jerry's kid project

[slim616]

well I figured I do a build thread so people can point out what I did wrong or how I could do it a little better.

Well the whole project started when I came across this 95 zj for $1500. I wanted to do a wrangler build but I couldn't beat the price and I always liked being a little different on the trail. It has the 4.0 with the 242 transfer case and 160xxx miles or so.
It sat in the driveway for a couple of months while I decided which way I wanted to go as far as lift kits and how much money I wanted to spend on it. Well after a few months I decided that as some point in the game that I wanted to run 35's so I was told I need to go with long arms, so I ordered RE's Long arm kit.

Here's a write up I did for Jeeps Unlimited about a year ago on the LA install.
All right I decided to do a full write up on the kit so if any one else finds them self in the same position as me they can do a search and hopefully this post will anwser most of their questions in one shot.
well after searching for months for a new project jeep I came across a 95 ZJ with 160,000 miles and a couple of broken windows and a slipping tranny. $1500 dollars later the jeep was sitting in the drive way. After pulling the trannydip stick i discovered that the tranny was low on fluid and it didn't look that fresh. So after a quick tranny service the slip was gone.

Now as far as lift kits I wanted something that would be able to handel trails all over the u.s. but still be kind of easy to install. I tow my jeeps every where so the road thing is not a big deal but I still wanted something that could pass inspection and still be driven down the road safely. So with this in mind I needed a kit that would clear 33's which is what I think is the smallest you should go if your ever going to tackel any semi technical trails. The reason i belive this is that I had a 89 xj with 30" AT. and a 3" lift. It did well on the simple stuff but when the going got ruff it got real beat up. So with this in mind I deciced to go with RE's 4.5 lift kit (RE 8000) with the intention of putting a 2" BB on and 35's later on after budget allowed for new axels, gears ect. After calling 4x4groupbuys(which has some of the best prices on RE stuff. don't go by the webs prices, call them and they will give you a better price) Now after talking to them about what I wanted to do with the lift kit later on they contacted a RE rep. and found out that the 8000 kit will not work with BB. They said I would have to go with 8300 kit that contained long arms. Even though the kit was almost $1000 dollars more they assured me that it was they way to go for what I wanted to do. So a week later all 9 boxes were at my house.
Now let me tell you after reading the instructions on how to install the kit I began to wonder if I had got my self in over my head. To be honest i'm a all right mechanic but I had no real experince on working with zj before but I do have all the tools from working on all my landscape equipment. But seeing that i didn't need to have the running anytime soon I decided to tackel the lift in the driveway. For the average person with a few tools and the need to have jeep running quickly so you drive it to work I would say stick with the 8000 kit that involves just swapping old stuff out for new. 8300 kit invoves cutting all the old factory suspension off and bolting/welding new mounting point farther back on the frame to allow space for the new longer control arms.
So after tearing all the axels, control arms, exuast and stuff like that the real fun began. With torches, sawzaw, and a grinder I had to remove lower factory control arm brackets. As a side note i left the rear axel conected by the sensor and brake lines sitting on a floor jack under the jeep. This will make life easyer when you go to rebolt up the control arms and track bar.Living in a neighborhood were you don't see people doing stuff like this in the drive I got all sorts of funny looks. So ater a couple of evenings of cutting and grinding I was finaly able to beging to install the new mounts for the control arms and the tranny. After opening the box I realize that the hardware kit was torn open in transit and some of the bolts and stuff had been lost through a tear in the box. I also relize that the tran. will not bolt up to the crossmember that was supplied. it almost seemed like there had to be another peice or something. So after a call to 4x4groupbuy I find out that 93 to 95 zjs need an extra bracket to be bolted on to the crossmember for the tranny to bolt up which is sold seperate. So a couple of days later I have a new hardware pack and the tranny mount.



So after several drill bits a more then a few trips to the lowes I was ready for my buddy to come in with his portable welder to tac the new control arm mounts. RE. says to weld as much as you can which i did as a fail safe for all the bolts that you just screwed in. Don't let me full you this took me over a week of evenings in my driveway to complete.
now came time to begin to mount all the control arms and stuff. This part of the project went pretty quick compared to the rest but an extra set of hands is wise to help with moving the axels around and stuff like that. once I bolted everything togetherand put the new tires on the camber was all mesed in the front to the point I would not advise it to be driven on the road. But seeing that for the moment it was a trailer queen I figure it would be fine for the trails. also the old muffler will not work. I found a round style muffler like that off a volkswagon will work with the OEM exhust pipe. As a side note, do to my budget I had to wait to get a sye and drive shaft so for the first trip I ran it with the stock drivetrain.

So after a 2 1/2 hour trip to paragon with the jeep we pulled it off the trailer in the pooring rain. other then a little problem with transfer case not wanting to go into 4 lo the jeep performed up to expectations and beyond. The flex was great and once the transfer case went into 4 lo the jeep really began to shine crawling over stuff like it wasn't a thing. after a full day of wheeling the jeep climbed back up on the trailer on its own power and no damage.





Well on the second trip out I tosted the spiders in the D35.

This was a second or two before they snaped.

This is what I found when I opened up the diff. I decided to just welded the 35 up since the plan was to get rid of it anyway. I became real easy on the skinny pedal after this. I had some old channel laying around so I cut it up and weld to my control arm mounts to make some cheap control arm skids.

After a couple of close calls on the rockers I order a set of KOR rock sliders. The only problem I had with them is that they wouldn't fit with my long arm kit so I ended up having to cut the brackets move them around and weld them to the jeep. They have performed great and have held up to all the abuse that I have given them so far. I ran it like this for a couple of runs and noticed that the sliders were getting hung up on the rocks. So I decided to add 2" spacers and that did the trick.

This worked well on blues and mild blacks but most of the other jeeps I ran with were on 35's or better and liked to run the hard blacks. I learned alot doing these trails on small tires but I just couldn't do them as fast as they could.

So after a good showing at the york jeep show. At first they wouldn't let me on the rock course with 33's then after they did I had a better run then most of the tjs that had 35's. It felt good when the crowd started clapping after I finished the run.
THis is when I decided to start the next phase of the build with the goal of having it ready for Sept big dogs. I wanted to go with 7" lift and 35's but came across a set of new 36" tsl for a price that I couln't pass up. At this point in the game the zj has become a trailer queen with no hopes of being anything else so everything I did now was done as cheap as possible. At the time I was running it with 3.55 gears but had a spare 30 laying around that had 3.73 gears in it. I decided to just get a 8.8 with the same gears to give me a little better crawl ratio. In 4 lo the gears work fine but on the street it wouldn't get out of its own way.
I locked the front up with a aussie that I got used for a real good price and slaped it under the jeep. For the 8.8 I cut the brackets off the old d35 to save on some money.



After I sat it back on the drive it looked like this.

After taking down the shop and hacking the crap out of the fenders we were able to get some flex out of the 36's. At this point in the game I still have 4.5" coils and 2" spacers on.



A shot next to my buddy to give you an idea of flex.




The shocks stop with about 2" to spare before the coils fall out.

After that we took it up to RC for a test run for big dogs and except for one time the rear coil falling out it did great.






still a little bit of rubbing under full flex but i'm hoping the 7" coils will solve that.

Made it down to Big dogs and ran the pennsakentuckian trails with no issues. Also I'm able to max out the rti ramp they had their.

Last weekended I converted over my ac to oba with A five gallon tank in the back. works real nice and feels to to have some sort of air supply now on the trail. Total cost on that was around $250 or so. The next step I think is going to be to get a roll cage in it. I was thinking about going with the EOR cage.

[gonecheenin]

Thats a mean looking rig dude

I do find it hard to believe you don't need to cut more metal outta those front fenders though


Did you buy this ZJ off a dude at Canfield?

Looks exactly like one my friend & I were pondering on down there

[SuicideTireZJ]

I think I speak for everyone on the board when I ask for more pics of the girl...

[slim616]

I think I speak for everyone on the board when I ask for more pics of the girl...

here's some of her wheeling her jeep.




As for buying it, I got it off one of the guys who work for me.

[2jeepsforus]

You need some longer brake lines and cut that stupid ABS sensor out of there haha

[96_zjlarado]

You need some longer brake lines and cut that stupid ABS sensor out of there haha

x2 that's an accident waiting to happen. going down a steep trail after a brake line snaps is not fun.

[slim616]

I saw that, I lucked out and it stoped right before it started to do damage. I have 22" lines on now and will be uprgading to 24" when I get some spare cash. As for the abs I cut them out a couple weeks back when I started to go around the rig and get rid of stuff that wasn't need any more. Next on the hit list is the cruise control.

[notfast]

lookin good man....need to get you to set me up an 8.8...since ihave no skills

[EMTimZJ]

Nice thread!

Who is the guy in the STX shirt?

-Tim

[slim616]

Well after entering A offroad compatition the jeep met a unfortunate end. I'm not going to go into it to much because it was covered in this thread
http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/sho...950#post167950
But the end result was this

Well I marked the first of the new year by starting the task of building the new grand. This is what I got to work with, not bad for $250.
The drive line is pretty much shot with 235,000 miles on it. Though it can still get around on its own power. To fix this I plan on rebuilding the motor in the wrecked jeep and swapping over the entire driveline to the new one. The set up i'm going for on this rig is for to be black trail rated with the ability to drive down the road. For the street i'm looking for to just to be able to make short local trips with it, without feeling unsafe. I'm not worried about it getting down the highway or anything because its still mostly going to get towed everywere. For the offroad part i'm mostly going to keep what I had except for the part of going with fullsize axel to help with the stability part and a four link rear so I can get rid of the rear track bar. Also im going to set it up so everything is high clearence that way the control arms and shock mounts arnt being drug across the rocks anymore. As for the body the back will be chopped off to give it the avalanch look. I'm removing the back seats and adding sheat metal to give me a full bed in the back. This way I have room to mount the OBA, roll/weather proof boxes for equipment. The rest of the interior will be gutted and redone so that the cab will be able to be hosed out with no issues. I'm going to have a full cage inside with the seats to go with it. I think i'm going to mount the spare to the cage in the back to give it the pre runner look and to get it out of the way. Also I think i'm going with tube fenders to help keep the body off the trees.
When I was tearing down the old jeep I noticed this.


no your not seeing the same pic twice but both sides of the front axel. Looks like they were on their way out if I hadn't flipped the jeep when I did. Well sadly this is what the old jeep looks like now.


I took off anything that people would steal so it can sit down at my yard for while with no worries. Seeing both jeeps together I guess you can see why i'm not allowed to run her's on the trails.

[slim616]

I've been going through the write up sections looking at what I can upgrade easily by having the entire driveline pulled out. So far i've decided getting rid of the Abs and cruise control which looks like it should open up quite a bit of room in the engine compartment. With the extra room i'm going to try to get a second battery in there. Also I want to try to figure out some way to get the air intake up a little more. I've though about tring to rout it some how into the cab but it looks like their isn't to much room along the fire wall/dash to get it through cleanly. Also I think i'm going to install a aux electric fan to help the cooling on those hot days. As for the brakes I think i'm going to do the kung fu set up seeing it doesnt seem that tuff to do. Seeing I have the chance on this jeep to do everything right the first time I wouldn't mind any suggestions you all have on upgrades that I should do while its torn apart.

[ILikeMud]

Do the Kung Fu brakes.
I'll be doing mine in the next little bit.

As for dual batteries, look at ATL ZJs build, page 2 or 3 for his dual battery set up. Basically a BTF battery box in place of the stock coolant res. and a smaller coolant res. that is relocated. I'm personally going to go this route.

[jeeperanthony]

Im lazy.
How much lift was on the old one? and what shocks did you get?

[DerekL]

Im lazy.
How much lift was on the old one? and what shocks did you get?

NOT COOL. Go look.

[slim616]

For the lift just look at the sig but for the shocks I had rancho in the back and doshtech up front. Also mud thanks for the heads up on that. Its been awhile since I read that build i'll have to go back and check it out.

[ILikeMud]

Glad to help man.

[slim616]

well I guess I'm beyond the point of no return.



Tomorow I guess i'll start getting rid of stuff in the engine compartment that will not be used in the swap.

[dangerousdave]

looks like a heck of a start. the crash still sucks but its a good chance to change any thing you wanted to.

[slim616]

took advantage of the good weather today and got the engine ready to be pulled.

Also while I was destroying stuff I got rid of the abs in prep for the f350 booster upgrade.

I was having a pretty good day till I came across this back where the hatch closes.


what sucks is that most of the rest of the jeep is rust free. I guess it's not too bad becuse the upper part of the cancer will be covered when the lower half of the jeep door is welded shut to the body. I'm guessing the rest can be covered when I weld a sheet of metal across the floor to give a nice level bed across were the rear seats used to be. I'm thinking I will put somekind of door in the floor to give access to the space that will be created by doing this. Also It had crossed my mind about moving the fuel tank up in this area also. i've never really had any issues with the fuel tank getting draged across the rocks but I figured if I was going to do this upgrade, this would be the time to do it. What do all think, will the gain be worth the effort on moving the tank?

[slim616]

a couple pics from today

[cashflowdub]

what do you have a whole fleet of bobcats lol

[Jeeperoni91]

you ought to take the skid plate and hitch off and sell them, along with the tube doors unless your going to use them for the new jeep

[ILikeMud]

I got a bit of rust in the same spot on my ZJ.

[sevenslats]

you ought to take the skid plate and hitch off and sell them, along with the tube doors unless your going to use them for the new jeep

And the sliders.

[250rmike]

where at in maryland are you from? im in pasadena and am always looking for more people to go offroading with once i get everything squared away on my zj. btw zj looked good