1 Ton YJ Crawler build

[ryan]

How it started

 

[ryan]

How it's going

 

[ryan]

This is the most amount of damage i've done to a vehicle in the shortest amount of time. First trail of the day...

 

[ryan]

Got my strut removed and off to Jensen Brothers for a rebuild. A little sketchy but it worked out in the end

 

[ryan]

And the new oil pan is in. The little blue clips that you get from felpro are the best thing since sliced bread

 

[Curious Hound]

Little blue clips? Or little blue pills? I'm so confused.

 

[ryan]

Little blue clips? Or little blue pills? I'm so confused.

The gasket tools - they hold the gasket and the pan on while you're putting all the bolts in. no more needing 10 hands

 

[Curious Hound]

The gasket tools - they hold the gasket and the pan on while you're putting all the bolts in. no more needing 10 hands

View attachment 112867

Never saw those before. Cool

 

[ryan]

Never saw those before. Cool

I hadn't either and it was almost as good as touching a boob for the first time

 

[ryan]

Getting ready for the spring. Went out the last time late Nov, pumped out the fuel and threw it on jackstands for the winter.

I have my first trip planned in May, with probably a spring shakedown in April so I had to start getting the YJ ready for the season.

Here's what I need to get done before I can get out:

• Working on rust repair and paint for my wheels. Two done so far with paint and beadlock hardware.
• Refill the Atlas - my underdrive unit for low low has a small leak on the seal and I have zero desire to take it apart
• Found a small hole in a tire, going to plug it and glue the flap of torn sidewall back. Planning for tires/wheels in Jan 2026, though I'm terrified for tariffs - stickies are already brutally expensive and I do NOT want to pay $1200 a tire

The 4.0 has over 200k miles on it, and I'm starting to plan for a v8 swap for next winter. Getting my spreadsheet going for parts/guides/tips and have my eyes open for a deal on a 4.8 or 5.3 to swap

 

[ryan]

Wheels went from this:

To this:

 

[ryan]

Probably going to cut off my windshield horns on the cage too. I have clips for the cage that I can attach a lexan windshield if I end up deciding I *need* to have something

 

[ryan]

These things are massive tree catchers

 

[ryan]

I did finally get an oil pan skid in that worked well enough, forget where it was from but I love these from Rock hard to keep the bolt heads protected

 

[ryan]

Splurged a bit with Jensen Bros when they rebuilt my strut - I ordered a level it from them. It's essentially a pneumatic sway bar and provides stability without the rigidity of a traditional sway bar. My suspension has a lot of anti-squat and got a little nervy on side hills. This helped a lot to stiffen one side in these situations