- Location
- Fort Collins, CO
Hey all,
I figure I should go ahead and introduce myself. My name is John, but most of my friends call me Seal. I grew up in Bakersfield CA, then moved to Monterey for college. I currently do full and partial restorations on antique cars. I got into four wheeling while in college thanks to my friend who had a well built Toyota Fj Cruiser, and also my friend Casey (aeracer on here). I decided to buy my first wheeler while in college as well. It was a 1990 XJ with 6" pieced together lift, 33" M/T tires, 8.8 rear end with 4.56 gears and eaton e-locker, and a dana 30 in front 4.56 gears open. I ended up selling it to pay for college tuition for my last year. I missed wheeling so much, and went XJless for over a year. Finally after waiting, and perusing CL for what felt like way too long I spotted an XJ for $500! The ad said that the transfer case was leaking from the front seal, and that the power steering pump was bad. I decided to go and take a look at it. After looking at it and driving it, I bought it, and thus began the tale of the $500 XJ.
After taking my new XJ home I gave it a good look over. It had 235,XXX miles on the clock. Dana 30 and 35 axles with 3.55 gears. 4.0 with AW4 trans and NP 231 transfer case. It was idling really high and wasn't shifting like it should. I tracked that down to being a faulty TPS and replaced it ASAP. Also I found out that the "transfer case leak" was actually the dreaded rear main seal leak, so I replaced it. Then I drove it around all stock until I picked up some lift parts from aeracer. After that I decided to order an RC 4.5" lift, new 15x7 black D-window steel wheels, 31x10.5 Hercules Trail Digger M/T's, JCR stage 2 rock sliders, CB radio and antenna. Since I didn't have a garage of my own, I did the lift in my GF's Dad's garage. It took the whole day and a lot of wd-40 to get the job done.
One week after the lift was done I took it down to Hungry valley with aeracer and some mutual friend for its first major wheeling trip. I was very happy with the way it turned out, but I knew I wanted to build it more and that this was only the beginning. The number one thing on my list was to swap in a Dana 44. I kept it built like that for quite a while. I even drove it cross country in '11 to Colorado for Christmas. It did quite well, made it over doner pass with no issues, and all the following storms over the 1,100 mile journey. After I got back I got a lead on a Dana 44 for what I thought at the time was good money, but looking back it seems like I over paid. Though I was glad to get one after looking for about a year (there aren't a lot of them around my area). It was in great shape, just needed a new diff cover and drums. So I settled on a Solid cover and oe replacement drums. while it was still on my bench I decided to rebuild the brakes and paint the whole thing. Then I got around to swapping it in. The whole job took about 3 hours and quite a few beverages. After that I took it on the Molina Ghost Run put on by Cal Four Wheel (Awesome trip and even better people). For that trip I had to mount a Fire extinguisher, so I mounted one in the back cargo area. That is currently how the $500 XJ sits.
My future plans for the XJ are to replace the rear bumper with a swing out from Aj's off road, and a winch bumper (still researching the best rout for this one). I currently have an overhead console out of a 90 that I'm going to be putting in soon when I redo the headliner. It will house all of my switches where the garage door opener would go since the little door doesn't stay closed anymore. Id also like to regear up to 4.56 with at least one locker, and a set of 33" tires. I'm thinking of either making a full internal cage or hybrid cage. Changes will be coming soon!
I'd like to thank Jeep450r, goodwillijeeper, and gordosmasho for letting aeracer and I tag along with them this past weekend in Hollister Hills and helping me to decide to join this forum. I look forward to meeting more members and learning more!
PS: Sorry for not having any pictures. I gotta get all of them off my phone and onto the computer so bear with me.
I figure I should go ahead and introduce myself. My name is John, but most of my friends call me Seal. I grew up in Bakersfield CA, then moved to Monterey for college. I currently do full and partial restorations on antique cars. I got into four wheeling while in college thanks to my friend who had a well built Toyota Fj Cruiser, and also my friend Casey (aeracer on here). I decided to buy my first wheeler while in college as well. It was a 1990 XJ with 6" pieced together lift, 33" M/T tires, 8.8 rear end with 4.56 gears and eaton e-locker, and a dana 30 in front 4.56 gears open. I ended up selling it to pay for college tuition for my last year. I missed wheeling so much, and went XJless for over a year. Finally after waiting, and perusing CL for what felt like way too long I spotted an XJ for $500! The ad said that the transfer case was leaking from the front seal, and that the power steering pump was bad. I decided to go and take a look at it. After looking at it and driving it, I bought it, and thus began the tale of the $500 XJ.
After taking my new XJ home I gave it a good look over. It had 235,XXX miles on the clock. Dana 30 and 35 axles with 3.55 gears. 4.0 with AW4 trans and NP 231 transfer case. It was idling really high and wasn't shifting like it should. I tracked that down to being a faulty TPS and replaced it ASAP. Also I found out that the "transfer case leak" was actually the dreaded rear main seal leak, so I replaced it. Then I drove it around all stock until I picked up some lift parts from aeracer. After that I decided to order an RC 4.5" lift, new 15x7 black D-window steel wheels, 31x10.5 Hercules Trail Digger M/T's, JCR stage 2 rock sliders, CB radio and antenna. Since I didn't have a garage of my own, I did the lift in my GF's Dad's garage. It took the whole day and a lot of wd-40 to get the job done.
One week after the lift was done I took it down to Hungry valley with aeracer and some mutual friend for its first major wheeling trip. I was very happy with the way it turned out, but I knew I wanted to build it more and that this was only the beginning. The number one thing on my list was to swap in a Dana 44. I kept it built like that for quite a while. I even drove it cross country in '11 to Colorado for Christmas. It did quite well, made it over doner pass with no issues, and all the following storms over the 1,100 mile journey. After I got back I got a lead on a Dana 44 for what I thought at the time was good money, but looking back it seems like I over paid. Though I was glad to get one after looking for about a year (there aren't a lot of them around my area). It was in great shape, just needed a new diff cover and drums. So I settled on a Solid cover and oe replacement drums. while it was still on my bench I decided to rebuild the brakes and paint the whole thing. Then I got around to swapping it in. The whole job took about 3 hours and quite a few beverages. After that I took it on the Molina Ghost Run put on by Cal Four Wheel (Awesome trip and even better people). For that trip I had to mount a Fire extinguisher, so I mounted one in the back cargo area. That is currently how the $500 XJ sits.
My future plans for the XJ are to replace the rear bumper with a swing out from Aj's off road, and a winch bumper (still researching the best rout for this one). I currently have an overhead console out of a 90 that I'm going to be putting in soon when I redo the headliner. It will house all of my switches where the garage door opener would go since the little door doesn't stay closed anymore. Id also like to regear up to 4.56 with at least one locker, and a set of 33" tires. I'm thinking of either making a full internal cage or hybrid cage. Changes will be coming soon!
I'd like to thank Jeep450r, goodwillijeeper, and gordosmasho for letting aeracer and I tag along with them this past weekend in Hollister Hills and helping me to decide to join this forum. I look forward to meeting more members and learning more!
PS: Sorry for not having any pictures. I gotta get all of them off my phone and onto the computer so bear with me.