What did you do to your XJ today

A full day hassle but Turned this


In to this

Did some maintenance of the weekend. I'm driving to Yellowstone in Two weeks so I wanted to make sure I took care of some low hanging fruit. Xj is at 250k and was still using factory water pump and the overflow tank had cracked. Radiator was replaced with a CSF all metal unit 3 years ago so that should be good.

Replaced:
Water Pump
Thermostat
Thermostat housing
Fan Clutch
Overflow tank
radiator cap

This week I will be flushing the power steering and brake fluids as well as replacing front and rear shocks. Front is getting Bilstein 5100s and rear is getting some Monroe load adjusting shocks to help with the sag when loaded with camping gear.

WaXJ_Skier said:

Did some maintenance of the weekend. I'm driving to Yellowstone in Two weeks

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Goodluck, I've been thru there 7 times and the last time was the worse for idiots all over the road. old faithful is small, but the best thing in my opnion is the grand Canyon of yellowstone. I'll probly head thru glacier national park on my way home in a week or two.

when you did the CSF radiator, did you experince any odd cooling behavior. I bought a tripple fan setup from you a few years ago and it was fine on the oem radiator. once i switched to the CSF it runs cold on the highway without fans running and pulling a grade it starts to get around 230*. I'm thinking my weird cooling is from the radiator or hesco hi flow tstat hoising


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cody4359 said:

Goodluck, I've been thru there 7 times and the last time was the worse for idiots all over the road. old faithful is small, but the best thing in my opnion is the grand Canyon of yellowstone. I'll probly head thru glacier national park on my way home in a week or two.

when you did the CSF radiator, did you experince any odd cooling behavior. I bought a tripple fan setup from you a few years ago and it was fine on the oem radiator. once i switched to the CSF it runs cold on the highway without fans running and pulling a grade it starts to get around 230*. I'm thinking my weird cooling is from the radiator or hesco hi flow tstat hoising


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I had those fans on a CSF radiator as well, I remember easily being able to run around 197 and hitting 212 on hills.

Been awhile since my last update. Haven't been feeling all that well. I had joked in a previous post about getting hernias putting the lift on. Well turns out it was no joke. I have two. ugh! Just got the official diagnosis today.

My work on the jeep has been limited as to how I feel so a few things have been done. Photobucket turned my all my linked pictures into horrible modern art. Every time I think bout fixing them I feel like not going through all the trouble. My Day job is consuming sunny summer days faster than I can blink.

Ordered lots of parts nearly a month ago. Not all in yet so I'm still waiting for stuff to show up. But I did get a shiny new twin compressor for OBA. Started building a bracket to mount under the hood. Actually its built and painted just need to install it. It will bolt directly to the same mounting points as the air box. Will be installing THOR cowl intake to make room for the compressor. The mounting bracket is made from motorcycle, minivan, and XJ scrap parts but it turned out well.

Front axle has been rebuilt and is back under the jeep. This was the third time for front axle swap. I'm getting good at it. I did it injured in less than 6 hours. This time I did not man handle it at all. Used Brain over brawn to work through the challenges of just picking it up and setting it in place. The very next day the doc advised no lifting over 5-10 pounds. Rolled his eyes and shook his head when I told him my previous days activities. lol ...but that's not the end of the front axle story. It made a horrible wiring noise over 20 MPH. Didn't push it over 45. Called the diff shop and they wanted to check it right away. Turns out the pre-load was set to lite. They changed the crush sleeve and buttoned it. I picked it up tonight and it's smooth as butter. Now front is 4:56 and rear is still 3:55 lol no worries front DS is still disconnected.

Welded on Black Magic sway bar relocation brackets to the C's

Front bumper is finally painted.

Next to do is the Hack-N-Tap and leaf shims. Anyone up for a garage day? I have all the stuff to do it. I think...

Glad to hear you got that front axle sorted out. Sounds like you have a good game plan for the rest of the rig.

the_weirdo said:

Glad to hear you got that front axle sorted out. Sounds like you have a good game plan for the rest of the rig.

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Thanks, everything I know is borrowed from guys like you. atriot:

More than likely it's being overbuilt for what I want to do. But it will leave options to grow if needed and hopefully strong enough to survive my skill level.

I'm having lots of fun building it except for the pain in my gut lol.

A couple of weeks ago, a guy offered to buy my bumpers. Haha I just got them done. But that got me thinking hidden winch in the front and cut and fold rear. Both ends would require modifications or replacements. My goodness does it ever end? Gonna hang on to em for now or I will never get it finished.

Finally sold my axles. Now I just need to sell a few more things to help get my other axles rebuilt and put under my jeep

Put the carpet and Drivers seat back in.. got the transmission issue fixed, A new $16 bolt fixed the rear tire carrier slop..

Little stuff

Removed my redneck 3/4" TC drop (stacks of washers wrapped in electrical tape). I hated it but it served it's purpose as a temporary cure for vibes.

Installed IRO hack-n-Tap on my NP242. Cut the output shaft to the minimum 1 1/4" of splines remaining. Drill and tapping went perfect minus the metal shavings getting stuck in my hair. Measured for shim angle 14* shaft, 5* pinion. CRAP! Difference of 9* and I bought 4* shims. I need 6* to bring it within 2-3 below.

Put the 4* shims in anyway and drove down to NAPA for a u-joint. Absolutely no vibes. But, I'm worried there could be some angular velocity irregularities that could cause damage if not corrected. I would like to get your thoughts. Willing to make a trade for the correct shims if anyone is interested.

Replaced the bad u-joint in the donor JY front drive shaft and put it on the rear. Put the front DS back on the front.

Noticed adding the shims raised the rear a little more. Now my slight rake is too much for my liking. I either can pull a leaf of get some coil spacers. Hmmmm!

Been a month since I ordered the rear locker. Still hasn't shown up. Errrr!

Oh and there is a delay getting the THOR cowl intake so I can't get the air compressor installed yet. The bracket is done though.

Ordered 6* shims today.

Drive train making all kinds of strange noises now. Could be lots of things from the pinion angle to worn u-joints in the donor DS to messed up tranny/motor mounts. Good Times!

Took my Tcase out in preparation for boostwerks hd shift linkage and Tera 2Lo

Still a ways to go, still need to install the acos, winch bumper, drop brackets, leaf springs, and get my axles rebuilt.

Installed Mean Lemons 2AWG battery cables.

Still waiting for the pinion shims, Thor cowl intake, and the rear locker. :rattle:

Oh well, supposed go easy on the guts right now anyway.

Greenz said:

Installed Mean Lemons 2AWG battery cables.

Still waiting for the pinion shims, Thor cowl intake, and the rear locker. :rattle:

Oh well, supposed go easy on the guts right now anyway.

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I've got a pair of 2.5* shims (brand new), and will have a used but still good pair of 4* shims to that I need to swap out for my new 6* shims when I install an add a leaf to my leaf pack. What size shims do you need - 2.5* or 4*? I'll ship them for free. They're both Rubicon Express steel shims.

Old lights

New lights


Sent from my Arse because my hands are full.

Put silicone on the lenses of my LED light bar that gets condensation in the rainy season.

In the middle of moving my rear D44 back 1"

the_weirdo said:

I've got a pair of 2.5* shims (brand new), and will have a used but still good pair of 4* shims to that I need to swap out for my new 6* shims when I install an add a leaf to my leaf pack. What size shims do you need - 2.5* or 4*? I'll ship them for free. They're both Rubicon Express steel shims.

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You are a true gentleman...:cheers:

I had already ordered the 6* by time you made the offer. Good news though. Today I removed the third leaf from the top and replaced the 4* shims for 6*. I'm now sitting nearly level with -2* on the rear pinion/DS. I think the rear is good to go.

Measured the front pinion/DS angle and it's 0.5-1* from being straight. Does anyone know if that is good enough? Strange noises continue. Mostly when braking. Tomorrow I'll pull the front DS and road test again.

Got the air solenoids and the quick disconnect mounted to the manifold. Was going to run an air line to the rear for a QD but I think for now just leave the one in the front. Also connected the front locker air line to the solenoid.

Finally got the rear air locker in the mail. By the way, big shout out to Kolak for getting me the best deal on ARB parts. ...and great customer service too. Called my diff shop to schedule the rear re-gear, They are on vacation this week. Another delay but still making forward progress. I might be ready for a snow run. lol

On the front axle with a lifted jeep it's a fine balance between a good caster angle and a good pinion angle. Generally you want to bias towards getting the caster correct so that the steering isn't "darty" feeling. From what I recall the stock caster measurement is between 5-8 degrees for good "Street-ability". When lifted the caster angle gets usually gets set closer to 4-5 degrees so that the front driveshaft doesn't vibe too much and you maintain some sort of reasonable caster. The only other option is to cut and rotate the C's which IMO isn't worth doing on a D30.

Started to pull the front drive shaft and notices some lateral movement in the slip joint. After I pulled the front DS the strange noise went away. The only way I know to describe the noise is it would groan occasionally like when going over slight bumps. Noise was most prominent when braking growing louder over slight bumps. I guess it could be the worn slip. Still has the original u-joints. They feel smooth without slop.

I could toss the rear DS into the front and check it. They are identical in length.

Wired the air compressor main wire harness from the battery. Ran the control wiring into the cabin. Temporarily connected the switches to test the system. Everything seems to be working well. To finish the OBA, I need cut in a switch box into the dash and install the cowl intake to make room for the compressor.

I work all day tomorrow and Friday go under the knife to fix my torn gut. Won't be able to wrench for a couple of weeks while healing. Probably shouldn't have pulled the leafs and re-shimmed the rear pinion yesterday.

Finally installed my RC control arm drop brackets.

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