Ross's other dumb jeep for the street

[tbburg]

Anyone see complicatioms of doing this to a 4x4. I have dreams of finding a manual and 97+ and turning it into a street machine with a 242 and limited slips front and rear.

Not a huge fan of the look/ concept/etc, but if you want to try this on a 4WD, here's a couple of tips:
First, limit your search to a 97-99. Then swap in a front axle from a 00/01 or a TJ. The TJ and last year XJ have low pinion front axles, the 99- down XJ have high pinion axles. The axle swap will net 3.5 - 4" of driveshaft clearance when you lower the jeep. This is the opposite everyone else does when they lift.
Unfortunately using a 00/01 is a bad idea because of the pre-cats mounted on the exhaust manifold (One of the reasons they switched the axle that year.

Hope that helps.

Edit: also check your driveshaft length at full bump after this swap to make sure the slip joint isn't bottoming out. That would break the transfer case if it happened while driving.

 

[bjoehandley]

What's the reason for limiting the age to nothing older than '97?

 

[tbburg]

I'm not sure. GordoSmasho said 97+ in his post. Presumably he wants a late-model 'cause he likes the rounded corner look. I was responding to him in paticular, but my comments would apply to any 99-down XJ, as they all had high-pinion axles.

 

[bjoehandley]

Oh, ok...may have been kinda tired when I made that post and not been thinking right. Never thought about the the low pinion being better for lowering a 4wd, but it does make sense.

 

[eflores]

sub'd

 

[foxwar71]

Oh boy, I found a local track day on a 1.7 mile road course! I wonder how bad I can embarrass myself with a stock 200k 4.0 pushing this thing. And there's another road course coming up in the summer I'm eyeing.

 

[tbburg]

Not sure if there's a difference between the '99 and the '00, but if you haven't gotten bigger antiroll bars, chect if your xj has a rear bar installed(pretty sure all the late models have them) and see if your front bar is any smaller then a '00-'01 bar. The original antisway bar on my '00 was bigger then any other one I compared it to, although I never directly compared it to a'99.

 

[cal]

There were 4 or 5 different thicknesses of bar depending on the original package.

There are also some very high end aftermarket ones available.

 

[eflores]

renix limited was the biggest front bar offered

 

[DeftwillP]

I wanna say the biggest front factory bar was 1.125 and it's not hard to find in the junkyard and is significantly cheaper than the after market next up size.

 

[woowoo]

I'm just sitting here waiting for you to rebuild the motor and turbo that bad boy:roll:

 

[billyjp2]

Oh boy, I found a local track day on a 1.7 mile road course! I wonder how bad I can embarrass myself with a stock 200k 4.0 pushing this thing. And there's another road course coming up in the summer I'm eyeing.

Whiskey Hill?

 

[foxwar71]

Just picked up a POS manual 4banger XJ to strip down, keeping the pedals, boots, mounts, harness etc to do a swap on mine. Got a line on a local 98 2wd ax15 or I might get a 2wd nv3550 shipped up from Florida if the price is right

 

[Goose_XJ88]

Subscribed. So I'm curious what happened to the MJ?

 

[Goose_XJ88]

Gordo, I found this thread on Comanche Club showing a lowered MJ with D30 clearance.. http://comancheclub.com/topic/41177-my-88-mj-streetable-autocross-road-racer-build/

"At it's current height, it's still 4x4. I haven't removed anything, just cut the coils and installed blocks. Everything still clears ok. It's tight all around the D30 diff especially at the upper control arm mount - within a couple inches of the motor mount bracket but even when the suspension bottoms out on the bump stop, it doesn't hit. The driveshaft clears everywhere it needs to.

My brothers over on put up a plea for me to leave it 4x4 and go with a 242 as well. Would certainly be interesting......"





Enough thread-jack.... Carry on.

 

[foxwar71]

Subscribed. So I'm curious what happened to the MJ?

Sold it for a small profit and then it was sawzalled into pieces. It wasn't worth saving, as most MJs around here aren't

 

[eflores]

thats troy's MJ yellaheep. hes been scouting for a LP30 to replace that thing and get more clearance for a while

 

[foxwar71]

Picked up a 2wd 5spd to strip down and steal the AX15 from. Also picked up some M90's and parts for the plans I have coming

 

[foxwar71]

Tore down some junky XJ's, went to town with the sawzall!! The entire 4dr shell got cut up into the scrap truck bed, tossed the 4cly in it too.

 

[PhotoJared]

For a second there I was like

"Oh man what is he doing to that clean 2 doo.....nope the floors are gone."