5.) 4-18-10 update

So much has been happening since the last posting.... The tub is now back on the frame and the new front flat fenders have been mocked into place.. I started on the slip yoke eliminator kit on the transfer case but I am waiting on a new drive chain to replace the old one since I have the case appart...That should arrive in the next few days.. I will go into more detail with each of these things in a full write up as time goes on.. In the mean time here are some pictures of what has been goin on... The tire that is being used for mock up is just that... I do not planon running blinged out rims on this rig... Just some plain black soft 8 steel wheels...But the tire size is correct... Enjoy

4.) Front suspension part 2

Well I didn't mention this in the first part of the front suspension post until I did a little more research on what to do with my current dilemma on the front suspesnion... As it turns out the lower spring mounts on the XJ axle are inboard on the axle about 1-1/2" per side and that will not allow the coil springs to clear the frame rails for mounting the upper coil spring mounts above the frame....So I placed the upper coil mounts on the bottom side of the frame and that is where my dilemma is right now.... The coils that are on the YJ now are off of a stock XJ and with the current configuration this is giving me about 7 inches of lift.... Most of you are probably saying " well that's not too bad, whats the big deal?" Well think of it this way, basically I have a set up that is 7 inches taller than stock but will flex like a stock rig and will cause Jeep to want to tip over.... The idea is not so much to have allot of lift but allot of suspension travel with little or no lift....

So to rectify the problem there are a couple schools of thought... First would be to section and narrow the frame rails in the coil spring area to allow for clearance of the coil and frame rail... This would take allot of fab work and time to get things exact... I can only see that happening by either cutting out allot of pieces with the plasma to weld together or design the plates up and have them laser cut.... Either way it would be allot of time or a few hundred bucks to have a shop laser cut them....Then I am still running coil springs and still have to find a way for mounting the shocks in a shock hoop.... The second thought is to ditch the coil springs alltogether and just put coil over shocks in... I have to buy shocks and a hoop anyway, why not spend a few extra bucks and have not limit to what I can do.... I found in my searching the net a company called F-O-A (First Over All suspension)... This company has got some pretty good coil over shocks for a extremely reasonable price.... I can get a pair of CO's for about 400.00 and I found a universal CO shock hoop kit for 300.00 including mounting brackets for the upper and lower mounts along with the halo bar to run across the engine compartment...

So since I have found F-O-A I have changed the direction I am going to go with the front suspension.... I have not started on changing that over yet and I may not get to that for a few weeks... But in the mean time there is plenty of other work to do since more parts have shown up here that I need to put on....

3.) Credit where credit is due

I have had a lot of help during this build and I just wanted to take a moment to thank those that have helped with this project and are still helping, either with contributing ideas or spending countless hours in the shop... My son Andrew has been doing a lot of the grunt work for me, cleaning parts, grinding on the frame, holding things in place while doing mock ups, and just hanging out with dear 'ole dad in the shop.... My step son Jim Reyna has been a big help in the fab areas and spending a lot of late nights this past month helping me get things done and keeping me motivated on the project....

Brian Kaspick has been a big driving force on this project with tons of cool ideas and innovative solutions to problems that arise during a fab project of this scale... I truly appreciate the help that they have been giving me.... Thanks guys!!! It's amazing how fast the amount of man hours accumulates on a project like this and we are not at the half way point yet....

I also want to thank those who let me borrow some equipment to aide me in the fabrication... My folks for letting me borrow their plasma cutter.... Also my uncle for letting me use his MIG welder... With out those two major items the fab work would have never been possible...

2.) The Fab work (frame rails)

For me the fab work was going to be the shinning glory of this build... I have seen some pictures of YJ's with coil conversions front and even rear and they leave all the stock hardware and mounting brackets they are not using on the frame... You know how cheesy it looks to see all that fab work going into a cool custom suspension then you see the big ole ugly leaf spring perch hanging out there like a sore thumb?....Cheeesayy!!!!! The plan was to stretch the wheel base 8 inches in the front and cut out the stock tube cross bar in the front and box it all in with 3x5 1/4" wall box tubing and extending the frame rails to move the steering box forward and also have a solid place for the track bar mount... Before all of that could be done guess what.... yup you guessed it cut those spring hangers off! Also the sway bar mount, track bar mount, grind down the steering mounting tubes, and cut out the main front cross member tube. The box tubing slips over the frame rail but there is a ½” gap on the inside in the height direction… You cannot get the box tubing in 4-1/2” so you need to figure on cutting down the tubing… I did this after sliding on the tubing so I was sure that things would turn out correctly…. Sometimes it’s easier to fab that kind of stuff in place…With the length of the tubing already figured I used my chop saw to cut the ends on a 45 degree angle…I used a hi lift jack to hold the frame rails together while I was doing this fab work so the width of the frame rails stayed in position…After I got the three pieces in place and tacked very well I started the layout of cutting down the height of the box tubing...Using a guide or a fence I cut down the tubing with the plasma cutter and cleaned up all of the edges with the 4-1/2” grinder… Once that was done it looked pretty weird, like a rain gutter on the front of the frame…. The next step was to help tie in the new front pieces to the frame… I cut a piece of 3/16” steel sheet and made it to cover the front winch plate area and run down the frame over the “hump” right to the motor mounts…. This will tie in everything so well I am sure I could hang the YJ off a cliff with the front end…..On that note the frame from the front end clear to the belly pan has been plated with 3/16” steel plate on all 4 sides of the frame rail…..So with the front plate in place I started the layout of cutting down the sharp corners of the front frame rails… This is something that I laid out once then after looking at it for a few days I changed the angle…. I am happy with the way the front end turned out….

1.) Front suspension/axle

If you look into a mid 80'S XJ Cherokee front suspension you will see that they are a coil spring set up with 4 link, high pinion Dana 30 and just about the perfect fit....(More on that later) My YJ had that stupid vacuum actuated spline collar on the axel to engage the 4 wheel drive...that had to go, so when looking for the XJ front axle the hunt was on to find one that did not have the vacuum actuator...Let me tell you those are hard to find.... I say 1 in 10 mid 80's XJ's have them.... I got mine for 150.00 and I didn't really care about the brakes, u joints, ball joints etc since I already planed to replace them in the old Dana that came of my YJ.... I will point out that while you are there get the steering linkage and the track bar and the tack bar mount as you will need them anyway....Also look into getting the front drive line for making your own double cardan rear drive line... save some bucks there if you are good....So with my parts from the junk yard I ordered up a long arm kit for a XJ from Rusty's off road.....This kit comes with a new belly pan for the long arms to mount to and some unibody support plates and the long arms with high clearance rod ends....I have no use for the belly pan stuff for this project so I sold them to my buddy and down the road we are going to build up our own long arms and use the Rusty's belly pan....

In the begining......

In the beginning when the thought of first owning and building up a YJ Wrangler was basically just that, a thought.... as time progressed the itch to make the thought a reality became more of a.....well I don't know what but it was more than a itch..... So began the process of selling the wife on the whole idea and since she already loves Jeeps it was a pretty easy sell.... Well it has been a just over a year and a half now since I found the YJ and bought it for next to nothing.... I really didn't care about the condition of the YJ since I had plans on going through the whole rig and building it from the frame up.... As long as the frame and tub where straight that is all I cared about...

Well to tell you the truth I trailered it home and unloaded it into the garage and worked on it for about all of a week and then it sat for the better part of 11 months due to a busy work schedule and the lack of time to spend out in the shop..... I got back into working on the YJ again in the winter of last year (2009) and I have been trying to photo document all of the build but, due to my lack of fore sight to do a photo journal, the tear down to frame was not included....

The tear down was fairly uneventful but there was some true red necking and gettin 'er done going on when we used 3" ratchet straps tied to the roll bars and the roof trusses in the one car garage to lift the tub off the frame.... You would never see that in an episode of Extreme 4x4!!!!

I will say this and it probably should have been mentioned sooner but when doing a project of this scale, before you start, decide what the rough game plan is for the project... Don't get hung up on the little stuff like "What color fuzzy dice should I get?"....What are the major things you want to accomplish in the build, what kind of trail performance do you want/need and stick with those plans, making adjustments as the build goes on....Mine from the start was slap a new motor in it get a bolt on lift kit that converted front leaf springs to coils and four link....done lets go wheelin.... But as I looked more into the costs and what I would get in trail performance I was not happy with the outcome....True I did get a new motor (it needed one since the old one had like 200k miles on it) and that was a big chunk of the build budget.....but a bolt on lift kit was not going to work and they are not cheap....... Don't get me wrong they are great for those prissy pavement pounders that look good on the freeway but most of them are not trail practical, at all....You could have a 4x4 shop build your rig but at 75 bucks an hour you don't get much there either if you are on a budget....So decide what you want and go from there. What works for me may not work for you and vice versa but if you have a talent for fab work and not afraid to jump in and get dirty then a build your own may work for you.... If you do decide to do your own fab work take some stock of your shop.... what do you have in a way of tools (grinders, c clamps, jack stands, air tools, etc...) or have access to particular tools like a plasma cutter or a good 210V welder....Along the lines of borrowing tools let’s take a moment, shall we and reflect on tool borrowing etiquette.... If you broke it, fix it or replace it, don't return oxy/acetylene or argon bottles empty or wire welder out of wire, and if you had to buy parts to fix broken tools you borrowed but didn’t break, just consider that a rental fee....If you treat the borrowie well they will treat the borrower in kind.... Simple? Good...

So after a little research (a.k.a drink some beer with friends that go wheelin) and obviously getting advice from other sources and searching ideas on the net I came up this current plan for the build....This poject is still in progress and I will try to update this blog at least once a week until I am done....