mfpdm

Inch by inch. Or I should I say piece by piece. Well I cleaned up the steering box to put it back in. But as you know how it works, I remembered that I have the tow hook brackets somewhere and will need to put them on first or pull the steering box back out later, soooo. That meant sand blasting, priming, and painting them. Got them in and then put the box in. A little hard to see with everything black. :eek: Will pull the hooks off or cover them with a piece of foam to save a few headaches while I work on other things. Just put them in there to help line everything up. Will also replace the hoses to the box later but for now they are keeping the fluid in.

It shouldn't but that is the only thing I could think of that would make the difference in height. Maybe someone else can chime in. :cheers:

Oh if I only had 2k to throw at this. It would look sweet under my cowl hood. Ebay auction for Hesco Supercharger If you would like to donate money to me just to see this in my MJ just let me know. :D :cheers:

I've never heard of a law or rule on this and I've seen plenty of old cop cars that are sold at auction driving around. As long as you don't put a star or sheild on the side of it and emergency lights on top with a siren, I think you'll be fine. You could be the MJ police. :D Your motto could be to Serve and Protect all MJ's from mistreatment, bad mods, and the boneyard. :cheers:

I was willing to spend the $$ on a new one. Just so happen the I found the used one and then didn't think I would get it. It took about 6 months before I finally had it picked up. Sorry for the thread jack. I saw the question asked for the OP about your interior color. That would need to be taken into consideration for the color. If it's gray or black your golden as they will go with just about anything. However if it's blue, red, or tan, the choices become a little limited. Best advice on chosing a color I can give anyone is, it's what you like regardless of what others think. To help me decide on my color, I drove through several car lots looking at all the colors and which ones I liked best. Good Luck. :cheers:

Yes, that would be a good investment. Will save some cussing later. The short chains are alright for just pulling the motor, but if you pull the motor and tranny, longer chains would be better. When I did mine, both on the MJ and donor XJ, I pulled them all together. The longer chain I used in the back and hooked it to the bellhousing bolts. Using the leveler while pulling it up made it a lot better fishing it out. :cheers:

Well, do you consider completely dismantling your truck a mod? If so that was my first. If not I guess the paint job was the first. :cheers:

Far as I know there is no height adjustment. The cups on the tailgate are fixed just like the ones on the bed. The only thing that might cause this is that the one on the bed has turned on the bracket. If that has happen then the flat side would cause the drop in height. It should be at like a 45 degree angle. If it has spun then try to move it back and get a screw to put in the middle to torque it down tight. You'll probably have to drill for the screw. Or, find another one and replace it. :cheers:

It's a Ford color. I forget the code. It's a tad darker than the Jeep dark gray. That pic really doesn't do it justice with the poor lighting. And sure, come on over and pick up the hood, I really don't like it anyway. Yeah right. :D Not a snowballs chance. :cheers:

Those are RE 4.5 in the front and SOA in the rear with 2wd leaf packs. Will be changing out the D35 with a D44 after the drive train is in. With the motor weight and the extra inch in the rear it should level out pretty good. :cheers:

I like the dark shadow gray metallic on ours but I think the next project will get grabber orange. http://images.google.com/images?ndsp=20 ... art=0&sa=N

Very nice. When I win the lottery, I'll buy up all these old Jeeps. :D Hell, I'll even pick up this one for $22K. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 67474&rd=1 :cheers:

Thanks for the compliments and encouragement. Everything that I do on the MJ is a mirror reflection of the knowledge and ideas that I get from this site. Now for some teaser pic's. :brows: Got her down on all fours right in the garage. :brows: Man is she a dirty girl. Then I couldn't help myself and took her out in the driveway. It was kind of overcast so the color in the pics is a little off. I think this one really shows the best color on her. Wanted to pull her out to clean out some of the junk in the garage and out of the bed. Also to get my hardtop off my TJ and stowed in the overhead in the garage. That all changed when a rain storm started rolling in so everything went back into the garage as is. Anyhow, I still have a lot to do but it's getting there slowly but shirley. :cheers:

Very Nice! Can't wait till ours will be ready for it. What made you decide not to go over the bed rails? :cheers:

Here, just click this and then bookmark it. :cheers:

Yep what they all said. You just throw that string in the search window. It doesn't sort them very well but it will bring up the most recent first. It also works great to find the misspelled versions. You know "commanche" and "comanchee" . I personnally like this way better than crazedlist. :cheers:

Use this string in your google search. "comanche" site:craigslist.org Whatever word you put in the quotations is what it will search for. That's how I found my $150 rebuilt engine by putting "4.0" in the quotations. :brows: :cheers:

Hey Wade, I just went through this this weekend with the bolts. After two trips getting the wrong ones, I just bought threaded rod stock and some nuts. Cut the rod to length to make sure the threads were all the way in the holes and used washers and nuts on the back side of the arms. :cheers:

Yep, my rubber mallet is one of my most used tools. :D Unfortunitly it failed me this time. :cry: Before I pull it apart, I'm going to flip it over and fill each cylinder with a good amount of penetrating oil and let it sit that way awhile. I think the PO turned it without taking any precautions or adding any fluids and may have broke something. :dunno:

Well didn't get as much as I wanted done over the long weekend, but here's what I did. Installed the drop brackets that I got from Rocky Road Outfitters. I'll get this out of the way first. I'LL NEVER AGAIN BUY ANYTHING FROM THEM! Sorry but the poor business practices and after I got into the install and discovered their poor quality control lead me to the above statement. First off I had to grind down a weld on the back side of the factory mount so the brace would sit flush. After putting the drivers side up and getting it where it should be, the quality control issues started. With the drop bracket in all the way the brace had a gap between the frame. If I put the brace where it should be on the frame, then I had a gap between the bracket and brace. To fix this I elongated the holes on the brace and ground a little off the top to slide it up to fill the gap. This pic is after everything is tight and shows the brace, which is the only reason I went with these. After fighting with the drivers side the passenger side one went on without modding but was still a PITA. As a result of using extra torque to get the brace tight with the bracket, I managed to warp a washer or two and nearly snapped a bolt. So I figured I needed better than the grade 5 hardware that it came with and replaced it all with grade 8. Another pic showing both installed. Putting the lower control arms in brought more aggravation with the brackets because they would not go in because the gap was to small. After some prying and grinding, in they went. The uppers were just the opposite with way to large of a gap. Hooked up the rest of the control arms and axle. here's the result. All in all this took way longer than it should have. I still have a lot of little things to do before this part will be complete. I should have gone with a company that I know and trust to have quality parts. I'll keep these on for now until I come across a great deal for some RE drop brackets. I have a good feeling that I can use the braces with RE's as you can probably bet the RRO drop brackets have the same measurements on the lower portion. Status on the motor is that it will not move by hand. I've pulled the pan and everything looks good but no movement. I've soaked it with penetrating oil and still no luck. I have a good feeling that the rings are stuck to the cylinder walls. Will be pulling it apart soon. If it ain't one thing it's another.

Stay away from Rocky Road Outfitters. They have some decent parts but it will take for ever to get them and then it will be missing something. Also their customer service and business practices just blow. I can point you to hundreds of links saying the same thing. If your not in a hurry, keep your eyes on craigslist for a gently used lift. :cheers:

Yep, it's soaking right now. I'm hoping it's just one cylinder stuck. I really didn't want to pull this thing apart, but it looks like I'm going to.

Well I got new bolts for the engine stand so I was ready to start working on this thing. Pulled the oil pan. It had a little oil in there but it looks fairly new. Not to bad looking. Just a little surface rust but none on the bearings or cylinders. (Big Pic's) Well after inspecting it and putting a little oil down the cylinders through the plug holes and putting some on the crank and piston rods, I tried to turn the crank. It won't move at all. :wall: I knew things were going to well. Any suggestions other than pulling bearing caps till it frees up?

What bad luck dude. I know you have a lot of work in the 3800, but if it were a horse, you would have shot it by now. Maybe there's a silver lining to that black cloud. Just keep your eye out for it. :cheers:

Nope, over in Salisbury. :cheers: