jabbathewhats
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Sacramento, CA
Meet Gonzo, the 1988 Cherokee Wagoneer. Gonzo started his transformation about 10 years ago with my buddy. I picked up Gonzo in February. My buddy built him over the years but eventually lost interest and passed him along to me. Before I got him he already had quite a bit of work done:
Rubicon Express 6.5 Long arm kit and added puck spacers. 4.88 gears, 33" BFG MT, slip yoke eliminator, drive shafts, Trac lok rear, lock rite front, etc.
After going on the Rubicon and seeing how it did, I stayed making my own mods.
First thing was a HD rustys tie rod to replace the bent stock one.
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New seats were put in to replace the badly ripped originals. I hated not having any cup holders so I put in a center console from a newer XJ.
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Next was to get rid of the slop in the steering wheel. Adjusting the gear box, installing a new HD spacer, and gear box brace, and torquing the bolts helped greatly. Almost no slop and it feels much safer. At one point I had my gear box shear it's bolts and leave me with no steering. This happened 2 days after a Rubicon run in a parkingood lot. Thank god it didn't happen on Ice House Rd. I found later that the tire rod was hitting my sway bar mounts and creating a ton of force on the box when I was cranking the wheel to one side. 1/4" of metal removal on the mount solved that problem.
After a long camping trip, I decided to put in my own onboard hot water shower. Sourcing a heat exchanger and an RV water pump from eBay, I had that in in no time. I've yet to use it, but next camping trip will be nice.
Next came my craigslist find: à dana 44 from an XJ. I picked it up for free but it needed a rebuild and had no brakes. I had West Coast Dif put new 4.88 gears, replace the seals and bearings, and rebuild the Trac lok. A locker wasn't in my budget unfortunately, but the old Trac lok in the D35 did fine on the Rubicon for me.
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Out with the old, in with the new. The D35 was a non c-clip version, and surprisingly had never broken anything. I guess I'm pretty easy on it. The old able came out very quick, the longest part was getting the brakes from the D35 onto the D44. All that was required was to open up the center hole of the backing plate to allow the axle bearings to slide through. Everything else was cake.
Although not my only vehicle, I use Gonzo as a daily driver. It runs great, and drives nice.
I just ordered some steel rear corner guards from DBmetalworx and should have those on this weekend
[/URL][/IMG]
Rubicon Express 6.5 Long arm kit and added puck spacers. 4.88 gears, 33" BFG MT, slip yoke eliminator, drive shafts, Trac lok rear, lock rite front, etc.
After going on the Rubicon and seeing how it did, I stayed making my own mods.
First thing was a HD rustys tie rod to replace the bent stock one.
New seats were put in to replace the badly ripped originals. I hated not having any cup holders so I put in a center console from a newer XJ.
Next was to get rid of the slop in the steering wheel. Adjusting the gear box, installing a new HD spacer, and gear box brace, and torquing the bolts helped greatly. Almost no slop and it feels much safer. At one point I had my gear box shear it's bolts and leave me with no steering. This happened 2 days after a Rubicon run in a parkingood lot. Thank god it didn't happen on Ice House Rd. I found later that the tire rod was hitting my sway bar mounts and creating a ton of force on the box when I was cranking the wheel to one side. 1/4" of metal removal on the mount solved that problem.
After a long camping trip, I decided to put in my own onboard hot water shower. Sourcing a heat exchanger and an RV water pump from eBay, I had that in in no time. I've yet to use it, but next camping trip will be nice.
Next came my craigslist find: à dana 44 from an XJ. I picked it up for free but it needed a rebuild and had no brakes. I had West Coast Dif put new 4.88 gears, replace the seals and bearings, and rebuild the Trac lok. A locker wasn't in my budget unfortunately, but the old Trac lok in the D35 did fine on the Rubicon for me.
Out with the old, in with the new. The D35 was a non c-clip version, and surprisingly had never broken anything. I guess I'm pretty easy on it. The old able came out very quick, the longest part was getting the brakes from the D35 onto the D44. All that was required was to open up the center hole of the backing plate to allow the axle bearings to slide through. Everything else was cake.
Although not my only vehicle, I use Gonzo as a daily driver. It runs great, and drives nice.
I just ordered some steel rear corner guards from DBmetalworx and should have those on this weekend
