Well I figure I will finally start this build thread.
I had a 1987 Ford Bronco with an EFI 460, NP435, NP203/205 doubler, Front dana 60 Rear 14 bolt. It worked really well. It was 6500lbs of trail weight and the body was really starting to tear a part. After much discussion we decided to build up our bone stock 1999 Cherokee. It has a 4.0L an AX-15 and has been a pretty reliable vehicle.
We wanted a full roof, A/C and Heat. We want something that is streetable and will be legal to register in Utah. We also really wanted to spend the time and money to do it right.
We also wanted to have more capability than the Bronco and knew that the sacrifice would be cargo area and to make a lighter vehicle. It is nice to start with a vehicle that is about 3700lbs, it gives you a lot of room to work even if you have to add a frame.
So really the only major thing we decided to keep off the Bronco was the axles, the tires and wheel will be used for now but will swapped for some new 37x12.5x17 MTR’s. When we do that we will be able to use wheels with regular backspacing instead of the 15 inch wheels with 2.5 inches we have now.
Please keep the “you should have done this or that to a minimum” I do want your input but I have spent years researching most of this and with the parts already available and the money available this is what we have decided to do. I am by no means a jeep expert and tend to think of things with my 10 years of full size expertise.
Here is the donor Bronco on its final Moab trip in Oct 2010.
Here is the project vehicle
Before I got started I added some gas struts to hold the hood up.
One of the things that kicked ass about the Bronco is that I had a pair of batteries in it. This seems like a pretty small thing but when I put two batteries in the bronco the truck just ran better, it started quicker everything seemed to work better. Also with two batteries some welding cable and some sticks you can make a 24v stick welder on the trail. So the first project was to cram a pair of optimas under the hood. *edit (at some point I moved my battery temp sensor to the top of the 2nd battery see post #194)*
full album here;
https://plus.google.com/photos/116333554950363953131/albums
While I was at it I added a 136 amp alternator from a Grand Cherokee, this required more grinding than I was lead to believe, This is a Bosch alternator I think the Denso’s have a smaller case.
So then came the first real fabrication to the jeep, adding a York for OBA.
Bracket work in progress;
Bracket finished
Installed and running. (there is still a question on if there is enough belt contact on the PS pump, we shall see) *Edit 4 years latter I have never had an issue with the belt squealing*
I have no idea where to put an air tank, about the only decent place seems to be in the spot where the factory spare tire goes.
full album here;
https://picasaweb.google.com/thenag/YorkAndPS?feat=directlink
Ok so now that most of the under the hood stuff is done (except a permanent solution to the radiator overflow bottle…) We can get to the good stuff. *edit (3 years latter I installed a permanent coolant bottle, see post #195)*
We got a frame from Ruff Stuff Specialties.
I installed the C&C hubs on my 14 bolt, actually dually hubs, and disk brake brackets from Ruff Stuff Specialties to run dually hubs on a SRW axle. This will get the rear axle at 63.5 inches WMS-WMS. A little wide for a Cherokee but still good.
Here is a shot of the rear axle pushed up to the xj. Remember with “regular” wheels it will be a total of 4 inches narrower.
The front axle was out of a 1996 Ford f350. So it is a ball joint Dana 60. The driver side tube is actually lengthened to take a GM short side d-60 shaft. This should put the front diff in a good spot and give me enough tube to work with. The passenger side will be a custom length axle shaft.
There was much discussion on what to do for suspension. Poly Performance makes some great stuff, they have some great xj brackets and some great universal parts that would make a great suspension. One thing was for sure I didn’t want a radius arm setup up front. I don’t know why, I know they work well and are well proven. I just figured that it was worth doing, a true 3 or 4 link. I also knew that we were doing a coil conversion in the rear. It seems like a lot of the xj creaking and flexing go away when you put coils on the rear. I spent many hours online and some on the phone talking to different companies and pricing stuff out and eventually we decided that it wouldn’t be that much more to buy the big daddy Clayton kit than to piece together other kits or to build something from scratch with the skills and tools available to me. So we ordered a Clayton Pro Series with the rear coil conversion. The thing with the Clayton kit is that it is hella expensive but it is one of the best and probably the most complete kit available. It even comes with brake lines and sway bar disconnects. Also I am embracing the whole “buy a kit for it” that is an option when working on a jeep, that was not really an option on the bronco, it all had to be home made.
This kit with a front pro series setup
http://claytonoffroad.com/xjcc.htm
http://claytonoffroad.com/product_info.php/cPath/18_127/products_id/311
I had a remarkable experience with Clayton the sales people I spoke with and emailed with were knowledgeable and polite. There was an error with my order and they took care of it quickly. My order, which was not "on the shelf" shipped less than two weeks from when I ordered and before they said it would ship.
For a transmission we are keeping the AX-15. I thought about using the np435 in the jeep but all the research I did seemed to put the shifter in the dash or required some crazy shift linkage in the cab. Also the AX-15 isn’t that bad a transmission so we will keep it until it gives us problems.
For a transfer case we talked about using the np203/205. so much so I was ready to go get a dodge 203 so I could get the 203 to mate with the ax-15. But then I started looking into a np231/d300 setup. Quickly the decision was made to go that way. The 231/300 is about the same length as the transfer case that is under the jeep, this will make working around that Clayton kit much easier and it is 100lbs lighter than the 203/205. So it quickly became a “this is the best most cost effective way to go”. I did acquire a d300 that is in good shape, and am in the process of building the 231/d300.
I will update more soon.
Nathan
-99 xj working on it...
I had a 1987 Ford Bronco with an EFI 460, NP435, NP203/205 doubler, Front dana 60 Rear 14 bolt. It worked really well. It was 6500lbs of trail weight and the body was really starting to tear a part. After much discussion we decided to build up our bone stock 1999 Cherokee. It has a 4.0L an AX-15 and has been a pretty reliable vehicle.
We wanted a full roof, A/C and Heat. We want something that is streetable and will be legal to register in Utah. We also really wanted to spend the time and money to do it right.
We also wanted to have more capability than the Bronco and knew that the sacrifice would be cargo area and to make a lighter vehicle. It is nice to start with a vehicle that is about 3700lbs, it gives you a lot of room to work even if you have to add a frame.
So really the only major thing we decided to keep off the Bronco was the axles, the tires and wheel will be used for now but will swapped for some new 37x12.5x17 MTR’s. When we do that we will be able to use wheels with regular backspacing instead of the 15 inch wheels with 2.5 inches we have now.
Please keep the “you should have done this or that to a minimum” I do want your input but I have spent years researching most of this and with the parts already available and the money available this is what we have decided to do. I am by no means a jeep expert and tend to think of things with my 10 years of full size expertise.
Here is the donor Bronco on its final Moab trip in Oct 2010.
Here is the project vehicle
Before I got started I added some gas struts to hold the hood up.
One of the things that kicked ass about the Bronco is that I had a pair of batteries in it. This seems like a pretty small thing but when I put two batteries in the bronco the truck just ran better, it started quicker everything seemed to work better. Also with two batteries some welding cable and some sticks you can make a 24v stick welder on the trail. So the first project was to cram a pair of optimas under the hood. *edit (at some point I moved my battery temp sensor to the top of the 2nd battery see post #194)*
full album here;
https://plus.google.com/photos/116333554950363953131/albums
While I was at it I added a 136 amp alternator from a Grand Cherokee, this required more grinding than I was lead to believe, This is a Bosch alternator I think the Denso’s have a smaller case.
So then came the first real fabrication to the jeep, adding a York for OBA.
Bracket work in progress;
Bracket finished
Installed and running. (there is still a question on if there is enough belt contact on the PS pump, we shall see) *Edit 4 years latter I have never had an issue with the belt squealing*
I have no idea where to put an air tank, about the only decent place seems to be in the spot where the factory spare tire goes.
full album here;
https://picasaweb.google.com/thenag/YorkAndPS?feat=directlink
Ok so now that most of the under the hood stuff is done (except a permanent solution to the radiator overflow bottle…) We can get to the good stuff. *edit (3 years latter I installed a permanent coolant bottle, see post #195)*
We got a frame from Ruff Stuff Specialties.
I installed the C&C hubs on my 14 bolt, actually dually hubs, and disk brake brackets from Ruff Stuff Specialties to run dually hubs on a SRW axle. This will get the rear axle at 63.5 inches WMS-WMS. A little wide for a Cherokee but still good.
Here is a shot of the rear axle pushed up to the xj. Remember with “regular” wheels it will be a total of 4 inches narrower.
The front axle was out of a 1996 Ford f350. So it is a ball joint Dana 60. The driver side tube is actually lengthened to take a GM short side d-60 shaft. This should put the front diff in a good spot and give me enough tube to work with. The passenger side will be a custom length axle shaft.
There was much discussion on what to do for suspension. Poly Performance makes some great stuff, they have some great xj brackets and some great universal parts that would make a great suspension. One thing was for sure I didn’t want a radius arm setup up front. I don’t know why, I know they work well and are well proven. I just figured that it was worth doing, a true 3 or 4 link. I also knew that we were doing a coil conversion in the rear. It seems like a lot of the xj creaking and flexing go away when you put coils on the rear. I spent many hours online and some on the phone talking to different companies and pricing stuff out and eventually we decided that it wouldn’t be that much more to buy the big daddy Clayton kit than to piece together other kits or to build something from scratch with the skills and tools available to me. So we ordered a Clayton Pro Series with the rear coil conversion. The thing with the Clayton kit is that it is hella expensive but it is one of the best and probably the most complete kit available. It even comes with brake lines and sway bar disconnects. Also I am embracing the whole “buy a kit for it” that is an option when working on a jeep, that was not really an option on the bronco, it all had to be home made.
This kit with a front pro series setup
http://claytonoffroad.com/xjcc.htm
http://claytonoffroad.com/product_info.php/cPath/18_127/products_id/311
I had a remarkable experience with Clayton the sales people I spoke with and emailed with were knowledgeable and polite. There was an error with my order and they took care of it quickly. My order, which was not "on the shelf" shipped less than two weeks from when I ordered and before they said it would ship.
For a transmission we are keeping the AX-15. I thought about using the np435 in the jeep but all the research I did seemed to put the shifter in the dash or required some crazy shift linkage in the cab. Also the AX-15 isn’t that bad a transmission so we will keep it until it gives us problems.
For a transfer case we talked about using the np203/205. so much so I was ready to go get a dodge 203 so I could get the 203 to mate with the ax-15. But then I started looking into a np231/d300 setup. Quickly the decision was made to go that way. The 231/300 is about the same length as the transfer case that is under the jeep, this will make working around that Clayton kit much easier and it is 100lbs lighter than the 203/205. So it quickly became a “this is the best most cost effective way to go”. I did acquire a d300 that is in good shape, and am in the process of building the 231/d300.
I will update more soon.
Nathan
-99 xj working on it...
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