Picked up a winch bumper! Got it used, cleaned it up and threw on a coat of paint. Hopefully going to bend up a grill guard hoop sorta thing at work, and mount my 20" lightbar hanging underneath that.



New winch bumper

Pulling my front axle shafts on the axles going under to install new u-joints and the Alloy USA axle seals, and then picked up a Rough Country HD tie rod as well. Then the front is good to go! Waiting on leaf spring bushings that are backordered through Summit. Need them badly...

 

Hey man, i just started on my cherokee build and i was intrigued on where and how you found those wagoneer tail lights. It seems like they don't exist when I search for them and I know for sure that's not the case. I was wondering if you picked them up from amazon, ebay, or some other source. Just let me know, Thanks!

-Adam

 

I actually got them from a guy down Island from me, he had a Wagoneer he was parting out. Got 1 left and 3 rights lol. Hoping to find another left because mines cracked quite a bit. But other than that I've just seen them on buysell websites, never found them in a junk yard. I know some people sell them on EBay when they find them though!

 

Damn, see that's what I thought lol They give such a cool look to it. How did that guy have 3 rights but only one cracked left one? It seems like an adventure in itself just to find one by itself. Even if I search for it on google images, it just gives me the stock XJ tail lights lol It kind of makes it a problem if I find em cuz the guy selling them probably knows what he's got haha

 

I'm guessing he broke left sides more lol. It was a fairly built rig they were on. Got them all for $60, was under the impression it was two sets and my buddy picked them up, then I noticed it was 3 rights and 1 left haha.
yeah most guys know what they have when they're selling them on EBay and such. Just have to search junkyards and Craigslist and such for Wagoneer part outs!
I guess I should update this thread soon haha. Axles are ready to go under now, just need to find a free weekend! Camping is taking over my weekends now haha. Setting it up for camping more, just bought a foamy to put in the back, have a solar panel setup I'm going to wire in and get an inverter.

 

sounds like not a lot of time to spare lol I was thinking about axles for mine back that's a whole other mess of money I need to put together haha probably would have to do a rebuild as well. Since I'm in jersey, bigger axles don't really matter. I would like to see the setup of you keep posting on it though. I'm gonna try my best to search for those wagoneer lights as well haha

 

Not a lot of time to spare is right haha I have so many things that I just have sitting waiting to do and like none gets done. Need to redo the bedliner along the bottom but that won't happen for a while. Axles are priority right now. It's just stock axles out of an XJ. Both 97+ so bigger ujoints up front and rear is 29-spline 8.25 with an Aussie locker. 3.55s to get rid of the 3.07s which are brutal haha

 

Not to sound like an idiot, but I don't really know all too much about axles since I'm just starting to get into the Jeep game. Don't get me wrong; I know a bunch already but yeah I haven't been lookin into axles all too much yet since they aren't even prioritized for my build. I am currently doing a cut out to weld in new floors since mine rusted to crap. After all that reinforcing takes place, I need new suspension (that's where the lift comes into view lol), brakes, and internal slave in the trans. Once all that is complete (give or take a few months) I can finally start on the cosmetic stuff lol.
Here is a picture of mine just to give you an idea of how similar yours was to mine originally lol

 

Finally got around to swapping the axles in! Both out of 97+ XJ. 29-spline Chrysler 8.25 with the Aussie locker in the rear, all new brakes and such. Front is still open, but new ujoints, Alloy USA axle tube seals, Rough Country HD tie rod (no more flimsy stock tie rod, really happy with this), and that's about it. New leaf spring bushings on the shackle side as well, mine were virtually none existent.
Everything went fairly smooth, a few things happened but it went fine otherwise.

The list of to do's still consists of: Alignment (booked for 2 days from now, couldn't get in tomorrow), receive and install my Bilstein 5100 rear shocks, and get 85/140w gear oil for the rear axle to help quiet down the ratcheting of the Aussie locker. Also have to trim a bit more of my rear fenders, still getting some rub when I stuff the rear tire flexing, even with the 6" of bumpstopping

 

So far put almost 600km on this thing in 5 days. Definitely have to learn how to drive on the road with the rear Aussie locker, how much throttle input to give around corners, more clutch control at times, etc. Having said that, offroad it is awesome! I love it. Makes things so much smoother and just way easier, combined with the better gearing it just crawls up obstacles now. Haven't done anything major yet but hope to get out and do some more of the trails around here! Here's some pics so far.











Here's a short pretty bad quality clip. Nothing major trail wise but still fun. Can't really tell, but last ledge has a full stream of water coming down it so got a bit of tire slippage, of course the time I film it slips, every other time it just crawls haha

 

Is your jeep ax15? I can't tell the aussie in the rear on road with the aw4

 

Yeah it's AX15, 5 speed manual. Definitely noticeable with this. I'd imagine the slip with the auto torque converter makes it a lot nicer compared to the clutch fully engaged in a manual. Have to be very smooth on the throttle inputs to get it to be nice say doing a tight turn at a stop sign.

 

This is what is happening to mine on tight turns..
But definitely something to get used to but not that bad of a pain...

Nice trail shots by the way

 

yeah it's just going to take getting used to. Getting that figured and it's a lot better haha. Definitely get a lot of looks in parking lots though lol

and thanks! I need to find where the better ones are around here. Only one I knew is blocked off because of logging. That was one fun trail. Barely made it when I had 31s and open diffs and aired down to 15 psi haha.

 

Clean rig ! I like it a lot! I got a 2 door too! And love it!