Bell Off Road/ Jonasson Motorsport YJ Build

[Clayton Off Road]

Here is a photo dump of my YJ build thread, I used to have an XJ, this one actually:

I decided to trade with a local guy to build up a YJ instead, the XJ had just about reached it's limit on what I could do and the go fast bug kept biting me.

Here is what we started with:

92 Jeep Wrangler
4.0
AW4 auto out of XJ with over drive
NP231 with SYE/cv rear driveline and Tera 2LO kit, novak shifter
HP Dana 44 front axle narrowed to jeep width, 4.88 gears, detroit locker, superior axle shafts, ctm ujoints, diff cover guard, recent ball joints, seals, and grease
8.8 rear axle with super 8.8 kit installed, 4.88 gears and detroit locker, diff cover guard
Rubicon Express 4.5" Extreme Duty lift kit with shocks, stainless braided brake lines, ubolts flipped front and rear (rear with dynatrac kit)
35" Goodyear MTR's on Procomp wheels with matching spare
Hi-Steer with all 1-ton tie rod ends and beefy tie rod and drag link
Genright rocker guards and rear corner guards with welded on 3" rear flare
Rear bumper with swing out tire carrier
Smitty built 8k winch on front
HID aux lights up front
cb radio
Aftermarket radio with speakers and subs
Softtop with tinted rear windows, bikini top, wind jammer, duster cover, safari top
Full roll cage (factory with aftermarket tube added on)
Probably more that I am forgetting
200k miles on Jeep. Engine/transmission/t-case were all removed 1,500 miles ago and all leaks were fixed so nothing leaks. Lift/axles/most aftermarket stuff has no more than 3,500 miles on it.

Jonni (Jonasson Motorsports) John (Bell Off Road) and I put together a plan for what we wanted to do, build a trail capable YJ, but keep it as light as possible. We decided on coil overs F/R, tons of new armor, custom roll cage, and a good amount of front and rear stretch.

Since the eventual plan is to repaint the rig we started by stripping it and cleaning the tub, and removing all of the old wiring, alarm system, and sound mods that had been done:

When we looked at the rear wheel wells we realized that when the corners were mounted the area was trimmed just a bit too much. Jonni built a bracket using some sheet metal and plug welded it back to the tub:

Jonni shot the tub black with an epoxy primer for now:

Our armor from Barnes 4wd came in, we will be using aluminum corners, F/R bumpers and steel rockers to help save weight where we can:

Jonni and I started bending tubes and messing with the angles on the cage:

You can see the rear seat in this picture, since I had a spare PRP shorty bucket we will be using that along with a pair of PRP front Daily Drivers:

Alex
Marketing Director
Clayton Off Road

 

[Clayton Off Road]

Jonni ended up building a new transmission mount today:

This one uses a larger bushing and will be able to adjust to the angle the transmission is at.

Clayton links, Currie Johnny Joints and Barnes 4wd brackets.

Jonni has been chipping away at the cage and a few other projects. He bent a few different rear bars so we could choose the one we liked the best:

Put the a PRP seat in there:

Then I practiced welding on part of the skid plate:

More cage progress:

Alex
Marketing Director
Clayton Off Road

 

[Clayton Off Road]

Onto the fronts:

Shot of the rear 4 link, need to do some trimming on the body to make sure the upper links clear during compression:

Jonni built the bracing for the coilover hoops:

Used these joints to make it removable, and Jonni did some tig welding to get them in there:

I trimmed the inner fenders and threw the MCE Flexible Fenders back on to check clearances:

Alex
Marketing Director
Clayton Off Road

 

[Clayton Off Road]

Started moving the rear suspension around and ended up cutting a bit of the frame:

Jonni then boxed it in, built a cross brace and added some more tube work.

Just about full bump:

We will be using MCE Flexible Fenders on the front, but since we pushed the rear front so far I didn't like the huge gap between the fender and the tire so after talking with Jason and Mike I cut my brand new fenders:

Shortened vs original:

It's just about 3 inches but It looks better then having a huge gap between the tire and the fender.

Alex
Marketing Director
Clayton Off Road

 

[Clayton Off Road]

Shot of the rear Clayton 4 link all finished up and painted:

The frame cutouts and bracing behind them:

Jonni cut the frame and moved it about 4.5" forward:

Steering box moved forward:

Cross brace installed:

Barnes 4wd winch bumper trimmed for the steering box:

Right before we left for EJS:

Alex
Marketing Director
Clayton Off Road

 

[Clayton Off Road]

Couple action shots while we were down at EJS:

After it was finished for EJS we still have a lot to do. The short list includes:

-Get blank Barnes aluminum corners
-Build tire carrier
-Build seat sliders
-Install West Texas Off Road hydro assist
-Install FOA air bumps
-Install 50" Rigid light bar on the roof and something on the bumper
-Tune shocks and spring rates
-Modify fuel fill and rear cage bars so the tires don't rub on them
-Countersink hardware on skid plate
-Build front steering box skid
-Build center console
-Install sway bars F/R

Right now the spring rates are 150/200 F/R with almost no preload on them. I know this was wrong but it was the only way to get the ride height we needed with the springs we had. I was thinking about going to 125/175 to get them same height with 2-3 inches of preload on the shocks. I need to get a better idea of my corner weights first and go from there.

Alex
Marketing Director
Clayton Off Road

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

Alex
Marketing Director
Clayton Off Road

Wow.. I tried to research what you did with the XJ, after the Build thread on the YJ on PNWJ.. That was my Favorite XJ

Now you're with Claytons.. Not hating on that!arty:

 

[Clayton Off Road]

Thanks Scott, Ryan L on PNW has the XJ now...

Finally got around to doing a little math and figuring out my corner weights so I can dial the spring rates in. Right now I am sitting at:

725 lbs D front
675 lbs P front

506 lbs D rear
487 lbs P rear

Full Droop:

Sitting with about 4 inches of uptravel left:

Alex
Marketing Director
Clayton Off Road

 

[Clayton Off Road]

Jonni pulled it back into the shop and started seeing what it will take to get the Antirock up front and the airbumps all the way around:

Alex
Marketing Director
Clayton Off Road

 

[Clayton Off Road]

Jonni has been back at it a bit between working on some other projects he has in the shop. He mounted the West Texas Off Road Redneck Ram box and added a piece of tube for the AntiRock:

Since the box is pushed so far forward the tube was notched a bit to clear the top of the box, the bar fits in fine and clears with no issues.

The AntiRock links had to be bent out to clear the coilovers and panhard mount:

He got started on the Redneck Ram mount for the axle side the other day, decided to use the diff cover to mount it:

Then my new brakelines from Clayton Off Road showed up, with a couple of their nifty bottle openers and some swag:

Alex
Marketing Director
Clayton Off Road

 

[Clayton Off Road]

AntiRock mounts done:

We dig some digging at the parts store and ended up with the combo below. The high end of the hard line will have a short (8" or so) double ended female line connected to the hard line on the frame:

WestTexas Offroad Redneck Ram mounted and plumbed:

Alex
Marketing Director
Clayton Off Road

 

[XJEEPER]

Rig's looking good! Just a heads up, you'll want to gusset the bend in your anti-rock arms.......they will tweak.

BTDT-

 

[Clayton Off Road]

Oh I like that, I'll look and see what we have room for. I had a similar bend on my previous bar, nothing as extreme as yours, and it didn't bend. I'll keep an eye on it though, thanks!

Alex
Marketing Director
Clayton Off Road

 

[Clayton Off Road]

Jonasson Motorsports custom built smaller tray to hold my battery and the fuse box:

Alex
Marketing Director
Clayton Off Road