Jeep Enthusiast Forums banner

KGB 89 YJ Storyline Build Thread

64K views 490 replies 37 participants last post by  old88YJ 
#1 ·
Hello folks, my name is Adil and I've been a member here for a little over a year. I catch myself browsing the forum on daily basis and having looked through some amazing build threads inspired me to make a small build thread of my own.

I'm 29 years old, originally from Moscow Russia. Spend most of my day as an RF technician for a defense contractor in San Diego, CA. On my spare time I enjoy working on the Jeep, taking spirited drives and autocross in my other toy, 97 bmw m3. We go shooting, offroading and camping with my friends and gf.

Summer 2011, I was taken on a 16 hour off-road trip to Corral Canyon, CA in my buddy's heavily modified 1988 Suzuki Samurai. I was hooked, loved every second of it, found my new passion for rock crawling.

where it all started, Brandon's Sammi:



Thanksgiving day 2011, we were browsing CL and found this 1989 Canadian built YJ for $3900. 4.2l auto with 150k miles. We went on a 3 hour drive to pick up a mechanically mistreated mess in a clean straight body, completely stock, wearing dry rotted 31" tires 1989 YJ!

First look when we got there:


Test drive:


Looking over the problems and talking the seller down some. Jeep had a nasty radiator leak, oil, gas and power steering leaked as well, 4wd wouldn't engage, died out when braking and had all sorts of carburetor problems. Everything else checked out ok:


We talked the guy down to 3k and hit the road in hopes of making back in time for the Thanksgiving dinner.

Repairs began on the drive home, stopping at Kragen several times, replacing various hoses, spark plugs, and such:




5 miles or so left to the house, Jeep lost oil pressure. Luckily it was only a faulty sender unit. We made it back right before dark and on time for dinner!

I snapped some pics and let Jeep be at its new home:



Day after my buddy came over to figure out what all needs to be done before we test the new rig out on a near by trail:


Two main issues were the cooling system and the crappy carter carb:


Took the radiator out and got it gut open, cleaned, rodded, leak fixed and sealed back together for $60, not bad:



Went through and replaced all coolant, fuel, transmission fuid, vacuum lines and hoses, got the new oil sending unit, fuel pump and a few other small things replaced:


My buddy and I were dying to test the rig out. We drove to a near by trail and quickly found out Jeep was not ready and needed some things repaired/replaced right away. 4wd was engaging on and off and didn't work half of the time, brakes sucked badly, carter kept stalling the jeep out and the transfer case chain was slipping in 4Lo:



We didn't get a chance to replace or repair any of the problems before the next shooting/off-road trip to Corral Canyon:







Jeep barely made it home after the trip. I knew we had little to no time to address the issues mentioned above to continue having fun. We tuned the carb a bit more, replaced a few small things and went out on a date with my GF:


This pretty much concludes 2011.

2012 was a big year for the Jeep, lots of new changes, upgrades, mods, etc...

(I'll be updating the thread with 2012 and 2013 timeline in the next few days to catch the build up to date)
 
See less See more
24
#5 ·
Excellent start to your thread Adil. I look forward to reading more & have you stop by again when you get some time.
Thanks for the kind words gentlemen!

Joe, I definitely will in the next couple of weeks or so. Jeep is under construction right now, once back on the road I'll be sure to swing by. Maybe you can school me on my new welder! :D
 
#7 ·
Nice! Looks like a fun project for sure.
 
#10 ·
Looking forward to this thread. I'm kind of partial to white jeeps and I've seen you in the YJOTM contest a few times. Really excited to watch this play out! :thumbsup:

Cheers bro
:cheers:
Thanks guys! :cheers2:
 
#11 ·
Rolling into 2012, we've had it with the crappy Carter carburetor and insufficient stock ignition system.
Jeep would stall out everywhere, cold morning starts were next to impossible. Offroading was a complete pita.
We spent numerous hours researching the never ending acceleration, hesitation, stalling and poor gas mileage problems.
We even took the Jeep to a friend's shop so he could take a look:


After tinkering around and sending us to another carburetor shop, it was concluded to be a crappy carb, vacuum leaks and incorrect timing.
I did some more research and got in touch with the famous ebay seller. Ordered a brand new MC2150 carb with electronic choke and complete ignition system upgrade.
I also bought a new ignition control module and completed the nutter bypass (wire nuts along with exposed and unfinished wiring was temporary for testing purposes):




Cold idle after:


Warm idle after:


Since the 4wd had issues engaging due to the spaghetti vacuum line mess at the front axle, we figured it would be a good time to get that eliminated.
My buddy brought over an unused Posi-lock cable from a Chevy Blazer. We modified it to fit with some brass fittings and hole through the selector fork:





Really like how the OEM look handle came out:


Next day work continued on with installing a rear locker in my friend's Ranger and the Sammi showed up covered in military bedliner!:
 
#12 ·
Brandon did some electrical work in exchange for a tube bender and welder.
He bent a bull bar for my stock bumper meanwhile I picked up a set of Hella 500 off-road lights.
Unfortunately his bender crapped out after doing 2 bends and was sold on CL.

The bull bar was a temporary thing, the idea was to get a custom made front bumper.
Funds were tapped out and I took what I could for free:


Got the Hella lights installed and wired up:


Went out for a drive and found some mud:

 
#13 ·
Couple of weeks later, Brandon got sponsored by Hercules tire. They sent him out 5 31" mud terrain trail diggers for free!
Unfortunately that didn't last very long, his engine blew on the next trip and he sold Sammi as is.
Luckily the buyer had no idea what tires were on the truck, so we quickly swapped my dry rotted 6 years old BFG ATs for the
Hercules MTs!!

I had a brand new set of mud tires for a cost of mount and ballance of $60:
 
#14 ·
We heard about an obstacle course park out in Borrego Springs and were of course dying to check it out :D




Calcite mine used during WWII:





Some more pics around Borrego desert:



We found the obstacle course playground, spent a few hours there. Jeep was running a bit hot and the transfer case chain was slipping like crazy.
We had a blast, got stuck and pulled out by a damn polaris, lol :







 
#15 ·
Next morning I inspected the Jeep. Definitely did a number on the steering box as most of the fluid was
on the ground beneath it. The transfer case chain was shot and a few other things were messed up.
My driver's seat back was complete snapped off the seat itself and the Jeep had a nasty exhaust leak.
Found a golfball size hole in the stock muffler, perfect time to get a flowmaster.
Drove up to my friend's muffler shop and got one put on for $20, yes $20 lol:



Few days later I ripped into the transfer case to see what was going on inside and how much stuff I would need to replace.
Luckily it was only the chain, quick trip to Napa, $70 later, I was under the Jeep going to town:


Gf helping remove the driveshaft:
.


Definitely need a new tranny mount:


Brandon dropped off his Optima red top left over from the Suzuki sale:


T-case disection:





New chain installed:


Once I finished the T-case and buttoned it back up, I decided to flush the auto tranny:

 
#16 ·
I had slight body damage from the last trip to Borrego, needed some rock sliders.. Went to my friend's fab shop and helped make these:






Didn't like the look of stock rubber sides over the sliders, but I did have an idea:


He was trying to sell me this for $1800 with Chevy 350 already in it:
 
#17 ·
I couldn't take driving around with a broken driver's seat any longer, after all I do have a back injury. Got a smoking good deal on these RRC seats from ebay. After their refund for shipping one seat at a time, total was under $400 for both. Somewhere along the line, I picked up OEM center console for $20:

 
#18 ·
I was anxious to order a lift of some kind. The stock springs were shot and 31s would rub going up my driveway :D I called my buddy at 4 wheel parts and ordered a 1.5" superlift complete lift kit:





Another friend of mine we grew up together modding low and fast cars came over in shock to witness and help lift the Jeep!:


Front completed:


Onto the rear:
 
#19 ·
Next day at work:



As I mentioned earlier, dislike the way my sides sat over rock sliders. I bought some 1/8" x 5" x 80" mild steel and made some rock guards:


Quick undershot of rock sliders welded to frame:




Took a mallet to "body damage" and slapped on the rock guards:


Finished product:

 
#20 ·
Saw this stretched body CJ at my Gf's gma's house:


 
#21 ·
I was getting a bit sick of my stock dinky front bumper and been keeping an eye out for one on CL. They typically go for $400+ around here and I didn't care to spend so much. One day I found this beast for $140, relocated the Hellas as well. Very solid shop fabricated custom front bumper with bull bar and winch mount:




Friend from work gave me his old Warn front diff cover that same night:
 
#22 ·
We planned a camping trip and as we all know, Jeeps are tight on cargo space.
I picked up the Smittybilt tow hitch rear bumper and bought a $34 Harbor Freight ATV
cargo basket:


Camping at the lake Cuyamaca:


Cleaning guns on some down time:


As we got back, I got an idea to modify the bumperettes to fit with tow hitch rear bumper and
carry a Hi-Lift jack:



 
#23 ·
Brandon's red top Optima crapped out due to my faulty alternator. Replaced the belt, new alternator and new red top Optima:


Earlier in the day, we were at the swap meet and saw this awesome little Jeep for sale @ $150:
 
#24 ·
Gf and I were planning another trip and I had to make speaker mounts for the rear:




Ready to go, Jeep got a little friend:


First time taking GF off-road:
 
#25 ·
Went on another shooting and offroading adventure, came back with a broken pressure plate, slipping torque converter and busted transmission mount:






The following maintenance was performed at my buddy's shop right before he got fired:
- new torque converter
- new steering box
- main seal
- oil pan gasket
- OEM coolant flush, thermostat
- new transmission mount
- new brake booster
- new master cylinder

Jeep was starting to really run good, almost everything possible in terms of maintenance has been done at this point.
 
#26 ·
I was in the market for a hard top and some full doors, great opportunity came up and I took advantage. Guy on CL sold me full CJ doors, two piece aftermarket hard top, rear seat, rear bumper from TJ, fender flares, and a few other small items for a complete package deal of $500.

I thought it was well worth the buy and brought everything home:





I tried on the doors, but didn't really like the look:


So I decided to sell everything for profit. I sold the doors for $500 and the hard top for $550, got another couple of hundred for left over parts. Used the profit money for OEM hard top Bestop fiberglass door tops for OEM half doors.

The hard top was a trip out of town, but I couldn't pass up a perfect condition from a 94 for only $600:


Picking up the top at some antique furniture shop 2 hours away:



Bestop fiberglass door tops were bought from a forum member around $300 if I recall right. They weren't the right color, nothing a rattle can won't fix:
 
#27 ·
We sprayed the door tops black and installed the OEM hard top:




Got some maintenance out of the way:
 
#28 ·
Next on the list was a real rear bumper with tire swing out. I researched and looked, nothing what so ever in my price range.
Was down at Hard Rock 4x4 Jeep hospital buying some door inserts when the owner offered this Crown auto bumper for under $300:



I was all over it, absolutely love the way it looks along with fitment and quality:


Got a set of 1" shackles I temporarily ran:


They offset the caster too much so I switched to Bserk boom shackles:
 
#29 ·
Took a trip to lake Morena, we stayed at a log cabin overnight:



 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top