Spectre
The Deported
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2007
- Messages
- 36,832
- Location
- Dallas, Texas
- Car(s)
- 00 4Runner | 02 919 | 87 XJ6 | 86 CB700SC
No, it didn't come with a manual. Doesn't bother me.
The I6 autos weren't perfect, but they hold up to the I6 just fine. The V8 ones were perfectly good.
D44 axles are perfectly fine until you hit 35" tires. By that point you should be running an 8.8 and a 30HP anyway.
What? The 242HD is considered only under the Atlas cases in terms of strength. So, no.
That's nice if that's important. It hasn't been mentioned yet.
WJ came with LSD's front and rear on the Overland. Throwing Aussie lockers into the Danas is a piece of cake if you really feel the need.
X: What's a suspension lift more than 3.5"? A novice can throw a 6.5" long-arm kit on a WJ with no problems at all, and probably for about the same price as the 3.5" Xterra kit. Suspension lift > body lift.
Suspension lifts > body lift right up until the point you discover what raising your center of gravity 6.5 inches does when you're traversing the side of a 45 degree hill. Or get up on a rock.... and then over you go onto your roof while all the guys in Nissans with "3+3" lifts laugh their asses off at you. Then one of them has to come winch or tow your Jeep back upright.
The D44s they put in ZJs and WJs are the "light duty" version and only a little stronger than the base Dana 35s. The H233B and its descendants are one hell of a lot stronger - so much so that breaking one offroad without 37" or bigger tires (or 35's combined with 5.14 gears and a seriously built motor) is unheard of.
The 242 is a decent case, but not all of them got the 242, now, did they? The TX10 series is on par with the stronger-than-242 NP231 and it's lighter than the 242 as well. The only disadvantage is that aftermarket support for the TX is smaller than the 242 or 231.
LSD < electronic locker. Sure, you can throw aftermarket lockers into the WJ, but then you can do the same thing with the XTerra. No advantage for the Jeep overall, and a big loss for the Jeep in initial cost vice capability.
In order to get a WJ to the point where it is really competitive with the XTerra, you end up spending an awful lot of additional money, not to mention the fact that the WJ is statistically less reliable anyway. It's just that the Jeep that best matches up to the XTerra isn't the Grand Cherokee, but the Wrangler.
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