The Green Jeep - 94 YJ Sahara

StretchASU

StretchASU

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2006
Location
Creedmoor, NC/Claudville, VA
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Black Friday shopping in 2022 got a little out of hand when @Van-go listed this thing. He had sent the D300 right to hell and I had an Atlas behind a project I wasn’t making much headway on. Since picking it up it’s just been easier to designate the green Jeep (YJ) vs the gold Jeep (TJ).

The bones were there. Low mileage 4.0, a whole lotta Alabama fab from the late 2000’s most likely. Chevy tons, 42’s. Links in the back with what looks like stock TJ springs, leaf’s in the front. Full hydro with a mix of PSC and TSC.

While waiting for the correct input for the Atlas, I started by ripping out the dash pad and lowering the tube for better visibility.
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Once the parts came in for the transfer case, I pulled the D300 that had left the chat and got to work.
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In typical D300 fashion it looks like the gears pushed apart under load, split the case and got a case of summer teeth.

Swapped inputs, cut some more of the floor, weaseled the Atlas into place which was interesting given the location of all of the rear suspension mounts.
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I used the TMR ring I had laying around to mount the case. This was a giant fail in the long run. It works great in a super stiff tube chassis but a caged frame rig is less than ideal. It would slowly walk off the back of the case and eventually stretched the bolts to the point where they were seized in the mount. I attribute it to chassis flex. I could drive it around all day without issue. A few good rock trails and it wouldn’t begin moving.
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This eventually got changed to a stock style mount and has been fine since.

To make all day trail rides more comfortable I threw in a Rugged Radios headset and intercom. Dumb redneck tested, wife approved.
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First trip to the ranch was successful. Minimal wrenching. Had to mess with that case mount once, top off some fluids but overall an uneventful trip. It got a good wash, bolt check, replaced a rear link bushing and was ready for another ride.
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Went back to the ranch for a buddy’s bachelor party and managed to completely nuke the tcase mount as the bolts stretched and snapped off. I caught It before it completely failed, hung the case up with a ratchet strap from the cage to get by and not tear anything else up.
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Got the case mount “fixed”, Went to gulches, messed with it some more. Got it pretty well set and continued on wheelin.
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On this trip it was pretty warm without a lot of air moving on the trails. The Jeep kept acting like it was Vapor locking. Got home, tore into it and found some fuel lines going bad, cracking etc and the pickup tube in the cell was collapsing when the pump was on. Easy fixes. Replaced some lines, made a new pickup with a tee in the bottom so it reaches both sides of the cell and got it back running just fine.

The best part about that project was the Jeep never had working gauges since I picked it up. Chasing down some fuses to make sure my running issues weren’t relay or fuse related, I found one blown fuse that…guess…controls the whole dash 🤣.

Brings us to now. I started to get pictures like this.
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So I ordered some as well as a set of these:
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Finally got some shop time and got the shafts and superjoints installed today as well as repacking the wheel bearings. The tires should be here this week.

Sometime this winter the plan is to rip out the poop pipe cage and make a new cage, dash, console etc. Other than that, just wheel and fix as needed.
 
Jody Treadway said:
Wheeling with you completes me
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Just a couple full body fellers in full body rigs trying to do buggy stuff.

jeepin' jen said:
Did you finally cave & get cheater tires!? Damn peer pressure 🙄 You're one of the only ones that can actually drive, the rest of us just give it hell & hope for the best 🤣
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I did cave. And you give me too much credit, it’s usually the vitamins that keep me more mellow. The drive by Braille power shifts still happen.
 
StretchASU said:
Does that mean we should have our wages garnished by Goodyear for milking every bit of tread out of those slickie MTR’s?
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Shoot probably. If they’d make those tires again I’d buy a set tho…
 
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