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The Victim...........................

36K views 90 replies 30 participants last post by  SanDiegoCJ 
#1 · (Edited)
2006 LJ with a 4.0L I6, 6sp manual and 33,000 miles on it. At present it's 100%
stock. The plan is a 4" lift from Savvy, AEV Tummy Tucker skidplate, a D44
front and Currie Rock Jock D60 rear, both with 4.88's and detroits. It's also
getting an Atlas II with 3.8 gears and heavy duty outputs front and rear.
I'm planning on 35" tires. The first thing will be to get rid of the "guards"
on the lights. :barf:
 

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#3 ·
No, I'll be doing most of the work with some help from my son-in-law.
I also eventually want to install some rocker guards, Metal Cloak fenders,
the winch off the CJ7, and a rear bumper/tire carrier.
 
#4 ·
Cool. I really wished that an LJ but I had already bought my TJ shortly before they came out. I take it your going to use the Currie SA? Ive been running SA on my TJ for about 6 years never had any issues and it does quite well offroad.
 
#5 ·
Man I see stock LJ's all the time, makes me want to buy another and just leave it that way, kinda like a baby brother to mine.

Just my comments/suggestions......

If your only going to run 35"s why don't you wait for the Savvy/Currie 3" suspension to come out?

Also if only 35"s why a RJ rear? I just ordered my RJ rear with plans to move to 40"s. I have run 37"s on a built HP D44 front and a built 8.8. for about 1.5 years now and it works great. I would just truss your D44 rear, get this Superior 44kit gears, locker and run the piss out of it. Same with the 30 front.

Now if you have plans to go 37"s or bigger I understand. And Just FYI I have 5.13's with 37's with the 6spd and it is geared perfect.

Skip the AEV TT, and Gerald will hook you up with all your skids/armor/suspension just call him and tell him what you want.

I'm not telling you NOT to do it your way, because it will work fine. But there will be A LOT of "little" things you will need to do to make it all work together.

Ricky

Pic of my LJ...:flipoff2:

 
#6 · (Edited)
only 35"s?...

with that savvy 4" you could go with 37"s easy... especially with a 44 front and 60 rear. or you could do the 3". stick with 35"s and run your 44/30 combo until you feel like getting serious.

to bad you're not waiting for the savvy 6spd under armor... maybe you could take it over to blaine's so he can prototype on you :flipoff2:
 
#8 ·
Yeah, I'm not sure I get the reason for the RockJock rear with 35s, unless you want the hi-pinion, but if it already comes with a 44 rear, I would put that money into a RJ 60 or something for the front, instead of a Rubicon LP44 up there.
 
#11 ·
It's 35" tires for now, but I'll probably go bigger (37") in the future, so that's why
I'm going with the Rock Jock 60 in the rear. For now I'm keeping the stock fenders
and flares, but in the future I plan on the Metal Cloak Highline front and rear fenders,
then it'll be 37" tires.
The rock buggy in the garage is appx. 85% complete and we'll use that for the
places like the Hammers and keep the LJ as a street friendly Jeep for the miler stuff
that requires highway travel as part of the trip.
 
#62 · (Edited)
Sounds great and we all have our oinions, so heres mine, I guess thats why we post. I think the RJ is a good idea. As you know always over build and we are constantly going bigger. I dont know many who decide to go down in tire size, but one question? Why a detroit? They suck balls. Big harry balls on the street! You've got OBA,,,,maybe the coin,
 
#13 ·
Look what followed me home this evening. :D
 

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#17 ·
Yup, both are built by G2. The rear is a Currie RJ60 and the front is a D44.
Rear has 35 spline chromos, 4.88's and a detroit. The front has 30 spline
chromos, 4.88's and a detroit. :D
 
#19 ·
A simple answer ........................ BIG $$$$$$$$$

A RJ60 front axle is twice as much as a D44 front and not needed for running 37" max. tire size.
A D44 front with chromos will survive just fine in that application.
 
#21 ·
SanDiegoCJ,
Looks like a plan.. And christmas came early too..!
Since you already have a buggy, I think the 35's make total sense for now at least, And those 4.88's will give you movement up to 37's as well.
I'll be watching this closely as I'll be posting my build up in the next month or two.. So for now.. :flipoff2: Jealous as hell.
 
#24 ·

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#27 ·
Finally got the parts and some time. Been spending lots of time whipping the yard on the new house into shape, so the LJ has sat for a bit.

Got a 1" body lift and 1" motor mount lift installed so the Atlas II would clear the floorpan with the AEV/Nth Degree Tummy Tucker skidplate. Also got the
rear axle stripped out in prep for the new D60 and Currie 4" lift. The rear discs are in my trunk so I can drop them off tomorrow to get redrilled to 5 on 5.5.
 

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#28 ·
A couple more.
 

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#29 ·
Well, we finally got to work on it some more yesterday (I'll post pics tonight) and the D60 rear and rear lift are in. It's sitting in the new 35" tires on the
rear and the front is now on jackstands with the front axle and suspension completely ripped out.

Found two problems that need to be addressed. G2 axles claim that their Currie Rck Jock D60 is a direct "bolt-in replacement" for the stock rear
axle is not true (not too surprised).

1. The stock rear sway bar will not bolt up to the welded on brackets as the
pumpkin's so much bigger. We're going to have to space it up about 3".

2. The stock brake hard lines will not fit in the stock location due to the
differences in the control arm brackets. We'll probably fab up some brackets
and weld them to the axle tube and control arm brackets.
 
#30 ·
Pics
 

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#32 ·
Not a hell of a lot. It looks like it'll have about 1" of clearance.
 
#34 ·
Yup, I have front springs. I bought a Currie 4" SA lift thru a friend that's a 4x4 parts dealer and got a :smokin: deal on it.
As far as a hitch, I'm reusing the rear bumper/tire carrier from the CJ7 and it has a 2" reciever hitch.


This week I'm going to try and change the outer stubs on the front axle shafts. I bought the selectable hub kit from Solid Axle and it uses different
outer stubs than the stock ones. I'm also going to install the outer knuckles onto the new front axle.
 
#35 ·
It runs, it drives .....................

Well, it now moves under it's own power. :D:D:D
Fabbed up some simple bolt-on brackets for the rear brakelines, got a different bolt/nut combo for the front track bar and got new rear axle shafts/bearings/seals/retainers
from G2 Axle. G2 installed the retainer plates backwards so they didn't hold the shaft seal correctly and inside of 20 minutes 1/2 gal. of gear oil leaked out onto the driveway. :shaking:
Also installed the frame tie-in brackets for the read bumper from Rock Hard. Now I just have to get it to a friends shop for an alignment.
I did drive it around a bit on the dirt roads we live on and no strange noises or vibs.
 

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#37 ·
That's pretty much why we decided to build this and part out the old CJ7.
The CJ7 wasn't road friendly any more and that limited the type of trips
we could go on with the club. The buggy in the garage is close to being
done so we'll have that for stuff like Johnson Valley.
 
#38 · (Edited)
Well, I got it back from our friends alignment shop last night and here are the results.
The front axle was only about 1/2" off center. Not too bad for just eyeballing it.
The rear tracbar bracket from the 4" Currie SA lift kit wouldn't fit onto the
tracbar bracket that's welded to the G2 D60 rear axle. So much for being a direct bolt-in. :shaking:
That caused the rear axle to be off center by 1 1/2". :eek: He solved that by installinga RE adjustable tracbar.
 
#44 ·
Well, the son-in-law came over today and I had him weld the 2"x4" tube to the back of the old bumper/tire carrier from the CJ7 and then he welded the
4" x 1/4" bar stock to the other side of the 2"x4" tube. I had to space the bumper away from the rear crossmember or it would have hit the tailgate hinges.
I took the stock rubber snubbers off and I need a 1/2" spacer to get them to hit the inside of the tire carrier so it doesn't wiggle back and forth.
I also need to find a small red light to mount as a high mount brake light. I'm thinking of mounting it in the middle of the spare tire.
 

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