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1997 2 Door 5-Speed Build

17K views 103 replies 32 participants last post by  dkg4244 
#1 ·
I just bought my first XJ! It's my third Jeep. 1st was a 1996 ZJ that my parents gave me. It now has 195,000 on it and running like a champ. I just gave it back to them and I bought the XJ with my own money because I wanted to pay for my own wheels. Second was my 1959 CJ5 that I completely restored when I was 17. Now I'm 19 and bought the XJ as a birthday present to myself on Nov 14th. I looked on craigslist and various other places forever until I could find what I wanted. It's hard to find a 5 speed XJ that's not rotted out up here in MA. The XJ has about 118,000 miles on it and hardly any rust. It's in pretty good shape overall. I still need to clean out the inside and small stuff like that but mechanically it's pretty good. Here are some pics.











There are a few issues though, but I'll take care of them soon.
1st, the windshield washer doesn't work.
2nd, there's a little rust starting



The lady I bought it from originally wanted $3400, then she dropped the price to $2700. Any guesses as to what I paid?
 
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#31 ·
Lift Pics

Here are pictures of the finished lift.



Old Springs out





This bolt was a pain in the a$$ to undo. Breaker Bar and a steel pipe did the trick though.


Before

After














I still need to do a small Tcase drop to take care of the vibes, which are very minimal btw, but I am very happy with the way it came out. I took it wheelin today and what a difference! So much grip with those new tires :2thumbsup:
 
#35 ·
That looks great man. I'm so jealous of the 5 speed :drool: FWIW I took off my front air dam and bumper end caps after my lift and it made it look a lot better IMO.
 
#36 ·
I'm not sure what I'm gonna do next. I don't plan on a cruise control swap anytime soon but that might be an interesting project. I think I'm going to take the stereo out of my old zj and put it in here.
 
#37 ·
I noticed a considerable power loss on the highway with the bigger tires. I have to downshift into 4th at like 65 in order to make it up any decent grade. I'm now contemplating changing my gearing. I was thinking of getting some axles out of an auto XJ with 3.55 ratio in them. Should I just go this route instead of just buying new gears and putting them into the axles I have now? What do you guys think of the 3.55 ratio in a manual with 245/75/R16 tires (about 31")? I used a calculator and it came out to a slight underdrive as compared to stock. Does anyone have any experience with this setup?
 
#38 ·
The auto axles will be perfect. I've been told that If I did a manual swap on my rig with 31's and 3.55's, it'd be great. Do it.

Looks awesome man! I love the 3.5 inch with 31's. Looks like you also got about 4.5 inches of lift. haha.

I also rock moabs, and the 3.5 (super flex) kit. :thumbsup:

 
#40 ·
Looks good man :)
 
#46 ·
Very nice jeep dude.. looks just like minee!! except mine's an auto 2 door =[ but heyy.. whatever.. its a two door so its different! haha i'm doing my 3.5 lift very soon too!! (once taxes come in!! )
 
#47 ·
cool dude im thinking about going the same thing. Thanks for letting me know about the gearing issue. I was actually looking at 4.10s from 4 cylinder Cherokee. That you put my revs slightly higher, but also allow me to run a larger tire if I ever wanted to go bigger and not notice that much of a power loss.
 
#48 ·
Well the gearing thing is not a huge issue. It just drops the motor out of it's powerband when cruising on the highway. At about 70 mph I'm doing about 1750-1800 RPM or so and I feel like it should be more like 2000. It's not an issue on flat ground but it is on any moderate grade. I really lose momentum fast so I just shift into 4th and take the grade in that gear and then switch to 5th. I'll see how annoyed I get by it before I change out my axles.
 
#50 ·
Yeah I used a ratio calculator and with 3.55 gears and my setup it puts me right at 2165 RPM at 70 MPH so it should be a pretty good match.
 
#51 ·
I got bored and did a photoshoot today. The roads are so salty in Upstate NY so it got all over the XJ :thumbdown: I'll have to wash it later. Anyway here are some better pics of the current state of my heep as of 10 mins ago.




















This is a Chrysler 8.25 right?











I know there's a lot of poser shots but I haven't been able to find any good legal wheelin' this time of year up here near Albany NY.
Oh ya gotta show some school pride


I measured the space from my fender flare to the center of the wheels before and after the lift and it ended up being 17.5" out front and 17" out back before the lift and 22.5" front and rear after the lift, so I got around 5 inches of lift from my RE 3.5 Super Ride Kit! :bacon:
 
#54 ·
Yes it is! and dude my jeep gonna look identical!!
good choice. I really like the lift quality and the way it rides. It's a firmer spring rate than stock but it's not harsh at all. The OME shocks are nice too. Although I no longer have a rear swaybar, I don't notice any more roll around the corners than when it was stock. Plan on buying new hardware when you get your lift. It really sucks running around averywhere for new bolts. Oh ya everything is metric so make sure you find a good hardware store that carries metric sizes.
 
#57 ·
Yeahh. my last two xj's where all metric too. and my YJ was also. and i'm supplied with a million and a half bolts because of my dads shop haha but i was thinking of RC shocks. but idk yet. but thats good its not a real harsh ride, i loved my YJ, but it just was a real harsh ride. idk. thats what you get when you lift them haha how do you like your CJ? i've wanted one of those.
 
#56 ·
hey i see your in Mass where are you located? i wheel down the cape all the time and have a 2dr xj as well.
Sorry for the hijack lol.
I live in Sandwich but I go to school near Albany NY. I go home most weekends and holidays though. I find the Cape better than upstate NY. Where do you wheel on Cape?
 
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