motomaniac's 97GC build

motomaniac

Observer
Nice zj man. Looks good and nice to see more zjs bein built. For a belly skid i went w IRO and JCR Offroad stage 2 sliders. Both r sittin in my shop waitin to be installed. Feel free to check out my build page. Im def gonna track the progress of your zj.
I have been keeping an eye on your thread. Your grand is coming along nicely, all of these sweet rear storage setups are making me jealous.
 

xjman88

Adventurer
I have been keeping an eye on your thread. Your grand is coming along nicely, all of these sweet rear storage setups are making me jealous.

I should be adding more to my rear storage area within the next week. I need to find a storage for my awning and poles instead of just behind the seat. Ill post up when its finished.
 

motomaniac

Observer

I have seen that, and I can tell you that is a smaller battery. The side post battery terminals is a dead give away that its not a group 34. I think I'm going to go back to an optima red top and put it in that location. Its tough cause I just bought a new group 34 battery(over a hundred bucks!) to replace my dead optima.
 

motomaniac

Observer
So now that the jeep had some protection up front I decided it needed some for the rear, so I built a rear bumper/tire carrier. The main body of the bumper is 3x3 3/16 wall box tubing. The rest is 3/16 plate. 2x4 1/4 wall box was cut and slid into the unibody frame rails. two 5/8 bolts go up through the skid plate attaching it to the jeep. Plating the rear unibody rails is on the short list of things to do before I really start putting loads on the rear bumper but its holding up ok for now.
IMG_0044.jpg
IMG_0045.jpg

all tacked up on the jeep.
IMG_0047.jpg

Then on to the table for the slow process of welding it without warping it all out of shape. weld, cool, weld, cool, weld, cool and so on.
IMG_0051.jpg

and some testing of the new bumpers.
IMG_0241.jpg
IMG_0243.jpg
I don't have any good pics of the tire carrier I will have to get some.
 

motomaniac

Observer
So if you haven't noticed a trend I like to share pics of my outing's as well as the building stages of my rig. here are a few pictures from a exploring/camping trip in Lassen national forest in a area known as madrone. because of the quantity of madrone trees that grow in the area.
I am no botanist so i know nothing about madrone trees, just that they resemble manzanita just bigger and more tree like they are defnitly not a bush. The only picture I managed to take that had a madrone tree, and its not a good one, they can get very big. If you know what manzanita is you sould be able to spot the madrone.
IMG_1668.jpg
we camp in a very secluded area, and this poor guy that went with us refused to leave his crv behind and ride in with us. So the moral of this story is an awd crv is a pretty capable little vehicle. The trail was a moderate 2wd trail but I never would have expected to see a little Honda crossover out were we had setup camp. We had to pull him up the bank at this creek crossing (which was fairly deep as you can see), but that was the only time we had to give him a helping hand.
IMG_1707.jpg
IMG_1678.jpg
Veiw from my tent a nice green meadow nothing around for at least 20 miles in any direction. ahhh piece and quiet.
IMG_1700.jpg
 

Recce01

Adventurer
Your rear bumper looks great man! I like the added angles, makes it really fit the GC. Nice run pics as well!
 

motomaniac

Observer
Haven't been doing much to the jeep, but I thought I would post some pics of my three link front suspension. Its a very simple design similar to Clayton's except it's a three link instead of a radius arm. The cross member is 2x4 3/16" box, the plate between the outer's and center cross members are 1/4" plate with four 3/8 bolts per side, all link tabs are 1/4" plate. The lower arms are 2x2 1/4" box with 2.63 ballistic joints at the frame and oem clevit style bushings at the axle. The upper arm is 1.5x1.5 1/8 wall box with a 2.5 Currie Johnny Joint at the frame and a Rock Krawler Joint at the axle end.
100_0160.jpg
100_0157.jpg
DSC_0070.jpg

I was told by multiple people that I would have no up travel at 4" of lift due to the upper link hitting the floor. Seems like it has plenty of up travel to me.
IMG_1877.jpg

I will get some more pics tomorrow I seem to have lost a bunch of pictures of the building process.

When I did the front the rear got some love too. I had RE adjustable super ride lowers arms, they got some fresh bushings. I also picked up a set of RE super flex adjustable uppers from Overlandzj that had seen better days. He supplied me some new bushing. After I rebuilt the flex joint and gave them a generous amount of tlc they were good as new.
IMG_0948.jpg

This allowed me to push the rear axle back and dial in my pinion angle.
IMG_0952.jpg
 

xjman88

Adventurer
I like the 3 link. Ive installed a couple long arm kits in the past and its quite a pain. But looks awesome man. Im goin to be lookin for replacement f/r arms for mine soon. Ill be following yours and recce's builds. We zj guys need to represent and show what these fine rigs are capable of. My little brother had 2 built zjs and is a member on here. Goes by Black Zj.
 

Recce01

Adventurer
I like your suspension set up. I am considering pushing my axle back as well. Anything funny happen with the springs when you did this?
 

motomaniac

Observer
Been busy lately so not much progress has been made with the jeep I am just trying to drive and enjoy it. I took it out last weekend and realized that I am in need of longer shocks and brake lines, although it seems to flex pretty good for stock brake lines.
DSC_0289_zpsa92fea4e.jpg
That is all the travel my current shocks have
 
Last edited:

88Xj

Banned
Nice long arm setup on 4" looks great! I'm curious about a long arm setup on my jeep and I'm only at 3" roughly lol.
 

Recce01

Adventurer
What skid plate are you running on the gas tank? Did I miss that? Looking good man, enjoy that thing!! Have I mentioned how much I like your bumpers? I love the radius effect on the rear bumper. They fit the lines of the Jeep really well!
 

Forum statistics

Threads
185,527
Messages
2,875,534
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles

Members online

Top