the H1 locks. At about $450 a rim, they aren't exactly a bargin. However, they make them in either 15" or 16" sizes. For some reason the H1 had to run 16.5" rims. And to really make things fun... Non DOT-approved beadlocks are still legal. There is no law specifying that beadlocks aren't legal, nor anything stating you MUST run DOT approved wheels. I want to run H1s because they're cheap. Unfortunatly, being limited to used tires or intercos kinda sucks. The used tires aren't a great deal for me - with shipping I could buy something perfectly new. I don't think interco makes anything that actually fits the bill for me. I think I'm going to buy some stazworks... They have ones that aren't overly flashy, and the price is actually reasonably comparable to recentered H1s. And I can just get a 16" dealio and it'll clear my brakes fine.

It seems nothing is made for a 16.5" rim anymore... Interco still does, but they're it. Kinda sucks.

And you can always use gear oil with the friction modifier for a L/S in a regular diff... A lot of the gear oil has it in it.

What year is the axle? Things got tricky in 78 and later... Although, if you use ford radius arms ultimately that's the same as most 'long arm' setups.

Mine has most of the interior, and all the wiring out of my XJ in it. I filled the cab to the roof, I had to shove the last of it in through the window, which I rolled up most of the way to the top so it would stop stuff from pouring out. Otherwise, I bought it as a DD, turned it into a wheeler/DD, got annoyed with the weekend warrior limitations, built it into a specific trail rig, broke it, then put it on the back-burner. I'm estimating my XJ to be done by 2014, so I'll start working on it in early 2015. :doh:

Isnt that bolt a external torx???? It can be. I think only 84-86 though.

Oh, okay, oops. So they are the same as an early GM setup. Well, that changes things.

If it was poster sized, it would be kinda cool.

Actually, I have that problem too. I'm pretty sure it got wedged in there well enough that, short of cutting things apart, I won't be seeing it again. Maybe a violent roll-over would release it though.

Hit it with a hammer? You should be able to get a wedge under the lip somewhere without TOO much difficulty.

My MJ had about 300 000kms on it when I pulled the odometer... It hasn't had much since then.