neohic

A little while back there was a Hemi swapped MJ build on NAXJA that the builder used a Vintage Air unit. Obviously there’s tons of fab, but the air unit seems pretty straight forward, but tedious. https://naxja.org/threads/rock-solid-fab-5-7-hemi-comanche.1148528/

Looks like controls for a Vintage Air unit.

I dig that interior!

Yup. The perches I used have some adjustability but I think the hole spacing might be too far apart. If I need to weld up a couple holes and redrill between them, then so be it. Probably pull the axle tomorrow.

Thanks, gang! The rear (old front) sway bar was next. With the brackets I made to sandwich to the frame with the bump stops, the next step was to add the axle side brackets and connect the dots. A keen eye will notice that the bar was flipped upside down. Everything was initially mocked up with the bar mounted as it was up front (however flipped with the arms facing forward) but I didn’t like how the arms swung downwards. The bend in the end links made sense when the bar was mounted that way. What I mainly didn’t like was the length of the links so the bar was turned upside down. I might straighten the links… I might not. I don’t think there’s any benefit one way or the other. I did see a benefit to having them adjustable though. Should the truck ever change ride height in the future (because of my track record with this truck) I’ve got room to work with it and keep the sway bar. There’s plenty of space between the sway bar and the differential cover and spare tire. Granted, that’s a 30” tire stuffed under there too. I might clearance the cover once I’ve got the axle out for final welding to be on the safe side. Otherwise, I like how everything tucks up there! Just for kicks, I also put on a 2” spacer to see if I could flush out the rear tire to match the front. Nice. I noticed that the wheel isn’t quite where I want it in the wheel well though. This will get addressed once the axle is out also. The rear driveshaft length is fine, but moving the axle back couldn’t hurt that either. Should be able to pull it all part again for welding and paint.

Looks great! That’s a ton of work.

Hope you didn’t just junk those axles! Are you linking the rear or keeping the leafs?

This place is nothing without the folks in it. Cheers, all. Thanks for being rad.

Time for the rear. With everything out of the way it’s nice to see a quick turn around being there’s a third or so less moving parts. 4.10 axles out. I’ll probably hold on to these for at least a year… we’ll see. On to those nifty fiberglass leaf springs. The bushings that were at the frame side were just glued in and fell out with a little wiggle. Keep in mind that these were never mounted on anything from the late ‘80s until I briefly mocked them up in an ‘89 I used to have and then taken back out. I’m sure the glue was just fine in their prime but I didn’t trust it after this long. Luckily the I.D. was 1.5” so a standard poly bushing went in the old bushing’s place. I never had a shackle side bushing as long as I’ve had the springs. A while back I had some bronze sleeves made up but I was never crazy about how they turned out. A friend of mine purchased a lathe and was itchy to use it. He spun some delrin for me. Little bit of a difference between these and the metric ton springs coming out. Shackles are just plain ol’ stock XJ. Next on the list was figuring the rear sway bar. My material scraps are getting low but I managed to find enough to make it work. The axle side mount was an old set of shock mounts I kept from a while back and the frame side bolts on with the bump stops. Made for a good landing spot. I need to get the bar where I want it to live and then I’ll figure out end links. The axle pinion angle got measured up and some good tacks got put on the spring perches. Of course I had to throw the wheels on to see where we’re at now. Mmmmmm…

Awesome! Welcome aboard!

Kind of a big day for the Eliminator! The axle and parts got painted and installed for the last time. Black… everything black this time. Last time the truck got a birthday the control arms got painted hammered silver and the axles were hammered gray but the diff covers were also silver… IT WAS TOO MUCH!! Younger me clearly wasn’t thinking about tasteful choices that older me might not like. Looks like 1/4” is the magic number. There’s 1/4” of clearance between the bump stops, upper control arm hardware to the frame, and from the driveshaft to the exhaust. The floor patch got painted and undercoated also. I touched up the undercoating around the rest of the truck too. All that’s left is to swap over the brake calipers, nut and bolt everything again, and double check the alignment once it’s back on the road. Then on to the rear!

On that note, I was invited by my new wheeling buddies to Easter Jeep Safari. It’d be a last minute decision for a bunch of reasons, but we’ll see what happens.

With all the parts here, I finally pulled the 4.10 Dana 30. The control arms needed to get reworked, however after pulling them I found that the lower bushings were completely wasted. I think these were Rubicon Express arms and they had a flex joint at the frame side that were noisy since the day they went in the truck. Being these had a goofy axle side bushing, I decided to just start from scratch. The uppers were fine to just cut the flex joint off. They got replaced with 2”x.250” tube so I could run a standard poly bushing. The new lowers also use 2”x.250” but I used a scrap of some fancy 1.75”x.120” DOM to connect the dots. They’re overkill for what they need to be. As for the 3.73 Dana 30 going in, the lower control arms got cut off because they were well on their way to falling off. I replaced them with Ruff Stuff 3/16” brackets and put it under the truck on jack stands. Everything needs paint then it should all just fall back into place.

I've got a "CJ to Moab" list in my phone that I cross things off from time to time. Everything you mentioned is on the list to do and I don't think any of it would affect the day-to-day. I used to wheel with a guy that his TJ was equipped very similar to the direction I've been going with my CJ: limited slip in the rear, locker in the front, 33s, manual transmission. Someday I'll get everything crossed off that list. By a dedicated wheeler, I mean something that could keep up with the "big tire" crowd... 40s and up. These guys hit trails like Independence and Patriot in Penrose, CO along with Carnage Canyon outside of Buena Vista, CO commonly. I've had a build in mind for years that would've left off from my old XJ, but it would mean adding not just a wheeler, but a tow vehicle and trailer also. Would it be fun?... HECK, YEAH!!! I really miss challenging myself and my vehicles into bigger and bigger obstacles. This little CJ has been a nice little mountain goat that can get a little rad at times in place of that dedicated wheeler.

Arguably CJ content, but only because I drove it over to my buddy’s shop. These guys get it. Unfortunately, the Toyota guy screwed up his knee and my Cherokee buddy drove his truck out of the thick of the trail. I got behind the wheel of (what’s left of) the XJ and followed along. Felt like old times! I don’t need a dedicated wheeler… I don’t need a dedicated wheeler… I don’t need a dedicated wheeler… I don’t need a dedicated wheeler… I don’t need a dedicated wheeler… I don’t need a dedicated wheeler…

I wish I had more to report but I’ve just been very busy. Today I received the last of my Ruff Stuff order though. Two full months to get two control arm mounts, leaf spring perches, u bolts, and a couple bushings. I’m grateful that towards the end I did get an email response from them, but overall I wish I would’ve been completely done with this project a while ago. Can’t say I'm mad, but I definitely have that disappointed dad feeling.

I was thinking the same thing. Honestly, I’d consider doing the same thing if I had a known good drivetrain that needed a chassis.

Looks to me like a Chrysler 8.25 diff cover from RT Offroad. https://www.rtoffroad.com/825-hd-differential-cover-rear.html I’d bet the axle is from a Liberty/KJ with the four little additional castings around the pinion yoke. Can you measure the axle tube diameter and overall width from outside of hub to hub?

Exactly. I love it when classic topics come back to the top.

Are there any common swapped rear axles for Cherokees in Norway? What does the differential cover look like?

Heck yeah! Purple Power and a pressure washer for the win!

Chasing more low might not be worth it. This morning I went out to put a second coat of Eastwood Rust Encapsulator Plus on the floor and I played around with some coil options. I took the rear ZJ coils and cut one full coil off the big end. With everything back in I gained another 1/2” of drop when compared to the SCCA coils. I also took out the factory bump stops to see what was going to be the next thing to crash into something else. There’s another 3/4” between the top of the differential and the frame/engine mount. Worth it?… probably not. Who am I to question the suspension tuning of the Archers anyhow? With the bump stops out I put the SCCA coils back in to see if they’d settle at all. In the past, I’ve tried rear ZJ coils and they’ll net about a 3” drop. With cutting a full coil off they’ll get you about 3 3/4” drop. The SCCA coils drop about 3 1/4” or so. Good to know, but I’m sure I’ll just leave well enough alone when things get finalized. Finally, poking around I found a couple of bad tie rod ends. I ordered everything from the steering box to the knuckles to just be done with it and not have to worry about knocking loose stuck threads.

The ZJ rear bar is too wide. For where I want it to live it’d crash into the leaf springs. Originally, the ZJ sway bar ties into the control arms which are spread wider than our leaf springs. Reusing the current front as the rear just fits so much better. If handling feels weird, I’ll look into getting a WJ bar for the front. Ruff Stuff… … I just want to cancel the order but they need to pick up the phone or reply to an email for me to do that. Buddy of mine has heard a similar story from others in his fabrication circles too.