DirtyComanche

No, it's got 1-peice shafts. But, a truss would be a very good idea - they used rather thin/small tubes that like to bend.

I think you can get the roll cage under the body panels, or at least mostly under them - so it sticks out about 1" at most. I mean, you can get away with 1.5" tubing (or uh, pipe...) for an interior cage easily enough, and there's a big whack of space under the interior panels in most places. It'll take some creativity, but I think if you're already doing a major hackjob you can get it to fit. Ever driven a 6.5? They're pretty slow. Very reliable though. And lighter than the cummins. Personally I think if you're bent on a diesel it's a decent choice. But, that's at least what my friends tell me, I'm not a diesel guy. Although, the cummins 4BT would be a good choice if you can find one - they're all mechanical. The 6.5 has a harness and computer. What it does I don't know. Like I said, I'm not a diesel guy. The good news is the TH-400s don't use any fancy computer gizmos - I think they only need a throttle position cable. Again, I'm no expert on them - they have several different incarnations because they were used for so many years.

I say give it a shot.... One thing to consider is building a cage for it now. Regardless of how you wheel, rollovers happen off-road and on. With the thing already ripped apart it'll be very easy to add one and make it work with how you want to use the truck. Also, if you tie it in far enough frontwards and back - it'll greatly stiffen up that frame and get a couple birds stoned at once. Do you want an auto tranny or a stick? For an auto I'd recommend a TH-400 behind the 6.5. They came stock, making it easy, and can be bolted to many different tcases. For a stick, if you can live with only 4 gears, I'd go sm420 or sm465. Cheap and indestructable, with a great granny gear. Again, you can bolt them to a lot of different tcases. For a 5spd there's not many good options - most won't bolt up easily or will be very expensive. You'll want to decided on a tcase too.

See my edit. If nothing else I want to see how this goes to borrow ideas.

There's gonna be a few problems... A minute I need. Alrighty. J-10 frames are, from what I've heard, not exactly the best of items. I believe the are partially boxed and partially channel. Anyways, they have a tendency to flex like mad, and crack where they aren't boxed. Having the frame flex in this case will be an issue - the unibody itself is very stiff and the cab was never ment to see any major flexing (okay, I consider this debatable, I'm going by what the guys on NAXJA say but I never trust them). You can probably get around this by attaching the cab with rubber body mounts and running some fairly thick (3/16) flat bar along the floor following the profile of the frame, and boxing the entirety of the frame. I'd probably want 6 body mounts for just a MJ cab. 8 or 10 if you're to extend it. FWIW, the frame you're looking at unlikely has a HP axle. Unless it has been swapped from a F-truck. Which isn't likely either, J-10s only track 64" while a F-truck is 65-67" (not a huge difference, but it adds up as the rear only tracks 62"). And the f-trucks were either 5 or 8 lug, so the outers would have to be swapped. If I was to do it, which I have mused about and still am... I would build my own frame using 2x4x.125 HSS and use just a few more cross-members that any factory vehicle... Read that as a full belly skid made from a honeycomb structure and UMHF (or whatever that plastic is). And tie-in a lot of tube. Just because that suits me more than doing it any other way and I am somewhat afraid that the what I've head regarding flexing being an issue may be true.

Constrictors bother me a bit. But not tooo bad. Okay, an anaconda would be a bad thing. What I hate is snakes with venom. Obviously in other parts of the world you get some fairly nasty ones. Here we get western diamondbacks, which the venom of does VERY nasty things. The last guy in my town that I recall getting bit walked about 10 feet then started to bleed from his eyes, ears, mouth, nose... :puke: He lived, after about a month in intensive care and using up ALL of the anti-venom in 3 different hospitals.

The TB spacers are a scam - sorta. (People might fight with me about this, they have before :roll: ) All they do is increase the effective intake runner length resulting in a shift in the torque/HP band. A shift in the upwards direction. It's great if you have a street/strip car that likes to and can rev. Hence you'll see ultra high rise or tunnel ram (I think that's what they're called) intakes on lots of muscle cars. There was even a muscle car (can't remember what) that was offered with an ultra long intake manifold - in fact they were bent tubing that placed the carbs about a foot from the intake ports on the head. The problem is the 4.0 does NOT like to rev. In fact it has a harmonic problem that will cause the timing chain to self destruct at about 6500rpm. Not to mention that in stock form the valves float like mad, and it probably starts well before redline. Hence, a TB spacer is a pretty useless mod. It'll cause you to lose a couple ft-lbs of torque and pick up a couple HP.

One of my MANY beefs about rusty's was the use of Gr5 hardware. I DON'T care if it is 'theoretically' strong enough or W/E they maintain (I know they don't engineer their stuff) - for the extra $2 it would have cost why aren't they gr8? It's your bloody suspension, it should be BEEFY! I think many people did what you did and wound up buying their own hardware. Anyways, the XJs looking pretty good. Keep at 'er.

It's some sort of steering setup, I looked at it earlier. DOM tie rod and drag link, I guess? Stock sized TREs I'd assume. Might be worth something, might not. Personally I'd not stick with the 1/4-ton TREs.

You can make a high revving motor work off road. You just need lower gears. But, I gotta agree, for a vehicle with the weight of a MJ it'd be pretty useless unless all you do is play in the mud. My only suggestion is to start cheap. And stay cheap.

I'm not sure how it worked, but they might have used the TTB D50 on some F350s (I don't know anything for sure, I LOOK at parts to know what they are). It was only much later (after 2000) that the solid D50 was used. It's a strange axle, if detroit locker or anyone else makes a full locker for it it might be cool. You should be able to put 35 spline axles in it then and have somethign a bit stronger than a 44/60 for a lower price. As it is, it is TOTALLY useless. But still worth a few bucks. Even the TTB D50 is - all the TTB furd guys like them because they have a remote chance of not breaking.

Regger. I don't know if he got it done, those Herd of Turtles guys are slow... I think he decided to buy the box4rocks setup.

It's 4wd? Well, it most likely has a HP D60 with either kingpins and hubs, or ball-joints and unit bearings. Either of which is worth big bucks. And it'll have a sterling 10.25 rear - which isn't worth big bucks but is hella strong. BW something-or-other tcase that is garbage. Motor and tranny may be worth something. Even if you don't have the means to use the parts you could sell them.

Actually, I've seen those champions in use. They work. Just slow. Seem to last a fairly long time and make close to the rated pull. If I was to get another winch it would either be that T-Max comp winch (9.5K, very small) or a used 8274. I'd probably still run steel cable as synthetic hates where we wheel.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the only difference between the can/us vehicles was that they put a sticker on the firewall that said 'this vehicle conforms to Canadian emissions and safety standards and is not designed to conform to those of any other country' and gave us a kilometer/hour gauge standard with the mile/hour in small lettering as an option. :nuts: Brochure is in good shape. So is all the trucks in it. Maybe I should restomod one of these things sometime instead of destroying it.

So, what if I do drive on a semi-float axle with a broken shaft? Oh yeah... What if you've got an aircraft and a runway. The runway is the exact length that is needed for the aircraft to take off at X weight. Now, we throw 1000lbs of pigeons in the back of the plane that is already at X weight. (it is now X + 1000lbs) If we make all the pigeons fly while the aircraft attempts take-off, will it make it before running out of runway?

I'd say 'probably' to the spacers. The track difference is rather extreme and there's not a lot of clearance between the frame/tires as it is.

All the parts includes the axleshafts, brake rotors, calipers, caliper brackets, brake hoses... I think it isn't worth it to convert them.

Exactly. As to of what it is worth. I have no idea.

I think he's a little stuck because the leaf hangers are in the way.

No, because the blokes at NAXJA don't know what they're talking about :roll: . Actually, I think BrettM's route on there works fine. But I don't remember as I looked at it a long time ago. You NEED at least an 8" ram unless you have VERY short steering arms (IIRC, he called for that in his cheap thread). And you should NOT put any washers, blocks, limiters, etc in them. I don't care what they say, that is wrong. You do NOT do that to hydraulic rams. The steering box has its own pressure cutoffs which should be LONG before you break a knuckle. I went to a local tractor supply and had my hoses made and bought the ram. Drill and tapped a spare box. Then made the brackets. Nothing else to it. Well, I pulled the front axle and steering for welding. The only other kicker is I used a 10"x2" (IIRC) ram because it was on sale.

:huh???: the truth is that fram sucks. Oil filters at least. I'd try getting rid of that filter and then go from there. Does it really matter that much? I mean, I'm one of those guys that says 'oil is oil...' and mixes brands. I run fram filters because they are cheap and have the grippy part on them so I can change my oil easier every year or two. I did notice the MJ had some hardcore valve noise on startup last week. Or maybe the idler pulley is trying to seize again.

You've got a bad ground up front if the fuel pump won't work without the tailights hooked up. This looks pretty good. I'd probably have not bothered to do anything with that bed though. It's seen better days. :nuts: The porportions of the LWB actually looks pretty good bobbed, IMHO.

I can tell you the front is a LP D60 with a Cad setup and unitized hubs. Wait, 95? Maybe not.

There's kits the use a similar concept to convert FS trucks to link rear suspension. Personally I think it's kinda hack. And as Pete said, if you're SOA you're gonna have too much tire for the D35.