Alright! So here's my progress so far!!

Started tearing stuff on on... wednesday morning!

there's not a ton of pictures... because i'm working by myself and i get too distracted and forget to take them. But here's what i've got, and i'll try to do better.






One of the very first things i noticed when i took the tires off and started lookin' around was this... inspecting how to get these stupid brackets for the hitch that was there off, and got a surprise. It's kinda hard to see in the pictures, but it's there. Someone had put a lot of weight on the hitch at one point, and it buckled the "frame" on both sides in the same spot.



And got em off

 

The next stuff has been battling the leaves. I've heard the nightmare stories of people getting theirs off. I didn't run into any of the really bad problems, other than one of the bolts got stuck in the sleeve in the bushing. And it wouldn't come out for the life of me.



I got it cut off and pounded out the old part. This took me a whole days worth of work, dinkin' around with this damn thing. It was lame.



But got the leaves off, axle was out, shocks gone, brakes gone, and nothin' in the way. Looked clean!

 

Next is what i've been doing with my new leaves. I had bought some S10 leaves and originally planned on just bolting them under and going! Then i thought... I want more wheelbase. Though the S10 leaves give about 3, i figured i needed more! So. I decided i am going to just flip the rokee leaves 180, and call it good. I made a bastard pack with the S10 leaves, and my stock ones, then flipped em.

The leaves that came off vs. the S10 new leaves. There's quite a bit of difference.



Just pulling the leaves apart and sizin' them up!



I decided to use the cherokee main, to get my wheelbase stretch. I cut the eyes off the S10 main, took off the HD 1/2" leaf off the bottom, and put the bottom cherokee one on. Giving me five leaves, and not too bad, IMO.




And this is comparing the bastard pack, the stock pack, and the S10.

 

And here's what i liked to see the most. I've always heard people argue about it. But here's my proof!!




If you do the 180 degree flip, you will get 5.5-6" of stretch. When measured both stock packs, it was 5.5, but when i measured my bastard packs, it was 6". So there it is. 6" of stretch i think will be bad @$$!!!!

 

This is the only unpleasing thing so far. With the stock packs, the eyes are different side. The stationary side is about an inch bigger than the shackled end. the stock shackles weren't gonna fit on the new end, and i don't wanna reverse the shackles. So in order to keep my leaves and make them fit, i went and picked up the 15$ autozone "lift kit" haha. It has two 3/8x1 1/2 pieces. bout ten inches long. and a choice of about 2-6 inches of lift. They are so ghetto, but for now, they are the only thing that will fit the huge end of the leaf. I'll either find some better ones, or beef them up, and make them a solid shackle. but they are just in there now to basically mock it all up.



now this is what sucks. check out my shackle angle... It's terrible. I don't wanna have to move any mounting points for the leaves YET. So I'm gonna leave it. For now. I'll wheel it like that for a couple trips to see if the leaves and stuff will settle, and it'll kick back. But if not... I might be moving it.

Just look at it!!

 

And here's the 9" housing ready to be slung under.



And here's just... another pic.




So i'm gonna go back out in the garage for a little while and see if i can't get a few more things done. I wish i could work all night... But the girlfriend wants to do something for new years eve. Which in my opinion isn't a holiday anyway. Bahhh... more to come!!

 

Here's a little bit more. Today i managed to get my fuel tank moved back. I debated pushing it through the floor... but realized. I want to still have room for gear. I also had this fuel skid i was putting on in the process, and though maybe i'll just slide it back, then take some self tapping metal screws and screw it into place on the "frame". But then decided how easy it'd be to just slide it back a little bit with what was already there. So i slid it back. It really didn't take much.

I dropped the tank and basically only did two things. One being I hammered down the two humps in the bottom of the jeep that help hold the tank in place... so i could slide it back.


The next being I cut some gaps in the back so i could run the straps from behind instead of infront. This way it pulls the tank back more. Or so i felt. And it was just easier.



I thought about making new tabs for the bolts here, but they still fit in their correct position fine and so i just put em back on! A little angled. but who cares? Not gonna change anything



Only trouble i DID have was reworking the hoses from the fuel door. They took some massaging and a few cuss words to get them to work. But they eventually did.

 

Next thing i did today... I was getting ready to set the 9" in, and realized i didn't have my new crossmember in. totally spaced the thing. I still needed to drill the holes for the bolts to fit in. the crossmember is gonna push the tranny and transfercase up about 3/4 of an inch. this woulda thrown off my pinion angle a bit if i left the old member in. So i pulled it out and drilled away. No pics of it being installed, will take some tomorrow. but overall... behind schedule.





Just a teaser. The tires going in and the tires coming out. It's motivation for me!

 

 

Haha! Im glad i have atleast one follower

 

More than i had!

 

You had me! Its a tie

 

Get this thing done! looks like your doing some good mods!

 

Damn, got me by 1 now ^^

 

I follow too... granted it keeps moving SLACKER LOL