#iwannagofast ZJ build

[N-Smooth]

There is a very real chance I don’t finish a single course this weekend; my biggest fear is that I’m going to get it down there, and some massive issue is going to pop up (because of the lack of a proper shake down), and I’m not going to be able to fix it.

But until then, it’s all gravy baby 😎

Well you get my kudos for taking it down there and trying. Period.

 

[Agility Customs]

Showing up is the most important part! Good luck buddy!

 

[Thursty]

I’ll echo what others have said already. It’s out of the shop under its own power and headed for an event. Big congrats!

 

[STAG]

You may be pleasantly surprised. And if you do get an unfixable breakdown, that’s still better than not going. Besides, if something breaks now, that just means it needed replaced anyways so guy-math says it doesn’t cost you any more than replacing it the way you wanted to anyways.

And if you go down there and everything works great, then guy-math says you actually made money because maybe you don’t even have to fix what you thought you would have needed to 😁

 

[Johnny Quest]

You may be pleasantly surprised. And if you do get an unfixable breakdown, that’s still better than not going. Besides, if something breaks now, that just means it needed replaced anyways so guy-math says it doesn’t cost you any more than replacing it the way you wanted to anyways.

And if you go down there and everything works great, then guy-math says you actually made money because maybe you don’t even have to fix what you thought you would have needed to 😁

I’m not entirely sure how, but that makes sense.

 

[N-Smooth]

There’s also not a more convenient place in the world to break. Nowhere else is there a crane of shame to load it on the trailer for you in the event of breakage…

 

[Johnny Quest]

There’s also not a more convenient place in the world to break. Nowhere else is there a crane of shame to load it on the trailer for you in the event of breakage…

Another excellent point

 

[mbryson]

I have a way to haul your Jeep (3.5 Ecoboost method I always forget about)

 

[Johnny Quest]

Went to Delta. Attempted 3 courses, finished exactly 0 of them. Ended up denting the oil pan with my trackbar on my 2nd course, which caused my crank to make contact with the pan. Luckily, a few well calculated blows with a hammer gave me just enough clearance to get back out on my next course. But then the brakes kinda failed at the same time as the steering clamp slid, and the front corner kinda kissed a wall pretty hard on my 3rd course. But I had a blast, and it was still a success in my book, even though I’ve got some work ahead of me.

 

[Johnny Quest]

So I had an idea. It could be a good idea; it looks good (in my opinion), but has issues- mostly that those lights aren’t DOT approved, and they will draw more attention to the Jeep by the type of people I don't want paying attention to my Jeep.

So my thoughts went three ways. One- run em anyway, and ask for forgiveness instead of permission. Two- fix it up, run the stock stuff (boring, but safe). Or three- find a couple pairs of JK headlights, and run those in a similar fashion to the setup in the pic here. I would then have DOT compliant lights that are *far* better than the stock units (even with LED bulbs installed), with hi/lo beams, and if I get the right ones, they would even have blinkers built in, so I wouldn't have to worry about figuring those out. Mounting wouldn’t be too hard, as I believe most “Harley” style motorcycles run the same 7” lights, so I could get some clean and simple mounts (see 2nd pic) and mount them pretty easily. I would just have to figure out how to wire them up, and electrical is definitely NOT a strength of mine.

 

[1969honda]

Option 3 sounds like the best bet to me.

 

[Johnny Quest]

Option 3 sounds like the best bet to me.

Me too. I think It could look nice and clean, plus have far greater lighting performance.

 

[Johnny Quest]

Two more pieces of the puzzle arrived this week. I still need to track down install kits, and gears, but things are coming together.

Anyone wanna buy a brand new Ford eLocker for a Sterling rear axle, with brand new Spicer bearings pressed on? 😉

 

[Johnny Quest]

So ARB lockers and air compressor didn’t come with any of the install kits- no air lines, no switches, no anything. Plus, I need to buy gears so I can gear and lock both axles at the same time; no sense in installing air lockers with the stock 4.10 gears. So, I started selling some stuff so I could save up and afford the gears and ARB install kits….








…And that lasted about 4 days, because a low miles TJ Rubicon case popped up; how am I supposed to pass that up?! So now I’ve gotta squeeze this under the ZJ, and figure out some custom shift linkage bits.

 

[Johnny Quest]

Looking for feedback.

Now that this rubicon case has entered the chat, my math isn’t mathing anymore when it comes to axle ratios. Currently, the Jeep has 37s, with 2.72:1 in the transfercase and 4.10s in the diffs. It didn’t crawl all that well, but that’s no surprise.

The 46re ratios are:
First: 2.45:1
Second: 1.45:1
Third: 1.00:1
Fourth: 0.69:1
Reverse: 2.20:1

Stock axle gearing was 3.73

I was planning on regearing to 5:13s with the 2.72:1 tcase, and stick to 37s/38s when it comes to picking out some new shoes, but do I stick with that now that it’s gonna have a 4:1, or do I jump up a step and run 4.88s?

 

[Agility Customs]

I would still regear to 5.13s and run the rubicon case. Or you could sell me the rubicon case and stick with your original plan....

Also the feel of 4.88s vs 5.13 is so negligible that its not even worth really worrying about.

 

[Greg]

Being a 4600 build, I'd say 5.13's so you have deeper gearing in High range. 😉

 

[Johnny Quest]

Being a 4600 build, I'd say 5.13's so you have deeper gearing in High range. 😉

Yea even though it started as that, I’m not really in the right financial situation to actually do racecar things. So maybe now it’s a #iwannagofastfamilyedition build thread

 

[Greg]

Yea even though it started as that, I’m not really in the right financial situation to actually do racecar things. So maybe now it’s a #iwannagofastfamilyedition build thread

Fine, 5.13's for deeper gearing in 2 High while running between trails and to the grocery store. 😁

 

[Johnny Quest]

Fine, 5.13's for deeper gearing in 2 High while running between trails and to the grocery store. 😁

That’s assuming that I’ll even wheel this after all the dust has settled. It might just end up being cast aside as a Saturday evening ice cream runner, or “the vehicle with a winch on it that we use for yard work”