rear brakes changed (shoes, p.b. cable, hardware) big diff

well we changed out the rear brakes in my 88' d35 since it would lock up out of the blue....and then barley work other times, well the shoe on the passanger side came off with the drum (friction material seperated) and we replaced the parking brake cables while we were at it...i can pull the parking brake about 2 inches and thats it...nice and tight. now i can actually stop with little effert

total was about $60 since i have a frind that gets stuff at cost

now to do the ball joints and maybee regear since its a dog on a grade...kinda no pep (4.0 to boot)

My 88 pulls fine on a pretty steep grade. Is yours downshifting OK? Are you running stock tires?

lol...i have the dreaded pukegoat with 3.07:1's....lol..and stock 215/75/15's

i think i want at least 3.54:1's out of an auto...so i can run a bb and 30's...but we shall see

I've found that 3.73's is nice for a DD with my AX-15 and 31's.
good luck finding that combo though.

I'm almost done putting 3.55s (87 D44 and 94 D30) into my 90 with AX-15 and 31s. I don't know if it will be ideal, but it'll be lower than stock gearing at least.

2x on the 3.73 ax 15 and 31's. Great combo, A little more low end that stock but still streetable. It ran about 2400rpm at 75.

i have a junked 89 auto i can grab axels/cariers out of if i want too...just not 100% sure i want to go through all that...i paid $100 for the jeep...and think i might got to 235's and call it quits (other than a rear lunch box to help the open carier)

i would love to go 373's...but they are hard as hell to find...and you need new cariers

Your best bet IMO is just find a set of axles with 3.73s, use the opportunity to thoroughly check the whole axle, fix anything worn, change the items that are easy as heck to change on the bench and swap them as a whole. If your area is anything like mine you can find junk bodied XJs with low gears for nearly free, if not free, all the time. Thats the route I'd take if I was going to run stock axles.