DirtyComanche

You have to weld new spring perches on. You could go SOA with the ones that are already there, with predictably bad results. It's not hard. Just gotta cut the old ones off and weld new ones on.

More of your oldschool bigassed machine shop. They do welding on railway equipment, tractors, trailers, and make bridge sections and other huge crap. To them I'm jsut a little guy, but that doesn't mean they treat me badly.

Oh, I found a J20, 4wd, 1981... I just might.

Flat black spraypaint ranks up there with beer and donuts.

I think it looks good.

Might. I'm a little lazy. Anyways, the 40" of weld is to finish the unibody plating. That pic was before I had done any. It's a combination of angle, plate, and box, all .250 wall. Pat, it's flat black bedliner! :D It needs to be touched up a bit, but that's easy with this stuff. And I've got a rusty's x-member for the LAs to mount to, it's 3/8 plate, I think. The only modifying it needs (for now) is the holes to be enlarged so I can use my massive hardware to hold it to the unibody plating. Other than they have it drilled with oval holes, and you can't center a hole saw worth $#!& over them... Lots of swearing, but I'll make it work. I'm gonna build a new x-member at some point because the design of rusty's is completely retarded. Oh, I buy all of my steel from a machine shop. As long as I go in there in the morning they don't charge me cutting fees, and they give me scrap for free all the time. They gave me a 1'x4' peice of 14 gauge to practice welding on, free!

Uh, well, I'm getting somewhere. Actually, I've just got to finish modifying my forking crossmember (I think I should just spend the $20 on a hole expander), lay down about 40" more weld (I'm mostly done, it won't take me long, I just have to make sure the crossmemeber fits) and then I will have a reinforced unibody with a retarded long arm setup. Well, I have throw the other track bar, coil springs, and control arms on there, but that won't take long (better knock on some wood). Then, fix the front brakes. Which should be easy, other than I'm missing the brackets for the stainless lines. Then fix the back brakes, which won't take long. Then get a temp permit and drive it out of the garage and get the front regeared. Then it's pretty much good to go. Somewhat recent pic. Lots of mess. Image Not Found

I'd say depending: You want to go moderatly big and replace the D30, then I'd get it and a matching waggy front. Waggy fronts are cheap to buy, but you'll have to regear them. But the width will be the same as that of the wider toy axle, at least I'm pretty sure it'll be almost bang on. But if you're not looking to replace the D30, get an 8.8. They're nice and easy.

Nobody knows anything about Comanches. Don't be suprised. That or they were being sneaky...

Yeah, it matter which toy axle. The V6 one is great, 6 on something bolt patttern normally (matches grand wagoneers, if you want a front axle). The 4cyl one blows goats.

I was actually thinking about picking up and XJ and using it as a parts donor at some point. Not much chance of getting a decent MJ. Hell, maybe I should fix the one I've got. Or maybe a full-size ford as a parts donor. Hmm.

Just go grab isolators off an XJ, they're the same, trust me. Then make spacers if you really have too much time. Or shop around online. Or get a bunch of stock isolators and stack them.

Ah, got the call from the professional. One of the welds holding the dip stick tube in place failed, causing a slow leak. Until it really failed, and I lost a fair amount of fluid at some point on monday... Assumably that was after I filled it. I also had a ford dipstick (only god knows why) so what it read as being within the reasonable range was a bit out. Tranny is hosed. Grr. So, I think I'm going to get a new beater.

Coils are exactly the same... But hey, a couple cutting board from welk-mart and way the heck too much time can make some nice spacers. Or there's always the junkyard.

Yeah. But it came out of a god-knows-what. Doubt it's the linkage, it's in gear, just slipping like a mother. It was still creeping foreward barely when I gave up on it. Oh, reverse seemed to be going too, like it felt weak. So, clutch packs or valve body, either way I think it's time I pushed this thing off a cliff. Or get another pink'n'pull special.

Not the one in my MJ; I already know it is a peice of $#!&. But, the th-200 in my cutlass seems to have died. It was slipping a bit, I checked the fluid, seemed low, topped it up. Then it was slipping bad... Now I have no foreward gears, but I have reverse. It went from being fine when I parked it last week to dying in a matter of miles on monday when I needed to drive it. Ideas? So, the DD is dead again. Ohwell. I can walk.

Lifts never really give advertised height. Brand new coils/leafs tend to have a couple more inches in them than advertised. Sometimes they'll settle down, sometimes they won't. The only thing that will actually give you exactly advertised lift is spacers/blocks. That and if you lighten up your rig, or weigh it down, things will change. And you have to factor in that your stock springs might have already been sagged, or in the case of the 2wd vehicles, not as tall.

I have a 4.0 and my exhaust ends just by the tranny mount... I like the sound. Annoying as hell on the highway.

I thoguth about it. Then I remembered how it was -40 here last winter. Now, let's add a wind chill to that... No thanks.

How about the bedliner all over the whole thing look?

Just because we're talking about caps, I'll throw out there that I've got a light blue one for a shortbox, and it's free if you pick it up. I don't have a bed anymore, so yeah... Not that anybody will.

No sense getting an 86-89 5spd donor (w/4.0) as you're going to wind up having to get a new tranny later... Best to do it right the first time. Psst - You don't need a lift to run 31s

Holy moly! You used RED Loc-Tite? What'cha gonna do when you need to change a hub/bearing unit, or replace the rear brake shoes? I think I would have started with purple, and maybe progressed up to blue if the purple didn't work. I don't use red on anything. Heat. That stuff breaks down at a fairly low temperature. Even a propane torch will do it.

I've got a set of doors that I'm going to do that too... Someday.

Which ZJ coils? There's 3~ different types. I think that the I6 versions will actually drop you an inch, if anything. The V8 versions are supposed to be 1" lift. I think they also have an 'up-country' option for ZJs, which would give you 2". I don't remember for sure. Did you take the stock coil isolators as well? You can stack them with the ones you've got and get a bit more lift. XJ 'up-country' coils are only an inch. I think.