Love the ZJ man! Keep it up. I just picked up a 93 5.2 myself about a month ago, used to be an XJ guy.

 

I originally wanted an XJ, but then I decided I wanted V8 power in case i ever want to tow a travel trailer with it.

 

Went to the JY again today, they got a new ZJ !!!
Fully loaded 97 limited, with UP COUNTRY!! Pulled the coils, someone got the shocks before me (damn it). also pulled one of the tow hook brackets for the front. Didnt get the driver side one because it was bent to hell. My theory is that i saw one of the bolts broken off, so im guessing someone tried to get them before me, broke a bolt, got p!$$ed, and tried to knock it off with a sledge. JY was closing as i was leaving, so they wanted to get me out. they only charged 80 for the set of coils. I got the bracket for free

also got a dipstick (my old one was bent to ****) for free and some body clips for my driver side cladding (i think one of the clips is broken, cladding flaps around if you pull on it slightly

 

put the springs in today, found out that someone decided to put upcountry springs in the front before i bought it??? the spring that came off my jeep and the one i pulled off the junkyard ZJ looked exactly the same, so I put a JY one on one side and left the other one original, then measured the JY side, 19 inches from center of wheel to edge of the fenderwell, then i measured the original side, 19 inches!! I read on here that with stock height non UC springs it should measure 18 inches... pulled the JY spring back out and took the front ones back to the JY since I didnt need them after all. front end still sits lower than the back so im going to get some 3/4" spacers to bring it up a little

 

Check out what the local pick-a-part yielded me for, you guessed it, $0.

One of the bolts broke off in the nut plate:



Since the threads are pretty f**ked up in the other nuts, I'm just going to cut all of them off and weld on some new ones, probably going to go up a size with the bolts too, factory ones are 3/8, I'm going to get 7/16.

 

Went to another JY today, they had a 98 laredo with tow hooks so i took the driver side bracket i needed. they also had a 95 limited indentical to mine except it had a 4 liter instead of the 5.2. Pulled one of the wheels off it and dismounted the tire that was on it (what a ***** with regular screwdrivers!), so now i have a wheel for my full size spare when i get tires. also pulled a bumper cap thing off the rear bumper in the JY thinking it would fit my front bumper (mine is cracked) but of course its different . oh weeeellll, heres the pics!




Pulling the front clip apart^
Heres what I pulled so far


Bumper cover off^
Look what I found inside!

Wondering if this is a real bird nest or if this is where the druggies that owned it before me were stashing the stuff?
Hooks installed:

 

Also decided to sell my roof rack. I don't really need it, it was kind of an impluse buy anyway. Its for sale if anyone is local, PM me for details.

 

Transfer case swap is definately going to happen. Should be a fun project for fall break next week.

 

Just bought a NP242 transfer case! pulled it from a 1990 Jeep Cherokee. cost? $91. probably gonna start cleaning it up today. pics to come once my phone charges

 

Ok guys, this was after about a half hour of water, soap, and a wire brush mounted in a drill.


Here's the tag:

Draining the old ATF:

Front output yoke removed:

 

working on disassembling the 242. i cant for the life of me get the speedo-gear housing to come off. ive removed the snap ring and all of the bolts. it appears to be held on with ultra black rtv. what can i use to break the seal? i already beat on it with a rubber mallet

 

Did you pull it from a jy? If so, how do you know its a good one, and did you have a hard time pulling it with just hand tools?

 

yes it came from a junkyard. To make sure it was ok, I grabbed the front yoke and spun it. Also shift thru the gears and rotate the front yoke, if everything is smooth, the case is probably good. The Cherokee I pulled it from already had the engine pulled, so the trans and tcase were sitting on the ground under the jeep. I pulled the trans out and unbolted the t case. There's only 6 nuts that hold it on. A racheting 9/16 box end wrench helps alot

 

hopefully going to get my longer input shaft on saturday from the pick n pull. im gonna go ape**** on the JY tcase i pull the new shaft from. not gonna waste time taking the whole thing apart, just gonna saw off the front of the housing

 

Also was able to install that bumper cap thing today. I did some surgery on the one from a rear bumper i got at the JY. I cut about 1.5 inches off the part that slides into the bumper cover, then cut out about a 1/4" of material right where it curves. Then i bent the bottom piece up. To hold it together, I used those plastic caps that come on cans of carb cleaner. I put them in a little metal can and melted them down. then used a razor blade to scoop the molten plastic out and graft it onto the cap. heated up a knife real hot and smoothed it over:

As you can see, you would only notice it if you were up close.
Cap is held onto the bumper cover using black sillicone.

Yes, I know I still need to clean off the excess sillicone.