After nearly eight years, I suppose it's time I finally make a build thread for my 1994 YJ. I've been on all the forums for probably a decade but was always too lazy to make a build thread or really post much of anything. I’ve finally decided to make a build thread for once.
Specs:
Year/Make/Model: 1994 Jeep Wrangler YJ
Trim: SE/Base
Engine: 4.0L I6
Transmission: 5-Speed Manual AX15
Color: Hunter Green Metallic
Top: Hard top and added Bestop soft top
Mods
Interior:
Exterior:
Drivetrain:
Steering, Suspension & Tires:
Future:
I am the 4th owner of this Jeep. It was first sold in October 1993 at a Jeep Eagle dealership in Colorado. The original owner moved it to Florida for retirement. Once he grew tired of it, he sold it to a real estate agent in Wichita, KS. That guy had it from 1999-2002. In that time period he put a few cool little mods into it, but most of them are now gone. These included:
And a few small other items that I'm forgetting. In 2002, he sold it to my grandfather in Wichita, at only 22,000 miles which is pretty good for 7 years old at the time. It was still in like new condition.
My grandpa bought it right after his retirement. He made absolutely no changes to it, just kept up with fluid changes, wash/wax, and kept filling it up with gas. In 2008, he passed away from a tough battle with colon cancer, leaving the Jeep behind. At the time I was 13, had lots of cousins similar age, grandma didn't want to get rid of the Jeep anyways so it sat for a while. In 2009, Wichita had serious flooding for several days. My uncle lived nearby and was using it to pick up his kids from school (figuring it was a better choice for floods than his Miata at the time), when water got into the engine and hydro-locked it. Insurance originally totaled the YJ, wanting to give my grandma a few grand and send her on her way. She refused, and convinced adjusters to come look at it. They realized how immaculate it truly was, and opted to have a local shop install a Jasper remanufactured 4.0L into it. Jeep ran like new again after that.
Once 2012 came around, I was old enough to work and decided I wanted to buy the Jeep. My grandmother agreed, she could tell I really wanted it. time went by, I eventually got my money together and brought the Jeep home at the beginning of July 2013, at just four months shy of it being 20 years old! The jeep was still in EXCELLENT shape when I got it, and only had 45,000 miles at my time of purchase. Still low!
I daily drove the YJ for 4 years, which after a while got sort of old. Texas is hot, no AC sucks, and rough YJ ride just wore me out after so many years of it. I set the Jeep aside as a toy and purchased an economical 2005 Ford Ranger to get me by for a few years. This year, the Ranger was finally giving me enough trouble that I sold it and purchased a 2019 Nissan Frontier as my daily driver. It's funny: the Frontier is basically the YJ version of all the modern trucks. It is so basic that it's almost hilarious. Needless to say, it's pretty much a perfect truck for someone who doesn't care about all the frills that make modern trucks cost $60K+. But anyways, back to the YJ.
I am posting some pictures of the YJ from when I bought it, followed by a few recent ones from this year. I have had many experiences of trial and error with this YJ. I learned pretty much everything I know about automotive from working on this Jeep and my other two vehicles. this includes changing suspension 3 times, changing things and then ultimately changing them back to stock, etc. I have too many memories to ever get rid of it, and now with a steady income, it's time to finally make the permanent changes I want to in order to make it what I've always wanted it to be. In the end, I've dubbed this to be a "No Compromises" build. While the theme originally was and still somewhat is, keeping it simple, sometimes I insist in complicating things in order to not compromise what I want. For the most part, my Jeep is a healthy mix of "stock, but improved". Most people would look at my Jeep and think not much has been done to it. While that can either be lame or secretly cool, I think it's cool. Deep down people would see the things I've done and yet have no clue how much work went into the Jeep as a whole. That's what I like. All they see is the improved results with no clue what actually improved.
These pictures were taken by my dad in 2004. I was only 9 and didn't care about it, so I don't remember this at all. It basically still looked identical to this in 2013 when I purchased it, other than the new engine under the hood. The engine still looked factory, I would have never known it was swapped if no one had told me.
Here it is, the day I officially bought it, July 1, 2014. It still had the tires from the pictures above, so naturally they needed to be swapped before a 500 mile drive home. I was a big fan of the black out looked as a teenager, so I elected for some cheap ole Cragar Black Steelie Soft 8's paired with new 31x10.5R15 Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs.
Here it is earlier this year. At the time it had the body lift, BDS 3.5" Suspension, and MORE 3/8" shackles. It also had blacked out turn signals with amber bulbs. I liked the look decently I guess, but ultimately opted to go back to amber housings and installed LEDs utilizing an awesome write-up on the TJ forum from member @Steel City 06. YJ and TJs utilize the same side marker light setup so my buddy had some diodes and resistors and made the harnesses for me and shipped them.
The plan was for 35's in this picture. Jesus, it was truly way too tall. The reason for this pic was I had just brought the hardtop back home from my parents, who had been storing it from me since I went to college. I hadn't had the hardtop on the Jeep in something like 5 or 6 years.
Here is what the YJ finally looks like today, in 2020. This is with the OME 2.5" Suspension, 1.25" Savvy body, still old tires and wheels which I haven't swapped yet. The fender flares are in the process of going back to stock, but other this is exactly what my YJ looks like. The Smitty bumper in the side profile pic is gone though, and has been replaced with the ARB bumper and tire carrier in the last photo (the red circles are illustrations showing my friend where I'm going to install some Baja Designs S1 lights for reverse). More on all that later.
Since it's been 7.5 years that I've owned this Jeep, naturally I have a LOT of catch up to do as I travel through the years of mods and such. Hope you all enjoy my thread.
Specs:
Year/Make/Model: 1994 Jeep Wrangler YJ
Trim: SE/Base
Engine: 4.0L I6
Transmission: 5-Speed Manual AX15
Color: Hunter Green Metallic
Top: Hard top and added Bestop soft top
Mods
Interior:
- Rugged Ridge all weather floor mats
- Tuffy console with radio slot
- Sony DSXM80 marine radio in Tuffy slot
- Tuffy glove box
- Bestop seat covers
- Stock Interiors ACC plush cut full carpet kit - charcoal color
- Kilmat sound deadening on floor
- Interior switch panel on center trim bezel for future lighting
Exterior:
- Warn front bumper
- JW Speaker 8910 Chrome Heated LED Headlights
- KC Gravity G4 amber fog lights
- ARB rear bumper and tire carrier
- Crown OEM style fender flares
Drivetrain:
- Stock 4.0L motor
- MORE 1" motor mount lift
- 1.5" tummy tuck skid plate
- 1.25" body lift
- 2016 AX15 transmission
- NP231 transfer case
- JB Conversions rebuild kit
- JB Conversions standard SYE
- TJ true neutral shift plate
- 6 pinion planetary
- Wide chain kit
- Dana 30 Front Axle
- 4.88 Rough Country gears and Revolution master install kit
- Detroit TrueTrac LSD
- Passenger side TJ axle shaft conversion
- Napa 11800 seal for TJ axle conversion
- Spicer 5-760x u-joints
- Spicer 706944x ball joints
- 85W-140 Currie GL6 gear oil
- Dana 44 Rear Axle - from 2006 TJ
- 4.88 Revolution gears and master install kit
- Detroit TrueTrac LSD
- Stock disc brakes
- Crown/RT disc brake cable conversion for parking brake
- Dorman header
- Stock downpipe
- Magnaflow catalytic converter
- Magnaflow catback exhaust
- MTS fuel tank
- MTS fuel sending unit
- MTS fuel tank skid plate
- Nothing but regear
Steering, Suspension & Tires:
- 31x10.5R15 Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac (5)
- Cragar Soft 8 15x8 4" BS (5)
- Old Man Emu 2.5" Suspension (custom chosen with itemized parts)
- OME bushings
- OME shackles
- OME 36R springs on all 4 corners
- OME shocks
- All new steering linkage
- Sway bar added back
- Front track bar added back
Future:
- KC Gravity Pro6 driving lights
- Full stereo system
- 4 channel and 1 channel small Class D amps by Kicker
- Front 5.25" component speaker system
- Tweeter mounts to door frame
- Tuffy 5.25" speaker box for transmission hump
- 3-way Kicker 6x9 speakers
- 6x9 speaker pods between roll cage and wheel well
- 10" Kicker sub
- 10" sonopod enclosure
- Odyssey/Northstar/X2 Group 65 AGM battery
I am the 4th owner of this Jeep. It was first sold in October 1993 at a Jeep Eagle dealership in Colorado. The original owner moved it to Florida for retirement. Once he grew tired of it, he sold it to a real estate agent in Wichita, KS. That guy had it from 1999-2002. In that time period he put a few cool little mods into it, but most of them are now gone. These included:
- Warn Side Steps (gone)
- Misch Full Door Armrests (still here)
- Xenon 6" flares (gone, back to stock)
- 31x10.5R15 and Chrome 8-round hole steel wheels (gone)
- Wet Okole seat covers (gone)
- Xtreme Motorsports stock size spare tire cover (gone)
And a few small other items that I'm forgetting. In 2002, he sold it to my grandfather in Wichita, at only 22,000 miles which is pretty good for 7 years old at the time. It was still in like new condition.
My grandpa bought it right after his retirement. He made absolutely no changes to it, just kept up with fluid changes, wash/wax, and kept filling it up with gas. In 2008, he passed away from a tough battle with colon cancer, leaving the Jeep behind. At the time I was 13, had lots of cousins similar age, grandma didn't want to get rid of the Jeep anyways so it sat for a while. In 2009, Wichita had serious flooding for several days. My uncle lived nearby and was using it to pick up his kids from school (figuring it was a better choice for floods than his Miata at the time), when water got into the engine and hydro-locked it. Insurance originally totaled the YJ, wanting to give my grandma a few grand and send her on her way. She refused, and convinced adjusters to come look at it. They realized how immaculate it truly was, and opted to have a local shop install a Jasper remanufactured 4.0L into it. Jeep ran like new again after that.
Once 2012 came around, I was old enough to work and decided I wanted to buy the Jeep. My grandmother agreed, she could tell I really wanted it. time went by, I eventually got my money together and brought the Jeep home at the beginning of July 2013, at just four months shy of it being 20 years old! The jeep was still in EXCELLENT shape when I got it, and only had 45,000 miles at my time of purchase. Still low!
I daily drove the YJ for 4 years, which after a while got sort of old. Texas is hot, no AC sucks, and rough YJ ride just wore me out after so many years of it. I set the Jeep aside as a toy and purchased an economical 2005 Ford Ranger to get me by for a few years. This year, the Ranger was finally giving me enough trouble that I sold it and purchased a 2019 Nissan Frontier as my daily driver. It's funny: the Frontier is basically the YJ version of all the modern trucks. It is so basic that it's almost hilarious. Needless to say, it's pretty much a perfect truck for someone who doesn't care about all the frills that make modern trucks cost $60K+. But anyways, back to the YJ.
I am posting some pictures of the YJ from when I bought it, followed by a few recent ones from this year. I have had many experiences of trial and error with this YJ. I learned pretty much everything I know about automotive from working on this Jeep and my other two vehicles. this includes changing suspension 3 times, changing things and then ultimately changing them back to stock, etc. I have too many memories to ever get rid of it, and now with a steady income, it's time to finally make the permanent changes I want to in order to make it what I've always wanted it to be. In the end, I've dubbed this to be a "No Compromises" build. While the theme originally was and still somewhat is, keeping it simple, sometimes I insist in complicating things in order to not compromise what I want. For the most part, my Jeep is a healthy mix of "stock, but improved". Most people would look at my Jeep and think not much has been done to it. While that can either be lame or secretly cool, I think it's cool. Deep down people would see the things I've done and yet have no clue how much work went into the Jeep as a whole. That's what I like. All they see is the improved results with no clue what actually improved.
These pictures were taken by my dad in 2004. I was only 9 and didn't care about it, so I don't remember this at all. It basically still looked identical to this in 2013 when I purchased it, other than the new engine under the hood. The engine still looked factory, I would have never known it was swapped if no one had told me.
Here it is, the day I officially bought it, July 1, 2014. It still had the tires from the pictures above, so naturally they needed to be swapped before a 500 mile drive home. I was a big fan of the black out looked as a teenager, so I elected for some cheap ole Cragar Black Steelie Soft 8's paired with new 31x10.5R15 Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs.
Here it is earlier this year. At the time it had the body lift, BDS 3.5" Suspension, and MORE 3/8" shackles. It also had blacked out turn signals with amber bulbs. I liked the look decently I guess, but ultimately opted to go back to amber housings and installed LEDs utilizing an awesome write-up on the TJ forum from member @Steel City 06. YJ and TJs utilize the same side marker light setup so my buddy had some diodes and resistors and made the harnesses for me and shipped them.
The plan was for 35's in this picture. Jesus, it was truly way too tall. The reason for this pic was I had just brought the hardtop back home from my parents, who had been storing it from me since I went to college. I hadn't had the hardtop on the Jeep in something like 5 or 6 years.
Here is what the YJ finally looks like today, in 2020. This is with the OME 2.5" Suspension, 1.25" Savvy body, still old tires and wheels which I haven't swapped yet. The fender flares are in the process of going back to stock, but other this is exactly what my YJ looks like. The Smitty bumper in the side profile pic is gone though, and has been replaced with the ARB bumper and tire carrier in the last photo (the red circles are illustrations showing my friend where I'm going to install some Baja Designs S1 lights for reverse). More on all that later.
Since it's been 7.5 years that I've owned this Jeep, naturally I have a LOT of catch up to do as I travel through the years of mods and such. Hope you all enjoy my thread.
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Overall it was loud, drony, and while it sounded 'cool' at first, it sure got old quick.
