Back-40 Build

Slim

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Supporting Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2022
Messages
64
Location
Central Valley, CA
Sitting around having a few cocktails on the 4th of July eventually made somebody ask my brother in law, "What are you doing with that TJ?"

"It's going to Slim's house," he replied.

This thing belonged to a mutual buddy, who half-ass lifted it, then parked it in the back 40 and it's sat for three or four years.

I had just freed up some side yard space, and was already half-way sold on a project jeep, so I said, "yeah, let's go before we have too many more."

So we jump-started it, and limped it over to my place. Hell, it was free!

Starting stats:
  • 1997 TJ Sport
  • 4.0, 5-Speed
  • 250k-ish miles
    • New(er) radiator, heater core, and the transfer case looks like it's been pulled for some work.
  • 3.5" Rubicon Express Lift (sketchily installed)
I wish I had pictures of it as it set, because it was pretty brutal. Covered in spider webs and tall grass. I've killed at least a half dozen black widows in/on this thing, which makes putting my hand into blind spaces pretty fun. The top was kind of intact, but tattered. Front seats are pretty trashed.

Got it into the garage, knocked some of the dust off, new battery, and passed smog here in California.

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Took the gremlins out for a quick lap around the farm roads. This confirmed that my choice to bring it home was, in fact, good.



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Took care of a few "basics" — new rear seat belts for the gremlins, put in a new head unit just so I had "something" for the little bit I was driving it around prepping for smog, and new headlights from rampage (the originals were cracked), and I wanted to keep it semi-original looking.

I jumped in with both feet, called my buddy at the tire shop, and brought these home:

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35" MT Baja MTZ. On cragar steel for now until I decide what beadlocks I want to run.
 
From reading around here and some other places, other builds, etc....I knew 35" tires committed me to a certain level of "must do."

The goal here is to make this primarily a capable rock-crawling rig. Living in the center of california, there's great stuff 1.5 hours away, and then the major destinations of rubicon, dusy, fordyce, etc. just a few hours poke.

Knew I needed axles and gears to run the 35s, so started poking around facebook marketplace and craigslist for some potential donors. Quickly scored this:

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Dana 44 rear, geared at 4.88 with ARB locker, revolution chromoly axles, and discs. Absolute deal, and couldn't have been a nicer guy to buy it from (with a really great rig, himself!)

As I looked around for options on the front, I got a couple quotes for regearing and locking the Dana 30...both came in reasonable-ish. But then I scored.

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Dana 30, gusseted, also in 4.88(!), ARB, big brakes, currie currectlync, new ball & u- joints, and a new stablizer, all for less than what I would have spent on the regear and locker. No chromoly, but I figure I've got a couple immediate donor axles if something happens, and I can always upgrade down the road.
 
I settled on a build a couple weeks ago after brother-in-law (the same from OP) said, "Hey, you could probably have this ready for dusy on labor day."

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That's...not a lot of time.

So the big parts of the plan to be ready for labor day:

  1. MORryde tailgate upgrade to support the 35" spare. (Did this just before the new tires.)
    1. Needs a third brake light relocation.
  2. Advance Adapters SYE
    1. The guy that sold me the Dana 44 included a driveshaft I'm really hoping will fit. If not, I've got to speedy order one.
  3. A proper lift, because the last one was done kind-of sketchy. Missing bushings, no new trackbars, very little adjustability:
    1. Core 4x4 Tier 3 CAs and TBs all the way around
    2. Currie 4" springs
    3. Rancho RS5000x shocks
    4. Bump stops
  4. Currie antirock (front only for now)
  5. Currie 1" body lift and 1" motor mount lift
  6. ARB compressor
  7. PRP seats (front) the existing ones are tattered
  8. Genright bumpers/sliders:
    1. Aluminum front stubby bumper
    2. Steel rear bumper plate
    3. Steel mini boat side sliders
  9. Warn Zeon 8s Winch
  10. New soft top of some variety
  11. Heat/sound shield and carpet for the floor of the tub (jeep has nothing on the tub floor right now).
There are other little "nagging" things I want to address as I have the time:
  • Rear main seal.
  • Steering wheel leather is frayed/falling off. Either sew on a new one or replace the wheel altogether.
  • Trim & re-paint the stock fender flares.
  • Door latches/locks don't work
  • Swap out the roll bar padding. Or might just go new cage altogether.
  • Replace the HVAC control head...all the knobs are off/gone.
  • Clean up the frame — just surface rust, but I need to knock it off and paint it where I can.

Brown-truck-santa has been making steady trips for the last couple weeks. Garage is getting tight:
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In the mean time, I flushed the cooling system, changed the oil and other fluids, and kept cleaning. I figure I'll do what I can to keep this thing ticking for as many miles as possible. If it grenades, then I know of a couple potential donor motors, and that just becomes another project!

The bulk of the install work will happen over the next week or two, while it's 105 outside...so I'm sure the garage will be a sweat box. Stay tuned!
 
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This is awesome! Those were some great scores on the axles. Awesome, awesome!
 
Got after it anyway. Rear axle in, all CAs and track bars in. Might actually be rolling this weekend!

Had to swap studs on the rear, since Revolution has the two bolt patterns. Thankfully had an arbor press that made quick work of that.

Core 4x4 included a mix of hardware (some odd) and zero literature, so that took some unraveling.

One of the slide pins on the right rear caliper is kind of fucked, but runnable for now. Need to get to it soon.

Drive shaft I got with the Dana 44 fit up perfectly! What a deal!

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