Hi all,

I have just joined and was after a few opinions.... I came here as places like outerlmits don't seem to have many people on their sites with Lj's mainly SJ's and sidekicks. Anyway im being given a project LJ81 (flat deck lj80) and it has no diffs, transfer case or driveshafts. So basically it has the motor, gear box chassie and body and leave springs and steering arm etc. Where I live (New Zealand) these parts are hard to find and if you are lucky enough to find them it's a case of whether or not you have won lotto recently. So im pretty much asking for opinions of what I should do and whats easiest and cheapest as it will be done on a budget 

My thoughts were to rip off the big ugly tray and make up a cool tube tray with maybe a exo cage around the cab and put some sj413 diffs drive shafts and transfer under her as the SJ running gear is more available and much cheaper over here, (please tell my if my plan is totally stupid) 


Thanks all
Regards
James
New Zealand

First off, Welcome Aboard.
Second.
Don't know much about the  LJ81 but I'm sure some one will.
With almost 7000 members, Somebody Will know something and probably in your neck of the woods.
Any pics?

Nah my mate who lives about 7 hours drive away is giving it to me. So pics will hopefully be sent to me soon.....I'll post some up asap....Not to sure how long it will take for me to go up and get it. Always the money thing aye sucks still being in school 

id love to see some pics myself, having never been to new zealand i have no idea what people wheel down there,so im reluctant to offer any suggestions, i do know here sami axels are cheap,im not sure about the terain or tire size your considering , but from my experiance im ok with my axels [for now], i run a spooled rear 538 gears 32"super swampers, and a what was a very tired 1.3 litre, its mostly sft terrain where i live but i have done a fair amount of playing in the rocks, never busted anything axelwise, i do beat on it but not while the wheel is turned very far
hope this helps

What you wheel depends on how much money you have and how clever and thort out your plans are. Mainly wheel mud, clay ruts, beach and a little snow and not to many rocks. Im going for a LJ81 because its different and theres not many of them around so should be a bit of fun. 

The LJ80 diffs are much lower ratios than the 413s so you will struggle with bigger tyres and a heavy cage. The SJ410 axles would have closer gearing, post 84 axles will give you front disc brakes too. The 410 engine will also fit and give a good power increase. Have you got any Minis over there? An SU carb from a 1000 Mini will give a good power increase too.

The LJ80 diffs are much lower ratios than the 413s so you will struggle with bigger tyres and a heavy cage. The SJ410 axles would have closer gearing, post 84 axles will give you front disc brakes too. The 410 engine will also fit and give a good power increase. Have you got any Minis over there? An SU carb from a 1000 Mini will give a good power increase too.

This is the sort of info I am after. How hard would it be to put a 410 or similar transfer case in it?  I have read that lj80 and lj50 transfers are pretty much the same (the project does not come with a case)..... cheers for this help guys some good info on here

just talked to a guy, he's runnin a 231 buick[a swapim definatly lookin into] he runs the sami rear[ trussed] and the stock sami t-case, with 35 inch tires, he kept poppin birfields up front so he went to a dana 44, i had a 231  and a t-14 manual in my cj and never blew the the dane 30, i would geuss the jeep was 500-800 pounds heavier, this guy sounds legite, he says he popped one rp and one locker and then trussed it, been wheelin it for 8 years since, im not posative but i think that motor puts out around 170 horse and 185 foot pounds of tourque, somwhere around 4x a 1.3 litre, so sami parts should hold up to whatever stock parts you have