I've never chronicled the history of my ZJ in one place, so this is a first. The story starts right after Christmas 2006, when I purchased a new '97 ZJ Laredo: V8 (with the accompanying D44a), QuadraTrac t/c; leather interior, and tow package. Within 3 months, I purchased and installed myself all the factory skid plates and front tow hooks and started hitting some mild trails in the Lake Tahoe area (I lived in NorCal at the time):
I had fun with it, but wanted more. Unfortunately, back then there were no aftermarket vendors making ZJ parts. But by the spring of 2001, RE, TeraFlex and Rusty's Off Road had come on to the scene. I installed Rusty's 3 1/2" lift, shocks and rear adj. t/b, RE front adj. t/b, an OME SS and 31" AT tires, and had a lot more fun wheeling it that way:
But like most of you, even as I finished that install, I already started to plan the next batch of upgrades. So much has changed in those intervening years, with many more aftermarket vendors & parts becoming available that my plans have changed several times. After following the builds of my ZJ wheeling friends from a certain Grand-specific forum, last winter I finally settled on the upgrades that are now almost complete. My goal is to have a nearly indestructible trail & expedition rig that will also cruise highways in the comfort I've been accustomed to all these years.
Since my HOA rules don't allow mechanical repairs on the property (even in my garage) and I had some surgeries over the years, heavy lifting and extended squatting and kneeling aren't on my list of things I can do. I had to contract out the build. Yes, I spent a lot of money on this, so I don't need to be reminded of that. And for those who believe that it's only done right if you do it yourself, well, I disagree. If you find the right shop, it's well worth it. Moreover, I wouldn't have been able to get this done any other way. I've been saving for this for the past seven years, it's my rig and my funds, and that's it. So, having said that, I'll move on.
I decided on a Clayton Off Road Manufacturing 7" long arm kit, Atlas II t/c, DynaTrac Pro Rock 60s with ARBs & 4:88 gears, rolling on 35" BFG MT KM2s mounted on Walker Evans non-polished bead locks. Doing the installation is John Lemieux, owner of All 4 Wheel Drive in Corona. He's a Clayton retailer, and also has a great reputation with a lot of North OC & Riverside County wheelers. He's been an outstanding technical resource, and had said repeatedly that he's going to squeeze every ounce of crawling capability out of everything I'm doing here. I can't say enough about his work.
First, the old axles needed to come off. DynaTrac needed my ABS sensors, rear calipers (for the cores exchange) and rear D44a housing for some of the brackets. They don't build many axles for a ZJ, so it isn't cost-effective for them to manufacture those parts themselves. DynaTrac owner Jim McGean and Sales Manager Dan Seldon were easy to work with and answered all my technical questions. Plus, they're located about 1 1/2 miles from my house, so it was convenient to stop by after work.
Let me say, these things are beefy - I shouldn't have to worry about breaking anything on these babies for awhile!
Front:
Rear:
Due to two separate 300 unit orders DynaTrac won from the Army for similar axle sets for their new recon vehicle being used in Afghanistan and some other production issues, it took about 6-7 weeks for the rear DT to be built - Pro Rock high clearance housing with the dual sump high volume oiling mod, Pro Max 40 competition shaft pkg w/larger bearings, hard brake lines, new ZJ rear calipers, rotors & ABS (the Atlas is in the background):
Here it is partially installed. The truss with Clayton's kit is still only tack welded on, so support straps are being used:
And the front finally gets delivered. It's also a Pro Rock housing, with the competition shaft package - hardened chromoly 35-spline inners, outers and CTM u-joints; HD brake upgrade - front HD dual piston 13.25" rotors & calipers (Dodge truck) fitted with my ZJ's ABS; HD high clearance steering pkg; HD Pro 60 outer ends pkg. - knuckles, spindles & hubs; and the new Dynaloc manual locking stub hubs (half the depth of Warn manual hubs):
and the new Dynaloc manual stub hubs:
Even with only 31" tires, the ZJ's stock front brakes were almost non-existent (there are more appropriate descriptive terms I could use, but this is a family-friendly forum. Let's just say the pucker factor was often high!). These big Dodge truck calipers & rotors will be a welcome relief!
I'll skip over some of the intermediate pics, but here's how it looks as of last Friday:
Atlas installed w/new rear ds:
twin sticks being installed - John's still fabbing up a custom bezel cover:
front driver side closeup:
Because I didn't use my stock axles, the build required quite a bit of re-engineering between the LA kit and the new axles. It should be finished in about a week and a half or so, after which I'll be ready to hit some trails with the SCUFF group!
Gary
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