High School TJ build

This little Tj is coming along, that big dent in the side is gone due to a friend in town, repainted the hood and part of side panel where the dent was, the paint didn't match to what I thought it would, but that's ok, it gives it character. Repainted the the fender flares black, looks so much better than it did. Put on some Rugged Ridge rockers on it, took the old front bumper off, working on building a new one. It has a cute 2" coil spacer lift, I swapped the tires I had on the XJ and put them on the TJ. I've put some quick disconnect sway bar links on her as well. The heater wasn't working very well, turns out the heater core was clogged inside the pipe and as well as the fins, cleaned it up just enough to get a welcome breeze of nice warm air. As of plans on this daily high school driver, the floppy mirrors need to go, every time I close the door they move out of position, I have a hp d30 and a Ford 8.8 that need a little work before I throw them under. I also plan on putting 4.10 gearing and a lunchbox locker in the front, the 8.8 came with a limited slip that I'm going to keep in there for "High School Budget" reasons. Hoping that I can get 35" tires on there after my axles. I want to do high-line fenders just to get me that extra tire clearance that I may or may not need. This little Tj has been a good little Jeep for me so far, has done what I've wanted it to do for me so far, haven't taken it wheeling yet, but I can tell you it climbs curbs no problem.

 

[SoopaHick]

Here's some pics of the control arm brackets and locations. If you want to come see it in person let me know. I'm down in Eagle Mountain.

 

[ebryson]

Is there any reason to not triangulate the lower control arms and leave the uppers not triangulated?

 

[RockChucker]

You’ll need a fairly substantial crossmember to mount the lower control arms to and swap out the lower axle mounts for angled ones. IMO it’s much easier to triangulate the uppers. Especially when you consider the factory upper mounts readily tear off the frame and need reinforcement. Those tinfoil mounts will be replaced for the triangulated arms.

 

[UPNO4]

You should just copy Stormie that way you are all setup for the TJ6 Stretch
It will duplicate my LJ once stretched and meanwhile you can say you have a mid arm and sound really cool.
And Stormie works pretty good so...

And you can still triangulate the uppers and ditch the Track bar

 

[ebryson]

You should just copy Stormie that way you are all setup for the TJ6 Stretch
It will duplicate my LJ once stretched and meanwhile you can say you have a mid arm and sound really cool.
And Stormie works pretty good so...

And you can still triangulate the uppers and ditch the Track bar

Stormie does work pretty well. I have been contemplating stretching it and if I was I'd just do it while I was triangulating it just so I have to buy links once....
What do you have to do with the stretch? Does it stretch the front at all??

 

[85CUCVKRAWLER]

After putting in my T-case today and looking at the rear end it looks like I'd have to figure out some new exhaust routing. Not a huge fan of rerouting exhaust. Is there some neato exhaust routing? View attachment 148619

The Driver side I'm really not to worried about anymore, nor the gas tank as it sits behind the rear axle. The fuel and brake lines on the frame I'm not to worried about but the brake lines on the axle look like they would interfer with the truss. View attachment 148620

On my old TJ, i cut the exhaust back and welded in a flowmaster 44 with a turn down right after it. I cut the original exhaust back enough so that the turn down poked out right after the tcase skid plate. Now, that may not be legal if you live in a county with inspections/emission but it worked well and sounded great.

 

[UPNO4]

No the Front can be the same if you want there is a bit of effort relocating the steering gear to really get much from the front
I will probably get blasted for saying that but Mine is super tight in there not sure I could get much with out some big changes.

The only real downfall to a turn down under the Jeep is the drone you get. Yes mine has a turn down and so does Stormie but it gets obnoxious at times. I put lots of sound deadener on the floor of mine and it helped but still.

 

[ebryson]

No the Front can be the same if you want there is a bit of effort relocating the steering gear to really get much from the front
I will probably get blasted for saying that but Mine is super tight in there not sure I could get much with out some big changes.

The only real downfall to a turn down under the Jeep is the drone you get. Yes mine has a turn down and so does Stormie but it gets obnoxious at times. I put lots of sound deadener on the floor of mine and it helped but still.

Glad to know it doesn't move the front, done a lot to it and not sure I can cut all that work out and I like where the front is at.

Good to hear about the drone, I was thinking of maybe doing that but I don't think Davis County emissions would let me pass and I don't have carpet....

 

[ebryson]

Has anyone put an aftermarket trans cooler on their TJ? I've got the cool 3 speed with 35s and 4.10 gears with a winch basicly blocking the stock cooler. After driving 40 minutes or so at 3k rpm (70-75 mph) makes my transmission uncomfortably warm.

 

[RockChucker]

i've got an aftermarket trans cooler, among many other not stock things. my TJ was a manual in a past life, so not sure what the factory cooler looks like. is it a stacked plate cooler inside the radiator tank? if so, adding additional capacity with an auxiliary cooler will work wonders. I have this cooler:

Amazon.com

With the fan running all the time, i only see about 180° temps when rock crawling and i have a hard time getting above 140° on the street. that is with the loosest stock converter GM offered for my trans. This is probably overkill for your needs and is a little tricky to find a home for.

my brother ran something similar in size to this one to cool his 4l80:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000C3BBKS?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_BAPFJFW9XVVPH3V46FGM

He mounted it in front of his radiator and never had a problem with a 2600 rpm stall converter. I would recommend whatever you do though, add the new cooler in addition to whatever is stock.

 

[ebryson]

is it a stacked plate cooler inside the radiator tank?

The stock one is integrated with the radiator which is what I think a stacked plate cooler? The lines connect to the lower part of the radiator.
I'll have to take a look into those options.

 

[Bart]

I have a small one I just removed from my JK that you can have. It was plumbed into one of the lines from the radiator.

 

[ebryson]

I have a small one I just removed from my JK that you can have. It was plumbed into one of the lines from the radiator.

Pm sent

 

[ebryson]

Had a little fun putting a pretty well designed tailgate support system that will hold a 35" tire.

Not only does it add a large amount of extra steel for support but also ties into the cage mount which I thought was rather neat.

You could say torx bits are my friend but all I can say is I hate the d*mn things. With a little heat before even trying to take all of them out helped a lot. Luckily I only had 2 "bolts" that were problems and one I had to incorporate the grinder method combined with drill method which allowed me to fatigue the rest of the metal.

I'll give a full image tomorrow when I have the spare on, got a little distracted with other things today.

 

[ebryson]

Well a couple weeks later and you get the full picture. Need to put the higher mount brackets on so I can actually put my spare on. Dumb factory bumper, need to get an aftermarket one.

Installed a new transmission cooler so my transmission doesn't feel like it's going to explode. Hoping the line routing is OK, tried to keep it simple and protected. Almost plug in play other than mounting it. Just put some screws into the grill supports figuring those were plenty strong.


The lines connect directly to the stock location which I think is awesome.

 

[ebryson]

With tire on.



Side shot for departure angle. Not sure if it increases it or decreases it but it certainly sticks out.

 

[ebryson]

New transcooler has been tried and it made it better but it's still on the warm side after a few hours in 90+ degree heat. It hasn't really been rock crawling with the trans cooler, but it has been on some rocky dirt roads and the highway going 60ish at 30 psi.

After talking to mbryson a little bit he's thinking I need more gear in my axles. Now that opens up a giant pile of opportunities and/or fixes.

1. I could just regear my axles, but that only makes sense so another option might be jk axles and the 6" stretch with 37s and 4.88's (maybe even 5.13's) making it almost literally a trail only rig considering my rpms on the highway would likly be 3.5k or more going 70.

2. 5.3 swap it and not have to worry about a warm yet reliable 3 speed trans and get more power and more gears in the trans.

3. Aw4 swapping it sounds like an ok option (not sure how much that would really effect trans temps). I'd just have to get a shorter SYE to make everything fit properly (assuming I'd stick with current wheel base) and figure out how to trick the ECM into thinking I still have a 3 speed or switching it to thinking I have a stick.

4. Or just go all out and get tons and 40's. Also nearly making it a trail only rig.

Now, I personally like the the jk axles idea combined with the aw4 so I don't have to worry about getting another trailer and shorter SYE. It also seems to be the most cost effective??
Honestly just looking for some other possible ideas that doesn't involve me completly redoing everything on my Jeep. I could just go back to 33s but I've grown to really like my 35s.
Options, options, options. Hmmm... what to choose.

 

[Herzog]

I'm a fan of increment builds. Set some reachable goals and build it to tackle some things that you previoiusly couldn't. Once you tackle those trails, find the next challenge to build toward. That's what I'm trying to do with my tacoma now days, just incremental solutions. Eventually it will also end up on 40's but I'll have a lot of fun getting there!

 

[Pile of parts]

However, it's crazy what people want for JK axles when you can usually find a set of super duty axles for a good deal. Either way, you are into new Wheels and going to have to build them both.

And then, nothing I said helps you with your trans temp issue...

 

[N-Smooth]

AW4 swaps are easy with RADesigns shifters. They’ve been done on tons of YJ’s and TJ’s.

Otherwise my advice is determine what goals you have for the vehicle currently (what trails you want to run, tire size, overall functionality etc) and also what you need from it (street driving, reliability etc) and figure out where those two intersect.