Hey guys,
I am new to the forum but not new to jeeps. I have had a 99 wrangler and two CJ-7's in the past but this is my first XJ. I bought it for $350 with a strong sounding 4.0L and a 5 spd.... but hit on the drivers side front. It is a two door '96. I bought it to turn into a trail toy second vehicle and a fall back in case I have to sell my truck when I go to college this fall (at 30, what a nightmare). So how much damage is too much? I will try and post pictures as soon as I go out and take them and learn to post them here. The basics:

The front passenger side wheel is now at about a 15-20 cant inward at the top and the LCA and mounts are pushed inward on the axle.

The body has damage but I am not really worried about that.

The plans are to do a LCG rig with minimal lift and 33"s. Due to the damage to the LCA mounts and likely LCAs and king pin assembly I am wondering if I need to replace the whole axle or not. I want to do a long arm set-up for maximum drive-ability and strength since I already have to replace at least the passenger side LCA and likely UCA. There are lots of other small things but mostly I want to get it drivable first and the rest can come later. To that effect, if I have to replace something I may as well upgrade to what I want.

So it begs the question, how damaged is too damaged.

As a side note: Shipping to Alaska is STUPID expensive so if I can order everything at once it would help save some real money. SO can anyone help me make my list

Thoughts so far are:

Full Traction suspension 3.5" long arm kit with bilstien 5100s.

So any help for a frozen northern?

Zack

 

 

i'd look for a junkyard replacement axle, no matter how much to hammer/weld on the old one it, will never be right again

 

Welcome to the forum