DirtyComanche

You would need the ones out of a hi-pinion D30. And you would need the carrier. And you'd be better off swapping the entire axle than swapping the gears. Unless you want to do a gear setup. Which I can assure you that you don't. And I'm not a fan of used gears anyways.

YJs had them too, but the brackets need slight modification. Unless you want to try to run leaf springs at YJ width (or not).

No.

I am what I would consider a self-taught welder. I picked up a machine, tried things, did some reading, tried more things, did more reading, then eventually got to the point that I felt confident in what I can do. Eventually I did take a course, but it was only one week of oxy-acentylene and it really did little for me (it was part of my formal training, it was more screwing around with fire than welding). So, can I become a self-taught machinist? At work, we have a bridgeport (vertical mill) and a lathe. I've used a lathe a little before, but really can't say I learned much then (cutting speed was already set, and I didn't do anything worth talking about). Besides, this lathe is a hell of a lot more complicated, and wasn't made in china. And I've used the mill to drill holes (no drill press in the shop), but never to actually mill anything. Anyways, so without taking a course at the college or w/e (I could, I suppose, but I can't guarantee when I'm in town), is there any recommended reading that I could do so I at least feel decently comfortable before I decided to try to do anything stupid?

I consider it a 'can of worms' topic. Actually, I'm starting to see worms regardless of where I look. My short answer is you won't need them.

Cutting a unibody to mount it on a frame is a huge wiggly can of worms. Cutting the unibody to mount something that doesn't fit in it is a mess. Getting something, that shouldn't fit, to fit without really cutting things is where the magic is. What's the physical dimensions of this engine like? From the pics I'm guessing really close to a 4.oh?

I was here last winter... We don't have cheap salt like the guys out east. They're more likely to sand here than salt the all-hell out of the road. Look at pictures of Pete's red (er, desert tan now?) MJ and you'll see what real salt induced rust is!

They are gone, but still in the cache of everyone who viewed them earlier... I tried reloading them, and got the 'moved/deleted' image.

I doubt it goes anywhere, but maybe to a show'n'shine. The huge rims make it hard to tell, but I really think that's a 5x4.5 bolt pattern. Oh, who am I kidding, it is. There's no lockouts on the front axle, so it is 99% likely that is is a D30 = 5x4.5. So, at best he's got a D44 or 8.8 rear. But it's probably a D35, as it looks small and isn't 8.8 shaped. Granted, I can't confirm that, but the skyjacker red, the stance of the truck, and the huge rims make me think it ain't nothing but show, and show doesn't require axles that will survive. Okay, so, maybe he drives it around in sand some. I've seen show trucks do that too. Bah. Might as well stick to the parking lot at the mall.

It shouldn't be THAT bad. They salt the roads here, but not like they do where you live. But I guess that is a consideration. As trying to extract the bolts after that happens it really not worthwhile.

The fugly rims don't help, but they still are too big. He could have huge soft 8s and I'd still think it looked stupid. Of course, I have other issues with the pictured truck. Which don't help.

What size tires? And what is your planned use of the truck? Make the SYE a HD one. Not a hack'n'tap (oh, here I go ragging on the H&Ts again). PORC (Performance off-road center) sells a HD one that is very affordable. AA (Advance Adapters) sells one for slightly more. I have an AA one personally. Bumpstops, as said, most kits don't include them. Hell, most kits are $#!& and don't include much. The stock rear ones can be lowered with some square tubing, which is probably the way to go anyways. The front ones can be built up with hockey pucks, but at 6.5" of lift, I don't know if that is entirely practical or not. You may well need brake lines if the kit 'dun have 'em. Then, you might need the brackets for said brake lines as some come without them (why, I don't know). Sway bar disconnects, often they don't come with a kit. You don't specifically need them, as you don't specifically need a sway bar. '1-ton' steering is a good idea, but is a whole can of worms in itself. The spring perches for the rear do not specifically need to be of an anti-wrapping type (which I believe means the really long ones) if you leave the overload leaf in the rear leaf pack. You'll probably need new shock mounts for the rear. And, as said, if the kit doesn't have shocks you'll need those. You might need limiting straps for the front. If you're going with a long arm style kit. You also might need shocks, if not included, and you might need to run shocks without the weird top (stud? I don't recall the name. Stupid setup). Which will require the upper brackets to do that. But, it all depends on how hard you plan to wheel it or drive it. And motion wrote so much that I didn't bother to read his post. :fs1:

Well, that's another one that ain't getting fixed. Tip on avoiding truck theft if you have to leave it... Unplug the CPS connector, it's easy to miss if you toss the wire back down behind the block...

There's a simple little ratio I use for off-road tires/wheels. The tire OD must be at least 2 times the rim size. So, for a 40" tire we could well run a 20" rim. But, for a 30" we ain't running a 20" rim. So, I have no actual issues with running a 16 or 17" rim with 34s or 35s, however this will boil down to usage and preference. If the truck sees more street use having a larger rim (and less tire sidewall) actually is a benefit as it will firm the handling up a bit. Also, running a 15" rim on a 54" tire looks goofy, and the sidewall will probably flex well beyond what is actually desired. But, go too large on the rim and it WILL be fodder off-road. Not to mention it'll start to look really goofy. And buying some super fancy rims isn't really a good idea for wheeling. Although, forged aluminum has a place. Just don't expect it (or any rim) to look good forever (or even 15 minutes). For pure street use, no wheeling, or intentions of it looking like 'it perhaps could be wheeled if it wasn't a retarded show truck' the above ratio doesn't apply at all. Not that I'm into the show truck thing.

Most autoshops don't bill the actual amount of time it takes to do the job, but rather the amount of time written down in some almighty 'book'. This way a fast mechanic makes more money, as he can work 'more hours' than there is in a shift... And a roller, as in, it just rolled in... Like, drivable vehicle.

Sure it's water?

I think book time is like 6 hours an axle... Starting from a roller. Dunno what shops charge out there...

Stop worrying about a 4.0 being hot... It is intentional. However, the factory e-fans can be whacky as far as coming on or not. I popped the hood on my old XJ in the middle of winter once, ambient temperature was about -20, the engine was nowhere near warm (not even reading on the gauge yet) and the fawking fan was on. The problem with a manual switch is you have to remember to turn it on...

Anything else screwy in it? Is the casing all beat up from the chain?

It's not hard to get them right, but it can be a huge pain. And you have to understand all aspects of what you're trying to achieve. Also, you're going to want to do it with the axles out of the vehicle. Unless maybe you have a post lift in your garage. The problem with a dana axle is that all the shims go under or behind the bearings. So to change the shimming, you have to press the bearings off, then back on again. Which can be a real pain. One trick is to make 'setup' bearings by taking a set of brand new bearings and hogging out the races a couple thou so they are no longer press fit. Then to change the shim setup you can just slip the bearings on and off by hand. Once you get the shimming right, you press on a set of good new bearings... And it should all be exactly the same as it was with the setup bearings. That said, I did a toyota third, and it refused to be the same with the setup bearings as without. It was a huge pain. I won't do anything on a toy now. Part of the problem may have been the setup bearings were not the same brand as the final assembly bearings. It should not matter, but I had SKF auto bearings for the setup and Timkens for final assembly, and I don't trust SKF auto bearings as they are made off-shore. Their aerospace bearings I don't mind, as they are still domestic... Another thing that can be a pain with a dana axle is you might not be able to remove the carrier without a housing spreader. I have a D44 lying in my garage that regardless of how much prybar+swearing I applied to it, it would not give up the carrier. So, yeah... I probably could have got it out, but I wasn't in the mood. Used gears, as Eagle said, aren't the best idea. You can make them quiet, but it can be hard. It depends on what shape they're in. Basically to be quiet you have to get the contact pattern under load the exact same as it was before. Yet, the BL still has to be in spec. If the origonal pattern sucks, you're hooped. And you might not be able to replicate the old pattern easily... If it's trail only, it doesn't matter. However, I think with gears, it's a 'if you have to ask, you probably shouldn't' sort of thing.

I'm pretty sure the rear of Pong is 1.75x.120 DOM tubing. Which is pretty standard for a tube chassis, or exo cage. The shackle mounts are fairly simple, IIRC. All that is done is a 3/4" hole is drilled through both sides of the peice of 1.75" tube, and a peice the inside width of the shackle of .75x.120 tube is inserted into the hole and welded in. This allows a 1/2" bolt to go through nicely with minimal play. But, I'm going by memory on this. I've never seen Pong in person.

I guess I'll share a bit about what I learned with my semi-flatdeck thing. If you decided to use wood decking (I did, because it was free) mount it recessed around the perimeter of the deck. I didn't. You can see how peices of my deck are missing in a couple of the photos. They get rubbed off. Again, if using wood decking, attach it better than by putting wood screws through some angle iron. It was fast and easy, but not as strong as I'd have liked. Since I used tounge and groove, it wasn't as big of a deal. To do it again, I'd use a bunch of 1/4" bolts with penny (fender) washers under the heads, and possibly take a forstner (sp?) bit to counterbore for the bolt head/washer. Don't build the thing out of 2x3x.188 HSS. It's not needed. And way heavy. To do it over, I'd probably do the main parts with 2x3x.125 and a couple X braces with 2x2x.095. If the rear was a bumper as well, I'd do that with .188 perhaps. Build a recessed tail-light mount. I never got around to it. What else? I'm sure there's lots of other stuff I did wrong. But it was a good beginner fab project. The dimesnions for the bed mounts are really easy to work with. So it isn't hard there.

Well, I understand why you're doing it. All the transmissions/gearboxes, etc in the stuff I work on is either painted gloss light grey, gloss white, or bare stainless. If it leaks even a drop, you know. And you can wipe it up easily right then, then fix the leak whenever time allows.

Too bad I DD a dodge :rotf: Otherwise I'd rock it. But it might get stolen. It's a tough neighbourhood.

Lookin' damn sexy. Good call on painting the engine white, if you can see the leak before it gets bad everything stays cleaner! What type of paint have you been using? Just rattle can enamels?