de-broifacation of the brodozer...
 

since my newly acquired xj seems to fit the name, figured it would make a good title for my rebuild thread lol

if you may not have seen it yet i posted about it in the intro section.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f8/new-guy-az-222894/

apparently this jeeps been tossed around the frat, and the last bro added the finishing touches of douche before it made its way to my driveway. 20's, huge annoying (somewhat offending) stickers, "eyelid" paint on the headlights, over-spray bomb job even my 9 month old would cringe at, you name it it was done. but there is some good stuff, ill list the current specs:

96 xj 2 door

6 point cage
comp cut rear

4.7 stroker with bolt ons (according to PO. im not sure on the size stroker, but its got 24# ford injectors has PLENTY of balls to roast 37s)
brown dog motor mounts
tripple electric fans with a brand new champion aluminium rad (done by me)
ax15 and np231 with sye
boostwerks t case linkage (done by me)
hand throttle made from a bicycle brake lol
heim draglink and i think a stock f350 tie rod?
89 ford kingpin dana 60 front axle, 4.10 gears, welded diff, warn locking hubs, stock 30 spline shafts
72 dodge dana 60 rear, 4.10s, also welded (assuming stock shafts)
full rubicon 7.5 extreme duty long arm kit
RE shocks
the RE coil springs replaced with rustys 8.5-9 inchers

super worn 37x12.5r20 km2s on brodawg 20s

heres some pics

before the de-broification began

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removed most of the stickers and wrenched on it for a good month. repaired/replaced all the hack job wiring. almost every bolt you wouldnt want loose, was or was stripped. replaced the dizzy since someone had torqued the bolt down on the locating tab vs the hold down clamp... replaced the radiator and missing 3rd electric fan. put all the fans on relays vs STRAIGHT OFF THE BATTERY.. cleaned up a lot of other odds and ends

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finally had a chance to take it out. didnt do an serious wheeling, just a fun cruise though the desert with the chick. overall it went well and i found out itll cruise at 80 on the freeway with no problems

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turns out the water crossing wasnt such a good idea. got home and the dreaded milkshake was oozing from the pass side axle tube.

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sorta looks like semigloss paint lol so here it sits. gotta pull the hubs, shafts, and carrier to get to the seals. hope to have that done this week while im off.

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future plans:

pro comp 40x13.5r17 mt2s on 17" steelies so i can weld beadlocks to em.
wheels and tires should be here within the next week
bilstien or fox shocks, still undecided
smaller springs to get teh COG down, or look into stertching the wheelbase. its squirly. then bump stop accordingly
ballistic fab 7/8" steering kit and high steer
needs a muffler lol and stereo
further sticker removal
suspension seats and harenesses
truck-lite leds
ive got some rigid cubes to mount just not sure where
new tank filler neck

Very nice job lol. I like the title. Ha keep it up

Sounds like a solid plan, looking forward to updates. I like the title too, no more mall duty for this rig!!

I was going to say that you just need to lower it 4 inches and toss on some bigger tires.

You're doing God's work, son...LMAO

I approve. Thanks for saving that abomination, and giving it a good home.

That carrier looks like an abused sorority girl. The "Bros" did a number on it.
Is that daylight coming through from the pinion?

yeah the pinion and carrier were real "close" friends at one time. the shiny spot is part of the completely flattened crush sleeve

thanks for all the replies everyone! progress probably wont be as quick as id like but heres the broific update

as you can see, the front axle was full of brosomeness. the pinion ground its way into the carrier, the crush sleeve is well, crushed flat lol and turns out its just got stock dana/spicer 4.10s!!! i could have sworn the gearing felt a lot deeper than that.. oh well now im definitely thinking its got a stroker and just means i get to upgrade. either 5.13 or 5.38 to help get the 40s turnin. oh and the shafts are stock 30 splines so we'll see how long those hold up as well

the spindles, kingpins, u joints, and all bearings checked out ok so for the time being i just cleaned everything up, put new axle seals in and slapped the used and abused carrier back in. probably wasnt the best idea, but this jeeps full of that already

random pictures

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chewy chewy
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thats where the rest of the carrier went
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pass side bad seal

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driver seal

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rear gears with brotastic over spray

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warn hubs cleaned up

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random engine bay shots and interior pic (need to fab up a battery tie down)

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still need to put the diff covers back on and fill em up with fluid. then wait for my 40s and high steer to show up

I like how it's comp cut, but then lifted so freakin high there is no way the tire even gets close to the original fender location, much less the newly clearanced comp fender. Get that thing down a good 4 inches at least.

I approve of your efforts to save this one from going the way of the brodo bird!

thats the plan along with stretching the rear a good 4-5 inches. just waiting on time and money lol

slightly less brotastic
 

well, i was bored after topping off the diffs so did some more un-broing. i painted the covers black, scrapped as much of the paint off the headlights as i could, and ditched the front bumper. and then 40s showed up.

mmmeats

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and some more parts

beef

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ballistic fab 2 inch spacers, high steer arms and hardware, 7/8 rod ends, 3/4 misalignment spacers, and a koozie! the tubing for the steering linkages will be here later this week.

i couldnt help but throw the wheels and tires on

fronts, 40s make the trashed 37s look tiny

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40s all the way around (pre spacers) also ignore the lines i drew on the rear of the fender lol but i am thinking of cutting the front more

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rear before spacers

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after spacers

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and one from a distance

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not the best pics but i already feel like the tire/wheel combo made a HUGE difference lol but definitely not done yet.

picked up some RE1345 (5.5") springs today for the front. hope to have the high steer built and on this weekend, then hit the junkyard to look for longer rear springs. thinking of either a 53'' chevy or 60" dodge main spring to move the axle back. then mix springs around till i find a height/rate i like. then relocate the tank, build rear shock towers, etc... then flex to measure for shocks. also going to start saving all the spare pennies up for hydro assist lol

Those wheels and tires look MUCH better...The smaller rim and bigger meats just look better.

Keep the low pro stuff for the rice crowd, LOL

thanks man. read through your build, looks like fun!

trying to get the rear running lights working now. everything up front works, rear turns and hazards work, just no rear running lights...

Sub'd

Very cool, HUGE improvement already.

thanks!

figured out the lights. whoever wired them had the rear running lights wired to the green wire in the harness, not the blue with red tracer

looking way better already

well a few things happened recently.

in typical bro fashion, the seatbelts had been removed to make room for more important things. like the roll cage. cause we all know if you have a roll cage, your perfectly safe and need no other safety restraints RIGHT???

haha jk but the b pillar of the cage comes down right where the upper seat belt mount is. so since there is no way of putting in stock belts, i got some crow harnesses. they are only 4 points and i know, i know, 4 points arent the safest but i do plan to put in a sub belt when i get new seats. and also add a better harness bar to the cage since the shoulder straps mount pretty low

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also cut the fenders more

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tried flexing it out with the forklift at work but the security guard started throwing a fit so i only snapped a couple pics lol doesnt flex to well... shocks are to short so rear tire started lifting here

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picked up some rubicon 5.5" coils (next to crustys 8.5-9s)

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before they settled. header panel was off cause i was going to install some hood pins i had lying around but they were to short.

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also started installed the hi steer arms. would have the drag link and tie rod done but i measured once instead of twice and cut them to short. spendy mistake...

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kingpin bushing were shot. the pass side was in 4 pieces...

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ballistic hi steer arms on, only got pics of the driver side

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all the steering box bolts were stripped and one broke so i cut out a piece of 1/4" steel to place on the outside of the "frame" and made a spacer for the inner side. retapped all the box bolts for 7/16" and threw some grade 8's in. not the best fix but should get me by till i pick up another box to tap for hyrdo assist. you can kinda see the outer plate here. springs settled a bit

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since the guard threw a hissy fit about the fork lift thing, i pulled into the shop at work and used a big floor jack to flex it out with the new springs. did better but still needs longer shocks

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still had a good 3-4 inches till bump. gonne need to address that
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the RE cross member had its share of brorrendousness. the radius arm mount bolts the go through the skid plate were missing and the driver side mount was begging to tear itself apart to the point i was almsot scared t odrive the jeep, two rear bolts were missing and someone tried to weld the skid plate to the arm mounts but they didnt penetrate either of the two lol ill get pics of it later

so i got real ballsie and ordered a clayton cross member thinking i could just swap the two out on a slow night shift at work and eventually build my own skid plate off of it. boy was wrong. i expected some stretch, but long story short, even with the RE arms adjusted as short as they can be, the axle is pushed WAAAAY to far forward for how this axle is set up.

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obviusly thats without the arms attactched but thats how it sits when they are as well. the really F***ED part is, it took me up until quittin time so i had to drive it home like this with the springs at like a 70* angle lol

so now the brainstorming continues. im thinking of one or a combo of the following based on funds

1. build new arms that fit, either 3 link or radius
2. keep the RE arms, move the clayton cross member back 4'ish inches, then add some 2x4x.250 and bracing to the front to support the trans/tcase along with a skid plate
3. pull the axle, cut off everything and start from scratch with either ballistic or ruff stuff mounts to get the springs over the center of the axle or slightly behind
4. say F it and fix the RE stuff the best i can and put it back on and sell the clayton cross member

gonna have to think about that for a while. also still need to hit the junkyard for some 52" chevy leafs and pull the gas tank to start relocating it for the rear stretch...

Looks good! You should stretch that beast :thumbup:

thanks! thats the plan only not so much front stretch. maybe about half that and a good 4-5 inches out back

man i botched that last post. it was late into night shift lol

heres a better pic of how the springs are angled. had to take the front drive shaft out since it was to short. also note the trac bar is mounted on the front of the bracket just to get it home lol i still dont exactly understand why it pushed so far. the arms are 37" bolt hole to bolt hole, the axle end bracket is right up against the tube, and claytons arms are adjustable from 35 9/16" to 36 1/2"... just doesnt add up to me how i got a good 4-5 inch push

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i figured since the pinion angle already kinda sucked, and ballistic and ruff stuff both have sales right now, i would go ahead and get some new brackets. start from scratch on the axle end

i got ballistic's coil/shock/link mounts. they have a 15% off deal going on

http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/...bo_p_1461.html

i like the packaging of these brackets and they are somewhat similar to the factory configuration so im hoping itll be pretty simple to set up. i havent done much axle work outside of just swapping axles so it should be a good learning experience

ruff stuff has a 20% off deal so i ordered their trac bar brackets, both frame and axle end, and a 3/4" heim kit with 9/16" miss. spacers to build a new trac bar with the tubing i have left from the drag link/tie rod screw up

http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/catalog/PANCEN.html

http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/...g/PAN-OUT.html

http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/...uct_Code=34SET


gonna pull the axle out this week and get to cuttin!

oh and i have a plug on some 2" .250 wall square tube... may end up 3 linking the front while im at it!

got the axle out. one heavy SOB. i got it up on the jack stands on the lift to make it easier to work on just didnt get a pic

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also got the axle end brackets

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working quite a bit the next couple weeks so ill cut, grind, adn weld when i find the time

Haven't updated this in a while simply cause there isn't much to update on. Been working alot more than I expected lately and my daughter turns 1 in a couple weeks and has been sick.

Sold the Rubicon long arms, cross member and Rusty's springs so now I have funds for link parts. Think I'm going to use ruff stuff 1.25 rod ends all around

Also, I'm considering transferring the entire drive train over to my comanche and keeping this body for a future build with/for my brother. I don't plan on putting a back seat in the xj and I'd much rather have the functionality of a pickup that I can wheel, camp, and hunt with.

I did start cutting up the axle and got some front frame stiffeners though


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Little more progress on the axle today. Also ran the BOM and it's an 89 Ford d60 not a 79. Should have known since it has the short driver side tube. I'm going to grind down the that end of the housing and shape the ballistic bracket to fit.

Ordered my ruffstuff 1.25 rod ends today too. 6 of em and a passenger side link bracket along with link tabs to add to the Clayton cross memeber

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got some more beef! picking up some square tube tomorrow

Sub'd

its donating the drive train and suspension to my comanche. ill keep the body for a future build. maybe something v8 powered

thread on the mj?

http://comancheclub.com/topic/48876-wheels-89-manche/

ill start a new one here soon