Eris

[Scoobienorth]

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Well I did a thing. I really don’t enjoy trashing the gladiator. It’s long and lots of the trails up here are atv sized and as much as I like the gladiator I don’t want massive body damage and it bellies out on anything steep, big rocks and stuff so I wanted something in good enough shape I don’t have to restore it or spend a pile of time repairing it, small enough to foot most places, and easy to work on. So I am importing another rhd Jeep. This time a tj, 4.0, 3speed auto, supposedly a d44 rear diff according to vin search. It’s a limited edition 1 of 100 made. It’s got vinyl seats, and factory half doors, 45k on it for mileage.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

Well, it sure looks pretty.

[Scoobienorth]

I’m not totally sure on the direction I’m taking with this. I’d really like a fairly light weight , low slung set up , clean and simple but tough enough. Reality though I don’t want to make a project out of it. Something like a simple cheap zone 4” lift to get me started might be better off. Tires 33’s would probably be better and save some power for the dune area we have here , but I’d rather have 35’s , probably because I’m more likely to break parts with them. I’m sure whatever I start with will probably be scraped in a few years anyways as I get using it more so I don’t want to spend to much in those areas. Stuff like a decent slip yoke eliminator and tummy tuck and stuff I’d rather do right as it’ll be needed.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

I'd say slap a cheap lift on it and hit the snow. I'm pretty tempted to do that to my TJ, but it's got a D35 in the back and my half hearted search for a D44 hasn't yielded anything.

[Scoobienorth]

Supposed to be getting close to being shipped out if Japan First up I am going to do the 1” body lift/motor mount lift/tummy tuck. Once it ships I’m going to order up parts.

Question time: should I use the stock motor mounts with a spacer, or aftermarket mounts with stiffer bushings and the lift built in? Same for transmission , should I use something like the tmr custom tcase skid with their bushings in it, or build my own using the stock mount?

Plan is to have the trans mount separate from the skid plate and I’ll build the skid afterwards.

[Scoobienorth]

Well it’s finally clear of port, me deciding I’m not going to challenge my inner roadkill, decided as I had to get it towed from port anyways to get it to a shop for a quick inspection before I drive it home, and if it’s decent I’ll get them to compliance it as it’s kinda a trip for me to get the indications done here.

I’ve got a 1.25” body lift, 1” motor mount lift at home for it, 2” Coil spacers and 2” adapter wheel spacers so I can run my gladiator wheels on it. Now I’ve got stock 245’s and 2 sets of 37’s to run on it, but it’ll probably kill the Jeep with that much tire, so looking into a 34ish metric sized mud terrain to put on stock jk/jl wheels for now. Plan is to do a custom trans mount, skids and stuff before getting to far into the rest of the build. I’d like to do a triangulated 4 link in the back and do some stuff to the front suspension as well but that’s down the road. I’ll pick stuff off as it bugs me.

[Scoobienorth]

Got some miles under it. Cleaned up the plastic windows with some pledge polish, deleted the jdm electronics, and a few other things. Found out the speedo is out a bit, but it drives really well. Seems to be a fairly clean unit. Just getting rid of the old lack of maintenance things. Be all fluid changes coming up soon

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

What sort of weird crap does it come with for JDM electronics? I know the radio is the wrong band, but beyond that I don't know.

[Scoobienorth]

What sort of weird crap does it come with for JDM electronics? I know the radio is the wrong band, but beyond that I don't know.

It had some sort of navigation setup that spoke Japanese at me and what appeared to be a credit card reader for toll booth maybe. The radio has different frequencies so it doesn’t work either except for cbc so it’s getting tossed eventually as well.

[Scoobienorth]

1300km driving it home. Aside from a caliper sticking on in Surrey leaving me stranded because I couldn’t get the Jack out from under the seat and not having anything in the Jeep at all , it was a mostly uneventful trip, Jeep is really tight and clean. Feels like a new tj. Seats are great. Hauled 2 37” spare tires home with me from Vernon. Even managed to ride along with Brian and Steve for a snow wheeling trip Sunday.

[Scoobienorth]

Been out a couple times. First trip I knocked a fender side light out but that’s to be expected. Also got a run way down the beach today. Super windy but still dry loose sand. I’m really liking the tj life again. I miss the short wheelbase and narrow stance.

[Scoobienorth]

Doesn’t look like much still but I got my 2” spacer lift in it, and oil changed along with coolant. I suspect the oil was severely neglected, and the coolant was clean but really thick looking so I dumped it as a precautionary thing. Diffs and tcase/transmission are still on the list, along with a 1.25” body lift. Winch plate will probably be closer to the top of the list so I can mount my m8000 warn on it.

[Scoobienorth]

Winch plate is done. I was going to make and weld on some tow hooks and didn’t. I kinda messed a couple things up and the fit and finish isn’t where I’d like it to be but it’ll be functional. The middle piece for the fairlead fell off as I was about to tack it in place and when I set it back up I put it on upside down. So my fairlead sits 1” lower than it should and my nicely milled hole for the rope got hacked with a grinder, FML.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

So my fairlead sits 1” lower than it should and my nicely milled hole for the rope got hacked with a grinder, FML.

Sounds about right. The last one I made I just put a hole in it that was twice the size from the start.

[Scoobienorth]

Not much but at -23 at least I got something done. It’s bolted on. Need to run the wires but it’s too cold for that. If they reach the battery, it’ll just barely reach. I may have to drill a hole in the rad support/fender area to shorten up the routing.