well I bought this Jeep as my third (5th if you count my wifes 2). I had a 96 XJ whe I was in highschool that I put a skyjacker 3'' lift and 31's on. It was very basic but I immediately fell in love with it and love beating the crap out of it. Sometime during my years at the University of Tennessee I sold it and bought a 97 ZJ. Being a poor collee kid limited my funds so the ZJ stayed stock until about 3 years ago when it was totaled. For some reason I went and bought a charger that I drove for about 2 years. Terible decision. I just realized I am a JEEP guy and had to get one back. When I began looking for what I wanted to build I new I wanted it to look like a street queen but perform like a real rock crawler. I began searching forums for ideas and settled on the WJ. It was a luxury vehicle but still had solid axles. I like the WK but could bring my self to go IFS and new I didnt have the experience to do a solid axle swap (maybe one day!). I was really inpired by THEKSMITH's jeep I had seen on here. Anyways, I never really intended to make a build thread but now I just kinda want a way to keep track of all I do and maybe help inspire someone else like this forum did for me. I am NO mechanic and had almost ZERO experience working on cars before this. I bought my WJ with the intent to build it myself and learn as I do it. My goal will be to do as much as I feel I can on my own and hopefully build a pretty bad crawler one day that can still win some local car shows All right, lets get to it. Like I said, i didnt intend to do this when I started working on this thing about a year ago. This first post will mostly just be pictures of what all I have done to this point so I can pick it up from here. Hope you like it. All input is welcome.
that LJ next to me has a kenne bell super charger, dyna-trac pro rock 60's, psc hydro assist, spyderlocks and 40'' BFG Kralwers......its got about 75k into it :drool:
ok....after changing my mind 100 times, I have finally decided. Im just going to save up about 200 more bucks and go with this combo....what ya think? BEADLOCKS and 315/70r17
I think I am also going to give Dynabeads a shot for the balancing. I hear great things about them and Ill be able to do the entire install in my garage
yeah, im hoping so.....now I just gotta read up on mounting my own beadlocks. so far it looks pretty straight forward. I just need to find some new valve stems so I dont have to bother pulling my old one out of my current wheels. I found a write-up in JP magazine where they mounted these exact wheels in a garage and they just used some cheap rubber valves from a parts store and used some pliars to pull them through the wheel. Myabe something like these? Im also going to be using 8oz of DynaBeads for balancing. Ive been reading great things about them
just had the Jeep packed up this morning and getting ready to strap my son in to take him to the in-laws before work when the battery decided to take a dump. Luckily, Teri works nights so she had just gotten home. At least I got to drive the HEMI today . What sux is having to pull the battery in your work clothes in the rain so that I could bring it with me and have Valvoline replace it on my lunch break. I took it in to them about a year ago to get an oil change one day when I was in a hurry. They did their regular battery test and found the one I had was alomost dead. Luckily it was under warranty so they slapped a new one in for free while I was there, looks like they will be giving me another new one
haha...yeah, Teri is very stingy with it.....she never wants to hand the keys over i HAVE to get a hold of one of the WJ overland steering wheels though....I LOVE those things
well I got the new (for free) battery home last night and installed. went to crank it and................NOTHING. I was pissed because I dont need the headache right now. I stared at it for a few seconds and decided to jiggle the terminals. They visually look in great shape but I know they have a tendency to go bad on this Jeep. I cranked them down as tight as I could and it started right up (with some slight hesitation). Im thinking even though they look good, I may have some bad terminals and they are not fuly connecting to the battery.......probably didnt need a new battery anways ( but that what warranty is for haha). So im thinking of replacing the terminals.......I SUK at all things electrical so does anyone have a good rec on a brand for new terminals and maybe a little write up on replacing them?
I took my "oil filter skid" or whatever you wanna call it ( it doesnt protect much else) off when I did the radiator last month. Finally decided that since I already have it, I might as well put it back on. But first I gave it a shot of dupli-color truck bed armor...i love that stuff
Then I stared at my old OEM side skirts and running boards wishing I could find someone to take these and get them outta my garage.....theyve been there for 2 years and no one wants them but I cant bring myself to throw them away (i just feel they are worth more than nothing)
Also found a good place to start collecting all the stickers I get sent (i used to just throw them away but i think ill start keeping them)
almost broke my neck today when I saw another lifted WJ drive by......it looked just like a small BB and maybe some 31's but considering there are MAYBE 4 lifted WJ's in middle TN, I was shocked!!!! I really considered pulling a u-turn and chasing them down to say hey or at least get a pic so I could figure out who they were, but I didnt wanna be creepy haha...
On another note, I need some help from any electrical gurus reading this. I installed my LED tails over Christmas. Almost immediately I started having my turn signals randomly stop working. About 2 weeks ago, they stopped all together (fronts as well and emergency flashers). I figured maybe it was a bad connection or a blown fuse because the running lights, brake lights and reverse lights all still work. I checked the fuse and its fine..I verified it by swapping that fuse to the interior light spot and they worked. I then swapped my old tails back in to see if they would work and still nothing......any ideas? I had no problems until I installed the new lights. Is it possible they had a bad connection and shorted out a wire somewhere? I HATE being that a$$hole in the big jeep that doesnt use his blinkers hahaha
well.........S@#T!!! ever since I replaced my radiator and condensor last month, my defrost has not been working well at all. Then yesterday, as I was sitting at the taco bell drive through, little smoke whispers started coming through my vents. They quickly went away but this morning they were back and even once I turned the heater completely off, it continued to smoke the rest of the 20 minute ride to work..........I guess ill be pulling the dash to get to the heater core. I am hoping I can just suffer through the rest of the winter (about another month and a half around here) and take this job on once it warms up a bit in the spring. I have seen too many write-ups on this and have no real desire to do it
keep your fingers crossed.....i may be using the shop here at work to fianlly get my OTK steering and RCV's installed this friday after work. Itll be nice to have the torch handy for any stubborn TRE's....
well the heater core musta freaking exploded!!!....coolant is sitting in my floorboards and the vapor coming out of the vents is pretty bad. Im having to put coolant in the overflow tank every two days. Gonna take off work on friday and just try and get it knocked out. Ive been watching the youtube video on the dash removal and im definately not looking forward to this. I still cant find out how to remove the HVAC assembly once the dash is out though so im just going to wing it and hope its self explanitory once I can look at it. Picked up the new core at O'reilly. They wouldn't quite match rock auto but they got close so ill take it in order to get this job over with
Is it just the picture or is that corroded a little bit at the base of the tubes? It reminds me of copper lines supplying a water heater (for example) that have had a slight water leak for a month or so...
damn thing wouldnt start again this morning.....battery is only a week old and the terminals look good. Swapped the starter and horn relay to verify the relay is good......it is. I climbed under there and smacked the starter a few times and got it to start. it looks like from where my heater core is leaking, its running down the frame and dripping right on the starter......im hoping once I get the core replaced, I can just clean the starter and be ok. If not, i guess il be buying a new starter. My wheel fund was almost there too, guess ill be waiting a little longer on those We can use the durango 4.7 starter right.....its stronger and cheaper?
EDIT: looks like its the durango alternator that can be swapped.......
From a quick glance, it looks like the Durango 2005+ Alternator (160amp) is an upgrade to and is cheaper than WJ alternators. In regards to the Starter, it appears a ZJ one will work and is cheaper than WJ Starters.
I think I've got a spare ZJ starter lying around. I'm not in Nashville right now but the starter is. Let me know if you need it and ill have it pulled out for you. It's rebuilt off of eBay but you can just have it
awesome man!! ill let ya know. once i get the core done ill check it. hopefully the coolant didnt kill the starter but if it did ill def take you up on the offer :cheers2:
well i hope its just the pic haha.....thats the pic of the brand new one!!.....ill check it when I get home. sure as hell dont wanna do all this work just to throw is a crap part.
Give it a good look over. If there's any doubt that it's corroded, exchange it before you install it. I trust O'Reilly parts but you never know if someone tried to pull one over on them by returning a bad part that made it's way back on the shelves. If you hit the corroded looking spots with some Scotch Brite or some light sand paper and it cleans up nicely, take it back. There should be absolutely no reason those lines would be corroded unless it was in contact with moisture (which could possibly mean a leak/bad part).
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