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The little YJ that could

1K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  whitneyj 
#1 ·
I've been lurking this site a little bit since I moved back to WI, figured I'd start posting up what I've been building lately.

This project is a buddy's 95 YJ, started with the 2.5 caged squirrels with 240K on the odometer, the 42RE, and NP231 tcase, D30 with the CAD front and a locked d35-both with the original 4.10's. He did some mild wheeling, moved up to wrangler MT 31's, Solid diff covers, homemade rocker guards, Genrite quarter panel guards, and a ciderblock for the skinny pedal....

Plans:
302 from an 91 F150 with 69K on the clock
AX15 w/ AA adapter plate
NP231 with super short SYE
HP D44-5.13 gears, spooled
9"-5.13 gears, spooled
3 link front, leaf sprung rear
102" WB-(shot that one right away)
21" belly height

I don't have pictures of the motor swap or of the universal mounts that we used originally, that was all done in North Carolina. My buddy did the wiring-just spliced the Furd harness into the Jeep harness. We're not able to use the stock gauges as the ohm's are different, so I'll probably be building a dash and running all new gauges.

I already geared the axles, so the next step was the trusses:

I started with cutting 2" wide strips of 1/4" plate and running them lengths wise on the axles
Bumper Automotive exterior Vehicle

Garage is messy I know, not alot I can do about it when I have 1/2 of a 2 car garage to play with :D
Vehicle Auto part Bumper


Vehicle Auto part Car


I had to grind the top of the housing down a little to get the strap to sit where I wanted it.

Bumper Auto part Automotive exterior
 
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#3 ·
you'll want to use photobucket or similar to host your photos and them embed them here using the IMG code
 
#6 ·
Hardly. The front axle gained barely 30 lbs and the rear maybe 45 lbs. It's 1/4" strap on top and 1/8" on the sides. Considering the 9" is notorious for being as stiff as a wet noodle, trussing was required. I'll agree the d44 didn't need the truss-it has 1/2" wall tubes- but it matches the front and makes locating brackets for the 3 link a lot easier. Either way at least the C's on a d44 need to be gusseted in my opinion. I've seen to many stock C's fail.

I never posted what the intended use for the vehicle is: everything from mild street use to the hardest trails the rig can be towed to. The owner of the vehicle is in PA, so there's going to be quite a towing involved...

Everything I've built has been for trails like Harlan, KY, Rausch Creek, VA, ect, so some things tend to get over built so there's very little possibility of things failing.
 
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