"PayDay" my 2000 XJ Build

Yeah those were my thoughts too shooter, i feel like cutting the rear corner takes away from the bodystyle and iconic look of an xj and looks funky unless you do the custom bumler like you were saying.

1500$ for the rubicon 44, less than it would have cost in parts to have a geared, selectable locked dana 30 these days

The gentleman i bought it from was in his late sixties and replaced it with a prorock 44 he had just drained the break in fluid, the internals look brand new and ran a good pattern so i think i made the right choice. Axles are hard choices and im glad to be onto building the 8.8 for sure!



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My bumper came in. I went with the Vangaurd PreRunner from JCR and finally got to install the winch thats been sitting on my coffee table for the last year. Im very pleased with how it came out









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Sexy!

ShoeterMcgav said:

I think the cut and fold looks silly with some bumpers... never seen anyone crush that lower corner either. Not like it's killing depart angles right? Cut and fold can look slick, but without a custom bumper idk it's worth it? Plus an obstacle that would actually hit that corner, would probably have ya high centered after the front tire clears, no?

Maybe I need a visual of "why"

Click to expand...

I've hit both lower panels and actually crushed one and part of the upper panel when I slid into a bad rut pitting me against a tree, cut and fold w a custom protruding bumper would've saved me. You don't usually hit the bottom, but the side yes. I will agree a CnF w nothing looks stupid to me though, shows too much of the underneath and looks unproportionable, serving no purpose.

I got a welder for christmas and learned what i could on the internet to fix the dent for both welding and bodywork and the repair came out decent, the body line wasnt 100% straight and Paint wasnt a good match so ill end up fixing it later down the line but for now i thought it came out okay, but its still on the list of things i need to do.

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I added some bumper lights and just took the 8.8 into the shop to be built, i did the c clip eliminator and as much work as i could at home before i dropped it off. Its getting an ARB, 4.88s and chromolly shafts.

I went with the single ARB compressor and right now im in the process of fabbing up a bracket to go behind the rear cubby to support installing it in the cubby. Theres not much except sheet metal in there but the goal will be to have no visable hose or wires and to make the trim look as if it were untouched we will see what happens.

I also got a rear bumper and cleaned up my battery terminals, i was still using stock terminals and didnt have anywhere else to add anything.


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time. I built some brackets for the coil rail since its just been held on by the spark plugs for the last 2 years out of some stuff i found at the hardware store



Then i built the bracket for the air compressor out of some more metal i found at the hardware store and picked up a basic hose kit for it and the tees to make it work



Then i finally got the 8.8 built and found someone to weld the brackets on after i tac'd them on at home and it was time to install it




No reason not to install the rubicon 44 at that point



Now that it has beefier axles i had to order some sort of stronger steering for now without breaking the bank and ended up on V8 ZJ Moog steering and while i was at it i got new rotors, calipers and brake pads



Its been driving really good with the new steering minus a left hand turn clunk that was there before and after the axle swap iv been trying to track down.

I ran into some hiccups along the way like the knuckles having divots where the brakes sit that was causing them them to catch so i had to take it in and get the craters filled with weld and cleaned up among other stuff.
The previous owner of the dana 44 cut the sway bar link mounts off so i cant run my front sway bar until i get new ones.

I got my hands on a rubicon locker pump and tested it out so i still need to hook it and the arb wiring and air lines up to the rear and i need to find a front 33" driveshaft out of a ZJ for the rear since the one from the front isnt long enough now after swapping axles then hopefully itll be the right length for the front and itll be just about ready to do a shakedown run after i finish breaking the gears in but overall the builds been moving forward and the hardest stuff is now out of the way

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Nice job.

All knuckles I see anymore have those divots in them. I welded them up on Varmint #1's XJ when we re-did his brakes this year. I have a suspicion those divots are one of the reason so many XJ's have such poor brakes.