I must have really been bored after painting the front diff. Tore into the front drive shaft. Removed all the u-joints and cleaned up the remaining with degreaser. I bought some of the rust primer that you can spray directly on rust. Be interested to see how that works out. I will paint tomorrow hopefully and get new u-joints installed.

 

Found a set of 33 inch mud terrain tires with about 60% tread left for $300. Thinking about grabbing them.

Question. Do I need to upgrade the gears to like 4:10's to run these tires? If so, is there a step by step guide to do this yourself? From what I have read you have to be really careful about getting the proper pre-load set and getting the backlash and drive with the pinion and ring gears set right. I have no idea how to do all this as I have never done it.

This jeep is my daily driver so I can't have it down during the week. Can I change the gears out over the weekend, this being the first time I have ever done something like this? Might be better to take it to a pro?!

 

I'm running 33s on 3.55 gears which is.probably what I'm thinking you've got. It does good but 4.10s or 4.56s would get your gas mileage back.

 

Oh and I would take it to somebody for the gears. It's a very exact thing and the tools are expensive from what I hear.

 

What did you clean your different cover with? Mine has some fluid that has been on it for a while so I'm sure its soaked in

 

Man, that's an awesome idea. I was just going to stack up washers but the lug nuts are probably stronger. I'm going to have to do that.

 

That is what I would want is to keep my current gas mileage or close to it.

That is what I am thinking. I am going to get some quotes I reckon.

Use some Purple Power degreaser full strength, spray it on, scrub then rinse. That stuff works great.

I stacked washer on the last jeep. It was kind of a pain trying to keep all the washers lined up when I was feeding the bolt up through them all. They kept getting out of line. I guess I could have Super-Glued them together. But, I like the lug nuts better. They are solid and don't seem to be going anywhere.

 

Well, after putting the 3" lift on, the rear has settled in some and appears to be sagging a little. About an inch I think. So...me being the cheap skate that I am, I set off to extend some stock shackles so I can add me some lift to that saggy bottom on the jeep.

I bought a $10 piece of metal from Home Cheapo. 1.5" x 3/16" thick. Cut two pieces, one at 4.75" and one at 3" and tack welded them together. I cut a total of four per each size.

 

Then I tacked it all together.

 

I will have to post the finished shackles later. The site is not uploading my pictures for some reason.

 

All I have to do now is drill some holes in them and paint them up. I am going to drill the new hole 5" center to center. Stock is about 3". Based on what i have read, it is about a 1 to 2 ratio. If my calculations are correct (haha) I should get about an inch of lift to the rear and the heep will look more level. I added a little extra length in case I wanted to go two inches later on.

 

Looks awesome! Great idea lets us know how they work out!

 

I will post pictures of them installed. It is raining today so they probably won't get installed. But, I was thinking of adding some cross bracing of some sort to really stiffen them up. They are already pretty stiff being 3/8" total thickness but I know how things go once you get some force on them.

 

Here is the finished product ready for install. Hope to get these on this coming weekend as well as some new front brake pads.

 

Well, I have had an ongoing struggle whether or not I liked this 98' Jeep or hated her. She has been a gold digger for sure. But, I scored me some good used 31x10.50's off of Craigslist for $140. Had them put on the Canyon Rims I bought a while back and I think I fell in love with the old girl all over again. She looks pretty good now. But I won't stop building on her.