DirtyComanche

I guess. But mine is only level when you put 600LBs on the bed. It is a slightly different setup though.

Make the perches short, it'll still probably have a rake.

He said XJ. In which case 89 was the last year... MJ is a different story.

Complete? Varies. I payed $250 cnd. for mine out of a wrecker.

IFS? Go steal the front out of an AMC eagle, and build an AWD street beast. I'm tempted to try it myself.

They were Motive (Randy's Brand) and they were set up right. I find it somewhat odd that they survive for you guys; as I said mine wasn't the only failoure I've known. There's a chance it's because the terrain is different? Dunno. And I kinda doubt they'd warranty them? I never bothered to call because I figured that was kinda silly. Ya know, I didn't break them on the street. And buildup costs can really depend. A D60 front goes for upwards of 1g here. That's a hard initial hit. And if you're only going to run 37s or so, you don't need a boat anchor pumpkin. I'll admit that I'll probably wind up tossing my D44 at some point, but I can sell it for near to what I'm going to put in it. If not at a profit? Oh, and I found somebody to set up my next set of gears who will do it for beer. He's competent. Make friends with a mechanic.

Hmm, I guess we got a little off course here. If he's running 33's go get a 4cyl cherokee HPD30. Get the newer shafts. Hope for the best. And if you want to really have fun get the vac disco one and weld the front gears. (The guy I know who broke his stock carrier did it on 33s. But he's one of those people :nuts: )

Just spring pad centre-centre. Everything else gets welded on in random places.

Of what? HP30s? Well, mine. And about 4 others (that I know personally). They aren't common because most people get pissed off with spending a fortune on unit bearings, or obliderate ball joints and decide it's time to upgrade. Or they never break anything because they don't know how to have fun :nanner: But I've seen stock carriers fail too. A D44 under a relativly light rig (Comanche) can hold 36/37" tires without much issue. At least that seems to be the case with the CJ/YJ guys. That's without chromos. Also, the D44 has better aftermarket upgrades. And if you dump coin into a HPD30, you're going to get what? Well, you theortically could build a pretty stout HPD30 with 30spline chromos, CTMs, a detroit, the hub conversion kit, etc. Lots of coin. But it'll hold what? 35s reliably? Inchitis hits and you blow it up. Besides, the 30spline chromos are theoretically stronger than the R&P. And I broke my R&P with stock 260X shafts. Oh, and what if you have to back up? Then the HPD30 is even weaker... Not much, but the R&P is weaker. I'll admit I'm not the best driver, going forewards is not always an option.

The locals in my area have found it to be considerably stronger than the HPD30. While the entire HP front LP rear for strength concept is true, in reality it's not much of a strength difference. And you get bigger ball joints, real hubs, better knuckles, etc. The HPD30's R&P is just too small... I'd like to run a HP front to save my poor D/S. Not really for strength.

Oh, and the D44s are similar. The GW one is a hair narrower I think, at 58" WMS to WMS (IIRC). However, it already has the 6-bolt pattern that matches the front. A lot of them got AMC20's though.

They're rare, but nobody wants them. Well, at least they seem fairly rare here. I keep track of all the FSJs. There's 4 in my area, one is in the jyard, and another I could pick up for $200. Just look around, they tend to wind up sitting in feilds.

GW's from 70 something to 88ish came with D44 fronts ALWAYS. Earlier ones could come with a D44, but it's passenger drop. Or they came with a D28 or something. Anyways, you want the later ones. Just make SURE it is not a vac disco axle. They are weird. The vacuum actuator is cast into the pumpkin by the ring gear. Really screwy $#!&. Luckily they only did that for two years, so they're pretty rare. As far as what else you'll need for a 4x4 conversion, a GW is unlikely to be helpful. Unless you want to swap in a 360/TH400/NP229 combo. So just go to the wreckers and get a front axle. A complete cherokee can make a good parts donor. But not really in your case. Personally I'd get a YJ/TJ NP231 tcase, and a cherokee AW4. The YJ/TJ tcase is clocked higher, which is something I really wish I had. Then you'll jsut have to get misc. parts from the junkyard more often, but a complete donor vehicle is not necessary with what you already have. Oh, and you'll need adapters for you D44 rear to run the chevy 6 bolt pattern from the GW. You can't adapt the D44 front to the smaller 5x4.5 pattern. You can change it to the ford 5x5.5 pattern though. That is, if you D44 rear is from a cherokee/comanche.

Anybody have an idea on those spring perches though?

Contrary to popular belief, the height sensing porportioning valve seems to do diddly squat. Or at least that's how I see it.

Or build the perfect trail rig! It's blank slate! Get some fullwidths, a chevy 350 or dare I say a caddy 500? Th-400. An atlas or moster box, or just a NP203/D300 setup. Ditch the bed and bring out the tube bender! It actually makes more sense to start with garbage sometimes.

Hmmm, maybe I should have mentioned that. Throwing away the D35 just goes without saying normally. But that is why I said to find a GW with D44's front and rear, and steal both. Or the izusu 12B. I've been checkin mine out and it's a fine peice of steel. You can always get the boring ford 8.8 (explorer, newer ranger) and adapters for the larger bolt pattern (of the front).

They're 20" long, IIRC. They would probably work. Depends how flexy your crap is. Go get some junkyard ones and see. (Don't knock junkyard brake parts)

Image Not Found Hmm? Wire wheel? Sand blast? Spray them with acid? Or just hit them with tremclad (rustoleum)?

Hmm, learn something new every day. I never really looked at them...

Yeah, krawlers kick @$$. VERY PRICEY. And I dunno about you, but I've never even seen a used set for sale. GWs are pretty easy to find. Find one with a D44 front and rear, then steal both diffs... Or talk to a wrecker. Who buys GW parts? Nobody. Or do what I'm doing, GW D44 front (or maybe a narrowed ford D44, but it's GW width and outers) and an isuzu 12B rear. Disk brakes all around. Both axles can be had cheap (who buys isuzu parts? Nobody). The isuzu rear will almost for sure have 4.56s (some had even lower). Regear front to match.

If I rub frame... Okay, yeah, it doesn't matter. Even with the flatbed on it it should be fine. Uh, I just gotta make sure this isuzu rear is what it's supposed to be...

N on Tcase, N on trans. If the rear DS is spinning, the oil pump in the tcase will spin. The trans won't spin though. I don't know why the manual says you're supposed to pull the DS. Makes no sense to me.

That ad sucks, aren't YJ's LP? Anyways, they will fit. I suggest getting a different rear axle though. Waste of money to regear a 35.

Tires are a "Cup of tea" thing. Everybody likes something different. People trash boggers, and yet you see comp buggies running them. Normally they cut them, but yeah... But TSLs generally are considered to be good tires. But they ain't street friendly! They often aren't even round.