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Help Support Hardline Crawlers :
Just another LJ Build
- Thread starter lt99ls1
- Start date
Last year I made a few trips to places like Coppingers Cove, Windrock, Royal Blue, and Good Evening Ranch. Started killing locks outs so I switched to drive flanges. The steering box got too much play in it and I picked up a new Durango box and drilled and tapped it. Decided to move the trans cooler to the back of the jeep and move the power steering cooler to behind the grill. Decide to put in the micro switches and shifter cams on the winter shifter and forget about having the PCM do the shifting. After the last trip in December, I got sick and tired of the mud coming off the tires so I tried my hand at building 6-inch wide fenders front and rear. The week of Christmas, I pulled the stock cage stuff out and reworked everything slightly with new 1.75 dom tubing and put in a harness bar and 5 points. I switched back to my soft top. Now it ready for a test run.
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ridered3
Not Rigless
Thanks for the update.
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
Love the LJ. It's always been my favorite Jeep. I picked this one up last January. I've added the armor, new bumpers, front AntiRock, and cleaned up and changed a few things on it so far to suit me. I've got a big pile of parts built up in the corner of the shop already to go 3 link/4 link on '05+ axles. Just buying parts as I can find good deals on them. I have most of the big stuff besides tires. It will be all the little stuff that breaks the bank though. Lol.
My tank has already been relocated like you did yours. How much were you able to move rear axle back from the factory location with the 10.5 and still clear the tank? Just eyeballing it I feel like I should be able to go at least 4-5" pretty easily. I'm going to stick with coil springs for now. Eventually coilovers will come. My upper coil buckets have already been moved on the frame for the springs to sit upright. Rather than cutting all that off and redoing upper buckets, only to cut it off again later to do coilovers, I'm thinking of just offsetting the spring mounts on the axle.
My tank has already been relocated like you did yours. How much were you able to move rear axle back from the factory location with the 10.5 and still clear the tank? Just eyeballing it I feel like I should be able to go at least 4-5" pretty easily. I'm going to stick with coil springs for now. Eventually coilovers will come. My upper coil buckets have already been moved on the frame for the springs to sit upright. Rather than cutting all that off and redoing upper buckets, only to cut it off again later to do coilovers, I'm thinking of just offsetting the spring mounts on the axle.
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hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
Awesome, thanks!
Picked up some used Racelines. They are about an inch wider than the previous wheels but every inch counts. Bought a used Atlas 2 (3.8 gears) for a heck of a deal. I have swapped the 23 spline input over to a 27 spine, bought TJ-specific twin stick shifters, and a Dakota digital speedo pulse generator kit. I haven't installed the Atlas yet. Hopefully, in the next two or three weeks it will get done.
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ridered3
Not Rigless
Raceline's look good and you'll love the Atlas once it's all tucked away!
ridered3
Not Rigless
Got anything new update wise?
I bottomed the front out hard at Windrock and broke the harmonic balancer off. I ordered four bump strops from Alibaba and got two of them mounted on the front. I had to move the lower coilover mounts out about 2 inches. The bump strops look just like Fox bump stops without the name and they have worked perfectly. I have not done anything to mount the rears. I never could get the Dakota digital converter to read below 15 mph. Dakota's tech support was very helpful but it came down to the speedometer not liking the Dakota converter or vice versa. I dug up an old tone ring and sensor from some spare parts and machined the tone ring to fit the output shaft of the atlas. I grabbed a leftover aluminium block and machined an adaptor to hold the speed sensor. The home brew setup works perfectly and I saved myself $$$. I replaced the transmission tail shaft housing after spending months trying to stop a leak between the trans and tcase and figuring out it was warped. I am trying to get the LJ drivable on the street, it likes to dart around a bit. I have taken the LJ to Coalmont on 7/2/23, Windrock on 10/16/23, AOP on 12/30/23 and Choccolocco on 6/10/24 and the machine performed better than the driver. I am still healing up from a bicep, collar bone, and rotator cuff surgery from back on the first of March before I can do anything else major to the LJ.
ridered3
Not Rigless
Heck of an update between breaking a balancer off, troubleshooting the issues, and massive arm/shoulder repairs all at the same time!
