1988 Jeep YJ Distraction

I saw a 1988 Jeep YJ on Facebook Marketplace up in North Austin, went and looked at it, and ended up buying it. The price was right!  The guy had the Jeep for a long time, and it had sat in his garage mostly disassembled for 15 years.  

Purchase:



As always, my young apprentice is ready to help!  He works cheap for Taco Bell and Whataburger! 


It came with a set of 15 year old Super Swampers with full tread.  Nothing that I will need, and I sold them already:


Last Registration in 2005!


It was interesting for a few reasons:

  1. There is no rust on it anywhere, which is very, very rare for a 1988 YJ.
  2. It came with a small block Chevy (SBC) 350 crate motor with 5k miles on it, and an Edlebrock intake manifold.
  3. The TH350 automatic transmission was rebuilt and had the adapter installed to mate to the stock NP231J transfer case.  
  4. The NP231J already had an SYE already installed.
  5. It already had an 8.8 rear axle installed.  
  6. It came with 2 extra axles - a Wagoneer front Dana 44 rebuilt and ready to install; and a 1989 XJ rear Dana 44 (a pretty rare axle).  
  7. It came with a bunch of new parts - brand new SBC swap radiator, new wiring harness, transmission cooler, distributor, etc.
  8. It came with half doors - that's a big bonus
  9. I've never worked on an SBC, so that was going to be fun.
There was some bad too:

  • He got rid of the stock gas tank, and cut a hole in the floor for a fuel cell
  • Tires were old and rotten
  • No top
  • SBC needed accessory drive, carb, new gaskets and seals, etc
  • SBC is fairly low HP
  • SBC was setup for carb - I really like fuel injection.
  • No overdrive in the TH350 transmission
  • It was a factory red car, but he had rattle-canned (most of it) a metallic blue.
  • It was SOA and sitting way too tall.  
  • He had completely gutted the interior - no dash, no heater, no cowl vent, no gauges.  Only 2 CJ5 seats in poor condition.
  • No stock fenders - he had a set of front tube fenders and TJ flares in the rear.
  • No, I didn't need another project.  Damn, what was I thinking?
Hole in Floor for Fuel Cell

Reassembly Starts!:

After grabbing a few extra parts from my stash, and after some quick assembly it looked like this:

The front cage extension was horrible.  Just pitiful work.  I already cut it off, and will add back the factory YJ window extensions.  




Suspension, Wheels and Tires:


This past weekend, even more stuff happened:
  • SOA to SUA front
  • SOA to SUA rear
  • New TJ Ravine Wheels
  • New 33 x 10.50 x 15 BFG AT Tires

Front SUA done.  The rear is still SOA in this picture

All done:



The stance will change after I install the drivetrain.  The 8.8 perches are just clamped in place in the rear until I can get full weight into the Jeep, set the pinion angle correctly and weld those in place.  

These are stock height (flat) springs, I think.  And a 1" body lift.  The tube fenders and TJ flares should give me enough clearance for the 33" tires, which is pretty cool.  I want to keep it low.

Half Doors:

Earlier, I also started cleaning up the interior door panels.  They had been painted black.  I was lucky enough to find a stripper to remove the paint without damaging the plastic.  








The old mesh pockets were trashed



The chalkiness you see is sun damage - it'll be covered up with fresh paint.

I'll repaint them later with SEM Camel color.  I used this system very successfully on my 1995 YJ plastic interior parts:



Rear Bumper:

If you recall an earlier post where my 1995 Bumper Tire Carrier fell off.  I dug that bumper out of my parts stash, ground off some of the old spindle and repainted it.  And installed it:








Installed:



I may add a new spindle and tire carrier in the future, but this will work well for now.