XJlimitedx99

Tech details:

Drivetrain:
-4.0 L with Neon injectors, 62 mm thottle body, Spectre cowl intake, 2.5" header back exhaust, Kolak's ignition kit
-AW4
-NP231 with an Advanced Adapters sye kit
-Stock front driveshaft with a front shaft also in the rear
-HP Dana 30 front 3.55 open
- 29 spline c8.25 rear 3.55 with KJ disc brakes and a Spartan locker

Front Suspension:
-Old style TnT long arms
-Rubicon Express 3.5" coils
-2" Teraflex coil spacers
-Bilstien shocks
-Iron Rock Offroad double shear track bar
-Brake line extension brackets
-C10 brake lines
-Hockey puck bump stops
-Rough Country disconnects

Rear Suspension:
-Stock XJ/S10 leaf spring bastard pack
-Giant shackles that I got for free
-H.D. Offroad Engineering no lift shackle relocation brackets
-Bilstien shocks
-Dakota brake line
-Dirtbound offroad bump stop plates

Steering:
-Factory geometry
-ZJ tie rod

Electrical:
-Remote start/aftermarket security system
-Cibié headlights, Hella harness, Osram H4 bulbs
-Alpine Type-R 5-1/2" speakers with a JL 300/4 speaker amp
-12" Alpine type-R sub with a 500 W Alpine amp
-55 W yellow fog lights
-136a Durango alternator
-5-90's 4 AWG wires
-Customized OEM PDC
-E-fan over-ride
-Extended Idle
-CB with 4' Firestik, external speaker, and PA horn

Misc:
-Sunroof
-Brown Dog motor mounts
-Lund visor
-B&M trans cooler and temp gauge
-JCR steering box spacer
-Boostwerks t-case shift linkage
-Frame stiffeners front/mid/rear
-Coolant Filter
-Baddad Fab hidden winch bumper with Ares fab wings.
-Warn M8000 winch with solenoid relocated to engine bay

It's time to make a build thread:

Goal: My daily driven weekend warrior, bugout, overland, expedition, all purpose, utility, damn good time vehicle!

Background:
My name is Mitchell, I'm 20 years old from Milford, NH. Mechanical Engineering major.

This is my second Jeep. First was a 97 ZJ that my father gave me when I was 16. I had that for less than a year because I hydro-locked it twice, blew the motor, and 4 of my windows got smashed out. She died with about 245k.



About a year and a half later I picked up my 99 XJ with 135k
I really had no idea what I was doing at the time, but I got lucky with the Jeep I started my build with. It was in good condition, 3" lift and 31s, aftermarket sunroof, remote start, leather, nice. It didnt take long before I caught that Jeep thing everybody talks about.






I babied it for awhile before I really got into it.
























Added some Harbor Freight special roof lights and a light bar my buddy made in shop class.






Redid my sagging headliner. What a PITA because of the sunroof. I also redid both overhead consoles.









Replaced the valve cover gasket



my grounds were shot, so i upgraded to 5-90's 4awg wires



added a cb radio



annnnnd my alternator went.



Replaced with a 136a Durango alternator



did some wheelin



and some general jeep community stuff



finally got some halfway decent tires. 31x10.5 bft a/t



I bought this giant steel bumper. I ended up taking it off. Its heavy.



and my oil sending unit went.






Bought some used TnT long arms on craigslist.



Took the Jeep on a 3+ hour drive up to the White Mountains in NH. Did 90 on the highway and drove the Kancamangus in a snow storm.






My favorite driving



somehow I bent a shock lol. it must have froze



Trying to break the jam nuts on my long arms.



sand blasted everything besides my belly pan



went snow wheelin



took the mudweiser sticker off. it was time


my buddy's 98 from work



got my new shocks in! bilstiens



replaced my oil pan



got a sye in my xcase, got rid of this junk


got my setup



went wheelin









painted everything for my lift



got my gears in the mail



went wheelin



and riding. 1985 suzuki gs550e



bought my 35s.






did some fishing



I finally actually wired up my CB



Then, after much effort in research and prep, I started my lift build on July 14th


This is as far as I got on day 1.



New England winters do not create the best working conditions

unidentifiedbomb

You break things haha looks good.

94XjSport94

Nice. Mine was built about like that before I took it all apart. Didn't know you were 20 as well.

MoparNJeep

What size of tires?

Battle

It looked SOOOOOO nice when it was just lifted on 31s...

I'm sure it's more capable now haha. Sweet rig though.

Scott'sXJ

What the heck is that in your eye?!?!

XJlimitedx99

35x12.5 Cooper Discovery STT's on 15x8 Crager Soft 8's

XJlimitedx99

it was actually a paint chip haha. I'm usually really good about wearing safety glasses, but I wasn't using power tools

XJlimitedx99

These were my best friends



H.D. Offroad Engineering's no lift shackle relocation brackets






found some rust. the other side was just as bad



got a paint chip in my eye!



Replaced my leaf spring bushings on my old sagging 3" leafs










put them on with longer shackles and the brackets to see where it would sit. ended up being about 3.5"






bought the wrong brakelines



broke all 4 upper rear shock bolts, obviously. This was such an easy fix.






Broke 3 of my 4 trans crossmember bolts. Be advised. Dont do this! It sucks.



got frustrated and took the front apart







then came back to those bolts. I went in through the floor to drop new bolts from the top.









At this point in late August I realized this was not going to be done before school. So I bought this little daily for cheap money.






Took my control arm mounts off. No going back now!



I had the biggest problem finding these bushing sleeves. Tnt doesn't have them anymore. I founded these which were too small. I ended up making some.



Got the front back together












Took my leaf packs apart and did em all up while making my s10 bastard pack



got the rear back together



and the first time its been back on all 4s since july!















and here she is! December 17th was the first time I drove her since July and it felt oh so good.






























COMING SOON:

-Alingment

-Putting the 31s back on for winter and for inspection in January

-Cutting the fenders

-Rear bump stops

-Have my gears installed. Probably a lunchbox or detriot locker for the rear, undecided on the front. I really want a selectable in the front. I was looking at e-lockers. I have chromos for the front and will probably get some for the rear too.

-Address my stock steering. I have a ZJ tie rod I need to install but I would like to address my terrible drag link angle. I really would like to do a WJ knuckle swap and also disc brakes in the rear.

-Get some real driveshafts under there. I have a nice rear one, but I think I need to get it shortened.

-Wire up my amber fog lights for winter

XJlimitedx99

.

XJlimitedx99

bump for adding stuff

XJlimitedx99

So after doing plenty of research I am between the JCR one ton OTK setup and building a setup from ruffstuff. I really like how ruffstuff has offset tre's and the angled one for the draglink to pitman arm. I don't own a welder and I'm not confident enough in my welding skills to trust myself doing steering, so my OTA trackbar bracket would need to be welded on by a shop, which is also why I'm considering JCR. I don't want to have to weld in tapered inserts or bungs into DOM.

XJlimitedx99

So she's aligned and back on the road! Did about 55 with no death wobble or driveline vibrations. It kinda hated pushing the 35s with stock gears, obviously. Also has some pretty crazy bump steer. JCR otk steering here I come, along with gears and lockers. Here's how she is going to sit for the winter

XJlimitedx99

So I almost totaled my Jeep yesterday..

We were out snow wheeling for about a hour. Conditions were awesome and we were having a blast, until we got to one steep icy downhill.

I crept down as slow as possible, trying to stick to the snow on the edge, but my rear end swung right around and the front shortly followed.

We spun around 4 times, sliding very fast down a tight trail. We slid about 150ft, missing trees and boulders by inches. It's a miracle we did not roll or smash anything hard. This is the only damage from the entire ordeal:




It all happened so fast I don't even know what I hit that caused the dent, but I feel very blessed that it's all I got. We got so so so lucky, we could've been killed. I learned my lesson. Please be careful out there everybody.

XJlimitedx99

Today was nice out and I had the day off so I spend some well needed quality time with my jeep. I retorqued everything for my lift and also reinstalled my sway bar with rough country quick discos.

I've been really debating which direction to go right now. I realized I need to do some regular maintenance. My inspection is due at the end of the month and i know how it sits now it won't pass. It's got a CEL for rear O2 sensor, I don't think my front two tires will pass, I broke my ebrake cable on one side, there's a large rot hole in one of my quarter panels, and my floor is separating from the unibody under the drivers seat.

The rust is also starting to bubble through in the bottom of the doors, hatch, and rockers a little bit. It's only a matter of time before its bad. In hindsight, I wish I started my build with full length frame plates and 2x6 rocker panels while fixing any other soft spots at the time.

There's also several other things that need to be taken care of. I'm just going to use this thread as a mental list of things I need to do:

Motor/trans mount
Driver's window regulator
Rear diff seal
Bleed brakes
Steering stabilizer
Rear hatch struts
To be continued..

There's also several other things I've had on my mind that id like to do before moving much farther towards 35s.

First is my stock steering. I'm pretty sold on the JCR OTK kit. I'm thinking I'm going to use the ruffstuff OTA trackbar mount and also some extended sway bar mounts.

I need a trans cooler. I'm pretty sold on the b&m one for $65 with everything you need. I also want a trans temp gauge on the pillar.

I also need to setup my bump stops. I have hockey pucks in the front, but only have 1 oem stop in place. There's nothing in the rear. I broke all 4 rear bump stop bolts. My plan is to use the bump stop ubolt plates with the stop mounted on the plate. I saw some somewhere the other day that mounted the bump stop offset a bit to give clearance on the shock.

I have cibie headlights and h4 bulbs sitting in boxes waiting to go in, along with some nice rectangular amber fogs that I scored at the jy. I'd like to wire those up, as well as build a cleaner wiring setup for all of my extra relays and fuses.

I have parts for a KJ disc swap that I've been waiting to get to for awhile.

Also I have JCR front frame stiffener bracket things and steering box spacer. I want to fabricate some d ring mounts that tie into the JCR brackets.

Hmm.. Anything else? Lol sorry, I need somebody to rant to, whether anybody reads this or not.

Oh ya. I'm looking to get a Spectre cowl snorkel. I don't want a conventional one. Cowl just has too many advantages for me. With the air box removed I want to eventually run dual batteries. As I was just typing that I was thinking I could run dual factory fuse/relay boxes like the batteries!

Also totally forgot driveshafts. Currently running a stock front shaft in the front and back. Those need to be replaced because they're stretched pretty far right now. I'd like a trail spare also. Part of me was also thinking about stretching the rear an inch of two by drilling the u bolt plate, so that would make it even longer.

I'm sure there's several things I want to do at some point that I'm forgetting but that's a solid start.

Before 35s are a daily thing I need to install my gears. I know I want lockers at some point so I'm trying to hold out until I can afford the whole package. There's a possibility I could find somebody to help me set them up for free or a small cost instead of paying like $1,500 for labor.

I'm pretty sold on doing an Eaton e-locker in the front with a Deteoit Truetrac lsd in the rear. I know you're thinking why lsd. I feel like it will be most beneficial for me for winter driving and mild off-roading, then I can lock in the front when I need it. I don't want an automatic locker in the front because I like to be able to turn in the woods.

Also I have 27 spline chromos for the front, but as of right now I don't know of anybody that makes axles for the 8.25 that are actually 4340.
I'm thinking I'm going to pick up some solid diff covers whenever I tackle the gears.

I'm slightly torn about where to go with my build. I just lifted it to high for 31s and don't want to run my 35s. Part of me said sell the 35s but I love that set. Another part of me says pick up a set of 32x11.5s and run those for the season. I'm headed off to school next year and although I'll have my jeep I'm unaware of what my living situation will be like.

Damnit real like getting in the way and stuff. I just want to build a badass Jeep. Rant over.