Gila Monster 1999 Froehlich 3 Link build
 

Well decided to document my build and maintenance on my '99. Calling it my Gila Monster build based upon the tuff, venomous lizard found in the Sonoran desert.

I bought this mule about 3 months ago with intentions of making minor upgrades. Well it needless to say I'm going off track haha. The rig came with a Teraflex 2" budget boost and Falken 30's. it's got a tow package so it has 3.73's and I think it has a good sized tranny cooler. I'm still soaking in as much as I can on these XJ's as this is the first one I will be modding.

Starting tomorrow Ill start getting in my lift parts beginning with Bilstein 5100 series shocks I ordered from Serious Offroad. My lift will consist of a complete Froehlich front end...3 Link, OTA Track Bar, Crossover steering AND RC springs. Out back Ill be experimenting with some S10 bastard packs I've already built. Froehlich standard shackle boxes, 2" Teraflexx shackles. IRO brake lines and Advanced Adapters SYE. Shooting for around 5.5" of lift.

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I've been waiting for this cold front to go by that we've had the last few days so I can paint some stuff. Today I got wild hair up the *** and decided I really didn't like the two tone charcoal grey the PO had it painted. SOOOO....I decided to start changing all the Charcoal Grey with flat black. I started buy taking all the flares off to get everything prepped for paint. Once I got the rockers painted, I came to the conclusion that I really didn't want to sand and prep the flares so I left them off. Needless to say the mounting holes bothered me so I grabbed my angle grinder and went to work haha. Those pics will come tomorrow....

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pics no worky

ive always thought gila monsters were way cool though

Sorry about that man haha...still trying to get acclimated to this mini iPad..

Let me know if the pics works now...

I'm hoping today isn't to windy. I want to redo my rockers, paint my cut-n-fold,bumpers and rack....if I get the time, I'll go pick up my Bilsteins from the post office :thumbup:

They work for me.

Keep us posted. I wanna see that 5.5'' of lift !

cut it up!!! gonna look good man, can't wait to see the outcome.

nice find, put some lights on that rack!

I wanna see it pretty bad myself haha. I'll be starting the lift soon. I'm trying to get everything together to hopefully have a smooth install. I got some goodies from Serious Offroad and IRO today that I need to pick up at the post office.

Yep...she under went plastic surgery already LOL. Once I get it painted Ill post some results.

Honestly I'm debating selling this rack and going round tube. If I had the money to throw at lights now, I'd do it, but I'm gonna hold off for now.


Taking lunch break so I figured I'd post up some progress. I prepped and reprinted the rockers along with my rack.

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Gotta have some beers....

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nice bike.

isnt it a bike if it has 2 wheels?

you know what he was talking about right?

thumbs up for the blue jeeps :D iv own that same color XJ myself :D

Thanks man. It's my motocross bike.

Yeah some guys, particularly Dirt scooter bros take exception to calling quads bikes...the prefer to call them couches haha...what's even funnier is when they see me on my laZBoy pass right by them on the track LOL.

Thanks man! Do you know if there is a Blue XJ thread?



Well threw the rack on the roof, I'll be mounting my sliders tomorrow as well as paint my bumpers.
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This is what I have so far for my lift parts...S10 bastard pack built and ready for mock up. FRT DS for SYE. Bilstein 5100 series shocks. IRO brake lines..
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Well I had some other stuff come Up today so I wasn't able to get as much done on the rig. I did manage to prep the rear wheel wells and spray them with rubberized undercoating. I also installed my IRO brake lines so I can check the height my bastard packs are gonna give me.
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After bleeding all the wheels, this is what came out. I will add that I actually filled the bottle with a little bit of new fluid so the dirty fluid is diluted..
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After a weeks worth of work to the rig it needed a wash...
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Well I found a little bit of time today to mock up my S10 bastard pack leafs that I built to see how much height I would get. Needless to say I am VERY happy with the results I got. I ended up nabbing just about 4" of lift and its not stiff at all. In fact I could easily push down on the rear end and get it really bouncy. I'm hoping that once I add the 5100 Bilstiens, it'll ride pretty damn good.

I picked up 2 pairs of leafs. Some off of a 2000 XJ off of Craigslist for $50 and and a off of a 1996 S10 long bed extra cab from the JY for $40. The S10 springs had 5 leafs including the overload. So I grabbed the 2000 XJ main, S10 main, S10 3rd, S10 4th. In other words I left out the secondary S10 main and the S10 overlaoad.

Instead of going with the S10 pin I opted to drill them out and line them up with the XJ pin mainly for drive shaft length purposes. Surprisingly I only needed 2 DeWalt bits and cutting oil to drill 6 springs at a low speed.

My 2" inch Teraflex shackles sat straight up at 90deg, but I will be adding Froehlich Standard Shackle relocation boxes and IRO 6deg shims. This should nab me an ideal angle at about 45deg and hopefully around a 5.5"-6" over stock lift height.


Quite a bit more arch than the stock, flat 1999 XJ pack.

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With the current Teraflex 2" BB and my cut and fold fender trim the height sat at about 22" from center of axle to the bottom of wheel well. With my bastard pack it sat at about 26".

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30" Falkens...

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