New Project... the Turtle v2.0

[NotMatt]

Well, the time has come to upgrade a bit. My 4 door '87 XJ (the original "Turtle") is starting to show it's age and mileage in every way, and since I never did any re-inforcing before I started wheeling it hard, the unibody itself is no longer in great shape, with a few cracks around the steering box and some issues with it driving down the road at an angle.

I picked up this beauty for cheap and plan on swapping my 44's, Iroks, t-case, and long-arms over and doing lots of unibody reinforcing before it touches the trail. It's a '91 Sport 2 door, 2wd with an HO motor, salvage title, and lots of soggy interior pieces due to 2 of the windows being knocked out. We push-started it since the starter is dead, and drove it all the way home without shutting it off, without a single hiccup.

I'm intending to document this build-up much better than the last, so as I make progress I'll post pictures in this thread.

One other thing I wanted to mention... of course bending the rules a little here, but since you guys are all in the NW here, I'm looking for a 4wd AX15 transmission in any condition. I need either a good one to swap in, or a junk one to swap parts onto my 2wd one to convert it to a 4wd one, so if anyone knows of something, maybe tucked away in your friend's garage, or in a junk yard somewhere, please let me know.

On to the pics!:

The donor:

 

[railroadjeep]

Hmmm, I'll have to keep an eye out when I start working the Seattle-Wenatchee pool next week... East end of siding right?

 

[NotMatt]

Yes, yes... east end of the Leavenworth siding... our house is the one on the hill just up from the switch, and the shop(s) are literally right next to where the engines stop usually at the end of the siding. Swing by and say hi if you see smoke coming out of the chimney.

(BTW, you can see my dad's Milwaukee Road signal in the background of the bottom pic of my current rig).

 

[railroadjeep]

Cool, if I know we'll be sitting for awhile, I'll see if I can meander on up!

 

[NotMatt]

You won't have to meander too far... you could throw a rock and hit our shop from a locomotive sitting on the siding.

 

[cherokeekid]

sounds like that'll be the way to ship you that input

 

[NotMatt]

Haha, that's not a bad idea.

 

[railroadjeep]

Wow, your right! Your right there at the east switch. Jeep looks cool sitting there in the snow.

I dunno Mike, I'm called tonight for a train around 1950, prolly deaprt Seattle about 2100, so I dont think anyone will be up by the time I roll through Leavenworth... :laugh3:

 

[NotMatt]

Yeah, I went down and scraped the snow off it and moved it around a bit today. What time did you pass through? I'm trying to get a blazer fuel pump replacement finished so I can move it into the one free bay in the shop and start tearing it apart. It's going to be a tear-jerker.

Anybody need any parts off it? I've got a complete Renix motor with leaky rear main seal, leaky injectors and cracked exhaust manifold. Runs good other than that stuff, no knocks. Bunch of other misc. stuff that will be coming off it as well, including a complete and mostly good shape burgundy interior.

When I start thinking about it, I keep pondering selling the axles out of this one to my brother, swapping in some stocker axles and putting my 32's on and selling it, and finding a D300, chevy 44 or 60 and a 14 bolt for the new project. Guess it's going to all come down to the first cut on the longarm crossmember. :|

 

[NotMatt]

Hey, if you and Mike are going to actually meet up and bring that input through, if nobody's there and you get a chance to stop, you can just throw it in the back of the red cherokee.

Or heck, just throw it out the window as you roll by.

 

[railroadjeep]

Doh!! Wish I knew this, sat outside your house for about an hour Thursday morning waiting for Amtrak! Almost got off and walked over, but pushing 11 hours on duty, I opted to catch a nap... :speepin:

I'll chat with Mike if I know I'll be working the Wenatchee pool again, then I drop the input off...

 

[cherokeekid]

Or heck, just throw it out the window as you roll by.

That's more along the lines of what I was thinking!

 

[ladywolf]

how much did you pick up the new turtle for? wish i could find a rig like that.

 

[NotMatt]

450 bucks, plus title transfer stuff of about 50. It's not as good as it looks. 2wd, bad starter, and lots of dents and dings, plus it has a salvage title.

The interior was waterlogged because it sat in the impound yard with the driver's window down and no hatch window or passenger window, and the sunroof leaked... smelled pretty wicked inside until I ripped the carpet, headliner, seats and the rest of the interior out. The dash is still a little soggy, need to pull it back inside and set a space heater in it for a while to dry it out more. Everything works though in the dash, so once it dries out I think I'll be happy. Need to find a full cluster with tach for it though, now it just has idiot lights and a speedo.

BTW, I found it on craigslist.

 

[red91]

I got a cluster for ya....

just tell me what year....and we can work it out.

 

[NotMatt]

Hey, it's a '91 with the electronic speedo. You have the right oil pressure sender and water temp sender you want to sell with the cluster too?

 

[streetpirate]

if youre still looking for a 4wd ax15, i remember seeing a xj with '91 4.0L marked on the windshield as i was taking the console out of it, and that it was a stick. isnt the ax15 the only stick offered in '91 behind a 4.0?
it was the U Pull It in Damascus, OR. mapquests to a 5 hour drive to get there from Leavenworth.

 

[NotMatt]

if youre still looking for a 4wd ax15, i remember seeing a xj with '91 4.0L marked on the windshield as i was taking the console out of it, and that it was a stick. isnt the ax15 the only stick offered in '91 behind a 4.0?
it was the U Pull It in Damascus, OR. mapquests to a 5 hour drive to get there from Leavenworth.

Hey, it looks like I'm getting one from Avanteone that he's got in a parts rig, so I think I'm covered there. Thanks for the heads up though.

 

[streetpirate]

haha! i read his classified ad for the parts rig before i posted that too. it said that matt was getting the tranny, but your name is NotMatt so of course i didnt think he was you.

 

[NotMatt]

haha! i read his classified ad for the parts rig before i posted that too. it said that matt was getting the tranny, but your name is NotMatt so of course i didnt think he was you.

:wave: That's me.