Yesterday and last night was dedicated to pulling, delivering and shipping parts that I have sold off my old Jeep to help finance my build of Project Great White. I'd made enough to get my Master rebuild Kit for the Dana 44 that will be coming out of the old jeep and going into Great White. I ordered this one off of E-bay. $79.98 + 9.95 shipping = $89.93 delivered to my front door. Nobody could touch that price. I have no idea what brand of bearings are in the kit but, the price was right and I'm thinking about having my local 4x4 shop setup my gears "professionally" this time. I did them last time and they lasted 5 years. I really think they would have lasted even longer if I hadn't put in a rear DS that was too long and bottomed it out a bunch of times. The shop wants $300 to setup gears in a bare axle housing. Seems a little....no, VERY steep to me. I suppose for the price he gives me a warranty though so, if I blow it up or it starts making noise again I can just take it back for him to fix. This D44 is also going to get the stock lower shock mounts ground off and new ones welded on at the axle tube level for better clearance. I am also going to go ahead with my rear disc brake conversion, too. I want to do all of the upgrades I've been wanting to do to this axle, before I put it into Great White.

 

The plan for tonight is to take my 2.5" Flowmaster exhaust from my old Jeep, over to my buddys house to have him hopefully weld up a crack in the muffler. Then I will be able to put it on GW and lose that factory vacuum cleaner sound. The rest of this week will be chipping away at all of the parts that need to be removed from the bottom of the old Jeep so I can pull the axles out from under it and set it down on the shop floor. I.E...axles, suspension, fuel tank and guard, trailer hitch, rock sliders, bumpers. etc.

 

Well, I made the command decision to do my gears myself again. That $300 can be put towards tires instead of some shop to do for me what I can do for myself. Aslo, you guys get to see documented in my build thread how to do a backyard mechancs versoin of a ring and pinion setup in an XJ rear D44. It has worked for me in a Toyota pickup, Toyota 4Runner, 3 x in a Jeep Cherokee and a Jeep Wrangler. So, I must be doing something right or close to right. You are supposed to use a dial indicator, micrometer and gear marking compound and look for a perfect pattern on the ring gear teeth. I do use a micrometer for shim thickness measurement and I do use gear marking compound along with just setting the gears by feel, sight and hearing. You would be surprised how well the senses of a guy who has a good knack for fixing cars work for proper ring and pinion gear setup. Now, I'm not saying everybody or anybody can set gears up this way and get them right. I'm not saying that by any means. I'm saying it works for me. While setting gears up I've had them feel and sound too tight, I've had them look and feel too loose. I've made adjustments with shims or the spanner adjusters depending on what type of axle I'm working on and had them work perfect for driving. So, you guys will get an added bonus of gear setup in this build thread, that I wasn't originally planning on. I'm picking up a harbor Freight 12 ton shop press, on Friday. I'm also picking up another set of 6 ton jackstands so my old Jeep doesn't fall on me, anybody else or any of my pets, before I get all of the parts stripped off of it.

 

Nice man cant wait to see how it goes. I paid a buddy 400 to do mine front and rear when i got them done, wouldnt mind doing it myself next time!

How much is that press gonna be? I really would like to get one soon.

 

So, last night I pulled the brake master cylinder and booster and pedal out of the old Jeep. I've also had a few guys ask about the front Laredo seats so I unbolted them pulled them out, too. I aslo removed the ECM. I'm really surprised somebody hasn't jumped on that for what I'm asking. Those things are normally $300 + just to have your old one reflashed. Probably going to get the rest of the front bumper, front towhooks and the steering box removed tonight. If I have the time and motivation I will start removing the rocksliders and the quarter guards next. I came up with what I think a kinda cool idea, the other night. My new Jeep is white with metalic gray fender flares and side and bumper trim. I was thinking to myself about maybe painting my quarter guards, rock sliders and bumpers the same color gray out of a **** can of course. Nothing expensive or fancy and of course easy to touch up after trail battlescaring happens. I don't know. I like the satin black all of those things are painted now just fine, too. What do you all think. Would it be worth my time and effort?

 

Looking great so far man! Maybe i missed it but why did you retire your old xj?

 

Because this is what it looked like. Plus, it was getting really scarey to drive at highway speed because the unibody was so tweaked. You really can't see that in the pics but, if I was to walk a front tire up on a rock and then open any one or all of my doors and hatch, none of them would close until my Jeep was back on level ground. I had been wheeling this Jeep for almost 8 years. It served me well. I liked it enough to get another XJ.

 

Looks like it was just getting broken in lol. Are you planning any unibody stiffeners on the new one?

 

Well, to start with my bombproof JCR Offroad Belly Skid Plate and Rock Sliders will be installed on this Jeep before it ever sees a trail. My other Jeep was wheeled for 3 years before it saw either. I have been looking at frame stiffener material too. I plan on this Jeep lasting longer than my other one did.

 

Last I removed the rest of the front bumper. Man! I don't remember putting all of those bolts in when I installed it. There was no chance of that thing coming off without taking the whole front of the Jeep off with it. I also removed the steering box. I found the little aluminum spacer had a crack in one side. I'm guessing that might explain some of the play in the steering. I will be getting a steering box brace put on GW before the 35s go on. I also removed all of the bulbs out of the tail lights for trail spares and I removed the rear quarter panel guards. Today I'm heading out to Matt (Gilbert)s place to give him the brake master cylinder, power booster and pedal assembly. Snd to pick up my new 20 ton shop press and 6 ton jackstands. Tonight the old Jeep goes out of the garage for the last time and gets put up on jackstands for the final clean out and stripping of parts. The local scrap yard will be called to come get the unibody and crush it.

 

One final call for anybody and everybody!!! Anything you think you might want from a 91 cherokee sport unibody. Let me know!!! Every single piece of glass in this thing is still there and all of it is good. There is still a lot of miscellaneous wiring, hoses and lines. Shifters, steering column, complete heater including core, fan, control and box. Center console only minus the catchall lid.

 

I will take pictures of the carcass so all of you young XJ owners can see what should be left to the scrap yard after everything that can possibly be sold or kept for trail spares is removed from a Jeep.

 

dang i was going to ask you if you had the center console lid lol. mine is missing.

 

LOL....I do have the old lid that was in the new Jeep but the hinge and latch parts were broken so I put the good lid in it from the old Jeep.

 

i still have my 94 jeep country center console with lid from when i did a 97+ console swap, i would let you have it for cheap if you want.