Recent content by Ol Blue

They are surprisingly tough and made of thick fiberglass. I have dragged the left rear on a rock and the right rear on a tree and they haven't broken yet. Just a little touch up paint and they look good as new. FWIW I did crack one of the old Bushwackers on a rock. There is a guy on...

For scale, those are 35" tires in the picture. Absolutely tons of room for up travel and flexing on the rocks. Or to fit 37s haha

The big Bushwackers will work. They actually require cutting so it should work depending how much is cut. I had them for several years on cut flares, but never really liked how cheesy and cheap they looked. Plus the hollow part likes to collect dirt and mud. The best solution is Notch...

I love my Ironman 4x4 setup. Its stout as hell and ties into the passenger "frame" rail. The Enduro Joint at the chassis side is cheap and easy to rebuild as well https://ironman4x4fab.com/collections/suspension/products/xj-track-bar-system

Just FYI alignment shops (at least the ones I've been to) generally won't adjust your control arms as part of the alignment package since this was not an adjustable from the factory on the XJ. They will charge you extra labor to change the control arm lengths. Kind of a pain. What I did was...

Oh and people love to over tighten the shaft retainer bolts which ends up bending the retainer plate. Make sure that plate is perfectly flat. This could also give you a leak at the axle seal.

Pretty normal isn't it? Not sure how this would be the differential's fault. The axle is free to move in the carrier since the Dana 44 shaft isn't retained by a c clip. It's the axle retainer plate that would stop that movement in and out. So are the axle retainer bolts torqued correctly? Maybe...

You'll hear it if you have it. If the piston slap is bad you might be able to rock the piston back and forth in the bore. But I'd imagine it would make noise if it could rock in the bore

Welcome to the cracked 0331 club. Its a fun place to be. If you have piston slap when the engine is cold (like I do) I'd consider throwing new pistons in there. Wish I would have done that when I did the head. Pan has to come off too but you're most of the way there already.

Can't see why it would be. Pick the biggest bolt that fits in the hole, and as long as it's tight the joint won't leak

I had to cut mine in half since they were rusted solid. Just went to the local hardware store and picked up generic nuts/bolts for less than $5.

Have you tried tightening the bolts? Mine seem to back off pretty often, even with Loctite. If there is a leak there, the bolts are loose or there is a crack. You could also try some of this stuff...

Maybe a YJ leaf would work? If you can't find what you want, check out Alcan Spring. They can custom build any leaf spring you want

You'll have that on those bigger jobs

AW4s do like to run hot. I hit 260F once when going up mountains on 35s. The big tires and mountains are definitely what causes my heat issue, what size tires are you on? Do you have the factory radiator integrated cooler or are you running an external cooler in front of the radiator...