DirtyComanche

I have actually seen rockcrawling on stiff leaf springs that will simply amaze people. It's all about making the tires that you have on the ground work, because there's probably only ever going to be 2 of them at most. Obviosuly there's a limitation to that. Torque loading on individual parts is higher. And you've got less tire on the ground to provide traction. Not to mention that you're horribly hard on the body. But it can be made to work. The winner of the last werock event in my area ran leafs on all 4 corners. (That was pro-mod class I guess, one step down from the top buggy class?) Besides, a free lift is no big deal if it doesn't come out so great. After all, you're only out time and sweat.

Front or rear? I won't say they suck entirely. They have their uses. And mud has nothing to do with articulation IMHO. Large tires with paddle tread and a lot of power... That's all you need. Stiff leaves work better than soft ones because you won't run any risk of wrap on the harder stuff. On the soft stuff you don't need travel because the idea is to just hammer accross it without ever sinking. You'll drag the diffs and bury yourself onto the frame before you'll need any more wheel travel then leafs provide. And my leaves flex quite well, and don't wrap. I made statments about how they did not impress me before, and in a lot of ways they still don't, but I have resolved a few of the issues and found the reason for a few others. Not to knock link suspension. My leaves will come off at some point. I already have the axles to do it...

Uhm... 8.8" has 1.31" shafts and a XJ/MJ D44 has 1.31" shafts. The 8.8 tubes do neck down to 2.75" just before they enter the brake housings. The XJ/MJ Dana 44 has the same 2.75" axle tubes as well. Rather than welding the tubes on the 8.8 into the diff housing, the tubes are just held in with pressed-in plugs. These plugs tend to stop doing their job under severe stress. It can be fixed by welding the tubes or trussing it. But since we are comparing STOCK axles I won't give you that.... Also, one thing to note is that the 8.8 uses a pinion flange instead of a pinion yoke like most Dana axles. . Okay, I'm wrong on the shafts. I thought they were 1.32". Got confused with the 26 spline crap I run. However, what's the neckdown diameter on a D44? If they're anything like the front D44 stuff, I bet the stock 8.8 shafts are still better. Welding the tubes to the housing is done when you change the spring perches. Unless you're an idiot. So, if I was wheeling an explorer I'd certainly be worried. But since I would have no inclination of doing that, I'm not. Oh, 8.8 tubes are thicker, IIRC. But I may be wrong on that too (lots of the D44s use very thin tubes). And the pinion flange design is better than a yoke. I'd forgotten about that. A u-bolt yoke isn't too bad, but a strap yoke is only worthy of the trash bin. However, the flange design works better - at least IMHO.

Not bad for around here. That front D60 would sell for $1400-1800 complete. The rear is worth $200-250 about.

I dunno, this opsled guy seems to have a bone to pick. Okay, maybe he's had some whiney customers. Fair enough. Why's he taking my hatred of UPS personally? Who cares if they're an American company, I'd hate them equally if they were Canadian. Everything I said about UPS was regarding brokerage and how they sent a package around the continent for me. Brokerage is set by them, as was said. If something is shipped to me by USPS I am charged something like $8 is brokerage fees. Which I will gladly pay. And FWIW, I have never ASKED to have a package shipped to me with gift status. Paying 13.5% tax on anything isn't great, but it's not going to kill me. However, twice it has been offered to me (if they want to, sure) and once something was shipped to me as being parts for a 1968 chevy, which mysteriously enough makes it tax exempt. I didn't ask for it, I had to call the guy back and thank him (besides, he makes excellent parts). But, I don't want to argue this. If my point isn't made here, it never will be.

The explorer 8.8 IS a stronger axle, there's no theroy about it. Although, I'm sure we could get a 10 page debate. I hate to admit it but sterling makes a better 1/2-ton axle than dana does. 8.8 shafts are bigger. 8.8 ring gear is bigger. 8.8 pinion is bigger. 8.8 axle tubes are stronger (than most D44s). There is drawbacks about it. It's a hair narrow, and you'll need 1-1.5" spacers for it to track even. It has c-clips, which aren't that big of a deal - there's a sweet kit to remove them. The stock cover is useless sheetmetal. And it hangs rather low and chunky. Oh, it's way heavier than it needs to be. I payed about $500 (out of a wrecker, not a you-pull) for my 8.8 with the gears I wanted and a limited-slip. All in good shape but a leaky axle seal. Amusingly enough, when I got rid of it I sold it for more than that actually. But there was a good reason for that (I gave him extra brake parts and the wheel spacers). D44s aren't a bad rear axle though. But don't pay $700! If you want it to be cheap, the full size grand wagoneers had ones that were a little narrow and the wrong bolt pattern. Pay about $150 tops! But you could get 6x5.5 to 5x4.5 conversions spacers to fix both problems at the same time (IIRC, I had found them). However, the gear ratio will be undesirable (3.07 or 3.31) and they come with drum brakes. Just things to think about.

Get off your high horse.

And they suck either way.

So, I've been running this thing and stuff. The rad and fans seem to work. I had my propane tuned and the idle circuit in the mixer is f'd. But the power valve is alive... So, I'll need another mixer. However, since the power valve did work, it does run and drive fine other than it bogs off idle and runs a little rich the rest of the time. However, something happened that I'm wondering about... I was in 4LO driving around on the pavement and put my foot down. It bogged, then went like mad (okay, seems as it should). I watched the tach and it hit 7200. Is it even possible, or is my tach out? It's a cheaper gauge (equis). It pulled hard the entire way and definatly sounded like it might have been running that many revs... I've had this engine to 6000ish on missed shifts, but never THAT high. Maybe I'd better do it with the camera on...

I like how those rims came out. I had a set that I was going to do that to, but they wound up going to the aluminum scrapper in the end (I didn't see the money, too much stuff around so I gave them away). If I get a nice MJ, I'll have to do that.

So, where's the pics? Or pics of something like it... If there's more than one, there's gotta be a photo somewhere.

Your XJ have a decent drivetrain? 4.0, Aw4 or AX-15...? You're simply not thinking outside the box here. You can combine them and not give up the XJ, but have a badass MJ at the same time.

I need to see this. I've seen pics of the one that was assumably a hack. But might as well see this one. To actually make one a drop-top is a bit of an interesting predicament. At least to have it meet crash and roll-over safety. They'd have to do some interesting things...

The wiring harness must be swapped in it's entirety. The rad support and rad must go. The motor mounts must change AFAIK. And a bunch of other stuff.

For $300 the donor is probably screwed. It should be an easy swap.

The 100A~ models seem to typically be stamped with a 100A, or something close to that, marking. Never have I seen a 61A version stamped. I always get the ones that have the 100A stamping on them out of the boneyard.

D35 standard, D44 avaliable.

They're 42" centre-centre. Don't measure outside, it isn't a relevent measurement.

They're both supposed to draw a light vacuum to pull the half-burnt oil fumes from the crank case, so they can be run back into the engine and burnt. It's an emissions thing. I have the front one plugged and a filter on the rear. It smokes like mad right now. But I think that's because there's still gas in my oil more than anything. I need to run it a bit more then change the oil and we'll see what comes out of it... It'll probably just puke oil then.

I think the s-10s are over-done. I don't dislike them. But it seems everywhere I go I see one rocking a SBC and some stupid rims. I know, an LT1 is a bit of a different beast. They've got lots of potential.

The bedsides did the typical rust out. How's the cab on it? What's the plan, just a resto? Or gonna lift it? Lower it?

Toy axles are, umm, different. BrettM runs one in the back of his truggy thing. Anyways, there's a couple different types. The ring gear actual diameter is 7.8". The splines are either 27 or 30, but I don't think the shaft size corrosponds with the dana ones. However, the shafts are said to be about as strong as D44 ones (which means nothing, there's so many different D44 styles). They have a good inner pinion bearing. But otherwise I think they're garbage. Oh, the width on them is kinda different. 58" is the normal pre-IFS width. But if you have a dually one, I don't know. I didn't even realize dually toys were factory. I thought they were all hack jobs. I'm pretty sure they never sold them in Canada because I've never seen one in person.

The real question is if you can actually tell anything with it? Never used mine for anything. If it was being a pile you could tell why by looking at other things.

Wakka, you can get a real battery up in the cold north. Anybody who deals interstate batteries can get you an optima. The blue/yellow ones are most resistant to being run flat. However, the reds will take a beating too, and provide simply stunning short term cranking amps (mine tested at 1026CCA, not bad for being rated at 800). Not to mention they don't puke acid, and don't weigh as much. But I'll admit that the reason I run one is because I got it for $100. Brand spanking new. It's good to know an interstate dealer. Oh, is your alternator's internal regulator actually allowing enough voltage output? 14.4 would be the minimum to get a full charge on the battery. I don't know ANYTHING about internal voltage regulators other than that they normally work so you don't touch them. But I've had an alternator that would not produce enough voltage to properly charge the battery. Output hovered around 12.5-13V. Why, I am not sure. I sold that pile before I checked into it. Otherwise it just seems like the typical annoying parasitic loss problem. An amp clamp works wonders on figuring that out.

Would be nice if I did. But these TREs are metric, I think. Stupid chyrsler. I couldn't get it off with the pickle fork actually, and had to revert to the puller with the correct castle nut on upside down. In the end I destroyed the grease boot and mashed some of the unimportant threads. Oh, and when it let go it made a very audible bang.... Then after pulling the P/S box and tearing down the input side of it, I learned why I hate parts stores. The sold me the wrong seals for it. So, now I get to put it back together with the wrong seals and attempt to get a refund for the seals I bought, and attempt to get the right seals. And hope it doesn't just geyser P/S fluid when I go to drive it. Since I just replaced the pump and at the price they are I'd really not like to do it again.