Project "Red Headed Stepchild" A restoration & build

[RangerRick]

So this build starts like others I've had perusing the local CL adds, I stumbled across a very cheap TJ Wrangler SE edition in much need of some TLC to bring her back from almost being scrapped in a salvage yard.

(The above photo is a picture of our last TJ on 37's at a local wheeling spot the day before she was adopted by other Jeepers.)

She was in bad shape after the last owner, a 19 year old girl fell into drugs with her boyfriend. Tweakers spell the end of all things nice in someones life, it was all downhill for her & the poor Jeep from there until fate would have it, the Jeep swerved into my path. I adopted it as case bed number 12. My 12th Jeep that is.

You see I run a home for the abused, broke down, neglected and derelict Jeep. A Jeep rescue if you will. I thought I might have been done with my affliction recently so I already sold the last of my TJ & XJ performance parts.
We moved on to the JKUR platform a few years back with the wife so there's no similarities really.
Somehow I just couldn't turn down another TJ after a roundabout way getting this little red Jeep for a mere $300 in the end, final cost before rehab and upgrades start.

The photo above was snapped the first day she arrived in our care back in May 2016. This is where the tear down and build part of the story begins, acquiring parts to upgrade and rebuild this little red Jeep that could, a very capable everymans build on a maximum all in budget of around $10K total for everything......
Let the fun begin!
Here are some photos of the tear down and rebuild.

Notice the stash of drugs that fell behind the center stack. The tweakers removed every screw from the dash and still couldn't get them out. I found a cocktail party of different narcotics, paraphernalia, pipes, needles, spoons and hard candy inside the dash & HVAC unit. I was extremely careful not to get poked by anything. Then I washed everything out with simple green, detergent and water to get rid of the nasty filthy grime.

Dash and back seat, roll bar and seatbelt repair clean up.

Dash was completely removed and reinstalled after thourogh cleaning and stereo repair/upgrade including roll bar pods and console subwoofer from a '05 Rubicon.

More pics.

I started charting where I wanted this build to go and hunted down parts to make it happen using the various forums, CL, Ebay, facebook etc.

Bought a complete set of arms and acquired adjustable track bars, shocks, Currie RockJock parts to build a 4" lift. Everything for the most part totalled under $500. Some stuff I refurbished with new joints and bushings, some stuff I was given and some parts were bought new or came off other TJ's and were sitting in the garage.

Replaced the seats, hood, cowel and many more parts I scrounged up. Also did the center console subwoofer upgrade that is in another article here on this forum.

Out with the old seats, swapped for '05 Rubicon seats.

Kicker sub in factory console.

Newer ProComp Xtreme mud 2's on my last Jeeps 17×9 M/T Classic II's sans a little rock rash on the rims....

Currie RockJock 60 going in replacing the Dana 35 axle out back. Also acquired a 30 gallon GenRight expedition long range crawler tank & skid that is going in.

Installed my old Olympic Rock bumper with Warn M8000 winch and the 4" suspension. Then decided to source a heavier duty front axle for the front.

Decided on 4-wheel disc brakes upgrade also. This is in 2017 now.

A new augmented full cage resides under the new soft top. It has full padding kit and ballistic nylon pad covers, looks factory and very clean.

Old Dana 35 rear axle is gone, so are the front Dana 30 and that good olde American Standard porcelain throne..... Haha!

This has to go! My plans don't include leg cramps when driving on the freeway, nor do they include being passed on grades by 18 wheelers and VW busses so I research and include a Magnum V8 swap in my near future. I plan to tow another expidition/military type trailer in the future and know the 4.0L is barely up to the task. There's no way that 2.5 can stay..... Theory goes, double the engine size, double or more the power right? Simple enough right?

Magnum V8 coming to a TJ engine bay near me soon! Very soon!

 

[RangerRick]

In this 2nd installment of "Red Headed Stepchild" at
my rescue home for Jeeps, we will be performing open heart surgery and replacing all the "guts" that make it go!
This, (by the way I make almost all my posts from my Samsung Note4 Fablet phone, I like the "challenge" I suppose).

So my home for troubled Jeeps finds this '97 ZJ Grand Cherokee Limited loaded with almost all the goodies running and driving with a 3" lift kit that has Currie Johnny Joints and much more. All this for about 1 Large. Yes some have said I should restore this beast but I'm not really into pillowbarges. I have it towed and parked in position to extract what I need very soon. BTW, anybody need ZJ parts? I'll have a bunch available soon!

Gold Limited 16" alloy wheels..... purrrdy!

I prefer these though.......

So anyways, I do a little shopping and end up with full corner guards, rock sliders with push off bar/steps, Steel flat fenders with built in 3" fender flare and a rear bumper that I am going to weld a tire swing out gate on I had laying around from an old Fab Fours bumper that got sold. Pictures will come after I install the parts. There is an ever growing booty in the garage of stuff acquired for this Jeep.

AT this point I have one half of a 2 car garage full of Jeep TJ parts to go on. The other half of said garage has my old iron CJ powered by Cummins 4BT diesel in it. I'm running outa room fast (natures way of saying get to work lazy bum!).

So I have also started selling off the parts I don't need like these wheels and tires, old axles, seats, roll cage, back seat, hood and other clutter.

Working on the suspension and rear axle.

Stripping the front getting ready to yank the powertrain from between the rails. The P.O. went mudding, it's everywhere still after the sprinkler treatment.

Supporting the hood with 4x4 blocks.

Exhaust out!

There was a ton of mud, rocks and dirt up in the skid plate. Maybe 30 pounds or more packed in and some oily, some big rocks there too! The P.O. never cleaned this poor Jeep after going muddin!

Pulled the engine, trans & transfer case, now I need to clean, cut off the 4-cyl mounts and prep for the new drivetrain. Everything is getting swapped except the transfer case for now. I will re-use the 4-cyl transfer case since it was behind an automatic and is 23 spline input same as 6-cyl Jeeps and V8's.

Transfer case on the ground.

Empty under there!

Here is the 2.5 with its automatic 3 speed transmission.

Now onto the donor ZJ. Working on engine removal.

Cut the exhaust pipe, have to unbolt the Y pipe as it won't fit between the frame rails.
More to follow ( been working Comicon convention ths week), as I almost have the whole drivetrain assembly out and will have more photos soon. Another item going at the same time is the wiring harness is getting spliced together. I will use parts off the ZJ to add on the TJ harness. This including emissions components so this will be a legal swap since Kalifornia is the SMOG check capitol of the world, it has to be 100% emissions compliant, which it will be.

Engine, wiring, emissions, transmission & transfer case liberated from the donorZJ.

NV-242 transfer case on the ground. Will be completely rebuilding the transmission before it goes in the TJ. Got all this out on Monday when I had a day off work. It was suspended from the engine hoist for the last week while I was out of town. There were blocks supporting weight and it was safe in case of jack failure the motor couldn't go anywhere. This weekend I hope to clean up the TJ frame and engine bay, cut the 4-cyl engine mounts off and weld the new ones in place. I will be re enforcing the upper control arm brackets with gussets since they were using the old 4-cyl mounts for that and it will be cut away when they are removed. 3/16 or 1/4" plate oughta do the trick.
So Saturday I spent some time scrubbing and cleaning the firewall while the engine was out of the TJ since it is almost imposible to do when a motor is in the way. Then using my trusty HF $19 Chicago Electric (HF) special, I cut the 4-cyl. Motor mounts off the frame. Using a 4" grinder, BFH (hammer), giant adjustable wrench & some Snap-On cold chisels the mounts were liberated.

Usually HF are 1 use tool but this one has lasted through several big jobs. I'm duly impressed with it.

Next week I will use a flapper disc to blend the frame welds so they wont even be noticed like they never were there. The frame will be prepped and painted as well after these AA Magnum V8 motor mounts are welded in place. The newest catalog came with my new mounts. I have about 15 years worth of catalogs from AA over the years.

Well an update as of 8/2/2017, I was waffling on what to do about the transmission since it needed a rebuild before it goes into the TJ. There were quotes of $250 for a used junkyard replacement to a performance build costing over $3K! In the end I shopped around and decided to get a re-manufactured transmission from a large well known mass builder that supplies parts houses and transmission shops with quality updated units. While I was at it, the decision was made to move up to a stronger unit so I am going from the 44RE to 46RE that was behind the 5.9L performance engine and heavier full size SUV's and trucks up to 1-ton capacity. This transmission will have all the Sonnax updates, valve body mods and internals replaced with the latest heavy duty parts. The torque converter will be new and even two new transmission coolers will be installed to prevent heat problems. I will include a few pictures of the new transmission showing the differences between the 44RE & 46RE models in case anyone else reading this does a similar swap, they will know what they're in for.

On the subject of transfer cases, that remains to be seen as originally the plan was to re-use the NV-231J that came from the TJ behind the 4-cylinder and update it with some stronger parts. Sourcing a 1 1/4" Cloys chain & sprockets with 32 spline yolk for the front output, A 6-pinion planetary gear set out of a later model (post '98) Dodge SUV/Truck TC, and installing a nice Terra or JB Conversions SS SYE (Super Short) 32 spline output with super short yolk.

But........ In my searching for parts, A TJ Rubicon NV-241OR 4:1 TC dropped in my path so the plans to upgrade the 231J may not happen. If I spring for the 4:1 Rock-Trac transfer case, the $10K all in budget may become blown out as the purchase of the upgraded 46RE combined with the 241OR will most likely cross the line there since both axles have been upgraded to three-quarter/1-Ton's, my max ALL-IN budget line may have to move up to $12K range. I really want to keep this entire build under $10K if nothing more than bragging rites when my "friends" tell me they have more than $10K in their axles alone!

Oh well...... Decisions, Decisions.......... I already bought some of the parts to upgrade the 231J, some of the others will have to be ordered still before it could be maxed out in the upgrade department. The Rock-Trac will require ZERO upgrading, however it will cost more than all the updates on the 231J combined.

So today I was able to get a lot accomplished including engine trial fit, set and weld the motor mounts in place. Sand the frame in places, use naval jelly rust remover where I couldn't sand and prime with rustolium converter along with ceramic coat paint the entire front half of the frame. Mind you this frame only has some spots of light surface rust because the prior owner went mudding and never cleaned the mud off so rust was starting where the mud clumps were sitting for a long time. Even though it is the desert here, some areas have mud with a Ph balance that causes severe rusting super fast. Places like Trona CA are known for this and Jeepers should never drive through standing water out there unless they want to age their vehicle 10 years in the rust department. Washing your vehicle and rinsing after wheeling out there saves your rig from extreme rust.
Now on to some pictures.

 

[RangerRick]

Tomorrow it's wiring harness time. Waiting on both the 46RE remanufactured transmission with all Sonnax and other updates and upgrades plus waiting to pick up the NVG-241OR 4:1 Rock-Trac transfer case next week.

 

[LTTJ]

"A Jeep rescue if you will." This made me laugh! Good work and I'm excited to see the rest!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rob5589]

Great stuff so far...

 

[RangerRick]

Stay tuned, more coming by the hour. Thanks for the comments!

 

[JMT]

It'll be interesting to see what you can do with a $300 TJ. Glad you got her! She needed the TLC and sounds like she's in the right hands, a total makeover!

Hope the girl gets as much help, she'll have to be willing

 

[bobthetj03]

That's a serious rear axle! Subscribed.

 

[RangerRick]

Reasons:
Currie RockJock 60 beef. Needed it for the Magnum V8 power! I've broken rolled spline 30 count, 4340 Chromolly axle shafts with a stock 6 cylinder so not taking any chances this build. Sucks walking 12 miles to the trailhead, jump in a waiting car that drove 400 miles, drive 75 miles to get a replacement shaft, have a shop press a new bearing and seal, get fluids, silicone rags & brake cleaner, then hike everything back in to repair and get back off the trail.

What's even worse is these things never break where you can work on the stuff. In the case of the last break I had on a chromolly Dana 44 shaft, it broke on Chicken rock. If you don't know how steep and harry that can be, search Dusy Ershim chicken rock and imagine your rear wheel falling off and bouncing down the 50* rock face several hundred feet in the air breaking branches in 160ft pine trees. You yell for campers and other wheelers to watch out cause if it hit anyone, they'd be killed for sure. It weighs 120# with the tire mounted on the rim. Your rig is precariously perched ready to roll at any moment and your brakes are gone cause the disc brake piston popped out with no rotor to hold it in. I had to put it in gear and climb under it to clamp off the rubber brake line on the caliper so at least 3 wheels that were on the Jeep had brakes...... It was insane to say the least!

Ya, that scarey dangerous. Never again, gone 1 tons 35 spline 1.5" 4340 shafts for now on.

 

[bobthetj03]

Reason authenticated for sure. Proceed.

 

[RangerRick]

More pictures added to post 2. I will be fabricating a flat tummy tuck for this build and document what is needed to run a totally flat belly. The skid will be made of heavy gauge aluminum with nylon cutting board material to help slide over obstacles. First the V8 must be installed. The transmission is going to the shop for complete rebuild and overhaul upgrades, will try to document that too.

 

[Mike_H]

This is an awesome thread. I can't believe you're doing it for 10K! Living where I do (The dutch are strong here) I have the heart of a cheapskate (tho we call it "thrifty"). I love finding used stuff and re-purposing/reusing it.

 

[Chris]

Wow man... You're really pulling out all the stops on this build, huh? I really look forward to the V8 swap and the Currie RockJock Dana 60 axles!

This is going to be some serious money invested.

 

[RangerRick]

To Rock-Trac or not to Rock-Trac, that is the question?

 

[RangerRick]

Thinking out loud here.......
I toyed with the idea of going with the NV-242 transfer case so I could retain a full time 4WD lever position when icy road conditions warrant but I discovered it's difficult to build a high quality 32 spline SYE for these cases. The solutions are hack-N'-tap or really expensive custom output shaft kit.

I refuse to go hack-N'-tap on any SYE conversion after all the trouble an acquaintance had with one in his Jeep years ago. Constant leaks, vibrations, premature excessive parts wear and the real biggie was a failure of the entire rear main shaft where it broke clean in half! Fortunately God was watching out for this friend because it happened in his driveway just before we were scheduled to go on a wheeling and camping trip. Imagine it breaking on the freeway and causing his rear drive shaft to plant like a pole vault stick into the road bed! Could have potentially totaled the Jeep or killed someone!

I have decided to part with the 242 instead of trying to integrate it into the plan...

 

[RangerRick]

Waiting on the 46RE & NVG-241OR at this point and doing wiring harness and front axle work in the meantime. Everythings coming along......

 

[RangerRick]

So it's been a while since updates. While waiting for some parts I went searching for other parts on my wish list. An acquaintance had something that was needed: a TeraFlex tummy tuck skid plate from their LCG series of suspension kits for a very nice price. This is the hard to find desirable earlier model and in my opinion the better one since it only dips about 1" and has very nicely angles or boatsides that are smooth with no protrusions or sharp step down angles like the later version skid plate.

Notice the very thin side profile shows virtually flat profile. There are support trusses providing strength so it won't bend. The material is 1/4" plate steel.

I was going to fabricate a totally flat belly pan skid from .375" aluminum until The reality of cost set in. A sheet of aluminum alloy of suitable size would run in the neighborhood of $275 and this skid cost less already built. Also aluminum galls and sticks to granite and rocks unlike steel so it would have to be covered in poly cutting board material to prevent such action when impacted.

I already have a 1" body lift that will need to be installed for this beauty I found. Another great CL score with only 2 runs & 4k miles on it!

Atlas II twin stick shifters, just over 2 years old, 4.3:1 ratio, disc brake yolk, 1" spacer already setup for Jeep automatic transmissions, ready to install. Things are coming together nicely......

 

[RangerRick]

Since plans have changed a few times now I have some new parts excess to my needs that are brand new:

Now selling the Tera2Low kit for NV-241OR Rock-Trac transfer case. New in package, ready to install in your Rubicon and give you low range in 2wd. $250 + any shipping costs.

Also up for sale is the TeraFlex SS SYE kit for NP/NVG-231J transfer cases. New in the package, never installed, this gives you more than 4" shorter than conventional fixed yolk conversion kits and uses an electronic pickup instead of a gear style for an output speed sensor. Compatible with all 1997 to 2006 TJ Wrangler and Unlimited vehicles. $250 plus any shipping costs.

THESE PARTS WERE SOLD A WHILE BACK.

 

[Chris]

How much did you pay for that NV 241OR? Those things are usually pretty damn spendy when they pop up for sale.

 

[Chris]

And damn... nice Atlas! Just looking at those things turns me on.