bought someones hackjob (in over my head)

Long story......

I was in the process of building up my XJ with typical bolt on and simple fab: 8.8 rear, 6.5" long arm, 35" tires etc. While on the trail on day I run across a ridiculously lifted XJ with a decent drive train guy wanted next to nothing for.

Specs are currently 36" TSL, 15" lift with BLOCKS!!!!!, 14 bolt rear D44 front, 4.3L Vortex with EFI, TH400R tranny, D300 transfer case.

I picked this thing up for dirt cheap hoping to turn it into something decent to wheel and have a trail only rig. Pretty cool idea I thought. It has a decent long arm lift up front. It could be better but it works and can keep working. The crossmember is an abortion. It has a decently fabbed one the long arms bolt to but it runs under the stock one! The stock one has also cracked in half from the weight/torque and is now resting on the "lower" cross member. This needs to go as now whenever it shifts or you mash the skinny pedal the whole assembly jumps up into the body of the jeep. This has a priority.

Next is the rear blocks. There aren't words to describe this. Its got a factory 4" p/u block with another 10" block on top. The axle wrap is so bad the drive shaft separates anytime it gets in a bind, say climbing a hill in 2wd. This has the be the biggest priority of all.

The rear brakes don't work at all. The whole system is bleed but the pedal goes to the floor. The fronts will stop you but nothing in the rear. It has some old school master cylinder I am assuming came from the chevy the axles came out of. It certainly isn't the one from the vortec donor vehicle. This needs to get replaced with another unit as well as convert the 14 bolt to disc.

All in all this thing has potential but it needs work and alot of it. Over the next few weeks I am going to need some serious help getting this thing put together. I was a little hesitant in even posting because of what a hack job this thing is but I honestly need the help here.

I have a set of 40" LTBs on order right now for delivery towards the end of the year (if I am lucky from what I am ready online). That is what I would like to get this built for. Please no comments on the 40"s on a dana 44 as this is going to see more mud than it will ever see a rock sadly. Its a chance I am willing to take.

I am really looking for opinions at the moment. I have little fab skills. Minor fab or bolt on is preferred at the moment. What am I looking at to lower this thing down safely and correct all of the known issues at the moment? Thanks for any and all input.

I would like to see more pictures of this thing. Specifically underneath i.e lift components axles crossmember ect..

Hah holy crap. I dont know what you are asking, but that thing is pretty horrible. I would start by taking off as much lift as possible, its at least 10" to tall, you can take the blocks & such out easy. Sounds like the front end is gonna be trickier if you have to fabricate a new crossmember.

:wow: Wow. You didnt tell me this thing was a sky scrapper! lol Get me some measurements and pictures from underneath and we'll see what we can do for you on that crossmember. :cheers:

I like how you can see the leaf spring above the tire :thumbup:

You can see the cross member here. This is also the only picture I really took of the front end. The coil buckets are HUGE! The tie rod is in a "S" shape that does wonders for the steering.

my god.

i would probably start over. if he rigged up the rest of the jeep anything like he rigged up the suspension i would want no part of it.

I have gone over it pretty good. The engine mounts look good and everything is good to go drive train wise. It is in great mechanical shape. There is very little rust anywhere on it which seems strange but I'll go with it. The suspension is just what is worth crying over. I have time and a little coin to go towards this project. I think I can work with it but I am just wanting some opinions on where to start. I have already contacted redrider2911 about a crossmember and have already picked up a set of f150 leafs to build a bastard pack for the rear. That is kinda where I am at a loss past this point. I know I will need some shackle relocation brackets for the rear with the F150 springs. The front end needs work but I think once it gets lowered down the angles on the drag link and track bar will get better. I can shorten both accordingly.

WOW...just WOW! That is all that comes to mind!

It can be fixed and the axles are a nice plus. 6.5" of lift can handle 36's with no problem, drop that sucker down!

go1lum said:

I would like to see more pictures of this thing. Specifically underneath i.e lift components axles crossmember ect..

Click to expand...

haha x2, id like to see these stacked blocks

starting over sounds like a good idea holy crape

(haha and i thought my jeep was getting border line hackjob)

yeah we need to see these huge lift blocks you speak of.

I guess the blocks are kind of like a train wreck. Its a tragedy yes, but everyone still wants to look.... I'll get some pictures this week just for laughs.

I just dont understand who would build a jeep with long arms and full widths, and then use a 10" block..Doesn't make sense..

ahahahahahahaha HOLY CRAP!

the first step is admitting there is a problem... and it is unfortunately now yours. Oh well, you've got at the very least a decent pile of parts.

That crossmember is a work of ghetto redneck hack fab ART. Looks like the front driveshaft is in backwards (or is single cardan at both ends), the slip yoke and single cardan should be at the axle end not the transfer case end. My bet is (though I don't know d300s very well, so I could be wrong here) that the transfer case came with single cardan yokes.

Another thing - what IS that on the front axle tube on the driver side? Is that some sort of freakazoid upper control arm mount / radius arm thing? I'm a little confused by that, though it looks like you will be ripping the whole suspension out probably and building from scratch, so you can probably just chop that off and forget it ever existed.

I want more pics of the horror! And some pics of the results after you fix it, because you've got all the parts you need to make a pretty decent rig there if you just rip out the total crap gluing them together.

ok, i will ask the obvious question...WHY would you ever buy that thing? i wouldnt even want it if it were free.

I have done nothing but read for the last 6 hours about different suspension set ups. My other cherokee I just was really looking at off the shelf kits. It has done well offroad and I can still take it to 80mph on the interstate. I haven't had the balls to just rip into it yet. I got this thing because I have no prob with tearing her down and taking a sawzall to it. Looks like all new perches and shock mounts for the rear. The ones on there now are tweaked. The front axle needs to be stripped and started over. The track bar mount is sketch and the coil buckets are like 6" tall. I love the coils that are on it, whatever they are. Hopefully when I get the new buckets welded on it will sit right where I want it to with those coils. I am looking at different leaf set ups and I think I am going to just experiment with different bastard packs for a while. I have read so many threads on bastard packs its ridiculous. I am going to just bolt it in and see what happens. The front drive shaft is sad. Its off centered and just fubar. I have already picked up two front XJ drive shafts to have lengthened whenever I get everything set back up. I should just be able to run them with a 1310/1330 ujoint, right? I am basically needing instruction on where to go from here. The long arms on it are in good shape and the joints and bushings are in good order. I hope to save some money there by reusing them. I am hoping by end of Jan to have this thing trail worthy and not something I am scared to death of making it onto the trailer in one piece. I will get some detailed pictures of this thing this week and post. It really is sad that someone was driving this like it is. A lot of time and money went into getting that drivetrain in only to halfass the suspension.

89eliminator said:

ok, i will ask the obvious question...WHY would you ever buy that thing? i wouldnt even want it if it were free.

Click to expand...

really? the axles and transfer case alone are worth more than what I paid for it.....

devildog12210 said:

really? the axles and transfer case alone are worth more than what I paid for it.....

Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking - add in the V8, and the fact that it appears to run already, and you're ahead of the game.

As for the front coils - well, just take out as much as you want to lower it (probably cut the coil buckets down to almost no height except the base/retainer) and see what that gets you.