4x4 North

With the trying to make forums great again mentality, Ive decided to post up my Grandcherbrokee build. I already have one on another forum but I will start it over and clean it up with hopes of it getting me more motivated to work on it again.

I picked up a minty limited 1998 Grand with a 5.2 from an older couple that bought it new and towed it behind their RV. The build plan is simple: low slung on a set o D44/8.8 diffs I already have, motor trans will remain mostly stock and swap out the 249 for a built 231. New bumpers, OBA all rolling on 36"iroks, that will later be replaced with a set of 35 or 37 radials of some kind. If everything goes as planned it will be an overlandish rig that is capable of some difficult trials but still cruise down the hyway on cruise with the heated leather seats on

This is the current state the jeep is in now, suspension is in and about 85% complete. Diffs are in and about in the same percent of completeness... but were gonna start from the beginning





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I got the 8.8 stripped of all the sock brackets and ordered a 8.8 ZJ swap kit from Artec. Also forgot to mention that my diffs are full width.



Unboxed the parts and was quite happy with the quality and directions provided-easy peasy





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Did a rough bench assembly and everything was there and looked minty


Got it tacked together and test fitted on the axle. Seen right away that I would need to modify it to clear the air locker line


Right about here



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Fired up the plasma and notched out a hole for a piece of 1 3/4 tubing and cleared it to fit


Burned it all in



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That Artec stuff sure seems to save a lot of time on doing a swap. Pricey though, but if your time is worth anything I'm betting it comes out ahead.

Yeah it can be costly but some of the kits I think are worth it, this one for sure as it was really well put together and quick. I have other Artec products I feel that don't stack up

Set the truss back on to test fit again, lines up well with the air line fitting and give ample room for a small wrench


With that completed, i started tacking on all other parts in the kit. Followed the instructions and went together smoothly









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Now onto the front Axle...


Removed the stock D30 without much issue, nothing rusty yet. The Front axle for this build is a leaf sprung Ford HP D44. It has been geared to 4:88 with an ARB to match the rear.

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I ordered up some more random Artec parts for the front. They dont make parts for a Ford HP44 so mish mashed some stuff together over the phone with them to try to get the best possible result, as at the time I wanted this thing done quickly... One of the things that had me guessing was I was told to order the D30 truss over the JK44 one? After asking some questions with Artec on why the D30 over the JK44 I was told the D30 would work better with the HP44 with some mods of course....wrong. Like A dummy I believed them and got it but it didn't end up working at all. Some of the parts that did were the TJ spring land pads pictured here


I cut off the stock stuff from the D44 and started to fit on the spring pads


Had to open up the axle opening as these were for a D30 not a D44



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Driver side-Not so easy.
The factory spring land is cast into the housing.


I figured I'd just notch out the side square to fit over the factory spring land, fail


With the pressed contour in the TJ spring pad it didnt allow it to sit down on the axle tube. Was roughly 1/2" high.


Being a few beers deep now, I resort to the only thing possible in this situation, crank up some Limp Bizkit and go total hack fest Fired up the Ol Re-cip saw and hacked that cast shit off





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I didnt want to take all the cast section off and risk a failure there. So shaved it down a bit and ground in a matching contour for the coil spring land.




To be honest, this isn't at all what I had planned on doing but it turned out to work pretty well





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With that all taken care of, I welded all the ugly bits on, all artec stuff. Went together pretty decent






Took some final measurements and tacked the coil pads on, and mounted an overpriced TMR Diff cover

HillBilt wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2019 8:32 am I didnt want to take all the cast section off and risk a failure there. So shaved it down a bit and ground in a matching contour for the coil spring land.

That's basically what I wound up doing with mine. You see guys cut those cuffs off all the time to be able to weld directly to the tube, and it's a terrible idea.

Scott Cee AKA 2drx4 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2019 8:46 am That's basically what I wound up doing with mine. You see guys cut those cuffs off all the time to be able to weld directly to the tube, and it's a terrible idea.

I see some companys saying to remove that cast section to install some of their products, and have no idea why. A friend of mine did that, and trussed the piss out of his D60 and it still busted. I hope I don't have any issues, and most likely wont as I don't plan to wheel the crap out of this and my Wife will most likely be doing most of the driving and shes pretty easy on equipment.