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1991 XJ Limited - Project "It's About Time"

LKN_xj

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Cornelius, NC
Hey guys, name's Greyson. I've been around the forum for a few months now, mostly trying to learn and also asking questions about my Jeep specifically. I contribute where I can.

I figured I should start a build thread to consolidate everything and introduce my Jeep. Please follow along - I'm willing to learn and want to do right by my Jeep for sentimental reasons.

The backstory:

My parents bought this Jeep in 1995, which it was 4 years old. I even have the original window sticker. It was driven by my mom and dad for years until I turned 16 in 2005 (I'm 27 now). When I turned 16, my dad gave me an envelope with the key and a piece of paper saying I own the Jeep. I can't remember but I bet it had under 200k at that point.

11 years later, I'm still driving the thing as my daily driver, and she's on her first engine and transmission with about 350k miles (give or take, the speedo/odo went out on two occasions).

Needless to say, this jeep and I have literally been together for (most) of our whole lives.

I figured, she's done right by me, and now I should do right by her. Plus, things are getting old. If I don't start replacing them then it's going to go by the wayside, and if I am replacing them, I might as well make it better, right?

I've already started modifications so the next posts will be catching you guys up to where I am now, as well as a history of progression over the last 10 years or so.

You guys have already been great and given me a warm welcome. I hope I can contribute some knowledge through documentation and discussion through this thread. Enjoy and chime in!
 
Taking you back to 2004-2008 ish. This is totally unmolested with some super nice Michelins which we all know do well offroad :) You'll notice that the grille turns completely white in later pictures. I rear ended someone on a bridge right after I got it. Ugh. No problem - fixed it and looks better with an all white grille anyway.





 
Shortly after (5 years later, ha), I went to a friends garage in college and we installed a 2" budget boost, because we're all on a budget in college. So in went a 2" RE lift with spacers up front, blocks in the back and new shocks with some 30x9.5 BFG ATs. I drive it this way all the way up until about a month or so ago. The picture in the dirt is no more than 3 months ago.







 
I guess the next thing I did was remove the carpet. I have two big dogs, hair and slobber goes everywhere, plus I had a bad leak from my blower motor seal. Long story short, carpet out. The plan is the Monstaline the floor a light grey. I don't have any pictures of that.

But next up was replacing my cat. It was running terribly - first thought it was an O2 sensor, so I replaced that. No luck. Then I tapped on the catalytic and heard my problem. Replaced it with a Magnaflow and we were good to go.

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So that brings us up to the past couple of months. Up to that time I was pretty big into vintage bikes. I had been building one for years getting it perfect, and in the meantime buying and selling others. I finally put my stamp of approval on my little CB175 cafe and immediately lost interest in building/fixing bikes as my interest in my jeep increased. So as much as it broke my heart, I parted with my little bike and immediately went and bought a RE 3.5" full lift with track bar with the profit.

First things first though, I needed to mentally prep for the lift. You'll find that out about me. I have to be 100% prepared to jump into something before I do it. I read more than I actually do. I'm not always happy about that trait.

Away went the bike:

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I knew I wanted Moabs, and just so happened to find a set of 5 for $120 locally. I was stoked. I also expected to do some front axle work and didn't want to bald a new set of tires in this process so I threw in an old set of general grabber street tires and prepped for the lift kit install.

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Here's two inches lift with 245/75-16 and Moabs.

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At the same time, I was working on the side getting a NP231 rebuilt with a SYE to replace my 242. It didn't start out that way. I called a local junkyard who claimed they had a 242 because mine badly needed to be rebuilt. I figured why rebuild if I have this low mileage 242 I can buy for $150 and just swap in to give me a little more life. So I went to pick it up. Well, they scraped off enough of the mud boggers to read "2.72" (gear ratio), thought it said "242" reading the plate upside down. Long story short I drove 3 hours round trip to buy a 231. I ended up going with it. I found a guy on Cherokee forum who rebuilds them with a SYE kit for a good price so that's what I did. However before I did that, I needed to verify the TC input shaft spline count was correct on each for a direct swap. They were:

My 242:

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And my fresh NP231 rebuilt with a Crown SYE (more on this later).

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So next up, was getting the Jeep lift installed. I just so happen to have a good friend who offered up his air conditioned garage to us. He has experience with lots of jeeps so in general my confidence goes up when working at his place. For the most part, the lift went well with the exception of some stubborn shackle bolts.

For the meantime I had to run a 1" TC drop because I couldn't leave the garage without a severe pop of the driveshaft.

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At this point, the Dana 35 had to go. The same guy who rebuilt my transfer case sold me a Chrysler 8.25 rear which will do just fine for my 33" tires I plan to run eventually. While it was out, I went ahead and painted it, installed new axle seals and bearings, and a live locker gasket.

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Did I mention that my jeep is my daily driver? I have an extra motorcycle but let me tell you, working at a friends garage with old jeeps and ensuring that you can drive home is stressful. I don't recommend that (this, current state of affairs).


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The swap to the 8.25 had to happen at the same time as the transfer case swap. The nose of the 8.25 is about an inch longer than the D35, so my slip yoke 242 driveshaft would be too long. So the plan was to do the rear axle and transfer case in the same day, and use my stock front DS to get home, running it in the rear.

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I'm going to short circuit this because I'm going to make a separate write up for folks who want to fix their SYE leaks, but after some research I learned that a National Oil seal 3946 fits perfect, is double lipped and works better. It installs easier as well. Three days in and it's holding so far at the time of this post....

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Taking a step back, I always liked the front ends of the 97+ models, which makes a front end swap so popular. When I went to pick up my transfer case, I also grabbed this:

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Which turned into this:

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I then picked up some fenders and got them to primer so far. I need to figure out what I'm doing with fenders before I install. Old picture. I use spray max 2k cans with base mixed in from 66 auto color. They are incredible.

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And speaking of paint, over the years my body side molding turned to an ugly light brown and started to come off. So what does a teenager do when molding comes off and looks bad? He gorilla glues it back on.

So after hours with a DA sander, I finally got it pretty enough to paint. It's not perfect by any means. I'm debating body armor thy would cover it up, but then again who am I fooling, I'm not going to wheel this hard enough to smash it against rocks. I'd like to run some light trails and things, but I won't lie when I say this will mostly be a rod warrior. Of course who knows. The big could bite and I might end up at 8" but I doubt it.

Painted the sides and took the gold on striping off with a "Whizzy Wheel."


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My front axle is shot. It's sloppy, clunks pretty bad and makes all kinds of racket at highway speed. I grabbed a lower mileage HP30 and am checking it out before I buy a Spicer rebuild kit for the joints. I seem to have about .005"-.006" backlash if I'm doing this right? Plunger perpendicular to the ring gear land, fixing the yoke, and racking back and forth.

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