huntingman2706217

Time to get back at it... i sold out of project frugal and SRT-8 comanche mainly because i started back at school 01/11, work full time an hour away, and the wifes bugging me about a kid so im ALOT more on a budget now... lol...

This is my new to me 95 XJ sport 2 door... I6,AW4, D30,D35... speaker bar and a large zip lock bag of change under the back seat were the perks of buying it... well that and the $500 price tag...

In these pics its still on the trailer... the guy was asking $700 and it needed a fuel pump... told him before i went to see it id give him $600... fuel pumps $100... went to see it and there was things he left out of course... he started it with starting fluid and the belt never budged... told him something was froze... gonna take at least another $100 to fix... so i got it for $500...

got it home pulled the sending unit and it was rusted all to crap... so i pulled the tank from project frugal I that i havent gotten to crap yet and stuck it in there... sending units are different so i won one on ebay for $20 shipped.... got it installed it and was good to go... the alternator was what was froze... freed it up but i went ahead and replaced it new...

replaced the battery terminals since the jeep sat almost a year and it cranked right on up... drove it straight to get the oil changed and fluids checks and runs great since!! no engine light or nothing! has brand new street tires that have flat spots now i hope to work out and im sure small things like wiper blades and such... only thing i found was a kinda hard start issue... which could be alot of different things... fuel pump bleeding back down... air getting in the lines... bad injectors... i dont care though... im planning a fuel cell before to long anyways... just didnt want to buy anything else till i heard it run for awhile...

anyways hers some pics and ill go over what ive done so far and am doing...

huntingman2706217

today i went up to nashville TN i got a ford 9in with a full spool and 4.88 gears for $200... i was already building a 9in for frugal I and still had everything for it but the install kit... so i sold my 5.13 gears on pirate real quick for $150 and bought this axle lol... my housing already has ruff stuffs perches setup for a XJ and i WAS going to swap this 3rd member over to the XJ housing... but im starting to think it may be easier to try and cut the perches off and put them on this axle instead... if i cant cut them off it still may be easier to rebuy JUST the perches and put them on this axle... since my other housing is stripped to nothing... this 9in i bought today was setup for a CJ7...

i also still had the 97+ front clip for the MJ since i knew i may want it... thats going on this XJ as well... today i pulled the stock fenders and front grill off getting things ready... although im changing the whole front end... im thinking about narrowing the front... ive never seen a narrowed front XJ but i dont think it would be hard at all... so im gonna be cutting up the 97+ front clip ALOT lol...

other plans include:
replace cracked windshield with one i had for frugal I

recenter H1 two piece steel double beadlocks that were on my cummins for 5x5.5 lug pattern and run 37's

d30 front for now (yes i know everyone is against this) with 5x4.5 to 5x5.5 spacers for now as well...

future after the lift and everything else... D60 front non kingpin (only running 37's and kingpins are twice as much), spooled, 4.88's, stock axles unless i start to break them...

4.5in to 5.5in custom long arm setup... full packs of course...

chop top

custom bumpers by me, fuel cell, custom shock setup, probly gutting the back half i think and doing it all custom to fit the 37's with 4.5inches... easier to door with the two door... thats why i like them...

tubes for rockers

half doors out of these doors (electric) and removable doors from frugal I (mechanical)

all this AS i drive it... my reason for ditching the other projects was time... frugal 1 had another years worth of work... this one will be as i go... im ready to ride... ill build after i break crap...

02/11/2012 update... ^^^ all that went to ****... lol... see last page eventually... lol...

huntingman2706217

Well monday i was doin some craigslist searchin on break at work... was looking to see if any deals kicked up on a dana 60 front... searched "ford axle" and what do ya know... a 05 F250 Dana60... larger and much more superior hub assemblies then the 99-04 Dana 50's and 60's... 35 spline axles... 9.75 ring gear... lock out hubs... had both radius arms and all the steering, brakes... was a asking a whole $250 and was 2 hours away... so i called and told him i wanted it... i was scared he would sell it out from under me during the week cause i wasnt gonna make it till this weekend but he didnt... he said it wasnt till today that people started calling like crazy about it... lol... so i went up and picked it up today... by the way... take a trailer... two people putting a dana 60 in the back of a jacked up Z71 by hand is pretty crappy.... then add 4 foot long radius arms still attached and its pretty interesting... lol... gonna try and use the engine hoist to get it out though... its got 3.73's but im gonna get some 4.88's and a full spool for it as well... lock out hubs should allow me to be fully locked whenever the hubs are locked and completely unlocked whenever i unlock them... and no fancy $900 locked... or $200 carrier for larger gears... saves alot of money...

90XJkid

Great find! I am watching this.

huntingman2706217

Should be fun man... although I need to do some research on smallest lifts with a Dana 60 front cause its huge... I'm not sure how clearances are gonna work out yet lol... or if they will at all... I know a Guy running a d44 front on 2in Bb and 37's... so I dunno...

huntingman2706217

well i got out there and took a few measurements... from the Dana 60 aft part of the axle tube to the hole for the bolt at the other end of the stock radius arms is 37in... from the aft part of the axle tube on the dana 30 to the center of the crossmember is guess what? 37inches... thats long arms right there... which is what i was planning... these control arms are pretty beef... i think i may trim the pinch and weld seams off the top and bottom and weld on plate instead... then just reuse the arms... heck if i dont like it then ill buy some aftermarket arms for the F-250's... just to me the stock arms look stronger then the aftermarket ones do... and aftermarket kits are like $500... could build my own but i dunno... we will see i guess... also the way they are made i should be able to punch out the stock bushings on the frame end and install some joints... anyways the measurement from one radius arm to the other is guess what? the same as the frame rails on a XJ... this is good and bad... its good because its so much easier to build mounts under the frame... but bad because it can be a loss in ground clearance... ive read people not liking drop brackets because of ground clearance issues but they also agree that the control arms kind of act like skids or ramps to the mounts... to move my arms outside or inside of the frame rails may be difficult though... i may have no choice but to run them under the frame... 37's will help though!

i think ill probly install both axles and get my wheels built before i do the gears in the front... im gonna need a vehicle for in the woods and this is it... even if i dont have a working front axle im still good cause the rear will be locked... not much different then running stock open cherokee axles...

huntingman2706217

well i took acouple minutes and plaid around some...

a ROUGH measurement from the middle of the coils is also 37in...

the flat plates on the axle in the pics below are also roughly 37in... so all i gotta do it get it centered... weld on a larger plate to the top of these... and run a 3.5in(guesstimate) by 2in tube up the middle of the plate to hold the springs in place... so basically what im saying is the springs plates are pretty much already in the fight location and it wont take much at all to make it work... on top of that this place is about 2.5in MORE above the axle tube then the d30 is to the top of its spring plate... so going off of what i read thats about in inch of lift by itself... so ill need to keep that into account...

in all this axles really looking like it should be pretty easy to install... we will see come this weekend... thats when the old comes out and the new gets kinda set into place...

say goodbye to project frugal I... its going to scrap with the parts i pull of frugal II!

huntingman2706217

RIP in its better day...

huntingman2706217

heres where im at after yesterday and today... axles are stripped and scrapped... got the D60 sitting in there just right... nothings hooked up or bolted up yet... just trying to see how everything is going to work and such... my largest issue is seeing how i want to hook up the radius arms at the frame... see how massive they are? frickin alot of loss on ground clearance... i wanted to run these stock for a bit till i could drop the extra money on the control arms in the ebay links below... but at the same time id have to rebuild the mounts closer to the frame... so im trying to think of a way i can build a mount and then later just drill my new hole closer to the frame and then cut off the bottom half of the mount so get my clearance back later... because the radius arms are the same distance on the axle as the frame i know im going to loose clearance to the mounts any way i look at it... unless i built custom arms that bend around into the inside or outside of the frame rail which i dont have the stuff to do... so when my radius arms go up till the meet my frame rail (near the old lower control arm mount) is about all the up flex im gonna be able to get... so ill have to bumpstop accordingly... which isnt a big deal because im looking for 37's on the lowest amount of lift possible... means up travel for me wont be much anyways...

the ones i cant build but are cheaper... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ranch...item2a0d548b08

and the ones i might can actually build but only sold in a crazy high dollar kit... gives me ideas though... there actually adjustable radius arms...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/05-07...item3a6291d7e1

Schatty

now thats an axel

huntingman2706217

lol... thanks! its wide as crap! like 5in wider then the 9in axles so gonna be wider up front... guess thats good... if the front can make it then the rear can make it! lol... I got the spring perches flat cut to size and welded on saturday... gotta find some 4in OD tube so i can weld that to the flat for the spring to sit over and keep centered...

i also picked up my old 4.5in front procomp springs ( same company makes RE front springs from what ive read) and 4.5in rear leafs with shackles that i sold to huntermac... he got in a bind and needed a radiator and didnt have the extra mula to put the rest of the lift together... $150 for both... works out for me also... i am selling the rear leafs though... since i decided to link the rear!

huntingman2706217

just realised its been a minute since ive updated this... i got a axle built thread in fab for this as well for feedback... im now building a Y link front with all heims or maybe a true 4 link... and linking the rear with a 4 link and all heims... waiting on a price for heims now...

huntingman2706217

lol... im building a XJ dana 44 for a guy whos in afgan right now... he bought it from me... i stripped it and am blasting it and painting it for him... then dropping off at sixditch(.com) in Atl for them to install his chromo axles, gears, lockers, u bolt eliminators, shock tabs, all new brakes (wait im doing all the brakes), and a HD diff cover... hes gonna have like $2.5k in this joker... lol

huntingman2706217

Raised the quarters up the day before yesterday... then yesterday I gutted out the back to make way for this new bumper... took all the carpet out and trimmed the plastics right behind the upper seat attachments... opens up the rear alot and it'll get herculined one day with the rest of the floors...

Also started narrowing the front end... haven't seen any other xj's narrowed and for me it'll make me stuff the 37's easier and because the axles so wide it'll make a huge difference in approaches... the Cherokees radiator is wider then the frame rails so gonna have to find me a different one... wrangler maybe?

huntingman2706217

spent abunch of money today...

ordered $300 worth of stuff from ruffstuff... hope to see it soon! lol

2 LH 1.25 heims for my lowers on the frame end... 1.5ID tube adapters as i plan to run 2inOD tube so 1.4in thick...
2LH 7/8x7/8 LH heims for my uppers on the frame end... 1.5ID tube as well... save money using the same size top and bottom... plenty of room so why not?
link brackets for the lowers...
link tabs for the uppers...
and since i got rid of a 9in housing i had my RS simple axle swap perches on i ordered some new perches for this 9in and ill just use the old stuff i had... never used it so really its all new...

i decided to run the 4.5in RE leafs and shackles in the rear for now... ill save up and buy alittle here and there for the 4 link rear over the summer and winter and do that this time next year... heck if i stuff the fronts and the rears are still on the ground and every things good there may be no point to coil the rear... not with the setup ill be running...

i also decided to build a 4 link with the uppers going to the lowers old locations... and the lowers to the crossmember location but inline with the frame... if i think im not getting the best flex then ill disconnect the drivers side upper arm and see how that does... if its better then ill just keep the other upper arm as a spare... will be the same anyways... ill make a spare lower later on... since there all straight and non of the links are bent to fit then ill be able to swap them back and forth if need be...

next round of stuff will be H1 centers, shocks, brake lines, and doing what i gotta do to make the driveshafts work... then she will be on the road once again... H1 centers being my largest cost... the rest is just your normal stuff... gut the carpet... finish the narrowing front end with scrap metal... rocker delete with sliders installed... stuff i can do over time really...