DirtyComanche

Before I tear my columns apart I'd like it confirmed I can put the older (correct) AMC key accepting ignition cylinder in a newer (it's out of a 93 or 94 XJ) column. Yes, no? Ignition cylinder interchange is 91-95 for the new style, and 85 (probably 84)-90 for the old style. Looking at pictures on Rockauto I think they're the same internals, just the 91-95 uses the bisexual key. If not I'll buy the new style cylinder, but they're more money.

The chances of a Rugged Ridge parts actually fitting is probably lower than the chances of a Chicom eBay part fitting... At least that's my experience with them, I have not purchased that header.

Well, I can go butcher the one off my axle outside if somebody promises to measure a 91+ one. The reason I was going on there being two different tapers is I was told multiple times that aftermarket track bars would not work in my 86 chassis as the bracket has a smaller (or 'wrong') taper. If it is smaller it will be not by a lot, they're all the same taper (Morse), but it's a matter of how deep they cut it, and you may not be able to get the nut into safety or have it thread bind, depending which way it's wrong. AMC certainly used a multitude of different sized TREs/DREs on their other products, because AMC.

I'm 95% certain there is two different sized tapers. I don't have a factory track bar or bracket anywhere to compare... Actually there might be one on the axle outside off a 90ish, but I definitely don't have anything else here.

That tank is junk. Buy a new one. Spectra Premium makes one for $130~.

Hose the whole thing down with brake clean and then try to find where it's leaking from. I'd start with it being the back of the valve cover though. You can get away with running without that inspection cover on the street in the summer... I'd have it on for everything else. Easy part to get from the junkyard. Snag the bolts for it while you're at it. Edit - the Cherokee one is the same if you're not aware. Lots of Cherokees in the junkyard, normally.

I believe the taper actually changed in 87, and using the early (84-86) track bar will wallow the taper... I think its mislisted. I'd love to hear if I'm wrong though.

Put cones around it and "Crime scene - Do not cross" tape around it. Chalk outline, big red paint splotch. It's not about making it hard to steal, it's about making it something that somebody does not want to steal.

Yup, it's a simple and sexy photo, where somebody is going to say "Hey! I own one of those!" or "WTF is this? I'm obviously on the wrong page. I was looking for the Fellowship of St James Church page!". Every now and then the blind nut falls out of the tree and onto a squirrel.

Nah, he was having a good first day at his new job of building custom Jeep headers! It's a real step up from the last one, where he was painting children's toys with lead based paint, since he now makes $13 a month!

I have that header on my XJ. Umm, it would probably be best if I go find the pictures... But let's put it this way, it wasn't a bolt on. I filed or ground down the flanges on my intake to be the same thickness as the header. I didn't want to modify the washers as I wanted to preserve their cone shape, and make sure they seated as well as possible to ensure leak free operation. The flange never would fit. I cut it off and welded a V-band onto it instead. It doesn't point the right way anyways, and I wanted a V-band for compactness and adding a flex pipe. I also had to grind the #6 runner on the intake manifold as it was actually wedged against the header tube and prevented the intake from sitting square, which would almost certainly have lead to a leak. Personally I'd probably not buy that POS header again, unless I was again intending to mod it anyways. I believe it's luck of the draw if they built it to spec and it fits or not, although the flange is too thin either way. I bet most guys jut crank the bolts in and figure it's fine.

I'd probably make it as simple as possible, with only a large button directing you to the forum, and maybe a small button for MJ of the month and "About" the site/Comanche. Throw a flashy background on there. Why? Because the Facebook generation gets confused if there's more than one obvious option, and if there's more than 3 lines of text they'll overload, panic, and hit the back button. FSJ network is an excellent example of how to do it, IMHO. http://fsjnetwork.com/

I'd say it's solidly worth about 20% of the difference. Lots of things changed, but yes, oil got a lot better. I run 10w30, or maybe 5w30 if I do an oil change when it's cold and the 5w30 is on sale. Synthetic only. After reading a lot about it I do not believe in using diesel oils. I do not believe in using thicker oil to increase the indicated oil pressure. I do not believe in additives. I do not mix types.

What is 75W90NS specifically? Edit, it's GL-5 without friction modifier. Friction modifier isn't an issue either way, at least not that I'm aware of, since it really only affects clutch pack/cone friction surfaces, and an AX-15 doesn't have those...

There's a main page?

AvE. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChWv6Pn_zP0rI6lgGt3MyfA Warning, he says some rather adult things.

I'm going to point out that the center pin doesn't just keep the pack together until you clamp down the ubolts. It's needed after then too, as it is the only thing that positively locates the springs together in the pack, and into both the spring perch and the top plate. I wouldn't install a spring pack with a loose pin, it is asking for it to fail at some point, although I think it's unlikely to ever be an issue. Any decent auto parts store can get them.

You could probably snake a hose up there and sand/media blast that area. Oshpo is a muriatic acid converter. It will work good too, but it has limitations if the rust is too flaky and blocks it. You also want to get it rinsed out well. If you wire wheel it first, it would probably work great.

Trans crossmember is all welded up. Still not totally sold on it being the most awesome thing in the world, but it's holding the tranny in place right now, so that's a success...

So, sorta progress, er, ish. And with this we're caught up. Stock Dodge tranny crossmember... I spent a bunch of time looking at it, and hating its stamped metal formification, and how screwed up Dodge made removing it. The sides aren't straight, they taper, it wedges itself into the frame. I'm guessing this is actually a fairly legit design in regards to ease of assembly at the factory, and overall toughness in service, along with low cost. But it hung down way farther than it needed to, and just wasn't suitable for modification. So I tossed it. Took a piece of 2x2x.188 HSS and threw some 1/2" XHS sleeves into/onto it: Pretty weld thread? Nope. But they're not gonna fall out. And then after much fiddling around I got this all tacked up. That way the crossmember can actually be dropped, rather than having to go UP to get out (like Dodge intended). Dodge did nothing to make this easier, the area on the frame it bolts to isn't even flat, so I had to stack up/weld together pieces of flat bar just to get it to sit correct. Am I totally happy with this? No, not really, but I bet it will be fine. It all has to come back out for final welding/cleanup and a few more braces pieces on where the actual mount attached to the crossmember. Then I wanted to figure out seats, and the brake booster, and such. Which meant putting the steering column I actually intend to use in. Guess what? An XJ column doesn't fit the 66 dash. I probably should have known that. So, the tossup now is if I should swap my 73 dash in, or cut the 66 dash. I'm leaning towards cutting the 66 dash, as I'd rather keep 'more' of the original parts and character of the truck, since I'm using precious little as is. Plus my 73 dash isn't in great shape anyways. Also, I ruined that XJ column because I cut it the wrong way. Yay me. Cut the flange off where it bulges out, not at the weld. Luckily that column was a freebie that was out in the shed and didn't have the steering wheel I wanted, but now I'm actually going to have to go buy a column. IF I can find one, pre-96 XJs are actually getting harder to find at the wrecker, local yard must have crushed again because it looks like only 97+ body styles...

Boring pictures. But there is motor mounts hard tacked in place and holding the motor. I will pull the motor back out and weld them up more and add some other bracing, but I want to tackle the trans mount first, and maybe steering column and brake booster setup. Also, need to know... Is there covers available for the lower part of the bellhousing when using a NV4500 with a LSx? Must be? Or am I going to have to make them?

What's interesting is that the GM NV4500 feet basically line up with the Dodge trans mount... But it needs to be about 5" higher. Firewall clearance is tight on the passenger side, and there is no way the factory heater core setup will work. For those unfamiliar the Jeep heater core is in a box in the engine bay, and it mounts to the rectangular cutout in the firewall. Steering clears, driver's side manifold clears fine. Lots of clearance on the driver's side firewall. I also had the whole front clip on and reasonably lined up, so I could build the core support/front body mounts.

Engine is hanging there with the NV4500 bolted to it. It does fit. Yes, this is now officially an abomination. Kaiser body, Dodge frame, GM engine and trans. But don't worry, I'm going to make it even more confusing!!!!

So, trying to build the front body mounts I realized that the Dodge ones just wouldn't work there, and I bought some generic ones from Energy Suspension. I probably should have just bought a bunch from them to begin with. Then I realized that the front clip was way too screwed up to locate mounts off of, so I went scrounging and found some slightly better metal to work from. Got everything all bolted up and aligned decently: (My phone hates those LED lights) Of course I figured I was going to need to clearance the inner fenders for the shock mounts. So I did this. I can always just flange it and Dzus it back on, right? As it turns out I really didn't need to do that. But no, honetly, I wanted to be able to access the shock tower, so I'm probably going to cut the hole bigger at some points anyways. The Rhino grill actually mostly fits now, but I believe it's missing the top mount that would go here somewhere? I looked in my pile of old parts, turns out there's a whole tab mount that's missing... And the grill is broken, so it has nothing to attach to anyways.

Stuffed the header panel on it and tried to shim it up to figure out the rest of the body mounts. However, my header panel is so screwed the Rhino grill won't actually fit (it's just sitting leaning against it) and I'm not sure I should be using it to position mounts based on that. Old front cab mounts are removed and repositioned for the new cab. One thing that upsets me is if I ever go looking for the weight of a component I get wildly varying answers, most I think are total bull$#!& based on guesses that were passed around until they became fact. So I bought a strain gauge type scale for my hoist. Anyways, I got this AAM 11.5" (I think?) out of an 06? Dodge? 3rd gen truck at least. Not sure if I'm going to use it, but it was cheap, and has factory disk brakes, BUT it didn't include the calipers. It weighs 470lbs without the brake calipers! And I picked up a 5.3 out of an 04 1500 truck for not a lot of money... Gotta go back and pull the gas pedal and the O2 sensors because $#!& went haywire when we pulled it so I forgot. 614lbs including the ECM and most of the wiring, A/C comp, stock manifolds, etc, just not including the O2 sensors and the gas pedal.