Buy new or buy used.

[MOAK]

I feel your pain.
I pulled my diff's, regeared and installed eatons. I couldn't put them back in. It took a floor jack and another person. That was my most resent big turning point. My gear box replacement went....ok, i guess. Years ago, I bought an 04 TJ thinking, I'm done with re-engineering vehicles. Buy something new and modern. Add some basic suspension and just drive it. Then I saw all the horrible engineering Jeep did...A ton of work later, the sport evolved past me and what I built couldn't keep up with my friends. Sold that off and went back to just driving around and camping. There's where the cruiser came from. It was too old to make me feel safe so, I rebuilt that.

But yeah. I was looking at my suspension jigs that I haven't used for years as well as a bunch of custom tooling. I miss going to the Rubicon, Dusy and some of the lesser Johnson Valley trails. If go to 37's on the cruiser, I can do some of that but, that real hard on the vehicle.

Maybe i'll just buy something like you did and call it good. Planning on retiring soon but, I really like what I do.

If you enjoy what you do, no sense in stopping it. I know of baseball talent scouts of the payroll that are in their 80s still at it and loving it. I’ve been meaning to ask- did you ever meet Jerry Branford, the TJ guru? I used to get into mild debates with him. All in fun and hoping to get differing information out there for the younger guys. I mean, does one really need a quadruple linked suspension with nothing but Johnny joints? Anyway, it was fun.

 

[smritte]

Jerry Branford, the TJ guru?

Heh...yeah. There was another guy who he referred to that I "kind of" got into it with. This was where jerry got his suspension and brake info. Cant remember his name but he use to make stuff for TJ's. He had a suspension system, custom brakes and a half door.

Branford was a nice guy with limited but somewhat correct knowledge. His "friend" was a bit arrogant and was never wrong. We had a huge difference of opinion when it came down to proper build vs "its good enough".
Didn't Branford work for a magazine or something?

 

[MOAK]

Heh...yeah. There was another guy who he referred to that I "kind of" got into it with. This was where jerry got his suspension and brake info. Cant remember his name but he use to make stuff for TJ's. He had a suspension system, custom brakes and a half door.

Branford was a nice guy with limited but somewhat correct knowledge. His "friend" was a bit arrogant and was never wrong. We had a huge difference of opinion when it came down to proper build vs "its good enough".
Didn't Branford work for a magazine or something?

I thought he was affiliated with the old JP Magazine- maybe Krawler or Low Range, or all three at one time or another. Is he still around? Oh my- We’ve hijacked a thread & revealed our old timer status !

 

[smritte]

Yeah...huh...oop's.
Back to our regular scheduled program (if you remember that one, you are old).