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Here is the story of my 94 YJ so far. I have a more drawn out project thread in another site, but wanted to transplant it here for you all & myself to keep track of what I have done & what I am currently doing to my Jeep. It has become a reliable daily driver now, but wasn't always a reliable daily driver lol.
Here's the story from the beginning .......
About 8 years ago, I bought my Jeep from one of those "Buy Here / Pay Here" type places for $4,995.00 & she was a beauty. Black & Chrome with some favorable trimmings like the 4" suspension lift, mag rims, billet add-ons. She ran stout too, very healthy motor. I had always wanted a Jeep so I bought it, I had just enough to buy it free & clear.
We were like two peas in a pod, cruising around, just the two of us. I drove it to the rig & everywhere else. (Short explanation: "The rig" means I used to work on a drilling rig for a living)
Then after about 2 months, the transmission dropped into 2nd gear & jammed... I MEAN WOULD NOT COME THE [email protected]&! OUT OF 2nd gear......period.
So, I waited until I had enough money to get the AX-15 completely rebuilt with beefier parts & hardware, if I'm going to have something rebuilt, it never goes back stock, something is always upgraded. As I didn't have the time to reinstall the transmission due to a busy work schedule, I had to have a shop put it back in.
Ok, transmission is back in & better than new, we are back in action for a while ................ so I thought.
Two weeks later I am cruising around Loop 250 in Midland, TX & KERRRPLOWWW!!! My transfer case explodes all over this busy 4 lane roadway in front of the local mall. When I say exploded, I mean one driveshaft went one way, the other driveshaft went the other & pieces of the case itself were scattered across all four lanes. Talk about embarrassed & PISSED. Luckily, there was a local police officer (& Jeep owner) behind me who helped me get it to a secluded area of the mall parking lot.
Again, we wait until I can get a new NP231J transfer case for her, along with being taken to a shop that will make sure my DRIVESHAFT ISN'T TOO LONG along with making sure everything else lines up correctly when it goes back together. Eventually, a year or two later along with alot of $$$ & parts, she is back on the road & we are together again cruising in unison.
This time we go about a year & a half without any problems, dated my wife in it before we got married, etc...
Then...... The steering starts slowly acting up & all of the sudden I am dealing with "Death Wobble" as well. So here we go with all new front end gear, a major steering upgrade, & new hub assemblies. Now we're back in action again, so I thought............
This is about 2 years ago now....
I don't get to put 250 miles on it & the rear gears along with the rear wheel bearings are grinding & the front axle will not kick in when put into 4wd.
So I park it again
I save up again & get all of the parts gathered up for it, then take it back to the shop. Once they tear into it, I find out I have to replace the rear axle shafts as well, oh goody. But luckily I found a good set of hardened shafts for nearly the stock price for them to replace the old stock ones with. So, this time we replace both front & rear gears to 4:10 ratio along with a Detroit Tru-Lock limited slip rear diff & other little goodies like it.
I get the call that it is finished & rush up there to get it so we can go play in the dirt ....... so I thought
On the way home from the shop, haven't even made one stop anywhere, while slowing down at the stoplight, I encounter the worst "Death Wobble" I have ever seen in this thing. Well crap!!!!
So I limp this thing home again & discover that one of the braces to my rear left leaf springs has torn due to a crack that could not be seen before. So due to being transferred a couple times with work, etc... It's a while before I get it back to the shop.
Soooo.......... I get it to another shop & get the frame & mount issues fixed. Cool, we're good to go for some long deserved wheeling ....... So I thought
On my way back from the shop, the exhaust manifold presents the common crack that happens in the older 4.0 exhaust manifolds. Along side of this, the radiator stops up & the motor comes close to overheating. I shut the [email protected]&^ thing down & call a tow truck to take us back to the house.
My wife has a love/hate relationship with my Jeep & calls it my "Albatross" because I have sunk over $12,000.00 into the whole project & have only driven it maybe a total of a few thousand miles.
I keep telling her & everyone else, "Hey, I've replaced almost everything on it, why stop with minor details? By the time I'm finished, everything will be pretty much new, or better"
I wish I could find the pics of it from when I first bought it but have no idea what happened to them. It had stock tires on it & a worn out soft top when I first got it. Here are pics of it after I added the Bestop hard top & 35" BFG M/T's.
Here's the story from the beginning .......
About 8 years ago, I bought my Jeep from one of those "Buy Here / Pay Here" type places for $4,995.00 & she was a beauty. Black & Chrome with some favorable trimmings like the 4" suspension lift, mag rims, billet add-ons. She ran stout too, very healthy motor. I had always wanted a Jeep so I bought it, I had just enough to buy it free & clear.
We were like two peas in a pod, cruising around, just the two of us. I drove it to the rig & everywhere else. (Short explanation: "The rig" means I used to work on a drilling rig for a living)
Then after about 2 months, the transmission dropped into 2nd gear & jammed... I MEAN WOULD NOT COME THE [email protected]&! OUT OF 2nd gear......period.
So, I waited until I had enough money to get the AX-15 completely rebuilt with beefier parts & hardware, if I'm going to have something rebuilt, it never goes back stock, something is always upgraded. As I didn't have the time to reinstall the transmission due to a busy work schedule, I had to have a shop put it back in.
Ok, transmission is back in & better than new, we are back in action for a while ................ so I thought.
Two weeks later I am cruising around Loop 250 in Midland, TX & KERRRPLOWWW!!! My transfer case explodes all over this busy 4 lane roadway in front of the local mall. When I say exploded, I mean one driveshaft went one way, the other driveshaft went the other & pieces of the case itself were scattered across all four lanes. Talk about embarrassed & PISSED. Luckily, there was a local police officer (& Jeep owner) behind me who helped me get it to a secluded area of the mall parking lot.
Again, we wait until I can get a new NP231J transfer case for her, along with being taken to a shop that will make sure my DRIVESHAFT ISN'T TOO LONG along with making sure everything else lines up correctly when it goes back together. Eventually, a year or two later along with alot of $$$ & parts, she is back on the road & we are together again cruising in unison.

This time we go about a year & a half without any problems, dated my wife in it before we got married, etc...
Then...... The steering starts slowly acting up & all of the sudden I am dealing with "Death Wobble" as well. So here we go with all new front end gear, a major steering upgrade, & new hub assemblies. Now we're back in action again, so I thought............

This is about 2 years ago now....
I don't get to put 250 miles on it & the rear gears along with the rear wheel bearings are grinding & the front axle will not kick in when put into 4wd.
So I park it again

I save up again & get all of the parts gathered up for it, then take it back to the shop. Once they tear into it, I find out I have to replace the rear axle shafts as well, oh goody. But luckily I found a good set of hardened shafts for nearly the stock price for them to replace the old stock ones with. So, this time we replace both front & rear gears to 4:10 ratio along with a Detroit Tru-Lock limited slip rear diff & other little goodies like it.
I get the call that it is finished & rush up there to get it so we can go play in the dirt ....... so I thought

On the way home from the shop, haven't even made one stop anywhere, while slowing down at the stoplight, I encounter the worst "Death Wobble" I have ever seen in this thing. Well crap!!!!

Soooo.......... I get it to another shop & get the frame & mount issues fixed. Cool, we're good to go for some long deserved wheeling ....... So I thought

On my way back from the shop, the exhaust manifold presents the common crack that happens in the older 4.0 exhaust manifolds. Along side of this, the radiator stops up & the motor comes close to overheating. I shut the [email protected]&^ thing down & call a tow truck to take us back to the house.
My wife has a love/hate relationship with my Jeep & calls it my "Albatross" because I have sunk over $12,000.00 into the whole project & have only driven it maybe a total of a few thousand miles.
I keep telling her & everyone else, "Hey, I've replaced almost everything on it, why stop with minor details? By the time I'm finished, everything will be pretty much new, or better"
I wish I could find the pics of it from when I first bought it but have no idea what happened to them. It had stock tires on it & a worn out soft top when I first got it. Here are pics of it after I added the Bestop hard top & 35" BFG M/T's.


