Dyasko's 91' MJ build

[dyasko]

I figure it's time to start a build thread and start to document what I'm doing to my 91'. After all, I've taken a lot of inspiration from some of the other build threads on this forum. I bought the MJ about 3 years ago in mostly stock form and have slowly been building it ever since. 

 

 A little about the truck:

 

1991 Comanche long bed

160k hard miles

4.0 straight 6

AX15

NP231

D30 front w/ 4.56s and a lunchbox

Ford 8.8 rear w/4.56s and an ARB

 

Zone 4.5" lift in the front

RE track bar w/custom brace

Stock leafs in SOA form on the 8.8

33" KO2's on beat up 15" soft 8's

 

Custom sliders

Custom front winch bumper

JCR kit rear bumper w/ custom tire carrier

 

Other than that it's pretty stock.

 

Plans for the near future:

Long arms (I'm leaning towards TNT's radius arms, but a 3 link is tempting)

Ford HP D44 (Thinking I'll narrow the HP instead of using a Waggy D44)

35's (Can't wait to wear out these KO2's and get something a little mo' betta for rocks)

Super 8.8 for 5x5.5 and c clip elim.

Some rust repair around both windshields and a fresh coat of paint

 

And the list goes on...but I'll try to knock these ones out over the next year.

 

I'm definitely learning as I go, and I'm excited to get into the weeds a little more with some of the custom fab work. I've gotten a lot more comfortable with a welder and plasma cutter lately after making bumpers, sliders and some other stuff, but I'm still no expert.

 

 Here's what it looked like the day I bought it:

 

And current:

 

[dyasko]

One of the first things I did was ditch the stupid heavy steel shell for an S10 shell that was a close, but not perfect fit. Ended up getting it for $80 from a gardener who was using it to haul manure. Took a few rounds of pressure washing, scrubbing and a coat of paint on the inside to get rid of the stink.

I also did the Zone 4.5" lift kit at this point and put some 31" grabbers under it for the time being. I ended up being really happy with the front half of the lift kit in terms of ride quality for a sub $500 kit. The back half was the standard add a leaf and shackle replacement. I wasn't too happy with how the rear handled at first. The springs were too stiff because of the add a leaf, and the shocks weren't set up quite right. There was also a little too much rake. 

I had this set of 33s in my backyard from an old Cherokee, and the goal back then was to lock it and gear it for the 33s. The 3.07 gearing was brutal even with 31s. I wasn't going to dump an money into the D35, so I ended up swapping an 8.8 with 4.56s and an ARB. I regeared the D30, swapped chromo shafts, and an aussie locker at the same time. I had the 8.8 set up for SOA so I could ditch the add a leaf and the lift shackle. With the stock leaf pack, smaller shackles and some Rancho gas shocks, the ride in the back was 100x better. Went from 19mpg to 15, but the 4.56s are money, so screw it.

[dyasko]

I knew I had some rust in the floorpans and I wanted to take care of it before it got too bad. I pulled the seat and tore up the old vinyl which was ripping and generally falling apart. Found a decent amount of surface rust on both sides, but luckily nothing had gotten too bad yet. I hit everything with a wire brush until it was clean, painted with some rustoleum and bedlined the whole thing. I put in some knock off dynamat to insulate from tranny and exhaust heat a bit. I don't know if it made it any quieter. 

 

 

 

 

For flooring I used some ACC brand vinyl flooring from Rock Auto. It was complete garbage. The quality of the mold was terrible and it took a lot of cutting and forming to get it to sit even close to right. I didn't have a choice so I made it work. It's really thick and durable, but the poor molding made it a pain in the @$$ overall. At least I know my floor plans are in good shape for the foreseeable future.

[dyasko]

I was having trouble with my RE track bar bracket flexing and moving around which was causing a loud pop when I'd turn or flex the front suspension. I think the design of most track bars for these trucks places a lot of stress on the mounting points and the frame on the left side. I would tighten the bolts down as tight as I could with red locktite, but they would still loosen up after the first trip. Rubicon express makes a bracket for their track bar and the bracket is pre drilled for this purpose, but I decided to save some money and make my own. Credit to Reson46 for the inspiration on this one. I used the two holes in the back of the bracket that were already drilled and I made the driver side of my brace into a 90 degree surface so I wouldn't have to rely on just two bolts under shear.

 I had to put a slight bend in the tube to clear the oil pan while still tucking it up as high as possible.

There are already two holes in the frame on the passenger side in the right place so I just used some larger hardware to attach the brace to this point.

In addition to the brace, I drilled out the upper two holes for the bracket that are underneath the air box. These were oval'd out from the bracket moving up and down. These were upgraded to 1/2" hardware. After adding the brace and upgrading the upper bolts, I haven't had any more track bar issues.

[dyasko]

I was having some problems with unibody flex and I even popped my windshield moulding off and broke the urethane bead on the bottom of the windshield on the trail one day. I decided it was time for some frame stiffening so I bought Ruffstuff's front unibody stiffener kit.

3/16" plate that came bare for welding. Excellent quality as you'd expect from Ruffstuff. I chose to paint with a weld through zinc primer so that the inside would be protected from rust. 

It was my first time welding to the frame. I used 0.024" wire and took it real slow. Tried to lay ~4" beads at a time and rotate around the piece to keep it cool. Ended up burning through in two places, but it was good practice and nothing that couldn't be fixed. I decided to weld the entire thing to keep water and muck out of there and off the frame. There were two spots I couldn't get to to weld: behind the bump stop and on part of right side up against the floor pan. I just sealed these areas with auto body sealer and painted over everything. All in all, not a fun job, but I'm glad I did it.

 

Be careful when grinding the paint and galvanized coating off the frame before you weld. The galvanized coating is nasty $#!& and you don't want to breath that stuff in.

[dyasko]

The truck had come with some less than desirable nerf bars, but I didn't play in the rocks too much for the first 2 years of ownership so getting rid of them wasn't top priority. They were also $#!&tily welded to the frame (thanks PO ). I started to get more into rocks so it was time to ditch this old junk.

 

Step 1: Remove $#!&ty nerf bars

 

I cut as much as I could off with a portaband and then it was time to eat sparks. I carefully cut as much as I could off with a cut off disk. Then switched to a thin grinding disk, then finished it off with a flap disk. The frame is about 1/4" thick in the front near the LCA mounts, but less than 1/8" in the middle of the frame rails under the cab.

 

Every kit on the market is bolt-on, so I went that route for easy of removal. I cut the mounting plates first out of 1/4" plate. I used three mounts on each side, because of the long span and the lack of a pinch seam on the back half. I tapped the front and mid mounts through the frame. The front will hold up no problem because it's about 1/4" in this area. It was much thinner on the mid, enough to get decent torque on 1/2-20 bolts without stripping, but we'll see how it holds up over time. Might have to just switch to weld nuts or rivet nuts. For the rear mount, again I copied reson46 and used the rear spring bolt and then drilled a second hole where I could fit a wrench in the back to hold a nut.

I used 1.5"x1.5"x0.25" square tube to connect the slider to the mounting plates and 1.5"x3" tube for the actual sliders. If I remember correctly, it was 3/16" wall thickness. I wanted to run the tube from fender to fender with a bevel on each side. This was almost exactly 80".

 

I used 1/2"x1/2" square tube to bolt to the pinch seam in 6 places. I used 5/16" hardware that I had laying around. I think that's as big as you can fit on there.  I welded up as much as I could on the car to prevent warping and threw a couple coats of rustoleum on them.

Finished product is tucked up nicely and does the job..

[Pete M]

nice rocker guards!     don't forget to add something similar to behind the rear tires.     it's so common to overlook them.

[dyasko]

I wanted to keep a full-size spare, but the biggest that would fit underneath without hitting the exhaust was a 31. I decided to slap a tire carrier onto my rear bumper. It definitely wasn't designed for it, but what's an extra 50lbs on some 3/16" plate? Bought the spindle kit from Ruffstuff and went at it. I knew I wanted the tire offset to the right side, for less stress on the spindle, for rear visibility and to not completely cover the Jeep decal on the bed. 

 

Welded the spindle on...

Added the base tube next. Made it about 35" just bigger than the tire. Did the vertical tube next and also made it ~35" tall if I remember. Then added the supports and the tire mount. All the tube was just 1.5"x2"x1/8" except the part attached to the mounting plate.

I just used the same 1.5" square tube from the rock sliders. I might add a gusset later, but that 1/4" wall tube seemed plenty stiff to hold the wheel for now.

 

I had to mess with Ruffstuff's latch a bit to get it to work right. The way it came, the latch wouldn't close past the fulcrum, so it could easily be wiggled open with a little bit of force. I ended up grinding down the area underneath the handle so that it would close past the fulcrum and made a small safety latch with a pin and some extra 1/2" square tube just to be safe.

 

 

Also important to make sure the other end of the arm is supported to take stress off the spindle, especially when you're wheeling. Just used some UHMWPE plastic and cut a bevel into it with a miter saw. 

 

[dyasko]

2 hours ago, Pete M said:

nice rocker guards!     don't forget to add something similar to behind the rear tires.     it's so common to overlook them.

Thanks! I know I've seen a few guys run tube off the rear bumper. I think I'll do something similar to that soon. I've gotten lucky so far

[dyasko]

A winch had been on the list for a while too, but buying a winch and a bumper at the same time ain't cheap. I didn't like how far all the bumpers on the market stuck out from the grille so I decided to make a recessed bumper to fit the winch under the radiator. I saw boostwerks and reson46's designs which both used a warn m8000 winch. I wanted to use one of warn's new evo xr 10,000lb winches, which is slightly bigger. 

 

I knew I was going to have to cut out the stock crossmember, which wasn't a big deal because I knew the new bumper would increase the strength in this area anyway. So I cut that out and then cut a plate to run from rail to rail. I cut the mounts so that this plate would stick out about 1" further than the grille. I wanted it to be as flush as possible but I think it looks better with a slight protrusion, rather than being totally flush. I clocked the clutch housing 180 degrees so that I could mount the winch feet forward like an ARB bumper. I also removed the control pack and mounted this remotely in the engine bay. This is the plate that I started with that would take the place of the crossmember. It is drilled for the standard winch mounting pattern, drilled and tapped for the fairlead bolts, and cut for the clutch lever (except I cut this on the wrong side at first )

 

Cut out some steel just bigger than the fairlead opening so rope wouldn't touch the steel. Thank god for plasma cutters.

 

Then I found an old cardboard box, cut out some pieces and started going by the seat of my pants. Didn't really take any pictures of this part, but I ended up here:

 

I had to offset the winch a little to the left to clear the steering box. It was real tight in there. I also fixed my mistake on the clutch hole and cleaned things up a little...

Killed my old cheapo duralast battery spooling my line. Even the alternator on the Jeep couldn't keep up. Decided to upgrade to a yellow top.

 

Mounted the controller in the engine bay. Bolted it to the passenger side shock, not sure if I like that but it works for now. Used a relocation kit from Vice Design, which was just an extended wiring harness. This controller can do wireless or wired, so I don't have to pop the hood ever.

[thecodemonk]

That bumper design looks great!  

 

Also, that's my favorite color truck...not that I'm biased or anything.  

[Jesse J]

I like your EEP 

[dyasko]

On 11/17/2020 at 9:42 AM, thecodemonk said:

That bumper design looks great!  

 

Also, that's my favorite color truck...not that I'm biased or anything.  

Thank you. Agreed on the color 

 

On 11/17/2020 at 11:20 AM, Jesse J said:

I like your EEP 

Shortly after I lost my J, I ran into a guy with an XJ that was missing the EEP and I offered him $20 for his J, but he declined, so it's been an EEP ever since

[Jesse J]

Just now, dyasko said:

Thank you. Agreed on the color 

 

Shortly after I lost my J, I ran into a guy with an XJ that was missing the EEP and I offered him $20 for his J, but he declined, so it's been an EEP ever since

a match made in heaven

[MiNi Beast]

you need a H 

[dyasko]

Been a while and a lot has happened so I'll try to write some posts to document it all. 

 

Had a 10 day covid quarantine over Christmas, so I used that time to work on some projects I had prepped. First on the list were the TNT radius arms I'd been sitting on for a few months. My plan was to weld on unibody stiffeners for the mid-section at the same time to reduce frame flex and give the belly pan a more solid mounting surface. I started my quarantine by prepping the unibody and welding on the stiffeners.

 

I bought a pair of TMR fab stiffeners because that's what was available. The fitment was okay. I definitely had to modify them in some areas. The biggest mistake I made was not removing the upper control arms beforehand because I later realized the oval hole used to remove the bolt was not cut in these stiffeners. So don't make the same mistake I did.

If you haven't ever welded stiffeners, 3 things: 1. There's no way to do it comfortably without a lift  2. Make sure you prep really well. Grind down until you see shiny metal. A dull gray is still the factory galvanic coating which will give you porosity and make your life hell. Spray down with brake cleaner after grinding and before welding also.  3. Only weld ~2 inches at a time with your welder set for a notch below the thickness of the stiffener. Concentrate the puddle on the stiffener

Got the stiffeners mostly welded up and drilled the frame per TNT's directions. Everything lined up pretty easily.

Cutting the LCA brackets off took some time. Got as much as I could with the plasma cutter, but I was real wary of getting too close to the frame. Finished it off with an angle grinder. I've been running on the TNT system for 5 months now with no issues. 

[dyasko]

I've wanted to go to KOH for years but I've never been able to line it up. Got lucky and I had 4 days off this year, so I spent the second half of the week in the desert with a few buddies. We had a great time exploring the course, watching the race, and of course did some wheeling.

 

[dyasko]

 

In January, I found a HP D44 for sale locally so I snatched it up. Did a lot of research and slowly started ordering parts and working. Parts availability has definitely been affected by covid and I've had a hard time finding certain things like gears, bearings, and shafts.

 

Axle came out of a 1977.5-79 F150 Supercab. It was ~67" wide from WMS. Because it was from a supercab, it was set up for leaf springs and has 3" diameter x 1/2" wall tubes. 

 

First order of business was to remove the caliper spindles, shafts, and caliper brackets. Then I had to grind off the spring perches.

 

My plan was to narrow it to 80s wagoneer width so that I can use waggy inner shafts. I would have to cut about 2.5" off each side. 2.63" off the long side and 2.82" off the short side, to be exact. Before I could cut the shafts, I had to grind off the inner C's. I carefully ground the weld out of both inner C's until I could see a tiny crack all the way around the circumference of the tube. Then I beat them both off with a 4lb sledge. One came off fairly easily, the other took some convincing.

 

 

I measured and roughly marked the amount I needed to cut off each side. I used a hose clamp to mark the exact measurement and guide the cut with a portable bandsaw. 

 

Tubes cut down

 

Before starting all of this, I had built an electrolysis bucket to remove rust from all the old parts. I would run each part for about 12 hours in the bucket and then lightly scrub with steel wool for a factory finish. I then painted some of the parts.

 

 

 

Now with the tubes cut down, it was time to hammer the inner C's back on with the correct pinion angle and caster. I ended up with 12.5° of pinion angle and ~6.2° of caster. I set the depth of C's on the tube just based on where the rust marks were from before.

 

With both the C's back on, I reinstalled the knuckles and spindles to test fit some shafts and check the camber. Camber was coming out at about 1.5° on both sides. The C's are a press fit so camber isn't adjustable. Some further research found that 1.5° of positive camber is spec on these old trucks. I might use eccentric ball joint compression sleeves to correct it later. 

 

Had a friend turn the axle on stands while I welded the C's back on. Did a root and cap just to be safe.

 

 

 

[dyasko]

I'll be installing an ARB with the new gears so adequate preload will be important for proper setup. Rather than mess with driving shims, I decided to build a cheap case spreader. Bought a 3/4" grade 8 threaded rod from McMaster and some 1/2" bar stock from my metal supplier and made a simple case spreader for about $40. I didn't take a picture with the rod welded in the holes. We'll see how this thing works when it's time to do gears.

[A-man930]

12 hours ago, dyasko said:

I'll be installing an ARB with the new gears so adequate preload will be important for proper setup. Rather than mess with driving shims, I decided to build a cheap case spreader. Bought a 3/4" grade 8 threaded rod from McMaster and some 1/2" bar stock from my metal supplier and made a simple case spreader for about $40. I didn't take a picture with the rod welded in the holes. We'll see how this thing works when it's time to do gears.

 

I'm about to re-gear a D60 real soon and have caught myself (once again) thinking about making a case spreader... how do you know how much to crank on it?  

[dyasko]

7 hours ago, A-man930 said:

 

I'm about to re-gear a D60 real soon and have caught myself (once again) thinking about making a case spreader... how do you know how much to crank on it?  

There’s a spec for how much you can spread your specific axle. I know it’s listed in the ARB manuals. It’s not more than a few thousandths and you measure it with your dial gauge. I haven’t done it yet but I’ve read it doesn’t take much

[MiNi Beast]

7 hours ago, A-man930 said:

 

I'm about to re-gear a D60 real soon and have caught myself (once again) thinking about making a case spreader... how do you know how much to crank on it?  

I didn't even use one when regeared my rear d60. May make it easier I reckon but I didn't use 😕

[dyasko]

1 hour ago, MiNi Beast said:

I didn't even use one when regeared my rear d60. May make it easier I reckon but I didn't use 😕

Yeah for $35 I figured I’d make my life a little easier. I’ve had a hell of a time trying to hammer shims in before with a lot of preload. 
 

Question for you guys: have you ever had problems with excessive flex in the windshield frame? I’ve had a windshield pop the seal before and I exploded my windshield from the unibody flexing on the trail today. I need to figure out which areas I can plate to gain more stiffness. I’ve already done from the front bumper to the back of the cab. Thinking I might need to reinforce where the LCA brackets used to be...

[MiNi Beast]

To stiff of rails without creating sub frame between the rails. Just think about 2 sticks flexing parallel together. Time for cage perhaps Or you need more goop for the windshield surround.

[dyasko]

12 hours ago, MiNi Beast said:

To stiff of rails without creating sub frame between the rails. Just think about 2 sticks flexing parallel together. Time for cage perhaps Or you need more goop for the windshield surround.

Hmm..definitely agree on the cage but I’ll have to invest in a tube bender before that. Do you think plating the frame behind the cab or tying the bumpers into the bottom of the frame instead of just the sides would help at all?