I'll definitely do that. Sounds like a super useful reference, being able to compare the actual parts in front of you.

I drove the Jeep yesterday for the first time in three months. Blew a master cylinder a mile up the road. Its always something lol.

I'm looking at doing a Durango MC to feed a greater fluid volume for the larger calipers I'll be switching to (1.125" bore vs the XJ's 1"). However, I do not want my pedal feel to be very firm from the larger bore size. I plan on investigating potential booster swaps to match the larger MC.

I almost pulled the trigger on a HP D60 and Sterling 10.25 yesterday. Out of an 86-88 dually, asking $750 for the pair, kingpin, 4.10's, not too far from me, already pulled and looked to be in good shape. I went back and forth all day. I would've jumped on them immediately if they were a 78-79 pair. The issue with the later HP 60's is the tube on the driver's side is very short, leaving little room for the coil bucket. Realistically, that is not a deal-breaking issue and many people have swapped these exact axles into XJ's, but I eventually convinced myself that one tons just don't fit my needs as well as half tons do. I have no intentions of going over 37's on this Jeep, I even like my 35's. With one tons, 37's really are the minimum tire size to make the clearance under the axles acceptable. I could do shave kits on both the D60 and 10.25 to get a pretty killer setup. The reason I convinced myself I should not buy those is because I do not have the funds to set the rest of the Jeep up to handle 37's+. At that point hydro-assist becomes necessary, a cage would be ideal, gonna need different flares because the rig would be stupid wide, would need to cut the rear fenders past the pinch seam and likely do high-clearance inner fenders on the front, wheels and tires are big bucks at that size.

I'm just making excuses at this point. Truth is, I got intimidated by the work involved to transform my rig that far and really I just want to drive the dang thing. I can build a 44/9 setup for 37's that will better suit my needs than a 60/10.25 combo will. The only doubt in my mind with this idea is that I'll want to go bigger on my next rig and wish I had just built the wontons to begin with. We'll see. I'll likely change my mind another dozen or so times today.

Turns out it wasn't the MC I blew, just a brake line. It was right under the MC so when I initially looked I thought it was coming from the MC. At that point I had already ordered a Durango MC, so that was $100 I didn't need to spend but should better suit my needs in the long run anyway.

I picked up a roll of nickel-copper brake line and a box of fittings, and have been chipping away at doing all of the hard lines. I've never had to do flares/bends on lines before so this has been a learning process. Spent probably 2 hours doing practice flares and bends before they started to look good. I learned the trick with the flare tool is to not crank on it. This line is very soft and does not take a lot of force to make proper flares. Too much deforms the end beyond use. I've been making these bends just rolling the tube around a socket and have had good success. Took some practice to not kink the line but it works well. This NiCopp line is a dream to work with.





Started by running the driver's front line because it is the shortest and looked to be the easiest. Went fairly well. I used the original line as a template and bent up my new one before fishing it through. Took a little manual adjustment but looks good. I took this opportunity to finally install longer brake lines up front. These are c10 lines IIRC. After installing them I noticed I have plenty of down travel but was actually concerned they would not have enough up travel. I pulled the coil and cycled the suspension to confirm and they look good, although there is only another couple inches of up travel available before they get taut. I also noticed my shocks bottom out before I hit the bump stops. WIsh I noticed that like 3 years ago.





Just been chipping away at this job. It honestly came at a good time. I was just saying the other day how I really need to flush my brake fluid because I've never done it. The fluid that came out of the system was ROUGH. The inside of the master cylinder was disgusting. I poured some fluid out of the calipers that was black. Definitely time for a system refresher. Last night I ran the long line from the MC to the rear soft line. Went pretty well. I saved the front passenger side line for last because it looks like a nightmare. I have no idea how I'm going to snake a new line through the engine bay like that. That's a tonight project. Wish me luck!

I've wheeled with guys on superduty axles and 37s and i'll have to say. Stock axles on 35s does much better. High clearance with narrow width is a nice advantage when maneuvering on rocks. I would keep and build stock axles up to 37s with a light foot over tons for sure.

That is why I recommend that brake flaring tool I bought from Napa. No practice needed. Before I redid my rear brakes, long line to the brake hose and the 2 from there out to the wheel cylinders, I never have either.

I was toying with flushing my brake fluid too. But all I could do was see myself stripping or snapping the bleeders on the calipers. Wheel cylinders not so much because they are newer.
Well somebody said that sucking out what is in the master cylinder and replacing it would help. That it would mix. Referenced some physics like thing.
Forgot who it was here that said that. Cause my thinking was that the fluid in the line from the master cylinder on down would really mix with the new fluid in the master cylinder.
So I am going to replace that fluid now and again in October. Then just do it every April. See how it works out.

Last thing is that passenger side. I did one in my '96 I used to own. For the life of me I don't see how you can do one line. I did 2 lines with a union, union was about in the middle of the firewall, and even that was a bit awkward.

I just spent the last few hours reading this entire build Excellent work. Also that trip you took with your friend up into Maine and back. Do you have a good site to look at to plan something like that maps suggestions on where to camp etc.? Once the world goes back to normal Id like to plan a similar trip like that for my son and me before he starts high school next year and we would try to take trails and backroads as much as possible.

My current feelings is to stick with 35's, however, I'm sure I'll move up to 37's at some point. I really don't feel comfortable building the stock axles up for 37's. East coast terrain and light foot don't always play nice together. I want the confidence to flog it when needed and I just don't trust the Dana 30 ring and pinion. Also, I wouldn't mind a bit more width. The stability and increased flex would be nice. Full width tons are for sure a bit much in the width department. Also, 37's seem to be a minimum to have a good time playing with those boat anchors. I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a 44/9 combo. I keep dreaming I'll find a pair that're already built. I'd drop $2,000 today if I found some. Most everything I'm finding is in the Connecticut/NJ/Pennsylvania /NY area, 2-3 hours from me, and with this virus going on I don't want to travel down there (for myself, and my employer).

I'm sure mixing some new fluid into the system is a reasonable way of accomplishing that. We do the same thing with transmission drain+fills. Even if you're not completely replacing the old fluid, you're still introducing fluid that has not picked up water or contaminants. So you're still significantly reducing the water content in the system overall.

While doing the MC and lines I have been halfway wishing I just replaced all four calipers and the rear soft line/axle hard line as well, just to have a completely new system (minus the prop valve) so I could put new fluid in that would only contact new parts. Would've been nice to have a contaminant free system. Didn't really make sense to do all of that though.

I managed to do the front passenger line in one segment, it was challenging though. I loosely ran new line from the driver's side to the passenger side, following the routing of the old line, just gently bending the line to get it where I needed it to go. Then, starting from the passenger side end, I began putting bends in the line to match the contours of the OEM line. The most difficult section was where the line enters the engine bay through the fender well and then goes up the firewall. It was definitely weird and I basically brute-forced it, but it worked.

If you've seen my recent thread in OEM tech, you'll have seen that I'm having issues bleeding the system. No idea what's going on with that. I've been frustrated with it and had to walk away from it for a couple days. I've only been trying vacuum bleeding. Next step is recruit some help to try bleeding it conventionally.

Thank you! Much appreciated.

For trip planning, I don't have a ton of information for you, as I did not do much of the planning. There is a lot of information on NorthMaineWoods.org, including maps, regulations, campsites, and things of that nature.

North Maine Woods is interesting. The majority of the upper part of Maine is all private property that is subdivided into territories. The public can enter the area for a fee (per day/night) and use the land. I would strongly recommend getting acquainted with the rules and read some blogs to get a sense for the culture of the area. Not somewhere the locals are happy to see a group of hooligans tearing stuff up, but are welcoming to well prepared, adventure seeking folk. Also it is VERY isolated. During our trip, we actually never entered North Maine Woods. The campsite we stayed at was just on the southern border. Even where we were at, we were ~30 miles (about 1.5 hours) from cell service. Its an unbelievably remote wilderness. I was shocked to know that there was absolutely nothing north of us for as far as we could go, and that we just scratched the surface of the southern end. Its a cool feeling being out there. It really is beautiful. Just go prepared. Satellite phone, extra fuel, medical supplies/training, food and water to stay longer than you expect, tools, parts, and knowledge of how to fix stuff.

I recommend you purchase a copy of The Maine Atlas. It is updated every year and will provide you the most detailed and up-to-date maps of the area. Mainer's refer to it as "The Bible."

Also, if you have some time, I recommend reading this trip report. Its well written and inspires a sense of adventure. Really made me want to get up there:

https://forums.exploringnh.com/showt...aine-Adventure

edit:

Forgot to mention, I have a bit of a surprise coming! Nothing too crazy, but something that should've happened a long time ago.

Got my brake bleeding issue resolved. Although I'm not sure why I was having issues. Let the Jeep sit for a couple days then bled it conventionally with the two person method. Had one fitting I needed to snug up. Other than that, everything seems good. Drove the Jeep into work today and brakes feel much better than they did before.

Here's a picture of my master cylinder bleeding setup. Worked pretty slick:



My first attempts at matching new line to old. This was after plenty of practice,



and many screw ups...




Here are the pressure safety switch internals inside the combination valve. Took this all apart trying to figure out why I wasn't getting fluid to the rear. It was stuck in the trigger position and took a good yank with pliers to get it to move.



and some pictures of the new Durango MC and lines.





The lines between the MC and prop valve actually proved to be some of the most challenging because the bends need to be the most precise, and also the fittings are all different. M10x1.0 and M12x1.0 with bubble flares on the MC, 7/16-24 and 1/2-20 with double flares on the valve. I did not have a bubble flare tool. I saw some videos online where people were using double flare tools to make bubble flares but I had no luck with it. Picked up some adapters from the parts store which made things easy.

I did not notice much of a difference in braking feel with the Durango MC. I actually forgot that it was different and that I should pay attention to the amount of force I have been applying to the pedal. Feels pretty normal to me, to be honest. The reservoir is quite a bit larger and sits at an angle. I was a bit concerned it wouldn't clear the hood but there is no interference. All seems well. Would recommend.

Also changed my spark plugs out for the first time in like, 50k(?) miles. I'm no expert on reading plugs, but I thought for 50k miles they looked pretty good, other than the massive 0.055" gap on most of them. These are Autolite Platinums. Replaced them with Champion Double Platinums. I'm not sure I like the design on the Champions because the electrode is super small. Not sure why they did that or what the benefit would supposedly be. We'll see how they do.

Looks perfect to me.
What line is that anyway? One of the fronts or the rear?
When I did my rear long line I kept that short piece at the proportioning valve. Long line looked bad but the short piece was fine.
Used a adapter to attach a regular brake flare fitting on premade line I bought to that short line. Think that the flares on premade brake lines are referred to double flares.
What type of flare was on the short line? I always assumed it was a bubble.
Brake flare terminology confuses me. LOL.

I'm in DE and wheel in PA. Rausch blues are getting boring and try to stick with just Blacks and follow the ton guys. If I had to do a swap I'd look into JK44s with the works put into it. My buddy has a 44/9 set sitting in his shed in north NJ debating on if he wants to sell them or not, stock out the Ford though. a D70HD just popped up a town over from me for $100. Tempting if i wanted tons.

Hey all! My appologies for neglecting this thread for awhile. I've been up to some things with the Jeep, but mostly just been using it. Been on a couple sweet trail rides with a local club and a few great times out with friends.

That was the front driver's line. The flare terminology and differences are weird. "Bubble" flares are metric, or ISO flares, whereas double flares are... not... lol. The only bubble flares I had to deal with were on the MC.

I've been doing train rides with people who have less build rigs than mine and have already been experiencing the feeling of being bored because I'm not challenged. Up this way, we mostly run NH class vi roads which range from mild to moderate in difficulty. I can only think of a handful of roads that 33's and a single locker would not be adequate for. BUT, I gotta build a big Jeep lol.

I've noticed that the larger MC definitely reduced my braking capability. I don't notice it on-road, but I can feel it when descending ledges or steep hills. Just some motivation to get some bigger brakes on there.

So, where did I leave off here...

After changing my valve cover gasket I was still leaving oil stains on the driveway, which I was sick of, so I did my rear main seal and oil pan gasket (for the 3rd time). Found the rear of my oil pan gasket was torn up pretty good. I decided to use a generous amount of RTV on both the front and rear ends of the oil pan gasket because I was sick of replacing it. Fingers crossed it doesn't bite me in the ***.





Finally been getting out to use my Jeep a good amount. Feels like I haven't too much over the last few years while living at the seacoast area. The western side of NH has much more terrain to explore.








Here's something unfortunate that happened. I had a close encounter with a four wheeler on the trail. I was stopped and he was slowly passing me in the opposite direction. He gently rolled his four wheeler into the side of my Jeep and busted my window.





You would not believe how slow my Jeep is without all those stickers.

Ended up replacing the window for $60, and the guy on the four wheeler was good enough to pay for it. But those stickers... ugh. I had been building that window for years.



(That stock Tacoma did things it should not have).

I finally installed my swaybar disconnect brackets after years of looking at them. Took me all of like an hour. Funny how these little things can be the most challenging to build motivation for sometimes.



In my last post I mentioned I had a surprise. Well, here it is! This should've happened a long time ago, and has transformed the capability of my Jeep. This is a Spartan locker in my 8.25. I have some good miles now and can say I have no regrets with an autolocker in the rear. Everyone who says it can cause spooky behavior clearly has a well-functioning vehicle because my Jeep is not really any scarier to drive now than it was before. I can definitely notice its there. I can feel it push the rig straight and can require steering input to stay straight when it unlocks, but the Jeep takes work to drive anyway. The offroad capability well outweighs any negative on-road effects.



Anddddd the last thing to mention are these two pieces of rusty junk that I picked up. HP Dana 44 from a 1973 F150 and a 9" from a 1978 F150.




I picked these up a couple months back and literally haven't touched them since. Keep telling myself I'll start tearing them down. I have some spreadsheets going for my build plan for them. I'll post them up. Regardless how I go at it, my wallet is not going to be happy. I'm psyched though.

nice update! If you think the rear locker is great, wait till you also have one up front. It's awesome!

Recently did the rear quarter cut and fold. This all started because I lost one of my rear bumper corner trim pieces and was sick of looking at my rotted quarters.

This is what I started with after cutting out all the fiberglass I put on last year:



Ended up cutting straight across to really make sure I was screwing it up bad:



This is the result of my "fold". Notice the gaping holes that typically are covered while doing this mod.





Patch panel was required. I repurposed a dented fender that came off my daily.




Swiss-cheesed the thing to get some semblance of strength while welding it on. Using this material ended up being a mistake. Its only 20 gauge (~0.040" thick) and was a nightmare to weld.




The passenger side didn't start out quite so bad. There was enough material left after cutting out the rot to do a traditional cut and fold.




However, I really dicked it good while working on this side. In an attempt to get the two layers to lay flat against each other, I was using a floor jack to push up on the bottom panel. Gave it one too many oomph's and heard a loud pop. Ended up splitting a pinch seam wide open.




Strapped across the seam with some scrap. Honestly this is probably much stronger than it was before. I was going to do the same on the driver's side but was very ready to be done with this project.



Welds weren't coming out too shabby on this part. Had to walk away from this project for awhile halfway through because of how much trouble I had welding that patch panel in. There was such a fine line between cold welds and burning through, also while having issues with my welder sputtering and not feeding wire. Ordered some new contact tips (which can only get from Eastwood and took 10 days to ship...) and replaced my gun liner to get it going a little better. Still ended up calling it good-enough on that panel when really there were a handful of small holes I would've liked to have ground out and rewelded.

Welds looked decent on the thicker material though.



Also opened up the holes at the rear bumper mounts in preparation to take measurements to make a CAD model of the rear end of the Jeep to design/build a bumper.



And that's where I called it done. Sprayed it with some primer and rubberized undercoating and shipped it. To be honest, I really do not like how this mod looks and did not want to do this at all. I just had nothing left of my rear quarters and this is a logical prerequisite to building a wrap-around rear bumper. Just gonna look a little funny for awhile in the interim. Notice I did trim the corners of my rear bumper at a bit of an angle. I think it looks slightly less unfinished that way.







My buddies and I have another overlanding style trip planned in a couple weeks. Nothing crazy. Gonna be doing most of the North East Backcountry Discovery Route. Its really geared towards adventure touring motorcycles. Jessi was just such a good sport on our trip last year, we figure its only right that we let him have this one. Should be a great time regardless. The Jeep has developed a slight vibration at about 50 mph that I'd like to address before then. Other than that, I think it should be ready to rock.

Awesome.

Howdy! Once again its been far too long since I've updated this thread. I've been doing quite a bit with the Jeep. In September my buds and I did an overlanding trip starting in the Berkshires in southern Massachusetts, up through the Green Mountains in Vermont, across the White Mountains in New Hampshire, up north of Rangely, Maine, then ended at the northern most point in New Hampshire, Rhubarb Pond. 7 nights in a tent. Total of about 1,300 miles which I'd estimate about 1/3 of was on dirt. The route we drove is called the Northeast Backcountry Discovery Route, which was created by adventure motorcyclists. The trip ended up being SO much better than I anticipated. The route did an amazing job of snaking through quaint towns, farm roads, forest roads, VT class IV roads and NH class VI roads. We spent 8 days driving between two points that were about 4 hours drive apart.

I wrote a full trip report at a local offroad forum here: https://forums.exploringnh.com/showt...ble-They-Said!







About a week after this trip I had my driveshaft let go while driving home from a friend's at about 8 AM after a night of drinking. Thankfully I was less than 30 minutes from home and not hundreds of miles away in the middle of nowhere like I was a week prior. I pulled the shaft out and drove home in front wheel drive. After looking at the damage it appears the ujoint seized and actually wore down the nub on the side of the yoke that retains the u joint cap.



I had to replace the yoke as well as the driveshaft. Picked up a used driveshaft on marketplace and rebuilt it. I had never messed with the centering ball yoke on a driveshaft before, so that was fun. In the future I would absolutely just buy a new centering ball yoke assembly rather than just the ball itself because there really is no good way to get the ball out, but I ended up getting it. I also learned that there is a small hole in the yoke which I never would have seen otherwise.





So that was fun. Got her back rolling again. Have done a few trail rides with the local club since.



This happened moments after I said "I'm not gonna push it too hard, I'll back down if I can't get it without too much trouble." Guess that's one way to do it lol.



I spent some time tearing down and cleaning up those axles. Cut the brackets down and got them sandblasted. The welded-on radius arm wedges on the 44 are ungodly overkill beef. They took a lot of effort to remove. The Ford brackets were much less overkill, and I also found a ton of porosity on the welds holding the tubes to the center section. I had read of other people finding the same issue when working on 9 inch housings. Guess it really isn't too much of an issue because 9 inch axles have been in service for 60 years.



Got a bit carried away with the plasma torch. Put some good gouges into the axle.



Had them sand blasted by a friend's father and got them home looking like this. Boy was I excited pulling these things in!



Took some time to pull them apart further. Found the front is a 3.54 ratio and the rear is 3.50; so they are the same gear ratio! However, I discovered the rear axle is a 28 spline and not the 31 spline that I thought it was.





Which brings me to where I'm at now. I had intended to order all of my parts this weekend for the axles this weekend to take advantage of some black Friday deals. However, as I started to get my carts together I got sticker shock wicked bad. I was pushing $4,000, then would need wheels and tires on top of that. That's not in the cards for me right now, as much as I could swing it, its just irresponsible. I drive a dinky little high school girl's car every day and live in a hole in the wall apartment. That money can be better spent elsewhere. I was disappointed to make this decision because I really want to build these. I find a lot of enjoyment in the building process, and also would enjoy driving the Jeep much more if I had bigger brakes, flatter steering angles, lower gearing, a front locker, and some confidence that I won't grenade ring and pinions.

So, for now, I'm gonna stick these in the corner until I can be a bit more rational about my decision to build them. I have plenty of other projects to direct my energy towards. I've been making a CAD model of a rear bumper on my work computer. I also would like to make a gas tank skid, do 2x6 rockers, tube fenders, shock towers, York compressor, etc, etc.

Before I checked the ratios on the axles, I was thinking I could install the axles under the Jeep and not build the internals yet. That would net me big brakes and good steering, as well as leaving most of the expense for the future. After getting them apart I found the bearings on the 44 are smoked. Not a huge issue to run because of the lockouts, but I still don't really want to put any miles on them. The other reason I am hesitant to build the externals of the axles now is because I am getting cold feet about doing a 44. Maybe I've just been reading on pirate4x4 too much, but I'm thinking it doesn't make sense to put Dana 50 gears in front of a 5-760x u joint. To get any amount of upgrade out of the front axle I would need to go RCV's or chromoly shafts/CTM u joints. Doing that would cap me at 35 spline inners and 30 spline outers using the best parts money can buy. Lots of money. And would still result in parts that are stronger, but not strongest. And would still leave me with crappy ball joints. I can get much more strength for a bit more money. I'd rather build my dream axles the first time.

The thing is, I still don't want a 60. Its too big. Too wide, too heavy, and too much of an anchor. My gears have been turning very much about building a 60/54 hybrid with Dana 60 outers on a Dana 44 housing with Dana 50 gears. I think that would be the most BA axle, maybe second to a 609. I looked into doing a 609 briefly but they're super pricey because the pretty much require a fabricated housing and a very expensive high pinion center section. The 60/54 would be an unbelievably amazing axle and I'm excited about the thought of building something different. I feel I can stiffen the housing and reinforce the gears enough by trussing the axle and doing a load bolt that everything will not just survive, but thrive. I have the resources available to me, my fabrication skills have been increasing, and I have people around me who could help me with steps that I'm less experienced with. I know I can do it.

Now, one issue with the idea of doing 60 outers is that they are 8 lug. I could convert them to 5x5.5 to match the 9 inch out back, but I think that defeats a lot of the purpose because it then requires using some 44 parts like the wheel bearings and brakes. If I do 60 outers I'd like to keep them 8 lug.

So what about out back? I could ditch the 9 inch and go with a 14 bolt or a Sterling, but neither of those would complement the hybrid front. No sense in doing a super custom front just to have a boat anchor rear. The idea that's stuck in my head right now is doing a full float 9 inch by grafting 14 bolt spindles onto the 9. That would be a wicked setup. I think they'd be good for 40's.

I know what you're thinking, that I'm telling you I can't afford to do a 44/9 build one moment and the next and talking about doing total custom axles which will likely cost thousands more. You're right, these ideas are even farther out of my price range, but I feel more responsible (less irresponsible?) putting money into what will be the most appropriate axles that I could build for my requirements. I have much more research to do before I can confidently say what I want to do. I feel like I've gone through all the steps at this point. Did a bunch of research on building the 30. Bought WJ swap parts and was ready to go on it, then got cold feet and decided I need more. So I did a ton of research on 44's, bought two and a bunch of parts for outers, and now have cold feet again.

I'm gonna be ordering a Spartan for my Dana 30 and see how long I can make the 30 last as-is. I've been getting awfully more confident while wheeling this year. I've been having a lot of fun playing in the rocks. Last weekend I was out on the powerlines that I used to run in my hometown all the time and hit some lines that I've been eyeballing for years but have never had the confidence to try. Super stoked to keep moving forward with this.