DirtyComanche

Everything on the portal side of life. The boxes would crack in half under the side loading, or they'd break free from the axle tube and spin. The portal gears would carnage themselves (thus, there's some aftermarket gears out there made of some serious alloys), and the output shaft from the lower portal gear, and pretty much everything that was splined anywhere in there. I have no idea if they had any ring&pinion issues, but I doubt it as the stress is really concentrated on the portals. The problem was they were never designed for rock-crawling. I think stock volvos would be pretty slick with a set of 35s as long as your truck weighed under 4000lbs.

To the rest of the truck, no, not structeral. However, it's not good for the bed in the long term to leave them flopping around.

I got the housing cut down... Image Not Found They did it in a LATHE. I should have told them to just use the horizontal band-saw (that's what I'd expected), but they did it this way, so WTH. $35 for both sides isn't bad. I cleaned the cover up a bit: Image Not Found And shaved it to match the housing. It's a little iffy on the sealing. I drilled a new hole for that lower bolt cause it ain't gonna work. Then I realized I don't have a 5/16 UNC tap. I'll have to remember to buy one. Oh, as you can see that cover come off a working girl. I love previously wheeled parts. So, I got to work on it: Image Not Found I bent and welded on a peice of .125 FB first. The cover is about .150, so that gives me a little over 1/4" over the ring gear. If you need more than that, you were already being a major idiot. I also welded up the un-needed hole. I'll put a bit more FB on the bottom of it, and maybe build a girdle. Might as well try to give some strength back to the centre section since I shaved it so much.

Block heaters were standard on all XJs and MJs sold in western Canada, AFAIK. I've never used the one in my MJ or in the XJ I owned. The MJ would start fine in -40 conditions, so I could never be bothered to plug it in. The XJ had 3 (one inline in the rad hose, one in the heater hose, and one in the block), I never used them either, but they were there. My CTD has a plug too.. I'll plug it in at some time, it won't like the cold.

They're pretty sweet. I don't know if they're proven though. The volvo portals they're based on were only good for 36-37" tires if totally built and in a light weight buggy. They assumably improved the design an aweful lot. However, the only comp buggy that was lined up to run them (that I know of) had a falling out with them. If they are tough, then they're amazing... And you can run a hi9 in them and have issues with your driveshaft angle being too steep in the wrong direction!

Normally you bore it to a size that you can buy a throttle plate for. Making one is possible, but either it's going to be a huge PITA or require some nice tooling.

It depends who you talk to about u-joints. I run spicer sealed ones if I ever buy them new. Which actually hasn't happened - it's on my list but I don't get around to it. Sealed u-joints are great if you aren't going to bother to grease them. Greasables are great if you are going to grease them. Quality Gear sealed joints are great if you never use them.

Those hi-tech anti-sways are nifty...

It doesn't need TPS input to run. It's just another parameter that allows it to better regulate the fuel. Besides, no input is better than the wrong input...

Yeah, the dark can get depressing. It does that here too, just obviously not as bad. It looks like a really nice area there. What's the wheeling options like? I'm thinking about moving farther north at some point. The towns here are getting too big.

Okay, that's simple. I'll need to get another header since I removed my O2 bung. Blah.

Those panaramas make sweet pictures... How long are the days up there right now?

What's the difference between wide and narrow really? Summit has some really cheap ones.

So, I popped the carrier out of my D44, and figured I might as well take the pinion out too... Something looks kinda wrong with 'dat dere oil slinger... Image Not Found And there was this: Image Not Found That was a pinion bearing preload shim! Ouch. I found more metal in the bearing on closer inspection. I have no idea how that would happen. But, what do you expect for something that's 35~ years old and out of a ford? Luckily I wasn't planning on running the 3.50 gearset it came with. I also had some axle tube nastiness. Image Not Found Nothing like 1/4" buildup of dirt, grease, oil, and who knows what on the inside of the tubes. So I took the inner seals out and cleaned the tubes: Image Not Found Rather nasty. I wonder if there's aftermarket outer seals for these things? I'm not sure, I know they make D30 ones. And I glass blasted my inner Cs. Image Not Found Didn't do a wonderful job of it, but they'll work.

Anybody run one? WIth EFI they're pretty stupid for the most part. Depsite that the rice-boys run them a lot... I think I might want one to keep an eye on my propane system... It was tuned professionally, but everything about that scares me.

I agree.

And to note, those are theoretical. For leaf springs the standard rule is to go 2* low to account for axle wrap.

That's right if you don't have a double cardon shaft... I sorta assumed he had one since he's going SOA. Kinda should... In which case the drive-line is like 2* down and you should align the pinion flat (0*) or something...

I've had everthing go wrong jacking with a hi-lift. Typically once you go too high, the jack is on an angle and will slip out from under the frame or kick out the base. I've also had the truck shift sideways and bend one. And a bunch of other things I don't want to admit to.

Search for 2.8 to 4.0L swap... You'll find a bunch. I'm no expert on the subject, but you can't use the same transmission. And you'll need a 4.0L wiring harness. Along with the radiator, rad support and some other doo-hickies.

You can still use shims. You don't want to though... If you look at one of my threads there's a bit about how my truck is shimmed (at BOTH ends, total of 8 shims). I want to say 7* up since nobody else will tell you. It should be ballpark 9* difference between the driveline angle and pinion 0*. You can be ballpark and it'll work if the shaft is balanced well enough... It jsut might vibe a little. Or maybe not...

I took pictures... Dunno why. Or why of. I've got about 2 of these done: Image Not Found They're a fawking PITA. Hopefully they won't leak. I think I'm going to braze the inner lip of the ring to ensure it is airtight (hence asking about brazing). I dunno how well I can braze with a stick welder. I might have to rent a torch to do it... Gotta torch some other crap too, so WTH. I also need to get some rebar or square stock bent to strengthen the inner bead. Other crap I've been working at: Image Not Found The D44 is a HP unit that's getting cut down. I blew the knuckles off today while waiting around because one of my toyota friends was over. Something about having to fix his frame. God damn toyotas. I'll have to take the carrier out tomorrow then take it to the machine shop. Screw cutting 3x.500 DOM myself. The other is my spare isuzu housing. It's all cleaned up (mostly) for my 4-link crap to go one once it arrives. I want to shave it too, but it seems like a PITA. I need another set of isuzu brake calipers, and an open third. Gotta go to the j-yard. Here's my tank setup: Image Not Found Aluminum tanks rock.

if you're talkin about like, holding a nut onto the frame so you can put a bolt through the other side (kinda like a nutsert) then i get what you're talkin' about. Yeah. It's apparently the only 'right' way to do that. As you won't alter the properties of the nut.

Shims suck. I have shims. I hate shims.

So, nobody brazes anything structeral? I've seen something that was aluminum brazed back together once. However, I don't think it was legal (aircraft part, pretty sure it was approved) Apparently brazing is how you're supposed to attach a nut to the back of something if you don't want it to decrease the strength of the nut... Okay, if nobody understands the above sentence, fair enough.