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The rear crossmember on my CJ-7 was in pretty bad shape, so I decided to replace it now that I had
the tub off. It turned out to be quite a project to remove the  crossmember.
It was tack welded to the frame on the top and sides. The top was no problem, just grind
the weld off with an angle grinder. The sides, however, were not accessible with a grinder
so I had to pound, pry, cut, yell, and throw things in order to get it off. It ended up in about five pieces by the time I was done. I
then removed the rear spring shackle hangers and checked out their condition. They were
covered with surface rust, but were structurally intact. I debated replacing
them with Sliprock spring hangers, but the stock ones looked like they were in
fine shape when I cleaned them up.
I started scraping the dirt off the frame with a gasket scraper and was pleased to
find that about ¾ of the frame was still in great shape under the dirt with some sort of
thick black factory coating still intact. Only the rear ¼ of the frame is covered with
surface rust, but it’s still in good shape with no major rust or cracks.
There was one body mount on the right side above the gas tank that was rusted
and need to be replaced.
I had originally intended to sandblast the frame to bare metal and then repaint it,
but decided it was not necessary and a bit too messy. I ended up grinding, wire brushing,
and sanding the rust and then coating it with POR-15 and Rustoleum spray paint. It
actually turned out looking decent, but now we have to see how long it will last.
(edit - 2 years later it is still holding up fine and looking good)
  
After cleaning and painting the frame, I had a new rear crossmember from 4WD hardware
welded  on and had a new body mount to replace the one on
the crossmember in front of the gas tank fabricated and welded on (thanks to Robert
Adams).
When I flipped YJ tub over to clean and inspect the bottom, I got an unwelcome
surprise. There were two body mount bolts broken off in the square nut plates in the tub.
One was in the back opposite the original YJ gas tank opening. I ended up cutting into the
sheet metal (on the bottom of the tub where it would not be visible), removing the nut plate with the broken bolt and getting a new nut plate cut
from square stock. I stuck the new nut plate back into the hole I cut in the tub
and bent the sheet metal back into place. The other broken bolt was in the front driver side body mount. It
really wasn’t assessable, so I ended up having the whole plate and associated
brackets to hold it in place cut out with a cutting torch. Luckily, this mount is easily
assessable with the body tub in place, so I simply replaced the nut plate with a
nut when installing the tub.
In order to retrofit the CJ tailgate, I followed the directions on Jeepskate’s
site.
The YJ tub and windshield frame use a
different type of defroster setup than the CJ does. If you
plan
 to use the
CJ windshield frame and defroster system, then you will need
to cut a couple small oval
holes with a jigsaw in the top of the cowl area to allow air to flow into the CJ
windshield frame. I then just drilled a couple small
holes and mounted the CJ plastic
defroster air deflector to the YJ tub. It was actually very
simple to do. The picture to the right shows what needs
to be done to adapt the CJ defroster.
Before
the YJ tub can be put on the CJ frame, a couple of the body
mounts must be dealt with.
The two body mount holes in the rear crossmember need
to be moved outward about ¾". I used a die grinder and a
hand file to "move" the holes outward.
The
body mounts in front of the rear tires don’t line up with
the YJ tub either. There are two ways to deal with this. You
can remove the body mounts from the frame and have them
re-welded where they match the mounting holes in the YJ tub.
The other option is to leave them as they are and just slip a
nut into the support channel of the YJ tub. Fortunately, there
is a hole already there in the YJ tub in correct place, so
that is the route I chose to go with. I’m jumping ahead a
bit here, but when it came time to mount the YJ tub, I just
slipped a nut into the support channel on the bottom of the
tub and threaded a body mount bolt right into it…doesn’t
get much easier than that.
When my 1" body lift finally arrived, I decided to put the tub on. I could only
get one guy to help out at the time, but we were feeling extra strong so we decided to go
for it. The tub wasn’t really that bad for two of us to lift, but it would have been
much easier, and safer, with an extra person. It was hard to set the tub down and get it
lined up without someone to spot. Eventually we got it all lined up and all the body mount
bolts in. It was a great feeling to see a body tub back on the frame.
  
Now it was time to deal with the two body mounts in front of the fenders that
don’t line up. In the
 picture
to the left, you can see the area on the YJ tub where the YJ body mount normally
is. Fortunately, there was a hole already there in the YJ tub in correct
place, so I just slipped a nut into the support channel on the bottom of the tub and
threaded a body mount bolt right into it…doesn’t get much easier than that.
You can see this in the picture to the right.
Also, the two body mount holes in the rear crossmember needed to be moved outward about
¾". I used a die grinder and a hand file to "move" the holes outward.
Now that the body tub is on, it’s time to collect all the random pieces piled on
the garage floor and try to remember where they go. If I were to do this again, I would
definitely be more careful and bag and label all the bolts with their associated parts. I
just removed the bolts/screws/nuts/washers and threw them in a common box which made it
difficult to find the correct ones when putting the Jeep back together 8 months later.
Taking
a lot of detailed pictures would be very helpful for putting things back
in the correct place also.
The first thing I did was put the rollbar in. I bought a newer style YJ rollbar
(‘92-’95 model) that extends over the back seat and has the option for bolt on
sport bars or cage. I had previously purchased YJ sport bars that attach to the windshield
frame, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort to attach them temporarily since I plan
to get a full bolt-in front rollcage anyway. There must be some difference in the rollbar
mounting holes of the older and newer YJ’s (my tub is a ’91). The back holes on
the fenders lined up perfectly, but only three out of four holes on each of the front feet
lined up—and even that required a little enlarging of the holes in the rollbar feet.
I attached it with new grade 8 hardware and anti-seize so they wouldn’t be impossible
to remove like the old torx bolts.
Next, thanks to a tip I read somewhere; I put the battery tray in.
It would be almost
impossible to put in after the heater/blower assembly due to where the nuts on the
backside of the firewall are located. I had to drill some new holes to mount the CJ
battery tray to the YJ tub since the two have slightly different battery trays. Not a big deal, just be
aware of what is on the other side when you choose where to drill. There is a
reinforcement plate that ends right where I wanted to drill, so be careful to avoid
drilling into the "seam" where they overlap.
Next, I put in the heater/blower assembly. While I had it all out, I also upgraded the
heater motor to a Blazer heater motor—what a difference! All the holes on the YJ tub
lined up perfectly for the CJ heater assembly with the exception of the hole for the
heater motor power plug. That is easily remedied by drilling an appropriately
sized hole for the power plug.
After the heater assembly, I set the dashboard in place and put the steering column
in. This is definitely a two-person job. I pulled the whole column and upper shaft out as
a unit, so it was quite heavy and awkward to handle alone. It’s nice to have someone to hold the column while you
bolt it to the tub and line up the splines on the shaft, if that is the way you chose to
remove it.
Then came the dashboard and all the gauges and associated wiring. Not all of the dash
bolt holes line up, so I used the ones that did. They seem to be plenty strong to hold the
dash in place. I had to move the windshield hold down bracket holes a little to
accommodate the differences in the YJ tub. The other option would have been to drill new
holes in the YJ tub that line up with the existing holes in the dash, but that seemed like
the more difficult approach. Installing all the gauges is not fun, unless you enjoy lying
on your back on the uneven tub floor while cramming your hands into the little space
behind the dash panel. When taking the gauges out, I plugged them all back into their
appropriate wires and stored the whole gauge cluster and wiring harness as one unit. That
way, when the time came to reinstall them I wouldn’t have to solve a wiring puzzle.
That ended up saving me a lot of time and hassle.
Then I bolted the CJ fenders on. They bolted right on. I did have difficulty lining up
some of the tubular fender support bars on the driver’s side, but I determined that
it was strong enough without one of the bars.
Next I decided to have a new windshield installed into my new windshield frame. What a
fiasco this turned out to be. I tried explaining to the non Jeep knowledgeable woman on
the other end of the phone that I needed a windshield installed into the windshield frame
that is currently unattached to my Jeep. After about 20 minutes of explaining that the
frame comes off the vehicle, she still asked me if I would need a ride after I dropped off
my vehicle. I tried one last time to tell her that I was delivering the windshield frame
only, in the back of my other vehicle, so I would not need a ride. This started the
process all over again, so finally I just told her to order my windshield and I’ll
bring the vehicle in for installation, and no I won’t need a ride. If they
hadn’t had a price significantly lower than the competition, I would have gone
elsewhere just out of frustration. To their credit, they did do a fine job of installing
the windshield.
Installing the windshield frame was fairly simple, it just required a little
modification to the windshield hold down brackets. They didn’t turn out looking so
good, so they are temporary until I can make better ones.
The front seats and seatbelts went in without any trouble since the holes in the YJ
tub are the same as the CJ tub. The backseat, however, required some drilling. There were
three existing holes for the rear of the seat to bolt to, but I had to drill new holes in
the tub for the front of the seat. I didn’t take any measurements, but I think the
seat sits further forward then it did in the CJ. It may have fit better if I had used the
two existing front holes in the YJ tub and re-drilled the three holes in the tub for the
rear of the seat. I plan to do something different with the seat anyway. I’d like to
get a fold and tumble from a YJ or possibly lift the CJ seat a little and store my
speakers and other stuff under the seat, or just remove the seat altogether.
Now that everything is together, it’s time to fire up the engine. Anxious to hear
my engine purr, I turn the key. Nothing. Great, ignition systems are not one of my
favorite things to trouble shoot. It took about two hours of messing with stuff to come to
the embarrassing realization that I didn’t re-install my Alpine alarm system which
has an ignition kill built in to it. So I dug out the alarm and the plethora of wiring
that goes along with it. I had been careful to label MOST of the wires when I removed it,
so I figured it would be easy to install. Wrong. It would have been easy, but the shop
that originally installed the system had made some mistakes, so unbeknownst to me, there
were multiple splices in my wiring, some of which weren’t in the proper place. So
then starts my quest to find a wiring diagram for the alarm. Nope. If you are not a
certified installer, you can’t get one. Don’t want that little bit of rocket
science to get into the hands of the wrong criminal (like they don’t already know how
to disable alarms). So I decided to bypass the alarm system, and take it to the shop later
and get the wires I had mixed up fixed.
Test Drive time. After a few cranks to get some fuel in the
carb, it started up and
idled a little rough for a minute and then smoothed right out. I carefully backed it out
of the garage and went for a drive around the block. I came to a stop sign and stepped on
the brakes…POP…no brakes…after the ½ second of panicking, I realized what
had happened. I forgot to put the retaining pin on the lever that goes from the brake
booster to the brake pedal and the lever fell off. Luckily for me it was late and no one
was on the road. I had yet to install my front bumper and I had the CJ insured
as a garage bound project vehicle. I was able to crawl home and fix my
oversight. I learned a valuable lesson—Double-check all vital systems!
 
This is what the Jeep looks like now that it has the YJ tub on
it.
 
n2jeepn.com
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