Little bit further. Moved the jackstands back to the "frame" behind the LCAs and currently have the dummy axle supported by some large wood blocks so that I can safely drop it out. Tomorrow after work will hopefully get the shocks, LCAs and UCAs detached, clip the brake lines and have the dummy completely out.

 

looks like some good progress there i use my floor jack handel for my breaker bar. if you are going to do the swap i would do the s.y.e. just to get it done it will give you a stronger output shaft in the rear as well as a better drive shaft to go along with it

 

Dummy axle is dropped and suspension removed from the '99. Next step will be tearing down the front end of the '92, removing both engines, and starting the bigger portions of the swap.

The plan as of right now is to cut off the '99 from the firewall forward (it also has a cracked windshield) and do the same to the '92. Straighten the one light bend in the front crossmember of the '92, and sleeve/weld the entire front end of it onto the '99. This will keep me legal as the vehicle being licensed as a '92 due to the frame/dash/door VIN #'s.

Going to try to keep the transmission from the '92 as well as its 210,000+ mile I6. The I6 from the '99 will go into storage in a shed for later uses or whatever. The idea behind using the 210K engine is that I'd driven this truck pretty far and I know its running well. While the engine in the '99 fires up, I've no way of knowing its true condition currently.

The transmission from the '92 will be kept, but pending how it looks may or may not be freshened up and rebuilt in the process. At this point probably keeping the '92 rear driveshaft without using a SYE, as the pinion on the '99's rear 8.25 is slightly longer than that on the '92s D35. Both have 3.55's in them so I am planning to use the 8.25. If I have driveshaft/SY trouble then at least I've already got the spare rear driveshaft from the '99 to play with if I need to.

Transfer case seems good to go so it, the front driveshaft, and front axle from the '92 will stick around. I'm not 100% on which shocks I'll be using on the front, but I'll probably keep the gasmatic's off of the '92 and save the '99s as spares. The front coils from the '99 are in better shape, so as long as they're the same part # and not any "beefier" for a 4x4, I plan to use the '99's upper and lower control arms as well as coils.

The wiring harsness from the '92 will be put in, same with the air conditioning system since the '99s had been pilfered.

So, next up is removing each dash, tracing wiring, removing the '99s seats and peeling back the carpet to prep for cutting/welding, and all sorts of other... fun.

 

Bored at work, and although I know paint should be the last thing on my mind, it was something to do... That, and if I'm going to have things apart, what better time to get the majority of the paint work done and then just do touch-ups later as needed?

That said, I'm stuck between which of these two I like better - both are somewhat "retro"/old style, but I wanted the "good ol" Wagoneer XJ look w/o using roll-on false wood or anything.

 

So a little more stripping done. The next thing to do is pull the rest of the interior from the '92 to untrace all the wiring, and remove the windshield from the '99 so I can start cutting.

So, onto the main reason why we're cutting up the '92:








Needless to say, that wasn't worth patching, especially when the '99's floorboards look like this:



So next is removing the rest of this plastic:

And breaking down the rest of this:


For the cutting/swapping

 

So today I was meaning to pull the wiring harness from the '92 but I got caught in a few places, so I just dismantled the interior more, removed the rear flares (to set aside for spares or to sell or whatever), and removed the rear 2" hitch receiver (looking at how to fit it on the front eventually since it's a spare).

So, parked in the dirt and all I haven't crawled under these two too much. That said, I was under the impression that the '99 would have a Chrysler 8.25 29-spline, and that the '92 would have a Dana 35 c-clip rear.

Here's the '99:

Here's the '92:


So I would question my axle-ID skills here as I would imagine the potential of the '99 having a D35 would be higher than the chance of the '92 having an 8.25, but the '99 also has this:


Also, remember those funny air shocks on the '92? Checkout the '99:




...must be a crazy Florida thing?

I also got the damned windshield out of the '99, which the gasket/(polyurethane?) seal on that thing is a *****!


That said, am I right that I'm looking at a Chrysler 8.25 in the rear of my '92??

 

I'm a little bit further with the wiring, just have to pull both dashes and get the torch to clean off the seam welds before I can cut/weld these.

In working on getting the aussie locker into the Dana 30 I got to find that the back/lower 12-headed bolt on my DS spindle is completely round, smoother than a peach. I gave up for now on getting that one off, so we'll see how that goes over the next few days

 

I believe that would be a Chrysler 8.25 Diff in there judging by the cover

 

If the 4.0 99 is going into storage go ahead and swap the intake over to the 92. Will give you a nice boost in power at around 15+ horse power.

http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoIntakeManifold1.htm

 

Ah, hadn't heard of this yet! Bookmarked, thanks much for that information

 

No problem it's what were all here for.

 

Trying to do my front locker install (while still trying to get the dash out of the '92 without destroying it... plastic clips and a million screws are a PITA).

My driverside axle is seized on with rust, so today hopefully found some nuts large enough to put over the bolt's heads so that I can weld those new nuts on and break those bolts out. From there hopefully the locker install goes decently, and then it's back to wire tracing again.

 

First lesson in welding today. Got the bolts out of the spindle and got the front axleshafts out so I could pull the carrier.

Got the carrier out, but didn't work any further on the gear install - took most of the day taking scrap to the recycler.

Got another all-steel decked trailer - this one with suspension (my current small trailer has no suspension). Hopefully going to do more "practice" welding to make this freebie (from the back acreage/woods) more roadable, and make my welds better for when it comes time on the xj.

 

The final update on my '92 XJ build: It didn't happen.

Ran into too much rust on both of the trucks - wasn't working on them enough because they weren't at my house - couldn't store them at my own place - etc etc, the excuses are endless.

They both are getting chopped up and recycled and in the end I'm coming out even financially with a little bit more wrench-knowledge than I initially entered with.

 

i like the colors! i have a 97 that is green and have mention the idea of adding white to it and nobody agrees!!