90xj-

Before I start this build thread, I'm gonna give you a little back story. I had bought a 1990 xj with 114,xxx miles, 6.5 inch lift, 8.8 axle swap, welded front with elocker in the rear. 4.56 gearing and 33" tires. I paid $2k for it. I sold it latter that year to help pay for my college tuition.























I was jeepless for about 6 months. Then one night while searching Craigslist I saw a 1988 xj with 235,xxx miles, 4.0, auto, np231, all stock for $500. In the ad the seller said the jeep was white...but it's more of a banana cream color. My co worker thinks it looks like a sheep so the name stuck...The Sheep it is.

It had a high idle problem, the tranny was shifting really high up in the rpm range regardless of power or comfort tranny selections. The speakers in the doors weren't working, but it was $500 and it ran.



The first thing I did after buying it was tackle the idle problem, and thanks to this forum I figured out it was a bad tps, so one traffic logged trip to napa, and ten minutes of cussing I got it changed. That also fixed the tranny shift issue. She runs like a dream now.

Then I got an interesting phone call from a buddy. He said he was lifting his xj higher and that he would like me to take his old lift. 4.5-5" pieced together lift. Just picked it up last week, install to come, stay tuned.

-John

Ps-the title says 1989 but it's an 88, just a typo.

90xj-

Update: after picking up my friend's old lift and trying to figure out what to do about lower control arms and trac bar because the stock stuff didn't want to work with the spring height.

After doing some research I decided it would cost about the same for new control arms new trac bar and shocks, that it would for a complete lift. So I settled on a 4.5" rc short arm lift with the aal. (this is a budget build, couldnt afford the full leaves yet).





With lift, comes wheels and tires. To keep cost low I ordered 5 15x8 pro comp d-window matte black wheels from summit. I wrapped them in 31 inch trail digger mt tires.









The install of the lift was pretty straight forward, using heat and a breaker bar I was able to get all of the bolts loose with out breaking any of them.

90xj-

Coming soon:
Sliders (jcr stage 2)
Front/rear bumpers
Lights
Roof rack (emt rack possibly)

dev_daddy

Haha, whaa? Mine is an 89 and it's nickname is the sheep. And it was my build thread name til some buddies got the mods to change it as a joke haha.

But it looks good! white 89's rock!

90xj-

Haha that's awesome. Mine is an 88, I accidentally hit the 9 key. Oops. My coworker came up the name because the paint looks like a dirty sheep to him haha.

dev_daddy

My girlfriend dubbed mine "the sheeper" haha. Sweet though, planning on gears or anything?

90xj-

Thanks! That's funny.

I'm planning on 4.10's, but I figure of I'm going to be tearing apart the axles I'm going to to put lockers in. I also plan on putting in a Dana 44 or 8.25 under the rear and ditch the turdy-five.

dev_daddy

Smart move, you'll be glad you did. My 35 got pretty mangled. Its long gone now though!

90xj-

What did you end up putting in there? My 90 had a ford 8.8 with 4.56's

dev_daddy

I have full widths now. D44/ 9". With 4.88s and spools!

XxXJ99xX

Looks pretty good so far...Cant wait for more updates.

90xj-

Took the jeep down to Hungry valley in Gorman. It was an awesome trip and really showed what the sheep could do. Made it through a v-notch trail called Henry's butt crack. It rained most of the time and by the time we were leaving it had started snowing.

90xj-

More pictures from the trip.

Exit from the v-notch.


































Playing around in the 4x4 practice area.
















Parked next to a stocker.




It's a jeep Easter!