regeared the MJ this weekend

Went from 4.10's to 4.56....for free :D :D :D

I snagged a 4.56 D30 from the yard for $100 a while back, and put it in myself on Saturday morning. Sold the 4.10 D30 I took out for $125...net gain of $25. Jerry (tjbliley) and I swapped rear axles yesterday (he had a 4.56 D35 and wanted my 4.10 D35) so that was no cost either....

All I gotta say is ANY 2.5 should have come from the factory with 4.56's. I can't believe how much more responsive it is now!

Will be posting pics shortly. I also installed new leafpacks in the rear and got about 2.5" of lift....will be lifting the front with some ZJ springs this weekend to level it out.

Jeff

Started with the D30 on Saturday morning….had it swapped out in about 3 hours working by myself.

Step 1, pull old D30:

Image Not Found

“new” axle, cleaned and painted:

Image Not Found

Image Not Found

my shimmed CAD motor:

Image Not Found

Image Not Found

also swapped the stock tie rod with a ZJ one, notice the beef:

Image Not Found

Image Not Found

using a bottle jack to remove/install coil springs without unbolting everything:

Image Not Found

all done:

Image Not Found

I’ve been working on the leafpacks for the last few weekends, getting them to be ready to install when we pulled the rear axle. Here’s what I started with, a set of stock MJ 4WD leafpacks from the junkyard for $26 bucks….

Image Not Found

Image Not Found

I pulled them apart, hit them with a cup brush on the angle grinder, and reapainted them with graphite-based paint:

Image Not Found

shot of my “workshop” LOL

Image Not Found

this is the stuff I used, called EZ slide. Got it from Tractor Supply Co. for $24. Neat stuff:

Image Not Found

cleaned up the factory case hardened eye and shackle bolts with the wire wheel on the bench grinder, and repainted the shackles. Fasteners were like new under all the grime, and saved me some $$$ not having to buy new stuff

Image Not Found

Image Not Found

got all new hardware for the alignment clips. My neighbor machined down some ¼” pipe nipple and reamed out the inside and tapered the edges, to replace the stock sleeves…pretty trick. Painted with the same graphite paint

Image Not Found

new sleeves:

Image Not Found

he also machined a set of new center pins for me. I had to drill out the perches just a tad to get the heads he turned to fit:

Image Not Found

all ready to be put back together:

Image Not Found

Yesterday morning, Jerry, Chuck and I proceeded to transplant rear axles. Pulled the MJ’s along side of each other and commenced to unbolting

Image Not Found

Image Not Found

We figured the easiest way to deal with the e-brake cables was to pull them off the parking brake arm inside the drum (hindsight says we should of just pulled them out of the equalizer arm and left the drums alone…..Chuck was smart enough to take a pic of the assembled drum beforehand so we had a reference to get all the bits and pieces back together correctly. Here’s a couple shots of the brakes for anyone’s future reference:

Image Not Found

Image Not Found

Jerry took the time to unbolt all of his stuff nicely so he could reuse it all. Chuck (pictured) and I chopped my U bolts off with a cutoff wheel…..

Image Not Found

Got the packs off both vehicles and pulled the axles out. Here’s a shot of my sagged/bent/toasted 2WD packs next to the newly assembled 4WD packs. Hard to see from the angle, but there’s a lot more arch in the new packs

Image Not Found

I got new spring eye bushings and had them shop pressed in, and we both used new bent-to-order U bolts and hardware from the same shop for $6/ea (and some change). I snapped one brake line and had to rebend a new piece to fit (the shiny new line there in the pic that hooks to the flex line), but other than that all went well. Got mine all buttoned back up and bled the brakes, and that was it. We’ve still got a bit of work left on Jerry’s MJ, but should have it done and running (have to put the tranny back in it) by this weekend for a trail cleanup.

Image Not Found

I netted about 3” of lift with the new packs. Center of hub to flare measurement with the old packs was the same as the front, 17.5”….now it sits right around 20.5”:

Image Not Found

On the way home I stopped by a supermarket, and got a good shot of the rake on a nice level parking lot. I’m going to swap out the front springs with a pair of V8 ZJ coils this weekend to try leveling it out. If those don’t do it, I have a set of 1.5” spacers I can add (hindsight again says I should have put them in on Saturday when I had the front axle out, but I wasn’t sure just how much lift I was going to get in the back)

Image Not Found

Image Not Found

The D35 will ride underneath until I get the D44 regeared and locked, then it'll come back out. I'm not sure now that I want to SOA it. It rides great (still need to replace shocks and brake line) before I can flex...right now they are my limiting straps :roll: I'm thinking this might be a nice height for now, with a good set of 31 or even 32" tires. We'll see what happens next.

Jeff

Nice job Jeff. But you must have plenty of gravel indentations in your back and knees. :brows: A set of OME front coils will net you about 2" up front - ride well too.

I'm still digging pebbles out of my @$$ ;) The original plan was to use Chuck's garage (the one in the pics where I swapped the front axle) that's about 3 miles away from Jerry's house, but his tranny had to come out unexpectedly. So we just did it where it sat.

I've got a couple choices for the front, not sure which is gonna work the best tho. I have both a set of stock V8 ZJ coils (mine's a 2WD 2.5L, so those ought to get about 2" ) and a set of Skyjacker ZJ lift coils (at least 2", not sure exactly because I got them off a wrecked ZJ in the 'yard) that I know will get 3" at least. And I also have a set of 1.5" spacers from that ZJ as well I can use. Not sure what's gonna get me to a matching height, so I'll just put stuff in and see. I'm thinking I'll put the stock coils in and see, then add the spacer if I need it.

Gearing upgrades are awesome!! I went from 3.07 to 3.55 way-back-when in the 88 and it was like a whole new truck. It just came alive and was fun to drive again. :D

I've got my front axle dropped and I've got the new spring perches welded on my 4.56 axles. Tomorrow I'll install the front and start on the rear. I'm trying not to rush cause I get frustrated.

Since I'm using my old axle shafts and brakes, do you think it'd be possible just to remove the drums., pull the shafts, unbolt the backing plates, and tie em up? It was hell dealing with the parking brake at the JY and I couldn't get the splitter undone. Had to cut the old cables.

yes, you can do that.

Be prepared to use an impact or a big @$$ breaker bar on the flange bolts holding the backing plates on, if they're original.

I had an axle on the ground, jumping up and down on a 36" breaker bar to break those off. Impact wouldn't even touch them.

GOOD JOB!!! I LOVE all the time you put into those leafs!!!

EXCELLENT WORK!!!

Nice write up as well!!! Your Jeep looks GREAT!!!!

CW

Thanks CW....I've been baby-stepping the build on it for the last umpteen years, doing my research both here and on NAXJA before doing anything (and meeting a helluva lot of nice folks along the way :cheers:). I'm building in stages, as time and $$ allow...it'll be where I want it someday, I suppose ;) I got the graphite paint idea from a bud who redid his XJ packs with it, but he also installed teflon padding inbetween each leaf as well...I'm to poor to do all that at the moment.

Since I'm using my old axle shafts and brakes, do you think it'd be possible just to remove the drums., pull the shafts, unbolt the backing plates, and tie em up? It was hell dealing with the parking brake at the JY and I couldn't get the splitter undone. Had to cut the old cables.

Dang, I didn't think of doing that, sounds workable to me. Only thing is you'd have to be careful to not snap the hardlines into the wheel cylinders, or else unbolt them and rebleed (which we did anyways....). The biggest PITA with disassembling the drums was the parking brake cable, like you mentioned, and the lower spring. I'm going to discs eventually on the '44 so I won't have to deal with all that crap.

i like doing the job right--- the first time.

From the look of the pic in the parking lot I would try the ZJ coils first. I put a pair in my 2.5 MJ and it lifted it around 2 inches. The ride is great still with those. I would be afraid of the ZJ lift coils because they always lift a4.0 XJ at least an inch higher than the ZJ. A large weight difference between a ZJ and a 2.5 MJ. Just a thought.

It was hell dealing with the parking brake at the JY and I couldn't get the splitter undone. Had to cut the old cables.

Jerry did a neat trick to get those cables back into the strut. Use a pair of needlenose vise grips to push the spring back on the cable and then clamp down to hold it. Then just slip the exposed cable thru the slot in the strut and release the grips.....works like buttah!

And to get the "barrel" end out of the backing plate (or splitter), I use a small hose clamp and some banana juice. Slip the clamp over the tangs that pop out to anchor the cable end, squirt it down, and tighten the clamp just enough to compress all 3 of the tangs (usually you can't get to one of them anyway) but not so tight that the clamp tightens fully up. Then grab the cable and give it a good tug and it should slip right out.

Jeff