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regeared the MJ, for free, this weekend

Jeff in VA

<---respect
Location
Richmond, VA
Went from 4.10's to 4.56....for free

I snagged a 4.56 D30 from the yard for $100 a while back, and put it in myself on Saturday morning. Sold the 4.10 D30 I took out for $125...net gain of $25. Jerry (another MJ guy) and I swapped rear axles yesterday (he had a 4.56 D35 and wanted my 4.10 D35) so that was no cost either....

All I gotta say is ANY 2.5 should have come from the factory with 4.56's. I can't believe how much more responsive it is now!

I also installed new leafpacks in the rear and got about 2.5" of lift....will be lifting the front with some ZJ springs this weekend to level it out.

Started with the D30 on Saturday morning….had it swapped out in about 3 hours working by myself.

Step 1, pull old D30:

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“new” axle, cleaned and painted:

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my shimmed CAD motor:

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also swapped the stock tie rod with a ZJ one, notice the beef:

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using a bottle jack to remove/install coil springs without unbolting everything:

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all done:

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I’ve been working on the leafpacks for the last few weekends, getting them to be ready to install when we pulled the rear axle. Here’s what I started with, a set of stock MJ 4WD leafpacks from the junkyard for $26 bucks….

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I pulled them apart, hit them with a cup brush on the angle grinder, and reapainted them with graphite-based paint (stole the idea from Woody;) ):

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shot of my “workshop” LOL

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this is the stuff I used, called EZ slide. Got it from Tractor Supply Co. for $24. Neat stuff:

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cleaned up the factory case hardened eye and shackle bolts with the wire wheel on the bench grinder, and repainted the shackles. Fasteners were like new under all the grime, and saved me some $$$ not having to buy new stuff

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got all new hardware for the alignment clips. My neighbor machined down some ¼” pipe nipple and reamed out the inside and tapered the edges, to replace the stock sleeves…pretty trick. Painted with the same graphite paint

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new sleeves:

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he also machined a set of new center pins for me. I had to drill out the perches just a tad to get the heads he turned to fit:

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all ready to be put back together:

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Yesterday morning, Jerry, Chuck and I proceeded to transplant rear axles. Pulled the MJ’s along side of each other and commenced to unbolting

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We figured the easiest way to deal with the e-brake cables was to pull them off the parking brake arm inside the drum (hindsight says we should of just pulled them out of the equalizer arm and left the drums alone…..Chuck was smart enough to take a pic of the assembled drum beforehand so we had a reference to get all the bits and pieces back together correctly. Here’s a couple shots of the brakes for anyone’s future reference:

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Jerry took the time to unbolt all of his stuff nicely so he could reuse it all. I chopped my U bolts off with a cutoff wheel…..

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Got the packs off both vehicles and pulled the axles out. Here’s a shot of my sagged/bent/toasted 2WD packs next to the newly assembled 4WD packs. Hard to see from the angle, but there’s a lot more arch in the new packs

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I got new spring eye bushings and had them shop pressed in, and we both used new bent-to-order U bolts and hardware from the same shop for $6/ea (and some change). I snapped one brake line and had to rebend a new piece to fit, but other than that all went well. Got mine all buttoned back up and bled the brakes, and that was it. We’ve still got a bit of work left on Jerry’s MJ, but should have it done and running (have to put the tranny back in it) by this weekend for a trail cleanup.

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I netted about 3” of lift with the new packs. Center of hub to flare measurement with the old packs was the same as the front, 17.5”….now it sits right around 20.5”:

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On the way home I stopped by a supermarket, and got a good shot of the rake on a nice level parking lot. I’m going to swap out the front springs with a pair of V8 ZJ coils this weekend to try leveling it out. If those don’t do it, I have a set of 1.5” spacers I can add (hindsight again says I should have put them in on Saturday when I had the front axle out, but I wasn’t sure just how much lift I was going to get in the back)

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The D35 will ride underneath until I get the D44 regeared and locked, then it'll come back out. I'm not sure now that I want to SOA it. It rides great (still need to replace shocks and brake line) before I can flex...right now they are my limiting straps :doh: I'm thinking this might be a nice height for now, with a good set of 31 or even 32" tires. We'll see what happens next.

Jeff
 
brake hose from a mid 90's dakota is the perfect replacement, it's way long, I'm at 4" ish in the back it's plenty long yet.
 
got the brake line covered, will be installing next weekend along with new springs in the front and a set of Rancho RS9000's all around.

Jeff
 
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