beater!

[motown2]

ehall-sweet ideas in here man-what are those tail lights off of?

 

[ehall]

Hey, the tail-lights are from the Jeep 2500, a later version of the XJ that was sold in China. If you look in the Street and Performance forum you'll find info on buying some

 

[stephenspann27]

Yeah I've been thinking about that but then again it's one of those things easier said than done--you pretty much need 3 hands to keep the sensor leads from shorting in the water or to keep the wires from shorting against the pot. Also if this is a 230 switch then it'll be higher than the boiling point of water, which may be a problem. Maybe I'll rig up a coathanger and see what happens.

In the meantime I've looked at other switch options and decided to get the two-pin switch for the 85ish to 95ish BMWs. Most of these use the 3-pin switch I mentioned earlier but there is apparently a 2-pin on/off version that is supposed to come on at 203F (95C) and go off at 194F (90C). Four Seasons part number is 36511, the one I bought from NAPA was ATM part number 1435033. It's a basic 2-pin switch like the others except it is 14mm thread instead of 3/8 NPT.

I had a 3/8 to 1/4 NPT converter laying around so rather than buy another pipe I just drilled out the adapter to 1/2 inch and then used a M14x1.5 bolt to cut a thread in the adapter, then put the adapter into the existing hole in the tube. I also had to get a $2 tube of high-pressure/high-temperature pipe sealant from Lowes, since the thread on the pipe is getting worn from all my swapping switches.

It seems to work a little bit higher than the stated temps but it works great where it is--the switch comes on right when the gauge needle goes to the top of the 210 hash mark and then goes off again when the gauge drops below the hash mark, so basically it comes on after a couple of minutes at a red light then goes off as soon as I start moving again, or after the fan has wicked enough heat off the hose and pipe. Basically that's perfect. I still want to do the 3-pin switch or the SPAL controller but both of those will require some wiring work and I want to get my relay/fuse box done first, as of now I'm very pleased with the way this is working.

I have similar setup for my temp probe. I bought a metal 1.25'' T adapter that had the correct size bung. Then I bought a short 1.25'' metal pipe that was threaded on both ends. I cut that pipe in half, then threaded the ends into the pipe, giving me a smooth surface to clamp my hoses to....

P.S. Before buying the T adapter, I drilled and tapped and tapped a piece of pipe with a NPT thread.. and it leaked just like yours.

 

[ehall]

Last thing was to replace the trackbar bracket hardware with new nuts and bolts. I have been having to periodically tighten the original hardware, and some of the threads on the originals were flattened from rubbing on the bracket, so I figured I would replace all of the old stuff with new parts and see if that helped anything. I found some class 10 flange nuts at True Value, and some class 10.9 bolts in my baggie, and larded them up the red loctite. I still have some popping noises that I need to locate, but I'm pretty sure the bracket isn't moving around.

The source of my popping was the lower trackbar bolt, which I somehow stupidly never checked in all of my messing with the upper hardware. Since I was already down there, also decided to retorque control arm hardware now that the lift has settled a bit. The ride is nice and queit now, no more clunking around corners or crossing over road defects. My only real concern at the moment is that the OME steering stabilizer is awfully close to the drag link, and it looks like they might be rubbing in a couple of spots although I don't see any bare metal spots yet. Not sure what to do about that or if I should even worry about it.

 

[cherokee89]

ehall, you truly have a major sickness.

I really, really wish you were my neighbor! :loveu:

Thank you for sharing all of this work and write-ups. I am jealous, impressed and inspired.

I am serious about wishing you were my neighbor, though. I would bring you bbq and drool on your work. This is one hell of a contribution to :cheers:

 

[altierior]

Last week I greased up the caliper bolts and sliders and inspected the axle u-joints. The passenger side u-joint was clearly shot. As you can see below, they are all dry, while the black stain is what's left of a needle bearing that got pulverized somehow. These are the 5-760x that I installed new in Dec 2007, so that is 30 months of use with non-greasable u-joints (sorry for the fuzzy pic).

I really need to have greasable joints if I'm going to be doing snow and mud so I decided to buy the Alloy X-Joints. They are solid center like the 5-760x but have zerk fittings on the caps to grease the local bearings. I think Begster runs these on his trail jeep.

I also decided to clearance for full-circle clips since the Alloys include them in the kit. It looks like the best tool for this is an ~8" bench grinder but I don't have one of those so I had to figure something else. The only thing that worked in the end was running the Dremel through the ears, and clearancing from behind. Slow going to do 4 ears, I probably used half a pack of the reinforced cutoff wheels, but the job got done

Here's a pic of the X-Joints installed. Smooth and quiet on the passenger side now.

I have another joint for the drivers side, and will swap it out in a few days when weather clears up a bit.

i also like the greasability of the Alloy-X joints.

an FYI for anyone considering the full-circle clips. i run the full-circle clips and can tell you that they can be installed WITHOUT any grinding. it is tight and the install is difficult and frustrating, but it CAN be done without any modifications to the axle yokes.

 

[Begster]

I've been checking in here from time to time, I just haven't commented before.

I really need to have greasable joints if I'm going to be doing snow and mud so I decided to buy the Alloy X-Joints. They are solid center like the 5-760x but have zerk fittings on the caps to grease the local bearings. I think Begster runs these on his trail jeep.

I would probably call that Jeep my jack stand Jeep, rather than my trail Jeep, since it spends a lot more time on jackstands than on the trail.

What brand joint were you running before, spicers? Its funny I should read this, since I just picked up some Spicer 760s to replace my fubared alloy X joint.

Here is my experience. I know I've read people having problems with them, but I hoped that I had ordered them before they started having quality issues. I got them when I did my build, and I've only put two wheeling trips on them, and I drive around on the street with the hubs unlocked.

I've been complaining for a while now, at least a year, that the axle seal on my long side tube is already shot, and leaking fluid out the tube. Well I was doing a bunch of work recently, and I was greasing the u-joints (which I really haven't done, and very well could be why one of them is already shot), and the little zerks wouldn't accept any grease. I ended up having to pull off the zerks and just inject the grease directly in there, but when I went to do the passenger side, there was a good amount of play in the joint, and this was the cause for the axle seal. I would say they lasted around a year, as the seal has been leaking for a while.

I wish you better luck with them than I had, just keep them greased.

 

[ehall]

The zerks wouldn't accept grease on mine either. Like you said, I pulled the fittings out and then filled the cavity directly so that they would have grease. I'd like to experiment with other fittings but for now this is good enough.

The previous joints were Spicers, and were installed soon after the engine swap. The one with the pulverized needle bearing only lasted a year or so I guess.

Another option worth considering maybe is the 5-297-1x which is a new version of the older greaseable joint. It's hollow inside but maybe the metal is stronger

 

[ehall]

Nice weather here all week thanks to the hurricane sucking all the moisture out of the air as it went past. Doors off and its 80 degrees so I drove down to the lighthouse at the end of the peninsula

That is all

 

[stephenspann27]

Since your doorless are you going to look into some unibody stiffeners?

 

[ehall]

I had a set of TNT but decided I didn't need them yet since I don't do any serious off-roading, so I sold them to a local guy that wanted them. After I upgrade axles, I will get another set.

 

[ehall]

I was doing a bunch of work recently, and I was greasing the u-joints (which I really haven't done, and very well could be why one of them is already shot), and the little zerks wouldn't accept any grease. I ended up having to pull off the zerks and just inject the grease directly in there, but when I went to do the passenger side, there was a good amount of play in the joint, and this was the cause for the axle seal. I would say they lasted around a year, as the seal has been leaking for a while.

I wish you better luck with them than I had, just keep them greased.

The zerks wouldn't accept grease on mine either. Like you said, I pulled the fittings out and then filled the cavity directly so that they would have grease. I'd like to experiment with other fittings but for now this is good enough.

The previous joints were Spicers, and were installed soon after the engine swap. The one with the pulverized needle bearing only lasted a year or so I guess.

I did some of my Spring maintenance today and greased everything up. The X-joints had started grinding a little on tight turns, so I knew they were going dry. I was able to grease them through the zerk fittings this time, and the grease bubbled and popped out the seals like you'd expect, so maybe the seals had loosened up a bit, or the bearings were worn down a little from losing some of the starter grease. Anyways it was no problem adding grease, and once I got them done the u-joints are quiet on turns again.

This is about the same length of time that the Spicers started making noise, the difference is that I can grease these while I couldn't grease the Spicers.

 

[ehall]

Today I rerouted a hose. On the RENIX and early 90s models, the A/C return line from the expansion block to the compressor goes against the passenger fender, behind the PDC, like so:

I want to put a secondary PDC for add-on stuff like lights and relays on that fender wall, so I needed to move the hose. However I have been chasing down leaks ever since I got the thing, and this was the first winter that held a refrigerant charge. So I had a buddy make a new hose, replace the drier, and charge the system correctly. Now the return line goes straight down and up to the compressor, and the passenger fender wall is open.

I know it's stupid but I've been working on this checklist item for 5 years

I also found a HP D30 with 4.10 gears in the junkyard. I plan to do the WJ knuckle swap and a couple of other things but need to get a matching rear first.

 

[ehall]

I installed a hack-n-tap on my 242 over the weekend. My long-term plan was to get a Tom Woods modified output shaft but a few months ago I changed my mind and decided to cut this one. The winning argument in my mind was the simplicity and survivability of having the same shaft and u-joints on both axles--if I break something somewhere I can find an XJ shaft easily, and if I can't find one then I can move the front to the rear and get on down the road.

I used the Dirtbound Off-Road hack-n-tap kit with the tailcone conversion option.

Unbolt the old tailcone, measure the depth of the new yoke (2.75"), then mark and cut the output shaft to that length.

The kit came with 5/16th bits and a tap for a 3/8th bolt, but I decided to use 8mm body bolt with a large captive washer, so I drilled to 9/32 and used an old 8mm tap I already had. Okay the real reason I decided to stop there was that the outer heat-treated part of the shaft is freakin tough and it was melting drill bits, so I stopped where I was and tapped for 8mm

The pinion angle was visibly off and I was getting some light vibes around 55 MPH. I had already bought a set of Warrior Products 4-degree shims for 2.5" axle pad (yay D35) and some 3/8th recessed head 2.75" long grade-8 bolts, so those went on too.

Overall it was a surprisingly tough job. The hardest part was drilling the output shaft, which took several hours and chewed up multiple bits (FYI 3-in-1 oil is no substitute for cutting oil). The second hardest part was trying to get the u-bolts back on the after replacing the leaf pins for the shims. For some reason it was really hard to get both legs of the u-bolts in the holes.

Ride quality is nice, and its really quiet without the front driveshaft.

My concern at the moment is that the cap-to-cap distance on the rear is a couple of inches longer than the front, so the driveshaft is kind of stretched out. However if I swap in a stronger axle like a D44 or switch to something with a plate like an 8.8 then the pinion will be longer so the shaft length will shrink. I just gotta be careful in the meantime, which is alright since I refuse to wheel hard with this D35

 

[kndrewa]

nice work!

 

[ehall]

I picked up a 29-spline 8.25 with 4.10 gears from a salvage house today. It's pretty new, heck it still has some of the factory stickers and the brake drum that's still on it is from the factory too. Only thing keeping me from parking on it and swapping it in is that it's from a 99 so the parking brake cables are wrong.

I am planning a disc conversion and a True Trac LSD. The front D30 will get most of the bling.

 

[OverlandZJ]

Nice Eric!

I have to reread this thread for some ideas on the new rig.


OT: I still havent been able to contact him either.. i need to take a ride over. Glad you found something.

 

[ehall]

I got the 8.25 installed today along with some other stuff

Here's the 8.25 vs the D35 that was in it. The pic doesn't make things as obvious as I'd like but the 8.25 is bigger tubes, bigger pumpkin (look at the shoulder width), plus its 29-spline with 4.10 gears, and the brakes are all new without me having to ghetto-fab the adjuster wheels or splice out rusted lines. It was pretty simple to move the parking brake over so that is working too. Interesting to put an 8.25 back in... the jeep originally came with a 27-spline 8.25 but it was replaced with a D35 after a rear-side collision, but 29-spline with 4.10 it might as well be a new one anyway

The other big upgrade was a set of the new OME long-travel shocks to replace the JK shocks with 1" BPEs that I'd put in with the original lift. The rear gained a little more uptravel, but the front got quite a bit more down travel and a little more uptravel as well--my suspension is my limiter now. The ride quality should be much better too since the valving is much lighter (easier to compress by hand and not as fast to extend back).

Here are the rears

And the fronts

The other change was to replace the 4-degree shims I'd installed with the hack-n-tap with 6-degree shims since I was getting vibes with the others. This puts my pinion about 1.5 degrees above the driveshaft when the jeep is unloaded (and about .5 degree above when it's loaded with all my tools), but I can go into the 70s without vibes so whatever.

Here's the finished job

I still plan to install a TrueTrac LSD, do the disc conversion, and put in some u-bolt eliminator pads with 5-degree angle, but I wanted to get that crappy axle out of there ASAP. Now I need to swap out the front D30 so I can get 4.10 up front and get all-wheel-drive back.

I haven't really noticed a big difference in performance. It's there but it's not as big of a boost as some of my engine mods

 

[ehall]

Wanted to document some shock travel notes for reference so I can delete my local notes

Front Travel (compressed x extended)
no shocks RTI ramp 17" x 25.5"
RE 3.5 specs 16" x 26"
JK w/ BPE 15.5" x 23.75" (not enough up or downtravel, severely limited on downtravel)
OME 60052L 15.4" x 26.7" (I measured 16" x 27.25")

Rear Travel
no shocks RTI ramp 17" x 21.75"
RE 3.5 specs 15" x 24"
JK w/ BPE 15.75" x 24.25" (good enough)
OME 60053L 14.4" x 24.5" (I measured 15" x 25")

 

[ehall]

So I finally finished installing the exhaust parts from the engine swap... 2 years later. When I did the swap I didn't have all the flange pieces so we welded some stuff together as a "short term" solution. Then I put a hole in my cat converter last year and have been slowly buying the exhaust parts needed to construct a proper setup, and finally got around to doing it today. The hardest part to this was the flange piece, since I couldn't find anybody who would sell one with a 2.5" hole in it, so I had to get a machine shop to fabricate one for me. But now I can unbolt the exhaust in sections

The cat is a Magnaflow 23229, which is listed as a direct fit but (1) the inlet size is 2.5" which is different from stock, and (2) the cat has an air tube and the stock setup had neither a need or a provision. I notice a little more passing power at speed, which was my main concern.

You can also see the brown flange which connects to the isolator, and that replaces original parts that were melted and molested from 350k miles of activity. The rest of the setup is as it was after the swap, namely a Thorley header into a custom 2.5" downpipe with a flexpipe in front of the crossmember, and a Borla muffler after the cat.