I finally got the brackets required to adapt the ford 8.8 into my tj from MORE. It took over a month to get them but they are finally here. I don't know what the issue was. MORE has always treated me well in the past so I won't let this time effect me too much. Plus the owner is from here locally. Im more than willing to help him out. I found that MORE sells a direct drop in kit for the tj ebrake cable. Ill let you all know how it goes.  

Dana 35 carnage



Thankyou DK for your help and the use of your shop on saturday



More Carnage



Welding brackets



Naked 8.8

After about 3 hours of work time we are ready to add brakes and bolt the control arms in. We are waiting to weld the shock brackets on until the axle is bolted in. This way we can optimize their location. We started using Stu's directions but we found our measurments were alittle bit off from his. So we used it as a guide for setting up the angles. Thank god Dk has plenty of exp setting up 8.8's in tj's. Im pretty crafty and could have figured it out but we wouldn't have gotten nearly as much done in such a limited amount of time with as many interuptions as we had.  

dang, I bet that made a little noise!

so, are ya adding the ford tower into the frame to use a 14" travel shock?

fixed your pics too...  

I don't believe im aware of what your talking about. Do you have a good link that explains this? I don't know whats up with my pictures?  

lol, I just fixed your pics, I'll get ya the link here in a minute..  

here ya go, I've done a few this way..

http://www.stu-offroad.com/suspension/rearshock/rearshock-1.htm  

Okay so where do I get those mounts. My current shocks are a bit limiting of suspension droop. So I am now in the market for shocks it looks like a new front axle will have to wait until later. I have 3.5 inches of short arm lift and a 1 inch body with a 1 inch motor. Is this overkill for my setup? Will I get the full benefits of this? I can find bad parts on suspensions but this is the first time I have modified anything other than leafs and ifs lifts. I did a MORE shock tower on my yj but that was simple.  

did you fix my pics? What was wrong. Well the rear pinion bearing failed and allowed the pinion to drop and bind in the ring gear. The path of least resistance was down through the cast housing. On a trip to michigan I heard it howl at me when I decelerated. I turned around and made it back to my home town when I had to slow down for the upcoming stoplight it blew up including my drive shaft. Ive driven further on bad bearings so this kind of shocked me. Round trip was about 60 miles.  

it's not an overkill on the rear with your short arms, you can put a shock in there that will max out the reach of the 3.5" springs instead fo falling a few inches short of it, and still have the uptravel of your current set up. on the front if ya have 25.5" long shocks your already at the point of over extending the front control arms on account of the direction of travel. the shock towers are the same thing basicaly, the leafs won't over extend to the point of being usless, they only drop so far...

I'd bet you already have 24.5-25.5" shocks on the rear...  

the part # is listed on the write up, the local ford dealer can order em.... I've been using 1/4" box steel and making em instead of purchacing the ford part...  

Mud you are a great resource. Ill be looking to do it in a few months.  

Errr sitting here with my jeep on the hoist and an axle almost ready to go is killing me. Im ready to finish it. GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I don't have a companion flange. Nor a drive shaft.

It's like an itch I can't scratch.  

lol, that hurts..  

Well after getting the new 8.8 in and the brakes bled I took it for a shake down run. Before I could get out of the drive way there was a huge vibration that I could feel. After Jacking up the rear end and putting the jeep in drive it was easy to see that the t-case output shaft was bent. After 2 hours the new one was in and I was out driving.


Old main shaft

 

Now you've got your primer course in replacing your main shaft. Too bad you didn't know it was bent and have your SYE and drive shaft ready to go. You'd be done now.

How'd the e-brake kit from M.O.R.E work out?