suggestions on getting started

Alright I know I need to build some armor for my jeep first, and I'm in the process of doing that right now. But what should I do next? I've go money for new gears and a locker, or a 4.5 lift, or tires and wheels. Not enough right now for all 3. You guys have any suggestions on where to start? My friend tells me to get the gears and just buzz the engine for a while until I can get bigger tires. But for that I need the lift. So it's going to look funny and wheel poorly on 235's street tires. I'm thinking of going from the 3.55's it has to 4.56's with a detroit locker in the rear. 4.5" RE lift. Or goodyear MT/R's with new wheels. Suggestions?

dont re-gear the d35, upgrade to a ford 8.8 with 4.11 gears (they will cover 32" tires under your rig) and the come with a factory LSD (limited slip). the parts yards will call these lockers, but they arent. try searching here:

http://www.car-part.com/

search for a 95+ Explorer, Rear axle asembly (RWD)

Id swap the axle, lift, then lock, then tires. I figure that tires wear out eventualy and because my street tires are fine, everything else wont wear out, so ill wear out the 235/75r15 BFG all terrains that i bought the car with (used) and then worry about getting tires.
i see going to 33" tires like i want costing 1500.00 for:
new rear axle 300 to 400
gears for front 200 + install cost (i dont want to figure that out)
wider rims 250 (cheapo steel crawlers)
tires 600-700 with full size spare

oh yeah and here is a great 8.8 swap (its for a yj, but everthing is the same as when ben did the swap he did a SOA lift at the same time)

http://www.jedi.com/obiwan/jeep/ford88.html

Make sure you can keep the Jeep first.
Recovery Points, Front and Rear are the 1st mod you should do.
Protect your investment.
Now armor. Rocker and fuel tank skid 1st, followed bt Transfer case skid.
Make it perform.
Gears and well since your in the diffs...lockers.

I am at the gear decision stage on my XJ.
Good Luck,
Tom

Ok, I should have said I've already got a rear axle. An 8 3/4 mopar that's 61"s wide. Got that for $90. So I don't have to put that together yet, i can still drive around on the stock axle.

Boatwrench said:

Make sure you can keep the Jeep first.
Recovery Points, Front and Rear are the 1st mod you should do.
Protect your investment.
Now armor. Rocker and fuel tank skid 1st, followed bt Transfer case skid.
Make it perform.
Gears and well since your in the diffs...lockers.

I am at the gear decision stage on my XJ.
Good Luck,
Tom

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i would tend to disagree becuase why regear and lock a stock axle, just put up with it and when youre ready to regear get a new axle JMHO
-Tom

DId you mean 8 1/4 [8.25]? I have never herd of a 8 3/4 [8.75]. If 8.25 is what you have to swap in then I woulden't even bother with it eather. IHO unless you can direct bolt in a 8.25 from another xj there not worth building up.

recovery/protection def the first thing to do
lift/gears/tires are all trade off's i went lift/tires/gears in that order. 33's and 6". it was a pain with stock gears but not that bad. would rather have hard acceleration than spin up the engine to 3500 to make it to work. but when you do gears def do the axle swap at the same time no sense in wasting money. it seems like a huge job but it realy isn't. 8.8 is prob one of the closest to stock width.
it's all a matter of preferance with these things just do it in an order that dosn't make you do things twice.

Now as far as what I would do. Sence you got some protection lined up. I would eather keep saving til you have the money for the tires & wheels, or get your lift, and wait till you can get some tires & wheels to put it on. If you want no fender cutting, or rubbing then 31's mabey 32's are all the bigger you will be able to go. 31's arn't to bad on 3.55's, and 32's will be a little on the high side, but still driveable. If you stay narrow on the tires you might be able to get away with you stock wheels too. Also with those tire sizes that D35 shouldn't be to bad if you dont get stupid on the skinny peddle.

an 8 3/4 is a rearend chrysler made in the 50's 60's and 70's. Similar to a ford 9" drop out style.

In my opinion I would buy the parts and put them in the garage until I was ready to install the whole package. But what I did in auctuallity was buy my tires, then I found a lift kit that the tires fit under. Now I am at the stage where I am trying to find the right gears and axles to go under my MJ. I think I am going to go with the 8.8 and keep my D30 up front at least for now.


Patrick

hadAjeep said:

an 8 3/4 is a rearend chrysler made in the 50's 60's and 70's. Similar to a ford 9" drop out style.

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Can you get gears for it? I don't think I've ever seen one listed in the gear ads [of course that dosn't mean anything].