Good build, and a nice thread. Keep it up. How's doggie doing?

 

He is doing good. We moved last year and my mother-in law was also our neighbor there. She had grown quite attached to him as well and he loved her property being able to free roam like a Cherokee should haha. He is about 115 lbs of pure lazy with a mean bark but no bite.

 

This Saturday I spent the weekend giving her some attention. I decided I don't care about the risk of a locker. So I put another lock right in the front. I also upgraded my 8.8 diff cover to a Dr. Z fabrication off ebay for $100. It is really solid. I may have to take a grinder to it as it sticks a little lower than the chunk. It is really well made. I replaced the seals on the 8.8 since one of them was leaking a little. I only ended up having 1 ujoint to replace. Just typical maintenance getting it ready to abuse it this summer.



Instant lowering kit for engine bay work.



I guess I had to much pressure on the 02 V8 WJ Power Steering pump. It has lasted almost 2 years. It has a Life time warranty so I don't care. I'm sure its my fault when I bored out the inlet when I originally done this mod I went pretty large on the hole.



My property is too flat only way I could test the locker but I had 4 wheel dig.

 

"I had 4 wheel dig...."

Nice!

 

After testing I decided to go ahead and replace the WJ PS pump as it wasn't acting just right. I also got some more steering box plating done. Its depressing how weak those steering boxes are.

 

We had an amazing weekend of wheeling. The weather was perfect and the trails were amazing. Hot Springs ORV park is amazing. I blew a power line going hard line on a trial called Four Fingers. It was a 20 min fix back at the camp. Other than that we were breakage free for the whole weekend. I got about 18 hours total of seat time riding so im wore out. As always pictures never seem to happen like we wish. I did have a new rider on Sat and he took several great pictures. I took the time to caption most of the photos but the site did not insert them then I clicked insert. So just the pictures it is.

 

Sweet! Thanks for sharing your pics.

 

Awesome pics! Looks like fun.

 

Only had to replace front DS after the last trip. Got that for $45 from LKQ delivered to my wives shop.

We went back to HORV park last weekend and had an amazing trip. I beat some pretty hard trails being open, open so Im pretty happy with that. No real damage other than the steering box frame rail is even weaker. I am going to put in some work to make that strong before the next trip. Not many pictures but one good video. Those that crawl understand the video never does the grade of a hill justice.

 

The end of an era is upon me. I have had a crap ton of fun with this one but I feel as my abuse has taken its toll. I should have done a few things different, which I will on this next build. I will build the next one to be strong and hold up to me wheeling it really hard. It will also not start with a ton of rust like this one had.

Here is the new donor. It is a 94 2x4 with a solid motor and no rust. I am currently working on my build plans for the next one. I am going to swap over a ton off of the original one to this one but some stuff will be completely different. I feel like I got a steal on this one. I paid $300 which worked out to $250 because I won $50 on a scratchoff while filling up to go pick it up. It has zero rust and a solid motor. The A/C even works in it. It's a 2x4 with a toasted tranny. Condition is fair. Only the Drivers door is really messed up out of parts that I will keep. The tires are perfect for my other trailer so I got a good set of those. I will start a whole new thread for it once I get to the point of ordering parts. Drive train will be mostly moved and keeping A/C in this one this time.

 

Here are some pics from its last ride. I was really hard on it. the frame by the gearbox is ready to let go even after plating it. I waited way to long to try to reinforce it. I would suggest to all building one let that be a high priority in the early stages. I was able to complete some really hard lines on the weekend. The last line took out the rear drive shaft which will be a nice trophy for the shop.






This alone isn't what makes me wanna rebuild. My leafs are bent to hell, frame is cracking in several places, I want to truss the axels to keep them from being messed up.

 

Coolness. Make sure you put a link to the new thread here, so we can follow.

 

It will be a while before I do the thread. I am still planning the build at the moment. I do have the donor purchased but no need for a build thread on it yet.

 

Just an update. a few trips ago what I figured was gonna happen happend. Ripped the gearbox off of the frame. let it setup a year as I had a ton of other projects going one being my shop

Cut them with battery Chain saw. I think they worked better with the tread opend up.

Son is 7 now this was his first trip with me to the park. He seemed to really like it. 2.0 will be built in mind of him driving it.

first time in the new shop!!!

Random pic from last ride

The new tow pig. 2007.5 2500HD. 4 things to the list of things I will always own now. 1. Jeep 2. Tractor 3. Shop 4. Desiel

30x40 shop have a matching roll up door on back middle for pull through. I am still organizing it the way I want but so far this is the best thing I have ever done for myself.


It was odd it was only the bolts so it was an easy fix. Went riding again last weekend and other than a caliper locking up it was a solid ride. The new build thread will be starting before to long. I finally have my shop built at my house so I can actually do this build the way I want. I think I am gonna keep bandaiding the current xj as I go until its finally toast beyond a bandaid. Hopefully this will by me enough time to build the new rig the correct way. I have decided Im going to go with 76/77 dana 44 /9' on the new build. I dont really see the need for 40"+ tires where I ride when open open i can make these curent 36s do the job. I will proly settle on the 38' sticky size for this next build. Once I get it in the shop and started stripping I will start the new build thread.