Nothing like a new ride! Picked up a fairly clean LJ this week and looking forward to digging my hands in and making it my own.
Had 110200mi when I bought it. Frame and body are in great shape. The guy I bought it from had it for about 6 years and said he never even got it offroad. His loss! I told him I'll make up for the lost time. Has a Jasper transmission with about 8k mi on it. I went for the 42RLE over the AX15 as we mostly slow crawl and I didn't want to bother with a clutch. I love manual trans on the road, but not for what we do offroad.
I drove about 2hrs to see it under the impression that it was stock, but found out when I got there it actually has about a 2" spacer lift front and back and is on 31s. The rear spacers and jounce stops are shot and I ordered replacements this morning just for safety reasons while I decide what direction I'm going with this.
Right now I'm leaning towards something like CodaMan's 2.5" spring and maybe 1-1.5" body lift. This is going to be the camping vehicle for my wife, 9 year old son and I to use to find fun places to explore. With that said, as much as I want to go like 6", hilines and 37s or something wild, that's not what this is going to be used for. I think around 2.5-3" and maybe going up to 33s is about the sweet spot for highway driving to some places around us to get muddy and hit trails to camp.
In addition to the replacement spacers, I ordered new tie rod and drag link ends and a stock track bar to replace the worn out steering components. Other than that, the thing seems to be in good shape. The steering damper has started leaking today, so that will get replaced when I pick up new shocks and springs.
Now the GOOD news is, the body and frame look great.
Body only has a couple rough spots on each fender and one paint crack just in front of driver's door.
Interior is in good shape, but needs a detail. That's today's mission.
Oh, and Warn bumpers and a couple old KCs on the front.
Looking forward to learning about it and from all of you as I get familiar with what this ol thing has in store for me!
Had 110200mi when I bought it. Frame and body are in great shape. The guy I bought it from had it for about 6 years and said he never even got it offroad. His loss! I told him I'll make up for the lost time. Has a Jasper transmission with about 8k mi on it. I went for the 42RLE over the AX15 as we mostly slow crawl and I didn't want to bother with a clutch. I love manual trans on the road, but not for what we do offroad.
I drove about 2hrs to see it under the impression that it was stock, but found out when I got there it actually has about a 2" spacer lift front and back and is on 31s. The rear spacers and jounce stops are shot and I ordered replacements this morning just for safety reasons while I decide what direction I'm going with this.
Right now I'm leaning towards something like CodaMan's 2.5" spring and maybe 1-1.5" body lift. This is going to be the camping vehicle for my wife, 9 year old son and I to use to find fun places to explore. With that said, as much as I want to go like 6", hilines and 37s or something wild, that's not what this is going to be used for. I think around 2.5-3" and maybe going up to 33s is about the sweet spot for highway driving to some places around us to get muddy and hit trails to camp.
In addition to the replacement spacers, I ordered new tie rod and drag link ends and a stock track bar to replace the worn out steering components. Other than that, the thing seems to be in good shape. The steering damper has started leaking today, so that will get replaced when I pick up new shocks and springs.
Now the GOOD news is, the body and frame look great.
Body only has a couple rough spots on each fender and one paint crack just in front of driver's door.
Interior is in good shape, but needs a detail. That's today's mission.
Oh, and Warn bumpers and a couple old KCs on the front.
Looking forward to learning about it and from all of you as I get familiar with what this ol thing has in store for me!
