Jeep idiot here with a '97 FZJ80

[n00g7]

I drove the exact same two Jeeps you run. An 01 XJ with D44, 5.13's, chromos, lockers, and 37's. An 04 TJ with lockers, D44s, 4.88s, and 35's. They both left me stranded on the trail numerous times. Cracked 0331 head (TWICE), failed water pump, small crack in radiator, failed CPS sensor (numerous times), seized power steering pump. Bent the tie rods and track bars numerous times. Grenaded TRE's numerous times. Jeep takes the approach to put parts on their vehicles that meet the bare minimum to get it road worthy. Toyota puts parts on their cars for worse case scenario in all situations. Totally different approach and it clearly reveals itself on the trail. My Jeeps constantly broke down in stock form with a minor lift and 35's. My 80 never broke down on the trail with a mild lift and 35's. I loved my Jeeps, but I also love spending 90% of my budget on upgrades and 10% on repairs which my 80 provided. My Jeeps were more like 60% repairs and 40% upgrades. You can do a LOT more and go a LOT further with a Yota with the same amount of money spent when compared to a Jeep. You will figure this out pretty soon. Enjoy the 80.

No doubt, I've always been envious of the 80's. Need to do a lot to a TJ or XJ (and even the new JKs) to get them to the same place as an 80 that just rolled off the line. I still like mine though, and plan on keeping them forever. As for the 80, after the regear and lockers I can spend 85% of my time redoing the interior without worrying about replacing driver side axle shafts like on my TJ every other trip off-road. The XJ doesn't see much off-road, it's in pretty good condition.

 

[n00g7]

She's mine. Currently hanging out at the bar with her in S. Austin before driving back up north. Will take some initial pics and get to work Already have some orders of business.

1) Tires. 315/75R16's, BFG KO2s or Cooper AT3s, whichever I can get cheaper locally.
2) Rotors. I think they're a bit warped, but it could partly be balance, will see after #1, if still an issue will get them planed and throw on new pads.
3) Lights
-KCs get pulled, some rigid D2 driving I have laying around go on.
-Slee headlight harness
-90XXs on slee harness
4) Oil pressure sender and/or gauge is bad. Need to replace.
5) Check on PHH, PO replaced, but possibly with factory type, may redo sooner than later.

 

[warezdog]

Cheaper tires are gonna be the 16's ... at least in my experience. 315/75R16 are what most guys seem to run and you don't need re-gear.

Agreed, running them on stock gears and it's not as bad as some would have you believe

I think this is a LOT of tire for the money.

Walmart: General Grabber AT2 Light Truck and SUV Tire LT285/75R16

Run these in a 315 and love them, played Walmart against sears for a PM

In 315/75R16 it is $216, one of the cheaper ones for sure.

Other options in 315/75R16 are the nitto terra grapplers ($214) and BFG KO2's ($234) from discount.

Right now sears has the 315 for $211, you can get wally world to PM. Did mine in July and got 5 mounted and balanced with road hazzard for just over $1200 and also got a rebate for $70, rebate ended but sears link here Sears.com

Skip the grapplers, they don't clean out well in mud and they're not so good on wet asphalt, just search the threads here on mud. I almost went that route and talked with several guys that ran them that weren't happy with that and the wear, they turned me on to the GG AT2's and I absolutely love them.

 

[n00g7]

1st UPDATE W/ PICTURES Didn't even make it home. Dodge Ram tried to beat a light, I hit center of the side of the truck bed at about 45mph.

FZJ ARB Carnage

• n00g7
• Nov 3, 2015

Axle Toast

• n00g7
• Nov 3, 2015

Side1

• n00g7
• Nov 3, 2015

Side 2

• n00g7
• Nov 3, 2015

 

[FZJohnny]

Sorry to hear that man!
Hopefully everyone involved was okay?
Hope the 80 is okay
Looked like the ARB and drag link wer toast how's the front clip and frame??

 

[n00g7]

Q panel bent pretty good and hood a little bit from bumper pushing in the headlight light fixture. Birfield joint is puking fluid (nothing else was though). The linkages for steering are done.

Control arm mounts on frame and frame itself looked ok, but could be a bit tweaked up front where the bumper is attached. It was dark and once it was on the flatbed they got it out of there pretty quickly so I didn't have too much time to see what all was broken.

 

[jfz80]

Damn dude. Just damn. That sucks for an intro to 80s. Hopefully you can get a fair treatment from ins and walk away with the truck and your money back to fix or an even nicer one as they will likely try and total that one. Best of luck and glad your ok but 45 mph is no joke keep an eye out do any pain and stiffness next 48hrs

 

[warezdog]

GD that really does suck, see if you can get any local mudders to come take a look over the weekend and give you some ammo to deal with the insurance company trying to screw you because they will try to do just that.

 

[FZJ80 in KC]

Ugh...shortest 80 ownership ever! Well, at least you got a good feel for how protected you are in an 80! Jeep would've been toast.

Was gonna chime that cheapest 315-75-16 mud terrains are Treadwrights (retreads), but it may not matter now. About $179 per tire for the bead to bead remold, but their service has really gone downhill. If you can spare the extra cash, go name brand. I run the retreads and they work well for me (wheel the heck out of my rig), but it takes a lot of patience to get them to your door! Lots of missed reviews on them as well.

Good luck with insurance, and reparing or finding another rig!

 

[n00g7]

Ugh...shortest 80 ownership ever! Well, at least you got a good feel for how protected you are in an 80! Jeep would've been toast.

Was gonna chime that cheapest 315-75-16 mud terrains are Treadwrights (retreads), but it may not matter now. About $179 per tire for the bead to bead remold, but their service has really gone downhill. If you can spare the extra cash, go name brand. I run the retreads and they work well for me (wheel the heck out of my rig), but it takes a lot of patience to get them to your door! Lots of missed reviews on them as well.

Good luck with insurance, and reparing or finding another rig!

Friend actually noted that to me, if I was just offroading I'd probably go that route, but the CS was stated as not that good. Also, their retreads in that size are MTs and the rig would see snow. I have experience with the cooper AT3s in snow on my F-150, worked great. The AT2 grabbers are pretty good, and the KO2s are at least snowflaked.

Yeah, I had it about 4 hours. Long enough to drive the PO back home, get a beer and couples tacos, do a frat lap down 6th street to the HWY while gathering a couple complements from a guy on a moped and a guy in a nice 2DR JK, and then wreck it. Really sucks, was going to pick up chomos for my TJ with it and wrench on that friday, then off-road the 80 this weekend. Boo.

 

[KliersLC]

Not that it matters much now, but I'd stay away from putting an auto locker up front. Auto lockers in the rear are transparent, but running the AWD with an auto locker up front will be hard on things at the very least, downright dangerous at worst.

 

[n00g7]

Not that it matters much now, but I'd stay away from putting an auto locker up front. Auto lockers in the rear are transparent, but running the AWD with an auto locker up front will be hard on things at the very least, downright dangerous at worst.

Yeah, have to be pretty careful, most likely would have saved a bit more to get an ARB. Definitely going with an ARB now if I get her back since I appreciate their work on the bumper keeping me safe.

 

[alia176]

Dude that sucks mucho. I suggest getting it back on the road and just wheel the s*** out of it w/o doing anything. You're coming from a Jeep background so the handling is totally different with the 80 pig. Chances are that the 2.5" lift may just take you most places you want to go. The Jeep can be used for doing crazy stuff.

 

[n00g7]

It's at the shop now at least. Taking a look in the day -- both control arms are bent. Frame looked ok.

As for repairs, it definitely needs:
New axle (to make things easy)
New Control arms
New Steering linkages
New Q panel/valence
New Hood
New headlight housing
New ARB
New Front Rotors (shattered) - Rear will probably go on too.
New Front Caliper (bent)

That's all I know for now.

 

[wagonteeth]

[TLC]We've received your application and unfortunately must inform you that you've been rejected. Enjoy your Jeep[/TLC]

J/K. Glad your o.k. That's not the way to start TLC ownership. Despite the breakage, I'm sure you can imagine the difference in the 80 and a Jeep. Looks like the ARB faired pretty well, all things considered.

As I read down the thread, I was thinking "He's in for a shock when he sees the build difference of parts on the 80, like the 9.5 in the back and it's huge bearings." I didn't expect to see you replacing parts so soon.

BTW, 80 brakes are kinda weak once the rig gets heavy. I know it wasn't up to you in this case, but leave plenty of room for stopping.

 

[alia176]

One thing that puzzles me is that when you T boned a pickup truck, how did the axle/control arms get damaged? In order for the front control arms to bend, you had to have contacted something with the front axle housing, no?

 

[n00g7]

One thing that puzzles me is that when you T boned a pickup truck, how did the axle/control arms get damaged? In order for the front control arms to bend, you had to have contacted something with the front axle housing, no?

If you look at the picture of the truck, I went about a foot+ into the bed with the ARB. The passenger wheel/tire got caught on the axle of the truck, which pulled -- and eventually ripped it apart -- in the direction the truck was traveling (from driver -> passenger).

 

[n00g7]

As I read down the thread, I was thinking "He's in for a shock when he sees the build difference of parts on the 80, like the 9.5 in the back and it's huge bearings." I didn't expect to see you replacing parts so soon.

BTW, 80 brakes are kinda weak once the rig gets heavy. I know it wasn't up to you in this case, but leave plenty of room for stopping.

Haha, I was looking forward to less breakage. Short lived. Well, the good news is I'll probably get all new rotors and can pick the pad compound that stops my jeeps really well.

 

[alia176]

If you look at the picture of the truck, I went about a foot+ into the bed with the ARB. The passenger wheel/tire got caught on the axle of the truck, which pulled -- and eventually ripped it apart -- in the direction the truck was traveling (from driver -> passenger).
/QUOTE]

Ok, gotcha. Makes sense now. OUCH!!!

You should be able to pickup the control arms and the axle housing from this forum I bet. I have to wonder if your axle housing is damaged or bent in anyway now that you explained the accident in more detail. Sounds like the whole thing moved toward driver side which *shouldn't* bend anything. Usually the way folks bend their front axle housing is when they pretend to be Bo and Luke from "Dukes of Hazard"!! Even then, it's usually only at the extreme ends of the housing where the swivel ball resides. A simple and short truss (less than 6") seems to be the cure for this ailment, if you can call it that.

 

[n00g7]

Totaled. Just under $8000 cash value with sales tax... Waiting on salvage value for buyback -- hopefully they don't look at pictures including all the aftermarket stuff. I have a feeling I'm going to get boned.