Found some kind of GM axle in the junkyard...

[Steve_Moore]

Good to see a young man who is doing good in school.

Makes me proud to be an American. eace:

Just hang in there, keep your eyes and ears open for some deals. You can find stuff when your not really looking for it. These guys know their stuff, so take the advice they give, too.

 

[wolfpackjeeper]

I went to all of the autoparts stores in my area, and either they couldn't hire a 16 year old because corporate said so, or business was too slow. The restaurants wouldn't hire me because I can't get my liquor license. That's quite literally all that's within driving distance of where I live. And now that my wrestling team has started lifting I'm going to get out of wrestling at around 7 PM until february.

I doubt you will find any job other than fast food or retail until you turn 18. Most companies will not hire any younger than that due to the hassles of having to get a work permit. And you will be very hard pressed to get a job as a mechanic because you have no experience. I have worked on this car or I have worked on that do not count. Liability and necessity just about require most shops to want a certificate from a school in an automotive field to hire you, and at least in NC when I lived there you still had to be 18 because of safety restrictions.

 

[lawsoncl]

I get $100 a month, pay for my own gas and drive 40 miles round trip to school at 11 MPG....

So, somewhere around $300/month in gas? A cheap beater or motorcycle that gets good mileage could be a really good investment. A 25 mpg car for $1000 would pay for itself in 6 months. After that, its just more money in the pocket and you wouldn't have to worry about breaking the Jeep offroad. A $600 geo metro would pay for itself in 3 months.

Wow, 11mpg? That truly sucks. Heck my 89 MJ on 32s and 5" lift gets 17. I try to commute in the 93ZJ thats getting 20mpg.

 

[XJ98Jeep]

So, somewhere around $300/month in gas? A cheap beater or motorcycle that gets good mileage could be a really good investment. A 25 mpg car for $1000 would pay for itself in 6 months. After that, its just more money in the pocket and you wouldn't have to worry about breaking the Jeep offroad. A $600 geo metro would pay for itself in 3 months.

Wow, 11mpg? That truly sucks. Heck my 89 MJ on 32s and 5" lift gets 17. I try to commute in the 93ZJ thats getting 20mpg.

Aye, that sounds about right. I do whatever my dad tells me to work-wise, cutting trees down, maintenance on cars, and he makes up the difference. supposedly he pays for gas to school and I pay for gas to anywhere that isn't school, but I end up paying for the first $100/however much I have worth and he pays for the rest.

I need a new O2 sensor which is probably why I'm getting such awful mileage.

And wolfpack, a few shops told me I was hired until they found out I wasn't 18. Some of them told me "they'd call me," but reputable shops would've hired me. The ability to drive up in my Jeep and tell them I did everything definitely has an effect. I couldn't work in retail/fastfood, I'm good with people but I'm too ADD to not be doing something all the time.

 

[wolfpackjeeper]

And wolfpack, a few shops told me I was hired until they found out I wasn't 18. Some of them told me "they'd call me," but reputable shops would not have hired hired me because I am younger than most child labor laws and insurance clauses. The ability to drive up in my Jeep and tell them I did everything definitely has an effect.[/QUOTE]

fixed

But you are still 16, It does not matter if you built a car from scratch out of a lump of iron and some toothpicks. Reputable or not they still have to carry insurance, and they will never be able to afford the premiums on a 16 year old. Thats why you were only hired till they found out your age. Most shops also want some sort of training certificate. That way they have a better chance of not having you screw something up, no insult intended that is just the mindset. The other problem with trying to hire a younger person is hours. What are most shop hours? 8-5. What are most school hours? 8-3ish. Your only hope is a place that has hours that run till 9ish, and does not require lots of liability insurance for its employees. Hence the retail/fast food idea. I am not tying to be patronizing, just trying to save you some grief. However, speaking from someone who wrestled and played soccer for all 4 years in Highschool, you are probably gonna have to choose one or the other

 

[XJ98Jeep]

No worries, you aren't being patronizing. I wasn't arguing with the fact that they won't hire 16 year olds, I was just saying that all I needed was 2 more years for a few good shops to hire me. I'm not going to get a job during the schoolyear, the only job I'll be able to have is during the summer.

 

[Starboard M]

So your looking for doing major axle swaps, a upgraded Tcase, and who knows what else, all with $400 a month, most of which you have to put towards gas, and your only 16.


Dude, wheel with what you have at the moment. With 35s, the D30, and 8.25 is alright, as long as you arnt stupid. The 242, or 231 are fine for most people, and you can always do a 4:1 or 2low later down the road.


My advise, get armor, get some alloy shafts, a locker or two, and just have fun. Later on down the road you can do axle swaps, engine swaps, and god knows what else. At 16 I doubt you have a ton of wheeling experience, so get as much driving time as you can. Figure out what you need, and upgrade accordingly.

 

[XJ98Jeep]

Well, I've got my brother's welder, and seeing as I didn't get a price for the axle I dunno about that, but IF it had been a 14B, and IF it had been around $200, I would nabbed it. The junkyard it was in has cheap prices, I got a master cylinder for $8 and a complete Ford exploder airbox for $3 with filter. Aren't 4:1s like $900? I'll just make a doubler out of a second 231 or a 300 before I do that.

I'm on 33's, but this is what I drive to school so I'm trying to beef it up so I don't have to rush around on the weekends fixing what I broke. That just makes me not want to wheel it and ruins my weekend.

I'm figuring out what I need when I wheel, like extended brake lines and maybe quick discos later on, but I'm also trying to prevent larger failures, like a broken axle shaft.

 

[wolfpackjeeper]

learn to drive and dont go over what the rig is capable of and you will not break as much stuff. I wheeled for years on a stock or near stock rig and had a blast. If you are careful you can get away with quite a bit.

 

[lost honda pro]

...and maybe quick discos later on...

Why not make your own for like $8 bucks? I've had my homebrew ones done for over a year, and they've held up fine. No need to spend $80+ so you save two minutes and look cooler.

http://jeep.off-road.com/jeep/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=257851

 

[XJ98Jeep]

Why not make your own for like $8 bucks? I've had my homebrew ones done for over a year, and they've held up fine. No need to spend $80+ so you save two minutes and look cooler.

I'm not worried about looking cool, I'm currently making a snorkel out of PVC pipe. If I hadn't found the inline filter from the exploder I would've extended the intake tube and bolted the stock airbox to the roof.

I'm actually not sure why I didn't think of doing that... I'm probably going to run out to home depot tomorrow and do that.

 

[Starboard M]

Well, I've got my brother's welder, and seeing as I didn't get a price for the axle I dunno about that, but IF it had been a 14B, and IF it had been around $200, I would nabbed it. The junkyard it was in has cheap prices, I got a master cylinder for $8 and a complete Ford exploder airbox for $3 with filter. Aren't 4:1s like $900? I'll just make a doubler out of a second 231 or a 300 before I do that.

I'm on 33's, but this is what I drive to school so I'm trying to beef it up so I don't have to rush around on the weekends fixing what I broke. That just makes me not want to wheel it and ruins my weekend.

I'm figuring out what I need when I wheel, like extended brake lines and maybe quick discos later on, but I'm also trying to prevent larger failures, like a broken axle shaft.

Ok, so suppose you got the 14 bolt for $200. You might want to do disc brakes while your at it, since drums suck, and you lose 100 lbs off the axle. Add another $200 for disks. Then your going to have to narrow it since its a bit wider then your front axle. Price on that depends on what you can do yourself. Then you have to realize that a 14 bolt is 8 lug, so your going to have to get new wheels. But then the front your going to have to get adapters for, or swap a whole new front axle.

Then add on a conversion Ujoint for your driveshaft. Spring perches, and shock mounts, plus U bolts.





What Im really trying to say, is that a 14 bolt is not the answer for a DD wheeler on 33s. I know your not going to like this, but wheel what you have. So many people, myself included for awhile, wheel on stock axles on 32-35'' tires and do not have 14 bolt, or D60 axles.

While I was in high school, which wasnt all that long ago, I had 32s and a D30 and D35. I wheeled like that for two years, and never had a problem. I wasnt doing full throttle assaults on waterfalls that buggies have trouble with. I was calm, and realized that if I broke I wouldnt have a ride to school the next day.

You have the rest of your life ahead of you to build an amazing XJ, with your doublers, D60s, full hydro, caged, and no body panels. But at the moment, you need to realize that even the most built rig breaks every now and again. Take it easy, and do one thing at a time.

 

[XJ98Jeep]

I'm playing the devil's advocate, but those things could've come in time, minus the DS adapter, wheels, and spring perches and such. Plus, I could've just not put it in until I had those things.

For the record, this wasn't an "Oh, I wheel my junk really hard and I NEED this 14B" I just saw this as an opportunity. I wheel what I have quite fine, with the occasional broken U-joint and such. But, I found a group of kids who are surprisingly into wheeling, so I have a feeling the wheeling is going to escalate, and I was just worried about my axles because I don't know their limits and didn't want to break them.

 

[fubar XJ]

I got on as an auto mechanic while still in high school, it's possible. Granted, this was 20+ years ago, but I did it the old-fashioned way. Got hired on at 16 at a local repair shop as the "clean-up boy", scrubbing oily floors with solvent, emptying trash cans, cleaning and servicing the old oil-burning heaters. I showed up for every shift on time, worked hard, and a few months into it I told them I wanted to become a mechanic. I already had some experience through high school auto-shop and wrenching on my own car, they took a chance on me based on my attitude and attributes. It worked out well, stayed on there for three years, learned a ton about basic maintenance and general repair, turned my experience into a career in aviation based on the mechanical background I established while working there.

Don't let someone tell you you "can't" do sopmething just because it isn't commonplace or even if it hasn't been done. You can accomplish anything if you're willing to put in the time and effort.