2005 Rocky Mountain TJ

[Jack_C]

Hey everyone, figured I’d finally start a build thread to track the progress (and probably ask for advice along the way).

I've been going through vehicles like crazy in the past 1.5 years (two 87 YJ's one with a CARB legal V8 swap and a Suzuki Samurai that was built to the point of not being able to be driven on road), but I needed something I could more comfortably drive to trails and not have to trailer. I picked up this 2005 Rocky Mountain Edition TJ w/ 134k miles for $7.5K about 8 months ago. Pretty clean for its age no paint fade , basically no rust (southern California), and it came with a few things I wanted right off the bat, mainly a stock Dana 44 in the rear and working AC (kind off).

When I bought it, it was mostly stock except for a 3.5" Quadratec lift that had a rubicon express adjustable front track bar. It looked decent minus the tiny 30.5" tires, but man… that lift rode stiff on the road and absolutely beats itself apart on washboard trails. Below is a pic after getting it home and a quick wash.

Initial Condition​

As with any 20-year-old Jeep, it came with a healthy list of leaks:

• Rear main seal leak
• Oil pan leak
• Valve cover leak
• Passenger side front axle seal leak
• Heater core leaking

AC works fine, but only blasts through defroster. I checked the easy stuff (vacuum lines) and they seem fine, so I’ll dig deeper later.

First Fixes​

• Replaced the valve cover gasket → stopped a good amount of the engine oil mess
• Bypassed the heater core for now to avoid coolant dripping into the cab

Short-Term Plans (some stuff already completed will document in following posts)​

• Getting rid of the quadratec lift, I went with metalcloack double adjustable arms, springs and shocks. I got a good deal on all of it, but looking back I think there was probably better routes to go.
• Mild tummy tuck with the UCF no body lift skid
• Slip yoke and double cardan driveshaft
• Chromoly shafts and lunchbox locker for the Dana 30. Replacing the axles seals during this time as one is tired and leaking.

Longer term? Proper gears and lockers, and making it trail-ready without going full crawler.

I’ll keep updating this thread as I go.

 

[Jack_C]

The first thing that needed attention on this Jeep was the suspension. When I bought it, it came with a cheap Quadratec 3.5" lift that was complete junk. It rode terribly over even the smallest bumps, and after pulling the shocks off, I quickly saw why—when compressed, none of them would rebound on their own. I wanted something that would handle off-road trails much better while still being comfortable for long highway drives. I ended up going with MetalCloak 3.5" springs and shocks, paired with their aluminum double-adjustable control arms. In hindsight, I probably should have just gone with Savvy arms from the start, but that’s something I can look into later if the MetalCloak joints don’t hold up over time.

Install went smooth though, being a southern California Jeep and only a 2005 I didn't fight any rusted or stuck bolts. I had a set of extended brake lines for my old YJ that I was able to use so throw those on too. Took one weekend in the garage and we were back up and running.

I did end finding a good deal on a set of 4 33x10.5 BFG KO2's mounted on some black American Racing wheels for $900.

After doing all that, the Jeep looked and road much better, but it still had a transfer case drop and stock drive shaft so that was next item on the list.

 

[Jack_C]

Now that the Jeep is looking and riding better, I needed to address the rear drive shaft and transfer case drop. I decided to do a mild tummy tuck with the UCF non-body lift skid paired with an Adams drive shaft and advanced adapters SYE. For the SYE I decided to leave the transfer case mounted and do it under the Jeep. It was easy enough for me to move around under there and if I were to do it again I probably would do it the same way. When I had it apart I did replace the transfer case chain as some preventative maintenance. I adjusted the pinion angle to pretty much match the driveshaft angle and got within .5 of a degree (around 20 degrees). Also while I had access down here I installed the B&M cable shifter, which was needed to accommodate the skid plate raising the transfer case.

The UCF skid plate ended up not being as plug-and-play as I expected (not sure if that was my fault or not). The mounting holes for the frame and transmission mounts lined up fine. I knew I would have to cut the exhaust mount that’s attached to the transmission mount, and like others, I reused the two holes to bolt it back together in a lower position.

However, once I mounted the skid plate, the muffler was now contacting the skid in its lowered position. It took me about four rounds of grinding and test-fitting before I had enough clearance, and I ended up removing a good amount of material from the skid. Once that was done, though, everything fit up nicely and felt solid.

Below is where I had to grind to make clearance for the muffler. (The picture shows the skid plate during test fitting to get driveshaft measurements—the exhaust mount hadn’t been lowered at that point.)

Will update here with a pic of the skid plate painted and Adams driveshaft installed, must have deleted the picture.