$400 Pioneer (Wilbur)

[mvusse]

Thanks for the info. I guess I don't have to worry too much if I break a shaft with the 33s as i should still be able to limp it home and spent the money that would pay for a new shaft towards a D44 or 8.8 instead.

 

I should be running the 33s at Badlands in June. No more skinny small tires getting stuck between the rocks and busting bolt heads on the front diff cover. No more axles sitting on solid stuff while tires are not touching anything solid in the muddy ruts. And if that hole is still there in the mud flats, I need to redeem myself there as well.

 

But this weekend the locker will get tested at Jeepskool with my current 235s.

[Drahcir495]

Oh my - your build has come along way. I completely missed the last 9 or so pages. Last time I check in you had been clipped by a car in the rear. I am all caught up now :popcorn: . Great job installing the locker :cheers:

[Wildman]

BTW anyone knows if an 87 Comanche D35 has C clips?

 

Yes, up to '90 or '91 was the change over.

ERRR NO!

 

A D35 is a non c-clip axle upto mid 1989, than it went to c-clips (if you have an '89 the only way to tell is to pull the cover). So a 1987 D35 does NOT have c-clips.

 

 

You right.......Me wrong......too early this morning :oops:

 

'90 was the change over to the "C" clip :oops:

[mvusse]

Went to JeepSkool this past weekend. 1498 acres of safe-legal-fun (It's their motto).

 

As of this morning, March '09 JeepSkool has been renamed Mudfest '09.

 

Mad flex:

 

Might head back next month if I get the next stage of my build up finished by then, or at least think I can keep the 33s out of my fenders. Then May will be the shakedown run for the June Badlands trip.

[89eliminator]

how did the Aussie perform?

[mvusse]

Well, it got me high enough on that rock to lift a rear wheel a foot into the air...

 

it performed unbelievably well. Wranglers running 33s and 35s couldn't get up some stuff because of sand or mud or just being wet, lots of rain Friday night/Saturday morning with a few thunderstorms dumping hard, great Saturday afternoon, 70 degrees, only to have steady rain all day long Sunday. Then I tried and made it look easy with my puny 29s. There were a couple of places I couldn't get up because it was just too slick. those places I made it up a ways till all momentum stopped, so I put on the brakes and slid the whole way down with all 4 wheels locked. I did have the same mud problems as Badlands last fall: ruts that were too deep and front axle acting like a bulldozer blade. After we decided we couldn't not finish that trail we turned around and tried to exit the way we came. The first Jeep couldn't make it, the second winched himself, and after that it was too badly rutted that only 1 person made it (out of 11) without needing winched. That guy was running MK2s and locked front and rear. After a 2 1/2 hour winch party the only vehicle left was a stock Liberty. 2 trail leaders were sent out after it and spent the rest of the day getting it out.

 

Rocks gardens are not a problem of any sort any more, and after I get my other tires on, deep ruts may not either.

[89eliminator]

excellent!

[mvusse]

Got my rear brakes fixed now, after a couple of handfulls of sand in the drums ground of ALL brake material off the shoes.

 

And then today I played with tires, mounting my used set of 33x12.50s on my new Cragar rims. Research told me to use about 8oz of beads in tires that size, which means 1100-1150 .20 gram airsoft pellets. I bought a pack of 5000 at Wally World for $11, measured it out to be about 900ml, so I measured 225ml of pellets for each tire. Should be 1250 give or take.

 

Took me about an hour to mount them, really not that difficult. I have no clue why MiniBeast was complaining so much. The hardest part was seating the new valves in the wheels; even with thick insulated gloves I think I bruised my fingers from pulling too hard. A larger tool to do this might work better than my little mini one.

 

So here's the first tire beside my spare to show the size difference:

 

In front of the wheel well:

 

bed full of tires, tools, jack and jack stands:

 

Didn't use my jack, as this was much quicker. No that is not held up by the bumper. It's held up by the class III receiver which sits below the bumper:

 

Rear is done, now I need to turn around. This could actually look all right with the front dropped down to original ride height and a blower sticking through the hood about 2 feet or so:

 

All done:

 

I can't steer very sharp before the front tires rub the back edge of the fender flares, but they have room to spare in the front. This weekend I will move the front axle forward a bit.Attempting to stuff a rear tire didn't work, as they are too wide. They will hit inside of the fender wall, the top of the fender flare and the back of the fender flare.

 

Next up will be lifting the front another 2", soa in the rear and play with different (custom) leaf packs and shackles (stock MJ, stock XJ and lift shackle) until I get a ride height I like. After that I will flex it out again to see what I need to cut (if any) to maximize flex without fender damage.

 

Even if I don;t get the lift done by next month, I may still take it back to JeepSkool, but keep the sway bar connected and try not to flex it too much.

[mvusse]

Removed the air dam and trimmed the front flares. I also cut some off the inside of the fender liners to give the tires a bit more space. I could only turn about half way before the tires would hit the back of the fenders, moved the axle forward 1/2", now they hit on front. Got to back off a bit.

 

[mvusse]

Perches are in!

:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

 

 

From RuffStuff Specialties.

[89eliminator]

i see spring perches in that picture...

[mvusse]

Whoops! I'm a little tired.

 

Fixed!

[WahooSteeler]

MV, I've been waiting to see your truck sittin' on some meats, looks good!

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, you really like fork lifts don't you LOL? :brows:

[Drahcir495]

MV, I've been waiting to see your truck sittin' on some meats, looks good!

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, you really like fork lifts don't you LOL? :brows:

:agree: I does look good!

 

I love the forklift and real world flex testing ->

Mad flex:

[WahooSteeler]

MV, I've been waiting to see your truck sittin' on some meats, looks good!

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, you really like fork lifts don't you LOL? :brows:

:agree: I does look good!

 

I love the forklift and real world flex testing ->

Mad flex:

 

I never saw that shot before! That's awesome! :thumbsup:

[mvusse]

MV, I've been waiting to see your truck sittin' on some meats, looks good!

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, you really like fork lifts don't you LOL? :brows:

:agree: I does look good!

 

I love the forklift and real world flex testing ->

Mad flex:

 

I never saw that shot before! That's awesome! :thumbsup:

 

Aussie locker, baby!

 

I did do some damage to my driver side front bumper end cap getting up on that rock.

[mvusse]

After being assured by customer service they are in stock I drove an hour to Summit Racing to pick up some leaf spring center bolts as well as 2.5"x7" square U bolts. Get to the sales counter and find out they don't have any in stock :headpop: The guy looked again after I told them I was told they were in stock, and found out they are....

In the Nevada store! He also told met o use the extension for the cashier's desk and ask them to connect me to the sales desk as customer support don't know their behind from a hole in the ground. Then I still had an hour drive ahead of me to get home :fs1:

 

Did what I could without the new center pins and U bolts. Got the axle off truck, got 3" lift springs off axle, got one spring pack temporarily bolted together to measure thickness and mocked up one side to take some measurements. Using these perches, D35 axle and stock 3+1 springs will lift you between 5.5" and 5.75" above the same springs sprung under.

 

Tomorrow I will get new center bolts and U bolts at my usual source just down the road to mock everything up under the truck and see how the truck sits. and if I have to change anything on my spring packs. Hopefully I can get it all where I want it so I can tack the new perches into place.

 

This is where I'm at now:

[mvusse]

Well, after work I got 4 2.5" wide by 8" long square U bolts, 8 heavy washers, 8 nuts, 2 3/8x3 center bolts and 2 nuts for those. Started by bolting the spring to the axle, this is how I'm doing it:

 

I was afraid the lift shackles would give me too much lift, and my stock shackles are under my buddy's Cherokee, so I asked if I could use his stock Cherokee shackles. The results? Not enough lift, and the shackle is too short. Sitting at rest it is angled back about 45 degrees, under droop it is stretched forward so much that it wants to flip up instead of back when weight is put back on the axle:

 

So the lift shackles went on:

 

This is more lift than I want, about 9", and the drive shaft is out of the transfer case so far I'm afraid it might put enough of an upward load on it to possibly damage the tail housing. The axle is currently sitting in the back of my Cherokee with the perches tacked on. Tomorrow I should get them fully welded and back under the truck. I will probably use the forward hole in the perches to minimize drive shaft issues so I can at least drive it until I can get my stock shackles back. They should drop me down to about 7.5". 5.5" from the soa swap and 2" from my stock -seemingly re arched at some point in time- springs. Currently my rear shocks are too short. With the truck at rest and the shocks disconnected the shocks sit about 2" below the mounts, meaning the axle can droop only about 2". With my stock shackles that should be about 3.5", which might be workable for the time being until I get longer ones.

 

Front should get lifted 1.75" more over the weekend. Will be putting 3" shock extensions of the front shocks, which will hopefully act as a temporary bump stop to keep the wheels out of my fenders. I might end up raising the flares to the body line anyway. Don't know yet.

[MrSimon]

Have you thought about burning new shock mounting tabs onto the axle? That way you could cut off the old stuff to get more ground clearance. And, since the new tabs would be 3-4" higher than the stock ones, you might be able to use your current shocks.

[mvusse]

Currently I do not own, or even have access to a welder big enough to weld to the axle housing. After tacking on the new perches with an 80A wire feed welder I took it to a local shop and had a professional weld them on permanently. $25.

 

Also to gain the ground clearance I would also need to change back to round U bolts and put the plate on top of the springs. The clearance is not much of an issue that close to the wheel, and I gained almost 2" already from not having the springs underneath. By the time you add things up, I might be able to get a set of shocks for the same money. Once I figure out what length I need compressed or extended I will dive into the Autozone master shock catalog again, like I did for the front shocks.

 

Either way the back is all together again, stance is as pictured above, but with the wheels forward 1 inch. As soon as my buddy gets my stock shackles off his Cherokee it will drop down 1.5", and his Cherokee will go up some (he's getting the lift shackles, as his stock ones don't work with his lift springs). I also still (weekend?) have to add the 1.75" spacers to the front and put the shock extensions on the shocks. What is on there now is the longest shock available without going to universal shocks for more than twice the cost.

[Andy in Pa]

If your going to run the springs with square u-bolts like that, than I recommend "Locating" the original SUA spring perch on the axle to the spring plate somehow. The simplest thing to do would probably be putting a 3/8" socket head bolt in the spring plate with a washer. Otherwise, one good rock on that spring plate, and you'll move those u-bolts/spring plate independent of the spring perch, springs and axle. Both XJ's and MJ's ALWAYS locate the spring, perch, axle, and spring plate with the center pin (and the u-bolts run front to back) so nothing can move/slide easily when the u-bolts loosen/stretch a bit over time.

[mvusse]

Thanks for pointing that out, that's one of those common sense things I completely forgot about :doh:

[mvusse]

Some pictures I took. Yes, a rear axle does fit in the back of a Cherokee:

 

And I decided to wire wheel, rust treat, prime and paint the leafs before final assembly of the leaf packs:

[reson46]

I'm sure you already considered this and I may have missed it, but why are you spending all this time on a D35? :hmm:

 

Willy

 

P.S.

Be very careful when working under there, your cinder blocks are turned on their weak side.

[mvusse]

Time I can spend. As for money, perches and welding totalled like 60 bucks. I don't see the problem with using the D35 until I break a shaft. THEN start looking for a D44 or 8.8. No C clips, so if I do break an axle I can still drive it in front wheel drive to get home.

 

There's a reason I locked the front, but not the rear.