Tommy's ZJ reincarnated into a CJ8

[Tommy]

Ye sir. I will be there. Not in this thing. One step forward and two steps back.... Rockin a low rider now. Ruff Stuff links front and rear coming soo. new histeer arms on the 60 and disc's going on the 14 bolt.





Ruff Stuff didnt ship a bunch of my stuff. They have slowly but surely made it right. Only took 7 weeks and I am still waiting for my adjust upper fram side mount for the front. Sent Dan from RuffStuff a mail but he didnt reply. Must be that awesome customer service every body hypes....

[Jeep Whore]

Nice!

looks like i won't be out there. i couldn't get the time off from work. my dad will be out there on the Bluff.

[1ABrian]

Lookin forward to seein the firestick in action here. Kudos on a sick build man. Nice work

[AprilzWarrior]

Congrats on a healthy boy !

[Tommy]

Congrats on a healthy boy !

Thank you sir! Very much appreciated.



A little more progress made.

Opened up to fit 42's.



Rear truss and lower mounts set in place.



Lower link mounts kind of in place.

[nmzj]

How are you doing the electrics for the engine?

[Tommy]

How are you doing the electrics for the engine?

I basically took the wiring diagrams from MITCHELL and sorted out the basic wires I needed to make the motor run. I then attached these into my CJ8 harness. I also retained the ZJ power distribution box that is under the hood. I have a little more cleanup on the harnes. All in all it only took me a weekend. I see you have a Scram with the exact same setup....

Here are a few more pics.







Staring on the front now. I work so damn slow.... I plan to basically cut the whole front section of fram off and replace with DOM for clearance issues. The rig sits nice an low as you can see from the pics below. This is the planned ride height. 21" belly clearance. Drivetrain has been raised about 6"'s. Setup to clear 42's. Sitting at 113" wheelbase.

[Jeep Whore]

Looks sweet Tommy! how much wider is the front end then the rear there?

[Tommy]

Looks sweet Tommy! how much wider is the front end then the rear there?

Thank you. I have never really measured it so I couldnt tell you. I think the pic is a little decieving. I have yet to adjust my arms so the axle is just kind of thrown under there. It is shifted roughly 1.5" to the drivers side right now.

Here is what I came up with in the front. I am not so sure about my upper link mount on the axle side. It is kind of tall. But it is what I had to do to get the separation I wanted and to keep my lower link mount flat with the centerline of the axle. Of course it will need a ton of gussets. Anybody have any thoughts? From all of the damn threads I read on pirate I built my front on a couple take aways I gathered as important. Everything is just tac'd so I can still move things around. My biggest concern is having enough room for my CO on the driverside. Any feedback is appreciated.

As parallel as possible.
As flat to the ground as possible.
8+ inches of vertical separation at the axle. I have 9".
Arms close to the same length.


From what I can tell so far the trackbar has just enough room to fit between my steering ram. The whole front frame section from the lower link mounts forward is going to be cut off and a tub front portion of the chassis will be built to make sure everything has ample clearance.

[IndyZJ]

The Scrambler's looking sweet!

Keeping a steering box?

What's the reasoning behind running the upper on the driver side? It's always seemed easier to make a combined axle-side upper and panhard mount on the passenger side for space reasons to me, but it can be difficult with the passenger drop axle. With the upper centered over the axle, it looks like it would force you to run a shorter panhard. Plus, mounting a CO in there will be difficult. With the upper outside of the frame, you might have to rotate the upper mount back to squeeze the CO in there.

If you're ditching mechanical steering, could you squeeze the upper in inside the frame?

[Tommy]

Thanks for the response Indy. Yes sir I am ditching the the mechanical steering and will be running a PSC double ended ram like on my ZJ. The same one to be exact. The trackbar looks like it will fit just behind the ram. With how low the 8 sits I am finding it difficult to package everything. If I was to place the arm on the passenger side it gets in the way of my drive shaft. if I try and fit it on the inside of the frame on the driver side it will get in the way of exhaust and such. Where it sits right now is the best place I could find. I will be cutting the front frame section off I will probably make some room in that design to allow room for the upper to shift towards the passenger side a couple inches. This should give me enough room to just barely squeeze the CO in there. Fingers crossed. The low cog thing I am going for may be a bigger pita then it is worth. I guess I will see.

[AprilzWarrior]

Bitchin!!

[IndyZJ]

I hear you on the packaging thing. If I ever link the front of my YJ I'll probably be in the same boat and rebuilding the front of the frame again.

Pushing the upper to the passenger side as far as you reasonably can, even if it's just a couple inches, should help a lot. You might end up having to lay the upper axle mount back a little to clear the CO at full articulation. You could also gain some room by lowering the lower mounts about two inches and taking the same amount out of the upper mount - with them so close to the Cs you wouldn't lose much "real" ground clearance. Of course, that'd alter your geometry. Stupid compromises.

[Tommy]

For sure. It is all about compromise. I am going to stick with what I have for now and see where things fit. I really appreciate your comments and ideas.


I got the front torn down this weekend. I need to weld some supports in to keep the frame halfway straight as I cut the entire front section behind the existing motor mounts off.

[Tommy]

More incredibly slow progress.

I started the highline fenders and was able to get both sides of the hood cut. Everything fits real nice. I also started getting the steering kind of in its place.

[emncfi]

Looks great, nice work. Still using the old Trailready rear bumper you sold me!