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What did you do to your XJ today

Fat Bob's track bar bracket V8 tie rod the angle looks good to me. I'm waiting on my OEM track bar and ball joints to show up then I'll put 93 clappers and knuckles on so my D.D will be set for sometime.
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Sent from my Arse because my hands are full
 
PM'd the cooling system since it was all stock and coolant flushed once in it's life. Half expected to see the water pump impeller to be corroded but it looked near new. Water pump bolts were slightly corroded. I guess it had slight weeping but not leaking. It was a good opportunity to flush the block out but it too was clean and no chunky stuff came out. Heater core was replaced a few years ago when the EVAP sprung a leak.

Original radiator was leaking at the tank several years ago and I band-aided it with Bars stop leak. I was an excellent band aid never leaking again but left the coolant yucky brown. With the three row rad there is still about 5/8" clearance between the rad and clutch fan.

New:
CFC 3 row radiator (all metal)
Gates Hoses (all four)
Water Pump
Thermostat housing
Thermostat (195* was running a 205*)
Fan Clutch

Next up is the new fuel 4 hole injectors (not expecting as a heat soak cure), DEI insulation kit and spark plugs. Hopefully the heat soak goes away.
 
Replaced the spark plugs. Old plugs gap had grown to average of 50 thousands. I can't remember the last time I changed them. 10 years ago. IDK!

Replaced the fuel injectors with 4 hole injectors and insulated the fuel rail with a DEI kit.

Old injectors were cracked and crusty. Had bad heat soak issues and kept throwing codes for mis-fires.

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Shes running smooth as butter now.
 
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I'm on my 3rd computer in 3 years it has cracks in the cowl under the windshield and leaks like crazy when it's out in the rain.

I'm deliberating on swapping my XJ parts over to my MJ. Converting it to 4x4 and moving on from my beat Cherokee.

My other thought is to buy a TJ something about 20 years old instead of 30 years old.

Sent from my Arse because my hands are full
 
The afternoon project began with a simple oil change. I should add that my oil pressure was not very strong like it used to be. It was running around 10 PSI at idle and nearly 40 off idle. Was hoping the fresh oil would bring it up a little. That project started nearly a week ago. The oil pan gasket had been leaking for a few years so I decided to change it since the oil was drained. Even though the lift gave me more room to work I put the jack stands under her uni body and allowed the front axle to droop as much as possible. The grunge was pretty thick mostly on the drivers side so I suspected it was leaking from near there. Once all the bolts were out of the pan it wouldn't drop without the starter out of the way. After the starter was removed, the pan was still hung up. Without thinking things through I dropped the oil pump and the pan was still hung up. Found a corner of the transmission inspection plate bent just enough to keep the pan from sliding down. Duh! After all that stuff was out of the way I figured the rear main seal was just a few more bolts away so why not change it being that close. As far as I know it wasn't leaking but my luck it would start leaking if I didn't change it. The old pan gasket dried up and cracked nearest the exhaust pipes. I'm sure everyone has seen that before. Main seal went in much easier than expected. The old oil pump gasket broke and I needed a new one which no one around here sells. Made a new gasket for the oil pump. Opened up the oil pump and noticed the bottom plate had uneven wear under the drive gear like it had been dropped and dented in on one side. The groove was deep enough it would stop my fingernail from sliding across. Bolted it back to the engine anyway and felt/heard a funny noise right at torque. Looked up with the flashlight and the gasket had moved out of place. So I unbolted the oil pump again and a chunk of the flange fell off and hit my face. Dang it. That was the noise. I had tightened it over the misplaced gasket causing it to break. Off to the parts store for a new pump. Went with the standard flow and it came with a new gasket. *rolls eyes*. It was actually a relief to put in the new pump.


Everything went back together good. Primed the pump and charged the oil system before firing up the engine. No leaks and the oil pressure is now sitting at about 58 PSI at idle. Off idle it doesn't seem to go up any. Glad it's done and I should be leak free for a few more years.



Next project is welding in the frame stiffeners. I have time off for Moab but I have much to do before being road ready to drive that far. Fingers still crossed.
 
Next project is welding in the frame stiffeners. I have time off for Moab but I have much to do before being road ready to drive that far. Fingers still crossed.

I Know the feeling! so much to do, so little time!

Feel like we should do a Moab bound work party..
 
Still need to do:


Frame stiffeners; have

Sliders; don't have

Tank and TC skids; don't have

Front pinion bearing; don't have

Front DS; don't have

Fender flares; don't have
Tranny flush/fill

Put together travel kit. spares, tools, fluids, safety gear, sleeping accommodations. Have most of it.



Could get a trailer and haul it down but the must have list is still long.
 
Drivers side mid frame stiffener is welded in and welds ground smooth. Whew, what a job. Used zinc instead of copper to coat the bare metal between the frame and stiffy. Supposedly corrosion attacks zinc before steel and steel over copper. Although zinc is horrible to weld through, welding went really well where I cleaned the zinc out of the weld areas. I tried the torch and putty knife to clean off the old undercoat. Found it much easier to knock it off with a knotted wire wheel on the 4.5" grinder. Surprised how thin the frame rail was where it began to arch up forward the real wheel. Didn't get pictures. By the time I was done, I was well done.



I expect the passenger side to go much smoother. I will be buying welding sleeves before welding up side down again. Ouch! Ouch times a million!



Question for the experts. Is it really necessary to seam seal the non-welded edges? I see everyone practicing this but it seems to me that moisture is more likely to be trapped if most of it is sealed versus allowing thin air channels to dry it out quicker. I bought seam sealer, just don't know if it's worth it or not.
 
Day 8 or 9 of rewiring the comanche. Fixed my grounding issue that was caused by the dash being tossed in to mockup wires. Tails/haz/blinkers work as they should now and in fixing that issue it fixed my power door lock and keyless entry issue. Just waiting g on some weather tight connectors now

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
It's been about 5 weeks since I started the mid frame stiffeners. Today I finished. Normally I enjoy working on Jeep projects, but I must admit this was not really fun.



The weather has been hot and dry with no rain since I started. Despite the dryness, the raw steel began to flash rust in a few spots. After the final welds, grinding and wire wheeling, I needed to get the metal coated as it has been drizzling this afternoon. Wanted to undercoat the final surface but I didn't have any on hand. It just got seam sealed, primed, and a coat of Rust-Oleum for now.



I am happy this is done as I consider the mid-stiffy the back bone for the rest of the under armor. I still have the front stiffeners in a box. Might be awhile before I weld them in.



Picture is kind of boring and crappy...
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Flushed the heater core (which was nearly plugged), pulled out a 180* thermostat and installed a 195* for better heat in the winter, and replaced the radiator with an aluminum unit from FF Dynamics.

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The old CSF 3-row was damaged by the mechanical fan about a year ago when the XJ was all crossed-up and it also tore off the fan shroud.

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My rear factory bump stops looked a little funny as in the rubber looked to be separating from the metal mounts. I checked how secure they were by tugging on them and they both literally fell off with little effort. How they didn't fall off on the highway mystifies me. So I went to unbolt them and of course the bolts snapped off. The plan was to weld the the front bump stops on to the metal frames of the rears. I previously cut the fronts off to install the ACOS.



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This is the passenger side. Rust was minimal but the drivers side was much worse. Was horrified as I havn't seen rust like that on my rig. Only spent the first four winters of the Jeeps life in Indiana but the salt did lots of damage.


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Welding nuts to the studs failed. On to drilling out the broken bolts. Why? If my idea to fabricate new bump stops failed I could buy replacements and bolt them in. Besides I have lots of experience drilling and tapping broken bolts, especially on this rig. I think originally the bolts were 10mm x 1.5 but I wanted to go 5/16-18. Started with 5/64" drill and slowly stepped up to 17/64ths. Had use a scissors jack between the leafs and broken bolts for drill space.



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Used plenty of tap oil and kept the metal chips out of the way and got good results on all four holes. No broken drills or taps. OH yeah, I even tried the easy outs and heat. Just like the cross member bolts they only came out the hard way. This project was especially difficult as I'm adjusting to wearing contacts and on top of that, mono vision. One eye corrects for distance and one eye corrected for close up. It's difficult but working out.


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Didn't take pictures of making the new bump stops but here is the final product. I just used 2" pipe to extent the bump stop cups to my desired length and welded them to flat stock. I made them about 3/8" longer than stock thinking they might compress more than the old rears. You can see where the rust trashed out the metal plates.



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Here is the the bump stop touching on drivers rear side. Just jacking up the rear didn't allow enough compression for it to make contact. Had to jack passenger front to get the rear to articulate more. Looks like the new bump stops are crooked but its a trick of the camera angle because the body is tilted.



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At full stuff. There is actually a little more space on the right side of the tire than the picture shows. About the same as the front. I plan to go 35's someday and when I do I can add another puck or spacer to the frame rail or more trimming. ...and steelies instead of alloys ;) Fun project!


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Pulled all the stuff from between the engine and rad for timing cover crank seal replacement. Also setup for distributor gasket and oil filter adapter oring replacement. Found most I'd the timing cover bolts loose for some reason. And the lower mount bolt for the ac compressor mount so loose you could push the bolt back and forth. :/

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Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
 
Pulled all the control arms for new bushings.

Completed the R&R of the distributor gasket, oil pressure sending unit and oil filter adapter oring.

Got the harmonic balancer as far as i could without the puller. Need to remove it for a timing cover seal replacement.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
 
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