DirtyComanche

No-slip is a lunch box locker, not a full locker. I've always got my lockers from ebay. Really? Oh right. A detroit is a 'no-spin' in trachtech's books. Nobody sells it under that name anyways.

Yer could build something like this: Image Not Found Then cut the grille out and mount the winch back a bit, and bend up a hoop for it. Or by a pre-fabbed one. And maybe box in the ends of the bumper as you desire. I dunno about you but I can't justify $300 or w/e on a bumper.

Find an auto parts store that loans tools. They should have a hardcore filter wrench or two...

Welcome Country. The inner fenders are welded to both the uniframe and the firewall as they are a structeral assembly. With a whole lot of drilling you can remove the spot welds and actually make the front section of them bolt-in/out, but I really doubt it would help you much. However, the early inner fenders have no issues to clear a later 4.0. It is the firewall that they changed. How much? I don't know; ask Eagle. But I'm sure one can still make a AMC 6er fit. The earlier rad support also has to be changed.

I always think about narrowing it. But the stock rad is really not convenient to do that with - well, I think it's pretty near impossible with it where it is. It's too bad it's not like a wrangler hood with so much space under it - then I could put the rad on the bottom of the hood and not have to put it in the back of the truck. But I figure with this design I can easily enough remove the front portion later and narrow it up. Oh, Pat, how many of feet of tubing was in your's again? Nevermind, 200' = 20 sticks. I shouldn't need quite as much.

Well, a full carrier locker replaces the carrier (detroit locker/softlocker/no-slip and other similar items). But, 'lunch-box' lockers (lockrights, quik-locs, aussie lockes) don't replace the carrier, just the spyder gears. You can ask if a 'thick' gearset is avaliable for your application if you don't want to buy a new carrier or full locker. I'd buy a full locker and be done with it. Edit, you already bought the gears, so the thick option dun work.

So, as I see it you have two options (and something inbetween) which would be welding it entirely on the vehicle, or tacking in place and welding it off the vehicle. If you're to weld it off the vehicle I'd think that you would have to design it accordingly in that you'd have to actually be able to take it off - ie, all mount locations would essentially have to be outboard of the body's major dimensions. But if you're to weld it in place care would have to be taken so that the nodes could also be accessed for welding. Which poses more of a problem if one means to keep the cage tight to the body. Now, I'll go out on a limb and also say that most people would MIG weld their cages, with the exception of those who have the means and desire to TIG their cages. Am I correct in these assumptions? Anyways; I'm in need of an exo for my MJ and I'm still weighing my options on execution. I'm limited in space in that my garage only has a 8' ceiling, so if I'm to tack the cage in place and remove it for welding some major creativity would be needed. Hence I would like to weld it in place if at all possible. Which brings me to another limitation - I can't MIG weld. It will be sticked entirely. Which you can actually use to get access to tight places sometimes - but a lot of the time it seems to not help. Also, I do not want my exo to get in the way of my wheeling - ie, if it gets me hung up I'm going to be in a bad mood. Saving sheetmetal isn't really a huge deal at this point - it's really more my life and longevity of the body as a structure. I appologize for the pics being ugly, and that this is for a MJ but I used my XJ as I have more pictures of it for some reason (WTH?). My design idea is something like this: Rear, sides: (old pic, yeah, I fixed that @$$ end) Image Not Found The cage behind the cab will not be any wider than it is up into the area where the roof tapers in by the rain gutters. Which means it's not going to help the body much. I figure I'll go with the nice big full X as there's not as much that can be done for lateral stability up front. The bars extending back to the wheelwells might be unneeded - but I will use them as I think it'll look hokey otherwise and I'm going to throw a big 'pane tank there anyways. The sliders are also extended so I can try to squeeze my batteries into that space as a saddle - because that would be cool. Thankfully my XJ's front end is pretty much the same - other than it sorta has a bumper. Image Not Found I'm debating if the fender area should go inside the sheetmetal or not. It's not exactly a huge deal if the fenders get messed (wait, they already are) as they can be replaced or flattened if I get in the mood to do bodywork. If they go inside I'm unsure how much protection I will have for the lights at the front. But if I build it as drawn I might as well not have turn signals anyways. And yes, a windshield bar. Do I need it? I'm just thinking I'd better not break the glass if I do it... Okay, imagine this is a MJ roof: Image Not Found Obviously this isn't the best design. Another X or a single diagonal cross would be better. But I think it will cause major headaches with the bending and welding if I was to do that. Mostly this would be because the tubes along the sides and front are not above the roofline. Should it matter? This is how I think I will build it... Other than the front. Image Not Found The light blue (sliders, and upmounts to the bed) would be welded on first. They're obviously the usual starting point. Then the main structure would be built in place and tacked up. This includes the roof, windshield bars, and cowl cross bar. I'd then lift the front end of the cage up to tip it off the back of the truck. If this can't be done inside my garage I'll just have to face the cold. It would then be fully welded, then tipped back onto the truck - reverse of removal; and welded in place to the deck and sliders. The red braces on the rear would then be welded in. I'd then move to the nasty pickle of a front (light green). I'd be doing it in place. I'll have to decide what I'll be doing with it first though.

Anybody else find that this site won't save your password all the time? I've never had a problem with it anywhere else. Normally I'd assume it's because I'm using an ancient version of opera, but still, it's not a problem anywhere else... But, I know Pete can't fix it so I'm just soapboxing for something to do.

We've got that too - actually all vehicles are supposed to be kept indoors or as discreetly as possible. But, they screwed up the legal paperwork so they actualyl can't do anything. Hence, there was an 8.8 lying besides the garage for about a year, half a dozen assorted tires, a pile of misc garbage parts, a truck in the driveway on jackstands (no axles), and 4 or 5 other vehicles scattered around in the driveway. They can piss and moan but short of a lawsuit they can't do anything - and they won't go there. Whenever I move out (gah) I'll be finding some place without neighbours near by.

Looks like a 2.8 POS.

D44.... that'll work gooder.

One's small, one's big. Small blocks went to about 400ci stock, and big blocks started at 393 (I think) and went to 496 stock. Through GMPP you can get a 632 BBC, or perhaps larger now. There's also aftermarket SBCs that go up to a hair over 454ci. Very few things that fit a SBC fit a BBC. They're really totally different motors. But I'm not as brushed up on my GM stuff as I used to be.

People do both for everything. I just figure it's a wth either way. If you're talking avaliable stock trannies the AW4 is a better choice than the AX-15/NV3550; and if you don't like the way it behaves PM brettM and buy one of his shift controllers. For heavily modified (ie. all that's stock is an emblem or a couple peices of sheetmetal) then it is far more of a tossup. SM420/465s and NP435s both have a great first gear (all around 7:1) which really helps if you plan to rockcrawl. Throw in a doubler and a 4:1 tcase and some low gears in the diffs and the next thing you know you can dump the clutch from idle with the brakes on HARD and not stall. But there's a lot of bulletproof autos out there and then you don't have to think about things as much and you don't need an absurd crawl ratio - just a really good tranny cooler. With an auto more wheelspeed is just a matter of hammering the throttle - it'll shift up if you have no traction. One thing that is nice about a standard is being able to get into neutral easy. A friend of mine missed neutral - went all the way to park - and went over backwards because of it.

I'm going to stir the pot full of zuki guys with that on my local board.

Just jack the damn thing up and grab the tire and see if you can wiggle it all over the place. I've seen a case that looked as bad as that, and it was the unit bearings. Although, dying ball-joints could also contribute.

They did away with the switch. Went perma-power. Mmm, 1990? Or was it when they brought in the HO. My 89 XJ has it. I always leave it in power. Doesn't make much difference, other than it feels more like a slush-box in comfort and I HATE slush boxes. Anyways, the HoHo gets worse milage because there's no nock sensor so the timing follows a fixed curve. Which is retarded.

Yeah, like me.

It's something like that. A friend of mine with a YJ just got a 91? I think, and it was kingpin. It worked well for him because of the greater offset - he took about 6" off the tube on the passenger side.

Uh, nice colour choice.

I'd buy the adapters. Looking at the price it isn't worth it for the taps. Especially if you want to run the 3/4-18 thread or whatever it is that the chevy TREs run - it is WEIRD.

Do both. Use the ford centre section and inner shafts and the chevy outer knuckles and outer shafts. I believe the newer ford HP60s (before they became unitized hubs, but still had kingpins) have the pumpkin offset far enough that you shouldn't have any real driveshaft clearances.

Heim wear is an issue if you DD it or spend a lot of street time. They'll last 'long enough' in a trail only application. As in you'll probably decide to rebuild the rig before they will actually wear out. That is providing you run the ones with an insert (teflon or such). But, for the money you can get some nice chevy 1/2 ton TREs. The ones everybody tries to sell as being 1-ton....

As far a lift... It can handle about 6". It won't work right, but nothing will be bound. At least, not at static height. It is weak and poorly designed. Upgrades get expensive. JCRoffroad makes a nice setup.

Yes, I agree on the 203/205 being too heavy. I'd never be able to break it, but I haven't even managed to break my peugeot. But, I'm leaving towards trying to make things really light. I just need more money/time and my MJ is going to lose a few pounds. Like, 1500.

You can get a 15" rim to fit. It involves an angle grinder and LESS than 2" backspacing. Alternatively you can steal some knuckles from a ford 1/2 ton D44 and use them to run a more normal brake setup.