['92 vegas YJ]

i just recently did a SOA and 8.8 swap on my 92 YJ.

i didnt take a lot of pictures as i was doing the entire swap by myself. if youve never done complete axle and suspension rebuild/swaps by yourself then you wouldnt understand.


so to start off. i bought my YJ when i was 16 yrs old. almost 9 yrs ago. she already had a 4" procomp lift and some 33" bfg mud terrains. that and the sweet 2" round bumpers were the only mods on it.

i ran that setup all through high school and thought i was on top of the world. my jeep could do anything. i added some lights and some bushwackers flares

when i was 19 i joined the military and moved to Virginia. with multiple deployments to Iraq and non-stop training my 3 yrs there i only wheeled ONCE on the east coast.

right before my only run out there i went out and bought a smittybilt tire carrier so i can have a spare for the trail ride. a couple months afterwards i bought a matching pro comp front bumper and got rid of my tube bumpers.

here i am in Gore, Va

and the new front bumper i bought

rear tire carrier

 

['92 vegas YJ]

after 3 yrs on the east coast i begged and pleaded and got stationed in San Diego. once getting out here everthing pretty much went down hill.

within my first month here i bought a welder and started fabbing some stuff up.

my first project was my rock sliders

i wheeled a little around SD and back home in vegas some more then came another deployment.

while on deployment i ordered a couple parts and went right to work installing them when i returned Dec 2010.

installed a Warn m8000 winch

 

['92 vegas YJ]

a SOLID d30 diff cover

and a SPARTAN locker. this was a great upgrade

first wheeling trip after deployment and some new parts was to Corral Canyon. trail was pretty fun. this was the most rock crawling i had done to date

 

['92 vegas YJ]

my next trip was about 2 weeks later on new yrs day 2011 out to Johnson Valley with Chris

one of Chris

 

['92 vegas YJ]

my next big project i wanted to do was some tube fenders.

i went out and bought all of the material locally and started tearing into me Heep.

i was pretty content with the way they came out. i ended up finishing them the day before i headed out to JV for King Of The Hammers.

i stayed in Joe Dillards camper with him and we spent the night hanging out and drinking with some of his friends.

you might have heard of them before.... Larry and Wendy Nickel? John Herrick?

i also met some really great guys in the business. i met Brad Barnes from Barnes4wd and showed him my jeep. he commented how he really liked my fenders and i had some skill.

 

['92 vegas YJ]

i had an AA SYE sitting in my garage and figured it was time to install.

i dont have any pics of the install but i do have some of the DS we made.

it is a shorted XJ shaft sleeved with .250"wall Chromolly

i installed some front Bilsteins i got off a local friend and headed out to vegas. i did a local trail out there and acquired some damage.

i put a hole in my oil pan and bent the crap out of my Drag link.....

so my next projects. OIL PAN SKID and beefier drag link

 

['92 vegas YJ]

start of a skid

 

['92 vegas YJ]

steering. this is 1 1/2" .250" DOM with weld in bungs with TRE's

the next thing i can think of that i did was finally cut down my procomp bumper and make it a stubby

 

['92 vegas YJ]

dont mind the booger welds, this was just a quick flux core job. welded inside and out so i didnt care how it looked. plus i ground them down

 

['92 vegas YJ]

i did some little things along the way. i converted my A/C to OBA. great mod for sure. i think i have used my AC a total of 2 or 3 times ever and it barely worked...

i went out wheeling as often as i could. i would go out balls to the wall everytime and for some reason would never break axle parts(fine by me).....


that is until my first trip out with some used 35s i picked up off a JF member. i had an 8.8 waiting in my garage so i wasnt worried about my D35. if it broke i was ready. fortunately i could not get that thing to break.

i did end up breaking a d30 ujoint and the stubears off of the shaft


this

led to this

because of this....

at this time i replaced my broken shaft and decided to upgrade to TJ shafts. so out came the 2 piece shafts and small ujoints. (no pics)





by now i had pretty much everything i needed gathered up for my 8.8 swap so i put my jeep under the knife.

i re-used the factory 8.8 spring perches and went SOA. i used stock YJ rear springs and some 1/2" boomerang shackles. i used barnes4wd traction bar mounts and made my own traction bar. i am also running 10" doetsch tech rear shocks

d35 out(sold for $150)

 

['92 vegas YJ]

8.8 ready to go in

8.8 rear SOA stock springs 1/2" shackles rear with 4" procomp SUA 7/8" shackles front

traction bar made of 1 1/2" .250 DOM. i used ruff stuff poly bushings on the axle end and a 3/4" hiem on the frame end.

installed

 

['92 vegas YJ]

i drove it SOA rear SUA front for about a month then decided to tackled the front.

i am using sniper fab offset perches for the front SOA. i also bought Joe Dillards old M.O.R.E. hi-steer setup because he went D60.

i decided to build a new drag link so once again i pulled out some 1 1/2" .250 DOM. i am also using 5/8" ruffstuff hiems.

new drag link

for the tie rod i decided to still use the MORE one but sleeve it to make it almost 1/2" wall thickness. also running 5/8" ruffstuff hiems.

you can see the sleeve here with all the steering installed.

 

['92 vegas YJ]

i used stock leafs again for the front with 1/2" boomerang shackles.

here it is on my shakedown drive right after i aligned it in my driveway(white paint on tires)

it sat high in the front so i started making a bastard pack. right now im running front/ rear bastard. its stock YJ springs with 2nd leaf removed and replaced procomp 4" 2nd leaf. this has helped to keep the springs from sagging and inverting.

steering angles.

trip to big bear two weeks ago for a wounded warrior run

and thats where im currently at. im sure im forgetting some stuff but its ok.

i plan on playing with my springs a little more this weekend and i am starting to work on a cage.... will keep updated.

-chris

 

[Otahyoni]

Thats come a long way. Looks great!


When can you start work on my truck?

 

['92 vegas YJ]

well im about to move to North Carolina...... so whenever you bring it to the gay east coast.

 

[Otahyoni]

I'm in the midwest...

 

['92 vegas YJ]

went out to Corral Canyon yesterday and did some good wheeling.

didnt get many pics at all. suspension did good but seemed really "tippy" at times.

i think my flex is great though

 

[Chris]

That thing is looking sweet. I wish I had a little more time to get mine together but it will probably be sitting in my garage til after the 1st.

 

['92 vegas YJ]

thanks chris.

i cant wait to see yours when its finished. too bad ill be living in North Carolina

 

['92 vegas YJ]

NEXT PHASE:


this all started with a craigslist ad for a FREE rollcage. the guy bought the jeep and it had a ghetto home made cage in it so he pulled it and had a new one built by a shop.

he tried selling it on CL and said everytime someone came to look at it they just laughed and said "nevermind, i dont want it".

i then saw the ad for it listed as "FREE, just come get it out of my yard."
i figured id go take a look so i made the drive to Escondido.

to say this cage had bed welding would be an understatement. i dont even think they did any notching. just pieced some tube together and filled the giant gaps with weld. but for free you cant go wrong. worst case i have some free scrap tube now.

here it is when i picked it up

one of the "good" welds

after assessing it for a while i realized the only part i want is the bars that run from the B pillar across to the A and down. this was 1.75x.120 Tube

AGAIN you have to remember this was free. i am at no loss. i know i can have someone bend me that piece that follows the windshield line a little better but i would have to buy the tube then get it bent.

i decided that i will use the previously mentioned pieces and get some new 1.75x.120 DOM and make a trail cage from there. so thats what i did. i spent less than $100 on the rest of the DOM.

here is the down bars tacked in as well as a winshield spreader bar and a dash bar that i cut and notched

you san see by the B pillar where i cut the tube. i just cut it off the old B pillar about 10" back from the weld. next i took some of the DOM i bought and nothced it correctly and internally sleeved them with .250 wall and welded it all around and did 8 rosette/plug welds per side. i dont know if im gonna get flack for this but i feel it is plenty strong.