2 jeep build thread/blog.

[zachandandy]

My xj is an 89, and its already semi-built. I figure I've got enough planned changes that I may as well start a thread.

The day I bought her.

Rubicon express 7.5" long arm kit, h&t sye, cut down front bumper, no rear bumper, rugged ridge inverted t steering, lock-rite and 3.55's in the dana 35, open front. Worn out 33's. Threw in a spartan and went wheeling.


Impressed considering crap tires and 3.55's

[zachandandy]

Ordered 35" mtr's, back ordered 3 months? Ordered 35x14.5x15 pitbull mad dawgs. And some DIY beadlocks. Went wheeling.


Rugged ridge steering left a lot to be desired.

[zachandandy]

Added a front receiver, winch cradle. Broke a front shaft on deer valley. Added chromoly shafts and 4.88's. More wheeling.

Added a jb4x4 high steer bracket. Worked very well.
Broke the ring and pinion in the 30, trying to pull a dead wagoneer sideways. Amazingly through all this, the rear 35 never broke? Time to upgrade. Had an 80's dodge rear dana 60, didn't even need to move the perches. Found a 77 hp44 ford front axle for $150, 4.10 gears, welded spiders, warn premium hubs. Ground off the radius arm mounts, welded on coil buckets, and lca mounts from ballistic. Used a leftover rough country wj lower arm in the passenger side upper radius arm location, like the IRO kit, only 9/16" bolts and no caster adjuster bracket thing. You can see the trackbar mount I built and sort if make out the upper. Steering is 1.5" 1/4" wall Dom and 7/8" heims from rough stuff. Yes the passenger side was double stacked single shear on a 3/4" grade 8.

Off to the con for Memorial Day last year.

And it snowed

242 would not stay in 4lo, leading to this.

Broke the rear driveshaft just before soup bowl. Lets just say the con in front wheel drive sucked. Replaced the 242 with a 231. Head to the Dusy Labor Day weekend.

More carnage. Ripped steering box from frame, Jerry rigged it back together, broke a front shaft, broke the sector shaft off the steering box. Came back the next weekend with parts, welder, generator, etc...





Lots of plating and welding trail side, swapped in the new Yukon shafts in the front, and the spare steering box I brought up had different fittings for the power steering lines. 8 miles of the Dusy without power steering, leading to breaking the intermediate shaft twice. Got it to the trailhead, and came back the next weekend with a trailer.

[zachandandy]

It sat like that until December when I was ready to fix it. New metalcloak dual rate couls went in to help with unseating.Plated the frame some more, new intermediate shaft, new steering box, lines, and a cooler. Took it to hollister in January and the power steering worked for all of 10 minutes. Guess driving with the pump empty for half a day to get it off the Dusy had taken its toll? Other than that, she worked beautifully.



http://youtu.be/K2OVdsuISVc
When the 60 went in, I also swapped in a set of wagoneer leafs, built shock hoops through the floor and 14" bilstien 5100's. Front got 12" 5100's with the new coils. It will use 100% if the travel both front and rear. Prothanes and limit chains(cheap) in front and day star progressive bumps in rear. Swapped in a new power steering pump. Tired of steering issues, I did this to the passenger knuckle to eliminate worry about the stacked heims.

Also ordered a sector shaft nut and pillow block from psc, going to build a brace like the sell for the dodges. Also on the way are some inner air locks, and a 32" led light bar. 2x6 rockers to replace the jcr sliders soon. 3 link instead of 1.5 radius arm up front. Chop the top and cage it at some point. That's pretty much up to date for mine, I'll post up the wife's wj later. Snow wheeling at cherry lake Saturday if anybody is interested.

[zachandandy]

On to the wife's 01 wj. The 4.7l feels like a monster compared to the straight 6. Bought it bone stock. Went wheeling. Surprisingly capable stock, street tires and all. Scraped a lot. 4" rough country lift, 32" rubicon take offs.
The wj design fails in coil spring retention department.

Rough country arms sucked, swapped in an IRO front long arm. Went to 6" lift. 35's more wheeling on the con.

And the Dusy.

No bumpers, lots of new battle scars, replaced the upper a arm twice. But no real breakage. Built new upper a arm out of 1.5"Dom, 2" 3/8" wall Dom and 7/8" heims.

New lowers, 2"x3/8" wall 7/8" heims. Hollister in January, first real breakage. Blew spider gears through rear cover.

Realized how bad the stock tow hooks sucked during the recovery, strap falling off every 5 feet. Out comes the saw. New front bumper.

Tube fenders


Cut a bunch of sheetmetal off the back

Rear bumper

[zachandandy]

Finished up the tube fenders with some 1/8" plate.


She sanded it and painted it with bedliner.



Built a truss for the dana44a, put in an aussie locker, and its ready to wheel.

Fenders and side plates on the rear bumper are braced well enough that they pass the highlift test. Prothane bumpstops front and rear. Still need to cut out the spare tire well and raise up the tank.

[blondejoncherokee]

Dude i like em both. nice progress so far...

[zachandandy]

Thanks Jon, already kicking myself for not going straight to a 60 in front. Thanks for the steering shafts. I think the 231 was yours originally too, I bought it from Kevin. Planning on the con Memorial Day weekend, Dusy Labor Day, and either swamp lake or fordyce 4th of July. I don't get much time off work, so holidays are my big camping n wheeling weekends.

[blondejoncherokee]

I would love to run the Dusy on Labor day, and swamp or fordyce on the 4th would be a blast. the con would be fun on memorial day, but I think I am already doing a run that weekend somewhere...

[zachandandy]

Paint done n ready to roll.

[american_zero]

I have an '04 WJ Overland (stock DD) and I shivered as I read this. I thought it was cool on 4" and 32's.

[zachandandy]

4" and 32's wouldn't make it through the Dusy, and it would make the rubicon a pain in the a**. It's built and beaten for fun. Both rigs, while still driven on the street, are mostly trail toys. I drive my little toyota commuter car to work and the 06 crew cab f250 tow rig is our family ride. The 7800lb truck gets at least as good mpg's as the jeeps(18avg), has twice the power, and 3 times the space. When money allows, a trailer large enough for both jeeps will follow me home. 12-15 mpg's pulling both jeeps, riding in comfort, miller bobcat 250 and a full compliment of tools and spares at the trail head, so I don't have to lug so much crap through the trails. Sounds like the American dream to me. Our son is almost 12, so I may even make it a 3 car trailer.

[Mike1331]

love the daul build thread. Any plans to cage these beastly rigs?

[zachandandy]

Had I not been assigned to a Fresno project(100 miles each way), mine was going to get chopped and caged this winter. The amount of work involved will have to wait until next winter as I have to have my jeep for the summer wheeling season. The wife is not real aggressive off road, and at less risk of a rollover. After I build mine I'll try and sell her on a hybrid cage.

[Mike1331]

nice, gotta have it ready for the summer. I'm going to try and head to dusy with ya'll this year.

I'm about to install a IRO 4.5" long arm kit on my roomates 4.7wj. Any tips or tricks you wanna give me? He only had short lowers for the rear and is using the stock rear upper, which it looks like will give us problems if you had issues with yours.
I've never worked on a wj before but it all looks pretty straight forward.