armymanauston

so I am starting to do a good bit of work on my xj that i picked up over the summer. Might as well do a build thread to get some opinions and advice as I go.
just done some basic maintenance and repairs so far to get it in good shape

what has been done so far:
1) new water pump
2) spark plugs/wires
3) starter
4) trans fluid flush
5) new alternator
6) new brakes all around

thats about all I can do without proper tools/ and a garage as I'm a college student that lives in an apartment complex.
plan on putting a little lift on it today. Ill post some pics

armymanauston

started on lifting it up a bit. the rear leafs were pretty much shot so I ordered some new ones form 1aauto, great place. also got an add a leaf kit from rough country and some 1 3/4" spacers for the coils.

armymanauston

setting up the add a leaf and doing the rear.

armymanauston

new leafs and some before and afters. went from 29" to 34" from the ground to the fender. on a side note those shackles were a pain in the a$$ to get of the old leafs!

armymanauston

ran into some problemos. one the rear is lifted so high now( 5" from where it was with the saggy leaf's) that the OEM shocks are pretty much bottomed out. solution: call my good friends at Rough Country for some new ones next problem is when i was doing the front spacers i couldnt get the axle to drop down enough to get the coils out. even with spring compressors. had the sway bar undone and the shocks unbolted. still couldnt get enough clearance. gonna take it down the road to a guy i know and let him use his proper garage to undo the control arms( couldnt get enough leverage to loosen them myself) to drop that bad boy and put the spacers in.

armymanauston

been back at school all week and cant wait to go back home this coming weekend to get my jeep back. had that guy put the spacers in this week and left the jeep at my parents house

armymanauston

Well it was a busy summer. My radiator blew up about a month ago. And i dont mean it over heated or sprung a leak, the thing BLEW UP. well out to be more precise as it blew out and all down the side of the Jeep. after a long night of driving 100 miles an exit at a time not to over heat it it got her home. made it to advance auto in the am, swaped the radiator and made it to work all within an hour! not to bad if i say so myself. other than that had a problem starting it which left me stranded at a gas station at 3 in the am. the next day after much poking around and narrowing down I cut and replaced the batter leads and that solved my problem

armymanauston

my front speakers had a problem where they would not come on until the passenger door was opened and closed. so last weekend pulled out the old, rewired and put in new speakers. they sound better and no more short! also sanded and repainted some of my plastics where the clear coat was coming up.

Next: I want some bigger tires. the ones now are 235 75 r15.
what is a good place to get tires and what is the biggest i can get on my current rims?

straightsixjeep

Nice build, your making progress. I just went up to 235/75/15s with no lift. I think you can go up to 31's, dont quote me on that though. Tirerack.com has good prices but remember it costs to ship so check around locally first.

armymanauston

So I have heard a rattle when I shut my jeep off for as long as I can remember. finally figured out what it is as none of my pipes are loose. My cat has probably broken up on the inside. ordered a new cat. I figured while im under there rippin **** out might as well make some upgrades right? what im gonna do is cut the tail pipe off from just behind the muffler and take that out. then im going to take off the muffler and the busted cat. then i will put on new cat, about 6" of pipe, a glass pack, then angle it out and have it dump in front of the rear passenger tire. I have the new stuff all hooked up and put togther, just have to take out the old and put in the new. should look pretty good. ill let yall know how it sounds, i know yall hate the cherry bombs on here but i liked what i read about them.

Tobyxj

I would look into a thrush welded they sound good

armymanauston

O I did. I listened to a ton of sound clips and videos before I made my choice. I really liked straight pipe sound but I wanted something that is just big enough to get rid of drone and any backfire. im just clamping everything in for now, if i dont like it it will be easy to change.

armymanauston

here is a pic of the new exhaust. almost done

armymanauston

dumbs out by the passenger tire. just need to add a hanger and maybe shorten it a little bit... I am really happy with the sound too. almost sounds straight pipe, just not as obnoxiously loud.

armymanauston

Added a back up cam a few weeks ago. Screen quality looks a lot better than the pictures give credit. Total cost was about 35-40 bucks for the parts and took about an hour to wire it up. Amazon.com rocks for stuff like this.