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The tale of the $500 XJ

JeepinSeal

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Fort Collins, CO
Hey all,

I figure I should go ahead and introduce myself. My name is John, but most of my friends call me Seal. I grew up in Bakersfield CA, then moved to Monterey for college. I currently do full and partial restorations on antique cars. I got into four wheeling while in college thanks to my friend who had a well built Toyota Fj Cruiser, and also my friend Casey (aeracer on here). I decided to buy my first wheeler while in college as well. It was a 1990 XJ with 6" pieced together lift, 33" M/T tires, 8.8 rear end with 4.56 gears and eaton e-locker, and a dana 30 in front 4.56 gears open. I ended up selling it to pay for college tuition for my last year. I missed wheeling so much, and went XJless for over a year. Finally after waiting, and perusing CL for what felt like way too long I spotted an XJ for $500! The ad said that the transfer case was leaking from the front seal, and that the power steering pump was bad. I decided to go and take a look at it. After looking at it and driving it, I bought it, and thus began the tale of the $500 XJ.

After taking my new XJ home I gave it a good look over. It had 235,XXX miles on the clock. Dana 30 and 35 axles with 3.55 gears. 4.0 with AW4 trans and NP 231 transfer case. It was idling really high and wasn't shifting like it should. I tracked that down to being a faulty TPS and replaced it ASAP. Also I found out that the "transfer case leak" was actually the dreaded rear main seal leak, so I replaced it. Then I drove it around all stock until I picked up some lift parts from aeracer. After that I decided to order an RC 4.5" lift, new 15x7 black D-window steel wheels, 31x10.5 Hercules Trail Digger M/T's, JCR stage 2 rock sliders, CB radio and antenna. Since I didn't have a garage of my own, I did the lift in my GF's Dad's garage. It took the whole day and a lot of wd-40 to get the job done.

One week after the lift was done I took it down to Hungry valley with aeracer and some mutual friend for its first major wheeling trip. I was very happy with the way it turned out, but I knew I wanted to build it more and that this was only the beginning. The number one thing on my list was to swap in a Dana 44. I kept it built like that for quite a while. I even drove it cross country in '11 to Colorado for Christmas. It did quite well, made it over doner pass with no issues, and all the following storms over the 1,100 mile journey. After I got back I got a lead on a Dana 44 for what I thought at the time was good money, but looking back it seems like I over paid. Though I was glad to get one after looking for about a year (there aren't a lot of them around my area). It was in great shape, just needed a new diff cover and drums. So I settled on a Solid cover and oe replacement drums. while it was still on my bench I decided to rebuild the brakes and paint the whole thing. Then I got around to swapping it in. The whole job took about 3 hours and quite a few beverages. After that I took it on the Molina Ghost Run put on by Cal Four Wheel (Awesome trip and even better people). For that trip I had to mount a Fire extinguisher, so I mounted one in the back cargo area. That is currently how the $500 XJ sits.

My future plans for the XJ are to replace the rear bumper with a swing out from Aj's off road, and a winch bumper (still researching the best rout for this one). I currently have an overhead console out of a 90 that I'm going to be putting in soon when I redo the headliner. It will house all of my switches where the garage door opener would go since the little door doesn't stay closed anymore. Id also like to regear up to 4.56 with at least one locker, and a set of 33" tires. I'm thinking of either making a full internal cage or hybrid cage. Changes will be coming soon!

I'd like to thank Jeep450r, goodwillijeeper, and gordosmasho for letting aeracer and I tag along with them this past weekend in Hollister Hills and helping me to decide to join this forum. I look forward to meeting more members and learning more!

PS: Sorry for not having any pictures. I gotta get all of them off my phone and onto the computer so bear with me.
 
Welcome!
 
Thanks for the warm welcome all!

Okay here we go, as promised PICTURES!
Here it is the day I bought it.
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First little test on dirt on Old Coast Road. Nothing major.
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I should add that the fancy bird poop was curtsey of the friendly birds that lived outside my girlfriend's apartment.

Finally for some LIFT!
Rear first
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Because of the wonderful wrinkle in the rear quarter, I couldn't get the shackle bolt out...
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So I improvised! Who said bottle jacks were just for tire changes?

Finally the new shackles made their way in
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Old front
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New front
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Gasser Jeep anyone?
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Finally all done. (Don't mind the mud, I used to live down a farm road. This picture was in front of my girlfriend's house)
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There are more pictures to come! This is just the tip of the ice burg!
 
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Welcome John!
It was nice meeting/wheeling with you at Hollister. Hopefully we can do it again soon!
 
Okay so after a super nutritious dinner from Taco Bell, I'm going to post more pictures!

So after the lift, I took off on my first trip down to Hungry Valley in Gorman.
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The first day there was beautiful, but the second day was cold, wet and windy! It also started to snow on us at the end of the day. We wheeled anyway, and went through Henry's ravine. I was pretty nervous about body damage because I hadn't put the sliders on yet.

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You know you're sitting at a steep angle when the water running off your windshield goes sideways!
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Casey making his way out
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We all made it out in mostly one piece.
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That's it for this post, more to come. Onward and upward!
 
Thanks 831.

I was going to post on Friday night, but I was asked to deliver an Audi A8 to Oregon. So my friend and I cannon balled up there. We left my house at 11pm and got to the client's house at 8am Saturday morning. Then left their house with the loaner car (2013 Audi A6 Supercharged) at 10am, and made it back to Salinas by 7pm last night. That's as close to smokey and the bandit as Ive ever been hahahaha.

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So after that trip my XJ had a meeting with a ditch on a stormy night. It ended up basically ripping the lower control arm mount clean off the axle, and kinked the tracbar.

This is the mount from the font.
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We had to cut off the remains of the mount with the torch.
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This is the mount after it came off. I made a new one out of 1/4" plate steel. (its all that was laying around the shop).

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Getting the tracbar back into shape
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After the xj got fixed I got around to putting my sliders on. Thankfully I had the little electric fork lift to hold the sliders for me while I lined them up and installed them.

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After the slider install I took it to Pismo Dunes (The least likely place that I would ever need sliders haha)

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aeracer and I did a grill swap while in Pismo as well. I wanted to have the chrome grill on there as an homage to my last xj which also had the chrome grill.

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On the drive back from Pismo, I noticed a strong smell of burning oil...dun dun dun!!!

So began the tear down to replace the oil filter adapter rings, the valve cover gasket, the rear main seal, and the oil pan gasket.

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What repair wouldn't be complete without breaking some part? Well as fate would have it, I broke the molded on washer on the filter adapter bolt. I decided to just make a new one that had a thicker washer that was also radiused at the hex bolt head and on the inside at the shank. I also found out that the o ring that the dealership had sold me for the main seal was too small in thickness but an old oil filter ring is the perfect fit and seals it just right.

Thicker washer

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I cleaned up the valve cover and reinstalled it. I don't think the engine bay has ever looked that clean since.

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Thanks for sticking with me! There is more to the story, and more pictures of course!
 
There is no way that yours was only $400! Its way too nice! I do agree that the cheap ones are the best. My roommate just bought a second one for $700. How was yours when you got it?
 
Had a badly blown head gasket. One burnt piston. Some minors front and rear bumper damage. Other than that completely stock. I rebuilt the motor but when done it had low oil pressure. So I swapped in another motor and am saving the stock one for a stroker.
 
Had a badly blown head gasket. One burnt piston. Some minors front and rear bumper damage. Other than that completely stock. I rebuilt the motor but when done it had low oil pressure. So I swapped in another motor and am saving the stock one for a stroker.

Ah okay haha. I was gonna say, that thing was wayyy too clean. Have you diagnosed why the oil pressure was low?
 
nice dude!! love it. how hard was the rear main seal replacement? ive been thinking about doing that


It wasn't the easiest thing to do, but its not impossible. My advice to you would be to jack the front up, take the tires off and set your jack stands on the rails just behind the lower control arm mounts. This will allow your axle to drop as low as it can go. Then remove the rear main bearing cap, and loosen all of the other main bearing caps (you'll need a breaker bar for this). Then use a punch to remove the upper portion of the seal by putting the punch on one side of the seal and tapping with a hammer. (don't hit the journal it'll mar the surface.) While the bearing cap is out check out your bearing and make sure that its mostly silver and that there are no deep grooves in it. When you go to reinstall the upper part of the seal, grease it up with some soap. I used lemon scented, but you can use any scent. Then just replace the lower part of the seal, and reinstall cap. Then go back and torque everything back down to spec. I would also recommend putting the one piece oil pan gasket instead of the 4 piece. Oh also get a can or two of brake cleaner and wear safety glasses. I wish I was a little closer to you guys, Id come up and help if I could. Hope that helps man!
 
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