All of this from the guy that says,
i would flatten the matting surface of that head though. with thoes casting divots it looks like trouble ;)
motoredbikes.com
LOL...LOL...LOL.
That is KISS as far as truck builds go. Everything I listed there, aside from the rear axle from the TJ, was basically bolt together Lego style.
The AX15 transmission was necessary as my particular truck was a 1988, which meant it had a Peugeot made hunk of turd with cheese gears and a failing input shaft bearing (a common problem).
I put in a mechanical Axle Disconnect cable to replace the ridiculous and failure prone vacuum system. Simple.
The transfer case upgrades were done simply because it needed a rebuild, and why not make it stronger? Not even joking when I say that aside from the new bits (chain, pump, filter) the rest of those parts were all sourced from the wrecker, as were the axles. Being an NP242, that also meant i had full AND part time 4wd. Aka locked and unlocked, but they are a bit weaker, hence the better planetary, bigger chain and related gears, and rear housing. That combined with eaton true-tracs front and rear would have given me an AWD system to make a Subaru blush.
Literally everything about that Jeep was manually operated and stronger than stock by the time I got done.
KISS is one thing, but I am also known for my penchant to beef things up. The Dana 35 rear axle that came on the truck is well known as a weak point. Welding 2 simple spring perches on an axle is easy. It took longer to cut all the TJ brackets off and grind them down than it did to center the axle, set the pinion angle, and weld the perches on.