My simple TJ build

C

Catfish37

Adventurist
Not really a build just slightly modified to work for me. I did a 2" budget boost and mounted some 33x10.5-15 Toyo m/t's. Diff's are open and have the factory 3:73 gears inside. At some point I may swap them out. For some 4:56's. With the very limited space inside I went with a roof rack. Being a cheap a$@ I bought a Yakima load warrior from eBay for $200 and machined some brackets and mounts to tie it to the sport bar. I left enough room for a high lift out to the side.

then I built me a tailgate table out of some diamond plate aluminum.

that pretty much covers it for my jeep. It works fantastic for me. And yes the tires do rub just a tad at full lock. But so far it hasn't hendered me off road.
 
I had 4.56 on my 73 Scout with 33's... unless you are going to 35 or 37 you may want to go with 4.10s...
 
73IHC said:
I had 4.56 on my 73 Scout with 33's... unless you are going to 35 or 37 you may want to go with 4.10s...
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I have considered 4:10 but if and when I do a tear change it will be after I retire the jeep from daily driving. I was amazed at the difference a 30" tire to a 33" tire. They really sucked the life out of the 4.0 on the hiway.
 
If your Jeep has the auto trans, I would consider 4.88's. The 42RLE trans has a .69 overdrive, hence the "suck" on the blacktop with 33" tires. The manual trans would be happy with 4.56 gears.
Nice looking Jeep, those TJs are a blast offroad.

-Andy
 
I'm with Al on the table idea. Most guys do a fold down approach but I really like your idea and you could even have a lower shelf too.
 
Al Swope said:
The tailgte table looks neat. Did you build that?
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Yea I had some plate laying around and a piano hinge. I drilled a 1/4" hole in the corner for the prop rod. Then took a 1/2 aluminum rod and turned the ends down to slip into the hole. Add a little bend and walla I have a table. It's really nice for trail side lunches. Raise the back glass pull out a chair and enjoy the shade from the back window. The table is my favorite mod on the jeep.

Grumps- mine is a manual. I think 4:56 would be perfect as well. But gears just opens a can of worms. Gear change = might as well do a locker while your there= Dana 35 is weak prolly better upgrade shafts= heck if I'm going to do all that might as well buy a off the shelf d44 ready to go= no funds to do it so stuck with 3:73 for now
 
If there is the slightest temptation to go to a 35" tire in the future, nut for 4.88's. I went 5.13's with my auto, '05 LJ Rubicon.

DO NOT let the interweb convince you that your D30 won't hold up. Still running a D30 (with Cr-Mo shafts, CTM U-joint's, 4.88's and a Lock Rite lunch box locker).
[video=youtube;Iu_ppJSVhtI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu_ppJSVhtI[/video]
Just an example of the regular abuse my D30 has been through. You have to remember that you have a D30 and not a D60, and drive accordingly. Those are 36" bias ply Interco TSL's on 15" Cragar steel beadlocks, probably 65 pounds per wheel tire assembly.

If you upgrade the shafts in the D30, do NOT buy into the increased spline count hype. Get some Cr-Mo shafts, 760x joints, and call it a day, save your old shafts for spares. If youincrease the spline count, the only way to get spare shafts is to buy two sets of CUSTOM shafts. Break a stock spline count shaft, no spare, any auto parts store is your friend for a new stock spline count shaft!

Just for the record, I swapped stock TJ shafts into my YJ D30 to replace the 2 piece shaft/vacuum actuator on the YJ D30, abused the stock TJ shafts for years before finally breaking one and upgrading. (It broke at the U-joint yoke, same place they all break, making the spline count thing useless, or cool interweb build stats).

Look for a take out D44 at your local 4WD shops for people that have upgraded. It's a bolt in application, bonus points if they have the driveshaft to go with it! I'd go with a plain D44 rather than a Rubicon D44, you MUST use the low pressure air pumps to engage the factory air lockers on a Rubicon D44, there is no reliable way to regulate OBA down to the 5psi required for the factory lockers of that era. Plain Jane D44, you get locker of your choice.

Seems like there aren't a lot of us YJ/TJ?LJ guys left. I've got a YJ and an LJ, made/learned from a few mistakes on the YJ. Corrected most of them on the LJ build.
 
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Yes, why does the internet hate on the D30 so much :dunno, I mean mine hasn't exploded yet.. Awesome build so far!
 
I also ran a d 30 with the shafts in my ya on 35s and beat the thing like it owed me money. I broke a shafts at the joint once. 45 minute trail repair had my spare a haft in and I was rolling again. If I ever get to buy another jeep, I have no plans to replace the d30.
 
Catfish37 said:
Just to be clear. Not to worried about the D30 so much as the D35 rear. For now I just wanna play
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Go play... my D35 (Detroit locker, 4.56 gears) ran the Rubicon and Dusy Ershim twice each, in two different Jeeps. I finally did it in on the second Dusy trip. I flat out didn't see a wash out in the trail, hit it at speed (relative to that trail) and bounced my Jeep HARD, loaded with a weeks worth of gear, bending the housing. It still got me home, 500 miles, give or take.

dusy.jpg

Loaded, on the Dusy. That Jeep was a great trail Jeep before I started beating on it.
 
Hey guys. Haven't been doing much to the jeep lately. My buddy did give me 5 black steel wheels the other day. Been doing some maintenance on the old girl. A few new U-joints and another radiator. Going to be replacing the clutch here pretty soon.
 
Mr. Leary said:
Have you looked at the Ford 8.8 out of the explorer? Much stronger than the 35 and cheap.
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Not really. Hear lots of good things about it. I prolly won't mess with it for a while if ever. Just going to play with it till it breaks then think about it. Lol
 
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