I traded my old wheeler for my 98 4 door sport a few weeks back. Figured I might as well make a build thread. Might be slow but it will come along.

My future build plans are:
Basic tune up
New fluids
3 inch lift (I know I'll go higher but that's good for now)
Bigger tires after the 235s are wore out
Rear sway bar taken out
Upgraded sound system
Neon injectors
2x6 bumpers and rockers
Cut and fold
Fix hole in driver floor
Take out front flares and bumper covers
Trim fenders
Overhead fishing rod holder
Rear disk brakes
Maybe more after I see more mods on here.

First couple weeks I had it I didn't have much time to spend with it so I don't have many pics. But I'll take a lot from here on out.

When I got it, the battery was toast, so first thing was first, I went and spend a bill on a decent battery. Ran awesome, all gauges came back and everything (except the rear wiper) worked awesome.

Took it wheeling in a friends gravel pit got stuck in 2 so I put it in 4. Started clicking like crazy. Drove home and checked it out. Front passenger side axle shaft u joint was the loosest I've ever seen. Couldn't have that, so I took the whole shaft out of my parts jeep and put it in. Tried It out, works awesome!

Drove to my girlfriends dads house, found out my rear passenger tire was shot, went tire hunting and picked up 4 235/75r15 tires for $75. All over 90% tread. Awesome deal. Took a week for me to get them mounted so in between I put on a gas cap cover (never had one) from my parts jeep and painted it black (didn't have the red color and bed liner will be there some day anyways). I think it looks a lot better



Got the tires mounted finally, goes through a lot more now haha. Don't have to worry about a blow out either. The jeep has been backed into something before too, so my rear bumper covers rubbed the tires. Took them off and surprisingly just just the bumper dented, no UNO body damage. I didn't think it looked right with no bumper covers to match the flares so I took off the flares and I think it looks a lot better like that.




Will look a lot better in the future when I do the cut and fold and put in 2x6 rockers and bumpers.

So far that's all I have. Everything else I do will have more pics. Only had a couple I took today to share.

 

Removed my front fender flares and bumper covers yesterday. Where do you guys move your horns too after you do that? I also might cut my bumper at an angle so I have a little more clearance at the sides.

Oh, here are pics Of how it looks now

 

New serpentine belt put on finally. No squeaks now, went with the gates belt from napa.



I'm gonna trim my front bumper tomorrow too I think.

 

Went though a little mud hole tonight.




Also camping in the back tonight!

 

Finally gave her a bath!





I need to take off the glue residue from the trim that was on the doors and do a lot of scratch removing. Also gonna cut out the rockers how I will have them for the 2x6 I'm putting in there in the future ( really sick of seeing all the rust).

Before Saturday i will do the cut and fold, most people wait until after they lift but I personally like the look and will just prep for the future.

Really debating on a small lift with coil spacers and shackles or if I should just wait until I have money to do it right. I want to go 3" but feel like ill just want 4.5 right after, so I might just leave it stock until I have all the parts I want for my lift gathered up. Found a good deal on a rebuilt transfer case with a s.y.e. installed already and a driveshaft, Durango steering boxes are a dime a dozen here, probably upgrade all steering while I'm there, 4.5 inch lift with full springs, not really sure what else ill need. Hopefully someone can chime in and give me a hand with a parts list.

Anybody from northern wi? I wish I had someone to go wheelin with, I rarely have anyone to go with and don't plan on going alone until I have a winch

 

Stock flex! Haha can't wait to be lifted

 

Great XJ to start with. Body looks clean and will look great once you get some of the mods done. I can't wait to follow your progress. Mine is a slow build also. I bought it already lifted. But what I plan to do cost a lot of $$$$ and I just don't have it to spare right now. Hopefully this winter I can get some of it done.

 

Thanks! Happy to see I'm not the only one that likes it. I can't wait for more mods. Money is tight here, I do a lot of wheelin and dealin though and usually get my hands on all kinds of goodies. I have a lot of plans but it will never be done.

On a side note, I went wheelin down a snowmobile trail yesterday, nothin to crazy, just 2 wheel drive the whole way until the end where there was a mud hole. I could've made it in 2 the whole way but Ive never mudded an Xj so just incase I threw it in 4.


Still can't figure out my clinking noise by the shifter. Almost seems like the trans mount or something, if I hold the side of the counsel in the passenger side it stops. Oh well though, here is a pic of the mud. Nothing special.



Also here's the reason I have to miss the mud bog today

 

Hey I was wondering? Is your XJ a 5spd. or an auto. trans.? (in a diff. thread you mentioned swapping a auto. for a manual). My son has a auto. Mine is a 5spd. He had his first and I thought I would rather have a manual. But after four wheeling both of them I kind wish mine was a auto. Maybe once it is geared properly I will like it a lot more. But man we four wheeled my sons all over some pretty hairy trail with his and it did great.

 

It is an auto. I was looking at a 97 a while back that I was going to swap (big plans) haha but it never worked out. I may swap this one eventually. But I don't think I will. As for yours, the 5 speeds are geared different than the autos, I want to say 3.07? And an auto is 3.55. So that's why his might do a little better in trails, regeared you will probably like yours a lot.

 

Yes they are diff. mine are 307's and my sons is 355's. I have 33" tires which really doesn't cut it. I have purchased a ford 8.8 rear end (disc brakes) it has 373 gearing with limited slip in it already but I want to re-gear the rig with 410's. I just need to save the $$$$ to do it. With and auto tranny and the gearing you have if you lifted it 3" and limited it to 31" tires you could be happy with the way it wheels without dumping so much $$$$ into it. I am already committed to the 33" tires because with the large lift and Bushwhacker flares it would look silly running anything smaller.

 

Yeah that probably killing your power. When I lift to 4.5 in the future ill probably run my baby tires until I can afford to regear with the bigger tires.

 

Finally chose how high I want to go after looking at a lot of other xjs. I'm gonna go with a 4.5 inch long arm with either 33s or 35s on 3.75 back spacing. I really like the stance and look of that combination. I'm also thinking that 4.56 gears would be best for the tires I want, but I'm not sure yet. Anyone have like a gearing calculator for an Xj?

 

Hey Jordan how many miles does that have?

 

Well the body has 210k. The previous owners said it was swapped for one with 170k but I would bank off it having 210k