neohic

Are there any common swapped rear axles for Cherokees in Norway? What does the differential cover look like?

Heck yeah! Purple Power and a pressure washer for the win!

Chasing more low might not be worth it. This morning I went out to put a second coat of Eastwood Rust Encapsulator Plus on the floor and I played around with some coil options. I took the rear ZJ coils and cut one full coil off the big end. With everything back in I gained another 1/2” of drop when compared to the SCCA coils. I also took out the factory bump stops to see what was going to be the next thing to crash into something else. There’s another 3/4” between the top of the differential and the frame/engine mount. Worth it?… probably not. Who am I to question the suspension tuning of the Archers anyhow? With the bump stops out I put the SCCA coils back in to see if they’d settle at all. In the past, I’ve tried rear ZJ coils and they’ll net about a 3” drop. With cutting a full coil off they’ll get you about 3 3/4” drop. The SCCA coils drop about 3 1/4” or so. Good to know, but I’m sure I’ll just leave well enough alone when things get finalized. Finally, poking around I found a couple of bad tie rod ends. I ordered everything from the steering box to the knuckles to just be done with it and not have to worry about knocking loose stuck threads.

The ZJ rear bar is too wide. For where I want it to live it’d crash into the leaf springs. Originally, the ZJ sway bar ties into the control arms which are spread wider than our leaf springs. Reusing the current front as the rear just fits so much better. If handling feels weird, I’ll look into getting a WJ bar for the front. Ruff Stuff… … I just want to cancel the order but they need to pick up the phone or reply to an email for me to do that. Buddy of mine has heard a similar story from others in his fabrication circles too.

Any kind of reply would be welcome. The silence is killing me.

Track bar is done again. Everything needing fabrication in the front is done minus the control arms. I’ll be using the current arms but doing away with the flex joints at the frame. Even if the truck were to ever go back up to the lifted height I don’t want the flex joints anymore. They’ve always clunked since day one and added to road noise. I’ll get to them once the axles get swapped. As far as the new height, it can really be seen here… and the lifted links should been another 1.5” longer. I took a set of stock links and just cut them shorter. The frame side track bar bracket came out and got reinforced and finish welded. Obviously everything is getting blown apart for cleaning and paint. The exception is the track bar bracket not needing to come back out. All that got moved was the bushing pocket about a half inch to give the differential more space. Again, thinking about easily changing things, the old lifted track bar still goes right back where it was even after cutting the bracket. As for where everything sits at the new ride height, there’s plenty of space. There’s maybe a half inch between the coil seat and the bump stop. I think it’d be great to get it a little lower. Maybe the Archers cut the springs? I remember talking with John and Tommy about the suspensions on the trucks and both of them said that they sat right on the bumps. It’s kind of tough to compare ride height to old pictures because they used all kinds of different tire sizes to cheat the gear ratios for different tracks. There is some space to go lower between the differential and the oil pan… some. I won’t cut these coils, but I do have a set of rear ZJ springs I could play with. It’d mean figuring shorten bump stops too. We’ll see. As for swapping between lowered to lifted… … I can do it in about a half an hour. I need to double check caster at each height, and obviously the steering will need adjustment between each height. The longer than stock control arms work out in my favor for clearance at both heights so there won’t be any adjustments there given the caster is acceptable. Now, if only I could get those brackets from Ruff Stuff. I’ve sent off four emails and left two messages now. I’m hesitant to order elsewhere until I can actually get on touch with someone. Very frustrating.

Track bar is mocked up. I started with the stock track bar from the ZJ, bent the bushing side up for better clearance, and then cut the frame side to adapt it to an anti wobble adjustable joint. The frame side bracket got cut and moved around enough to make space for the differential at full bump but also not rearranged so much that it wouldn’t still work with my mystery aftermarket lifted track bar. Again, the idea is to keep everything as swappable as possible should I ever get the urge to change things again… again. And then I started welding, put one pass around the threaded bung, and it locked up solid. Now I get to cut it apart and order a new joint.

Not sure. It isn't super low though. This truck is on the same suspension that mine will be: Easily speed bump able.

Floor patch it done. While I’m waiting on brackets I decided to start mocking the new suspension in. I’ve got a track bar to make along with modifying my current control arms. Believe it or not, there’s actually room for the differential to go all the way up to full bump! Granted, not much space, but just enough. Ka-chow!

Lightly snowing this morning.

Well, shoot. So… the floor isn’t quite as fresh as it was last I saw it in 2010. I was crawling around under the truck today and noticed the nasty “R” word that never sleeps. I decided to bite the bullet since I was undecided if I wanted to swap to a hand brake lever or go back to the pedal. Truth be told… I never put the parking brake together after the last major makeover in 2010. I like that I can fit a Nalgene bottle in the console, so the pedal went back in. The seat came out. The carpet came up. And then?… Oh no! Not quite as bad after some cleanup, but it definitely needs to get cut out. This was the only Comanche I’ve owned that I hadn’t needed to patch the floor right there. I’ve got a plan but I absolutely despise welding on these trucks. Let’s move on for now. The exhaust between the header and the transmission cross member has always been an issue also. A while ago I added a flange that turned out to be a huge mistake. I put it in there without thinking about the front driveshaft. It’s close but only just came in contact with it probably while going around corners. That came out and a v-band went in to make a ton of room. The angle looks a bit weird, but when you figure where the driveshaft is about to live, the clearance gets better. Again, tough to see but I can fit a hand around the u-joint and the header. It’s probably fine. Lastly, I started looking at the rear sway bar from the ZJ. There’s no way it’s going to work. The new plan is to reuse the current front sway bar on the rear. It fits great where I want it to! The bar will get mounted to the axle and I’ll make up some stud brackets that bolt on with the bump stops. Stay tuned.

I was at my buddy’s shop today so I grabbed more Toyota content. Still an awesome truck but with slightly more body damage than the last time I saw it. It has a front bumper that currently off of it for repairing the front crossmember. Anyhow… back in street truck land… apparently this is what people with lowered vehicles do? WAY easier to get a better idea of what’s going on under there.

That is a SHARP car!

I almost ordered through Barnes but RS was a better deal (hindsight ) and they had the lower control arm brackets that don’t require extra cam lockout washers. I know I can just get the extra bits and weld everything solid to leave the caster adjustment to my control arms themselves, but I prefer to not have nothing more than I need.

Think of it as a “best-of album”.

You’re not the first to tell me they’ve been waiting for a while. No one else is getting replies to emails or calls either.

Thanks dude! Open your fuel tank!! If you’re stumbling you might have the dreaded rubber line that’s failing. The ZJ came from my buddy’s shop, Pine Metal Fabrication. The Toyota is on tons and 40s. It was originally a 2wd truck and they’re way easier to build into something like this because of the lack of most speed sensors. It’s an awesome truck! Everything that comes out of the shop is super nice. Hoping to have some kind of updates on my truck sooner than later.

Came across a later XJ 10 blade electric fan. Of course it just dropped right in but I wired it to the fan harness I added years ago. The switches are still on the side of the console. First switch turns on the system. The second is an override if I want to manually turn it on. Don’t ask about those extra holes. Keep in mind, this truck has lived a few lives already.

Welp… finally that time of year.

I can’t believe the three fan shroud has been in there since 2013, but it came out today. Just going back to simplicity and undoing some wiring that 19 year old me would’ve done even before the fans. It never overheated with either fan setup. I cleaned up and kept the harness I added for the fans so I can add an auxiliary again with an override switch. For now, it’s back to basics.

I used to have the mentality that I had to keep all of my vehicles. The reality is that you can only drive one at a time, and the more you have the less that they all get driven. Worst thing you can do to a vehicle is let it sit. More vehicles equals more sitting. My vote would be to sell it, finish your projects, and enjoy driving them.

Same! Here’s to ‘26

I spent the day cleaning axles. The rear needed all of the brackets cut off, and the front needed some attention too. Probably the cleanest Dana 35 on the planet right now. As for the 30, the lower control arm mounts needed to get cut off also. One side was booger welded back on while the other was well on its way to falling off. The story was that the ZJ was a northern rig before it was in Colorado. That checks out with the amount of rust I scaled off and the blown out control arms. Then I popped the cover. Poor thing has seen some things! The ZJ came with a pile or receipts for the front axle getting rebuilt. Everything looks and feels good, but obviously the old carrier was kept with the new gears. Still waiting on Ruff Stuff brackets.

Keep it coming, Joe! I really enjoy your blog style story time updates.