DirtyComanche

Try this: You'll realize that I only post relevent pics. Unless you're really interested in the 86 LWB I gave away.

Well, if I was to do it over, I'd just get rid of the NP231 and deal with it that way.

Tell me more about the weakness of the stock mainshaft? Ever see one break? Yup. About 5. It happens. The shaft is just too itty bitty and it goes pop. But the guys who I saw break them weren't being easy on them...

There's plenty, I'd look them up for you, but yeah, lazy. Anyways, you can weld the old one no-problemo. Just gotta clean it good first.

It has an annoying bolt pattern on the bellhousing. BUT: I'm pretty sure you can bolt it to anything that had the buick 231 in it, IE, older CJs. So, you can easily get a T18 tranny and D20 transfer case. That is, if you're 4wd.

No pics tonight, but I got the front xmember welded onto the truck. And then I hung the leafs from the front just to make sure on where I should put the hangers in the back. Then I started messing with my temporary tranny xmember, and seeing if I can make my other tranny mount work with a peugeot. It's probably an AW4 mount. The short answer is that some things are gonna be changed. It's annoying I couldn't just find another puker mount and use that.

Yeah, but it takes all day to get there... My buddy with a samuri got his 1.3 hampsters of fury up to 138km/h, but he had to do it in saskatchewan...

In an XJ with an auto tranny, you can run the RE hack'n'tap and a stock length auto tranny front shaft in the rear.

It's ford TTB axle. That's why I said "Bloody Fords" earlier. They aren't worth anything, other than you can steal the hubs for other D44s and you can easily remove the centre section with the gears in it to extract them later.

In an XJ maybe... For a MJ you'd have to get it retubed to be long enough.

Chrysler is inept. They really blotched the HO computer.

If only I had that much amperage to play with.

And the HoHo thing is something that I always say because I hate them. I find them hard to work on. The renix engines are much simpler, sorta.

Oh, all 4.0L engines in MJ/XJs are MPFI (fuel injected). And you can fit a 31 stock. Little trimming would be in order with a different BS rim.

Sorry, I screw that up all the time.

It's kinda a tossup as to of what is 'best'. 87+ with the 4.0 MPFI engine and AW4 (auto) tranny are solid. 87-89.5's with the 4.0 and 5spd got a kinda crappy tranny. Oh, and 92 got the elusive 4.0 HO engine, but you don't want that anyways. And look for a metric ton version, or check to see if it has a D44 rear. Personally, to do it over again I'd probably look for the cleanest cab possible, and not worry about anything else. But that's because I'm no longer into keeping things on the sane side of modified. Oh, the 2.5L engine is just too small! And the 2.8 is ugly. And the renault turbo diesel is beyond rare, but cool.

Why the hate on fiberglass? Yeah, it's not as durable, but the only times that I think it would ever be an issue is when I'm standing, dacing, or screwing on my hood. And for the record, the steel one on my XJ is now all dented.

Get some Crager Soft 8's or AR-767s. I think they come in 16s for Jeep 5x4.5. Yeah, I'm really, really cheap.

When I was at work today, I was looking at a clamp exactly like that, and thinking "Wasn't CW looking for a clamp for his tailgate? Maybe I should get him the part number for this thing..." Looks good.

Oh yeah, the one hanger bent a bit from the heat. It looks a lot worse than it is. I put a leaf bolt through it and torqued it down and it'll be fine.

I got some work done today. Not a lot, but not too bad considering I figured I wouldn't even be able to. Believe it or not, Jeet Kun Do is a pretty good way to make your entire body sore to the point of being useless. Anyways, figured I'd better make some spring hangers. My origonal plan to use 4x4x.250 HSS didn't work out. The ID is 2.5" on it, but you need about 2.75" for misalignment (allow the leaves to flex). So I built 'em out of plate. First one welded up, still hot. Image Not Found Most of the slag off. Image Not Found There was a couple little nasties in that welding. On place the weld got contaminated and is porous, but I don't think I'll bother fixing it as it hardly matters. Or maybe I will. Other side burned in. Image Not Found When I quit taking pictures (got too dark) Image Not Found I did take the slag off the welds on the second hanger and there was no flaws. Oh, and I had a wonderously aweful idea... I'm going to drill out the plug welds on both of my D44s, and put the waggy tubes in the ford centre section. No cutting, no mess, hopefully they are both slip fit or I'm f'ed!

My flatbed frame weighs about 180... What type of decking are you going to use? And are you at all worried about tire clearance?

What amperage is it? I can weld with mine at 35-40amps without much problem. Other than that's not enough amperage unless you're working with sheet. And who welds sheet with a stick? If it's a 90 amp unit, you should have no problem laying down a decent bead... (Unless the breaker goes) 35-40 amps and a 3/32 rod of 6013, 70-90 and a 3/16 rod of 6013 and it should do fine.

Some say god is in the details; I say he's in the prep work. Stick gives you more leeway with prep depending what rod you use. 6011 can make a weld that will hold even if you don't even both to scrape the rust and old paint off. 6013 needs it to be quite clean to make a good weld, but allows for some wiggle room. However, it's easiest if you just clean it up really good. 7018 (or like) requires the surface to be absolutely clean(clean the surface with xylene or such after taking everything off with a flap disk), however it makes the strongest weld. With MIG, it has always got to be really clean. No way around it. The flap disk will become your best friend. What's the amperage on your MIG? 110V will only give you maybe 100amps at most. Oh yeah, I just said screw it and got the garage wired for 220V and made an extension cord to weld in the driveway.

Looking better. How much lift is it estimated to actually have now?