They're in. Did not require the resistors for the turn signals, although I may try installing them on the tail lights wires. At night, the difference between tail lights and brake lights is not extremely noticeable. I think I might be able to dim the tail lights with the in line resistors and not effect the brake lights. I'll try it tomorrow and see what happens.

 

Couple updates for now.

Picked up a factory stereo for free out of a 2006 WK. Little larger face then my factory one, however, it bolts into the factory holes so I just need to trim a little off the face. I got tired of not having an auxiliary input and the cassette in my Jeep flips every couple of minutes and drives me insane. I looked it up, and it's actually a pretty common swap to put a newer Chrysler stereo in an older vehicle. Common enough, there's an adapter made for it. Ordered the adapter, so overall I'll be into the this stereo for less than $35, and still have the factory infinity system hooked up and functional, sound a little more clear, and have my auxiliary input I want.

And now, for the fun part. I went to the junkyard saturday to see if I could cut the plugs out of a newer chrysler vehicle and hook the stereo up that way in my Jeep. Never found the plugs, but came across something more exciting. A 2000 WJ limited with the quadra-drive axles. The front has already been stripped of the hubs and shafts, but the carrier and vari-lok are still in there. The rear still has a fully intact 44a with the vari-lok. Talked to the office when I walked out, for less than $200 I can have the front carrier, ring and pinion, and the entire rear axle. So Sunday I'm going to head out there and pray they still have it, then I'll yank the parts and hold them at my shop until I get the remaining parts (master install kit, front cv shafts, hub assemblies, and oil). The rear I'll service once installed, and I'll be fully setup with front and rear limited slips and functional 4 wheel drive again.

 

Decided to go the alternate route last night after thinking it over. Went ahead and ordered new cv shafts, hub assemblies, spicer ball joints, and a G2 dana 30 truss kit. This Sunday I'm going to pull the entire Dana 30 out of that limited and do a full rebuild on it before installing it into the Jeep. For the time being I'm going to hold off on the 44a and run my 35 until it blows. Although I could easily afford to buy the 44a with the cost of money I'm putting into the front axle, with this setup I think I should be strong enough to keep this axle on a more permanent basis rather than plan on upgrading in the future. The WJ is not easy to swap a Spartan or anything into the front due to the design of the axle, it's always engaged so I wouldn't be able to turn with a locker up front unless it was selectable. Whenever the rear blows, then when I upgrade I'll throw something like that in the rear and be locked in the rear and limited slip up front, should make for a pretty capable rig.

 

Even better news. I called the junk yard and talked to them about it, asking what the total price would be fore the entire axle and carrier considering the shafts and hub assemblies are already gone. They told me they'd just throw the housing in for the cost of the carrier. So $86 total plus tax out the door, plus the $220 I spent last night ordering the parts, I'll be into the entire axle for less than $300.

Not bad for a pretty big upgrade from what I got. Plus the truss kit, and I have a Zone diff guard I was going to install until this one blew, it's been sitting in the box in the back of the Jeep for well over a month now. Pretty excited.

 

Order shipped last night for all my parts for the axle. Talked to my rep a little about it, we decided to drop the G2 truss kit for the JK and go with a universal. Saved me some money, so I did the upgraded cv shafts instead of the OEM replacements. Not chormoly, but I don't want to be replacing my 3rd set of cv's anytime soon.

 

Yay for poser pics

 

Looking good!

 

Thanks bud!

Call me a sissy, but I didn't make it out to pull the axle due to rain over the weekend. I didn't feel the need or want to lay on my back in the mud. I'll try to get there this coming weekend, unless I can convince the boss to let me off a couple hours early on a sunny day this week to get it done.

I did however get a Trail Dash from superchips installed on the WJ. Works great, gives me diagnostics, reads trouble codes, has pitch, roll, g-force, digital readout on fuel percentage left, ect, mph, everything. Pretty sweet.

 

Got some more lights today. My work gets amazing discounts with Engo lights, so I picked up two 6" wireless LED bars to put in for additional fog and off road lights. They are white/amber and wireless. Plan is once I get the bumper built to install them under the headlights. The white I will not be able to drive legally at night with, but the amber should be "dim" enough to run in the fog and snow. That's the main reason I'm doing them. Plus more lights are just...fun.

Also going to order a 20" Engo before I start the bumper build. I'll be replacing my 15" CSI with it, and thinking of the idea of flush mounting the 15" in the back bumper when I build that. Reason for swapping the 15 for the 20" is again...for the amber. Off road wise following people with the led's on you can't see anything with the dust. A 20" with amber should give me enough light at night to be at the back of the pack and still be able to navigate on trails.

Here's a picture I shared on my other build thread on Jeep Forum showing the design of the front bumper. I photochopped the lights on it as well, the 6" Engo's below the headlights, my Spyder halo fog lights on both sides of the fairlead in the center, the 20" will be going where the 15" currently is in the picture, and I'm going to put two 9" HID's on top of the pre-runner bar. The 4" HID's currently on the fenders will be swapped with two 5" round spot LED's and the 50" stay where it is (might relocate mounts to roof rack when built and utilize holes in roof with rivnuts for extra support on the roof rack). This will complete forward facing light. Each light serves it's own purpose, giving me a wide span of light for whatever conditions require it.

 

So I did some more thinking on my sliders, roof rack, and front and rear bumpers. I've made my final decision and I'm in the process of designing them on the computer.

For the front bumper I've decided to actually make all the flat panels bolt on instead of welded on. I'll basically weld on some tabs onto the tubing, then drill and use some round head bolts to secure each panel. I'm going to cover up the area in front of the 6" lights as well with cut outs for the lights to shine through. The lights themselves will still be mounted on the tubing with tabs off the back side. I figure by doing this I'll have easier access to everything instead of having to pull the entire bumper off anytime I need to service anything (winch, lights, etc). I'm basically going to take a universal winch plate, weld it to some mounts that go into the unibody, then build the bumper around winch plate and bolt onto the mounts coming out of the unibody as well.

For the rear will be the same design as the front. Brackets coming out of the unibody, then the tubing bent and welded to create the bumper. I'll weld on some tabs and do some flat panels to fill in the open areas. I'm going to take some 2" wide flat stock and bring it straight up by the tail light next to the hatch, then some 2" round tube bent to go around the tail light then back down the quarter panel to the bumper (same design as the trail ready). Tire carrier will be built out of the same tubing, and I'll weld on some tabs and brackets to hold a jack, axe, shovel, jerry cans, etc.

From there, I'll build the sliders. Similar idea, round tube bent and welded to some tabs that will bolt onto the underside of the unibody. On top of the sliders I'll put some flat plates with some holes drilled out for water, sand, etc to fall through.

Now, onto the roof rack. The roof rack I have fully decided to start from scratch on. I'm going to take the same tubing used for everything else and build a base. From there, more tubing that will run down the A & D pillars for the rack to actually mount on. Down the A-pillars the tube will then run down the fenders and mount to the sliders. Down the D-pillars the tube will run down and mount to the tail light guards on the bumper in the back. From there I'll build the remaining part of the rack up. I'll put several 3" supports welded all the way around (thinking 5 down the sides, 2 in front and 2 in back). Then, I'll basically build the same base I built for the top, only once welded together I'm going to cut the tubing in half to design a "channel" for the actual top piece to sit in. Then again, bend and weld another frame same dimensions as the base. Inside the channel I'll put some rubber bump stops for the flip out top to sit on to prevent noise. On the driver's side I'll build brackets to secure the flip out down. Once to top is built, I'm going to cut it down the center front and rear, then take some smaller tubing and slide it into the upper frame. This will allow it to open wider when flipped off the top to extend out for the canopy and tent. Off the driver's side I'll bend and weld together a ladder, then weld some tabs onto the roof rack and bumper to allow the ladder to mount with bolts on top and clevis pins on the bottom. The clevis pins can then be pulled out to stand the ladder for the shower.
I'm also going to pull the 50" light bar and mount it to the roof rack, then bring some small tube down and give the front of the rack a little more support by going into the rivnuts I've installed in the roof where the light bar is currently mounted. I'll also do the same the in rear, install rivnuts and secure the rack down in the back mimicking the front.

I think this about takes care of everything. Once I get everything designed I'll post up the blueprints and then begin buying the material. Probably going to be pretty expensive, but considering bumpers would be around 2k at least, a decent adventure rack runs about 1k, and a decent set of sliders run about $400, then as long as I'm into these cheaper than $3400 I'd say I'm doing good. All of this is going to be finished off in U-Pol Raptor bed liner that I'll tint to silver. Reason I'm going silver with it is due to the fact that the wheels I want are the Pro-Comp 3036 Helldorado's that are a machine face. I've done a ton of vehicles in the past with black wheels, black accessories, and everything else. I figure the silver will tie in with the wheels, then the Jeep itself will be the red and satin black it currently is. When I get the Bushwacker flares, I'll spray them with the Raptor again tinted to a satin black to give them protection, but still tie in to the theme of the Jeep. With the way everything is designed, in the future I'll probably end up buying some more tubing and design a "bolt on" exo cage. The Jeep will never be wheeled to the extreme, but some added protection from rocks never hurts.

And that, my friends, is the final plan.

 

Alright, ordered the last bit for the axle last night. Tomorrow I'll be yanking it out of the junk yard jeep.

Got the Iron Rock over the knuckle steering setup ordered from Kolak. First time experience with him, awesome dude. Still playing with the idea of changing the drag links to heim joint, not sure yet if I'll go through with it.

As of now everything has been ordered or is currently in the back of the Jeep awaiting install. I'll take a few hours each night next week after working building it up. Then the following weekend I'll be ready to install it all.

 

Changed your thread name as requested. Good looking Jeep.

--Dave

 

Thanks bud!

So some good, but not so good news for an update. I didn't do enough research and I'm not quite yet familiar with the WJ's as far as the options go. The quadra-drive didn't come with 3.55 gears, so the vin decoder I used originally I guess only showed standard options, none of the upgrades. I pulled the vin off the Jeep again and pulled up an actual build sheet, it came factory with 3.73 gears, not 3.55's like mine.

So I called the junk yard back up and reasoned with them. For less than $200 I'm getting the entire Dana 44a out of the same Jeep I pulled the front one from, complete drum to drum with tax and everything out the door. I'm going to order in another install kit with new bearings and seals, rebuild it, clean it up and paint it black to match the front axle. In the future I might convince my co-worker in the shop who does all our fab work to see if he could build and weld on a truss, since I don't feel comfortable enough yet to weld aluminum. I'm going to retain the factory components of it for now, then when something happens I'll upgrade the rear axle from there.

 

Right on! I bought an 8.8 with 3.73 gears but have decided if I go ahead and install the axle. I am going to re-gear to 4.56 gears. But even the slight difference will be noticed from your stock gearing.

 

Sounds like a good deal for you. I thought about an 8.8 for mine, but the narrow width would require a narrow axle in the front as well for my application. My axles are almost the same width as the Jeep JK, so the XJ/ZJ/TJ all have a narrower axle than mine. The 8.8 is about 2" narrower than my Dana 35 in the rear, so my alternative to axle swaps is pretty much limited to JK axles.

Got some fun news. I'm a little short on money this month, meaning I won't be able to pickup the rear axle for my Jeep anytime soon. I talked to some guys in a local club, one of the members had a Dana 35 WJ axle he wanted to swap into his ZJ but found out after grabbing it off the "free" section of craigslist that it's wider than what he has. When I talked about it probably being a few months before I could get these axles under my Jeep now, he offered me the axle for the same cost he paid for it: free. I loaded it in the Jeep last night, my co-worker and I worked out a deal this morning. Saturday he was going into the shop to work on his XJ, while there he's going to pull the carrier and everything out of the donor axle I just got and swap it into my current axle so I can at least get the Jeep back out on the trails. Getting my 4wd working again, that'll take the pressure off on getting the quadra-drive under my Jeep. So...now whenever I get the free time I'll yank that 44a out of the junk yard jeep and go through it as well. Also, gives me time to start planning out the next step suspension wise for my Jeep.

I've been doing A LOT of research on the differences between the ZJ and the WJ. My work has a 94 ZJ that's currently being detailed and my boss wants to sell it. Before selling it, I want to get it up on a rack alongside mine so I can measure everything unibody wise. Reason being, I want to upgrade to a long arm kit. I've decided I'm not going Rough Country, and aside from Kolak I have no connections for Iron Rock. Rusty's is crazy expensive and I can't justify spending that amount considering the history I've had with their parts in the past and the questionable quality. That leaves Clayton, but the problem I have is working in an off road shop, although I AM direct with Clayton, we don't order enough with them to consider putting it on my Jeep for representation.

I've talked and hammered on my rep at BDS, he said considering the amount of money it takes to design and produce a long arm kit, they don't have enough call for the WJ short arm kit they offer to consider making a long arm kit for it. The Clayton converts my 3 link rear to a 4 link, so I started playing with the idea of doing this anyways and using the BDS kit for the ZJ. The Clayton welds onto the unibody of the WJ, so worst case scenario I have some welding to do with the BDS ZJ kit to make it fit. The long arms are all adjustable, so even if it doesn't fit 100% perfect, I have the ability to adjust it back to spec. Plus, because we're the north west distributor for BDS, I get a major discount with them, on top of them working a deal for a "company vehicle"

This is all for future plans. For now it's just tons of research. In the meantime, this weekend the Jeep will be wheeling ready.