88MJay

I had this happen in an old big block Chevelle. The sump coming off the oil pump was the culprit. In park or sitting still, or even accelerating it was fine as soon as I stepped on the brake the oil pressure would drop. I doubt that's what it is on yours but hearing about your story reminded me of mine.

I know of about 8 or 10 different Jeep clubs between Dayton and Cincy alone. The crazy thing is there is absolutely no place to wheel worth a crap within 2 hours of here. lol

I don't get down to too many meetings. They are at Toot's. I'm going to try and get down there this month though. Watson is great guy. All those guys are fun to be around. My MJ is being built around a set of 35" Krawlers.... It's getting a long arm, cage, lockers, blah blah blah.... Should be done around March or April. I don't get down to Cincy too often other than to an occasional meeting. Just email me some pics of the bumper we'll go from there. We definately need to do some trails this year.

Nice MJ! I live up near Middletown. I also share your longtime love of MJ's. I finally got one near St. Louis here about a month ago. It's getting built as well. :D Check out http://www.tkotrailriders.com It's a local club in Cincy. Great bunch of guys. We need to do some trailrides this summer. Two MJ's on the trail would be awesome!

It's hard to say. The more people find short beds with D44's though the more it at least makes one wonder. If the axle in the above pictures is a swap, it definately had to happen early in it's life. I know the guy who has owned it since 1992 and he never swapped the axle. Do MJ's have build sheets hidden somewhere in them? Under the seat or something? I'm sure my neighbor would let me dig through it if I knew where to look. :D

Now that's impressive! Nice work!

Isn't that how everybody does it? Thanks for the kind words. :cheers:

I like flux core. lol The biggest mistake people make is buying a 110 mig first instead of a 220 volt mig. Sure you save a couple hundred dollars initially but for bumpers and brackets and general fabrication you are going to want a 220 volt mig eventually. So just buy it from the get go and never look back. You can get good deals on Lincoln 175's on ebay from time to time. I paid $400 shipped for mine a few years ago. Mig is the easiest to learn. Grab a huge pile of scrap metal buy a bunch of wire, ask a few welding buddies to give you some tips on patterns, open the door up on the welder to see the setting recomendations and build yourself a metal sculpture. Do this for a few weeks and you'll figure it out.

I always try and set up suspension with about 25% up travel and 75% droop. Meaning all but 1" of the shock travel is being used up on full compression (bumpstops touching). I don't have access to a fork truck so I do it like this... When building the front suspension I hook up all the control arms and pull the coils out. Mount one of front tires. Jack up that side until the tire is within 1" of touching the fender (after final fender cutting). If the bumpstops aren't touching the distance that remains between them is how much bumpstop needs to be added. For instance if you jack it up and the tire is 1" from the fender and there is a 2" gap between the bumpstops I add 2" to the bumpstops so that they touch when the tire is 1" away from the fender. Now the bumpstops are right and I move on to shocks. With the new bumpstops in I fully compress that side of the suspension again (with or without the tire on)(doesn't matter because the bumpstops are right now!) Next I measure the distance between the shock mounts. I add 1" to this measurement. That gives me the compressed length of the shock. Next you fully droop that side of suspension and measure the distance between the shock mounts. This gives me the extended length of the shock. Now I know what size shocks to order. When ordering shocks I usually look for one that has the compressed length that I am needing and whatever travel shock that ends up being is whatever it is. This method of setting up front suspensions gives you most ideal setup. It sets your bumpstops so your tires don't hit. It gives you the most ideal shock for your suspension height that will give you the most droop possible and gives you a shock that isn't too long or too short. I always hate to see nicely built long arm setups where people are running shocks that are way too short. It drastically reduced the amount of droop that they could be getting out of their front end. I have a buddy with a TJ who installed a Full Traction long arm and installed the shocks that they sent with the kit. The shocks were obviously from a smaller lift kit because they were way short for his 6" lift. This caused his front suspension to only droop a limited amount. He could not use the suspension to it's full potential until we measured for the correct shock. After buying the right length shock it flexes amazing! Shew.... tired of typing now. :cheers:

Ya make sure you pull the plugs let it dry and and crank it over a few times with the plugs out to make sure you don't hydro-lock the motor. Bad things happen when you hydro-lock the motor. Good luck. Awesome pics by the way. The flowing water looks really cool in them!

x2

I don't consider $29 retail expensive. Call Alex up and I bet he might even come down in price if you order four. Look here.... http://www.performanceoffroadcenter.com/oscommerce/index.php?cPath=33_122

Definately Rock Krawler. Call up DC4WD and you can get it for way under $189 I did a write up on the RE bar VS. the RK bar on another site. Read it... you'll find it entertaining. http://tjhardcore.com/RKtrackbar1.htm

Check out Performanceoffroadcenter.com (PORC). Look through their brand of shocks for the size you want and give Alex a call. He'll hook you up. I've ran them before and they work decent for being so cheap. :cheers: http://www.performanceoffroadcenter.com

my bad. :oops:

You said you want a narrow rear axle. I don't remember if it's the dually or non-dually rear axle but whichever it is 14 bolts are around 64" out of one and 67" out of the other. Is 64" narrow enough? They are all 8 lug. Certainly beefy enough to take whatever tire you throw at it. You can shave them quite a bit too. Like my old one......

I don't know MJ's all that well yet but I'm not new to Jeeps so what about this?... If you could talk him down to say $750 or $800 it may be worth your time. Depending on your budget here is what I'm thinking. Grab his MJ because it has tons of useful parts. Axles, lift, tires etc. Then, find yourself a real nice rust free 2WD MJ with lower miles, much less rust, a good transmission, etc. and swap all the parts over to it. Not only that but you would then have a spare parts truck for your "new" Manche. I would think you could pull all that off for $2500 or so. Just a random thought that came to mind when you mentioned all the parts that come on the rusty one.

Here... I just ran outside and took some pictures to prove it... While I'm taking pics... anyone recognize this MJ? It's getting built here over the next couple months. I'll do a buildup thread when it's done. :cheers:

My next door neighbor has a 89 sb 4.0, AW4, 231, with a D44 rear. It's all stock.

Hmm... never ran into that. I did it on a set of XJ plates and a set of YJ plates before. I don't know what they look like but would a junkyard set of 8.8 plates work? Couldn't be more than a few bucks if they would.

Merry Christmas everyone! It's 39 degrees and raining here too... yuck.

The last couple sets I did I think I just opened up the holes in the existing spring plates with a die grinder or a drill bit or something. If I remember correctly it's not fun and takes a good half hour or so a piece to get them opened up enough to work.

I wouldn't spend all that money on a "super" anything. Just carry spare shafts and go have some fun. I've always had good luck with $150 used Lockrights in D30's too. Jared you are welcome to spend you money on any axle or upgrades you want and you don't have to justify it to anybody. Your money, your rig, do what you really want and enjoy it! :cheers:

Typically you can hear it ticking. Especially when it's first started up and cold. As it heats up the metal around the crack expands and will cause it to become quieter. Typically that is.

Hmm... That's cool. I'm not much for big heated discussions but here is link to some of the other 708,000 people who have written about HP's being stronger.... http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=reverse+cut+gears+stronger%3F As for being able to tell the two apart HP or LP?... if the pinion enters the axle housing below the centerline of the axleshafts it's a LP. If the pinion enters the center section above the centerline of the axleshafts it's a HP. You can tell just by looking at the whole axle from the side or slightly from the rear. Again... :cheers: