Project: Not a Project

[bbaCJ8]

Making a thread just for you Matt.

I hadn't been doing much of any wheeling for quite a while, so the 1 ton TJ was getting neglected. I was sick of tripping over it and didn't really enjoy 25 miles of highway to drive it to work. After getting my wife an EV upfit JL on 37s (which she LOVES) end of 2022, that was more than enough to scratch my itch when the occasional wheeling opportunity came up. Then late 2023 the engine in the JL sh1t the bed. Dealer replaced it under warranty, but it was during the strike so we were without it for about 10 weeks. I got to borrow company trucks and Jeeps, but still made me want a spare vehicle again. Might as well get something moderately fun and easy to work on, even though the entire point was to not have to work on it. Turns out nearly all TJs in Michigan are rotted out with or without frame repairs, or grossly overpriced. I happened upon a near stock one that lived almost its entire life in Florida, it was cheap, and it was clean. 4.0L, 5spd(sycros shot, has since been replaced), D30, D35, run of the mill TJ Sport.






It needed some basic work, maintenance, upkeep, and unfukkering the previous owners' BS, but that was all little stuff. Tires were dryrotted, suspension was super squishy, and I quickly got sick of feeling like I was dragging my asss on the ground. So cheap lift and cheap skinny 33s happened.





I was happy, besides the godawful 3.07 axle gears. Figured I'd keep my eye out for a set of take-out 4.10 axles from a 4 banger.

Then we went to Windrock last summer.
No big deal, right? Took my wife's JL on 37s along with a handful of AEV-owned Jeeps, had a blast, didn't struggle, didn't get stuck, didn't damage anything besides some scrapes on the wheels. I still felt bad beating it up, worrying about body damage, and just wheeling something I cared about. Then my buddy who had bought my TJ was parting out an XJ with an HP30 with 4.10s and TruTrac, 8.8 with 4.10s and Detroit and the gears started turning....

I needed a bracket kit for the 8.8 so opted for the Artec truss. Then since I'm an idiot, decided I might as well truss and gusset the HP30 while it was out. So I got all that stuff, new steering and wear items, decided to build adjustable LCAs, etc, etc. Because I'm an idiot.

Started stripping down the HP30 only to discover that it was fairly bent. Picked up another for $100 but had to swap the gears and stuff over, which is something I don't enjoy and was trying to avoid. But I'm an idiot, so here we are. At least I got rid of the sh1tty cast CAD housing in the process, the axle already had a 1 piece shaft but I was worried about the weak link even with the truss....turns out it was a reasonable concern.
Didn't get a final pic of the gears, but had this one when it was 1 iteration away from dialed. Good enough for used gears in a front axle.

I didn't have a case spreader, so redneck ingenuity FTW





I took my sweet asss time welding, but the paper thin housing still got 1/8-3/16" of bow from all the heat. Would've been fine, but figured I might as well get it spot on before I put it together. Back to the redneck ingenuity.


Adorable lil LCAs


Front end is done and all set.



I never liked the skinny 33s and a knew I'd trash the 17s in the rocks, so I'd been looking for cheap 33s for months. They didn't seem to exist. Tons of 35s and 37s out there, but trying like hell to avoid going down that rabbit hole. 4.10s will finally make it drive right, and 33s are about the max for a TJ to still feel like a fun little go cart without going full wheeling rig. Finally came across a smoking deal on 33x12.5s with 0 miles that had been sitting under a CJ7 project for a few years. Picked up some steelies and mounted em up.



Oh yeah, did I mention that we're going to Windrock the first weekend of April, but I didn't start any of this until late February? Because I'm an idiot. Got the SYE installed this weekend, ripped out the D35, mocked up the 8.8 yesterday, slow welded it today.


Tomorrow night I'll build out the hard lines for it, tack on the retainer brackets for the brake lines, and it'll be ready for paint.

Then I'm just onto reassembly, torque checks, clearance checks, little BS, and throw a winch on it.

I also no longer trusted my 7k car hauler for a long trip. I bought it 18 years ago and it was old then, and it needed lots of time and new parts. A friend bought it for a fair price and I grabbed a brand new used 2019 18ft 14k equipment trailer, because overkill>underkill. I'll never phase it with the Jeep, but I haul firewood and crap too so might as well go big. The tow rig won't care about the extra 1000lb. Need to give that a quick once over and check/grease bearings before the trip too.