New "Jeep fan"...New TJ!

altadeuce

New Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2021
Messages
4
Location
Calgary, Alberta
Hi all!

Wanted to introduce myself as I am a proud new owner of an 04' TJ Sport! It has 272k km or 169k miles and a 4.0L with a NV3550.

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I got it for a fair price after looking at it and haggling after seeing the front end was shot. The guy selling it was younger like me and thankfully was pretty understanding and cooperative unlike some who aren't reasonable or want way too much.

The Bad:
The shock bar pin bolts were missing and just had long carriage bolts bent to hold them in place, and all the shock bushings were worn through so the shocks would shake around. It also had a 3" spacer lift and all the joints were loose in the driveline, and the ball joints were seized, along with practically all the control arm bushings.
Some other things included passenger door not opening, and the motor had a loud tick, but I googled it when I was underneath the jeep and noticed it was just the camshaft synchronizer that was worn.

The Good(ish)
It did have all new steering links and a dampener, and brand new ProComp 33" MT2 on nice matching wheels. The paint was originally dark blue but it has been rocker guarded over kind of poorly with a greyish blue color. There was also some LED bars but they were wired in poorly. The front bar didnt even work and the reverse lights cut into the bumper had the wiring just laying on the foot well area. The headlights are those insanely bright halo LEDs that everyone knows are way too bright, though the lens' are now hazy.

When I test drove it, the thing rattled like it was going to fall apart, and you could feel the driveline ujoints were binding from the spacer lift. But, everything worked...

It has the Dana 44 rear diff and a swapped older front Dana 30 as I found out when I did the ujoints, unless just the axleshafts were different. (Not sure but ujoints had to come from 97 TJ to fit).

It needed some work to pass it through inspection but am finally able to drive it and have been daily'ing it even though its supposed to be more of a toy. :cool:

I am going to post a thread in the build section to keep record of where we go from here, but my plans are to fit 35"s with a 3" Rubi Express short arm lift and probably a lunchbox locker in the rear, and open front.

I really enjoy offroading where I live and dont try anything too challenging but I like a good mix of everything. Main two spots are Mclean Creek and Waiparous.
I used to daily and offroad my GMC Jimmy but was redoing the IFS front end once or twice per year. I wanted to put a Jeep axle in the front and while I was shopping for a car to drive while doing that project, I ended up finding and getting this Jeep.

Anyhow thanks for reading! Heres my old GMC Jimmy with some of my friend Jeeps!
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Looks like a fun project, and it looks like it’s off-road ready 😉

At least you don’t have to worry about messing up nice paint or anything.