Meduncan's TJ build

meduncan · **Posted:** Sun Jan 22, 2012 7:12 pm

Alright, I've made my decision and I'm sticking with my TJ. It would just cost too much to get a JK up to the level I currently have my TJ built up to and I'd still want to go further. Since I already have the TJ that allows me to focus all of my efforts and money on improving what I've got. Tomorrow I start the planning process with Trail Quest here in Dublin and I hope to have the build started in the next week or two.

Any of you guys have experience with long arm kits for the TJ? I'm looking at the Teraflex 4" LCG lift kit or the 4.5" Tri-link kit from Rubicon Express. Has anyone run one of these or known someone who ran these? What were the opinions?

I'll post more details on the buildup and pictures as the project moves along.

1996xj · **Posted:** Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:03 pm

Matt, my only negative to my long arms on my xj is at highway speeds its a little more apt. to wander, do to the fact instead of 4 links connected to the axle you only have 2. I ended up installing polly bushings in my control arm's it made a big differance, I don't think I lost much flex either !!

tommudd · **Posted:** Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:20 am

Was talking to a guy a few days ago and he had the Nth Degree Long Arm from AEV on his TJ, said he had been through 3 other lifts and none handled anything close to the Nth Degree one. Said it was night and day difference on and off road.
He's buying a 2012 JK for his wife and going AEV lift on it also

Ms5490renegade · **Posted:** Mon Jan 23, 2012 3:47 am

tommudd wrote:

Was talking to a guy a few days ago and he had the Nth Degree Long Arm from AEV on his TJ, said he had been through 3 other lifts and none handled anything close to the Nth Degree one. Said it was night and day difference on and off road.
He's buying a 2012 JK for his wife and going AEV lift on it also

Aev makes great stuff if you can afford it! Most of the jk guys running it say they won't ever get anything else

sent using the dark side of the force

meduncan · **Posted:** Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:21 pm

So, the build up begins. I went over to Trail Quest today and placed the order for a sizeable chunck of parts. Even the guys at Trail Quest were pretty excited about this project and they'll be posting up pics of the progress on Facebook so I'd recommend looking them up if you want to watch the build up. The actual action probably won't start until later next week or the first week in February when the 505 Performance engine comes into the shop. That's when they'll also be dropping in a few other performance goodies like Banks Torque Tubes, a Banks Monster exhaust system, a larger throttle body, a snorkel, a Centerforce I clutch, an upgraded radiator and water pump, and perhaps a few other enhancements.

Unfortunately I had to drop the long arm idea to get everything to fit into my budget, but I'm still going with a BDS 4.5" short arm kit with Fox shocks. I'll be installing that lift along with replacing all the seats in the TJ with Bestop Trailmax II Pro's and dropping a Bestop Supertop NX on. Then there's some sliders I need to install as well.

The final touch will be to pick up some 35" tires and some wheels. Of course that means that my current tires and wheels will go up for sale. It's a full set of Moab rims in great shape with 265/75R16 Mickey Thompson Baja MTZ's that have only 4K or 5K miles on them...and the spare is brand new. I'll be asking $800 for the wheels and tires for those who are club members ($900 on Craigslist).

Obviously I'll be taking pictures of the build up whenever I can and post them up here. I anticipate that the first pictures you all will see is the stack of boxes coming in for all the parts. I'm taking off February 3 - 8 to work on the build up. Perhaps I might even stop by Mudd's place for the lift party. I need to drop something off at my parents anyway and they live up that way.

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:07 am

Would be good to lay eyes on ya again Matt, you're welcome to stop by anytime!
If you are heading this way let me know !
Tires and wheels for sale ??? mmmm

Grannysgoat · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 8:11 pm

You may have to do a 1" body lift to get the 35" tires under it. I have a 2006 LJ Rubicon , Currie 4" lift with (33") 305/70/16" on 8" wheels with 4" backspace and get slight rubbing with full flex in the front. My friend has also has an LJ with Currie 4" lift and a 1" body lift with 35" tires. He also has slight rub fully flexed in the front. Without the body lift you may have rubbing front and back.

For sliders check out A to Z Fabrication. They are really slick and very easy install.

Didn't see you mention it, but a Currie Anti Rock sway bar is also a really neat set up. You might check it out once you get your lift on.

As a side note, the other thing the 35's do is kill your gear ratios unless you plan to or have already changed them.

Going to look forward to seeing your build up. Also, rubiconownersforum.com has a lot of really good information, just like this site does for Liberty's.

Grannysgoat is my Liberty picture to the left.

Big Red is my Rubicon which is a 2006 LJ automatic, Currie 4" lift , Bilstein shocks, 305/70/16 MTR's on 8' wide 4' backspace alloy wheels, Warn XD9000I winch, XRC front and rear bumpers with tire carrier in rear, Ruff Stuff diff covers, Currie Antirock sway bar, Banks ram air intake, Viair 450H on board air & A to Z sliders.

meduncan · **Posted:** Sat Jan 28, 2012 12:17 am

Grannysgoat wrote:

You may have to do a 1" body lift to get the 35" tires under it. I have a 2006 LJ Rubicon , Currie 4" lift with (33") 305/70/16" on 8" wheels with 4" backspace and get slight rubbing with full flex in the front. My friend has also has an LJ with Currie 4" lift and a 1" body lift with 35" tires. He also has slight rub fully flexed in the front. Without the body lift you may have rubbing front and back.

For sliders check out A to Z Fabrication. They are really slick and very easy install.

Didn't see you mention it, but a Currie Anti Rock sway bar is also a really neat set up. You might check it out once you get your lift on.

As a side note, the other thing the 35's do is kill your gear ratios unless you plan to or have already changed them.

Going to look forward to seeing your build up. Also, rubiconownersforum.com has a lot of really good information, just like this site does for Liberty's.

Grannysgoat is my Liberty picture to the left.

Big Red is my Rubicon which is a 2006 LJ automatic, Currie 4" lift , Bilstein shocks, 305/70/16 MTR's on 8' wide 4' backspace alloy wheels, Warn XD9000I winch, XRC front and rear bumpers with tire carrier in rear, Ruff Stuff diff covers, Currie Antirock sway bar, Banks ram air intake, Viair 450H on board air & A to Z sliders.

Thanks for the great information! I'll have to check out that Rubicon site and thanks for the reminder on the body lift too. With all the other stuff coming I completely forgot about that.

I haven't upgraded the gears in the Rubi, but I'm hoping that the larger engine will compensate on the power side a little. Waiting on the dyno sheet to come in, but I expect the engine to be putting out about 280 horse and about 320ft lbs. If I need to get the RPMs back up a bit then I'll drop some gears in there, but if I can save a little money I'll skip them for now.

Grannysgoat · **Posted:** Sat Jan 28, 2012 1:51 pm

meduncan wrote:

Grannysgoat wrote:

You may have to do a 1" body lift to get the 35" tires under it. I have a 2006 LJ Rubicon , Currie 4" lift with (33") 305/70/16" on 8" wheels with 4" backspace and get slight rubbing with full flex in the front. My friend has also has an LJ with Currie 4" lift and a 1" body lift with 35" tires. He also has slight rub fully flexed in the front. Without the body lift you may have rubbing front and back.

For sliders check out A to Z Fabrication. They are really slick and very easy install.

Didn't see you mention it, but a Currie Anti Rock sway bar is also a really neat set up. You might check it out once you get your lift on.

As a side note, the other thing the 35's do is kill your gear ratios unless you plan to or have already changed them.

Going to look forward to seeing your build up. Also, rubiconownersforum.com has a lot of really good information, just like this site does for Liberty's.

Grannysgoat is my Liberty picture to the left.

Big Red is my Rubicon which is a 2006 LJ automatic, Currie 4" lift , Bilstein shocks, 305/70/16 MTR's on 8' wide 4' backspace alloy wheels, Warn XD9000I winch, XRC front and rear bumpers with tire carrier in rear, Ruff Stuff diff covers, Currie Antirock sway bar, Banks ram air intake, Viair 450H on board air & A to Z sliders.

Thanks for the great information! I'll have to check out that Rubicon site and thanks for the reminder on the body lift too. With all the other stuff coming I completely forgot about that.

I haven't upgraded the gears in the Rubi, but I'm hoping that the larger engine will compensate on the power side a little. Waiting on the dyno sheet to come in, but I expect the engine to be putting out about 280 horse and about 320ft lbs. If I need to get the RPMs back up a bit then I'll drop some gears in there, but if I can save a little money I'll skip them for now.

One other thing, I don't see where you mentioned your rear drive shaft. If you have a TJ Rubicon you will have to replace your rear drive shaft if you go to 4.5" of lift.

The one on the left in the "ditch" has 35"s. Just a quick tug and we had him out, don't ask how he got there. The other 3 are progressions on mine from bone stock to what it is today. Only thing I have added since the last one is the sliders.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 600&type=3

meduncan · **Posted:** Sat Jan 28, 2012 5:12 pm

Minor tweaks have begun on the TJ. Below are a few pics. New shifter knobs and new KC headlights (small thing, but the KC logo glows in the dark). The BDS lift has come in along with the Fox shocks and the Bushwacker pocket flares. Those will all go on after the engine is installed. I've got the Tom Woods rear drive shaft and the Skid Row engine/transmission skid too. Pics of the shifter knob and headlights are below.

meduncan · **Posted:** Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:20 pm

Just got an email from Stefan at Trail Quest. My new engine should be shipping either Thursday or Friday.

I'm narrowing down my wheel choices and I've decided on the tires. I'm partial to the Mickey Thompson MTZ's so I'll be running those in the 35x12.5R16 and the choice of wheel is between the three below.

Desert Rat Moab STR

Black Rock Viper Series 900B (would force me to run 17" instead of 16")

Black Rock Defender Series 905

bunkermonkeycw · **Posted:** Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:43 pm

Black Rock! Others? Too flashy.

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Feb 01, 2012 8:26 am

Desert Rat Moabs
Black Rocks look too much like the Soft 8s which everyone and their Mother has and every TJ/JK/XJ/KJ/KK etc
Lead don't follow :wink:

TAHOE · **Posted:** Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:20 am

What's the "505 performance engine" consist off? Sounds like a very nice build.
Where did the shifter knobs come from? They are cool!!!

Too bad the tires aren't 285's, :cry:

I need some this fall.
Oh, I would say the Moab's or the Vipers....I'm kind of leaning toward the Vipers myself, they look kind of like the old Atlas rims ARE used to make.

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Feb 01, 2012 11:02 am

505 Performance
Home of the most powerful inline Jeep engine in the world! Second to none! 692 hp... 780 ft pounds of torque.

:shock:

Now that would almost have enough power

nshefbuch · **Joined:** Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:51 pm **Posts:** 8

tommudd wrote:

505 Performance
Home of the most powerful inline Jeep engine in the world! Second to none! 692 hp... 780 ft pounds of torque.

:shock:

Now that would almost have enough power

Didn't that motor only make one pull and it blew?

meduncan · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 8:35 pm

TAHOE wrote:

What's the "505 performance engine" consist off? Sounds like a very nice build.
Where did the shifter knobs come from? They are cool!!!

Thanks, those are Drake Off Road shift knobs in billet aluminum. As for the engine, I should be getting a build sheet sometime next week with the engine when it arrives. I'll let you know all the details once I have them.

meduncan · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 8:58 pm

Just dropped the new Bestop seats in the TJ and rewired the CB so it's directly attached to the battery (avoid audio interference hopefully). Also worked some more on getting the soft top installed. My gosh, when Bestop states that ideally you should install in 72 degree weather or the top may shrink they aren't kidding. Even with the heater in the garage I couldn't push the temperature up enough to get the top to relax. It's so tight I fought with the windshield header latches for 45 minutes before they finally gave enough to latch. The zippers on the side windows are another matter. They're still not fully zipped because the top's just too tight in back.

Sometime this weekend I'll run the heater for a good couple of hours to get the garage real toasty and hopefully get that top to relax enough for me to zip up the side windows. I also plan on installing the rocker guards and Bushwacker fender flares.

Since details are useless without pics are a couple (crappy though because I took them with my cell). I'll get better pics as I work on the Jeep this weekend.

Old seats coming out

Rear seat installed

meduncan · **Posted:** Wed Feb 08, 2012 7:01 pm

New wheels for the TJ just arrived. I just sat the center cap on the wheel for the photo so if it looks a little odd that would be why.

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:16 pm

Wheels should look good on there
Did you end up with 16s or what size?

Meduncan's TJ build

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