DirtyComanche

SM465... Got the shift knob?

Mine did stock. Not exactly sure why. Maybe the joints were bad, maybe it was seriously out of balance. However, when I totalled my TW double cardon shaft, it didn't vibe. Not until I ripped the tranny mount in two. Oh, if you can change a tcase chain, you can install a HD SYE.

Hydro assist is somewhere down the road. My local tractor supply has everything I need. However, I'm going to exo it first because I have a nasty habit of almost rolling the stupid thing. I'll make that damn fairlead work tomorrow. Thanks.

I did something, yayyyyyyy... Front prepped, well, first prep. Image Not Found Image Not Found You can see how I got fed up and just started cutting crap out of the way. I know I didn't cut that off straight. Don't worry, it's be covered. Oh, and you can see my beautiful radiator that is now 1" foreward over stock... You might not be able to make it out, but the bolts that held the steering box in place had started to get pulled through the unibody! Oops. Here I'm starting to check alignment of everything and rough out my plate. Remember, those bolts are for a alignment, not structure! And no, the crossmember won't be a single peice of flat bar. Image Not Found Got swiss cheese? Image Not Found My drill press is really wishing it had been sold to a carpenter by now. Oh, and that's only half of those... Oh, that hole that's really close to the edge, it's for a steering box bolt. I'll deal with it. Starting to mock up the drop out crossmember that holds the winch. Image Not Found The peice of angle was going to be the crossmember before. The square tube will be cut open for leaf hangers. They're just sitting there because I realized I put a rosette where they will be covering it. :nuts: Man, this pic makes me look fat. Image Not Found Anyways, do you need this? It was wedged between the steering box and the stock crossmember, I take it to minimalize play/deflection. I can probably cut it down and wedge it back in, but it won't be easy. That and I may never be able to get the steering box out again after that. Winch crossmember getting done. The camera didn't like the light. Image Not Found Now, I have to ask, the cutout for the cable to pass through should be what size relative to the fairlead? Should it be the same as the maximum distances for the rollers (I mean, basically the rectangle that holds the rollers)? Or, should it be about half that? Or somehtign around there? I don't want to make the hole in my front peice any larger than necessary... Two more days off, then it's back to my jobby, let's see what I can get done!

It's pretty straight foreward if you have a donor.

But how the heck would I haul steel in the moped? Which I bought $116 worth of today. And I moved my radiator foreward 1 whole inch. Gotta love progress. Oh, question. I can acquire a gearset for my DD, it is however slightly 'used'. Ie, it's been sitting out of the vehicle for a long time. Light surface rust. Is it salvageable? Or should I not waste my time? I can get cheap setup, so that's not a concern.

Mine pops out of reverse all the bloody time. Scared the $#!& out of me when I was backing down a hill...

They just sit a bit higher... I can see over my hood better now. Only thing is if I flip down the sun visor I can't see $#!&.

Be careful - limit sledgehammers to the 4LB variety.

Then make it wider... You've got 1/2" of vertical to work with, a peice of 10x.500 flat bar would be strong enough...

Yeah, just make that atlas flat. Sledgehammer the floor a bit and see how close it is. If it is closeish, just run it and it'll fix itself (self-clearance is the term).

Works for any tire. Just, boogers aren't very round, so you have to use a lot of weight. My 35 BFGs had about 1LB of BBs in each of them, smooth as a dream all the way up until I ran out of balls... No other weights or anything. And they were horribly unbalanced tires before then.

Because I'm sitting here and it's too hot, I'll explain. Very little. I've not had the time I'd like to have recently, so progress is really slow. That and the machine shop (where I buy steel) is only open during the hours that I work. As of now, I've got pretty much nothing. Other than a lot of ideas and a bunch of scrap steel (well, it's scrap now). On the brighter side, the part of the unibody where the rear hangers for the front springs will go is pretty much ready for welding. But that's because I had cleaned it up when I was running long arms. Oh, and the stupid XJ is consuming time. Obviously I should have bought a honda or a moped for a DD.

I know guys who street drive their boggers... I'm not talking a 32 or 33 booger either. But, they balance them with about 10Lbs of BBs or sand. Each tire.

What actually looks badass and can be done with a rattle can... The the whole truck flat black first, or perhaps semi-gloss to avoid the 'grey' look. Depending on the paint. Mask off strips, flames, whatever floats your boat, and spray them with high gloss black. It creates a really neat ghost pattern effect with very little fuss.

Nah, it took them off and burned them out too, but it burned the stud portion of the bolt into the surrounding metal... Thus, making the bolts and surrounding metal one peice. If I'd been half smart I'd have used the 7018 and it wouldn't have been a problem. But I had 6011 lying right there... And it was on 225amps.

They're beadlocks...

Paddle shifters, eh? My experience with the stock bumpers is that they actually hold up reasonably to 'fender benders' if you can call them that. I mean, I've still got the stock rear on there, sorta. It's been through hell though. On that long 'to-do' list of things that don't get done because everything else breaks first. The stockers are basically throw away, they work once then you replace them...

Leave it, it's an emergency brake.

Lower it... It'll look better. I had an 86 long box that the front coils shattered on it, dropping it maybe 2", and it looked awesome besides the 'problems'. Well, the rear needed to go down a bit though. Why do you need sturdy bumpers? It's not bumper cars out there... I'd take a peice of 2x6x.125 HSS and cut it into three peices, one being 33" long for the centre and the two remaining (11.5" IIRC) would be used for the area under the headlights, but they would be angled back a bit by cutting them about 15* off... Cap the ends though. You gotta tub it though. You're doing what I wanted to do, but then realized street trucks are useless in hickville, BC. That and there's no good MJs left here.

The Liberty diesel was run entirely as a 'marketing gauge' . They had no intention to produce it for longer than 2-3 years, and in fact knew it would not be able to be made to pass the new emissions standards. However, the public's reaction to it was great enough that they will be putting the other CRD engine that daimler owns (somehow) in the grands and libbys after they get it figured out. The new engine is pretty much the same as the old, but a bit bigger and with a heck of a lot better fuel system. And on the chipped diesels being hard on trannys... Typically diesel engines came in vehicles that were designed for towing/stump pulling, and thus already had a massively strong tranny (can anybody say allison?). But, like any modification it will have ramifications, and typically you wind up having to buy a better TQ and tranny cooler. However, the liberty was NOT designed to tow/pull stumps. It's a plushy luxary IFS SUV wanna-be. So I somehow doubt the tranny would be up to massive modifcations to the engine. Although, a chip on the lib engine is going to give you 15-25lb/f, not the crazy 150+ that you can get out of a cummins... Oh yeah, and a faster shifting tranny is better than a slow one. It's a friction thing.

NOT THAT! 85-90 I think. Or 75-90. Or something. But NOT 10-30!

That's good entertainment before or after a few beer.

I drove around in the middle of winter with mine with no coolant. The gauge got pegged pretty bad. Every time I put the clutch in to shift it would stall, unless I stayed on the gas. Otherwise it sits about 210. On the old mechanical fan. The XJ stays at 190 with the AC on.

Where the Hell do I live? One of the many redneck capitals of the world... Okay, so apparently I don't have to have a complex over this. It's them, not me, right. Oh, nice rock lights. I need some... And headlights that work too.