Off Camber YJ Build

XJfreakHO

Triad Trail Junkies
Joined
Aug 26, 2008
Location
Greensboro/Clemmons
Finally picked up a YJ a while back. I've been wanting to build a 1 ton YJ for years but the stars never aligned until recently. It had a lot of good parts but the axles and suspension just didn't suit the plans I had so I dropped it off with my buddy Nate @ Off Camber Design and Fabrication to do the tear down and upgrades. Nate has worked on a lot of rigs among our group of friends but hasn't got the credit he deserves and I felt a build thread was long overdue.

Started with a tbi 350, th350 trans, and stak 2 speed tcase. Front leaf springs (haggard as hell, in the words of Nate, whoever did the welding should be taken out back and dealt with) and a rear 4 link set up that needs some adjustments made. Vehicle is way too tall and needs dropped down significantly. Axles were a 10 bolt and 60 with arbs which I am replacing with Chevy Dana 60 Front 4.56 gears welded spiders, nitro shafts, xcaliber joints, and nitro drive flanges.
14 bolt Rear 4.56 gears, detroit, disc conversion, barnes truss, 4 link, air shocks.
Replacing the current haggard leaf spring set up with XJ Bastard packs. Gonna run an astro van box with hydro assist. Will be beefing up the cage and lots of other changes that haven't been set in stone yet.


Here goes nothing. Project "Bout Frickin Time" is officially underway
This is what the jeep looked like when I dropped it off. Planning to have it fine tuned and ready to roll for the Dixie Run this year, but will be on the trails shaking it down long before (If I can get my shit together and make decisions on parts/seats/etc...)
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Picked up a set of 42x15x15 tsl sxii for a deal on 15x10 bart steelies with 2.75 backspacing. Gonna order weld on beadlocks but these should be a nice addition.

Nate has made some progress but Ill save those pictures for another day with more/better pictures to post.
 
Merciless is the word we're looking for here.
 
42s woof. Glad you are polishing up that dana 60!

@XJsavage and you need to rethink your board names :flipoff2:

Chromos and excaliber joints. Gonna do some bracing and such aswell. With my grandpa putt putt driving style it should be fine... Atleast until I start throwing go fast parts at the 350. Its pretty weak right now.
 
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I suck at pictures. Work on this has been slower than I had hoped. This heat makes it pretty miserable.
Fedex finally brought these baby's tho...
 
I suck at taking pictures... but lots has happened since I last posted.
Rear links are done, WB is set at 108.5" for now. Will stretch and link the front eventually and end up around 115"
Dropping the rear shaft at Olivers in the morning to get retubed. Then taking the 42's to be dismounted so we can get the TMI Beadlocks welded on over the weekend.
Lots still left to do, will definitely be pushing to get it ready for a Shake down at the Flats Labor Day weekend.

Here she is at Ride Height last weekend. @71chevytruckguy made it movable so he could use the lift lol... Nate has since cut out the rear section of frame, and is redoing it.
Flares still gotta go. Long list of little things. I ripped the seats out and we played with the suspension seats and getting them mounted(if anyone is looking for a cheap set of YJ Seats lemme know, aftermarket, not bad shape
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Had to get the strippers... If they get in the way eventually ill remove them but for now they dance.
 
Ignore the leaf spring hangar on the rear frame/bumper. Its temporary lol.
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Nate re did the front suspension and pushed it forward again. Wheelbase is sitting at roughly 115" now.
Nate is working on cage work and seat mounts tonight so here's a few pics.

The jeep deserves a more involved build thread but my work schedule and Nate not being on the computer much make it tough.

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did you narrow the rear frame? impressive you didnt have to notch the frame or cut into tub to fit those air shox. are those 14" ? lookin good.
 
did you narrow the rear frame? impressive you didnt have to notch the frame or cut into tub to fit those air shox. are those 14" ? lookin good.

16" air shocks. After redoing the front suspension we will have to lower it some and probably cut into the fender wells and redo the shock hoops...
Nate is a hell of a fabricator but I don't believe the frame is narrowed at all. He just redid the entire rear half of the frame lol
 
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Picked it up last night. Needs lots of paint and little stuff...
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Then gotta go back to Nates after his vacation to redo the rear shock mounts (lowered the front suspension gotta fix the rear to match) and build new rocker protection
 
Had to do it man... Super pain in the ass in every way though.
 
Went to Uwharrie yesterday and did a Shake down run. As you can probably see in the picture there is a pretty significant rake. Which will be fixed and the vehicle leveled out when Nate redoes the shock mounts.
Ran every trail with zero issues as is to be expected... Crawled the "hard" lines on Daniel with barely any throttle. Super happy with it.
Got a good list of things to do but she will definitely be ready to roll for Dixie Run

No action shots because the I rode in the front and I don't take pictures lol

Big thanks to everyone involved.
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Stak did good. Did pop out of gear randomly a few times while trail riding, not really while doing any crawling mostly when i smacked the gas and took off, but nothing I am too concerned about yet. Probably rig up a fix eventually.
Still not 100% sure which ratio it is, there are 3 options... I am going with the 4.55:1 probably. I need to upgrade the master because my brakes dont push enough fluid to hold it in 4 low lol

Yeah I have a first aid kit and I am gonna grab an extinguisher before dixie run. My old one got used at a camp fire recently lol
 
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