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My XJ build thread

dantheman!

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Houston
Hi there, im Dan.

Picked up my 92 Limited 2 weeks ago to be an offroad toy. wanted to build a cheap but capable rig. All my friends had kids and sold their sports cars and got jeeps. Still have the GTO's as well but i wanted to hang out with my friends. been playing offroad for 10+ years with my friends but never owned one of my own. So away we go!

1992 Limited
AW4 4x4
hp D30 and a D35
Leather, power everything(all works!), sunroof.
115k miles.

beginning goals are to keep the spend under 6k and have a competent little wheeler and hopefully keep up with all my friends JK's with 35s. Want to teach my wife the joys of offroading as well. She is a gearhead as well so she was all about starting another build.

Here she (and i) are after purchasing it for 2k.
OqhZEEM.jpg

Brought it home to show the wife then immediately took it out to make sure everything worked and there werent any weird issues.
qVEAlRW.jpg

LWhb8gF.jpg


The stock sealed beam headlights were garbage, replaced them with the rampage H4 conversion off amazon. Fan shroud was cracked so that got swapped today. Ordered some louvers for the hood to keep the underhood temps down when crawling.

So the tires make the rig, ordered the 33x12.50r15 MTRs for it (amazon had them for 222+tax with prime shipping and they took 2 days to get here). Rims are the JEGs brand 15x8 D window with a 3.75 backspacing. Going to paint them gold as a small homage to the stock mesh wheels.
(forgive the hobbit feet)
UpyPwHD.jpg

rtNQLbk.jpg

pnBC8fl.jpg

Going to need a BIT of trimming haha

Ordering the Rusty's 4.5in long arm kit on wednesday as well as their rock sliders. Hopefully have it on in a few weeks. Also a derale trans cooler is on the list since the trans got a BIT warm on tuesday morning when i took it back out to play on these terrible street tires again. wasnt happy shifting for a bit but once it cooled down it was fine. Fluid flush and a cooler and ill do some more testing.

Looking forward to sharing more pics as the weeks/months go on. We are planning a trip in the beginning of feb to Hidden Falls so im hoping to have it sorted and take it out there.
 
Thanks! Yea I'm already looking around for an 8.8 to throw in.

When you get that axle, (get one with disc brakes), try to get the companion flange off the donor vehicle's driveshaft. You can use that and a 1310/1330 conversion U joint (Google it) to bolt up to a stock type 1310 driveshaft. No expensive pinion yoke to purchase that way, and no worry about resetting pinion bearing preload (if you're not gonna tear it apart anyway). You still may need to play with driveshaft length. Get RuffStuff spring perches for $35.00. You can use your old shock mounts. You can re-use your e-brake cables by forming a loop at the end with cable clamps... hardware store. This will save quite a bit of coin over an "install kit".
 
Dantheman! Others might say otherwise but I see you want to flush the tranny and my recommendation is just to drain it before you put in the cooler with a new gasket, don't flush it. Old trannys get used to the slop and can run shifty if fully flushed, it's less of a risk to just drain it out.

My two pennies. Nice start though!
 
Wasn't going to flush it, but drop the pan and swap filter and throw new fluid in.

Headed to the junkyard to find an 8.8 today.

The "filter" in an AW4 is nothing more than a mesh metal screen....the minute you shut off the engine, the trans flushes back thru the "filter". Just do a drain and fill and forget it.
 
Roger that!

Picked up an 8.8 today. Disc brakes, 3.73 with limited slip. Car showed 165k on the chassis.

A friend has a tj 3.73 d30 thats on his shop floor. So we are going to trade my 3.55 d30 for it since he was going to regear to 4.88 anyway. Score.

Ordering the lift Wednesday. Rest of the wheels showed up today. Excited to start turning wrenches and get this thing sorted.
 
Welcome.

I see you're in Houston. Come say hi in the red river chapter if you haven't already
 
Roger that!

Picked up an 8.8 today. Disc brakes, 3.73 with limited slip. Car showed 165k on the chassis.

A friend has a tj 3.73 d30 thats on his shop floor. So we are going to trade my 3.55 d30 for it since he was going to regear to 4.88 anyway. Score.

Ordering the lift Wednesday. Rest of the wheels showed up today. Excited to start turning wrenches and get this thing sorted.

Car?

What did you pull from?
 
Stay away from the TJ dana 30. It's a low pinion axle. Only good for anchoring ships.

And you're not gonna be happy with 3.73s and those new tires anyway.

More of having the ability to slap it in and go. I am going to regear later down the roadbut the 3.73s will be better than the 3.55 in the interim. If i find it to be a hindrance ill swap back with him and regear both axles. All i really want is to get this thing on the trails and have some fun.

Full disclosure, ive never setup a ring and pinion before and im ordering the tools necessary to set them up. Once i have practiced it on my D35 thats coming out and getting comfortable with it is when i am going to tackle the axles that are in the truck. Its more work in the long run, but i would rather learn how to do it than pay someone to get it done faster.

I forsee this jeep seeing multiple driveline configurations before i am done with it including an eventual LS swap to get me back into my comfort zone :)

i have a crazy monster built in my head, but i am taking it slow and steady and learning as i go. There are a lot of things i want to learn on this jeep and im not rushing anything other than getting it out on some trails to play!

Welcome.

I see you're in Houston. Come say hi in the red river chapter if you haven't already
will do!

Car?

What did you pull from?

96 mountaineer.

We are getting Tacos in Katy on February 27th.

hopefully i can make that and bring the jeep!
 
Roger that!

Picked up an 8.8 today. Disc brakes, 3.73 with limited slip. Car showed 165k on the chassis.

A friend has a tj 3.73 d30 thats on his shop floor. So we are going to trade my 3.55 d30 for it since he was going to regear to 4.88 anyway. Score.

Ordering the lift Wednesday. Rest of the wheels showed up today. Excited to start turning wrenches and get this thing sorted.

He's going to need a new carrier for that D30 with the 3.55's if he wants to regear to 4.88. I made the mistake of using 4.88's on the 3.55 carrier and I couldn't get my backlash below 0.020 and it really should be closer to 0.002. The correct carrier moves it over enough to get it right.
 
BTW, the only reason I regeared to 4.88's as quickly as I did was because I hated having to downshift to 3rd or even 2nd going over some mountain passes here with 33's. Otherwise, it was ok crawling and bombing down fire roads with 3.55's. I don't think there are too many 15% grades in Houston ;)
Ignore me if you just want to play and have money to burn.
 
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