DirtyComanche

The rusty's kit has its flaws. The arms mount dead centre in the crossmember if it is located in the rearmost position. I think the arms are 32"~ long, don't quote me. If you copy it, use real joints instead of that BS they do (twisting threads), and mount the arms higher at the frame side. While you're at it, flat belly the thing.

6013 works for sheetmetal. There is other rod that works well (better probably), but it's harder to come by. 6013 can be had anywhere. The trick is to use small rod and low heat. If you're trying to do a bunch of spot welds, pilot the hole in the top peice first with a small (1/16~) drill bit. Then make sure it is clamped damn tight. If there's any gap at all you'll be screwed. Then it's just a matter of striking an arc and holding it to the hole for a couple seconds. YMMV.

This stuff appears to be worth it. Weight wise it isn't very heavy, but it's mad slippery and quite tough. You put it on the bottom of skid plates and it allows you to slide over things you'd never think possible. I want it because my skids mount with bolts thah have the heads sticking down. The heads are rock fodder.

I didn't know they used those, or that you can get adjustable ones... But yeah, those are used on D44s. At least, the ball joint ones.

1/4 elliptical itself really only indicates the spring characterisitics. It's like saying "air shocks" or "coil-overs" and asking how they worked. The reality is that most of how well they work is dependant on other factors. Basically, how you design and build your 4-link is going to matter more than it being 1/4 elliptical suspension. A LOT more. Do your homework and spend the money on the material and joints. 1/4 elliptical does offer advantages in that the springs have both a positive and negative rate. IE, they will fight drooping once they reach a certain point. This helps with stability to a degree. It is also cheap (comparitivly) in that a guy can cut down some F-250 front leaves to make it work. Anyways, I've never run them. But I've seen them.

If you still have a problem after you replace them, just buy the offset joints... Because basically there's nothing else you can do. In that case the housing or the inner Cs are bent. You can get another housing, but D30s bend just with the weight of the truck on them so it's unlikely you'd do better.

Radius arms (uppers connected to lowers) aren't great. I can't preach too much because I have seen them work. They flex really well (a bit too well, IMHO) but have some bad tendencies. And with them most of the stress is focused on the two attachment pionts at the frame. Make them beefy or you will be in for a bad day. The only really decent thing about them is they're very easy to make (geometry doesn't really matter, it'll suck no matter what) and you only need 2 decent joints. A 3-link works better. Aka a missing link. Two long lowers and a shorter upper that is conencted to the frame. Well, it works better if you design it right - you actually have to do the math on it. You need either 3 or 6 decent joints going this route - depending. But hey, I have leaf springs, so I have no right to comment.

I keep meaning to pick up some of that stuff.

I hope the propane works. There's no going back now. The intake manifold is off, and I found a few 'bad' thigs, but I do still have 6 intake valves so I'm not too worried. All the EFI crap that plugged into it is in a box too. My header is screwed. I dunno if I'm going to fix it or not... Most of the wiring harness is off. Well, about half of it. I'm having trouble with that big mother of a bulkhead connector that plugs the harness into the fuse panel. I'll get it figured out. I'm trying not to destroy it too badly so I can re-use the little of it that I'll need. The interior is about half out now. The dash is being annoying. It's all rivetted from here, so I'll get the air drill out tomorrow. And I've got to decided what to do with the heater core. Or whatever that thing is. I still need a heater, but I only need it to be simple... I'll rip it all apart and see what happens I guess. I've got to drop the gas tank tomorrow. Then figure out where to fit all the crap that's in my garage from taking this thing apart. Then I can throw my tank on the bed and see how it'll fit with the radiator and all. I might have to cut up the decking and try to get it to sit lower so my radiator doesn't block the back window. Can't have that. Then I get to decided if the hood is narrow enough, or if I should lop a bit more off. Probably cut more... Then I have to cut down my spare header panel (it'll fit now). And I've got to remember to fit up my chebby distributor.... I hope I have enough parts to have a working one. And I need to get a timing light... The only real debates I'm having in my head right now is over the cage. I was going to go strictly exo. But now I'm not so sure. I'd really like 5-point harnesses. What do I need for those? New seats I suppose, and a cage structure directly behind them to tie into... Plus a floor tie-in (no biggy, the floor is structeral). Everytime I touch something I make more work.

I got all my answer for the intake but for the P/S pump. So I ordered it. Hopefully I can deal with that.

The crossmembers gop in different places. And they use different mounts.

My front axle is about 4" forewards. The tires don't clear the inner fenders. I fixed that... Image Not Found

HF welders :roll: Whatever you do, buy something DECENT. I have a cheap MIG, but have you ever heard me mention actually using it? Well, I don't. It sits downstairs in our second kitchen (yeah, I've never heard the end of that). The reason? It's freaking useless. It can't weld anything in a single pass, except maybe 30 gauge. The duty cycle at full amperage is 20% (and you need full amperage), and it has a constant hot tip (hate that), and it's PITA to spool. With the money spent on it, I could have saved for a better MIG, or bought the first stick welder I had (Lincoln AC-225-GLM, I think). The first stick I had was lighter duty and AC only, but it still had a 20% duty cycle at 225A. Which is plenty of amperage - enough to blow holes in 3/8". The one I use now (lincoln tombstone, as they're known) has both AC/DC and a higher duty cycle, along with a couple capacitors to make striking an arc easier. I will admit that stick welding can be a PITA. If your rod has absorbed moister it'll make life horrible - but you aren't supposed to use it then anyways. It is MUCH harder to make a good looking weld with stick, vs MIG. But, you CAN'T cheat with it. Ever watch how they MIG weld on extreme 4x4/OCC/west coast choppers/etc? It's totally wrong. They haven't a bloody clue what they're doing, but it LOOKS good - and that's because it's a MIG and you can do that. Anyways, if you've only got a small job and can take it to a machine shop, I suggest going that route. If everything is prepped they can zap it all together in very short order and will charge you very little. Or find a friend with a welder to borrow for a while. Oh, and one thing about stick... Its easy enoguh to get rods to do different things. I've got 6011, 6013, 7014, 7018, CastARC, and something for stainless. Plus you can get brazing rods and wear-surfacing rods.

I can take them off without wrecking them. And I'm the guy that typically breaks EVERYTHING. When I tore down my Xj for paint, I had about half of the trim/accessories left intact when I was done.

The thing comes off from the outside. Pry on it. You see for yourself.

There was (maybe still is) a buggy that had that sort of setup. It worked but was majorly heavy. It was also an engineering nightmare to make it hold together.

It's a tossup. On any given trail you can see a SWB rig smoking the tires trying to climb something, while a similarily equipped LWB rig walks up it. Then you see the LWB rig high-centred and the SWB rig just pops over the obstacle. 'Ideal' will vary from driver to driver and rig to rig. I figure as long as you aren't too extreme either way, things will work out. Personally I think I'm about 5" too long right now. But maybe not! But I've got a short-bed (sorta) that has about the same WB as a long bed. I haven't got many options to cut it down though. Maybe I should just step up the tire size (and the axles) again.

As an update, I got annoyed. Now the radiator is going in the back. I think I'll drill some holes in the cab to route the plumbing. I also got tired of the wires that do things that I don't know about. And the vacuum lines and all those other things. It's just ugly. I think I'll order one of these: http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Item ... 8310638817 And use my propane goodness. Does anybody know if the head on a 258 in a YJ has the ports in the same place as a Renix head? And does anybody know if the drilled/tapped things on it for the P/S bracket are the same as a 4.0 one? I think they are, but I'm not sure. And that intake is bloody expensive.

My cherokee does that if you park it in the sun. Fires up and goes to 3 grand and stays there. Luckily the AW4 is tough and can handle being neutral dropped from that high of rpm.

Ultra-lights and quasi-certified stuff scares me. Really scares me.

I left rubber in more than one intersection learning to drive stick... I figured it's better to peel the tires than to stall it. And that made me the driver I am today :nuts: "Dude, aren't you gonna put it in low range?" "Nah, I don't care about my clutch" "Damn, that smells bad"

I hope so. Because I've seen the proof.

You can rebuild the unitized hubs if you really are trying to pinch coin. You just need to know somebody with a big enough press. I think the bearing that go in them are about $40 each. So, it's still not cheap, but it's cheaper.

How much do you value your spine? 'Cause it'll be nice and squished if you drive a lot...

I killed a TW myself. Pulled the slip shaft on it at full throttle. As the driveshaft centrifuged out it broke/flattened every yoke, crushed every u-joint, and twisted off a bunch of the splines. I didn't know he sold any extended warantee. I don't think it would have covered that anyways. A learning experience - buy a long travel shaft if you're getting it built from scratch anyways.