My XJ Rebuild

REBUILD. I built this last year but its time to step it up. I will have this thread as a way of keeping track of money wasted mistakes made and good advice given. Want a place to keep track of my ventures!

The time has come with my winter break coming up from college so time for my new set-up. Did my last build up over thanksgiving break. OME 3 Inch lift and hack and tap for the t-case.


It sat like this last fall.
2000 Cherokee Sport Stock Auto
123,000 miles on the 4.0/AW4/231




I was sick of the station wagon look! Called up JeepinOutfitters ordered up a 3 inch Old Man Emu lift. First mistake! You may ask why and I will tell you.. It was 900 dollars, came with shocks, coils and leafs.. I had to fork over for U-bolts, leaf spring bushings, and did not have replacement control arms.. After slaving in the garage over my 07 thanksgiving break and some help from Central Auto it was riding nice, with some drive line vibrations but I needed it back on the road.

Fresh lift. 3 inch OME lift with a trackbar drop bracket. JKS quick disconnects.




I also took the time to take off the Trim and end-caps to paint them with Krylon Fusion spray paint.

Wheeled sporties early that spring with lots of snow.. Smacked the rear fenders nice, lack of lift...


I trimmed the front end cap and gave it a real nice wash and put the side trim back on and put on some LeBaron hoodvents, look stock and I watched the heat billow out all summer long!


Some of you might remember my bout with the Rubicon Express Hack and Tap and the installation of it. The worst time of my life and would have payed 600 bucks to not have that and just gone with HD SYE and Drive shaft! Lesson Learned.

Then the warm weather rolled in and I was disatisfied with the hieght of my lift and how much my tires smacked my fenders which I blame on my back spacing and lack of hieght!. So the fenders came off and the research on trimming began.




Painted the rear receiver!


I found a really good write up online for it and it retained the front flares which I liked a lot! thx 53Guy
It was a pain and took a full day for both sides!



I was extremely pleased with the results on this! Highly Recommended!

The next day I did the popular "cut and fold" in the rear and gained a lot of clearance that way! (Somewhere in between I added a HD 1.5 inch lift shackle for the rear as well) Finished Product!!

Some wheeling was done!






Friends were made and stuff broken! It was a fun summer and a lot of good wheeling done and an addiction was born! :smt003

As it sits now, HVCC parking is not bad when ya got a jeep!
160,XXX miles (damn commute)
4 Inch OME HD Lift
SYE+Front DS from XJ
Full CB Radio set-up
31 inch BFG A/Ts
JKS Quick Disconnects
Some new Character marks ;-)



NOW the ?Fun? part! The REBUILD! I learned a lot along the way so maybe that first step was a necessary evil??

Bought this shit box for the axles (parted it)


Now I am left with a HP D30 with a Aussie, and a Chrysler 8.25 Open.
They both have 4.11s (after some Confusion) LOL

Plans are..
HP D30
Rock Krawler X-Factor Steering
JKS Mini skids
RK Truss
Riddler Diff. Cover.
S.S. Brake Lines
New Unit bearings
Can Use brakes from my LP d30 so im set!
Paint
Hockey puck Bump stop ftw!

Chrysler 8.25
NEW BRAKES
Riddler Diff cover
Shave the Axles bottom lip! (common mod)
Raised rear JKS shock mounts.
Paint
S.S. Brake line (thx Senior!)
DPG bump stop plate

The suspension Upgrade!
Front
5 inch RK 3 Link Suspension Upgrade Welded on.
4.5 RK Coil + .5 inch spacer
WJ Long travel OME front shocks
Rear
OME AAL 1.5 inch of Lift
Reuse shocks with relocation of axle side bracket.
Rear shackle reuse
this time CORRECT axle Shimming.

Tires
33x10.5 BFG MTs! (cant wait!!)
on new american racing wheels!

Odds and Ends
Treks Unibody stiffners.
DPG Belly Pan


Now most of it is ordered :clap:
Gotta pick the RK stuff up next week and then after XMAS itll start! The axles will be getting worked on befor then and a few things like the unibody stiffeners welded on and stuff.

Let me know of your Ideas because at this point the build is current and the thread will be updated accordingly! Look for axle bling soon!

sounds good, looking forward to the new upgrades

Btw, I love that color! very nice lookin jeep... and, that is quite the commute you've got there, close to 40k in just over a year!!! ouchhh

sweet front bumper on the on you parted (i have the same one). did you keep it? if not, too bad. the thing is super sturdy.

"grow sweet jeep,grow!"

a lot has happend...

tire quest began... been eyeing this beaut on my way home from school everyday... exact tires i wanted and they were put on some nice american racing wheels.



nothing like an old shitty carbed cherokee





bought for 800 sold the lift minus the coils and s.s. brake lines and the d44 rearend within a day and made back 600 dollars :smt003 so i got brand new wheels and tires for free! :cheers:

only catch is they are coming tomorrow... let the tear down begin in an ice covered driveway!



some gooods


a long night... 4 am completed... my buddy stops by hammered at 1:30 and brings a 30 of natty ice.. haha made the night finish nicely...









Rescue44 is driving thru the blizzard to pick this shit up... I am keeping the coils, shims, wheels, tires... busted ass last night to get it done and im so sore/hung over

damn thats niceee :worship:

Looks ASSom!! i really dig your new setup. hope it goes swell!!

Well RescueXJ came today in a damn blizzard! funny stuff lol.

what boys will do for jeep parts! hope they all serve you guys well and im looking forward to seeing them put to good use!

What is it that you used to cap off the rear fender lip?

So you wouldn't recommend the OME lift? Are you happy with the ride? IK looks like it was sitting low in the back for awhile is that true? Sweet ride though man!

Mtb Jak said:

damn thats niceee :worship:

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2 questions: first, what kind of tires are those? they look like mastercraft mt's (i have those)
second, why in the hell would you ditch a d44 rear end? i would have sold the 8.25 and kept the already built 44

Clearly stated they were BFG mt's.

x2 on selling 8.25 and keep d44

nah, the 8.25 is a fine axle for anything up to 35's locked. I wouldnt want to run more then 35's on my built d44's anyways, iv already blew a r&p and an axle shaft or two, ran a 27 spline 8.25 with alloys locked on 33's for two year and never touched the axle. And as Jak can attest to from today, were pretty hard on our rigs, Thanks For riding along Jak, I have the 10th off so ill bring my plasma cutter down and help out. The build should go together real nicely.

damn, you made out ok on this. that's ok, i'm making out pretty good too. i'm gonna sell the discos, sell my current leafs, and the trac bar so i too, will be making out very nicely.

looks like you got quite the project on your hands, but i've been doing just the same lately.

i noticed you mentioned you were keeping the shims. do you mean the degrees shims for the leaf packs? the deaver packs come with them built in... i haven't gotten the parts from adam yet, but i'm just curious to see if you took the packs apart and kept the shim...

blue95xj said:

What is it that you used to cap off the rear fender lip?

Click to expand...

hey sorry about the late response, holidays, girlfriend, family... blah blah you know how it goes..

Anyways that little "tube" you see is the pipe insulation foam, which looks good for two weeks and then gets filthy and doesn't clean very well. Thankfully my cut and fold went really well and it doesn't look bad with the lip that was left painted black. I was hitting my jeep with a little pressure wash after some disgusting mudding and they blew right off. Some of the trime that DPG OFFROAD sells wouldnt look bad on the edge come to think of it.

I got the idea from someone on JeepForum.

asp387 said:

damn, you made out ok on this. that's ok, i'm making out pretty good too. i'm gonna sell the discos, sell my current leafs, and the trac bar so i too, will be making out very nicely.

looks like you got quite the project on your hands, but i've been doing just the same lately.

i noticed you mentioned you were keeping the shims. do you mean the degrees shims for the leaf packs? the deaver packs come with them built in... i haven't gotten the parts from adam yet, but i'm just curious to see if you took the packs apart and kept the shim...

Click to expand...

ya the project part is killing me.. and I am planning on doing it all in one day... January 10th :repair: (in a full shop with amazing welders and plasma cutters)

Weld on T&T Frame Stiffeners
Weld on RK 3-Link Brackets
Plasma Cut off old CA Brackets
Weld on LCA Skids on hp d30.
Put Unit bearings, Axle shafts and brakes from LP D30 in HP D30
Install AAL in OME Leaf pack.
Re-Weld Lower shock mounts on new 8.25.
Install both new axles with S.S. Brake Lines
Bleed Brakes.
Button it all back up. new front shocks :rof:
Install 33s.
Enjoy.

Then wait till spring break and weld on AJS super rails and install dpg off roads belly skid, and rear diff cover and shave 8.25 (ran out of money on diff and had to do the brakes on the 8.25 im swapping in) all :confused1


there is a box of hardware adam forgot.. it has a lot of suspension bolts and misc bolts that came off in the tear down.. and sorry i did take the shims of the deavers.. :eyes:.

If ya think you may need some of those bolts... I think you may need some of the sleeves for the RK arms I can mail them to you no problem. PM me an address and I will do it next week.

xalexjx said:

nah, the 8.25 is a fine axle for anything up to 35's locked. I wouldnt want to run more then 35's on my built d44's anyways, iv already blew a r&p and an axle shaft or two, ran a 27 spline 8.25 with alloys locked on 33's for two year and never touched the axle. And as Jak can attest to from today, were pretty hard on our rigs, Thanks For riding along Jak, I have the 10th off so ill bring my plasma cutter down and help out. The build should go together real nicely.

Click to expand...

ah yes alex isnt into the whole nice drive down a dirt road... that was crazy never been around a rig like that.. 4to1 and 5.13 gears... on 35 comp tires pretty awsome if ya ask me! thats good to hear cannot wait for the build up to commence.

and yes you may ask why the d44 ditched for the 8.25... 8.25 was geared, simple enough. yes i know but i was tossing money around bought the rig and got some nice tires/wheels outta it and hooked some guys up.(I am a finance major..) but quite frankly when i add up all my money on this next rebuild I think people will be suprised how cheaply it got here by buying a 97 cherokee parting it, and the 85. I think with the arms and some gifts (stiffeners) and stuff I am prolly around 1200... with 4.11s and an aussie in front...


The ride on the OME is nice and soft love it. I think its a great lift, but the ass did sag (or I left an extra isolator in the front) we may never know. I think the back spacing on my rims effected my rubbing and scrubbing.

Weld thru primer? is it junk?