bighouts5591

Finally decided to throw up a build thread on here for the ol XJ. She goes by many names including: Helen, the SeXJ, Big Red, Ol' Red, and others.....

Anyways, it's a 95 XJ sport with the AW4 and the 4.0

Here's a pic of the first day I brought her home, 209,000 miles on the ticker. Bone stock, bald *** tires, and full of dog hair and slobber. Got her for $1200

bighouts5591

Quickly caught the Jeep sickness and just HAD to put a lift on it.... my excuse was "I can get a rough country 3" lift for just a little more than a good set of shocks, and I need shocks anyways."

So we lifted it:

(note the delivery driver car top in the 2nd pic.....a lifted XJ is an awesome delivery vehicle haha, you can hop all curbs and deliver in any condition)

bighouts5591

After this I fought with a bunch of things getting old and failing, so I now have a new power steering pump, new idler pulley, JY AC compressor, new belt, new oil filter adapter o-rings , and some other miscellaneous stuff.

JeepHeepYoda

How can you tell you need a new idle pulley?

bighouts5591

Then it was time for inspection, and what do you know, my rockers were almost entirely gone, and the PO had filled them with foam insulation and tape

Here's a shot of how bad my driver's side rocker was under the back door.

bighouts5591

One day I was bored and I wanted some 31s, so I found a set of 4 for $60 on CL, drove em for a few days and they were terrible, so it was back to the 235s for now.

bighouts5591

I was stupid and wanted to put on a glasspack when I first bought the XJ, and could never get it to do anything but leak, so I bought a new cat, a thrush turbo, and got it all sealed up and perfect. sounds great now

bighouts5591

Started a new job, working at the local Pep Boys....and I had to stare at big mud tires on display all the time....so I decided to get some. I was going to get some 31s that were nice, but I figured I would regret not going bigger later, so I went with 33s!!!

Got the Hankook Dynapro MTs

bighouts5591

I cut my front fenders out and cut and folded the rears.....picked up a set of TJ flares for $40 until I can save up for Rusty's flex flares, they don't look great but they keep me legal (I need to paint them black when it warms up).

Temporarily ran 3" of lift on 33s

bighouts5591

And that's about all for now.....

I currently have the front lifted up to about 5.5" with some coil spacers. Had issues with alignment with the fixed LCAs I installed, so I picked up some adjustable UCAs (BDS which I got an awesome deal on at a local shop!!!).

This Monday I'll be installing the rear lift shackles to level everything out, getting some bumpstops in there because my stock ones are completely gone, and extending my rear brake hose. Pics to come when everything is finished.

bighouts5591

The bearing will go out in it, it will wobble and squeal like crazy.

That was actually falsely diagnosed, but I did it anyways. My squeal problem had to do with my power steering pump pulley not being pressed all the way down the shaft.

JeepHeepYoda

Whenever I turn my defroster on when its cold out I always get a gnarly squeal, but if I turn the defroster off, or let the jeep warm up, it goes away. what could be to blame?

bighouts5591

My guess would be that your serpentine belt is too loose, and is slipping when the AC compressor kicks on with your defroster. It stops after warming up because the belt will expand a little bit with heat. The other culprit could be your AC compressor pulley bearing

bighouts5591

Got my upper controls on and my rear end lifted today and its in the shop getting aligned as we speak. Pics to come as soon as I get it home and put the 33s on

bighouts5591

Also relocated my front brake lines today and replaced the rear bumpstops. here's a shot of what was left of the original bumpstops