Soren Frimodt Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Besides messing with Land Rovers (which I spent most of my sparetime doing) I do occasionally get a brain fart and buy something completely unknown to me. I guess I like the challenge, and love to see what other makes have to offer. So last year my Summer vacation was to be spend in a pit with lots of toys, and even more social binding (so to speak) Great fun, and really a true vacation away from it all! So everybody in Denmark seems to be running either an old RRC (which hands down knocks out the competition when it comes to budget 4x4s) or some rusted out Japanese 4x4. I decided that I did not want an RRC or Disco because I've done that to death, and me and my brother already have one with Mog axles under it, no terrain is challenging for that ugly beast! SO anyways, onto the listings on the wb to search for something different. Stumbled upon this '91 Cherokee 4.0 High Output (190bhp and 1500kgs) still with 3 months MOT so I was able to drive it home And boy does this thing have so go, rolling burnouts was a big hit from every trafficlight Removed the sway bars and did a REALLY cheap lift, just give it a bit of ground clearance. Off we went for our Summer Paradise All text and pictures a copy/pasted from another board, but feel free to ask questions or comment as you like So bought this 1991 4.0 High output, for one purpose only: Three weeks of constant offroad driving at a gravelpit. Didn't really expect much of it, only bought it because it had a lot of power at a small price. And to try something different as I'm a Land-Rover guy, and have been all my life. But must say I am really surprised at it's capabilities offroad, the power and torque is immense, and just a plain hoot to drive! So started out by removing the antisway bars, and doing a very mild lift to gain some ground clearence. And as soon as I arrived at the gravelpit, the doors where removed, there was no need for destroying them as they are in perfect shape, and it's also a lot cooler to drive offroad without them Then the stock tyres were cut to improve traction: Ran it like this for about a week and a half, welded up the rear diff and eventually the centerdiff as well, since, for God knows what reason, you couldn't lock it while in low ratio?? Only in High: Testing the welded centerdiff: Next came tyre upgrades, fitted some 33"s and did some cutting: And boy was she transformed, suddenly I could crawl a lot of the hills, and the rev limiter was used nearly as much. Drowned her: But got her back to life, so decided to keep her and make her a Truggy! (next up is the Truggy build, out of time for now) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtydiesel Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 What are your plans for the rear suspension? Staying with leaf? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soren Frimodt Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 Finally back on the keyboard with time on my hands Yes Dan I stayed leafs, but not Jeep leafs Story continues here: Bought a long-needed plasmacutter during the Summer and went at the Jeep with it when I got back home, how she looked after the first cuts: Today I managed to close the panels where I cut them, with the plasma its just ten times easier, make a cardboard template, transfer it to a piece of metal, and just get cutting! The worst part was welding to the rusty body, these things are made of unbelievably thin steel!: welded some square tube between the axle housing and the chassis, which allowed me to remove the springs without the axle wobbling about: The springs are going to be replaced with parabolic ones for an 88" LR as this will give me shorter overhang in the rear: First piece of tube bend and welded in. Got the other side bent up as well Some more tube work: Moved the center of the spring an inch or so back, because the LR springs is an inch longer towards the front mount on the chassis: Got the rearend chopped off with the plasma, and fitted the other spring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soren Frimodt Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 Walking around behind my workshop looking for some 4" tube I had planned to use as a rear crossmember, I stumpled upon two fuel-tank outriggers off of a Lorry I had kicking around, and with a bit of cutting and welding, this is what was spawned to life: Bet it's the most fancy rear crossmember you've seen on a Cherokee, East of California PS: It isn't placed at the right spot yet, need to set my ride height, it's obviously going to sit lower managed to finish the cage almost completely. And so far I'm pleased with the result. Next job is to make connections from the chassis to the rear crossmember. As of now it's mostly held in by the cage. But as you can see the **** has been shortened a great deal Got the chassis tied into the rear crossmember and made a detachable sparewheel carrier that is held down with the Hi-lift in the upper end and fixed at two pivot points at the lower end so you can flip it backwards for ease of access to the fueltank. Also mounted a towing point, you just gotta have that The sparewheel is obviously mounted that far back for weight distribution. But what I have ended up building is actually something that looks a lot like an American Pre-Runner Have stripped the engine bay and bonnet for un-necessities to get a better weight distribution, but still not satisfied. Might end up fitting a winch to the back, and/or filling the sparewheel with water Anyways My plan is to fit an extra passenger seat just behind the main hoop, as the seatbelt is still there, and so is the un-used space, so Might as well put it to use You know how I said that I needed to shift some weight from the front to the back? Well today I moved the battery all the way to the back, sitting snugly between the rear crossmember and the tank, with the sparewheel above it. So nothing is gonna hurt it there. On this picture you can also see the sparewheel carrier, and how it's detachable. Also notice I've fitted the "4.0 High Output" Badge again, just need to cut away the excess Sika when it's dried up reworked the exhaust and moved the silencer to the very back (again weight distribution, but it also makes it sound more deep) And removed the Cat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soren Frimodt Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 Got the final exhaust mount done, and some fenders slapped on, now it's definitely beginning to look complete And put in an extra seat, since there was a seatbelt there anyways And that was it pretty much. Took it to the pit later last year and it performed even better than before, put it on its side in a slope, and everything held up fine. All was in fact so well I decided to sell it On to other projects then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Did you think about extending the cage at all round the rear passenger? Even though its a Jeep, cool build Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soren Frimodt Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 Nah not really, it was only supposed to be used for "cruising" back and forth from one end of the pit to the other, so often there's somebody who needs a lift. Would never attempt any ridiculous climbs with somebody back there.. Prefer to do my stunts solo Yeah thanks, I think it turned out well, especially considering it only added up to just over a thousand quid when all done, including the purchase of the Jeep clearly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenstream Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 Hi Søren Fun build ! Eventhough you have sold it, then when seeing your fancy rear crossmember, a thought came to mind. Would it have been possible to make the crossmember hinged in the centerline and given it a controlled level of movement in ordre to achieve further articulation to the leafs, as their mounts would be able to move up and down ? Morten Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soren Frimodt Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 Hi Morten Well yes sure it would, but it would produce a large amount of bodyroll, so unless some sort of locking mechanism was made I think there would be more downsides than upsides (depending of how, and where you drive clearly) Another problem would be that you have to twist the leafs a great deal to gain any extra travel, and I'm sure the very small bushings on a LR spring is the limiting factor of the twist-ability of the setup. The factory jeep springs had a much larger bushing, allowing much more movement. But they had a terrible length so had to ditch them. And in our neck of the woods you can't beat the price of land rover parts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soren Frimodt Posted March 2, 2013 Author Share Posted March 2, 2013 Finally found a picture of my last ride in the truggy: Belly landed it on top of this hill, was the only one that was able to make it to the top with the 4.0 High Output and the modded gearbox control. I was able to lock it to second gear so that it was just hitting the rev limiter this gave med the wheelspeed all the way up the very steep and slippery hill. All the nissans and landrovers couldn't even make it 2/3s because they had puny little diesels in them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o_teunico Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Great build! How much weigths the car? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soren Frimodt Posted March 8, 2013 Author Share Posted March 8, 2013 Sorry never got around to putting it on the scale.. Factory weight was around 1500kg. and it was a fair bit lighter than that when I was done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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