Project Unicorn - a light duty trail rig

[rockclimber]

Originally Posted by cal

Not 100% sure at this point, but somewhere in the ballpark;

4" lift (4" deaver leafs, shackle relocators, 4" pac coils)
JK Rubicon 44's front and rear
4.88 gears, 35 spline rear, 32 spline inner/outer front
33" AT's
Atlas 3.8

I'll let Russ whisper to the motor and see what happens there, but we can be sure something will go down.

As far as bumpers, sliders, etc - what's available has changed so much that I really have no idea what is out there anymore. As much as it sounds contradictory to say when you're talking about 300 horsepower and an atlas on JK axles, I mean this to be more of a commuting and camping rig - just built to where it won't break or wear things out quickly.

I do really want a Genrite gas tank for it, but I can't see myself paying the price.

If I were doing sliders/Armor again I think it would be these

http://www.jcroffroad.com/product/XJ/XJSL-CR.html

http://www.jcroffroad.com/product/XJ/XJQU-RR.html

[cal]

Since doing the atlas swap, I've had some driveline vibes at highway speeds.

I assumed it was pinion angle, since I'm running a CV driveshaft but have the rear end in the stock location; so i grabbed some shims and set out to adjust it.

Once I got it up on jacks and pulled the tires though, the pinion angle looked pretty good to me (I remember looking at it when I did the install and thinking it should be fine..?). So I tossed the jeep in gear and let it run. There was *massive* run-out on the driveshaft.

OOPS.

Pulled it hoping that maybe Ray at OC Driveline can balance it out for me, as I really don't want to drop $350 on a new driveshaft right now.


Ray chucked it up and found it was bent, with just under 3/8" runout. crap crap. I don't want to have to retube it but it seemed inevitable

Ray looks at me and says "no problem, i'll straiten and balance it. $55."

..what?

i guess once i thought about it, its no difference from straitening an axle housing; i just never considered it before. He was nice enough to let me take some video for you guys.


Heating it up and quenching to move the tube.



He did that 4 times in 4 places on the tube, but I only shot video once.

The machine is basically a cradle with a dial indicator on both ends. This was after the last straiten, during the balance process.



Here he's spinning it up to 3500 RPM's to check the balance after welding the weights on.




I can run the jeep up to 85 and there are no driveline vibes at all; before it was pretty apparently after about 45.


.... now my rear end appears to be going out - probably from the vibes. Need to find myself an XJ44.

[rum_maximus]

Originally Posted by cal

I do really want a Genrite gas tank for it, but I can't see myself paying the price.

A ZJ gas tank will plug right in to replace the XJ tank and will get you a hair over 25gal. Not quite the +10gal that the GenRight will give you, but getting an extra 5gal capacity for about $40 or so let me put some $$$ elsewhere.

XJ on the left, ZJ on the right. I threw in a new fuel pump while I was doing the swap since the old one was on the way out. Part #s on both the old pumps were the same, so I bought a Bosch 67658 on Amazon (www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001C6023G).



I threw 2.5gal in the empty ZJ tank to get me to the gas station down the road from my house, then pumped a hair over 23gal to fill it up.

[cal]

Which gas tank skid did you run?

[rum_maximus]

Originally Posted by cal

Which gas tank skid did you run?

Haven't put a skid plate on there yet, been looking for an OEM one from a junkyard or someone parting out so I can test fit (on the cheap) to see if there are any issues clearing the ZJ tank. From reading thru the original thread where RedJeep2.0 did the swap, it looks like they both hang down the same amount. So hopefully the XJ skid "should" bolt right on.


Unfortunately all my $$$ lately is going into a custody fight over my daughter instead of into the XJ.

[Joecam18]

Originally Posted by rum_maximus

Haven't put a skid plate on there yet, been looking for an OEM one from a junkyard or someone parting out so I can test fit (on the cheap) to see if there are any issues clearing the ZJ tank. From reading thru the original thread where RedJeep2.0 did the swap, it looks like they both hang down the same amount. So hopefully the XJ skid "should" bolt right on.


Unfortunately all my $$$ lately is going into a custody fight over my daughter instead of into the XJ.

Do you have a link to that RedJeep2.0 thread?

[rum_maximus]

Originally Posted by Joecam18

Do you have a link to that RedJeep2.0 thread?

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthrea...1122906&page=3

Gas tank swap starts at post #39, towards the bottom of the page.

[XJEEPER]

I'd love to know if the factory XJ fuel tank skid will fit over the ZJ tank.....I see this in my future, as I'd love to extend my range by 5 gals.

[cal]

I imagine the factory ZJ tank skid would. I have seen a few people run the ZJ skids with an XJ tank, seemed to bolt in with minimal work.

[cal]

For as long as I've had this jeep, its always run cool.

Now that its getting cold out, I also discovered I had no heat. Which isn't a big deal in SoCal, but no defroster really is a problem.

Pulled under the carport and drained some coolant.



Pulled the thermostat. It doesn't close all the way.



New 195* thermostat. New housing. Flushed the heater core backward while it was apart.

Everything works great now.

Boring update, but I've been working on other projects.

[Kittrell]

Originally Posted by cal

The underside of this jeep is as clean as the top.

[XJensen]

Originally Posted by cal

I imagine the factory ZJ tank skid would. I have seen a few people run the ZJ skids with an XJ tank, seemed to bolt in with minimal work.

I have a zj gas tank in my Jeep. I used the stock zj skid as well and everything fits just fine. The tank fills most of the additional space in its width, just fits between the rails.

The tank mounts just like the stock zj tank and the zj skid just needed new mounting holes drilled. I don't see why an aftermarket xj skid wouldn't fit either

[IslanderOffRoad]

Originally Posted by cal

14 gauge into the cab, up under the dash, and feeding both the 12v port and the usb ports. The extra switches are just filling holes for the moment, I'm not even sure what they will end up being in the long run.

Any particular reason you ran wiring to the battery for the USB and 12v rather than just running them off the wiring for the stock lighters? Got my switch panel last week but haven't wired anything yet

[cbs_24]

Cool build. Strongly considering the ZJ tank swap since my pump seems to be on its last leg and I'll be swapping it soon anyway.

[Goose_XJ88]

Subscribing. I really like that switch panel. looks so much better than the typical switch panels most people run. IMHO

Never knew those switches existed.