Laredo Build (I Know It's Not an RBV But I Know A Few People Are Going To Follow

[LittleBigFoot]

Here is the newest of the toys, a 92 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. I paid $300 for it. Biggest problem is a totally fawked tranny.

Forgive me posting it in the RBV Build section. I'm using the axles I was going to swap into the Ranger, and I figured there might be some helpfull information. I'm still a Ranger guy through and through. And this will not be the end of my Ranger build.

Here's the only shot I got, forgive the cell phone pic, the digital is toast.

By the way, I have no intention of keeping it street legal

Here are the plans:

Front axle/suspension:
HP Dana44 from a 79 Bronco
5.13:1 R&P
Lunch Box Locker of some sort
33ish (depending on where you measure from) Bronco Radius arms
3" Bronco Rad. Arm drop brackets
8" lift coils

The Bronco arms would meet the brackets just in front of the stock tranny Xmember. I'm planning on ditching the stock cherokee control arms, and hacking off the current bracketry. I have a set of TNT uni-body frame stiffeners on the way. After they're welded on, I'll fab a new bolt on Xmember to run the rad. arm drop brackets.

The unibody "chassis" is 38" wide. I can adjust the rad. arm C clamps to make up for the difference. They were set up for 31" across the chassis. I'll use stock XJ coil buckets and a modifyed set of lower spring pads. Then I'll be heading to the junk yard for drive shaft candidates to be modded by a local shop. The brakes use the standard banjo fittings, so I'll pick up a set of 7/8" lift lines. The Dana44 has already been gone over, and is now awaiting paint, gears, and locker.



Rear Axle/Suspension:
Ford 9" from 79 Bronco
5:13:1 R&P
Full Spool
Modified 3 Link w/ Coils
8" lift coils

The Grand Cherokee Laredo (I think it's classifyyed as a ZJ) has a coil sprung rear suspension. I haven't done much thought on this yet. I will be keeping it coil sprung, but I have no clue what I want to run. I'm open to suggestion


Body:
Black paint job, bedlined plastic shitty rocker pannels
Tube sliders (I guess that counts as body now doesn't it?)
Chop top w/ soft top
Front tube stinger bumber with winch
Heavy duty rear bumper of some sort

Interrior:
All pannels, floor, dash, everything done in spray on bed liner
Possibly mustang seats, I'll have to see what's on craigs list lo

Wheel/Tire combo:
35x15.5r15 TSLs on 15x12 rock crawler black steelys

Engine mods:
The engine is a freshly dropped in 4.0l straight 6. The only big mod it will receive is a snorkle.

Tansmission/t-case:
No clue yet, but that will need to be addressed quickly!


By next time:
Dana30 pulled
Dana44 mocked up
Rear figured the hell out

 

[bigboy273]

Keep us posted i have a fellin this thing is gonna be bad

-Cody

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Right on, my girfriend had a 94 that I lifted 4" on ran it on some 31's

The tranny went in hers aswell, that was a $1500 bill to get rebuilt.

 

[LittleBigFoot]

Keep us posted i have a fellin this thing is gonna be bad

-Cody

We'll see about that. If it's a totall fawkup then who cares? I can send the XJ to the shredder and make back more then what I've got into it (at this point)

It's not a DD and will be trailered to trails, so I'm not going to be putting innocent people at risk going down the road at 60.

The 44/9" is a pretty common swap. Over on NAXJA there are a few people going about it. My method only differs at the radius arms.

The long arm lift kits run close to two grand, and I happen to have arms a little under a yard. They're pretty close to the bolt on kit's length (for a TJ at least). The brackets have to be moved with the bolt on kits anyways.

The other option most people use for a HP Dana44 swap on an XJ is a custom built axle truss that has everything built on. TNTcustoms sells this for 150 bucks, and you weld it on. Shitty thing about this is once its welded, you can't adjust caster or camber, or even pinion angles. It's set. The coil pads bolt to the rad. arm C clamps, so everything can be adjusted w/ different amounts of lift etc.


The only real difference between my build and the kit is the fact i'm using bronc. arms instead of a upper and lower arm. Plus, after parting and scrapping the bronco, I made my money back on the axles. The 44/9, buckets, arms, drive shafts, power steering box, and a good set of 33x12.5s on stock rims were FREE.

We'll see how this goes.


So far I've only got 300 bucks invested in this project.




And for all you non believers or chassis biased wheelers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPzvAC4UbrM

 

[compleckz]

awesome, im big into the unibody jeeps..

BTW grand cherokees are ZJ's, regular cherokees are XJ's! my buddy had/has a ZJ we put a 6.5" rustys lift, he has ~33" boggers (advertised as 34's), and he had to chop some of the front bumper plastic to prevent rubbing, and the rear there isnt much chopping room, theres about an inch before the rear doors, he really chewed up the tires, even with the swaybars on..

my girl has a stock xj, we've got a 2" lift for it, but have yet to put it in.

 

[LittleBigFoot]

awesome, im big into the unibody jeeps..

BTW grand cherokees are ZJ's, regular cherokees are XJ's! my buddy had/has a ZJ we put a 6.5" rustys lift, he has ~33" boggers (advertised as 34's), and he had to chop some of the front bumper plastic to prevent rubbing, and the rear there isnt much chopping room, theres about an inch before the rear doors, he really chewed up the tires, even with the swaybars on..

my girl has a stock xj, we've got a 2" lift for it, but have yet to put it in.

I was wondering about the names. 4wheelparts classifys it as a XJ (Laredo) but the rest of the world knows it as a ZJ. Thanks for clarifying that for me, compleckz

I'm still looking into springs and how much I want to lift, but I know I want to run my 35s that are currently on my Ranger. Because i'll be running full widths and a 15" wide tire on a 12" wide rim, I think I could be safe running 8" of lift. So far I've just seen some shitty bebay 7" lift coil, and a 1" spacer possibly. Maybe a 2" spacer because of added weight of a cage/winch/bumper

 

[compleckz]

4wheelparts classifys it as a XJ (Laredo)

thats weird, could cause some crazy confusion since zj's are coil fr/rr and xj's and coil fr/leaf rr

you definitely need at least 8" for 35s, most people run like 10.5 wide tires as the tires go 33"+, and they only have 6" or so, but with fullwidth axles it'll prolly be a lot different.. i always find it funny, on jeeps everyone is trying to bumpstops to reduce flex (and tire rubbage from stuffage), and on the ttb lots of people barely get enough. i know the skyjacker shocks that came with my 6" lift, are the same recommended for an XJ 0-1" lift.. kinda funny!

will be following this closely.. good luck and get us pics!

 

[LittleBigFoot]

thats weird, could cause some crazy confusion since zj's are coil fr/rr and xj's and coil fr/leaf rr

you definitely need at least 8" for 35s, most people run like 10.5 wide tires as the tires go 33"+, and they only have 6" or so, but with fullwidth axles it'll prolly be a lot different.. i always find it funny, on jeeps everyone is trying to bumpstops to reduce flex (and tire rubbage from stuffage), and on the ttb lots of people barely get enough. i know the skyjacker shocks that came with my 6" lift, are the same recommended for an XJ 0-1" lift.. kinda funny!

will be following this closely.. good luck and get us pics!

Thanks bud, I'm glad some one will be following this. I'm pretty pumped. And I found a tranny from a 00 with low miles on it for 250. I'm checkin the bolt-up-ability but it might be the one.


Tomorrow the front comes out as long as it doesn't fawkin snow tonight!

 

[fordwheelinman]

There was a regular cherokee laredo in the early years, so that may be where the laredo xj on their website is coming from. Id trying search or zj kits/parts just to make sure you have what your acutally looking for.

 

[exbass94]

The trannys in the ZJs absolutely suck. Even the later ZJs. Heck my uncle has a 1998 ZJ (the last year for the ZJ) and he had his rebuilt at around 110k miles. Even the A4LD in my Explorer has 138k and still works perfectly! I believe that manuals were an option back then, but I think they're really rare.

 

[zainyD]]

Just a word to the wise. I wouldn't run a full spool unless this is going to be a full time trail rig. Spool+street driving=sucks.

 

[ryan]

i chopped the fenders off of mine at the last TRS event I went to in order to clear 31 LTBs

good times!

 

[LittleBigFoot]

I'll be towing the ZJ to the trails so street-ability isn't much of an issue. Thats why I'll be running a spool.

 

[LittleBigFoot]

End of Day One:
Dana30 and suspension out
Lots of beer consumed
Dana44 set in place
33s thrown on for looks so the neighborhood nazis don't bitch at my hillbilly ass.

Here's the elaborate dana30 and 4link:

And here's how she sits as of right now:

NOTE: This isn't the final lift height, my coils are in the mail. It's sitting on jack stands in the front and the axle is just sitting there.


TOMORROW:
Existing brackets grinded off
Addresss interrior
Remove front fawked fender
Ugly gray plastic pannels painted up with bedliner
More beer will be consumed

 

[PaleBlue90]

if u need a hand give me a holler i get out of class at 12:15. nicely done. we will be able to wheel again soon