DirtyComanche

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.

Hmm, my local club put out a forest fire (before it really got going) last weekend that some camper had started. Not really a great point, but the only reason that there's not a huge fire in southern BC right now is because there was a bunch of 4x4ers there with shovels and buckets. The forest is already bloody dry. But I can't think of anything that you'd reference.

Looks like she works gooder! :cheers:

Easy. Get a new centering pin. Cut the old one. Cut down a donor main leaf. Stick back together, crank down new centering pin. Oh, cut the clips off too.

It will, you just need a new (HO) exhaust manifold if you want things to work right. Or is it a HO intake manifold you want? Hell, I cand't remember. The 2000+ (I think) intake flows better than the stock HO/renix ones, worht some HP. But I think you want that aluminum head that somebody makes...

I was going to make hanging storage boxes. Still might. I'll keep ya posted.

Well then, guess you'll have to build an aluminum head 4.6 stroker. That'll get the job done. Pricey though. Atlas = 3 grand. There's a lot of thigns I'd get before an atlas.

Am I drunk or do you want to run a spacer on one side and offset the spring perches to make up for it? A little unorthadox. I have 1.25" on each side and the track doesn't match the front. And why an anti-sawy bar? Gonna be rally racing?

At that point it makes mroe sense to do a SBC swap. It's not jeep; but the 4.0 wasn't ment for the drag strip. Or an AMC 360 if you've got to keep it Jeep. But anyways, axles first. Better rear, and possibly a front. Depending...

I need to figure out the whole rollbar thingo. I'm torn on what to do about that... But it'll be square tube

It's not like bedliner, it never really dries. It stays kinda tacky. Well, until it gets dirty. Well, it's rubbery. But it won't chip off, and it's hard to scrap off. I just touch mine up every now and again as I tend to drag my belly over things. But it'll only save your underbody! Any paint chips anywhere else will start to rust... If you don't get it done professionally, just make sure it's nice and clean before you spray it. Think lawn sprinkler...

Rubberized undercoat. It works wonders! My truck looked like hell when I got it, but not a spot of rust on the underbody. Why? It was factory undercoated. However, inside the old rubber inner fenders where it wasn't coated was a different story. BTW, they salt the hell out of the roads for 4-5 months a year here.

Welding my unibody bracing in got a little tricky. I was stick welding in some darn odd positions. The trick is to keep the majority of the heat on the thicker steel that you are welding to the unibody. Actually, the real trick is to think about what you're going to do before you do it, and use a MIG welder.

The spare is in the back of the garage. The stain was still wet when I took those pics. I gotta find some of those hooky thingies like they have in the backs of the ZJs, and stick em on the bed so I can hold that sucker down.

If you plan to build this truck up, I'd use the TJ/YJ one. The clocking on XJ/MJ ones blows. My tranny is just about touching the top of the tunnel and I still don't have my tcase up high enough, IMHO.

It's 2x6 tounge and groove, apparently. Measures 1.5~ x 5~ IIRC. Yeah, it was lying in the garage. Saves me buying it. I think I was supposed to use it to build a shed over out irrigation pump. Ah well. I was never going to get around to that anyways.

Free parts are always nice.

Go check the ebrake junction block underneath (a big cable come out of the back of the cab, and splits into the two cables that go to each brake, under the bed beside the gas tank) and see if you can pull on the cable for the offending side from there. Otherwise, I don't know. I don't have an ebrake or drum brakes...

RV/Trailer/Tractor Supply lights. I'm gonna make a run to my favorite tractor supply store and pick up a fairlead for the front and a bunch of lights for the rear. Only problem is it's a 2 hour drive.

Thanks :cheers: I'm not a purple sorta guy :brows: I think it'll look better once I cut that ugly-as-sin bumper off and build a real one.

You pulled the handle and? Did it rip off? You can pull the tab that the handle attaches to if that happened. But if you pull it and it's just seized; well, that'll suck. Did you ever use it? They get rusted in place...