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My XJ build thread

Which bump stop did you use?

For the rear I used a 2x2 square tube and then I used the 4" rusty's bump stop.

For the front, I put hockey pucks, I first tried glue, industrial glue, then I finally just used a bolt and nut and put it through them all. I think I used 2 hockey pucks in the front, inside the coil. My upper bumpstops are getting a little worn. May need to replace those soon.
 
ok cool. the lift came with some bump spacers for the rear, ill probably use those and a longer stop back there too, in the front i put in some daystar poly bumps that are trimmable. my stock ones looked like doggy chew toys.
 
ok cool. the lift came with some bump spacers for the rear, ill probably use those and a longer stop back there too, in the front i put in some daystar poly bumps that are trimmable. my stock ones looked like doggy chew toys.

haha yeah my fronts are looking the same
 
The official front bump stop of the RRC are softballs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
What is that gold bracket on the frame rail on the front?
that is a frame machine clamp i bought on ebay to pull the frame damage out with. Im going to redneck it with a come-a-long and a tree but should be able to pull it out. the two frame shops i took it to told me it was going to cost between 4-600 dollars. 25 dollar clamp and a borrowed come-a-long ill take my chances with it and see how it goes. it doesnt need much to be pulled out
 
How are you liking your Rusty's 4.5" long arm? I am looking at the same lift (either 4.5" or 6"). I would love to hear your opinion about your lift after having it installed for a while.
 
Which bump stop did you use?

When I put a 3.5" lift I used a couple pieces of 2x4 box tube + original bumps in the rear, and 3 hockey pucks (1" each) + original bumps on each side in the front. I whirewheeled the lower spring mount clean and scuffed each puck both sides, then glued them together with whatever Gorilla Glue was rated for rubbers/plastics. Total cost was about $18 and has worked great. I had to remove the pucks once to get the coils out and it required judicious use of a sledge+chisel, so I'm no longer afraid of them falling out on the trail.

I'm running 31s on stock wheels with Spidertrax 1.25" spacers and original flares - no rubbing at all at full compression/lock... you'll have to tune yours a bit for 33s and whatever lift you end up with, but for budget I found that setup hard to beat.
 
oh, I thought it was a new brand of d-ring mounts you got from somewhere... that would tuck nicely behind the bumper!

haha no sadly this jeep had a hard life before me. probably a harder one now that i have it though haha.

How are you liking your Rusty's 4.5" long arm? I am looking at the same lift (either 4.5" or 6"). I would love to hear your opinion about your lift after having it installed for a while.

its super robust. feels super overbuilt and i like that. it was really complete and aside from a few dumb moments of my own doing and the jeep just flat out refusing to cooperate the install wouldnt be that bad. the way the frame brackets and crossmember go to gether doesnt make a ton of sense to me from a service standpoint, but strength wise it makes sense. basically the frame plates sandwich the crossmember mounting tabs underneath it. which means to take the crossmember out, you have to drop your control arms completely and unbolt the frame braces as well. i have the rock sliders still to put on, which also tie into those frame plates, so thatll be ONE MORE thing that has to come off if i need to get the transmission out. its probably going to be a headache later on because i dont have a lift, but if i end up needing to do a trans or something later down the road ill have to use my buddies shop
 
PROGRESS!!!

so i realized when doing the brake lines the other day my buddy didnt seat the drivers side spring correctly so i had to fix that. also had a chance to flex it a bit and see where it was going to contact (basically everywhere)

QI0fcF8.jpg

0ixZQYw.jpg


my jack is no where close to flexing this thing out completely but i did get into the fenders which i anticipated.

so we fixed the spring orientation
ran to the parts store and picked up a new battery and terminals and some brake fluid
installed the rear brake line, bled the brakes
installed the battery and terminals.
fired it off and checked clearance turning the wheel, got into the fenders on both sides. i was losing light and knew i wasnt going to get the full fender cut done so i just nipped the back corners of the front fenders off so i could test drive it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za8NmvV9e8Y



but now my speedo doesnt work haha. one more thing to fix before i can get it inspected.
 
Last edited:
trimmed the front fenders saturday just before the rain moved in. Once i got done with the fronts and was about to move to the rear the thunder and wind kicked up. cleaned up tools and went inside, 20 minutes later its pouring!

FpIHIln.jpg

LVUPn13.jpg


plan on doing some of the black door trim around the edge to clean it up a bit, but it looks pretty good for using a dirt line as a cut line haha.
 
FYI I used that trim. It didn't last long, and was great for holding water and dirt, and rusted my previously rust free fenders out, even tho I tried to paint. Coming along nicely tho!
 
very robust. ive only driven it around the neighborhood so far due to my tags being out and my speedo mysteriously dying during the lift process and a blinker that doesnt get 12v. havent done any offroading but the ride in the neighborhood even with the cheap white body shocks is way better than my blown out 92 factory equipment. install is a bit finicky but overall not too bad.

just took forever because the jeeps suspension had never been serviced before so all the bolts were fused into place. took a lot longer than i anticipated.

ive got no real complaints with the kit.
 
Check that your speedo gear is meshing with the worm gear on the output shaft. You should be able to loosen the clamp bolt and rotate the drive housing by hand. It's an eccentric design so by turning it you can make the gear engage or disengage. That was my "no speedometer" problem on one of my previous XJs when I did the SYE kit. That may or may not be the issue but it's worth looking at if everything else seems okay.
 
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