Hooligan’s TJ refresh

[Hooligan]

Some of you have seen me wheel the full-size Dodge and force it into places Mother Nature never intended. And I will continue to do so…butt..something smaller would be nice.

In one of the threads on here a member mentioned wanting to sell his vehicle, so we started talking. Being in no rush, a few months later arrangements were made.

Jeep started life here on the West coast in Davis but was moved to Michigan a few years ago. Jeep didn’t see much use, but the months of winter still took a toll. It wasn’t too bad. Don’t tell anyone I imported rust into Cali.

I had the Jeep shipped to my brother’s place in Omaha. Drove with my daughter over to visit my Bro and pick up the new toy.

So…what did I get?

1998 TJ with the 4.0, Ax15 5 speed, Atlas with 4.3, and ProRock 60s front and rear with 5.13 and Detroits.

What needs to be refreshed:

Rear shocks
Driver seat
Exhaust
Steering
Tires
Parking brake






Loaded up in Omaha




Home sweet home

 

[Hooligan]

Figure I’ll start with interior first.

Removed the rear seat and belts, as those will never be used.
Removed the tie down holds from the cargo area, most seems loose but they didn’t seem useful.
With pressure washer and air compressor, cleaned up the accumulated sunflower seeds and other items that were in the opening beneath the seats.

Welded up unused holes in the floor. Then sprayed it all with LizardSkin sound control and then threw down a vinyl floor cover from Rock Auto. The floor cover had the mold for the seat section, and was otherwise cut-to-fit.



With Lizard Skin


With vinyl floor

 

[Hooligan]

New seats in.
Went with PRP, this is their high back daily driver version. I’m only 5’10”, and the seat back only gets to the mid-point of my head. Definitely doesn’t seem tall enough.

Will be installing 4-point harnesses in the near future.

Put in new door seals also. Got those from RockAuto also, they are ok-ish. Had to drill holes for the pushpins, and even then the fitment isn’t great.

Will replace shifter boots, and put down a rubber horse stall mat in the back. Sometime later a new radio and speakers will get done, but other items need refreshed first.

 

[Clb]

 

[MigGunslinger]

Nice!

You can run tight trails with us now.


We’re about the same height and my mastercraft seat backs end up in the same place.

I think the frames usually rust in the flat sections just before the frame kicks up in the front and rear. Guys will drill drain holes in those locations. Never had to mess with it personally, as you know nothing rusts here.

 

[TrikeKid]

I'd suggest 5 points over 4, I have the low back version of that seat in my flatty and without the sub belt the lap doesn't stay down where it should

 

[RunningProblem]

HELL YEAH!!!!

 

[Hooligan]

I need to figure out what rear brakes are on this thing. Passenger side the doo-hickey for the parking brake is missing.

The backing plate says 212352 WF2. Quick Google seems like this is factory Jeep. No TJs in any local-pull yards, but lots of XJs , so I’ll give that a try.








For brake rotors and calipers , PO said they were Explorer of about 2000 model year. I know he mentioned havin to redrill the rotors to Jeep bolt pattern. Definitely need new pads.

 

[MigGunslinger]

The stock TJ and Explorer 8.8 disc brakes are very similar but the parts are not 100% interchangeable. They would both be 5X4.5" stock but it looks like the rear was drilled to 5X5.5" because of the front hubs. A lot of the crate axles reused stock brakes where possible.

Explorer 8.8 had disc brakes from '95-'01 so 2000 is a good year to search, maybe pick up a cheap set at the parts house and compare them?


I have my stock D44 and my custom axle with explorer brakes on it that I can reference for you if needed.

 

[fl0w3n]

So it’s a Prorock 60 that possibly has Dana 35/44 rear brakes on it? I didn’t realize that was a thing.

 

[Hooligan]

Nice!

You can run tight trails with us now.


We’re about the same height and my mastercraft seat backs end up in the same place.

I think the frames usually rust in the flat sections just before the frame kicks up in the front and rear. Guys will drill drain holes in those locations. Never had to mess with it personally, as you know nothing rusts here.

Weird the seats are so short, feel like there is almost zero head support.

Frame seems solid, used my electric 2k psi power washer, and spent $30 on one of them Amazon thingies that siphons sand into the spray. Seems to work okay and cleaned up a lot of rust spots. In some areas I’ve used naval jelly . Exterior of frame mostly has the factory coating after cleaning it up.

 

[Hooligan]

I'd suggest 5 points over 4, I have the low back version of that seat in my flatty and without the sub belt the lap doesn't stay down where it should

Thanks for the input, My first time using more than factory belts, I’ll have to monitor that and change it if/when needed.

 

[RunningProblem]

...swing by an oreilly and pick up a 2000 caliper to check. You never know. Maybe they're actually stock TJ Calipers.

 

[Dirtyjed]

I halfway remember that the rears are stock Jeep, might be JK, brakes and the fronts use F350 brakes on Pro Rocks.

 

[Hooligan]

Slow going, hit up pick n pull and pulled some calipers from a 96 Explorer, they seem to be it. Will get those changed out, and the parking brake stuff.

This weekend, all I had time for was new plugs, wires, cap and rotor. Cap had some deposits on it.