Newbie Project XJ

First of all, Hi everyone, I'm Clint from Ohio. I just picked up a 92 XJ, it's my second (1st was a 94), that I have some plans for but I kinda need a little guidance along the way. I'll start off by giving you a little more information about my current project. It's a 92 XJ with the 4.0 and 4x4 with the manual tranny. I'm not sure which axels, etc I have as I bought it about a week ago and I can't get under it to look, not that I know what to look for.... Anyway, it's got 245,000 miles on it and some rust but nothing major. I'm sure a lot of you are thinking why wouldn't I just buy something a little newer and nicer but in explanation, I'm a DJ so I work nights and have a lot of free time alone during the days. When I took a look at this xj and the front was a different color than the rest of the truck and where it is supposed to have the JEEP badge on the front, someone had written in "HEEP" with a silver sharpie I kinda felt compelled to bring it back from the dead. That being said, my plans for said "heep" include the following:
-Body Work and Rust Removal
-Matte Black Paint Finish
-4.5"-6" lift (Eventually, I'll explain below)
-OR-FAB Heavy Duty front and rear bumpers
-Side Rock slider bars
-33" Tires to be decided upon later
-Custom Red and Black Interior
-Safari Rack w/ Tire carrier
-Plenty of lights
-Airflow Snorkel


Basically, long story short, I'd like it to kinda look like the XJ the grim reaper would drive... if he drove... I want it to be blacked out and look mean as hell. Just one hell of a bad ass looking XJ. To start off with, my rear leaf springs are actually bent backwards (again, almost 250,000 miles on them) so for the time being, atleast until I figure out exactly what set up I wanna go with, I picked up a 3" Black Diamond lift with new rear leaf springs and BDS Shocks that I intend to install this week. My knowledge of actually how to go about installing said kit is, on the other hand, a little sketchy. I'm 24 and owned and worked on about 12 of my own cars over my 8 years of driving and I worked for Chrysler as a mechanic for 2 years in college. As I've said, I have owned an xj before, 2 actually, and I have done all the work on them but I never did anything this extensive in the modifying dept. On the other two I installed AirLift air suspension on the rear but that was about it. I have helped a friend or two lift theirs but I'm not 100% confident about doing it myself. If anyone knows a good site for a walkthrough with pictures or has a good set of instructions and feels like sharing them with a newbie, it would be much appreciated. If anyone is interested, I can post up a few pictures of the XJ now and keep updates of the process of bringing it back to life. Thanks to anyone still reading and I hope to hear back from a few of you!

Clint

ok... so long story short... I don't know if I'm THAT new to this that I posted something so offensive that no one would deem it worthy of a response or if, seeing as this is my first time on an online forum, I really just don't get it and am looking in the wrong place for friendly advice but I noticed (at this time) 61 people have viewed my initial post and didn't respond. Again, I admit I'm very new to this and I'm not looking to piss anyone off or offend but maybe I should be more direct next time. That being said, Does anyone have any suggestions of where I should start looking for a decent set of instructions on lifting my truck so I have some sort of reference or is it some kind of newbie initiation to let me figure out my first lift on my own??

You didn't get these with the kit?
http://www.bds-suspension.com/pdfs/034301-014302.pdf

JIM.

first off i wouldn't have started with a 3" if you wanna go to 4.5 or 6. should have gotten one of those kits to begin with. secondly if you bought new leaf packs and a kit it should have come with all the stuff needed to put it in. if you've already worked on a jeep and were a mechanic you should know this stuff. it's pretty much common sense. remove one thing, replace it with the new one. start off with just putting the lift in and ordering new rims and tires. don't get in too deep just yet if you have no idea what you're doing. it'll just set you back even further if you mess up. take it slow and you'll be fine. as reference skyjacker has detailed instructions on their website with pictures on how to install a 3".

sounds like a good project

what kinda stuff do you spin?

Thanks guys! yah, I expected to get the instructions with the kit but I wasn't all that surprised that it didn't because I got it as kinda a close out special at Trailquest down the road from me. I know it's pretty self explanatory, take one piece off and put the other on, but I was under the impression for some of the parts you had to drill extra holes and I just dont wanna be sitting around trying to make something fit when what I need to do is drill a new mounting location. That's why I was asking.


In response to you, clunk, I spin mostly top 40, 70's,80's,90's and current stuff. I'm the resident DJ at a vegas style club ( www.martinipark.com ) with a live band and myself every night so my sets are pretty diverse. I guess my style would be hip hop. Like old school hip hop. I still spin vinyl on a pair of 1200's battle style.

I bet an offering of pizza and beer in your local chapter forum would get you some in person help and expertise. Might only get you some finger pointing instructions and a body to keep your lawn chair from blowing away, but live tech support is good to have. Kinda what I had planned for my (future) 1st lift install.

Barring live help, I use the "stare and compare" approach quite often. It's especially useful when you can see everything that's getting changed (like suspension parts), as opposed to say motor or tranny internals. Lay out the parts next to/under the heep near where they'll go. That should give you some ideas of how it goes together and also help form some more direct questions if something looks odd to you.

Unlike mudslinger a 3" lift will get you going and be able to fit 31's without trimming. Going to 4.5-6" will require alot more than just the suspension kit so having the 3" will give you time to get everything else together. I wouldn't worry about a safari rack or snorkel yet as a 31 spare can fit where the stock spare is and there's alot more under the hood that needs to be waterproofed before a snorkel would be needed. When installing the 3" kit make sure you spray every bolt and nut that will be loosened/removed everyday for a week ahead of time. Swapping out the rear leafs will be pretty easy unless you come across the notorious bolt snapping for the shackles. On the front do one side at a time, while it's on the ground loosen the axle side lower control arm bolt so when it's jacked up the lower control arm can be removed (one side at a time) to make installing the springs ALOT easier. For the front you have to remove the shocks and disconnect the front swaybar in order for the axle to drop low enough to get the new coils in without using coil compressors. You will also want to get some longer swaybar quick disconnects as the stock ones will be to short. When you go to 4.5-6" of lift you have to have a SYE with rear cv drive shaft, lower control arm drop brackets or a long arm setup, 33's will require 4.10-4.88 gears to maintain gas mileage, more lights will require bigger alternator (usually done getting the 136A alt. from a zj). When lifting an xj upgrading 1 part usually means upgrading 2 others so it's usually best to save up parts and get everything needed to do it all at once the first time.