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Project: Pavement Sucks in a zj

76K views 568 replies 49 participants last post by  GREASYHANDS 
#1 · (Edited)
I bought this xj about three years ago with 233k miles.

Motor made some noise so I decided to pull it and refresh the bottom end. Upon tear down I found a cracked head also. So after a few weeks of ownership and a few hundred bucks I had a fresh engine. About a week later I wanted to pop my offroad cherry, so off to SLSD I went. After bombing around the dunes I managed to find the deepest water hole on the beach.

Snap crackle pop, hydrolocked, lesson learn'd. Found a replacement 4.0 and slapped it in. Then I figured I could use some protection on the front end, I added a large square bumper.

I rocked that front end for a while until I found a better replacement. I reattached the bumper on the rear and sealed it to so it would be an air storage tank.
Then I was gifted a D30 lunchbox locker, this was the coolest thing I had added to my build so far. I added and subtracted a few acc's here and there but still managed to conquer everything the USFS had to throw at me. So I decided to try some parks. I was not so happy with my suspension set up after a few trips. I found some new leaf springs and ditched my blocks and add-a-leafs, replaced the front coils and lower control arms, and added a tcase drop with a longer yj yoke.
I forgot to mention that I have also been daily driving this thing since I bought it. Loved doing this until gas jumped over 4 bucks a gal.

Then about two weeks ago I noticed some slight twisting in my leaf spring mount. Pulled the carpet and found lots o rust. I knew my floors had been gone since I bought the Jeep but when I pulled the carpet I found this,

plus the fact that the unibody started to crack at the leaf mount. So now I am in the process of boxing the "frame" and turning my mall crawler into something more.
 
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#166 ·
Well my toe was 1/2" out for some reason. I also measured with my magnetic angle finderon the flat spot on the diff cover and came up with 87°, my pinion was at 7° I think. I forgot to write that down after I measured. It drives much better now.

I also finished my endcaps, some more fender trimming, and a transfer case skid.
 
#170 ·
You want pics?

So here they are. I spent the weekend at rocks and valleys. The jeep worked awesome! With my newly installed body protection it gave me extra confidance to try harder obsticals. I even crawled winch hill only winching once. I did find a few busted up things once arriving home. My rear drive shaft took a beating, the exhaust did also, my front axle joints need some full circle clips or an almost alloy kit, and my leafs sagged out pretty far, and my steering was bent up some. All in all a fantastic weekend! Now for pics.






 
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