99 Cheorkee Sport. The beginning.

[llmacgregor]

Hey everyone.
New member here up in Washington state. I decided to join for the abundance of information on the XJ. Many searches have led me here.

I'm beginning this thread to sort of log my progress as I'll be doing everything myself and maybe it'll help someone down the road, who knows. This is my first Jeep, my dad use to have an xj when I was young and I always liked that rig. Good memories.

Paid 2500 bucks for it 125,000 miles. A little rocker rust, maint issues here and there I had to address. Its been my daily for the past 2 years. Never let me down.

As it sits now:
99 sport AW4, NP231, Cryco 8.25, 4.0. Installed a RC 3 inch kit, Front Springs and rear AAL + shocks. 31 10.5 R 15 Toyo Ats. Pretty much stock.

Things to come:
I have the RE 5.5 Extreme Duty Full LA KIT coming in the mail. Ordered it from 4x4GroupBuy so well see how long it takes to get here.
Tom Woods Shaft on the way
AA SYE on the way
JCR 1 ton steering (Next paycheck)
ACOS coil adjusters (Next Paycheck)
Trans cooler (Next Paycheck)
4.56 gears and maybe OX lockers down the road.
Also looking at the Neon 4 Hole Injector upgrade.
Throttle body spacer
35 BFG KM2s 12.5 wide R15 8 inch rim with 3.75BS
Magnaflow glasspack also on the way.
I'm a Autobody Tech/Painter on the weekdays, so any body and paint mods I will likely be doing myself as well.

Anyway, on to the pics

In a land of Mall Crawers... :looser:

Wheels an tires mocked up.

Painted them Toyota Quicksand code: 4V6 The color of them new Tacomas. 4 coats of clear.

And I want to do something like below to my flares. (A pic I found online). Looks clean with pretty good clearance. Cheaper than Bushwackers too.

More pics of progress to come as I build this thing.
Any and ideas and info welcome. Especially on the RE kit, and the JCR steering kit.

-Luke

 

[moparmansfield]

Replace that throttle body spacer with a bored throttle body. Spacers don't do anything beside add plenum volume which doesn't do much on our motors. Bored throttle body makes a very noticeable difference. As the lift goes, I would ditch the ACOS. 5.5" on 35s is going to be plenty tall. I would gear it 4.88 or lower. Plan on upgrading your brakes as well- ZJ disc swap for the rear and some upgraded rotors and pads should be enough. Sounds like a decent plan otherwise.

 

[cleenrob]

i love that toyota quicksand color

 

[redman]

What part of Washington? I'm in Puyallup.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[llmacgregor]

Replace that throttle body spacer with a bored throttle body. Spacers don't do anything beside add plenum volume which doesn't do much on our motors. Bored throttle body makes a very noticeable difference. As the lift goes, I would ditch the ACOS. 5.5" on 35s is going to be plenty tall. I would gear it 4.88 or lower. Plan on upgrading your brakes as well- ZJ disc swap for the rear and some upgraded rotors and pads should be enough. Sounds like a decent plan otherwise.

I'll look into that throttle body...Thanks
Just found new 4.88 Yukons at Randy's Ring and Pinion for a pretty good deal.so I'll probably end up going with that...I'd only seen 4.56 everywhere else.. I've been looking for an 8.25 or 8.8 that I can build up on the bench but haven't had any luck yet.

Front rotors, calipers, and pads all are a couple months old. Used good parts. Did new rear cylinders, drums, pads and hardware at the same time...
I can get buy with the drums on the rear a little while, zj parts rigs are a dime a dozen on Craigslist parts, but I am aware of that upgrade and it's on my to do list....


I'm exited, my lift supposedly shipped this week so I'm hoping to get this show on the road by next weekend....maybe.

I'm up in Bellingham Redman..

 

[llmacgregor]

Got my B&M supercooler #70264.. 14,400 Btu. Installed today. I ran it through the Rad too. Should keep my tranny cooler with them 35s and 3.55s until I do my axles.
Very happy with the kit, good quality! I recommend it.



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Also got my MagnaFlow glasspack installed too.
Sounds pretty good i think.

 

[llmacgregor]

Got my long arm kit minus a LCA and my shackels.
Painted it quicksnd, gonna be bad ass!

 

[llmacgregor]

Well, got my lift on.
Rubicon express makes a nice kit. The install went well for doing it by myself without a lift.
Got it done this last weekend. Just some small things here and there that need adressing. Like zerk fitting angles and fender trimming etc.
I stuck with the ACOS, plans of a winch bumper in the future.
Got an alignment today all checks out except when adjusting the castor the threads on the upper control arms bottomed out in the arm before the castor was where it needed to be, so I'll have to cut about a half Inch off the end to gain adjustment, maybe make it a little positive.

I also added 6 degree axle shims to get my pinion angle good. axle vibes... :eyes: but should get me the 6 miles back and fourth to work until Friday when I plan to do my AA SYE and Tom Woods driveshaft. I can't wait!!!

While I was at it I went ahead and replaced all of my tie rod ends to get me by on road driving until I do the one ton steering. I am running a drop pitman arm too btw.

Looking for opinions.... on my application would OTK or UTK be better?
I like the idea of UTK because of less modification. But hear the OTK geometry is better.
I don't know....

Here are some pics.

One last before shot.

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Rear done

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At work


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l




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All and all I'm very happy. It's a dream come true for me and I did it myself! While keeping it my DD.
Guess it's a jeep thing.

 

[llmacgregor]

Also a co worker has been sitting on a zj rear axle minus the calipers.... so I could possibly be doing that upgrade in the not to distant future for cheap, or cost of calipers and pads.

Hahah
Sold my old RC 3 inch, wheels and tires too, to a guy walking by who noticed me working on my jeep...800 bones and I help with the install.
Guess he's also got a 99, a black one he bought new in 1999.
Cool!
And more money for more parts....... :rof:

 

[macgyver_7_6]

Great stance with the lift.
Maybe some flat fender flares???
The roof rack & some trim painted with that same rim sand-tone paint would be hot!
I'm still chipping away at my 99 dd.
Tell us how that rubi lift & sye ride for you.

 

[llmacgregor]

Great stance with the lift.
Maybe some flat fender flares???
The roof rack & some trim painted with that same rim sand-tone paint would be hot!
I'm still chipping away at my 99 dd.
Tell us how that rubi lift & sye ride for you.

Thanks man. I love it.
I'm still thinking about about how I'll do the paint scheme.
It'll be cool, I'll tell you that.
As for flares....I'm not sure yet.
I'm not into the flats much...or the pockets for that matter.
If anything I think I would get The Napier flare.
I'm thinking of making some...custom, that nobody else has.

Update.
Got my sye installed in my transfer case tonight. Went well for doing my first sye.
Called it a night, figured I'd let the rtv set up and I'll install it and my driveshaft in the morning.
I also decided to go with the Cavfab crossover high clearance steering kit. It looks legit if you ask me. I ordered it. It'll clear and aftermarket diff cover and it will also clear my sway bar end link brackets on the axle so I won't have to modify them. atriot:


The rubicon express lift drives great. I am very impressed with how it handles for being so big.
I'm a happy camper.

Flexes great too.
Trimming and bumpstopping are the agenda before I wheel it.


photos to upload


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[Bent]

Also a co worker has been sitting on a zj rear axle minus the calipers.... so I could possibly be doing that upgrade in the not to distant future for cheap, or cost of calipers and pads.

I don't know that is the upgrade you think it is. The best that you have to hope for is another 8.25 like the one you have except it won't have spring perches. Not sure about outer flanges, though. Depending on mfg and model there might be a slight benefit.

The other two axles would be a D35 or a D44 with an aluminum center section. Neither of these are even close to an upgrade.

The 8.25 you have is going to be the 29 spline flavor which is not a bad axle when all is said and done. Used to be that gearing options were limited to 4.56 but that is no longer the case.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=101345

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=101355

 

[RCP Phx]

ZJ's came with the D35 or D44A, so no upgrade there!

 

[Bent]

ZJ's came with the D35 or D44A, so no upgrade there!

Well there goes the best he had to hope for.

I'd almost swear I'd seen an 8.25 under one; must have been under a Libbey.

 

[llmacgregor]

No no...I don't want the axle.
I just want the disks brakes off of it.
I should have specified.
Hahah

I'll be keeping my 8.25

 

[llmacgregor]

No no...I don't want the axle.
I just want the disks brake parts off of it.
I should have specified.
Hahah

I'll be keeping my 8.25

 

[llmacgregor]

Sye and driveshaft DONE!
Oh man, what a difference. One week of vibes was enought for me.

 

[Bent]

No no...I don't want the axle.

I should have specified.

Could be my reading skills too.

 

[RCP Phx]

No no...I don't want the axle.
I just want the disks brakes off of it.
I should have specified.
Hahah

I'll be keeping my 8.25

In that case you will want the brakes off a KJ(Liberty) with the C8.25. I just did this with great ease!

 

[llmacgregor]

Been driving it for 3 weeks now.
Everything is great, well mannered on road, and very capable offroad.

I made some sway bar disco holders out of some swaybar ball joint parts I salvaged off a totaled Hyundai at work, for when it is not in use, They work pretty good, but I still need to add some kind of retainer, even though they fit on the ball good and tight.

Just a piece of flat bar with some holes. One caught a bolt for the sway bar mounts, and one to bolt the ball to the flat bar.

UnMounted


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Mounted


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I'm still waiting on my cav fab one ton steering. Scheduled delivery was yesterday but I didn't receive it. Hopefully it will be here tomorrow so I can get it done on the weekend. I already bent my tie rod on a rock.

Added some more things to my to do list.
JCR Gas Tank Skid pan
BBK 62 MM throttle body.
Some kind of steering stabilizer that clamps to the tie rod. Waiting on my steering.
BALL JOINTS...Amazon has Synergy Ball Joints for 200 bucks. All 4 of them so I will be doing those very soon.
Rear quarter trimming and fender trimming. Custom flares, Made out of 2 sets, they will sit higher and open up the wheel well. I haven't been able to find a set of used flares on CL. SO I may just hack up some cheap aftermarket ones....why not.
Frame stiffeners

More to come.
eace: