I’ve been seeing alot of posts both on rockymountainextreme.com and naxja.org about XJ tech questions. I won’t at anytime claim to know EVERYTHING about the XJ, but i know alot...LOL. Anyways I first started with 1996 XJ with the 4.0/AW4/231/30/8.25 set up.
I bought it in 2003 for 6k from a park and sell. The vehicle was originally sold to the DOD as a civil engineers vehicle. After I bought it I had a friend in Anchorage (Ryan "Frosty" Frost) look at it who is a XJ/MJ guru and informed me it was equipped with the skid plate set, and a rear "track lok" and as far as I know also known as a Gov Lok.
It was bear stock when I got it, and since I have a TJ also, and since it’s gone through many lifts too I had enough spare parts to do the front. I started with a 3.5" front and a AAL 3" rear. Without trimming I was able to clear 31"s with no other mods than the springs. I wanted it bigger (don’t we all) so I added a 2" BB and the 1.75" shackles. Trimmed the fenders and added my old TJ flares to it. I was able to clear 33's now with nothing else. I did it by cutting 3" off the front all the way around and 2" off the rear (to the pinch seam). I drilled some holes and cut the TJ flares to follow the body line and attached them with some pop rivets. Since then I have learned to duct tape the flares in place, use a magic marker to outline the flares, trim it from there, tack weld the front fender to the body, and relief cut the rear. After the rear is relieved, bend it inward and use some sheet metal screws to hold it in.
This is at the same 3.5" lift trimmed fitting 33's
Since I had to cut the rear flare in half to still allow the door to open, I used some of the leftover plastic to help make a lip
to keep it from losing shape when closed.
This was phase 2 to the original lift I had in it.
I bought it in 2003 for 6k from a park and sell. The vehicle was originally sold to the DOD as a civil engineers vehicle. After I bought it I had a friend in Anchorage (Ryan "Frosty" Frost) look at it who is a XJ/MJ guru and informed me it was equipped with the skid plate set, and a rear "track lok" and as far as I know also known as a Gov Lok.
It was bear stock when I got it, and since I have a TJ also, and since it’s gone through many lifts too I had enough spare parts to do the front. I started with a 3.5" front and a AAL 3" rear. Without trimming I was able to clear 31"s with no other mods than the springs. I wanted it bigger (don’t we all) so I added a 2" BB and the 1.75" shackles. Trimmed the fenders and added my old TJ flares to it. I was able to clear 33's now with nothing else. I did it by cutting 3" off the front all the way around and 2" off the rear (to the pinch seam). I drilled some holes and cut the TJ flares to follow the body line and attached them with some pop rivets. Since then I have learned to duct tape the flares in place, use a magic marker to outline the flares, trim it from there, tack weld the front fender to the body, and relief cut the rear. After the rear is relieved, bend it inward and use some sheet metal screws to hold it in.
This is at the same 3.5" lift trimmed fitting 33's
Since I had to cut the rear flare in half to still allow the door to open, I used some of the leftover plastic to help make a lip
to keep it from losing shape when closed.
This was phase 2 to the original lift I had in it.
