Hello all,

Due to expanding family, and trouble passing emmisions, I decided it best to part ways with my beloved 88 SWB. After over a year of always proving that Mitsu built one od the most legendary 4X4's 9and proving Jeep guys wrong), I decided that my next purchase would be a nice Gen II. After month's of looking for the right one, I settled on a 96' LS, the no-frills package. I looked for an SR, but found none that were in need of a fair amount of work to be the type of vehicle I was ready to spend money on. Also, the 3.5l DOHC scares me in these vintage trucks. So I found a VERY well maintained example. All service records kept and all scheduled maintenance done on par with the book. So I bought it. Now I have a few questions.

1. The A/T seems to shift at 2.7-3.2k exery shift but fourth. Is it normal for it to shift this high, with normal driving of course.

2. I have what sounds like a very slight chirp at the A/C when the compressor is turned on, but dissapears when the A/C is in the off position. Is this something that I need to replace, or will a little bit of grease on the backside of the pulley work?

3. Would it be easier to install an ARB locker for the rear, or source a SR axle and use the factory components?


Thank you for your help. By the way, here are two pictures. One of the old, and one of the new(er).

My 95 LS was pre-wired for the locker. Pull the filler cap in your console where the R/D Lock switch would be and see if there is a connector there. Also, the control module goes in the rear cargo DS side behind the panel. Ditto there on the connector. Lastly, there is a connector in the PS smuggler's cubby for the compressor. If yours is pre-wired, finding an SR rear would definitely be the way to go. Make sure you get the drive shaft from the donor.

The chirp could be a belt that needs to be adjusted.
Curious, what wheels are on your Gen 2?

Those look like stock alloys to me, mine has the exact same (it's the same colors too!)

Correct, those are the stock wheels. Also, if I were to source an SR rear axle, I would also need the front gearing as well since they are different. Is this correct?

Depends on what you have now. There should be a tag under the hood with a 4 digit number on it. SR will be 4636, gen1's were 4625, you may have 4222 or 4636, or even a rara avis 4875. You're gonna miss the 36hp diff between the 3.5 and 3.0, but not an insufferable amount.

I think there were lsd gen2's, too, and that's almost as good as a locker, just not as sexy.