Back into a TJ

CheddarJeep

CheddarJeep

Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2021
Messages
30
Location
NW Washington
Good evening all, slow night at work and its dragging ever slower because I am picking up the 'new to me' 2000 TJ sport in the morning tomorrow, with a 4.0,L, Dana 44 rear, and a fresh Reman engine and transmission. Oh yeah, forgot to mention the half doors. Wish I had pics of my own to upload, but after this weekend I will. It may seem like a "fully built" jeep already but I have some big plans.. Last year I had to sell my beloved Dozer yellow JKUR, because of a car accident and Covid, not being able to walk or work the entire year of 2020. This gives me a reason to start a new build I suppose. This is actually the second Jeep I bought this week. Shortly after buying this, my coworker blew up his 2008 JK engine.. got to talking at work and picked it up for a pretty great deal. I am excited to be back into a TJ as it was my first ever vehicle when I got my license, and I had been working and saving since I was 11 to fund it. Sold it when I joined the Navy, I cant ever stay away from these magnificent vehicles for too long as this will be my 5th Jeep (technically 6th with the blown up JK).

Over the next few months I will be getting the axles from the JK ready to be swapped into the TJ, saving for a Long arm kit, and prepping to build some custom parts after all of that.. and then who knows, builds never truly get finished.

lastly here is a copy of the listing for the Jeep. Let me know what you guys think and I am looking forward to being a member here!

Listing Below:

Downsizing and selling my much loved Wrangler. It has zero issues, runs & drives great, is rust & dent free, and requires nothing. My goals just shifted over the past few years, and a dual sport makes a lot more sense for me.

Basic Info:
164k miles on body, axles, t-case
4.0L-reman@2500 miles
32RH (really a 727 with a sensor) 3 speed auto-10k miles
231 T-case
Dana 30/44 axles 3.73 gears

Comes with a bunch of parts and extras. It's ready for an axle build up. Paint is OK- its been through brush and has some scuffs and scrapes. Nothing too bad. I've fixed and sealed any bare metal showing.

It has fresh remanufactured engine (bought thru Napa/ATK w/papers) and a rebuilt transmission. Axles are 3.73, which is actually a good surprisingly good combo with the 35's.

Upgrades:
-ATK Reman engine- factory specs, 2.5k miles.
-Rebuilt transmission w/ deep pan, 10k miles ago
-Teraflex super short SYE https://teraflex.com/shop_items/tj-231-extreme-short-shaft-kit
-Tom Woods High Angle rear driveline https://4xshaft.com/collections/jeep-tj/products/tj-rear-drive-shaft-cv
-Savvy cable transfer case shifter https://savvyoffroad.com/product/sav-231s/
-Rough Country 4" lift https://www.roughcountry.com/jeep-suspension-lift-kit-906s.html
-Rough country HD steering https://www.roughcountry.com/hd-steering-kit-10604c.html
-Rough Country Dual Stabilizer https://www.roughcountry.com/steering-stabilizer-87308.html
-Hook Road Steering Brace
-Rough Country Stubby bumper w/D ring kit https://www.roughcountry.com/jeep-stubby-winch-bumper-1012.html
-CSI 8k Winch w/ synthetic rope
-Poison Spider BFH II rear bumper w/brace kit https://shop.poisonspyder.com/TJ-BFH-II-Rear-Bumper-p/14-61-030.htm
-Smittybilt SRC cage kit- https://www.smittybilt.com/product/index/90.htm
-Mastercraft Nomad seats installed on TJ sliders http://www.mastercraftsafety.com/product_p/seat-nomad.htm
-Genright Stereo Panel with SSV https://genright.com/products/ssv-mrb3-bluetooth-media-controller-w-screen.html
https://genright.com/products/genright-ssv-mrb3-dash-mount-kit.html-BOSS Marine speakers in Select Increment enclosures
-Entire interior was stripped and coated with bedliner-
-Rear seats have been removed and a rear deck/enclosure is installed in its place. This allows the entire rear area to be locked. The deck is also coated, and has a latching setup to attach a large milspec rotomolded drybox via butterfly latches.
-Comes with 9 MATCHING Mastercraft MT tires. 5 are mounted on Ultra wheels, 50-80% tread life. 4 are studded and mounted on black steel wheels with 95%+ tread. The studs are awesome for icy roads and deep snow-Almost $3k total for all this when new.

Extras-
-Spare (used) transmission, functional when I removed it and put my rebuilt unit in.
-Spare Dana 30 front axle from another TJ
-Set of paint matched half doors and full doors, all in excellent working condition. The half doors were rebuilt by me and have some minor plastic fading and cracking from the sun.
-Bestop frameless top (2 yrs old) and Bestop bikini top
-Milspec drybox that latches to the rear deck. Has pressure valve for elevation changes.
-AC kit
-Mirrors
-tons of other parts, gaskets, seals, extras.

THE BAD:
-Swaybars are removed. I have zero issues driving it 65 except for really sharp corners, but be warned.
-AC is removed. I never put it back after the engine swap. I have the parts still, compressor is still in. Havent needed it.
-Occasionally drips oil. Despite the new engine, the rear seal appears to leak when the weather gets hot. I keep the engine topped a little high anyway, so its never been an issue.

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Reactions: PRNDL, Hog, Ironman and 3 others
CheddarJeep said:
Thank you! Side question to anyone, does anyone know the paint code/ name for this color? Is it the PV3 / Amber fire?
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Assuming factory paint, have you checked the VIN tag on the door jamb?
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Welcome back to the TJ world! I made the mistake of selling several of my TJs over the years. Every single time I was left without one all I could do is wish I had one again.
 
Nice! What city are you near? You can join me in beating on JK axles at Reiter and Walker. The JK44s offer some nice benefits from TJ IMO (bigger brakes, high steer, extra width, high pinion, 35 spline options) but they suffer from still being light duty axles. My 44 front requires a lot of maintenance. I'm assuming the 08 JK is a rubicon?
 
B00mb00m said:
Nice! What city are you near? You can join me in beating on JK axles at Reiter and Walker. The JK44s offer some nice benefits from TJ IMO (bigger brakes, high steer, extra width, high pinion, 35 spline options) but they suffer from still being light duty axles. My 44 front requires a lot of maintenance. I'm assuming the 08 JK is a rubicon?
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I’m about 45 minutes to the gate keeper at Walker. They are light duty but I’m not going over 35s and the way I’m going to build them up it should be plenty strong for my needs. It was a non Rubicon model but never saw anything more than a gravel road. Why do you say your front 44 takes a lot of maintenance? My 2013 JKUR didn’t take much besides a few sets of ball joints but I did end up swapping that one out semi quickly for a Teraflex 44 so maybe I’m missing something?
 
CheddarJeep said:
I’m about 45 minutes to the gate keeper at Walker. They are light duty but I’m not going over 35s and the way I’m going to build them up it should be plenty strong for my needs. It was a non Rubicon model but never saw anything more than a gravel road. Why do you say your front 44 takes a lot of maintenance? My 2013 JKUR didn’t take much besides a few sets of ball joints but I did end up swapping that one out semi quickly for a Teraflex 44 so maybe I’m missing something?
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Balljoints are not up to 37s. Trying out deletes in near future. Wheel bearing lasted 10k miles. Also had the front pinion bearing seize once, it just always feel like the week link. 35s should be great. You doing a cut and turn on the Cs? Caster will be super Low without it. Also IME the artec brackets are not good for the track bar geometry.
 
Makes sense, I had good luck with the Teraflex ball joints on my JKUR on 37s but had tried a lot of others.. someone on Facebook was making and selling a custom ball joint system that used races and bearings but can’t remember what it was called. Seemed very interesting though. I don’t plan to cut down the axles at all. Going to run them full length and build custom fenders that cover the wheels as well as use wheels with not a ton of backspacing to help suck them inwards a bit. I also planned to fabricate my own steering components (trackbar, draglinks) and going to run Reid racing knuckles with an aluminum tierod… it’s going to take me a while to do all of this as I’m not going to finance anything and just buy parts used and cheaper (sales, etc) when I can. So acquiring the parts will take some time.
 
B00mb00m said:
Balljoints are not up to 37s. Trying out deletes in near future. Wheel bearing lasted 10k miles. Also had the front pinion bearing seize once, it just always feel like the week link. 35s should be great. You doing a cut and turn on the Cs? Caster will be super Low without it. Also IME the artec brackets are not good for the track bar geometry.
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Also at the same time I will be converting to a long arm system, not sure of what brand or if I will fabricate it yet or not, but I’m hoping with that and welding everything on that I can get acceptable caster for the steering components and drive shafts.
 
CheddarJeep said:
Makes sense, I had good luck with the Teraflex ball joints on my JKUR on 37s but had tried a lot of others.. someone on Facebook was making and selling a custom ball joint system that used races and bearings but can’t remember what it was called.
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Those are called the balljoint deletes, which is what I was referring to. They're still on backorder for me right now.

CheddarJeep said:
I don’t plan to cut down the axles at all. Going to run them full length and build custom fenders that cover the wheels as well as use wheels with not a ton of backspacing to help suck them inwards a bit.
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I meant cut the C's and turn them not cut down as in reduce WMS. If you don't rotate the C's you won't have much caster at all based on a 4" lift at least. The JK Axles swap group on Facebook page has a lot of info about it.
 
CheddarJeep said:
but I’m hoping with that and welding everything on that I can get acceptable caster for the steering components and drive shafts.
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If you do selectable hubs you could care a lot less about the caster but the JK selectable hubs are expensive and you have to jump up to at least 5x5.5.
 
B00mb00m said:
Those are called the balljoint deletes, which is what I was referring to. They're still on backorder for me right now.


I meant cut the C's and turn them not cut down as in reduce WMS. If you don't rotate the C's you won't have much caster at all based on a 4" lift at least. The JK Axles swap group on Facebook page has a lot of info about it.
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Oh ok. I guess I’ll have to get FB then to look up that info thanks! Can you explain to me or maybe you have a link with the info on how the caster affects the Hubs though and why going with manual hubs would be better for it? But I appreciate your responses and will look into the FB group.
 
Caster and pinion angle are related by the orientation of the pumpkin to the C's on the end of an axle. YOu'll fight getting enough caster by how misaligned your front driveshaft is. If you read the DIY alignment it should be clear.
 
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