Beat Not Built...

Hi I am Tim :typing: and i have been a snooping around on this form fro some time now. I have final had the chance to sit down and post some pics of my project... a build page if you will. This little red jeep is not my first but it is my first MJ i have allweys wanted one but ive neverbeen able to pick up a good one around here.(el paso TX {SMILIES_PATH}/jamminz.gif) or find any for that matter untill recently. I piched up a 1988 jeep mj 4.0 2WD short box.... she has 220k on her but i belive the motor has been rebult at some time. Just to warn you I'm a little dyslexic so bear with me. :popcorn: so back to the mj.... i paid a wopping 600 for her because the starter had gone bad and priveious owner just was tired of fixing her.... I just sold my 1990 xj so that i could start to buld her up.... my plans as of right now :chillin: are to convert it to a 4x4 lift it 6/12 to 7 inches with the roughf country long arm upgrade for the cherokee.... 8.8 in the rear with 4:10s and a hp30 in the front. I will be running 33 mtrs. I have allready started work on her so ill post up some pics as soon as i load them in to photo bucket.... :thumbsup:

Ps ive allready been working on the mj for about two months now

Ok So when i justy realised that i don't have any face pics of when i first broght her home???? hum i could have sworn.... :dunno: but here was the interior when i brought it home

I knew what i wanted to do so i got right to work. I removed the bench seat, carpet and most of the interior pannels :waving: i have allways liked the xj bucket seats and center consoul so that was what i was off to the JY in search of... :yes:

I fond some realy nice seats out of a 99 cherokee and i pullde the center consul and the flor shifter and cables, and 4x4 linkage and every thing associated with it, as i was also looking for a trans and a TC. I rean a cross a xj country at the jy and i took the wood grain dash and door panels and gauge cluster since i had the iddiot light cluster. becides it had 150k on the clock way better thatn my 220k iddiot... :rotf:

I ended up finding a aw4 out of a 94 xj that was mated to a 242 on craigslist for 100 gurenteed to be in good shape.... so off i went and home i came with the aw4. I took the 242 off the aw4 and ended up selling it for 130 so hey i made a few bucks hey I went to the you pull it here in town and pullde a low milage 231 out of a xj for 100

Nice work, you sound like an old pro at this.

well this isent my first rodeo, here are a few pics of my cherokee that i sold to start this one up...

i had bult a triangulater four link in the rear using tj coils and radius style arms in the front.... i sure do miss her, but i can't complain i tradied it for a super clean cj5 with a 304 and resold it for 4500.... thats great when you consider that i bought the xj origonaly for 500.00 but i did put a lot of time and love in to it....

i may one day turn the comanche in to a truggie, but for now i just want something i can moderatly wheel and pull my two standup jetskis to the lake

so back to redzilla

In one afternoon i pulled the trans out of redzilla, it was nasty dirty and installed the new trans and transfercase only to find i had a cracked fly wheel. I ordered one up in the next few days i had the trans out and the flexpalte in and every thing buttoned up. Can i just say I HATE doing trannys on the floor It is a major PITA... :mad:

I have decided that i am going to run dual bateries and an incab winch controler. I found a realy nice one at 12Vguy.com its listed for a tj but...... I am seting up the bateries behind the drivers seat, the solenoid for the setup is where the factory speaker would have been...

I am also installing a bunck of other eletrical circuts so i have allready done all of the witing so later down the road h can just plug and play. I have a your, two sets of lights on front one rear. I also wired in circuts for the ford taurus fan install that i am about to get in to. I also have a rockford fosgate 800w amp and a 12" kicker comp that is going behind the passangers seat.I ran two sets of 3/0 welding cables to the front where the winch is going to go lateron. I can honestly say that wiring is one of the most time consuming things... I use silver crimps and heat shrink every thing 3 times..... i like wiring but this one kicked my @$$...

So ive been a little bussy latly, I am curently geting ready for a move from tx to San Diego CA.... so work has prity much come to a stand still on the comanche.... but i will post some more when i get around to it so just hold tite and ill get back to it soon.... on a good note i made a nice rear bumper and corner guards/light boxes for the comanchie...... the turned out great....

So I just returned from San Diego Ca and now its time to jam back on the MJ more posts and pics soon to come on a seprate note i can't get the passanger door open i knoe the rods havent fallen off the latches because i can feel the restance on the latches and yes i have it unlocked and one know of any way to get it open with out traring the inside pannel off?

Love the xj!!!!! too bad she's gone

Nice xj and sounds like this is going to be a sweet Manche

If you can't get the door panel off you could take th fender off and take the whole door off the hinges :fs2:

Yeah the xj waz fun while it lasted but 2 weeks after i sold her the new owner roled it on a trail run we were on and it is now undergoing a truggie buld.... so atleast she's on her way back to life... But i see it this way, I had to make room for the comanchie and becides xj's are a dime a dozen.....There almost as popular around here as the wranglers...And on the door i was thinking about pulling the fender to get to the hinges but i think I'm gonna atack the fuel pump issue ive been having. Ill post up some more pic's this afternoon. now i just need to stay focused, I also have an 80 cj7 that I'm finaly restoring from the ground up so ill be a bussy little man the next few weeks but i have motivation so it shouldent be a problem

Its been a little crazy for me latly but i guess i better update this to where I'm at before it dies for good.... I'm also to lazy to type some time after wrenching all day. I have finaly goten the Time bomb 35 swaped out for a 8.8 with 4:10s that i got for a hundred dollars out of our local pick and pull. I took off the bed to swap the axel a little easer and while i had it off i striped the rear frame and repainted it with undercoating I have allso swaped out the PV from a ZJ with disks to get the most out of my rear brakes. ( I eliminated the stupid rear brake valve while i was at it... :wrench: It has new brakes including rotors, pads and e-brake pads.... I also sprong it over in anticipation for the final lift.... Ive been colecting parts since my last post whtch was a while ago and i belive i have almost every thing except for a front axel w/4:10 gears but ironicly i allready have my spartan locker.... :dunno:

I have made good friends with the brown truck driver latly :cheers: ... here's some goodies for you guys to feast your eves on...

I have the RC long arm upgrade, RC 9000 schocks, RC drop pitman arm, Rugged rige cross over stering with energy suspention dust boots, Rock krawler HD track bar, red SS extended brake lines, 2 sets of front coils one is rustys 8.5 inch coils and the red ones are skyjacker 7" soft ride coils, OME BPE eliminators from an old set of shocks i had, borrella header (I'm also in the prossess of bulding a 4.7l stroker but ill get in to more detail on that later), hub centric wheel spacers for the 8.8

Thing that i have ordered but still not recived yet are dimond cut head lights and smoke turn signals, and iorn man HD motormounts.

I am also in the prosess of restoring my cj7 from the ground up so ive veen trying to cram all that i can in to both of these projects while I'm back at home.... :ack: Ive been realy bussy on both, I have managed to get the 97 front clip on the jeep and the winch bumper and winch mounted and had the truck repainted black, the paints not done yet, Its going to be 3 tone with silver on the botom and a red stripe down the side. Ill get to the rest of the paint when i get it road worthy. It looks a little dirty in the pics, Its crazy because it never snows here in El Paso but the day i picked it up from the paint shot it was snowing prity good and it got all dirty on the trailor ride home....

Can't wait to see it with the 33s on it!

Me to.... Ive allways wanted a mj ALLWAYS. I'm a true jeep guy and i have probably owned about 15 or 16 xj's not to mention the 5 cj's and 3 Yj ive had.....my dad also has a completly origonal, down to the paint and apolstry and its in great shape (stored in a barn for ever!!!! 56 willies truck. Its what i learned how to drive in.... hopefully it will be mine one day :chillin:

But great news!!!! today after about cuting my finger off i did score a d 30 W/4:10 gears Its a disco front but thats ok because i have a 30 out of a 96 cherokee with the one peice axel shafts and bigger joints that I'm going to rob to make one bad @$$ axel out of. I also just ordered the alloy axel seals for it so I'm going to buld a small truss for it, install the alloy usa seals, the spartan locker, 1 peice axel shafts and box in the lca mounts and install this booger :banana: Ill get some pics of it tomorow.

I have goten the interior almost completle done so ill have to get some pics of that for ever one. So let me jump over to photobucket and pull up some of the progress that i havent posted yet. :USAflag:

very nice COMANCHE! :thwak:

looks good man, I want a set of them damn rear quarter/tail set up. :yes:

So here's some pics of my 4.7 stroker in progress, mind you my jeep still has its origonal renix 4.0 wich at this point still runs prity well. but i am doing this comanche up so... its a 99 block thats bored .60 over and has a 258 crank and rods allready installed I'm still in the prosess of finding a 91-95 head and a 99 intake to go with it, as soon as i pick ip the head I'm going to have it machined to except the chevy 2.02 valves and ported matched and pollished as well as the intake, I also still need to get over to hisco and pick up the tps adapter for this swap but I'm almost there. I also allready have a borella header that I'm still on the fence if I'm going to use it or not brcause the PO of this header installed a second o2 Bung on the header and did a $#!ty job of it.... I may end up ordering a dynomax header but I'm allready in the manch over 5k and its still sitting on jack stands :shake:

now :cheers: on to some progress

I did get the RC cross member installed so thats half the battle geting the front end done.

And i also got the RK track bar bracket installed....

I may be intrested in bulding a set of the 1/4 pannels for members if its worth my time :brows: pm me and let me know what you think there worth and then we can go from there but at the molment i only have a short box so long box owners are still out, but if i can get my hands on a lnog box to borrow i could easly whip up a few sets for sale.....

So I started tearing in to both of my dana 30"s this afternoon and can i say for a rust free town, I belive both of the axles i got were from some where else that see's a little more precipitaiton. My unit bearings were a beotch to get off but i have ordered new ones so i dident mind bearing the $h!t out of them :D. I havegot them both down to just howsings and gear sets. Like i posted before I am Installing the newer 1 peice axel shafts in to my 4:10 disco axel and after a bunch of reserch this is what i have realised.

to Install the new shafts i will need to pull the carrier to get a new seal in the passanger side of the diff housing, (napa PN 11800) to corectly seal the new shafts. This isent a big deal because i also realised that i will need to pull the carrier to get the ring gear off to install the spartan locker because of the thickness of the 4:10 ring gear so i guess ill kill two birds with one stone. I will also be installing a new deivers side seal as well while I'm in there (napa pn 11899). I have ordered a machined billet aluminum block off plate for the conversion :brows: as well as 91 up sloted brake rotors and unit bearings. I am hoping i can swap over the brake brackets from the 96 axel and run a set of calipers that i have had sitting around here for a while off a 92 xj :dunno: but if the brackets won't bolt to my disco knuckles then i guess I'm going to swap over knuckels as well but i buess some on can either chime in on this one or time will tell, either way its realy no big deal... I will be covering this more in detail for any on intrested in doing this swap as i havent found a whol lot of info on this, :smart: as soon as i get all of the peices in and load all of the pics in to photo bucket. I havent gotten around to that tonight so sorry ill try to get on that tomorow.... on a side note the mj is curently out side and being that it is going to be 15* and snowing i won't be geting to much else done except preping the axles and bulding the truss for it....

So as I promased here are a few pics of the axels and what i have been able to get done in the freezing weather.

here are the axels I started with, the non disco has 3.55 gears. I robbed the shafts out of it, I got the driverside seal today but napa was closed due to the 2" of snow we got :dunno: So I wasent able to get the seal i needed for the passanger side :headpop: so i have yet to pull the carrier to install the locker cuse I'm going to wait till i get that seal. I am still wating on the the usa alloy outer seals, the unit bearings, the billet aluminum block off plate, and the sloted and drilled rotors that i ordered. but i did get the axle cleaned up, I made guessets for the upper part of the C's, I also made some skid plates for the LCA mounts and built the truss, and last but not least Its painted tomorow I hope that i can pick up the seal that i need so that i can pull the carrier and install the locker, seals and shafts... then Its a wating game for the rest of my parts to come in. now I do have a question can I reuse my brake callipers on the origonal brackets with the 96 hub bearngs and rotors? or am i going to have to swap the knuckels to?....

So for any one wanting to swap out to newer axle shafts here is a little bit that i have gotten done today. Napa has been closed fro the past two days because of the weather so instead of getting napa PN 11899 for the driverside and Napa pn 11800 for the passanger side I went to Orileys and picked up Part number 710068 for the driverside and then I went to our local bearing and seal place and knowing that the passanger side seal needed to be 1.188 ID, 2.004 OD and .25 thick, I picked up a SKF seal PN 11545

now that i had the seals It was time for me to pull the carrier and install the locker and seals.

here's what i started with. It took a little bit of perswasion to get the carrier out with a pry bar but after a few miniutes it came out of its hole... I first started with installing the spartan locker in the carrier. I has to pull the ring gear off to get the cross pin out :wrench:

and after asembling it i realised that i had one of the internal colars backwards so apart it came so could flip the collar around. here it is installed in the carrier.

now I usea a 16" extention fed through the knuckel and a hammer to pop out the driverside seal notice how this side is machined to acept the seal

Then I made a tool to press the seal into place out of allthread and some nuts washers and a plate that i used to press the new seal in to place...

I forgot to get a picture of the instalation of the passanger side but i did it the same way that i did the drivers side. here is the carrier back in the housing.

now I'm ready for my hub bearings, usa alloy axle seals and rotors to come in. Aparently i am going to have to swap over the knuckles from the 96 axel to the disco axel and dig up some brake callipers out of my jeep parts plile. Tomorow ill be off to the parts house to get some new ball joints to get this done... more to come

So I got my billet aluminum block off plate for the axel disconect and i installed it but i havent gotten a picture of it yet. I am a little disscouraged today, I installed a new fuel pump today as the old one had talen a crap while it was sitting at the paint shop. It did start up but i am having some problems with it wanting to over heat while its idiling. :headpop: I have replaced just about every thing associated with the cooling syster, wich leads me to belive i either have a cracked head or a blown head gasket. What has me puzzles is that it will stay at a constant temp if i turn on the AC :wall: on a nother note i think I'm going to need a Hi Output altenator, I have a ford taurrus fan installed where the fan clutch was previously and when i turn it on low it is eating up a lot of power and if i put it on the hi side it all but drops down to to about 8 or 9 volts and almost kills the motor, and thats with the dual barrery switch turned on to suply the power from both batteries.... I was hoping to get this thing back on its own wheels and be able to wheel it atlease once before i got to finishing up the stroker but i guess I'm going to just start working on that sooner that i expected. I am almost to the point where I'm just going to give up on it for a while and go head first in to finishing the cj... :doh: O well i guess thats what i get for puting so much time in to it...

and is any one eaven reading this thread? no one ever posts anything :huh???:

So after sleeping my dicouragement off i woke up to the brown truch droping the usa alloy axel seals off :banana:

I has to go over to my moms this morning to sweat sauder some piping that had bursted last night but after that i went and purchased my melling Hi volume oil pump for the 4.7 I'm about to start bulding. i guess I'm about to jump head first in to getting that motor done. I think I'm going to pull the other motor out maby monday or tuesday so that i can prep and repaint the engine bay. Things i still need for the 4.7 goes as followes

99 intake

hiseco tps adapter

brown dog block brackets

timing cover from a ho and a hrmonic ballancer

an oil filter setup

ho thermostat housing

HO acessory brackets

and various gaskets

things i allready have

4.0 NV block w/258 12 weight crank and rods

93 ho head W/2.02 chevy valves and port job

.60 over pistons

iorn man motor mounts

melling hi vol pump

push rods and rocker asemblies

I did get the alloy deals installed and i also bolted up the diff cover and instaled a RCX rock ring, I'm still wating on ball joints ball joints, unit bearings and brake rotors then i can all but finish with this axle... here's some pics of the progress

and the knuckels in the backround are off the 96 axle, I found a set of acllipers that i had from a nother project that i will be using on this axle

and the billet block off plate

Nice work, that axle looks good and that dif cover is freakin sweet!

Too bad to hear that she aint running right, I would call it and yank that cranky thing out of there. :idea:

Tough looking axle. That XJ looks like it was really built - love the roll cage in it. Keep up the good work and pictures :D