DirtyComanche

A coathanger and a pocket knife works quite well. Straighten the hanger, then bend it into a L with the lower part of the L being about 3" long, and the bend being about 80* (measuring hte inside of the bend). Take the knife and push back the weather stripping on the door glass, and slide in the coathanger. You're aiming to snag the lock cable about half way down the door, so slide it down about that far and turn the hanger and bit and yard up. It'll take a bunch of tries if you've never done it before. Now, if your ignition key doesn't work... Wait, I shouldn't get into that.

What do you mean by that? There's some massive problems with how axleshafts are made. The only place that does it right (off my head) is sway-a-way. Apparently there's a bunch of good reasons why a axleshaft needs to a larger diameter at the splines. And aftermarket springs that 'settle' more than a tiny bit are not good news. Oh, and if you ever see anything that's critical and chrome plated, it's bad news (however, that's more of a problem with street rods). There's a few glaring problems with how people build roll cages, especially 4130 ones... And lots of other examples. Personally I liked to only let my welds (in mild steel) to partially air cool and then I'd typically water them, just to save time. Reasoning that mild steel isn't heat-treatable, I figured (wrongly) that it'd be okay. Nope, it causes a massive stress at the edge of the HAZ and I should be shot for doing it. It's just an observation about this entire customized vehicles thing. Lots of stuff works but isn't right...

The problem with attempting to tub one of these trucks is the frame in the rear is too wide. If a guy wishes to run a tire that is too wide for the wheel wells, he might as well look at cutting the whole frame off the back half and building a new one out of tube. I've thought about that. It's a matter of where I'd want to draw the line. 4-links are easy. But for anything but drag racing and rock crawling, a solid rear end isn't ideal. Too much unsprung weight. And camber doesn't change in an ideal way. Same with a solid front end. Hence the whole IFS thing... I'm still doing more reading into the workings of independant suspensions, but I now know enough to not be afraid of them. Somewhat unrelated, I also read a really good book on materials and realized how many bad things I've done in the past. And better yet, how many bad things most of the 4wd suppliers do.

Rust is always an issue! :roll: I've been doing some more reading (never good) and hence have been looking into some more radical things. IRS is one. Amusingly enough, a guy can buy a setup off the shelf (anybody read street rodder?) but they are all so poorly designed that I'm thinking the gene pool needs some chlorine.

I'm thinking they'll be worth it for the $40 worth of glass... I think I can mold a stock fender and reproduce it - but instead of using chopped mat that's absurdly thick I'd do it the 'right' way. Same goes for the hood. I hate buying stuff that I can make.

Should be close enough... But there might be minor rubbing on the control arms at full steering, or perhaps on some of the inner fenders.

With the right backspacing on the rims, should fit fine...

Is that only $160 for a glass hood? That's a good deal.

The disty won't take long to flood without being waterproofed. I can remember a time when my MJ was stock and I did some minor water crossings, and I pushed water with the bottoms of the headlights more than once, but as soon as it got a little higher the engine would quit. I've never driven in water deep enough to matter since then.

A ford motor? That's :nuts: You'll be in for a whole new world of unreliability.

The cabs are vented. It'd probably be okay... Sorta. Routing is do-able, run it over the engine and through the cowl above the blower motor (there's a huge space in there not used by anything) and into the cab. Buddy runs the intake in his YJ into where the blower motor would be on most vehicles (above the passenger's feet) and it's kinda loud.

As long as they aren't broken, it'll all just snap back together. Normally they break when you pull the trim though, they just get too brittle after years of exposure.

You'll probably find 3/4 of the clips will be garbage afterwards... Plan on getting a few more.

New brackets would probably be more ideal. However, not running front leafs would work even better... I used waggy fronts. They worked. It was tall.

Is the 6.7 physically bigger than the 5.9? I've seen a 5.9 (12v) in a YJ. It'd be a hard swap though.

This thing: Image Not Found I've had it a while now.

My MJ is in Vernon, about an hour south of Kamloops. Currently I'm a LOT farther north than that.

Hell no! That's the reason I bought the truck. And I plan on having it last me at least another 5 years. I spent way too much on it to pile it up now... And once I do, it's going in an 80's chevy chassis.

Image Not Found Maybe that'll answer any questions anyone has ever had about me?

I'm doing mine... Progress will resume in the spring... I re-located my gas tank. Then built a new crossmember to hang the links off of, ad it sits just in front of where the old leaf pockets were. Otherwise it's just a normal dual trinagulated 4-link.

Helicopters are inherently unstable. They don't acually fly, they just vibrate until the earth rejects them.

Doorless ain't legal here (not like any of the rest of the truck is) so I don't worry about mirrors. They can be handy on the trail (watch the back tires) but nomally they just get destroyed.

I live in Dawson Creek... No commute, but it's a bit cold. We haven't got much snow yet though. :nuts:

Should look alright... I like my new yorker ones.

So, what's not single shear about a TRE? I know of some nice heims with teflon races that would work good for steering, but I'd probably not use them of anything that was driven a lot. I think they'd last fairly long, but I can't be certain. Typical heims don't.