Lightfoot
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- fort collins co
So after about 7 months of collecting parts, and about a month breakin' knuckles when I had time, my XJ is finally back on the streets. I'm really pleased with the way everything turned out, so I thought Id share a few pictures of my perpetual project.
This was Tilly when I got her. She came with the name and about 200k on the clock. This Jeep was given to me about two years ago with a transmission that wouldn't stay in first gear. 100% stock, but I couldn't have asked for a better vehicle to start with. 4.0, Ax-15, NP231, HPd30, 8.25. As basic as you can get except for an ash tray, and a roof rack.
Within a few weeks my wallet was empty, and I had some work to do.
The Jeep got a freshly rebuilt transmission, new u-joints, ball joints, and TRE's, as well as a 4.5" rough country short arm, and some 31x 10.5 truxus mt's.
You can see how awesome AAL's are in this picture. The full packs were back ordered, and I needed to drive the Jeep across the country. The rear was sagged to stock height after the trip.
I fixed that real quick.
Then I tore this out.
It still ran great.
But I wanted a stroker.
I DD'd the jeep like that for a while. It served my purpose great. Always got me to the mountains, sometimes with 10" of fresh snow in Vail pass.
The stroker was a great addition for getting up the hill. With 3.07's and 31's, 5th gear is pretty much useless on I-70. 4th handles most of it, but bogs down on some of the steep hills. 3rd is the money maker though and will let you hit 80+ up just about anything. It could move, but I was never really happy with the handling, ride, braking or gearing.
After developing a serious case of death wobble at any speed over 35, and not being able to diagnose it, I decided that even if I could fix it, I would rather correct the suspension geometry and do a few more upgrades at the same time.
So I bought a second truck, and condemned the XJ to the garage for a while. Over the next few months I began to collect parts and stack them in the corner.
Wish I had a picture, It was like, the greatest Christmas ever.
But I had basically decided to put an 8.8 in the rear, with 4.56's, a LSD and discs. Up front I decided to do RC long arms, WJ knuckles/ steering, modified double shear JKS trackbar, Poly Performance TB mount and brace, and some steering box reinforcement from KOR and JCR .
yeah, the blanket is supposed to hide how much of a mess the garage was.
Getting the rear ride height where I wanted it was a major pain. The 8.8 simple swap kit combined with the larger 8.8 tubes gave me about an extra inch of lift. My shackle relocation brackets gave me about another inch. For me, this was not ideal as I was actually trying to drop the rear by a 1/2" before everything. I got back down to where i wanted to be by shortening my shackle a bit, and swapping two of my RC leaves for stock XJ leaves, lowering my spring rate. It rides great now, and the rear doesn't feel like its bouncing in the air over train tracks.
Here's a few poser shots of the finished product.
Now that I have a different DD she'll start to see some trails. Rocker guards and some bumpers come next, but until I get some money my fenders and flares get to keep their mall crawler status. They are trimmed enough to not rub under normal driving, but when I crank out of my driveway in reverse, with the wheel turned, My front tires hit the corner by the door. I don't want to trim much until I figure out exactly what I want to do. Except for two patches of rust on some crap bodywork the jeep got when it was less than a year old, the body is just about perfect. I have a hard time smashing/ cutting it up without at least trying to protect it and do it right.
This thing drives and handles like a whole other vehicle. The steering is tight and responsive, and has very little vibration or feedback all the way to 80. I didn't push it more than that on its first highway run.
The brakes are awesome. Could probably lock them up at 70. Not that I would want to. I found the caliper flex on my XJ brakes to be downright scary sometimes coming into tight exit ramps. I always made sure to warn people about it If they drove. I am much more comfortable with this set up.
The ride is smooth, and probably my favorite part, is the 4.56 gears. You don't realize how many things are compromised when you're under geared. In town driving with a clutch becomes much easier. The stick shift no long shutters on take off. When you push the clutch in to upshift, it no longer falls on its face. The engine even sounds better with less load on it, and faster windup. Driving is much more fun, acceleration is faster, MPG go up. At 75 im turning 2900 in 5th. its a bit high, but If my tires were actually 33" instead of 31.75, It would be perfect. Ill make my final decision on that when I get some fuel mileage numbers though. Im hoping for like 16-17 highway. She gets her maiden voyage up the pass this weekend so we'll see.
Anyway, just thought i'd share what I'd been up to. Let me know what you think. I don't have any more pictures, but I may post some details on everything at some point.
This was Tilly when I got her. She came with the name and about 200k on the clock. This Jeep was given to me about two years ago with a transmission that wouldn't stay in first gear. 100% stock, but I couldn't have asked for a better vehicle to start with. 4.0, Ax-15, NP231, HPd30, 8.25. As basic as you can get except for an ash tray, and a roof rack.
Within a few weeks my wallet was empty, and I had some work to do.
The Jeep got a freshly rebuilt transmission, new u-joints, ball joints, and TRE's, as well as a 4.5" rough country short arm, and some 31x 10.5 truxus mt's.
You can see how awesome AAL's are in this picture. The full packs were back ordered, and I needed to drive the Jeep across the country. The rear was sagged to stock height after the trip.
I fixed that real quick.
Then I tore this out.
It still ran great.
But I wanted a stroker.
I DD'd the jeep like that for a while. It served my purpose great. Always got me to the mountains, sometimes with 10" of fresh snow in Vail pass.
The stroker was a great addition for getting up the hill. With 3.07's and 31's, 5th gear is pretty much useless on I-70. 4th handles most of it, but bogs down on some of the steep hills. 3rd is the money maker though and will let you hit 80+ up just about anything. It could move, but I was never really happy with the handling, ride, braking or gearing.
After developing a serious case of death wobble at any speed over 35, and not being able to diagnose it, I decided that even if I could fix it, I would rather correct the suspension geometry and do a few more upgrades at the same time.
So I bought a second truck, and condemned the XJ to the garage for a while. Over the next few months I began to collect parts and stack them in the corner.
Wish I had a picture, It was like, the greatest Christmas ever.
But I had basically decided to put an 8.8 in the rear, with 4.56's, a LSD and discs. Up front I decided to do RC long arms, WJ knuckles/ steering, modified double shear JKS trackbar, Poly Performance TB mount and brace, and some steering box reinforcement from KOR and JCR .
yeah, the blanket is supposed to hide how much of a mess the garage was.
Getting the rear ride height where I wanted it was a major pain. The 8.8 simple swap kit combined with the larger 8.8 tubes gave me about an extra inch of lift. My shackle relocation brackets gave me about another inch. For me, this was not ideal as I was actually trying to drop the rear by a 1/2" before everything. I got back down to where i wanted to be by shortening my shackle a bit, and swapping two of my RC leaves for stock XJ leaves, lowering my spring rate. It rides great now, and the rear doesn't feel like its bouncing in the air over train tracks.
Here's a few poser shots of the finished product.
Now that I have a different DD she'll start to see some trails. Rocker guards and some bumpers come next, but until I get some money my fenders and flares get to keep their mall crawler status. They are trimmed enough to not rub under normal driving, but when I crank out of my driveway in reverse, with the wheel turned, My front tires hit the corner by the door. I don't want to trim much until I figure out exactly what I want to do. Except for two patches of rust on some crap bodywork the jeep got when it was less than a year old, the body is just about perfect. I have a hard time smashing/ cutting it up without at least trying to protect it and do it right.
This thing drives and handles like a whole other vehicle. The steering is tight and responsive, and has very little vibration or feedback all the way to 80. I didn't push it more than that on its first highway run.
The brakes are awesome. Could probably lock them up at 70. Not that I would want to. I found the caliper flex on my XJ brakes to be downright scary sometimes coming into tight exit ramps. I always made sure to warn people about it If they drove. I am much more comfortable with this set up.
The ride is smooth, and probably my favorite part, is the 4.56 gears. You don't realize how many things are compromised when you're under geared. In town driving with a clutch becomes much easier. The stick shift no long shutters on take off. When you push the clutch in to upshift, it no longer falls on its face. The engine even sounds better with less load on it, and faster windup. Driving is much more fun, acceleration is faster, MPG go up. At 75 im turning 2900 in 5th. its a bit high, but If my tires were actually 33" instead of 31.75, It would be perfect. Ill make my final decision on that when I get some fuel mileage numbers though. Im hoping for like 16-17 highway. She gets her maiden voyage up the pass this weekend so we'll see.
Anyway, just thought i'd share what I'd been up to. Let me know what you think. I don't have any more pictures, but I may post some details on everything at some point.
