Hey Brian - When I started opening up the axle and taking playing with it, I realized I know nothing about axles. Which was exciting; b/c 1 hour later, I knew a bit more. The axle was a price I could justify affording right now since I needed new brakes anyway, and I really wanted to convert to disk anyway. (Plus last weekend while Michelle and I were driving up to see her parents, we passed an XJ w/ 33s that had rearended the car infront of him on the shoulder of the highway. The rear of the car was smashed good; but the front of the XJ with a nice solid off road bumper looked to be flawless as we drive by. I told Michelle that he must have drum brakes; she was supportive of the brake upgrade.)
I do not have a welder; but this is something I plan to research and invest in within the next year or so. Nothing big; but I do want one with some of the more "automatic" features I seem some come with. I will wait to re-do the axle mounts until I have some more experience with welding.
I purchased a brake hardware kit from NAPA and a set of new U bolts yesterday when I was passing by the company that made my lift.
The paint job is pretty shotty. So I assume it did not look pretty for him to paint the axle as he did. Is it worth grinding the shaft and housing down with a wire brush grinder attachment to bring it to a bare steel finish, and then re-painting it? If it was not painted in the first place I probably would have just bolted it up; but since it has a half ass job on it now, I am more prone to re-doing it. Not so much as to make it look all pretty. But there are places where he painted over dirt I can see in tight crevices. I wonder if he just brusted off the axle and slopped on some paint.
I have a lot of other stuff this weekend to do; but I really want to start working on the axle this weekend.
I checked out dial indicators at NAPA yesterday. They had them at $24 - $40. Am I looking at the wrong type of dial indicator for gearing. I thought htey would be mroe expensice. Looked like a turkey thermometer from the picture on the monitor.
I am going to leave the gearing as is for now while the jeep is also serving as a DD. At some point, I would like to re-gear; but probably not for a year or so. I must say though, I put 31 BFG ATs on for commuting as I have been driving back and forth to LA and Orange County a lot the last monh. The power really sux even w/ 31s. There are a lot of grades here and I often feel like I am bogging it like a 2 stroke going up grades in the wrong gear. Driving in 3 on the hwy helps a bit.
Theoretical question: I get 15-16 on the hwy now w/ 31s and 3:54 gearing. If I go up to 4:56s to get more power when offroading w/ 33s, how do you think the MPG would be effected when using the 31s for commuting and having 4:56 gearing. I go not go over 70 on the hwy; so I know the revs will be high; but it is not like I will be doing 90 either.
Have fun with the radiator. The heater core went on my 97 TJ years back. I had to drive it up and back from NJ to VT for a ski trip in December with no heater. Was not a pleasant ride, and I was breathing on the winsheild and rubbing it with a fleece glove every few minutes while driving in the evening. But I was able to drive a manual jeep with ski boots on during day on that trip - try that in a honda. Gotta love jeeps.
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