gram

The build has been coming painfully slow but here are some pics of the cross member for the long arm.I am planning on building some kind of skid plate that attaches to the cross member that will protect the transmission. When I pull the cross member out to finish welding it I will post some better pics of it.

96xjclassic

Nice mock up. Looks like it's going to be beefy.

Kaxj

This project is awesome. I chopped my back off have it modified with a soft top and no operational tailgate. Had to rig something up for now to deal with the cold weather here in Wyoming. But I totally envy your skills and I'm going to jump in it and hopefully have the out come you got. But going to build a tire swing off my bumper that way I can still use a soft top. Your project is amazing and an awesome guide for others.

gram

Thank you very much! I like the idea of a soft top and have toyed with that thought too. If you have any pictures of the soft top I would love to see them.

gram

The fab work is done on the cross member now and I have it pulled for final weld. When I built it I incorporated a 1 inch transmission drop to help with the slip yoke. With the d44 and the one inch drop I have almost no tail shaft showing.

XJcoupe

nice build, I have really enjoyed the read, fab-ing on a budget is fun, Im in the same boat, might just borrow a few idea for my heep over the winter. I just wish I knew about these kind of Cherokee sites back in 2005/2006 when I chopped mine.

gram

Thanks! The lack of money available for a build is what got me building a lot of my parts but now I just enjoy doing it!

indirocz28

I'll have to keep an eye on this thread! Great stuff!

gram

Im a few steps closer to finishing this lift. The UPS man was nice enough to drop me off my rough country order of N2.0 shocks, adjustable track bar and a drop pitman arm. I also picked up a 12 ft stick of 1/4 wall DOM.

gram

Ive made some great progress lately on the long arm build. Here are just some random pics of the fab work.

Bush League 96 XJ

how much did the arms cost you all together for all 4?

1ABrian

good to see some progress here. Dont forget to remove the spare off the roof before you back out......LOL

Lowrange2

All that and you built radius arms.

You had all the part to build a 3 or 4 link with very little extra effort.

Why did you choose a radius arm set-up.

gram

The stick of tubing cost me $134 bucks and three sets of rod ends cost me $207, so $341 for the arms ( I do have about 5 ft of DOM left over though). As for the rest of the lift I have $130 in a track bar, $200 in a set of shocks and $ 50 bucks in the pitman arm. The coils and rear leafs were obtained in a trade and the steel used for the cross member I already had. So I guess I have about $721 bucks in it so far. I will prolly pull the trigger on a set on steel braided lines also. Not too bad considering a long arm kit will run you $1200-$1500.

gram

If I had to do it all over again I would build a 3 link knowing what I know now. But when I started this I knew little about one and all the aftermarket guys seem to run radius arms so I figured there must be a reason for this. There is always next time though!