[alcolade]

So I have been actually working on this for a while now and just now starting to put a build thread together.

Here is how the rig started when my friend had it.
95 YJ, 60 front narrowed, 8.8 rear narrowed as well. Air shocks, linked 4.3l, 700r4 and an atlas II.

I purchased just the body and frame from him with a few other little parts.

Heres my setup.

4.3L, sm465, np205
FJ62 front axle
4runner rear
3-link front
triangulated 4-link rear.
14" coilovers up front
Stock TJ rear coils in back
35" tires



So first things first, i needed to get the body rolling again.
Front, (not the greatest shot but its an idea.)

Rear links. (dont mind the springs, they are now changed.)

Next i got the engine and trans all placed in. (the picture is more recent than this step.)

So the next is to make it so its going to be streetable and all lights need to be working. I decided to use all the jeep wiring for lights and the chevy harness separate. All Gauges are going to be aftermarket with a flat dash. So comes the fun.

3 days later and still not done here is what i have for wiring.

All hidden and clean. I still have a few clean-up items but looking good.
Heres whats hidden behind the dash.

The few stragling wires are for indicator lights and fan and fuel pump. Not much left to do.

And heres the engine wiring. I still need to loom everything and do a little more finish cleaning but its coming along.

After all that work, I get the joy of seeing the light!!! haha

There will be more to come.

Oh, and im prepared for the flaming about toy axles under a jeep so bring it on! I couldnt beat the price.

 

[alcolade]

Here are some pictures of it before i got it.

All the cage work was done by my friend when they had their shop.

And i think that the axles will be fine for my power and weight and i do plan on upgrading internals on them so it should be fine.

 

[alcolade]

What's Andrew building now? Do they still wheel on their property on 15?

Hes actually almost done rebuilding his full size Blazer at my house. They got kicked out of the place on 15 you wheeled at and moved across the street only to get booted from there too. They now have pretty much closed doors to fab work for a while. Now its searching for a new place to wheel like that close by.

 

[alcolade]

Wow that sucks about the shop, tell him I said whats up.

jeep looks good too

Yeah, will do. heres a pic of my driveway this past week. And he gets his lisence back next week so soon we can all go wheel again.

 

[alcolade]

Well i have gotten alot more done on the jeep. I got everything up front done other than one or two little things. The rear i finished making my diff cover yesterday since the old one was leaking bad.

Now it starts for the fun stuff.

I get to make an exhaust from the heads back.
This shall be fun as im routing it around the front of the motor to accomadate for future turbo plans.

I need to complete the brakelines to the rear axle
and then the jeep should be driveable.

My camera sucks and so thats y i havent been getting any other pictures but ill try.

heres a crappy shot of the diff cover.

 

[alcolade]

Nice cage. Different. Curious why the rear cross bar is below the bend.
I like the ******* drag link sleeve, too.

The crossbar i really couldnt tell you, my friend did the cage back when he was planning on using the jeep for comp. There will be more added for the correct harness mounting points, and i may get some nice gussets to add as well.

Yeah the draglink, i gotta do something about that, its just a temp so i can have a length for making a new one.

 

[alcolade]

HAHA yeah i was trying to avoid that since i dont have a smoke wrench. Only thing now is that my jeep steering box cant turn the toyota axle to its full potential. It will do for now though. i also am undecided on how i want to go about my draglink and if i want to make it with bigger ends or keep the stock size. Money is my limiting factor and i hate it...

lockily though, i have all the room in the world with not having springs up there i can do pretty much anything.

 

[alcolade]

So cut and extend your pitman arm with one of dem dar fancy sleeves (joke. please don't.)

Yeah, it would be cool if it was that easy! Im going to look into getting a longer pitman arm eventually, there are a few things on the list to buy first tho.


In the immortal words of the great Peter Griffin, "...yeh bastid"
I, on the other hand, am a luddite, and think leaf spring technology is cutting edge. And have to do hi steer.

Well the origional plan was to 4-link the rear and leafs in the front till i got the frame and body i am using now. It was already setup for the links in the front and there is about 5 inches of frame missing in the front so i was not about to try to add back the frame where it was cut.

it became a pain in the sence that it was setup for full hydro steer and the steering box needed to be reinstalled and new sleeves added for the box, but i am happy with how everything turned out, ill get some more pictures this weekend if i can get it on wheels and get it outside.

 

[alcolade]

Holy Fawk - I just noticed the mock up tires, are those Ground Hawgs? Those are BAD ASS.

Actually, the ground hawgs are what i plan to run on it. I got the 2 brand new tires and 4 rims for $200 so i am going to buy 2 more. The truck they were on burned and the other 2 tires were ruined.




Well a little progress:

I started it this weekend. Sounded descent, and found out later that it was only running on 5 cylinders. :shaking: When i made my manifolds i must have not put the plug wire back on all the way.

I also got to flex it a little too. There is still something off in the rear because it is about 1/2" off center.

This week i want to try to fix that and finish all the little things and try driving it.

I have a whole bunch of pictures but i forgot my camera at home so ill post them tomorrow.

 

[alcolade]

So i got the pictures. I also yesterday drove it out of the garage for the first time. Pretty excited about that.

Now its just going to be some finish work and hopefully next weekend ill have some pictures from wheeling. I gotta weld the rear and get some gears for the front.

Note, in the pictures my rear axle is still not alligned correctly. I am going to try to get to that today.

I had to check to see how the suspension moved.

Here is some shots of the headers i made to be able to clear everything.
Keep in mind that this was built for future turbo plans.

I still need to get some flanges and setup the Y-pipe and how i need to but for now it just sounds bad-a open header.

 

[alcolade]

So over the weekend i got a few more things done.

I still need to get another 2 sets of flanges but my Y pipe is all welded and ready.

heres a few pics of it out of the garage. and it drove out of the garage for the pictures so im really pumped.

My other tires are ordered and will be in tomorrow.

I think this is it for a while unless i find some money on the side of the road. At this stage it should be driveable in 2wd until i get some gears for the front.

 

[alcolade]

Well i got my tires yesterday and mounted them up. It was too late and dark yesterday to take pictures though. I am going to see if i can get home at a descent time tonight and get it outside to snap a few shots. I also got my cat for the exhaust so i want to put that on. ill see what i can do about some shots and this weekend i hope to get some woods time with it too.

 

[alcolade]

Well over the weekend i got it registered and insured, Drove it for the first time to find a bunch of loose things and different little issues to work out.

I had a bad bushing on the rear lower so with some spare links, i made a new one.

Then i found that i needed a steering stabilizer cause it had a really nasty wobble. I had an old one laying around so that got thrown on.

Heres an updated pic of it.

I think over winter im going to try to rebuild everything and actually switch to a CJ front. but that all depends on funds.

 

[alcolade]

Well i finally got a new picture of the jeep. I still need to get some front gears so wheeling is really fun in the snow right now.

 

[alcolade]

Thank you.

I actually just got a new camera so i am planning on getting more pictures and hopefully making a more organized build thread now that its almost done.

 

[alcolade]

That is most likely where it is going. I want to see what i end up getting. My neighbor works for a forklift repair company so im trying to see what i can get cheap and if i can get it to work. for the time being to try to eliminate my death wobble im actually going to add another stabilizer to the back side of the tierod as well.

My steering is the other major thing i need to do since that is kinda ghetto right now and when i hit a bump hard enough my tierod hits the draglink and it bends my tierod.

I just dont make enough to fund this and pay the mortgage at the same time, but that seems to be a general problem.

 

[alcolade]

Nice build so far. Just get the gears and wheel it for a while!!

How are the dogs working in the snow? Been thinking about running them again but never used them in the snow.

They arent bad, I just cant drop pressure enough to work them in. if i drop pressure in them and drive down the road its death. I also need to try balancing them and see if that helps.

I really was surprized how well they worked. For the most part i was just digging through the snow and grabbing the dirt though. Its just hard to tell cause to go anywhere i have been just racing around to keep moving over everything.

 

[alcolade]

Thanks man,

So i ripped the front axle all apart for my gears that should be here tomorrow.

And i was out the day before just playing with my new camera again trying to see how it did with night pictures.

the rock is small but its all i can climb in 2wd with no locker.

 

[alcolade]

Here is just another pic of my heep.

About 20 minutes after the pic i broke my tierod. :shaking:

it really sucked being broken for 4 hours on christmas eve.

I am going to now start working on putting my CJ front on it. I dont want to but i gotta make it look like what the title says, and i need some fenders that cover the tires a little more so hopefully i dont get bothered if i drive it.

 

[alcolade]

So its been a while, but im getting back into it.

Progress is being made on the CJ front. I got my one fender made. ill get pics up tonight or tomorrow. Also with that I got my new radiator in and new water pump too.

I am also going to order up the parts to make my heim joint steering stytem. I should be able to knock out most of the fenders and be able to get started on some inner fenders tomorrow.