Hello all - I have been a long time Jeep owner and bought my first new Jeep in 1988 (MJ\Comanche) and have been hooked ever since. In 1993 picked up a 1976 CJ-5 which had a 304 V8, T150 3 speed tranny, and if I remember right, a Dana 20 Tcase. I put a 3 inch ProComp lift on it and some 32" AT tires and drove the wheels off of it for a few years. Took a short break and bought a 1980 CJ7 in 2000 and really got into wheeling. This Jeep went through several different "versions" over the years and countless hours of fab work and was a good test bed for some crazy ideas. When I finally sold it 4 years ago it had a TBI 350, TH350 trans, 203/205 doubler, D60/14B axles that were bullet proofed, full hydro steering and tired tub.
The CJ7 was a trooper and has seen some of the big trails Moab, Las Cruces, Hot Springs, etc.
The last 3 years I owned the CJ7 it didn't see much trail time as I got into diesel drag racing and didn't have time/interest in wheeling anymore.
When the JKs came out I knew I'd have to get one someday as the wheelbase is just a few inches longer than the old, stretched CJ7 was and it worked great on the trail. I shopped around for 8 months and finally found exactly what I wanted. A 2007 in Rescue green that was 2wd and had a manual trans. I picked this up in summer of 2013 and started working on it as time allowed. I wanted to combine the best of both my old hobbies so the JK has a modified 4BT Cummins, NV4500, and an AtlasII Tcase. I had picked up a set of 1 ton axles to use but ended up selling them last Fall when a local, smoking deal came up on an almost new set of Rubicon axles out a 2015 JK. Unfortunately time to work on it has been almost non-existent over the last year so the Rubicon axles are still on the pallet. :doh: The engine/trams combo is great and I was driving it on the weekends until a pinion bearing let go in the stock D44. So I'll be installing the new rear axle sometime very soon and either buy a Dynatrac front axle housing or beef up the stock D44 housing. I don't expect the D44 rear to live long once I add bigger tires and start doing some moderate wheeling as the original axle has only lasted a couple thousand miles of spirited street driving.
In case you want to know....If you ever decide to do a diesel engine swap, go drop it off somewhere and have it done by someone that has been doing them. I cant tell you how many hours and $$ were wasted on trial and error. That being said, I know what to do & not do now, and when I do another someday it will be way cheaper.
Anyhow, that's my background in a nutshell and look forward to spending some time here and getting ideas on finishing up the build on my Mall crawler/trail rig, or contributing info where I can.
Pic of old CJ7 and the JK......please ignore front angle iron bumper on JK as I had to put something on it to drive around for safety reasons.
Daryl
The CJ7 was a trooper and has seen some of the big trails Moab, Las Cruces, Hot Springs, etc.The last 3 years I owned the CJ7 it didn't see much trail time as I got into diesel drag racing and didn't have time/interest in wheeling anymore.
When the JKs came out I knew I'd have to get one someday as the wheelbase is just a few inches longer than the old, stretched CJ7 was and it worked great on the trail. I shopped around for 8 months and finally found exactly what I wanted. A 2007 in Rescue green that was 2wd and had a manual trans. I picked this up in summer of 2013 and started working on it as time allowed. I wanted to combine the best of both my old hobbies so the JK has a modified 4BT Cummins, NV4500, and an AtlasII Tcase. I had picked up a set of 1 ton axles to use but ended up selling them last Fall when a local, smoking deal came up on an almost new set of Rubicon axles out a 2015 JK. Unfortunately time to work on it has been almost non-existent over the last year so the Rubicon axles are still on the pallet. :doh: The engine/trams combo is great and I was driving it on the weekends until a pinion bearing let go in the stock D44. So I'll be installing the new rear axle sometime very soon and either buy a Dynatrac front axle housing or beef up the stock D44 housing. I don't expect the D44 rear to live long once I add bigger tires and start doing some moderate wheeling as the original axle has only lasted a couple thousand miles of spirited street driving.
In case you want to know....If you ever decide to do a diesel engine swap, go drop it off somewhere and have it done by someone that has been doing them. I cant tell you how many hours and $$ were wasted on trial and error. That being said, I know what to do & not do now, and when I do another someday it will be way cheaper.
Anyhow, that's my background in a nutshell and look forward to spending some time here and getting ideas on finishing up the build on my Mall crawler/trail rig, or contributing info where I can.
Pic of old CJ7 and the JK......please ignore front angle iron bumper on JK as I had to put something on it to drive around for safety reasons.
Daryl
