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Alright so a little background on me. I work at ORFab and many of you have seen the FerrarJeep on here. That is what started my obsession with the xj platform. So my first xj was an 88 4 door that I bought for 800 bucks
so I drove it like that for maybe a month and thought it was a great idea to buy some ford axles and pull it apart
suspension was terrible but it was my first build ever and the motor was garbage so I pulled everything off and scrapped the jeep to find something cleaner and that's how I ended up with the green jeep.
From a stock 2wd on 31s
I picked the green one up for 3500. It was a stock 2wd with 159xxx on the odometer and it had leather interior did the same thing with this one drove it for maybe 2 months and tore it apart.
pulled everything off and set the tires up to imagine everything cause lets be honest who doesn't do that first? From there I put ruffstuff frame stiffeners on and my shackle relocation brackets on so I could start the rear suspension. I didn't want to use regular lift springs since they ride like crap and don't flex enough and I also wanted to push the axle back further so I came up with this.
Frame side mounted chevy 64s. I ran a plate from my Frame to my 2x6 sliders and did a fully boxed mount and got about a 4 inch stretch. I had to pound the fender in just so I could set it down on its own weight. so then came the cutting.
I cut the tubs out to re shape them for the stretch and because I ended up running shock towers into the jeep.
Now that the back was on the ground it was time to figure out my crossmember which I already had a good idea of what I wanted. I did the typical 2x4 square tube which I cut and made into a 3 piece design to drop the center out without taking the suspension apart ( I know never seen that before ) The hardest part really was figuring out my upper link. I really wanted it to be on the diff instead of just the axle tube and obviously there's a driveline there that I had to deal with. I ended up with I think 7 inches vertical sep and 4 inches horizontal but not positive.
On the axle I used a ballistic fab brackets for the track bar and coil/shock/link mounts which are nice but I should have made my own after I did the truss but hind sights 20/20. I really liked the low profile design of tnt customs truss but couldn't justify spending that much on something I could make myself so out came the paper and sharpies.
I used the offset track bar bracket from ballistic which I had to modify to make it work with my truss but still worked great. For the frame side mount I didn't want to weld it on there because I know the horror storys of ripping the bracket off the frame so I bent and made my own to match my steering angle.
Then I came out one morning to this! luckily nothing broke or anything but still a scare either way
Then I started getting everything painted and ready to be put back together
Found a picture of the towers in the rear
Naturally once I got it done the first thing I did was go and flex test it
And that really is all I can think of adding to this for now. I know it isn't super detailed so if theres anything in particular you guys want to know or see just let me know and ill get it for you!
To my 4wd crawler dubbed Alice
Last edited by ORFcrawler; 11-16-2015 at 01:50 AM.
Reason: updating build thread
My daughters 98 4x4 is that exact color, with those same wheels, in the first pic.
Do you have a tan leather interior?
Yes sir! Tan leather interior. That's why I bought it even being 2wd because it was in amazing shape inside and I wanted to kinda have a luxury crawler
Thanks man! She still has a lot of touch up work to be done but everything kinda gets pushed back since I can go use it now haha plus its my daily driver
11-11-2015, 01:45 AM
2001 Orfab cherokee
did the same thing with this one drove it for maybe 2 months and tore it apart.
) The hardest part really was figuring out my upper link. I really wanted it to be on the diff instead of just the axle tube and obviously there's a driveline there that I had to deal with. I ended up with I think 7 inches vertical sep and 4 inches horizontal but not positive.
