Well figured I would start my own build thread, seeing as how I have gotten so many ideas of others thread, I figure maybe I can do the same for someone else so here it goes.
Cant find any pictures of when i bought it new, so ill just start with the oldest pics! Right after purchasing it I went to a local off road shop and ordered a 2in bb and some US Wheel D windows
ah, e-locker. I forgot you went with that, NICE! I really want to do a full case locker up front, but its just not in the budget right now. Plus I already have an aussie for it.
Short term goal of 36's, long term goal of 37's on a 17" wheel. I still havent made my mind up on gearing. Its going to be either 5.13's or 5.38's, still gotta spend some more time with a gearing calculator.
Makes sense. I dont ever plan on anything bigger than 37's. I could probably get by with my type of wheeling with 35's, but since im building axles why not go bigger lol. I was leaning towards the 5.38's anyways since the 4.0 could use all the help it can get. With the 4.7L and that gearing I dont see why you would ever have a problem.
You have a HP 44 right? Like mine? You'd actually use the Jana 54 kit. I had thought about it, but the ring gear isn't the weak point generally. Its normally at the axle shaft u joints or hubs. Now if you are running chromos and ctms or rcvs, maybe that kit would be beneficial.
But for me, if anything super blows up, I'm building a 609.
You have a HP 44 right? Like mine? You'd actually use the Jana 54 kit. I had thought about it, but the ring gear isn't the weak point generally. Its normally at the axle shaft u joints or hubs. Now if you are running chromos and ctms or rcvs, maybe that kit would be beneficial.
But for me, if anything super blows up, I'm building a 609.
Yeah a 3/4 ton ford hp44. I seen the 54 kit, but thats a lot of extra work for something I really wouldnt need, especially on 37's. Thats why I was going to do the k4 kit, it basically your standard r&p change just with different bearings and only minor clearencing. That way I would eliminate any chance of a pinion failure (IIRC 5.38 are almost max on a 44) by going to the bigger/thicker gears and be almost 100% certain that any failure would be at the u-joint/hub.
Chromos are definitely on the list as it seems that when u joints break they usually take the ears out with them.
Im not building an extreme rig, just an uber reliable rig that I can take the family out and have a good time wheeling in without spending my time doing trail repairs. It will also still be a semi daily driver as well. Thats why (aside from the jana kit) im trying to keep the axles as "stock" as possible. That way if I do brake anything, parts will be readily available at the parts store/junk yard.
your and mtnmarc's builds are making me jealous....wish I had the time to start an axle swap. Hopefully in a few years when I no longer need it as a DD. I want to go HP 60 and sterling rear w/ 37's..
Buddy of mine (TroubleNEO) came to my shop today to do a full audio install while I was working. Nothing insane, just enough to sound good real good with the windows down.
Glad the stereo came out great! It came out even better than I expected honestly, but then again it was all high quality parts and components. I set TJ up with a killer deal on all the speakers, Bluetooth head unit, 10" JBL sub, 4x Polk 6.5" speakers, Kenwood highs amp, Cadence lows amp, and installation. The best part was when one of the guys at the shop looked at the Cadence amp and went "Damn, that amp is OLD." That amp will live longer than all of us probably, no car audio equipment gets made like that anymore sadly except for a few brands.
Forgot to tell you too, the door speakers are Marine rated Polk DB's so no worries about getting water or dirt in the door panels. I have a couple different sets of them laying around, and I think one of them is actually one of the speakers that survived this day.
Like I said, if and when you're ever done with that amp I get first dibs on buying it back!
Thanks - how did you mount it? Do you have a writeup? Did you just drill a big hole in the dash for the wires? How clean is the install? I like the look of that.
I mounted it using 3m double stick tape, as long as you prep the dash properly it works fine.
No, no write up, but I do have some pics I can share.
Im not a fan of drilling big holes in expensive and hard to replace pieces, so I drilled a hole through the vent/tweeter cover and ran my wire through there (see pics.)
Im happy with how it came out. All I had to do was trim the side untill it sat flush in the wj's "cubby", the nice part it that since the cubby sits about a 1/4 lower than the rest of the dash, it hides all the trimming you do.
Panel trimmed for otrattw switch plate and it installed.
Switch wirring
Double stick tape, you can also see what was trimmed on the sides
Man that is just fantastic. :thumbsup: Exactly what I was looking to do. Clean, no holes in the dash, just super. Thanks for sharing! :highfive: Sorry to hijack this thread, my apologies.
Got my intake back from cleaning today so I started on my next mini project. The gasket match and polish.
Before cleaning
After
DyeKem layout compound on ports
Gasket mounted so that I can mark my lines with a scribe.
You can see how much bigger the gaskets ports are compared to the actual intake ports. All the blue in between the gasket and port will be gone once complete
There were a few things I ran into. First being that I wanted the vents where they would be found on a 5.9L zj (since thats what they are from) I spent a good bit of time trying to find info on placement. Then after transferring the zj measurements to the wj, the vents werent in an ideal position to make fastening easy. My thought process was to put them where I wanted them (same as the zj location), cut the holes, then figure out how to secure them.
The next issue with the install was cutting into a perfectly good hood. I probably spent 2 hours measuring and adjusting and measuring and measuring before I finally made the first cut.
Lastly was fastening them. When I bought the vents, they came with drip trays too. As badly as I wanted to keep the drip trays, it just wasnt possible because of where I mounted them. I trimmed and trimmed the trays to the point where they wouldnt even serve their intended purpose but they still wouldnt allow the hood to close. I ended up just cutting mounting nubs off of the trays, and using the nubs to secure the vents to the hood.
Here are some pics
Guess I dont have any pics of the drip tray nubs I used to fasten them, ill get you some if you would like.
Bad a$$ build thread to match a bad a$$ Jeep. I'm reading through a lot of build threads for ideas for mine. I'm thinking that my WJ won't be my DD in 2014 so I can start playing then. How are the Vari-Lok's holding up? I'm digging the Dana 44 swap, I might look into that because I, like you, hate doing gears. I'd rather find a Dana 30/44 with Vari-Lok and 3.73's, clean it up, and just swap them in. I plan on the IRO 3" lift kit for my 4.0L so my stock gears might not cut it. I'm also really liking the TJ switch bezel, looks real clean.
I think that you've convinced me to go with the axle housings swap and a DC driveshaft from a ZJ. Keep up the good work. :cheers2:
The variloks are holding up great and its a great swap to do. Only regrets I have is not waiting to find an open carrier/non vari-lok set of axles. Dont get me wrong, the variloks work great and have served their purpose well and still do. But, after a while I started to want more, and get lockers. Now with the variloks that would be a massive ordeal changing carriers and re setting up gears, by time you do that you might as well re-gear to a better ratio for your tire size, by time you do that you might as well go bigger tires etc.. etc...
I would say that the 30/44a setup, open or varilok, with the 3.73 gears, is a great axe setup of 32's and maybe 33x10.5"s on a 4.0L. With my 33x12.5's its such a big and wide tire, maintaining 70 mph highway speeds can be a pain sometime.
If down the road you do decide to re-gear, I would say you could safely run 35's without issue on the setup.
Let me know if you have any more questions.
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