BoogeymanXJ

actually going to the jeep yard to get a zj tie rod tomorrow since its pay day. my steering was swerving and found that my tre bushings were shot and my rod is bent so hopefully beefing all that up will help

probably will go 33 but ima run these 31's until theyre bald and see what upgrades i can get done on the axels first xD

thanks for the advice! glad that the front axle is at least good. ive been dumping money into this thing since i got it and i definitely over paid for it lol

BoogeymanXJ

so if i was going to keep the d 30 and beef up the gears would you reccomend buying the truss and gussets on this http://www.artecindustries.com/XJ-Parts_c_192.html page? they look like they would definitely beef up the axle but not sure how this would affect articulation/weight. would you want to buy the control arm brackets and uca brackets as well and just weld everything on at once or are those not necessary?

sorry for all the questions, this is a whole new world to me, i know repairs, not mods and improvements haha

kirknd4spd

Ok, you have 3.07 gears, that's why its slow. I'd go with 4.56's for 33's or 4.88's with 35's for a dd. 4.88's with 33's would be fun too.

Atmos

If you can weld and you plan on rock crawling, I would log on to ruffstuff specialties and order some tabs. rocks will bend the LCA's to bits in just a few good runs if you drive hard. if you don't plan on dragging over rocks you probably don't need to replace them just yet

and I know all the artec stuff is very nice but I'd order whatever is cheapest. steel is steel, as long as it fits and is at least 1/4" thick

heydockyle

Ruffstuff has some nice diy pieces to do a smaller setup cheaper like he said. Rustys also makes a little top truss cheap that will probably be sufficient for you. Especially if you won't be doing anything crazy with it.

I'm mainly going with artec because it's a trail buggy that gets beat pretty good and I just want the peace of mind.

BoogeymanXJ

compared to what ive been paying to fix everything i though 99 bucks for supports was cheap lol

i cant weld but we have alot of 4x4 shops around here and i believe SeriousOffroad is only like a 15 minute drive from me

dont plan on rocks that, at least not anything too intense, but i live in colorado so who knows haha our terrain is pretty rocky almost everywhere

BoogeymanXJ

yeah its not too bad getting up to about 40 but then its like it hits a wall unless im on a downhill grade of some sort. have gotten it up to 75 but until i get an alignment thats as fast as im willing to take this 25 year old brute. 245k and still running strong!

Atmos

well at the rate you're going, you better learn how to weld soon! or make friends with someone who does. everyone will do it for way cheaper than shop rates. but as for the supports go and new brackets, they're probably not needed just yet. keep it cheap keep it simple and figure out what you really need later. like if you bend one of the lowers, probably time for something heavy duty

BoogeymanXJ

yeah i wanna learn pretty bad but i never have time. work from 6 am to 2:30 pm then with my kiddos for the rest of the day. only have sundays and tuesdays to do anything and even then its hard xD took 3 weeks of planning to be able to finally work on my jeep and get it running again.

not to mention i have no idea where to even start. i was told to check out the community college but would rather learn from a welder hands on. i hate classrooms -.-

yeah for now i think ill just keep my eye out for a cheap 8.25 and then upgrade to 33's when i need tires and build up from there

emptypockets

Get a set of mini skids for you lca brackets and weld the inside of the lca bracket to the axle while you're at it. Mine have taken a beating the past four years and no issues.

BoogeymanXJ

all i got out of that was wawawawa skids wawa lower control arm brackets wawawa axle lol speaking greek to me. i gotta learn this stuff quick :[


kinda off subject but since my tie rod is bent to shiz and my steering is kinda dicey at times right now im looking at upgrading my tie rod with either a stock zj rod from moog (because the local jeep parts yard refuses to sell TR used due to "safety reasons") or this https://www.ironrockoffroad.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc? . the iron rock tie rod itself is cheaper and from what i see it eliminates the need for an adjustment sleeve but from what i see at the website it also looks like it limits you to using stock xj sized tres.

would i be better off shelling out the extra money for the moog oem zj replacement tie rod/tre/adjustment sleve combo or should i save a little money and get the thicker iron rock tie rod that adjusts without sleeve and 2 moog tres? been doing so much research on tie rods because i didnt want to post something thats been done a million times but i would greatly appreciate some input or suggestions