A time to break down, and a time to build (the LJ) up

TRevs

TJ Enthusiast
Supporting Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2019
Messages
557
Location
TX & CO
I decided it's time to officially start the build so it's time to start the build thread as well.

First, let me say this forum has been an immensely helpful resource since I got my LJ late in 2019. I've spent more hours perusing, browsing, and studying its pages than I can count.

I grew up in southwestern Colorado so the mountains are in my blood. After years of school, kids, and career I realized how much time had gone by without making time for the altitude and the quiet expanses of the wilderness.

I rented a JLUR in Ouray in the summer of 2019, and I knew I'd found something worth spending time and money on. We've lived in TX for nearly 15 years, so getting to the mountains of Colorado would be an occasional thing. Fortunately, my in-laws and parents live in the Front Range and Western Slope respectively, which made the logistics easier.

The next task was choosing a Jeep. I was totally ignorant of the two-letter designation system, but I knew I wanted something that bridged the present and the past. Inline-6 motor in; V-6 out. Fuel injection in, carburetor out. Manual transmission goes without saying. I have to carry kids on these trips, and when I discovered the existence of the LJ it was settled. I looked for a few weeks and found one at a CJDR dealer about 40 miles away. Rust-free, sitting on 33's but not too far from stock.

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The tires were shot, there were some terrible HID headlights, and a CAI. I restored the factory air box and intake (junkyard finds), got Hella halogens which are plenty bright and a great price compared to any LED.

The antifreeze was green, which didn't seem right based on the forum guides about HOAT. Flushed the whole system which looked clean and put in Zerex G05. Brakes were weak so on went the Black Magic pads with the BMB-recommended Centric rotors.

I had the gas-spitting problem pretty bad. Thanks to the great thread on this topic, it was pretty straight-forward to fix.

I nursed the old tires along for a year on a dozen mild trails, but finally replaced them with Dick Cepek Fun Country. So far so good and a unique tread pattern.

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The lift initially appeared to my inexperienced assessment to be stock springs with 2" rubber spacers. ProComp shocks according to the helpful members here. It rode fine unless you were to encounter a bump, in which case it was like a brick. The trails were VERY rough, slow going. I knew I had to upgrade the suspension. I think running 33's is where I want to stay, so I settled last month on one of DPG's packages.

In preparation for the upcoming install, I took a closer look at what was under there; I discovered that I've been on close to 4" all along. The springs are actually 2" ProComp springs, in addition to the 2" spacers on top.


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This greatly reassured me since there were no vibes at all and I was going down to ~2.5" with the OME and adding the MML. Shortly thereafter, I started thinking, "Well, if there were no vibes at ~4" of suspension lift... why not go with 4" springs (Currie anyone?) + the planned BL and move up to 35s with a tummy tuck?"

But that can of worms will have to wait.


The short-medium term plan is:
-install the OME kit. Coils and shocks are here, Brown Dog on the way, but all the JKS items are who-knows-when.
-re-gear. still with stock 3.73 which isn't bad with the NSG370, but I'm sure 4.11 or 4.56 will be better.
-lockers. I'm not set, but probably the Eaton E-locker front and rear.
-bumpers. I'm not a fan of the chrome tubes. I'm pretty sure I'll go with Savvy front and rear. I like the raw aluminum look.

I'll post on the above as it happens. I don't have much time to wrench with the other demands of life, but I'm enjoying the wrenching almost as much as the wheeling. And it's already taken me places most folks never go!

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First off, looking forward to watching the build progress.

Secondly, where were those photos taken? That looks beautiful!
 
First off, looking forward to watching the build progress.

Secondly, where were those photos taken? That looks beautiful!
the panorama above timberline is Argentine Pass, a beginner trail about an hour from Denver.

The two with the yellow aspen are in the San Juans; the old mining structure photo is Old Red Mountain pass south of Ouray, and the rocks are Mineral Creek/Engineer Pass SE of Ouray.

I grew up about 40 minutes from there and I think it's the most beautiful place in the world, with the possible exception of the Swiss Alps.

Do I get a gold Star for starting the 1,000th Build Thread?
 
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-re-gear. still with stock 3.73 which isn't bad with the NSG370, but I'm sure 4.11 or 4.56 will be better.

Don't even consider 4.11. It would be a waste of money. Go with 4.56 at least and possibly 4.88 depending on how much time you spend in the mountains.
 
Don't even consider 4.11. It would be a waste of money. Go with 4.56 at least and possibly 4.88 depending on how much time you spend in the mountains.
The gearing in 4LO isn't low enough for me since my first go was with the JLUR. I'm hoping the crawl will be significantly lower and slower to control the steep descents if I regear to 4.56... or should I add a 241 transfer case swap to the list?
 
I left my front raw for a bit. The winch guard is steel so thought to just paint that but then painted it all.
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I don't have a winch and haven't decided if I need one. I like that the Savvy front is modular so I can add the mount and winch guard later if desired. Does the bumper look like a pouty lower lip without the hoop?
 
If you plan on doing the high passes the 4.88 will work good, especially on the down hill side. I run a lot of those same trails every year, currently have 5.13 gears and it makes a big difference.
Welcome and nice start to a great jeep.
 
I don't have a winch and haven't decided if I need one. I like that the Savvy front is modular so I can add the mount and winch guard later if desired. Does the bumper look like a pouty lower lip without the hoop?

Yeah, its nice that they give you options. Can add other stuff when/if you need them.

Picture for reference.
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the panorama above timberline is Argentine Pass, a beginner trail about an hour from Denver.

The two with the yellow aspen are in the San Juans; the old mining structure photo is Old Red Mountain pass south of Ouray, and the rocks are Mineral Creek/Engineer Pass SE of Ouray.

I grew up about 40 minutes from there and I think it's the most beautiful place in the world, with the possible exception of the Swiss Alps.

Do I get a gold Star for starting the 1,000th Build Thread?
I figured that had to be Colorado!

The 1000th build thread? Even I didn’t know that 😆
 
The gearing in 4LO isn't low enough for me since my first go was with the JLUR. I'm hoping the crawl will be significantly lower and slower to control the steep descents if I regear to 4.56... or should I add a 241 transfer case swap to the list?
4.56 will give you a bit better than factory (30" tire/3.73 gear) performance. I went a step further than that with 35" tire/5.13 gear but I run a bit higher of an rpm on the highway. Diff gearing isn't going to make up the difference between a 2.72:1 4lo and 4:1 4lo, though. Take a look at the grimjeeper.com gear calculator to see what you'd prefer (for accurate data input a tire size of the distance from the ground to the middle of the hub and double it).

If you can find a 241 for a decent price, that would work for what you're looking for but people want an arm and a leg for them. It's probably better to spend a bit more and get an Atlas.
 
"Stage One complete"

I ordered one of the basic hybrid kits from DPG last month and have been impatiently 'waiting for parts.' The ARB items came within a couple weeks; I got tired of waiting on the JKS ("12 weeks out") parts, so I decided to change the coils and shocks now and worry about sway bar links and body lift later.


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First, many thanks to @fuse for his through breakdown of swapping stock springs. The FSM was helpful as well as a few other forum threads.
 
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Before:

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I tackled the rear first because I wanted to replace the spring isolators and the rear set arrived much sooner than the front.

As always, proper support of the vehicle is a must. I have a lot of kids and can't afford to be maimed or killed in a stupid accident.

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First thing I noticed was the parking brake cables had been rubbing against the rear sway bar links. The surrounding foam was eroded a bit but fortunately the line itself seemed uncompromised. That was enough to convince me that it's worth getting longer rear links for a ~3" lift.

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The rear upper shock bolts were not hard to get off at all; standard ratchet with multiple extensions and they came loose. Thankfully this Jeep has virtually no rust.

Old and busted; new hotness:

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The shock bushings were in pretty pathetic condition. Hopefully this upgrade will eliminate a few of the creaks off-road.

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Getting the springs out wasn't too much trouble. It definitely helped to jack up the opposite side of the axle and rotate the springs.

The old springs were apparently ProComp 2" with a 2" rubber spacer on top of that. The jounce bumpers in the rear had degraded severely.

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At least from the free length seen here, I figured I'd lose about 1" of suspension lift.

Perfect fit from Moog:
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Removed the spacer (which surrounded a 2" plastic bump stop extension), added the DPG extension and the new jounce bumper:

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I installed the 'A' coil on the rear passenger side based on forum reports of ARB's recommendation.

And the rear was done. I was pretty pleased; it's the biggest auto project I've ever done, and even better, I didn't end up with leftover mystery hardware like usual or have to re-do steps because I'd done something in the wrong order.
 
Then on to the front springs. I was dreading this a bit more since everyone says they're harder than the rear.

The sway bar links are stock, which with 3-4" of lift apparently pulls the sway bar significantly below 0 degrees. The boots are torn but they'll have to do until the JKS parts arrive.

Getting the old springs out and the new ones in was helped significantly by a 6' breaker bar I use for home landscaping:

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I was able to leverage it over the lower perch without much trouble. The right side was harder because the track bar bracket gets in the way.

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The 2" bump stop had been placed under the jounce cup.

'A' coil on the front driver side.

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Dirk's instructions for drilling/tapping the hole in the spring perch before the coil is in but securing the pucks after the coil is installed were perfect.

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I haven't installed the steering stabilizer yet; the old bolt on the axle side was too large. It does seem to drive fine without one.

So now i'm still waiting on JKS for the BL, 4 sway bar links, track bars. But I also saw a lot of torn TRE boots. Now onto researching Currectlync and ZJ steering...
 
While waiting for the JKS parts of the lift, I got to thinking... Red Jeep with black accents is just fine. It's classic, not dull or gaudy. But... it's a bit boring. So I wondered if tan would be a better accent color. I've seen Tan tops on red Jeeps and really like the look. There seems to be no way of getting a tan soft top for an LJ anymore, and while there are some nice tan aftermarket hard tops, I don't really want a hard top.

So, I thought I'd experiment a bit with what is possible.

Went to the local paint store, picked out a SEM Color Coat from the color samples, and went to work...

Before:
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Clean thoroughly, use a quality Adhesion Promoter for plastic/vinyl:

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After:

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It's definitely not a finished look. I'm de-chroming as quickly as I can but Savvy bumpers don't come overnight. I think a darker tan might look better. I might add the tan to the door and / or hood latches, which need repainting anyway.

I think I like it... but I'm also worried I'll end up on the Unfortunate TJ of the Day thread.
 
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I also changed out the black Husky floor mats for tan Weathertechs. I like the contrast and might add a matching leather shift boot.

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Looks good. A piece at a time works if you want to keep driving. I thought I found a 241or transfer case but it was a 2007 and apparently made of gold.

If you notice a roll after your lift, it could be the front sway bar links pulling apart. My rear break lines were rubbing and my front did this;

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That looks like a new kind of quick-disconnect!

The boots on my stock sway bar links are shot and one of them is a bit loose, but the JKS Quicker Disconnects are ready to install.
 
It was basic maintenance time. There was a bearing noise coming from one of the belt pulleys; best I could tell it was the idler. I have no idea how old the drive belt is, so I decided to replace it even though it looked fairly good.

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It's much quieter under the hood now!