Steve96xj

So I recentley picked up this mj shortbox that was on a local classified ads website for $400 cash, the truck is an 88 pioneer 4.0, AW4, 2WD, with a D35 out back 104k on the ticker.
I daily drove the truck for about a week but then it started running terrible, the cat plugged up so i put a new cat, glasspack, and turndown on it. It ran better but it would stall at red lights and had a miss to it, i did a full tune up on it, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, and a new cone filter but that didnt make too much difference. After a bit of screwing around i found that the egr valve was bad and the vacume lines coming out of it were burned right off never seen that before, but i ended up taking off the emissions i fabbed up a block off plate for that, and got rid of most of the rats nest of vacume lines on the motor. It ran alot better but still wasnt perfect, I ended up taking off the valve cover and cleaned out the baffles which were plugged, and put a new gasket on to replace the leaking one.
Finally the truck runs drives starts idles like new!

The truck is actually really Solid and not much rust, it needs the floors patched but i will do that while im working on the 4WD swap.

My plans for the build are as of now:

Flat black paint
3/4 elliptic Rear suspension setup, would rather do that than a coil conversion any day
Spring over
Relocate rear shocks
Longarm Upgrade
4:10 gears
33's or 35's
locker
zj v8 steering
Winch/Bumpers
Dual Batteries
4WD Conv.
Not sure on lift yet I have to see how the rear turns out I think its going to be big.

Here is how it sits when i got it, Then the start of my paint.
Some Hillbilly had it before me and was pretty full of themselves, his name was vito and had "king vito" and "vito #1 Hellbilly" spray painted on the hood, I got that covered right away because i couldnt stand looking at it.

Steve96xj

I scored an aw4, 231 tcase, front driveshaft, etc with 104k on it, got luckey there for $175, I also got a 4:10 carrier ring and pinion out of a yj for $50.
I had a HP30 laying around from my previous 2 door xj so know the fun begins.
Stay Tuned

Finn

Subscribed. Can't wait to see where this goes.

Steve96xj

Decided to throw the HP30 I have in the truck, I am still using the truck as a DD so I do what i can. I am selling my white XJ right now minus the bumper and winch so i can get a decent DD and concentrate on building the truck.

Steve96xj

Got the 2wd axle out I was pretty happy that everything came right apart!

Steve96xj

Got the HP30 put in the rotors were different from the 2wd axle so I threw new ones on along with pads aswell, the ratio is 3:07 in the front and 3:55 in the rear but im not to worried about it since I have 4:10 gears for the front and I might be picking up a D35 with 4:10 gears out of a comanche for $50 this weekend. I eventually want to go with a 4:10 8.8 im going to have to start watching the junkyard.

Steve96xj

Thought i would share the jeep collection in my driveway

Steve96xj

Started my 3/4 elliptic setup for the rear. I had one 2wd s10 main leaf laying around for some reason, Started by cutting it apart at the hole for the center pin.

SirLasVegas

youve got a jeep or two lol Looking forward to the build.

Sittinglowforever

How hard was the disc break conversion

Steve96xj

I measured up a stock yj rear shackle off my dads jeep and then made up my new shackles at of 1/4 steel plate at work.

Steve96xj

I then measured up my two pieces of spring and cut them off the same length leaving them both as long as i could with a cut off wheel for a clean cut. Here is my two pieces of springs and the shackles completed.

Steve96xj

Yeah there is a jeep or two around here lol my gf has a wj limited so thats usually always around too. I didnt do a disc break conversion on the truck so im not sure what your question is sittinglowforever?

Steve96xj

Ok now for the 3/4 elliptic install Ive never seen anyone do this to a cherokee or a comanche tho but i think it will be the cats *** for getting alot of flex out of the rear! My dads yj has this setup and it works impressively well. I didnt get to many pics of the install because i was worried about getting it together to drive it to work ( I use that for my test rides haha). I got it done though I was leary about cutting the factory shackle mounts off the frame since there In the way but I fired up the torches and went for it, what do i got to loose it was only a $400 truck!

Steve96xj

I used 5/8 grade 8 bolts to hold the spring to the frame of the comanche the holes towards the rear of the truck were factory perfect size for 5/8 bolts, I had to drill out the ones towards the front which wasnt hard at all. I brazed pieces of flatstock steel to the bolts to fish them into place through the frame, I used factory holes that were on the inner frame rails i didnt have to do any drilling or cutting there it worked slick! What is also nice about making flag bolts like this is you dont have to worry about getting a wrench on the bolts it will prevent them from spinning when you tighten the nuts.

I put the springs and shackles together on the truck to figure out were i need to drill the pieces of spring i made that was a ***** drilling them since there hardened a carbide drill is best at a low speed with cutting oil.