Over this period of time, I was quite happy with the truck's performance. (Actually, I've always been happy with its performance, just always wanting more!) I had trail rode with Larry Soo for a while now, and I was itching for some more changes. I hooked up with the core of what is now the Island Rock Crawlers, who proceeded to introduce me to trails which were pushing the Comanche's ability. Well, the rest, as they say, is history. What follows is a detailed account of what I consider the most interesting modifications to the truck. But first off, I must thank some individuals for their help, insight, abilities, and encouragement.

It didn't take long to decide that a complete rebuild was in order! The stock gears were 3.54 and I was running 4.10's. The axle had also been neglected by the original owner. Everything was replaced - all the seals, bearings, differential guts, and brake parts. The only parts I re-used were the shafts, the housing, and the brake drums. I wanted to build it for disc brakes, but it was beyond my budget. A few months later, it was ready for install.

The axle received a Lockright. Powertrax was kind enough to replace my last blown Dana 35 Lockright with a Dana 44 Lockright!  Plans are to eventually replace the Lockright with a Detroit Softlocker, but this isn't high on the priority list.

Luckily, the Scout uses the same size driveshaft U-joints as my Jeep! That saved the time and expense of tracking down different yokes. I used the stock Comanche emergency brake lines as well - they were compatible with the Scout drum brakes. Install was very straight forward. It bolted in much the same as the stock axle. No gotcha's!

Currently, I have a custom leaf pack which was built for 4 inches lift, with a sprung-over configuration and no blocks.  The shocks have been remounted into a configuration that matches Toyota pickups.  I am using 13.5" travel Black Diamond XT shocks.

I have also installed a 3/4-'liptical rear suspension design and longer rear shackles to obtain more lift (in place of blocks).  This combination yields me about 9 inches rear suspension lift over stock.  The emergency brake cables have been replaced with ones intended for a '86 Comanche, because the older Comanche brakes lines were about 4 inches longer.

I considered an old Ford Bronco front Dana 44 but abandoned that option for the following reasons:

By the way, the old Ford Bronco axle width is just about right. Rough measurements show it to be within an inch or so of the Scout axle width.

As with the back axle, the front axle is also assembled with 4.09 gears, and all new seals, bearings, and gear set. Wayne Foster assembled both the front and rear axles. The carrier is a Detroit soft-locker. Yes, it's an automatic locker. But now that I have driven a vehicle with a front locker, I wouldn't dream of putting any other type of differential carrier up there! It's great, amazing, super! I love it!

Control arm mounts on the axle were custom made, and were moved up to give more clearance at the control arms, so I would both hit fewer things, and to improve the control arm angles. I also incorporated additional lift into the coil spring spacers.   This first picture shows the new lower control arm tacked in place on the driver's side. Notice how it's not square with the axle tube, to match the angle found on the stock axle. The second picture shows how much the differential housing was rotated from the knuckle yokes, to both improve front driveshaft angles (to cancel out vibrations), and to get the yoke up, out of harm's way. You can also kind of see the inner sleeve installed by the shop when they moved the housing from the passenger side to the driver's side. The last picture shows the passenger side of the axle, with both the lower control arm mount and the shock/coil spring perch in place. I was surprised how much the shock/coil spring perch dwarfed the axle - that's what happens when you build 2.5" lift into it, I guess! The shock holes and the coil spring pad still have to be welded into place.

One upper control arm mount had to be welded to the housing. This is very specialized welding that most welders can't perform. John Edgar performed the surgery at Larry Soo's shop. John Barron used a MIG welder for all the other welding. Yours truly designed the brackets - no brackets were re-used from the stock axle, since the truck remained no the road while this axle was built. All new brackets ranged from 3/16" to 5/16" stock, depending on the purpose of the bracket.

A trick: when you are building a front axle, it doesn't hurt to paint the insides of the axle tubes. To do this, use a spoungy paint roller on an extensions - it works slick!

The axle installed easily, and the holes lined up better than the stock axle! The picture shows Vern O'Connor lining up the bolt holes for the upper control arms. The track bar and brake lines are temporarily swung out of the way, the shocks not yet hooked up. The following 3 pictures show details of various front axle components. Note, however, that these pictures are big! I debated making them smaller, but felt it's be worth it in terms of detail to leave them high resolution.

1. The first picture is a good general shot of the complete axle, working and under the truck. You can see the steering in relationship to the axle tube - tucked way up high and out of harm's way (or so I thought!) There's fresh rust on the skid plate because I notched it to clear the steering. The rust was painted shortly after the picture was taken. You can also clearly see the extra plating I put on the front diff. cover. The amount of trimming I had to do is also pretty evident. The front part of the fender is pulled forward a couple of inches.
2. In the second picture you get up close and personal with a lot of the parts. You can see a bit of the upper control arm mount. The track bar hole has also been moved up to match the steering relocation, to avoid bump steer. You can also see the drag link come done and attach to the passenger tie rod end. The steering configuration is much like the YJ steering, but I used GM 3/4-ton steering components, so strength shouldn't be an issue. I also had to modify the steering stabilizer mounts to a much more conventional method. Again, it's tucked way up high so it's out of harm's way.
3. The third picture shows the extra diff cover plating up close, as well as the rest of the steering. The little hole at the bottom of the coil tower is to aid in cleaning the parts with a pressure washer. Yes, that's antifreeze on the diff cover! The lower radiator hose was replaced shortly after these pictures were taken.
4. The fourth picture shows my custom control arms and the upper and lower control arm mounts. The shock is mounted in a manner very similar to the stock set-up. You can see the track bar and the tie rod, but not the drag link in this picture.

The control arm mounts are moved up about 2 inches on the axle tube. They are also moved back, so that the control arms would continue to clear the axle tube. This had the side-effect of moving the axle forward under the truck, which I wanted to do anyway, to clear 35 inch tires. I'm now running 36" tires without problems.   The added side-effect on steering (needing to relocate the steering box to use the appropriate pitman arm) is discussed below.

The control arms are very similar to Tomken's but instead of using poly bushings, I use stock rubber bushings. The result is an extremely quiet ride and lots of flex without any load put on axle or frame components. I do, however, get a bit more front axle wrap than I did with the stock axle. I feel that this is a combination of relocating the control arm mounts on the axle, and of the soft rubber bushings.

If you are building a front Dana 44 for your Cherokee or Comanche, do not relocate the arm mounts on the axle any more than I have. I spent a lot of time drawing pictures of how the arms would look at different points in the suspension travel, and this is as far as I think you can go. And I wouldn't move the mounts this far if I wasn't running so much lift.

At full droop, the coil spring becomes completely unloaded! In fact, when I was using Explorer Pro Comp coils, you can actually remove them! Personally, I see no point in worrying about this, nor am I concerned with the arguement that "no weight on the tire means no traction.", for a few reasons:

I wanted to flip the steering parts as well, and use as many over-the-counter parts as I could to make replacing parts easier in the future. Second priority was to keep the "family" of parts all the same.  In the end, I used strictly Chevy parts (cheaper and very heavy duty), but had to make my own tie rod and drag link (from Chevy parts, just it meant I had to weld up steering parts, which I'm not keen on, but it seems to have worked, and it's definitely lots stronger than the stock tie rod parts.) I also had to reverse the taper on one tie rod end - where the steering stabilizer would normally mount.

My setup works great!  There's a few things that you have to keep in mind, though:

The decision to flip the steering on top of the knuckles was mandatory for me.  The decision to drop the inverted Y was arbitrary, but a good one in my opinion.  The effects on the vehicle's toe-in increases as the inverted Y angles change.  And since I 'wheel a lot I figured I might as well drop the inverted Y to keep my toe in the same regardless of what I'm asking the suspension to do.

If you look closely at the above picture, you'll notice that I've already managed to put a slight bend in the tie rod, near the right tie rod end.  *laugh*  It's a good thing I flipped them on top of the knuckles - it would have bent up the stock steering like a pretzel for sure!  I dropped the front end onto a stump from a few inches.  It likely affected my toe in by about a half a millimeter - not enough to worry about!

Also, Dana 44 knuckles are longer than the stock D30 ones.  This means that since I'm still running the stock pitman arm, my steering doesn't turn as sharp as it should.  I've looked at getting a longer pitman arm, but that means relocating the steering box on the frame, which really isn't an option.  I can't use shorter knuckles or the steering will interfere with the coil and track bar mounts.  So right now I'm stuck with a poor turning radius.  The flip side to this, is I have less chance of breaking a front U-joint due to extreme angles.

Electrical

On-board Air

I originally sourced a few York compressors since I didn't want to deal with oilers and separators and because it has a higher flow rating than the stock compressors.  Take my advice: on a XJ or MJ, it will take a _lot_ of work to fit a York under the hood.  Yorks work under YJ hoods, but for an XJ or MJ, choose the factory compressor.  It's easier to install on the vehicle and you don't have to worry about finding a serpentine pulley for a York (tough but possible).

If you notice in the picture, the battery is missing!   My dual batteries project relocated the primary battery, leaving me with room for:

Since these pictures, the underhood assembly has been slightly relocated to make room for the larger welder alternator.  The shocks have also been relocated since the picture showing the tanks was taken.

Here's a few extra pointers for anyone building/using their own on-board air system:

Miscellaneous