1994 Jeep YJ - The YardJeep

[CyberSniper]

I think I've decided to yank the middle leaf out of the pack.

I have bought a lot of Bestop stuff lately, all of which I got for 10%+ off MAP but that still felt high once it started trickling in via Brown Santa:
Replacement soft top rail for the windshield.
Replacement tailgate bar
92-95 seat covers
92-95 full length Bikini top
Trail cover
Trailmax II Pro seats
Tuffy 6.5" center console

The only items that aren't pieces of shit for what you pay are the rail for the windshield and the tailgate bar.
The seat covers look like horse shit and the ribbing is melted plastic that wasn't done by the little Chinese kids correctly.
The Bikini top the straps are too short and its overall length is too short.
The trail cover is worth about half what I paid for it. It is a solid "OK".

The Trailmax II Pro seats are actually just Cheap Malaysian Shit (APM Global) found here:

https://www.apm.com.my/images/Jeep-Seat-Brochure-A4.pdf

The Trailmax IIPro seats are OK, but they aren't designed for anything that already has a seat rail that is inclined. The front of the seat is way too high. I got a decent deal on them ($300/each delivered for two-tone). I'd be happy with them for the price if they were designed for the rails. I'm pretty sure these are just pontoon boat captains chairs with different weld nuts on the seat base.

The Tuffy 6.5" center console is a solid meh. I can't believe no one makes the skinny console as a knockoff. Definitely not worth the $300 I paid for it.

 

[CyberSniper]

My original seats are the highbacks found on 92-95 YJ. They are very similar to the 97-02 TJ seats. Mine are OK, but sun faded and super jaded. I bought the Bestop seat covers for them because I thought they'd fit nice. They fit like shit. The seat cushion I can tighten up with hog rings but why bother when the seat back fits like shit? They're so loose that if I did glue velcro to them like factory seat covers... they'd still look like shit. If you look at them close, you can see the lines in the cover are simply melt lines and there are fuzzies in them. Probably pieces of the souls from the little Chinese kids that made them.



So, because I like to spend money and couldn't find any suitable comfortable lever-seat-back-adjustable seats that weren't suspension seats... I bought Bestop Trailmax II Pros. Plenty of other places sell similar, but I bought Bestop because the rumor is that if you **** them up they just send you a new one. It's like a $100 seat with a upmodel cover on it.



It's not that apparent, but the Trailmax II Pros suffer the same fate as most other aftermarket seats... they're not designed to go on tracks that aren't flat. So the front of the cushion is super high. I'm not a midget by any means at 5'10", but my legs barely touch the floor so I felt like a child. Eyeball height is identical between the two seats (yes, I measured) because as a person with a long torso having to lean forward to see a traffic light sucks ass..



So the Smittybilt cargo restrain net thing is actually pretty awesome. I wish the buckle that is under the seatbelt went the other way as the seatbelt drags on the buckle and the seatbelt retractor struggles against it. The Bestop bikini top is solid mediocre. You can see where I added a strap in gray because all of the straps were marginal in length and no matter how I routed this one it was about 3/4" short of threading let alone stretching.

 

[Chickntrk]

Would that strap fit if you didn't have a sound bar and roll bar padding?

 

[CyberSniper]

I have procured the stuff to rebuild the spare NP231. AlloyUSA had a MAP holiday on parts so I bought a chain, a pump, a wide bearing kit, and a seal kit from them. The bearings are Chinese NACHI. The seals are OK. I bought separate front output SKF bearings as I didn't want Chinese bearings and it turns out that was the only iffy bearing... and of course the SKF are Chinese. The pump has no identifying anything on it, so I'm a little nervous about doing anything with it. It came with a nice Morse chain for half the price of a Morse chain. All of this was $140.

I have the SYE from PORC from a million years ago (2006) as discussed before and looked at it... seems fine.

Since I need a shift mode plate that disconnects the front and rear outputs in neutral (I want to flat tow this) and didn't have one and couldn't find a TJ one anywhere, let alone a TJ case for less than $200... I horse traded for a Teraflex 2low kit. Cost me about $285.

I need a CV front output so I got one for a 97-99 TJ from India via Crown for $50. It has the seal shield on it which is why I wanted it. I bought a stock Chinese CV front shaft for a TJ for like $150 a couple months ago.

I ordered a 1310 CV rear shaft from Adam's via Northridge4x4. Supposed to show up today. I think it was $355 all said and done.

I ordered a flush mount shift lever, cable, boot, Teralow pattern knob, and 5 speed pattern knob from JB Custom Fabrication for $355.

I probably should have just bought an Atlas.

 

[CyberSniper]

Would that strap fit if you didn't have a sound bar and roll bar padding?

I tried, since all of the padding ends there it's easy to go right to metal. If you do that, you get 3/4" of engagement which isn't enough to pull it tight to stretch it without pliers because I can't get my sausage fingers in past the padding to pull on it. I think they just took the design for those without the "family cage" of the 92-95 YJ and made it longer. I don't think they checked to see if it fit and I suspect the Chinese said they could save them a buck by making the straps shorter. All of the YJ-specific items I bought direct from Bestop are 5+ years old per the packaging. The Smittbilt cargo net straps are a solid 8" longer than necessary.

 

[Chickntrk]

I was just curious, I ran into trouble with the fat roll bar padding on my 05 with a bikini top, seems like they only make them to go around a bare roll bar. I believe besttop has suffered the same fate as a lot of aftermarket parts companies, sold out and now make junk but try to ride it out based on their good name from long ago. Poison Spyder is the same way and I fear Holley is headed that way...

 

[fourwheelerjeff]

I bought some Mastercraft Nomad seats for my YJ. I had bought a bunch of Corbeau seat savers when I bought some Corbeau seats and cover them. I liked the Nomads, pretty comfortable. mounted right on the YJ bases.

 

[CyberSniper]

Both my wife and I like to sit disturbingly upright. Like in the pictures above is about maximum I'd ever recline it. Well, she doesn't like to be that straight upright, but her tailbone is AFU so she has to. Most of the fixed seats lean way too far back for me. There are a lot of options for $1k+ seats that fit the bill, but I was trying not to spend that much. I'm well above $8k into this damn YJ.

 

[Chickntrk]

I put a set of Besttop seats in a YJ in 2003-2004ish and I recall them leaning way back (for me anyway) like the ones above. Ive always found the seats in YJs to be very oddly placed, glad they changed that in the TJs

 

[CyberSniper]

So, work has been kicking my ass plus I think I'm mowing lawn every third day... and we've had scheduled events every weekend day except this coming weekend. So not much progress.

I've specifically been avoiding pulling up the carpet because I was afraid I'd find more work than I already knew I'd have to do. I wasn't wrong.

I decided to pull up the front carpet because I wanted to pull the seat bases out to shorten them for the Bestop Seats that are way too fawkin' high in the front.

I found the metal on the outside rear mount point to be work hardened/fatigued/cracked. What do you guys suggest? The bottom side is not something I can add metal to. Clean it, weld it, call it good? Or try to add sheetmetal on top to spread the weight? I'd have to do it everywhere as the seat bases follow the floor (constant contact front to rear).

 

[CyberSniper]

Today I pulled out the old NP231 and put in the new one (SYE, switch to CV front, Teraflex 2-low kit). I shaved the new case as much as possible because I'm trying to stuff it up in the body. I massaged the body as much as I can without cutting.



I settled on using Valvoline Synchromesh to flush the transmission before I put Red Line 75w90ns in it. I found plenty of brass in the oil.

 

[CyberSniper]

Took some vacation this week and did some stuff.

Found out now that I can drive it without the driveshaft vibrating like crazy that the clutch is slipping. I'm going to hope that it's just a mouse nest causing issues.

 

[CyberSniper]

So, it appears I'm not going to be able to get the mouse nest out of the clutch. I ordered a new Luk clutch and flywheel. Also ordered a bunch of exhaust parts (cheap resonator, Quietflow SS muffler, TJ downpipe, YJ tailpipe). I really wanted to get rid of the tractor sound of the Jeep and make it quiet so that is my consolation prize. TJ exhaust will move the pipe so it's not hanging below the frame when it goes under the transmission.

Kind of irritated I have to pull out all the shit I just put in. I also ordered another TJ front driveshaft (one with a 4.0/manual, so it's supposed to be 40" long instead of 38.5"). Will give my new old TJ front driveshaft to my parents as theirs needs a CV rebuild.

Right front tire rubs on the leaf spring with 1.25" adapters. I ordered a pair of 1.5" adapters to see if that is enough to keep the tire out of the spring as hard. I really want to keep it narrow. Right now it drives really nice with the tires pulled over the balljoints.

 

[CyberSniper]

The new TJ driveshaft that was supposed to be 1.5" longer just had an extra 3/4" of slip in the shaft. It's still close to the limit on the YardJeep but I'll run it. I bitched to the reseller but they did nothing.

Luk clutch seems fine, but boy is it tiny.

Took a while to modify the exhaust from a TJ to fit... it still hangs below the frame but only a tiny bit. Way better than YJ exhaust.

It runs, but I need different shims I guess. The 8 degree ones I bought aren't enough... anyone make quality 10 degree shims for 5/16" pins besides Tom Woods? Shakes something fierce.

 

[CyberSniper]

I ended up buying the Tom Woods 10 and 12 degree shims. I also tried Iron Rock Offroad 8 degree shims, which came with play-doh center pins that nearly killed me.

The Tom Woods 12 degree shims and quality grade 9 center pins worked well. Since the Iron Rock Offroad pins let loose after I removed the C-clamps, thereby shitting leafs at me, I removed the bottom leaf from the spring pack. Rides much nicer now, did not decrease static ride height though. The driveline vibration is mostly gone, I think I have a tiny little bit from the front now. Can now hear how angry the little AX5 is about life.

 

[CyberSniper]

Picking up a used early AX15 and NP231 to replace the AX5. The early AX15 has the tiny pilot bearing (15mm vs later 19mm) to match the AX5... but a hydraulic throwout bearing. Goal is to use it with the Advance Adapters kit (712563):

AX15 TO JEEP 4CYL B/H EXTERNA

buy AX15 TO JEEP 4CYL B/H EXTERNA online

www.advanceadapters.com

to use my existing AX5 external slave bellhousing. There is a 1996-98 Dakota 2.5L to AX15 bellhousing that would work, but I can't find one cheaper than buying the Advance Adapters kit.

Ordered a new gas gauge (confirmed bad, it will only move when warm) and a new volt meter. I'll probably end up swapping faces to get them to match as I think the new ones are Chinesium from Omix Ada and the old ones are from Japan.

Been working on getting the air finished up. Turned the front crossmember into the air tank to save some space.

I got a lot of wiring to do and things have changed a lot since about 5 years ago I did a lot of vehicle wiring. The solid state relay stuff looks like it is serviceable. I got some regular switches for the front locker, rear locker, and air compressor for now. For an American company, they sure do look like shit.

 

[CyberSniper]

Been doing cleanup on it, fixing old shit that has been broke forever like the gauges and whatnot. Finished up the complete tuneup.

Had a problem with the water separator on the air compressor so it has been eliminated. Which meant I had to find a decent one-way valve... which was a chore.

On the 3rd transmission flush, shifts fine now but is still noisy. Starts "squeaking" when hot now.

Been chasing other squeaks and rattles also. I'm up to 42 miles on it since I brought it home in February. It's starting to ride less rough, I think pulling that bottom leaf out of the rear springs really helped.

Going to start making a front bumper soon. Probably going to end up with a mid-width one.

Got the second Chinesium new front fender. Do I modify them (narrow them like my mud truck) or keep them stock and run TJ flares? I'm torn on this. I'd rather narrow it, but this is supposed to be a driver/putzing vehicle and less serious.

I found a set of 35" Boggers I was thinking about picking up for shits and giggles. haha. I think I heard the motor belch and then vomit out "no-ugh".

With that in mind, none of the tires rub except the front leaf springs at the back. It never gets close to hitting the bump stops and it never runs out of shock length. If I put 35" Boggers on it, it will rub the top of the front fender.

It flexes like a dump truck. As soon as I got out of it the driver rear lifted like in the picture. It walked right up it on the IAC valve though. Probably won't do that once I add the weight of the bumper and winch.

 

[CyberSniper]

So I finally finished building the front bumper and winch mount. It didn't turn out like I wanted, but it's close enough. The bolts on the sides go through with sleeves to the inside with nuts I welded to plates. The front bumper is probably the most structural part on the Jeep now. I have a couple holes on the bottom for back-mounted rock lights to light the ground.

I painted the bumper Cerakote Tungsten and the 8274 winch plate is painted Cerakote Armor Black.

I don't think I'm going to put an 8274 on it anymore so I feel like I wasted a lot of time making a plate to fit perfectly with the winch mounted as far back as possible. Current plan is to put a EVO VR 10 on it with the Albright contactor remote mounted under the hood to try to move some of the weight backwards. I need to make a mount for the contactor and a remote disconnect solenoid. Tomorrow some color-coded 1/0 and 2/0 wire show up.

I've mostly been piddling around on little stuff with it and trying to get the transmission shifting smooth. All new seatbelts and risers in the front. The transmission was shifting perfectly after 4 flushes and then some Redline in it... then I took it for a high speed trip and I'm pretty sure the input bearing is toast. So now I'm contemplating what to do next. If I could find an affordable Dakota 2.5L AX15 bellhousing I'd just do a trans swap.

I've tried to pick up 3 sets of AX15/NP231 and the people sold them while I was driving to pick them up. People are shitbags.

 

[Chickntrk]

AA makes a kit for that, Dakota bells are like hens teeth.

 

[CyberSniper]

AA makes a kit for that, Dakota bells are like hens teeth.

Yeah, it's this one:

1994 Jeep YJ - The YardJeep

I think I've decided to yank the middle leaf out of the pack. I have bought a lot of Bestop stuff lately, all of which I got for 10%+ off MAP but that still felt high once it started trickling in via Brown Santa: Replacement soft top rail for the windshield. Replacement tailgate bar 92-95 seat...

ck5.com

The problem is I already have everything except their adapter (or a Dakota bellhousing) and their pilot bushing.