DirtyComanche

No offense to you if you run them but they are probably the worst designed longarm kit on the market for the XJ/MJ. If your going to run a y-link setup the upper control arms need to be able to move so during the suspension cycle you maintain a good pinion angle. The mounts look questionable as well. And lastly, the bend in the arms on those is the wrong way. You want high clearance, not low clearance. I've seen photo's of the kit mounted up and the clearance issues is something to be desired. I need to speak. I hate off the shelf pre-built components. They're always junk. Anyways, quickly looking, this kit does not appear to be more or less junk than most of the others avaliable. Yes, those arms do appear to be bent the wrong way. My only guess is so you don't have to notch the coil bucket to allow for mad 'coil falling out' droop. Or perhaps they want to allow the LP (2000+ or whatever) some driveshaft protection, but I doubt it. The mounts would probably work fine, but I wouldn't say forever (but nothing is). They probably go in some retarded ground-clearance killing place anyways. But what the heck do you mean by the upper control arm needing to be able to move? That kit doesn't have an upper control arm, which is how it is fundamentally different than most, if not ALL, the other crappy kits I've seen. What people call Y-links (TNT managed to get us to say that), is a radius arm setup. This kit is a WRISTED radius arm setup. With radius arm setups you technically DON'T have upper links, even if they do happen to be a seperate part than the lower links. The reason you don't technically have upper and lower links is because there is NO MOVEMENT BETWEEN THEM. So they are technically one link. A lot of the kits stick a poly bushing or such between the lower link and the theoretical upper link to allow for some slop. This is needed (but still stupid) if you're running regular radius arms, as since both arms are totally capable of controlling caster, to prevent the inherent bind from breaking something (spinning axle tubes, tearing off a bracket, wrecking a link, etc). With this kit, they do away with that BS by running a regular link (unable to control caster) on one side, and a radius arm on the other side (controls caster). They don't need a poly bushing or other BS as that would be VERY detrimental in this case. The term 'wristed' comes from how the regular link can move more like a human wrist. Anybody understand me? Probably not. Ohwell. Moving on...

but DON'T replace the sensor that's on the t-stat housing. if there's one there (I believe even renix have them, and KNOW that H.O. has it), you need to keep it. it's the temp sensor for the engine computer and if it goes missing will cause running issues. Renix don't. They have a sensor in the block under the intake manifold IIRC.

You're kidding...right? No, not at all. But I've never crisco'd a water pump gasket yet. I should have on the last one I did, I just wasn't really thinking right or in the mood. However, normally I do it to EVERY felt gasket. They'll still seal fine, but when you take it apart it'll just fall out and look near as good as new. I'm not saying I intend to reuse the gasket until the end of time (eventually it'll degrade), but if I had to pull the water pump for some reason (or far more likely, the t-stat housing) I would not have to have a spare gasket on me. We do it on the aircraft ALL the time. For a lot of maintenance you have to pull components that are not related to what you're doing. And if the gasket crumbles when you do it and you're in some god-forsaken place without a spare, you ain't going anywhere until a spare gets flown in.

I don't think it needs RTV from what I remember. I'm 99% sure I put the last one on dry. Which in retrospect was kinda stupid. Normally I'd throw crisco on it... Then it's reuseable.

I had ongoing issues with tranny cooler lines... Somebody was really nice and posted up all the part numbers. If you search for threads started by me, you should be able to find them. Maybe. If not, give me a while and I can find it all. Might be a while though, I'm doing a little work related travelling and things will probably be crazy.

You probably won't be able to do it without clearance issues. I think. The bracketry for the MJ LCA pockets is huge. Maybe with a little trimming you could get things to fit, but for mock up only. Once you flex I bet you'll have mad contact issues. Unless you run some funky bent links or w/e. I'd buck 'em off. No going back. Commit yourself 100%. Although, you could always rebuild them if need be...

Probaby not... Weight is your enemy, and you do have reasonable limitations of space (you don't want to pile your stuff so high that the rear window is usless). Let's say I'd like my spares and consumables to fit into two large action-packers. Can I, hmm? But the problem is I can think of way too many things that reasonably stand a chance of failure. If your alternator packs it in and you're two days out in the bush, are you going to make it back? No, you won't. And I can't rebuild a jeep alternator in the field due to the construction - it's not as simple as carrying a spare set of brushes, and some emery cloth(what we do in the ol' helicopters). After all, 90% of the time an alt goes it's just the brushes got dirty and scored up the slip ring. With a starter I might have a little more luck, but having never bothered to do one (I have lots of cores, but I always seem to just get a 'new' one over rebuilding) I can't say for sure. That said, would I carry a spare alternator? I'm not sure. I think I would rather build in redundancy, or attempt to eliminate the likely failure points. However, I can't see much that can be done for that in this case other than mounting the alternator higher. Which is definatly not sure fire (the voltage regulator might still fail, although I've had decent luck with the internal style. An external style could be used, and a spare regulator could be kept on hand. And the diodes can burn out due to excessive loading, but the way to prevent that is to have a good battery). So... About rad hoses, would a guy be better off not running the OEM style soft rubber stuff? There is flexible metal hose avaliable, but I've never used it and can't comment on the quality (or on how well it seals, especially considering the ports on the block/rad are different sizes). The closed cooling system bottle is a bit of a pile, and I'd upgrade that. Heater cores can fail, but you can always pull the lines to it and run them back into themselves, I believe (seen it done by a hack mechanic who ripped somebody off). I might need to carry a union for that. Radiators are easy enough to take care of. I happen to have a new(er) one installed, a simple grille guard decreases the risk of puncture greatly, and small leaks can be JB'd or crimped shut. Water pumps I hope would give me enough warning, but unfortunatly I don't know that any of the ones avaliable now are quality (I bought a new one rather than a rebuild, I figured it might be worth the $5 difference). Thermostats fail, more often open than closed. Open is acceptable in the truck still will run, but if it's -45 out you might well freeze to death. If it fails closed I can always remove the housing and remove it, if the gaskets are crisco'd or vaselined they should be reusable. But for the size and cost it might be worth carrying one. Gas tanks are easy to save from leaking... If you have a good one, and a skid I doubt a guy would ever see issues. Aluminum tape seals them alright if the hole is small. I'd carry a spare under most circumstances. It's easier than trying to fix a tire on the trail (and not as time wasting). Speaking of which, I have no luck at that. My MT/Rs can be done (after breaking the bead you can actually pull the tire off the rim with just a prybar and some cussing) but a lot of tires I owned would not be possible in this manner. It kinda makes it a waste of time to carry a plug kit in that case. Unless you had tire-pliers or such, which again is more space and weight... I'd rather run some really freaking tough tires to reduce the chances of needing more than one spare. Engine related sensors are all small, and most can be changed easily enough (or not). So I'm inclined to carry a IAC and CPS at least. I'm thinking a MAP, TPS, and Cam-PS could all be thrown in easily enough too. I think I cover all reasonable failures with a renix system in that case. I'm considering cutting a panel out of the floor to change the CPS from that angle instead, as it's a little annoying from the bottom (I haven't fully evaluated the feasibilty of this). I've NEVER seen a renix ECU fail, so I really don't think I'd need a spare, but I could be wrong? With an auto a guy can drive it without a working TCU, especially if he has a manual controller anyways. Fuel pumps worry me... Normally they give you lots of warning (don't work, hit the tank or rock the truck, normally they'll restart and work for a week or two), but they can fail suddenly. So, I'm thinking of carrying one of those... Or better yet running some funky dual pump setup (that'd be a pain to pull off). I don't think I've ever seen a fuel filter plug enough to cause the engine to not run, so I don't see that as a need? The quick disconnects on the fuel rail kinda scare me, but they don't seem to fail unless you take them apart? The fuel pressure regulator seems to give warning of a failure (blows fuel into the vacuum line) but I'm not sure on this as I've not been toubled by this. I'm not a fan of the OEM mechanical fluid clutch fan... I think it's a peice of junk, and prone to failure. I'd say I'd rather run dual electric (I have fitted 2 taurus AUX fans before), but the issue with them is they do need electricity. Again, I don't like trusting the electrical system, and it would probably halve my range on batteries/no charging if I needed to run an e-fan. I'm thinking that realibility wise the OEM fan with a e-fan that was wired decent (no fruity fan controllers that burn up) would be the better route. No spares should be needed there, although a guy should always carry a little spare wire, some crimp on ends, and some fuses anyways. I don't feel a need to carry spare plug wires. How are you going to wreck them? Maybe I'm missing something. I might carry ONE spark plug, but I doubt it. I've never had issues with the OEM distributor other than it getting water logged. But I assume people have some horror stories for that? I think the coil is a little suspect, lots of guys seem to burn them up. I'd probably carry one of those. Axle failures are a whole other matter... I'm not inclined to run stock axles, or stock shafts for those axles, or stock u-joints. I've had good luck with my chromo yukons in my D44 front. Same goes for the yukon joints. I don't think they'll reasonably break before the outer shaft goes (the weak link in the system). I won't run selectable hubs anymore, and that saves a lot of grief, as drive flanges are pretty indestructable. The only thing about the front that worries me about that setup is the outer shafts, and I'm very much inclined to go 30 spline with them. I think a D44 with chromos is likely to be bullet proof with my intended tire size (a 33x12.5, probably a truxus M/T it seems). Upgrading the pinion yoke to the u-bolt style spares a lot of trouble too, I'd probably carry spare u-bolts for it though (small and cheap, and if nothing else it'll save you if you lose the origonals in the event you pull a shaft on the trail). And I might carry a set of wheel bearings, they're small and can get carnaged. Rear axle would be a D44 probably, again, chromos, so shouldn't see many issues there. Hopefully. Steering, links, track bar, etc, should not be any stock parts. I have hi-steer knuckles for the D44 front, and I think I could build a reasonably bullet proof tie-rod. I don't know if there's any point carrying many of the parts used for this (maybe a few rod ends). I'd probably run YJ brake lines, and probably have a spare for the sake of it. And maybe I'd carry spare bleed screws, since the check-valve ones I use (speed bleeders) do have an increased chance of failure. So, how many other things can go wrong? Lots. But as you might realize, I'm thinking more along the lines of prevention rather than carrying spares... I just think I enjoy things a lot more that way. Oh, and a quick list of consumables, as I think they should be: -1 gal antifreeze -1 gal water (drinking or otherwise) -WD-40 -Wheel bearing grease -Gear oil for one diff -2L motor oil -P/S fluid -Brake fluid -JB weld -Misc wire -Misc terminal ends -Misc bolts -Misc syringes (no needles, great for topping up fluids in hard to reach places -Some nitrile gloves -Box of wipealls (shop rags) -Aluminum tape -Duct tape I type too much.

Cool. Not many people 'wheel' durangos. Keep us informed!

That'd be an abomination... I want pics.

So, here's a question... A lot of the items mentioned would be considered maintenance items (water pump, dizzy parts and wires, etc). Would it make more sense to install a new (low time) part to replace a high time part, and thus not have to carry a spare? Or are we paranoid enough that we must carry a spare? Is a brand new fuel pump going to fail? Or water pump?

Who carries what? What have you had fail that you didn't have? Or did have?

I just threw my fenders/header in a pile when I saw how much of a gap there was. I could have done something else, but at that point everything was pretty much, uh, odd anyways. But I took more out than you did.

I've done something remarkably close to that... Anyways, close the door almost entirely - observe the body lines. My bet is the door is sagging a bit, as most likely the top hinge has started to seperate from the body. You kinda gotta weld the thing back on if that has happened.

What's unreliable about that? :nuts: Tell him you need a MJ with a matching drivetrain so you can swap parts back and forth to always have one running.

The early 700R4s suck. Why do you think he's got a tranny with no miles on it? The other one exploded... Which is pretty typical. The good news is I'm pretty sure when they rebuild them they deal with most of the issues of the early ones. Anyways, if it bolts up, why not? It should be fine for you.

Old thread, eh? All the company trucks where I work are newer chevys. Mostly at least. One of them (an 05) is rusted to all hell already. Some of the other ones are getting bad too. And they all have blown speakers (but that might be just because they are company trucks).

There's actually some cool stuff: http://www.earthroamer.com/tab_xpeditio ... specs.html But wayyyyyyyy pricey.

Lawn edge trimming works too... And you can generally get it in short peices for really cheap (free).

I've seen 'em before, never in person though. There's an expidition vehicles section on parrot4x4 now, some guy had one I think... I had no idea they were that expensive though. I mean, I could build my XJ into a hell of a camping rig for 92K.

If you wheel, say no to bushwackers.. They'll get broken, you'll cry, I will laugh.

Go to a lock and safe store... I know, you hate me for that answer, but there was one where I used to live, and they had every imaginable style of lock. Something wal-mart could never do...

How it works here is if it was factory, it's fine. So you can't take the doors off an XJ, or the windshield out, but you could on a CJ. Get a hunk of lexan and screw it in place.

Wow. Just wow. That's pretty cool though. Might want to breed that one. Could raise pigs without the smell. Could be worth big bucks.

He wants $6500 but accepts he's not going to get that... Before you trash the price, realize used vehicles aren't as cheap in Canada for the most part. http://bb.bc4x4.com/showthread.php?t=129149 All in all it's a nice truck, he rebuild the engine/tranny, regeared it, added histeer and various other things. Body is decent, frame is solid. Unfortunatly he did everything to it that I don't want it for. So, it's really not worth it for me to buy it. At all. Other than I still want a J-truck. Ohwell. I've spotted one in a field out here. I imagine it will be for sale when the time comes (when I have more time and space).

I'm looking for some pics, can't seem to find any. I've seen the truck in person before, I think it's really nice...