FitchVa's Rig Buildup

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:17 AM

i can't believe i never started a "build thread" over here

anywho, better late than never. life's been getting in the way and my laziness and procrastination haven't helped either. i'm just going to copy/paste my posts from another local board so some of my posts might not make sense posted all at once.

stock specs:

1998
4.0L I-6
AW4
NP231 TC
D30/CHRY8.25 - stock 3.55 gears

pic from when i bought it:

first thing i did to this one was to armor it up a little bit

if my memory serves me, in those boxes are:

RRO rock rails (junk)
rusty's tc skid
skid row gas tank skid
c4x4 front tow hook kit
rear hidden hitch

you can kinda see the rails installed in this pic of my dad and niece washing my jeep for me

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:17 AM

the day before the lift went on, i put this gem on...

theeeeeeen the long day of the lift install...

Rubicon Express 4.5" superflex lift
adjustable upper and lower control arms
RE heavy duty track bar bracket and track bar
OME shocks and steering stabilizer
32x11.50 BFG MT's on 15x8 crager soft8's

before:

after:

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:17 AM

the very next weekend, i took on the task of the SYE install all by myself in my apt parking lot. i had experienced help with the lift, but none whatsoever with the sye. none-the-less, it went very well considering up to that point, my mechanical resume was rotating the tires and oil changes

and thankfully i didn't get thrown out of the apt complex

i did the advanced adapters hd sye kit and a tom woods shaft

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:18 AM

i picked up a surco roof rack as well as a xj d44 from a fellow SWVA4W member. the d44 came with a warn diff cover. i soon after scored a used warn diff cover for the d30 but have no pictures.

at the time, i couldn't find anyone local that had experience with ARB lockers, so i took the xj down to the Carolina Rock shop to have him install them.

4.56 gears front/rear
ARB lockers front/rear
u-bolt yoke conversion yoke front/rear

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:18 AM

here's where you'll see the xj w/out the front arb bumper. why you ask? because some *** much thought he was more entitled to my stereo and tools that i kept in the jeep than i was.

i sold the bumper so i could replenish the tool supply.

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:19 AM

i took the xj back home with me to trip up the fenders and bumpers as well as herc.'ing the rockers and bumpers

the full gallery -> http://fitchva.com/jeep/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=166

trimming

hercing

trimmed bumper

factory flares mounted higher up

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:19 AM

i'll save you guys on the saga known as the progression of my switch boxes so i'll just post the final version.

full writeup: -> http://fitchva.com/jeep/?p=75

those switches control my relay box. full writeup -> http://fitchva.com/jeep/?p=60

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:19 AM

i had been in a few situations where i really wanted to have a snorkel for the cheap insurance. so i put my "google-foo" skills to work. because i relocated my flares up higher, the ARB snorkel wasn't going to work. i had seen a few pictures of the AirFlow snorkels from australia that show that they wouldn't interfere.

so after some digging and searching, i found a contact that worked there. he was willing to ship me one from aussiland. i ordered it tuesday evening and it was on my doorstep when i got home from work on friday

here you can see why i needed to go with the AirFlow

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:20 AM

then i scored some axles from DC

d30/4.56 gears/tru track/warn alloys/warn hub conversion/ctm ujoints
ferd8.8/4.56 gears/full detroit/stock shafts

both came with a full set of alloy spares new in box and the fronts came with a set of new in box yukon super joints

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:20 AM

8.8 prepped and painted

i figured i'd go ahead and slap the alloys in and use the stockers for spares

the front is wider than a stock d30 my about 3/4 of an inch with the warn hub kit. and the 8.8 is a tad narrower than a stock d30, so i used the spider trax spacers to give me almost an exact match

oh, and i used the ruff stuff 8.8 swap kit and diff cover

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:20 AM

part of the swap deal that involved me getting the tj moab wheels for my other xj also included my old 32's and soft 8's. so in a rush to get rubber under the xj, i got a set of bfg mt's in the 35" flavor.

but they didn't stay on the jeep for long.

and i went with a set of 35" bfg km2's. you can also see the T.H.O.R. rear 1/4 panel armor as well as the removable doors (still in progress)

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:21 AM

that d30 that i got from DC will be going in. i've done some home brew gusseting, added a ruff-stuff diff cover, and prepped/painted it.

it will be going in when this goes in:

and those won't go in until these go in:

those are the tnt (now tecks's) y-link long arm upgrade and the ruff stuff frame stiffeners.

if you want your paint to stick, it needs to be at least mild weather. we had a little window of that recently so i've finally gotten everything painted

pardon the saw dust. the y-link kit was shot with old faithful - rustoleum hammered and the insides of the stiffeners were shot with 3m weld-through primer (not cheap stuff!!!)

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:21 AM

OMG! SOMEONE STOLE MY AXLE!!!

but while they were at it, they installed the frame stiffeners, treks belly pan, and got the new axle all preped and ready to go:

(crappy picture - all that crap is dust that the flash over displayed)

edit: forgot to add the pic of the axle

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:22 AM

i should rename this project to "slow boat from china" because that's the pace i'm working at :harhar:

after taking a little while off from the jeep, i got back to work only to pull a muscle in my neck this weekend doing some moving.

one reason why i'm so slow is because i end up wasting time on stupid stuff like cleaning and painting the wheel wells. to be fair, i did also relocate my brake line bracket

and repainting my shocks :rotflmao5:

i snapped off the axle-end track bar bolt and fubar'd the bracket trying to get the rest of the bolt out. i welded a nut on the end and went to town with my impact. that was after heat, pb-blaster, etc. so i'll either have to make my own or find some place that sells them

lower/main arms in

upper/mid arms in (kinda)

test fitting the new 5.5" springs

i probably could have gotten it back up on all 4 wheels had i not snapped the track bar bolt and had TNT not shorted me the 2 upper control arm bots on teh axle end. ...and that i didn't notice that fact until just now. oh well.

**FitchVA** · 05-25-2009, 08:22 AM

i did some more work on it over the past few days

got the alloy usa axle seals installed

working on the angles

random pic of the old axle stripped of all of the goodies that are going on the xj. i'll miss the ARB though. oh well.

a sight for sore eyes (and back)

i got my axle back to where it belongs. i had been a little towards the back from stock. it's now a little forwards of stock.

stretching the 'ole girl's legs

this is when i noticed that my lift was kinda tilting. this got me a little worried and i didn't remember to take some measurements (shocks, bumpstops, etc).

but it'll easily unseat the coils. and up to this point, i still had slack in the brake lines. i'll probably end up adding some limiting straps

it had about 3" of uptravel before hitting the RE bumpstop. i'll probably add 3 hockey pucks and limit the uptravel to what you see in the pics. i used to run 2 additional hockey pucks but i wanted to see for sure how many i needed to add first. they can easily slide in the coils whereas the RE one won't. so that's why i went ahead and put it in now. i'll have to do some slight trimming to the front of the wheel well. but other than that, i think i'm good.

i still need to give her an alignment and recheck everything on the front end. then wrap up the odds n ends in the back. then i'm good to go! i would have kept working but my neck/back started to stiffen up on me again.