greanbeans 2 door xj build thread

Greanbeans

Active Member
So i know im not much of a posting kinda guy or anything but i just moved back to utah last august after being in the military for the last 4 years and i traded my car for my little 2 door on 31s which worked good for what i was doing at the time when i got it. So far its worked great for what i have done in it like go up mineral basin and out at 5 mile which was funny cause i almost made it to eagles nest on the 31s with no lockers or anything just couldnt make it up the ledge right before it. so far since ive owned it ive put 33s on it added 2 more inches of lift to it and im building a set of full width axles for it that i plan on swapping out this coming winter providing they are ready to get dropped in. im planning on building my own long arms for the front cause ill be using a radius arm front axle with 8 lug outers on it and a dana 60 out back still having to decide on gears and what kind of locker i should be using for it. anyways im always open to input by people or ideas they might have to make my build go that much easier. and if your wondering why m using a radius arm front and a dana 60 rear is cause i got them for free and what better axle then a free one. here are some pics of my jeep from how i got to how it sits now. and the only reason i wanna go full width is case i used to have a 90 on 38s with a 44/9 combo and it just worked great.
image (2).jpgfirst time out at 5 mile
image.jpeghow it looked when i got it
image (4).jpgrock lights thanks to brandon williams
image (6).jpgcut the front fenders on it
image (5).jpgput some rustys flares on the front and added a bumper to it also
image (1).jpghow she looks now. on 33s with a detroit e-z locker
 

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Greanbeans

Active Member
sandy, im looking more and more into stroking my current engine to a 4.7 cause its already got the .030 overbore just needs the crank and rods i think to make it what i want. i plan on running 37 or 38s when i get it all done and put together but itll probably be axle swap this year and stroker next year but who knows i havent wheeled it locked yet so only time may tell cause i really really wanna jsut get a 60 front and get a rubicon express bracket kit and a long arm setup from them as well that way im not trying to run half ton and 3/4 ton stuff together
 

Greanbeans

Active Member
The tan isn't stock the previous owner painted it like that. I plan on pulling my flares and painting them tan also to match once I cut the rear lower quarters off cause the pass side is a little rusted. I just need a good quality rear bumper that wraps around to fill the void on it once it is cut
 

Greanbeans

Active Member
So from what I've been looking at on the xj builds on here most of you guys are doing the 44/9 combo. My question is keep radius arms or ditch them in favor of xj brackets and long arm kit? I wish I had a 9 inch rear for my jeep but I got given a big fat narly 14 bolt or Dana 60 (haven't picked one yet) only prob is both are wider then what I think I might like. I have thought about making a hybrid rear axle that full float like a 9 or something using the parts I have on hand. I would like to be wider but not crazy wide just trying to dig a hole in this thing of a xj to figure how much I may need to do to get it going to gather parts to build my axles. Or should I just use what I have and deal with it
 

thenag

Registered User
Location
Kearns
I have never been a big fan of stock rear dana 60's, usually they have 30 spline week shafts and are not much stronger than a ford 9 or d44. You can find Ford 9's and gm 14 bolts in junk yards for $100-$200. That being said if you have the housing and are going to re-gear and lock it you can upgrade the shafts and make a nice axle out of it.

As for a gm 14 bolt, I had a single rear wheel gm 14 bolt and put on the hubs from a dual rear axle, this takes 2 inches off each side and makes the axle 63.5 wide. If you do this you need to convert to disk brakes, and then you run into the problem of what to do with a parking brake, the most common solution is the 77 Eldorado calipers, which are pricy and the parking brake doesn't work all that well.

For the front I have a d60 from a 96 f350. The housing has been modified, the short side was lengthened to take a GM length shaft and the long side was shortened to take a custom axle shaft. If I had it to do over again I would have made the long side 1 inch longer, if I could move my diff over .5 inches I would have so much more space for exhaust.

Radius arm setups work great and save a lot of fitting issues. I have the Clayton 3 link Pro kit and my upper arm hits my floor, of course I have other issues on that side, exhaust, oil pan.

Rockmonkey's "cheap cherokee" build is probably the best example of a d44/9 combo. I think he did a radius arm setup, although I could be wrong.

(my build is high moderate skill)

Nathan
http://www.rme4x4.com/showthread.php?83436-Nathan-and-Tanja-s-99-XJ-Build-up
 

Greanbeans

Active Member
Yeah I looked through both of your guys build and I got the rear idea from you on the 14bolt the only problem I'm having is my front is cast wedge 44 not weld on so I can't really push it or it'll break. I think if I built me a 9 rear and got a pre 78-79 housing and built it how I had my old axles then is be happy. Only reason why I want a weld wedge front is to put xj brackets on it so I can run the long arm kit I want. But I still have a few months to decide on what to do
 

airmanwilliams

Well-Known Member
Location
Provo, Utah
Nice rocklights ;)

Did your passenger side lights go out? Looks like the others are on and those are not in the flex shot where you have the lights on your roof.
 

Greanbeans

Active Member
Yeah the wires are so small they keep ripping apart I need to get a big one piece light strip to replace the smaller ones
 

Greanbeans

Active Member
So I am still looking around for some better front axle options other then having to retube which isn't going to be cheap. But I need something that has a similar WMS to the 14 bolt rear which is 63.5 I have the hp44 now that I got but it's like 65 WMS and it has cast outers on it which aren't strong at all. Anyone know anywhere that can sleeve and tube the cast wedge axle I got and make it the same width it is now or know of a hp44 housing laying around for cheap
 

flexyfool

GDW
Location
Boise, Idaho
63.5 vs 65 WMS?. Nobody will ever notice the difference. That's only 3/4" on each side. The WMS of the hp44 will be 68.5 instead of 65 anyways.

Cast vs weld? I doubt there is any significant strength difference. The issue is that the cast wedges can not be cut off. You are stuck with them and where they are.
 

Greanbeans

Active Member
I never said I wouldn't run it just don't want to break the cast part off and I can't do much in the way of adding brackets to it that I want to use
 

gorillaxj

Always building hardly wheeling
Location
SLC
For that cast D44 the best option is to run the factory Radius arms and modify them into links like X1994J did. Pages 5-7 have the info. it works and flexes well. Otherwise I would just find another Axle, finding one with welded wedges, or without wedges will be cheaper then re-tubing the one you have if your paying to have it done. Could aslo grab a D60 to match the rear instead. A lot of people will run really low offset wheels to suck up the difference in width of axles so you can run a full width axle and sit almost the same as stock width with offset wheels. 65" up front vs 63.3" in the rear is ideal, you want the rear to be a little more narrow then the front for turning radius and tracking threw turns. I ran Waggy D44's in my XJ when i had it and loved them. front was 62" rear was 58" no one even noticed and it actually looked great IMO. Just some thoughts lol
 
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