DirtyComanche

Sorta. All the front clip and the front doors are the same as XJ parts. Along with the drivetran for the most part. And most of the interior perices are the same as an XJ (other than the back area of the cab). Or you can mod XJ stuff to work. Where you'll run into trouble is if the bed is messed (I just made a flatbed instead...) or without a tailigate. The rear driveshaft and the gas tank and parking brake assembly is MJ specific. So are the rear axles (but, you can fix that with a welder if you need to swap something else in...). I would NOT hesitate to buy one on the reasoning of parts being rare.

I'd buy coils... I know how to make it work JY style, but it'll suck. Coils are cheap.

That ain't his; he's never owned anything that nice :brows: :roll: . But that's a stock longbed frame under there.

I put a block of wood under one side of it so it is on an angle like / or \ then put it under the knuckle and jack away... It pushes it over as well as lifting then.

A bottle jack, a high-lift, an anchor point, 20 feet of chain, 6lb sledge... Actually, normally it just takes a bottle jack and a 2-3lb sledge. Use the jack to push the axle forewards or backwards as needed, hit the arm with the sledge to get it into the pocket. Once it is close, insert the bolt with the sledge - it'll self centre. But you didn't hear that method from me.

Hell if I know. I thought sticks always had higher gears in the diff because the auto tranny had a higher first gear... At least, that's the reasoning I use. It has been proven that chrysler thinks different than me.

Gary's Jeep Wrecking in Surrey/Lower mainland somewhere. Probably listed as Vancouver. Don't know if they have a website...

Selec-trac MJs are ultra rare - I think. The 228 is apparently an 'alright' case too, providing you don't run into vacuum issues. It has a fixed yoke on the rear as well. They threw them in the FSJs behind 360s - so they gotta be reasonably strong. I'm not sure on how they work - I've never had one apart. You have CV shafts in your D30. They're bad. Like to go pop and snap. How round is the diff cover? Egg shapped or perfectly round? If it is perfectly round, you scored an AMC20 - which are about as strong as a D44. If it's an egg shape, it's the D35 POS. And I'll say you have 4.10s. But I'm not sure. And you gotta upload pics to say photobucket, then link 'em. Unless we have a pic uploader I don't know about.

Almost all (all later ones with 29 spline) 4.0/auto cherokees had 3.55s. If you want 4.0s you'll need to find a 2.5/auto.

Congrats. Only 4 more years and you can convert it to run on alcohol.

The 8.8 is only offset 2-3". And it's the right way (away from the gas tank). It would never be an issue in a vehicle as long as a MJ. A YJ/TJ is a different matter.

Well... What size tire do you plan? The 31 spline 8.8 (exploders) is really quite strong. I've seen 36s and 37s on them with no problems with failures - that is under lighter rigs (not fullsizes). As a bonus, if you find a 96+ one you will get some nice disk brakes. You will probably want 1" spacers for each side though. Although, it is only an inch narrower than an 8.25. An 29 spline 8.25 will work well with up to about 34 or 35" tires. Disk brakes can be done using junkyard parts (crown vics). They are limited to 4.56 gears being the lowest. There also isn't much aftermarket for them. But they don't hang as low as a 8.8 - which has a bloody huge centre section. Just make SURE you get a 29 spline version. The 27 is only as strong as a D35.

Good choice... And you're almost legal on my side of the border.

Snow's over-rated.... We've lost most of ours already. Just the higher elevations that have it. Another month or so and we can wheel something other than snow. I need a tow rig. Damn.

Holy $#!& they got a lot of stuff.

You can't just use them to save departure. Unless you find a leaf with considerably more arch - in which case you could have ran a shackle in a higher position to mimic the same effect. With those, you have to mount them WHERE THE LOWER SHACKLE BOLT WAS. Hence, on a MJ they'd need to be about 5.5-6" down and 1-2" back from the top hanger bolt hole. And that's where the rear leaf bolt (lower shackle bolt) has to be at static position - which should be in the middle of that hanger to allow for the most flex. So they'd actually have to stick farther back than a stock shackle would. If you were to swap them in with the stock leaf springs and maintain the same ride height and NOT screw up the leaf pack geometry - you would have less depature angle than before. And if you want me to get into screwed up leaf pack geometry - realize that there is entire TEXTBOOKS on making leaf springs work. They are NOT as simple as they seem. If they were a wonder, everyone who still ran leaf springs would run them. As it is, I'm not sure what lasting effects or inherent problems they may pose. It looks to me like they are ment more for cars than off-road applications. And yes, running them in the front of the rear leaves would be bad - unless you hard mount the rear of the leaf. Which actually causes another conundrum - say hello to needed a long spline driveshaft and having a poor riding suspension. If you didn't hard mount the rear you will break things - the axle will flop about as nothing will control its movement then; other than if the bolts bottom out on those hangers... And I don't know what a goofy leaf is. I know what buggy leaves are - more correctly called a 3/4 elliptical suspension. They have their own problems. Which I touched on in the other thread - but didn't get into detail on. You can't use those moveable hangers with a setup like that. These setups were (and to an extent still are) common on really SWB vehicles such as GPWs, CJs, and Zukis. But they have 30-40" leaf springs and don't experience the negative effects of this setup anywhere near as much. Still, the zuki guy I knew who ran them went back to a standard leaf setup...

Buggy shackles, or 3/4 elliptical, have their own problems. If you do run them, 3 things... You'll get massive axlewrap without a traction bar. Even then, you'll blow up traction bars... You'll need a long travel driveshaft (pricey...) They are inherently unstable when going downhill, or sidehilling.

Here's a LWB frame, which shows the location of the bed mounts. Image Not Found Here's the details on the bed mounts. I should have used a higher resolution... Image Not Found Oh yeah, have fun with it being in milimeters...

It's straight enough already. Maybe out 1/2" on the front... I've decided to part ways with the unibody. Sorta. I wasn't planning to totally reveal my plans until I'd figured them out... But the gist is to build a new frame with new running gear then pop my old cab off the current one and swap it over. That way I can play around with everything on the frame and wheel the current buildup as is until the frame and everything attached to it (minus the cab and a bit of work related to that) is good to go. Or, it's an idea I'm toying with but may not do because of time constraints. Anyways, I've been working on the dimensioning of this project for a while here, and a diagram that wasn't ment just for alignment would be nicer... I think I've got part of the problem figured out now... JB, I'll get you those diagrams... Your's a SWB or LWB? Looks like they're the same... But, if you could, show me more pictures of how you cut out the cab and attached it to your frame. You ditched the floors and a bunch of the firewall. It's looking like this is the way to go to actually make it sensible...

Or jam the coller over...

I think the idea is worth a shot. You can get lift XJ leaves pretty cheap if it winds up too short. Or bastardize them by reusing some of the lower leafs out of the MJ packs you have to tune them to the right height. They don't flex the best - but they aren't the worst either. Most of the guys with lifted XJs are complaining because they have way too stiff of springs. You just have to figure out the correct location of the rear hanger. Like I said, if you mess it up there will be nasty consequences. My front leaves do weird things because of this - and it will probably destory them given enough time. For the starting point of the rear hanger I'd go foreward 6" from stock, and down 6", measured from the stock hanger bolt (the one that goes through the top of the shackle) - as this should adjust for using those roller shackles and for the loss of spring length. The problem is that you can't tell if it is right without putting the weight of the truck on them. My front looked fine until I set the truck down on it. And if you can't make it work, look at more darastic things... Like chopping the rear frame and building a coil suspension.

I've got this for the model 63 (SWB). Image Not Found And a couple more out of the same book which detail the body mounts for the bed. The problem is it is a frame/body repair diagram and everything is measured off the centre of datum points. Which is fun, but not really what I want. So, anybody have any others? Out of any of the other FSMs?

I vote TPS. It is adjustable and should be checked as it's a lot cheaper than replacing anything...

I actually thought that was what he was doing. But, the problem is.... If you're building your own hangers frame side, what the leaf pack will do is almost entirely up to you. The XJ leaves are very near flat - sometimes inverse if they're old... So, if you used the stock forward hanger you'd probably have about no lift. Or maybe an inch - I think the MJ one is lower than the XJ. That's providing you locate the rear hanger in the ideal point for the leaf pack.

The problem is that if you use those, you will mess up the leaf pack geometry. The shackles have to extend down far enough to make the leaf pack centre flat. If it isn't - it does bad things. My front end is like this, and will need tweaking to fix it. To use them correctly you'd have to drop them to the same height as the old shackle extended too. Really not saving any departure/approach. Oh, I'm concerned with their lubrication. Might be fine, but I think they did it a hokey way in that.