LJ on Tons

Feb 2022
With the front axle buttoned back up, I loaded up the dogs and girlfriend and we hit the road to go pick up a new trailer I ordered from Kaufman Trailers in NC. A bit of a haul but well worth it. The trailer was finished just in time for the OSCAR trip coming up in April.

The trailer is a 20ft (18ft bed with 2ft dovetail), stow away ramped in the rear, LED lighting, Trailer brakes on both axles and 5000lb axles to accommodate the hefty LJ.

Glad to see some updates

April 2022 (2 weeks before OSCAR)
So I lied. To finish up the front axle before OSCAR I added some gussets to the spring perches where the Artec kit originally had sway bar connection points. This should help prevent the perches from deflecting/flattening out.




I removed the recently added upper control link from the driver side and built a longer one on the passenger side, added some limiting straps to protect the shocks from being pulled apart.




I replaced the drag link bracket at the axle.



I swapped my steering from TREs to Heims and built some double sheer parts to add to the stock knuckles. I cut the old tie rod down and reused it as a the drag link to save on some tubing.




Some scrap steel to determine thicknesses/orientation of the double sheer bracket.

April 2022 (3 days to OSCAR)
I went ahead and started cutting out the pieces I would need to stack my Heims on the passenger knuckle and create a partial double shear. I do hope to go back and add a top plate to the passenger side and do a double sheer set up on the driver knuckle to prevent the bolt from ruining the hole. I also had to go by Tractor Supply for an insert as the TRE previously used had a hole larger than the new grade 8 bolts I was using. Extra Steps.

With a few days before our trip can you tell I'm no where near ready to go? I still had driveshafts, seats, wheel bearings, crossmembers and other bits pulled out of the Jeep!

April 2022 (3 days before OSCAR)
With the front axle and steering now buttoned up for our trip, I turned my focus to the doubler, its crossmember and some other components. Since I installed the doubler, I've never been fully pleased with the set up. Having a driver side front axle with a 231/D300 caused a lot of clocking issues. BOTH cases were basically upside down. The smarter thing would have been to convert the front to a Chevy passenger drop axle or get gnarly and chop up the HP Superduty axle to make my own.

Obviously that didn't happen and instead I reclocked the transfer cases to get them out of the floor boards. This resulted in more holes in the back of my transmission. Lowering the transfer case also caused my transmission crossmember to interfere with my front driveshaft, So I went ahead and modified that to have a kick up in it. For last second alterations, it seemed to all work out decently okay. But don't be fooled I was stressed and frustrated. Nothing like waiting to the last minute to prep for a wheeling trip!




A little floor modification to make that flipped 231 fit under the passenger seat.



The transmission crossmember prior to reclocking the t cases.



The hoop I had bent at the local muffler shop so the front driveshaft had clearance.



Glenn's Muffler Shop was also kind enough to bend me an offset for my exhaust to clear up and over my transmission and 4 link crossmembers.

April 2022 (2 days to OSCAR)
The doubler was sorted out (for the most part) so I threw together a new tail housing support using a a TMR kit. The kit worked out great and allowed me to get rid of the old 'custom' fit stuff I made back in college. it was a much needed improvement for the driveline support. I did however extend the bushing piece at the bottom to fit around the cutout in my 4 link crossmember.





With the upgrades to the crossmember and tail housing supports it only made sense to finally swap the rubber motor mounts for poly ones. Doing so ensured that the drivetrain would not twist and possibly crack a bellhousing due to the different materials in the mounts.



Driveshafts were put back and two of the three shift cables were reinstalled. I wrapped up the installation of some of the interior bits and I drilled out the stripped/broken skid plate inserts in the frame and welding in some new ones from McMaster-Carr. Skid plates were loaded into the truck bed and I installed them on the trailer in Harlan!

@GlipGlop got any updates on the LJ?

April 2022 (OSCAR)

At this point I buttoned up what else I could. We loaded up for OSCAR and hit the road. I think we even delayed leaving for a few hours as I was waiting on a new shifter cable to arrive from UPS for the transfer case. I did a good bit of install on the trailer later that friday evening including the cable and my skid plates.

OSCAR was very short lived for us. We went out with the Clemson 4 Wheel group to run Mason Jar. The trail has been seriously torn up at the entrance and so on the new 'bypass' climb into the trail, I managed to tear my right upper control arm mount clean off the frame in the rear. This caused the axle o shift under the Jeep and cause a bit of body damage. We were pretty well stuck on the hill climb and had to get assistance to pull it back off to flat ground.

A group of friends stuck around to help me remove broken parts and mend it enough to get back to the trailer. We used a large log to hold the Jeep up off the axle and ratchet strapped, duct taped and hose strapped everything we could into place. It was a rough ride to camp but we finally got down and loaded the Jeep.

Unfortunately, we didn't take many photos. I do know there is a video of me breaking out there somewhere and will add it in if I can ever get my hands on it.

If you look closely, you can see the log in the bottom right corner of this picture.

June 2022

We made it back from OSCAR and I pretty much walked away from the Jeep. It lived on my trailer for some months under the tree in our driveway and I went about other projects and a new job. After some encouragement from the Clemson 4 Wheel crew, I did start digging back into what went wrong, making repairs and slowly acquiring new parts.

For the Upper control arms, I got a new set of brackets, relocated both and reinforced them with some gussets that stretched down to the frame and to my lower CA crossmember.





I picked up a PSP big Bore steering box (for a 98-02). This was okay with me as I needed to remove the bracket I made for my OEM box that raised it above the frame rail so not a big deal having a different year big bore box. I also was able to get a smaller tank from Motobilt which will allow me to have a bit more room between the 14 bolt and the tank.

September 2022

I traveled most of the summer so the Jeep sat up on jack stands. When I had some downtime, I tried to rework the doubler and get more of my belly clearance back. Prior to OSCAR I had to make some spacers to drop my skid plate down a couple inches as I could not fit the doubler inbetween the body and the skid plate well enough without major body modification.

I started down this path of removing the transmission tunnel and clocking the doubler to fit.






I had worked it out where I had just a about a 1/4 inch clearance around my front output, could install my driver seat and get back to a flat belly underneath. While the set up was cool, I hated this and it felt like more trouble than it was worth cutting up my Jeep unnecessarily. So I began exploring other options. Return to a 231 with an SYE or find a 241C from a chevy truck. I opted for the larger 241C and found one on marketplace. The dimensions were similar enough I was thinking I could fit it without changing my 4 link and other linkage components.

Glad to see some updates

February 2023

I traveled a good bit for the rest of the year and didn't get to put a lot of effort into repairing the Jeep. I did keep thinking of ways I wanted to improve it though. I figured if I was going to have it this far torn down from the axle getting pulled out from under it, why not set it up the way I want it.

So the first thing I did was build a bench for the garage. I needed more space for parts and table top work space. Between this bench and my other one I could now work on multiple tasks with minimal overlap in space. Helpful when you're always waiting on parts you didn't know you needed.

May 2023

About this time, my brother's TJ grenaded so I brought back with me and started hunting for a motor.

I found a replacement 4.0 and swapped it out. I also got a few other parts for it including a Barnes 4WD bumper and a set of sliders, an old HF winch I had laying around and my old Warn bumper that I patched up and repainted.

July 2023

About this time I was still collecting parts and ran out of space again. I managed to build out some more space for working on projects for the house to get those away from the Jeep. I also built out a welding table that is about 2ft x 6 ft. I left one end of it open so one day I can add metal slats in for a small plasma cutting station.

After successfully swapping motor in my brother's TJ I felt like options for the LJ opened up. This also happened to be about the same time as the Clemson 4 Wheel Fun Run where we got to see some really cool rigs including my buddy Cole's LS swapped TJ. At this point more parts started coming home.

September 2023

By now, I had built a 231 with an SYE, had two 241Cs a 4l80e and a 5.3 kicking about but was still not sure how I wanted to make improvements to the LJ.

The 241Cs had different input splines. For the 4l80e I needed the 32 spline input but this case had a horribly long front driveshaft output. To prevent a steeper driveline angle I scavanged parts from the first one I purchased and swapped some stuff around.

I also found that the Teraflex 2lo kit for a 231 fits in my 241C so I swapped that in with the hope I can keep a somewhat stock looking tcase shifter inside the Jeep. The only thing that looks like it won't work here is the 4wd sensor for the light on the dash which I am not worried about.

October 2023

By now I put several parts up for sale to see what would go. I was able to sell my doubler, random assortment of D300 parts, the 231 with the SYE, my .0 and my NSG370 6 speed. This left me with one option; LS swap. At the same time I pulled the 14 bolt and cut every bracket off it to send over to Chris Durham to be shaved.

Like how you backed yourself into the corner of an LS swap by selling all the Jeep stuffs

Funny how you put that. It's where we (Jeep guys) end up at usually.