DirtyComanche

Flipping the stockish stuff is alright for a couple inches of lift, but in the end you really need to upgrade a little more. The factory inverted-Y setup is a little bit retarded, at droop you get toe-in (noticably) and stuff you get toe-out. While flexing it does some weird stuff. And it's really not very strong - the TREs are crap. The JCR setup is major bang for the buck. Go price out the TREs that it uses. I CAN'T buy the 4 TREs for the price of his entire kit! Besides, that stuff is actually strong enough to really limit worry. Get some flipserts, and drill the knucles out while you're at it, to 'improve' the drag link angle a bit. Of course, I will point out, the drag-link and track bar angle do have to be parallel (measuing with a direct line from joint centre to centre), but they also have to be relatively the same length. Or ideally exactly the same. Generally this means some fiddling with the track bar brackets. And I'd run the flattest pitman arm that will allow for a reasonable static drag-link angle, but there is not always a choice.

They look like photocopies. But that reminded me to see if I got my expenses payed back... My employer owes me $263.84 for fuel, plus $48 for meals.

I know better than to order stuff while drunk. I buy enough stupid stuff sober (I wonder when my junk from speedway is gonna show up?) My drunk posts are often very hard to pick out. It's only when I'm already frusterated with the subject (I had a long arguement on frame plating where I presented nothing but tech, and was met with nothing other than 'that's wrong because we've always done it this way') that I generally get ugly with it. And then I even give fair warning, generally starting my reply with 'So, this post is most likely going to get me banned, but I think it will be worth it'. They can stop reading there if easily offended. Of course, then they'll miss out on the tech in the post, but if we got that far they weren't listening anyways...

I didn't know door speakers were optional. I like how obvious the tail-gate lettering is!

The 88 FSM, I'd assume. I think my 89 FSM has a little note about that.

I'd rather build things myself. Mostly because I'm insane. It's not because it costs less... I'm thinking stainless it is. I get a deal on 304T. Maybe. But I'm not sure if they'll have the dimensions I'd like.

I've been 'banned' or the equivalent of it 3 times of JF. (They like to put a nasty bandwidth cap on your account instead of banning you, it basically does the same thing because your connection times out if you try to do anything). I have an account there now, and post every now and then. I think some people figured out who I am, since I do have a rather distinctive build thread in the XJ section. Whatever. Every time I got banned probably had to do with being drunk and posting. I don't have as much patience then, but I do use a lot more expressive language. I've moved on from caring when I see bad advice. They'll learn one way or another. Besides, maybe I am wrong?

A standard cell wouldn't fit. I actually want to replace the tank on my XJ with one that's a little more robust (and not rusted to all hell), and has more capacity. I know I could just buy one, but I'm sure I would find some reason to not like it. I don't want to make the tank hand any lower than the stock one - an inch higher would be even better. But I think I could make it a little wider perhaps, and extend a little farther foreward. I didn't really look at it in detail to see if it would work, I only came up with the idea while sitting here thinking about skid plates.

I think they do it that way because it's easier for mass production. Being that it can be cut, bent, and welded by an automated system. Welding will sometimes make the steel more susceptible to corrosion, either by creating an internal stress (bending steel makes it more likely to corrode, if you care to know), or by simply using the wrong filler material (dissimilar metals). Providing you use the same stainless filler rod/wire as the material, I don't see an issue.

this is why we have plasma cutters. What 'we'? I don't :cry: Don't even have one at work either... I should talk to them about that.

Pull the three that go through the frame right in front of the wheel, pull the DLE off the pitman arm, undo the two lines, and loosen the bolt for the coupler at the input end on the steering box. Don't do it in that order. Undo everything else before the frame bolts! Life will be easier... Although, you don't have to undo the lines if you take a hacksaw with you (my preferred method, normally they're seized and aren't worth the swearing).

I'm pretty sure the YJ yoke is no longer. I've heard over and over again that it is, but I've measured them, and I've seen pictures of others being measured, and they weren't any longer. I will consider it possible that there is more than one type of YJ yoke, and I always got the short style. :nuts: I haven't cared in a long time, so it's not like I ever tested a large audience.

The YJ slip yoke is the same length, just it's basically ground from the factory. I have no issues grinding yokes personally, as long as you do it right there's really no strength loss. But if you need to grind them for it to work at static height - no, it's not good.

The thing about stainless that I don't like is that it's horrible to drill. And I mean horrible... But I guess if I planned it right, that shouldn't be a big deal.

Actually, it's funny you say that, there's lots of Canadian geese near where I lived in my home town, and every now and then you'd see an odd-ball or two in the flock that were definatly NOT Canadian geese. But it didn't seem to bother them :nuts:

Why regular steel? The coating crap doesn't work so well from what I've seen. And AFAIK stainless is reasonably easy to weld - I can do it with a stick half decently, or at least make it look half decent... Aluminum won't be bad for corrosion as long as you use 5052 - which is ment for marine/corrosive environments, or if you use an alcladded product (which can't be welded, which means you have to rivet it, which means I'm not interested despite the fact that I can do that).

Is this at least feasible? I don't really see why not, but I'm often blinded by my sheer ignorance. So, If you were to do it, aluminum or stainless? I've never welded aluminum with a MIG, and I've only ever welded stainless with a stick (but I fail to see how it could be hard if I bought stainless wire). Would you make the tank thick enough that you could consider it to have an integrated skid plate? IE, 1/8" sides, 3/16" bottom if stainless, 5/16" bottom, 1/4" sides if aluminum? Or such? Would you use a stock style fuel pump? Just thinking, probably not going to ever do it...

I can try...

At the same time though, the way it comes complete in the can? It's kinda scary, you just pop the top and there's a lonely looking cheeseburger in there. I dunno, it just weirds me out.

They do look a LOT better when they all match.

How many gauges do you need? I figure a tachometer, speedo, voltage, temp, oil pressure and fuel quantity is all that's needed? Which is all the factory stuff. I guess if you have an auto, you might want tranny temp. But what else could a guy need? Air pressure if you had OBA I guess, seems kinda unneeded though.

I like my autometers in the MJ. They ain't exactly cheap though. And to fit them to a somewhat factory appearance would take some work. I seem to recall at some point seeing a thread where a guy had made a new instrument panel to mimic the stock one (probably not on this board). Was a lot of work as the stock peice has a printed circuit board on it that also has the turn signal indicators and a bunch of other jazz, including the warning lights and such to the left.

F-bomb metric. I'll order some 1/4" quick pins. Thanks for measuring, deziped...

Take out a loan or whatever is needed. If you don't fix it, it'll get worse, and besides the risk of death (which is at least a minor inconvenience) the surgery price will go up the worse it gets.

Most guys eff it up. They look at the gauge and assume A)It's actually accurate B)That's the temperature of the entire head C)It's a problem that it's warmer than the typical 1970s carburated chevy runs. Time and time again I see people swap in 160* (or pull) tstats to fix their 'running hot' problem, only to find that the engine runs like a pile of $#!& and fuel economy goes to half. If you screw it up bad enough, the computer will never come out of closed loop (warm up mode), and it'll run pig rich 100% of the time. Or, if you screw it up a little it'll take longer to come out of closed loop, and settle at a temperature that is not optimal for combustion. The ECM and fuel injection was designed and programmed with the intention of it running fairly warm. The OEMs figured it out long ago that they could eek more power and milage that way.