DirtyComanche

Cut the lower third of the hinge off. There ya go. Free. It works. Oh, and they hold really good. Mine only gave once I had ripped the door forewards (backing up) so it was parallel with the fender...

Well, reading the only reference I have for welding (lincoln book) it is completely acceptable to weld the cast in 1-2" incremements without totally pre-heating it. I think it just wouldn't be a good idea if it's totally cold. Mine was done 'professionally' and I asked them and they said it's not a problem. They pre-heated it with a torch.

Ya know, you could probably get another wife on ebay.

The stocker aux fans work if you want to add a fan. To do a conversion you're going to need to run duals just because the rad is such an awkward shape. Well, or one big one that hangs down kinda low. Personally I've got two taurus fans that are supposed to go in once I find time. I'm only doing it so I have the choice of not running them in the winter, and running them while the truck isn't on (short periods). That and I need a little more clearance in that area for something else...

It's probably a 1360 series joint. That's what most exploders got. The tubes spinning is actually fairly common. It's really more of a suspension/weight related thing than torque I think. I've heard of plenty of cherokees doing it, not always with a 4.0. And it's not the worst thing in the world to weld. Although I didn't do my own. All you need to do is use high nickel rod and pre-heat with a propane torch, welding about 1-2" at a time. The casting won't distort as the tube slips in it a fair ways and keeps everythign centred. Apparently, that is.

Get more pics.

Looks pretty cool. But that front bumper has got to go.... And you might modify the stepside box to make it match a bit. I actually dig that look. $#!&, I should go by the longbox one I know of, cut the frame down, and put a stepside chev box on it. $#!&. I'm gonna be really broke now.

The tubes spin in the housing as the $#!&ty plug welds (they aren't welds actually) go pop and the tube spins. The companion flange is his fancy name for the adapter on the exle end of the driveshaft that bolts to the round flange on the pinon. I'd show ya a pic if you really care... (Oh, and those 12-pointers are a bish. I didn't know the thread pitch on them so I had to buy replacment 12-points from the stealer. Cost me about $10! And I've still got 12 points. I'll deal with it sometime.)

On the whole leaf conversion, it can be done cheap and easy. But ya get what ya pay for. BrettM did his right. Search pirate, and there's a couple that were done uber-cheap. Personally I'd just build some radius arms. Or do like Pete and steal the ford radius arms (and D44) and make them work.

The problem is that I figure there's two types of rolls that I will have: The mild flop/over a couple times. I've come close to doing this more than once. The "Oh $#!&, we're gonna be at the bottom of the mountain when this is over" sort of roll. It happens, very rarely, but some of the areas I go to you can't always say the whole hillside is firmly anchored. The first is a lot easier to deal with. The second I think it's just based on luck. But if an exo will potentially make the difference, I'll do it. This won't be an overnight project though. But, the local guys will help me on this one. It's jsut like doing a yota :nuts: so they don't think it'll be too hard. Well, the design part at least. I'm gonna have to really think about this though.

I'm gonna exo it.... It's set in stone now.

Well, that's why I was going to do this, with the idea of adding an exo similar to the front first. But it seems it might just make more sense to do it all in one go.

They go for like $600 - 800 cnd here. Total BS.

Well, maybe I'll run the truck by somebody and see. I'm actually leaning more towards a full exo now. Honestly, a roll bar won't protect my cab, it would only help in multiple roll overs. And if I crush my cab I have to find another truck... Or vert.

Pat, what wall DOM did you use? .120?

Good on you. Now the fun part. What parts have you got and have you looked into the costs of the machine work?

Oh, it'll cost a lot. How $160/hour sound?

Ah, I figured my materials choices would come under attack. The problem with tube is cost. Now I know you're all going to say "You can't put a price on safety." Well, you have to be reasonable. The tube would have to be special ordered. I don't have a bender, add that. I don't have a notcher, although I could make one. I'd also have to learn to bend tube. Which is suppossedly fairly tricky. All this would add up. Or I could take it to one of those so-called "4x4 shops" that we have. Then I'd be broke. For a long time. That's if they'd even use DOM. More likely they'd use HREW. Or black pipe... Now, you're thinking "Oh, he's just cheaping out". Well, not really. Square tube is actually stronger than round, the catch is not in all directions. With round tube you have a uniform edgeless shape, other than for the seam. This means if it is hit from an angle it is equally strong. (Other than the seam) With square it's all good from the flat sides, but the edges are the weak points. However, I don't see the edges as being likely to be hit hard for my main hoop behind the cab. The two braces that triangulate rearward are slightly at risk, but I consider it to be minimal. I'm more likely to actually flop onto the sides of the flat deck than those braces, I'd think. But then, I don't know for sure. I'm thinking more along the lines of 2x2x.250. F' that's heavy. I think I might go talk with an engineer. FWIW I've seen square roll bars and backhalf cages survive some pretty nasty rolls.

I just realized that part of the reason I wanted to run a D44 was it had selectable hubs. Man. I feel like an idiot. Well, then I can weld the front carrier either way.

That's a pretty cool flyer.

Okay, I'm a little scatterbrained right now. So I'm jsut going to regurgitate everything right here. Feel free to comment. Firstly, rollover protection. I figured I was just going to do a square tube bar and tie it into my bed, then tie the bed into the frame. Then somebody drew a picture. Image Not Found Now, obviously theres some odd things happening there. The two vertical peices at the right cab corner were a mistake. Anyways, I don't feel I'm ready to exo the front yet, so we can disregard that. But from the cab back is what I plan to do. Now, I have to ask is it critical that I have that 'X' in the rollbar? It greatly complicates my life. I feel that I shouldn't need it as I will only have minimal rollover protection if I build what is drawn from the cab back anyways. However, I will probably get pissed off and build an exo similar to the front at some point. Maybe. Then I'd feel that there should be more triangulation, thus I'd need the 'X'. Should I jsut build it without and worry about the ramifications of being lazy later? Oh, I plan to build this all out of 3"x3"x.188" box. Comments? It's easy to work with... Moving right along. It's front axle time. Now, as we all know, I don't like D30s. However, I have one and 35s. To it's record I haven't broken a 260X shaft yet. However, I haven't been able to really beat on it yet. I'm still working out some oddness with the front susp. But I can feel it coming... Maybe tomorrow. And to throw a wrench into the works I want to go to 37s when this set of tires is done... So, as a cheap fix I proposed throwing the newer 297X shafts in it. I was advised that the gain would be minimal at best as the yokes on the shafts are the same, just bored out for the bigger ujoints. This means that the yoke is the failure point. So, no broken joints, just yokes. Cute eh? So, if I'd break the 260X I'll probably break the 297X yokes. So, I might as well just write this off. Thoughts? Next option is Chromos. Now, I've already got a gear setup done, and a trutrac. I'm not touching that. So that would mean 27 spline chromos. Which are pricey. And now I've got a polished D30. Well, not a bad D30. I'll admit that. But I still have the weak C's/knuckles. It might hold the 35s, but I ain't doing 37s with that. Third option: The dreaded waggy LPD44. I can get one for $150 out of the pick'n'pull. No biggy. Now, this leaves a few possible routes. I will have to regear it, but I think I can get a hookup on a cheap gear setup this time. That and I'll probably use used parts (well, carrier, not sure about used gears...). Since waggy D44s were avaliable with vac disco, I contemplait welding an open carrier and using the vac disco (cable conversion) to lock/unlock the front axle. Would this work alright? The waggy D44 makes things annoying as I will need 'new' rims. I'm having trouble finding 6 bolt chevy rims in an 8" width for cheap. That bothers me. I could convert to ford outers and use 5x5.5" ford rims, which I can get a set of 15X8s with 3"~ BS for cheap. I also need to run adapters on the 8.8 rear. This leaves me wondering if I should actually keep the 8.8. It seems to work gooder, even the LSD doesn't suck too bad. But I could throw an isuzu rear in there instead, and sell the 8.8 at a profit, and hopefully get myself 4.56 gearing. Then I'd have the chevy 6-bolt pattern on the rear. But that comes back to rims. Last D44 option. Grab myself a ford HPD44 (I know where one is...) and cut the knuckles off, cut it down to waggy width, and run waggy shafts. I'm not sure exactly how hard this is to do. Near as I understand it I should be able to remove the knuckles by griding the welds on them out a bit, and sledgehammering them off. Then I simply mark and cut the tubs (that could be a b*@$£, I don't have a band saw.) Then sledgehammer knuckles back on. Insert rod in knuckles to set pinion angle corretly. Weld. Done. Yes, I can weld cast. I would then have a kickass HP non-fullwidth front. But I'd have to spend some bucks on a detriot or such. However, it would be the best in the long run. It's also the most work. Oh, and it puts me back in that same 'what rear to run' boat. Thoughts?

Mmm, well, hey, ever read my sig?

I'm with Pete... Jeep had lots of stupid ideas to try to improve milage (horrid gearing, vac discos....) and really, it didn't work. Buy a crapbox if you want better milage. Or realize that you're only paying a couple extra bucks a month, and go 'Jeeze, why am I in a tizz about this? Must be because all the morons talk about gas prices every day.'

Build it yourself. Get some coils, a quality track bar, a long-arm setup of your choice (apparently TNT customs will fit) or build your own long arms, stainless brake lines, spring over the rear, a bunch o' shocks... Or see if TNT customs offers a full kit. I think they are the best long arms out there. Asides from building your own, that is.

Do yourself a huge favour and buy Pat's axles. Honestly. They're ready to go and will hold just about anything you throw at them without a glitch.