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I won a free ride from the law the other night and will be taking a break from driving for a while. The good news is, after all fines have been paid I can now take my time and go a little further with the jeep plan.

1998 XJ Sport. AW4 - 231 has 8.25 rear. Stock at the moment.

Original plan. RE 3.5 Kit - 31's, minor this and that. Done.

New QUESTIONS!

Has anyone run 4.5in isht of lift with claytons long arms? Is there any real advantage to the LA setup instead of say JKS upper and lower arms.

4.56 gears seem to be the gospel for aw4 with 33's. feel free to reinforce that.

Is it worth getting axles now, or wait to break one?

Engine has 140k and actually sounds/runs well. I am very serious about PM's and fixing what's broke.

Current view on JCR 1 ton or other similar steering setups?

Opinion on Kevin's Off Road track bar?

Are JKS quick release links the norm or a nice addition?

Please any other ideas are welcome..

I searched a lot, but...I can't find anyone doing the 4.5 with long arms...

Well, I know RE makes a LA 4.5" kit. I would personally do it. As a lot of people seem to run drop brackets around 4.5" and up.
There are a few vendors here that seem to make great products. Really depends on if you are willing to spend the money.
The KOR TB setup looks pretty beefy, same for ironman4x4fab.com as well. Both are about the same price IIRC.

If I were to go any higher than the ~3" I have now I would run long arms, and Andy's HD trackbar with brace. I say piece your kit together, so you can have it the way YOU want it.

As far as i have been told and from my personal wheeling experiences the long arm allows for more down travel and also keeps you more steady on the highway. Dont quote me on this and if anyone cares to tell me im wrong please do lol but my advice would be to do a search on the long arms cause there are a ton of threads on them. I am currently running a 4" lift with long arms, its a teraflex lift, and it does extremely well.
as for the gearing im not really sure those arent my thing
as for axels it depends on what axels you have if you have a d35 rear going to 33's it might be a good idea to swap out but if you arent going to do a lot of heavy offroading you might get away with it i am currently running 32's with a d35 and havent had any issues yet but i know i will eventually but ill wait till it breaks to swap in a new axel
if you take care of your engine youll get many more miles out of it so 140k is nothing in my opinion
as for the rest of the stuff to me its a little overkill unless youre going full out trail rig and all that jazz but the steering upgrade is nice and kevins offroad track bar is pretty good from what i am told and have seen but i have no personal experience on it
the quick release links are a must have lol so many other set ups are a pain in the arse but my quick pin sway bar disconnects are so nice to have

JW, I have never seen a RE 4.5" long arm have a link to that? Rock Krawler makes a nice 4.5" long arm kit. If you have a d35 Id swap in a 29 spline 8.25 from another cherokee. I have wheeled 33s and 35s on stock axles on rocks with no real issues, not the best setup but it is all I have got now. I will swap in a hp30 and xj44 I have in the garage on the next jeep. It will also have 33s and 4.56s. I dont like the 1 ton style of steering due to the dead spot but others have had it perform well for them. I dont have much experience with anything else but I will likely go Currie on the next xj I build. Many run JKS discos, one of the nicest sets. Past that you have the anti rock kits such as the Currie set up.