Time for something new

[dangerousdave]

ok so I figure its time to start my build thread. Right now I am about to install the Kevins Offroad 7" lift on my '95 zj. I currently have the rear axle locked with a lock right locker. I owned the jeep for about 3 months before i decided it was time to lift it. So I decided to settle with a spacer lift. I thought this would be a great way to start wheeling. I got a 3" spacer kit from offline and put it on the jeep the weekend it came. I kept the 1/2" stock spacer on the jeep too so I ended up with about 3.5" of lift. I learned a lot here. 1) stock shocks are terrible. 2) to put spacers on you dont need to completly undo the axle from the car. 3) spacers / stock springs will start to sag over time. The spacers now measure 2.5 ". Live and learn. It was a great way to learn how to wheel but there it sucked for some things.

I kept the jeep this way for about a year before I decided to move up in the world. Thanks to Deltron. I started looking for lifts and I came across a long arm kit on here in the sale forum. After a lot of work it has started to come in. I came across a set of 285/75/16 maxxis big horns. I had them on for a week to pass inspection. Then off the had to come. Or I would have to trim the mess out of my fenders. Ill do that later.

So now I am waiting on the brackets for my long arms to come in. When they do i will have build pictures for yall. but for now here are a few without the locker and with stock tires with the 3" lift



Also a side note: I went through a mud hole later in this trip and it killed my alternator. Its making me toy with the idea of a snorkel. We'll see.




The jeep is a 4.slow... This might have to change too.

Oh and if you want to read about the drama i went through to get the lift visit this link:

http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/sho...t=13867:smt011

[BLK97ZJ]

Nice jeep
P.S. A snorkel won't do shit for your alternator

[Z]

Sorry to be the eco-nazi, but this is NOT treading lightly (Dave's Note: deleted said pic from this post and the original post). Eco-extremists love to point to posts like this as proof positive that we're all assholes and should be castrated. Or, at least restricted to pavement.

[Mudlover1832]

I do believe thats Uwharrie no?.....We should get together and go wheelin sometime...im always looking for more grands to go up to URE w/ me. Plus if you want another set of hands w/ your build,let me know.

[dangerousdave]

I do believe thats Uwharrie no?.....We should get together and go wheelin sometime...im always looking for more grands to go up to URE w/ me. Plus if you want another set of hands w/ your build,let me know.

sweet.. i will let you know about both. Once the last parts get here i plan on building. Some one else at URE would be nice too. I figure i have been everywhere but kodak rock on a stock jeep so i figure i will go there after the build. following that will be tellico. but we will address that then.

[dangerousdave]

Nice jeep
P.S. A snorkel won't do shit for your alternator

I know this... i forgot to put i got some water in my airbox.

[dangerousdave]

so now that i am on spring break i have time to lift my jeep. I never got all the parts from the kid but i got the important ones. Now i need to make brackets for the arms to mount to the frame. I have been thinking on this for awhile
but do ya'll think i could sleeve the frame rails with a piece of u channel? It would add strength and a good platform to build skids and rocker guards off of. these would also double as the control arm mounts. I would stitch weld the top of the u channel to the frame and then each end and then plug weld every foot or bolt through every foot. the bolts or plug welds would just be to provide , more security to the welds and make failings less likely.

[auggeren911]

April 1st will be here soon. We should all get together for the reopening of ure weekend .I try to go at least once a month if my heep is not broke.

[dangerousdave]

agreed. Im all for it. I want to hit tellico right after that

[bshows73]

so now that i am on spring break i have time to lift my jeep. I never got all the parts from the kid but i got the important ones. Now i need to make brackets for the arms to mount to the frame. I have been thinking on this for awhile
but do ya'll think i could sleeve the frame rails with a piece of u channel? It would add strength and a good platform to build skids and rocker guards off of. these would also double as the control arm mounts. I would stitch weld the top of the u channel to the frame and then each end and then plug weld every foot or bolt through every foot. the bolts or plug welds would just be to provide , more security to the welds and make failings less likely.

That is how our kit was it was a C-Channel bolted through the subframe with the control arm mounts welded to the c-channel if you would like I can get some good pics of Kevins for you.

[dangerousdave]

i have ordered the frame brackets from Kevin and i started to build my track bar conversion. see this link:

http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14756

All the pictures for this will be posted in this thread with some other designs that have been shown by other mallcrawlers.

I am going to install this track bar conversion sat. night or sun. morning. I am going to use it at stock height until i get my brackets from Kevin. The idea being that if it would fail for some reason a failure at a lower lift height would be much less dangerous. I by no means think that this means it will not be dangerous if it would fail. The second idea being i know exactly how my jeep drives right now. After the lift its going to be a completely new jeep. So a install now will make the changes more obvious.

[dangerousdave]

Well i got the track bar bracket and track bar installed today. I finally have the first piece of my $1500 lift installed. YAY!!! Its a small victory for me. The data on the install can be seen on the link above.

Also as i was working on Mambo I noticed that my tires were in really shitty shape. I decided that since i am already going to have to be careful driving because of the track bar bracket being so close to the spring perch, I would go on and install the 285/75/16s that i have had for a few months. I will rub really bad if I do any flexing. I will have to put up with it though because the old tires are severely worn. This should only be for about 3 more weeks. Kevin is currently rebuilding all the brackets for my lift. once these come in the install will be underway.

[dangerousdave]

I installed the lift on Sunday. Dang am I still tired. The lift was not a quick install. It took five people 17 hours to install. we did all of this on Sunday starting at 10:30 in the morning. We finished up around 3:30 am on Monday. What a day.... The lift was one of Kevin's older lifts so some things with it will be very different than his new one. We stared by installing the front control arm brackets. we did some modifying so that the brackets would rest under the stock cross member. Its pretty slick. After we got those installed we lifted the whole jeep up with a lift so we could work at ease. Yes I'm a slacker, I used a lift. We started the project off hardcore at this point. We completely removed the front axle so welding would be easiest. After that we removed the rear axle. My one grip about the whole project is that I had to modify brand new parts that Kevin sent me. I don't know if it was a design flaw in the old lift or what but it kinda irritated me as the day passed. All the welding on the axles and uni-body went very well. We had no burn through what so ever. When i get the chance though i am going to go over all the uni welds with my arc welder. Mig is cool but i trust arc more. With the lift done i have a few odds and end left to do like cutting out stock brackets and painting welds. The jeep is going to the alignment shop in the morning for its alignment. Thanks again to Kevin and his crew for all the help with the lift. enjoy the pictures.

[dangerousdave]

[AprilzWarrior]

My one grip about the whole project is that I had to modify brand new parts that Kevin sent me.

Its a 7" Sorta fits Long Arm kit. Welcome to my life 3 years ago. And I installed the kit in 10hrs by myself. UGH.

[Cue-Ball]

Its a 7" Sorta fits Long Arm kit. Welcome to my life 3 years ago. And I installed the kit in 10hrs by myself. UGH.

hahaha

[dangerousdave]

Its a 7" Sorta fits Long Arm kit. Welcome to my life 3 years ago. And I installed the kit in 10hrs by myself. UGH.

yeah one of the guys helping me told me about your issues with the kit.

Im not really sure why the lift took so long to do, especially with 5 people involved. fabrication dont bug me, its just the fact that it was brand new parts that it had to be done on. i had to add 1/4 steel plates on the tri-link frame mount so that it would fit and be weldable.

With the lift done, I took the jeep to the alignment shop this morning. once i get it home i am going to cut the last stock control arm bracket off. do some minor arc welding and then go flex the shit out of it.... well at least the best i can here in the city. and no i dont mean wallmart.

[DJJordache]

feels good to be LA'd huh looks good! I remember installing my LA's by myself and it took me a few days of working after work and fitting it around school and the woman too. Damn those were some long days.

[dangerousdave]

yeah its great to have the lift on. I cant wait for some of the "local" trails to open up. Its time to do something about my exaughst now. What have yall done? I know i need a smaller cat and muffler. Ideas?

[dangerousdave]

i want to get so much done this weekend.

1)reweld my tri link (i dont like the welds that i have there)
2)start my slider build (brackets and connecting rods)
3)place my spare tire holder in the jeep.

For the spare i am going to use a wrangler spare tire mount welded to the bed of my zj. I might shorten it so i dont have it standing very tall in the bed. I think this is the best option since i dont want a roof rack.

[Hurricane 4x4]

I'm keeping the spare on the roof till I get $ for a bumper with tire carrier. This is the best location for it IMO... inside the jeep it just takes up too much room. Trust me you will want to do both front and rear bumpers for protection at some point if you wheel it alot.. which it looks like you are going to do.

[dangerousdave]

yeah i really want to do bumpers. im just not capable of something like that for awhile. It takes a crazy amount of money for that. Before i do bumpers i need a new motor. I know the tire inside is not the best option for space. kinda sucks. I wouldnt mind a roof rack necessarily except for the fact its gonna be a pain to get to the tire if i need it. What if i made a receiver tire carrier? it really wouldnt be to hard to do. the only issue with it would be i would have to take it out to open the hatch or to tow a trailer.

[dangerousdave]

so i have started my small projects that will keep me entertained for the next little bit until i can come up with a bigger project. I took the jeep out and flexed the shit out of it today and my trilink held. I think im going to leave it alone and not worry about the welds. I know its burnt in well i just think it looks like butt. Im going to keep a very close eye on it for the next while just to be safe. I will be posting some pictures of todays flexing and stuff later. I gotta wait on the guy who took picts to post them so i can steal them. ha. but here is a few pictures of the jeep with the lift finished.

click to enlarge.

[dangerousdave]

Every time i looked at my jeep the fact that the rear was about a inch lower than the front was really pissing me off. So after some thinking and getting flamed on here once before I decided to go with my original idea and put a 1.5" spacer on the rear of my jeep. So now i measure 10.5" from the front tire to the fender. The rear measures 11". So now the nose is down just a fuzz but i don't think it will hurt anything. In the days of my parents and racing it would do some good for gas..... honestly its a jeep so I don't expect anything to come of that. It is nice that its even now.

Was Kevin's old lift designed for the 5.2l? I don't have a ton of shit in the back of my car so it cant be that. oh well either way the problem is solved.

[dangerousdave]

To fix the lift difference I had for the front and rear I added a spacer to the rear of the jeep. It brought the nose of the jeep down and seems to have a positive effect on gas. It might be minor but anything is good.


I took the jeep up to URE on Friday and had a pretty good time. It was a little muddy.... well very muddy. I decided not to fool with kodak rock due to the mud. I did have a close call but all is well. It wasnt that bad it just the jeep just wanted to slide sideways down the hill which would not have ended well. Here are a few pictures of the days events.




And even a poser shot.



On a side note i bent my sway bar mount on the axle with my drag link. So i need to go beat it back into place. It made for a fun drive home.