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Stainless TealX - a fire road cruiser XJ

Opiebennett

Opiebennett

XJ_Ranger
Joined
Aug 19, 2020
Member Number
2750
Messages
485
Loc
Port Orchard, WA
My 1967 Jeepster Commando Project was taking too long, and I wanted to not miss another summer of fire road driving, so like usual, doom scrolling FaceSpace marketplace landed me a new project.

Goal: get it running and driving, and do a lot of things that Dustin (Torx on NAXJA) did with his ride The Nail Salon before he started losing body panels.

Currently-
Bumpers front and rear, 4.5" BDS full spring pack short arm lift, Warn 9500HS winch, front swaybar discos, SYE with rear CV shaft, blown head gasket, maybe needs ball joints, Spidertrax wheel spacers and JK wheels with 255/75r17's (metric 32's).

D30 and 8.25 diffs.

Bought a bunch of parts to freshen up a spare engine I have lying around and will toss that in, change all fluids front to back, and see where that takes me.

It was kinda cool to be able to just search for parts by the vehicle make / model / year vice "what will fit in this hole and do this for me after 5 hours of fabricating a custom bracket"

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Last edited:
yeah good score, is it rust free? I think I remember reading through that Nail Salon build way back on NAXJA.

Did I miss the year? And aw4 or ax15
 
Hopefully it's a 29 spline 8.25 if you're planning on cheap route

Looking forward what you do in the shitbox realm
 
fl0w3n said:
Hopefully it's a 29 spline 8.25 if you're planning on cheap route

Looking forward what you do in the shitbox realm
Click to expand...
Thanks! My research shows it should be a 29 spline version. I also have a known 29 spline 8.25 in my shop, so not hard to swap shafts if I add a locker later.


Bought a bunch of parts to freshen up a spare 4.0L before stabbing it in. Having an internal debate on whether to do the headgasket or not. And if I do, should I do vale seats and machine the head and block... it becomes a slippery slope to go down.
 
1UZ swap it. I wish I would have looking back. Motor mounts might need to be home made.
 
Got the YJ donor engine all re-gasketed. Decided to not mess with the head gasket at this time.

Oil pan, rear main, timing cover, crank seal, new harmonic balancer, new fan clutch, valve cover gasket, 180* thermostat, new high flow water pump, stinky-Fab racing "SFR" block side mounts, manifold gasket, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, oil filter adapter o rings, and a new belt in a box waiting to go on.

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Got me some free Brown dog frame side motor mounts, but wouldn't you know it, they're for a 1" motor mount lift, so, add 3 hours to "free" and cut em up and weld em back.

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Some welderin', and done.

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So my YJ engine was originally an AX-15 backed engine, but the previous owner had swapped an AW-4. But when I checked the crank bore, the pilot bearing and its bushing were still there, except the pilot bearing needles and most of the shell were missing. Reading a bit and looking at it, and the take out engine, the torque converter centers on the crank bore with no adapter or bushing. I wasn't sure how fat the converter pulled forward, so I decided to pull the bushing.

What a mess. Tried grease and a rod that fit tight, no movement. Even with the 5lb sledge. Decided to drill two opposing holes and try and collapse the OD of the bushing... not really working. Then drilled two more holes and tapped for 14-20, and stuck some bolts in there to pry on.

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Success!

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Except not knowing depth, I went way too deep in on the original two holes...

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After a good cleaning, it doesn't appear that I broke through into anything, so we'll go with the "Hope" method that got Obama elected, and slam it in there.

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Got 'er in here home, and started hooking stuff back up.
 
Only 2 bolts left over. If you know, you know.

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Engine through the first heat cycle on the gas as old as... who knows. Slight miss under load from the bad gas. Need some BG44k and fill it full of non ethanol, and see where it is from there.

Pulled it out of the shop, turned it around, to work on the spare tire.

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Whipped up a custom set of wheel lock tools.

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And got er done. Off to the tire shop tomorrow to swap for a $50 craigslist tire I bought last week.
 
Sweet, being a cheap a$$, I dig the low budget builds.

I will say though, the 1uz swap sounds pretty cool!!! :smokin:
 
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Got a new (to me) tire on the spare wheel, went to swap the wheel lock lug nuts for some spare 1/2-20 with 3/4 hex on them to match the wheel lugs, and found the spare tire carrier has 7/16 studs. So I strengthened the weld on the wheel locks to the 1/2 nut (3/4 hex) and ran em back on. Might remove and paint them.

Slapped the plate on the plate holder.

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Verified the winch on the front works. I'll call my insurance agent tomorrow.

In the short term, need to figure out why the turn signals don't work, purge the A/C system so I can tear the dash apart and do a heater core / evap / blend door.

Long term would be drain and fill the rest of the fluids, mod the battery tray for the Napa group 34 AGM I'm stuffing in there, clean the NSS, and go wheeling.

Almost ready to party.
 
Did some heavy lifting
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A while back a good friend gave me this dana 30, maybe to chase my then dream of making my lowered MJ AWD, maybe to get it out of his side yard.

Stripped it down, verified the existing 3.55 gears were 3.55 gears and the oil looked good. Set the 260 series u joint shafts and outer knuckles with bolt on caliper brackets to the side.
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Played with cardboard and actual CAD, printed a UCA box in plate and some mini skids.

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Got out the turd polish

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Then loaded the LCA mounts full of porosity.
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Got some new ball joints and ZJ V8 steering on the way, along with some new calipers and pads for the 97 model. When everything is here, I'll swap the axles in the jeep and the knuckles from the 97 will go back on the 97.
 
Decided to do the "high steer" where you weld in a tapered bushing in the driver knuckle. Had to clearance the driver swaybar mount.
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When I was tightening the 10mm 8.8 grade bolts to 65 ft-lbs, it got easier the more I went... so bought some 10.9's and took out the compromised front UCA bolts.

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Eyeball alignment, filled front diff with oil, checked lots of bolts... need help bleeding brakes, but then time for road test.

And I think it needs a headlight switch, so add that to the list.
 
I had to grind the coil buckets and both sway bar mounts on mine to get full steering.
 
Mike Honcho said:
I had to grind the coil buckets and both sway bar mounts on mine to get full steering.
Click to expand...
From the "high steer" or the ZJ V8 stuff?

When I was tossing the axle under and had it drooped way out, the ZJ V8 stuff looked like it was going to crash into a lot of things. Then when I got weight on the 3" lift springs, it all cleared - till I did the tie rod flip.

With more lift, I could see more problems.
 
TIG welds on the dana 30 are offsetting my repair to this battery box hold down. Figured it's better than gravity- which is what was holding it down.

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Also modified to fit the group 34 Napa AGM (cut out one end).



Also, very pleased with the EBC greenstuff pads. Not sure if the repairs to the caliper mount so the pads can slide or the new pads are doing the improvements, but the package stops so much better than before.
 
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