Just a red TJ

[SeizeTheKarp]

Well its been almost a decade since i started building my jeep and a good chunk of that i was away at school at it sat. So ill do my best to summarize the life cycle of the build. I built my jeep a little different. Ive always been a fan of LCOG builds from the guys at Rokmen and other builds ive seen over the years. So i decided to follow suit. Goal was simple. Keep the lift under 4”, make clearance other ways, and run biggish tires. Anyways enjoy my concise recap of my build

 

[SeizeTheKarp]

Here it is shortly after i bought it in 2013 i believe. Just a stock little red tj

 

[SeizeTheKarp]

This is after getting my DPG Offroad Ultimate kit installed. Its a hybrid kit consisting of OME and JKS parts. 2.5” coils and a 1.25” body lift. I also picked up a front and rear bumper from dirt works and wired up some kc’s for night shenanigans.

 

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Sometime after i got a set of adjustable control arms with jj’s from Rokmen offroad and got them installed. No specific pic for that step of the build.

 

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Next step in the build was picking up a high clearance transfer case skid and high clearance gas tank skid from Rokmen. Also installed a SYE, novak shifter cable and driveshaft from adams drive shaft.

 

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At this point the desire to run something bigger than 31’s got the best of me. I picked up a used set of 35 bfg ta ko’s and slapped em on. Yes. At this point i was still running a lpd30/Dana 35 combo with 3.07 gears. Yeah it was rough there for a bit. Gotta say though. I was impressed with the suspension i hobbled together with some help from Dirk at DPG and Jeff at Rokmen. And in case youre shaking youre head at my axle predicament let me assure you, so was i.

 

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Those 3.07’s were killing me. Really felt like i had a 2 speed transmission. I happened to have a huge stroke of luck and found someone selling a dana 44 out of a xj or mj. Bigger brakes than my 35 and definitley beefy enough for my 35s. I also snagged a HP Dana 30 to pair up with it. A buddy and i swapped the 44 in and once everything was welded up it was off to RWKHauseSupply for 4.88’s and yukon Zip lockers. I also threw on a currie steering kit to replace the zj tie rod kit i was running.

 

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At this point i went on a handful of fun wheeling trips since i finally had a break from classes (i was taking a full load spring, fall, summer, and winter semesters). Still on stock shafts. Well… kinda. I was running Iron Rock offroad’s “almost alloy kit” on my front shafts.

 

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At this point, it was about 2016 the jeep got parked and i went away for a few years to attend the University of Nevada, Reno and get my Bachelors degree in Computer Science and Engineering. When i graduated, i returned and once i started work, i began some much needed detail work on the jeep. This included. Fresh ball joints, chromoly shafts for both axles, rebuilding my drive shaft, and redoing my steering setup in favor of the 1-ton kit from Ruff Stuff. The seal in my front locker also gave out so i replaced that at the same time. Gave the acles a fresh coat of paint and replaced the falken wildpeak at’s i had been running (i loved those tires) this time i went with a set of km3’s. Unfortunately by this point, MTRs were no longer available in my size. With that the details on my drivetrain were taken care of and the jeep was officially alive again

 

[SeizeTheKarp]

Fast forward to the past few weeks. I went dont to visit SGT jeep in Rosamond to pick up a low mileage steering box and as luck would have it, i look over and see the now discontinued matchibg engine skid for my Rokmen Tummy Tuck. Needless to say impulse purchase. Ive also elected to move back to a currie steering setup so i picked up a fresh set of knuckles that hadnt been reamed for 1-ton ends and also ordered the steering from DPG and a pair of Riddler Diff covers from Rokmen. Looking forward to getting those in and installed in the meantime i installed fuel pump access panel from genright then took the jeep out and played around in the local hills. Its nice having some decent obstacles down the road to shake things down on

 

[SeizeTheKarp]

Since were caught up, from this point on, Ill be posting things as they happen. Onward and forward towards the most unoriginal LCOGish build ever. And to start things off… new Riddler mfg. diff covers courtesy of Rokmen and a fresh Currie steering kit courtesy of DPG. Funny story on the steering. I placed the order friday night. I emailed Dirk monday morning to get a timeline on shipping it out. He says that while hes has it in stock, hes drop shipping because currie and i are located in CA and itll get here faster and it shipped out today. Im thinking sweet save a couple days transit it'll probably be here midweek. Boy was i in for a surprise. It was waiting for me the same day after work.

 

[SeizeTheKarp]

Finally finished getting the steering converted. Also installed a new(er) steering gear box 91k vs my 185k. All in all pretty routine. Swapped a new pair of knuckles on since my others were reamed for 1 ton ends. Ill be selling my previous steering set up including reamed knuckles, reamed pitman arm, and ruff stuff diff cover to relocate the stabilizer so if you’re interested let me know via PM preferably. While the old set up was bombproof, and probably tougher than this one, i just couldnt get used to the y link configuration. If it were a 90% trail rig i probably would have kept it.

 

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swapped on YJ front brake lines yesterday and did a full flush on the brake system along with an oil change. going to do transimissionand tcase today along with getting my salvaged Rokmen engine skid installed. Going to be trying Redline this time around. was running Valvoline MTF per the recommendation of nv3550.com. I havent had any complaints but people on here seem to rave about redline so i figured why not try it out. Ill Follow up with pics of the installed skid once its on.