Project Unicorn - a light duty trail rig

[dan1977p]

Originally Posted by IslanderOffRoad

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

If I read the earlier posts correctly, he wanted constant 12v power to the usb ports instead of ignition switched power.

[cal]

Originally Posted by IslanderOffRoad

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

I wanted always on. Existing wire is on with key only.

[rockclimber]

Mine and every other late model XJ I've seen has had 2- 12v ports. One key only and one constant.

Did yours only have the 1? Maybe it's a "sport" thing

[cal]

Hmm. I deleted one of them right away, and probably never sampled power on it.

Either way I'd have done it the way I did.

[Goose_XJ88]

Originally Posted by rockclimber

Mine and every other late model XJ I've seen has had 2- 12v ports. One key only and one constant.

Did yours only have the 1? Maybe it's a "sport" thing

Good to know. Ill have to check that out when I get around to wiring mine.

[RedHeep]

I ran my panel to an open spot on the fuse panel and put an add a fuse in it. Constant fused power and no fishing wires through the firewall. An option if you haven't done yours yet.

[Lake919]

Not sure if you still want an XJ 44 but I have one sitting in my garage, not sure what shipping from AL to CA would cost but I'd gladly let you have it for a hundred bucks plus shipping of course. You and a select few others on here have always given me solid build advice. Just throwing it out there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cal]

Mark (Sidewaystarion) got one for me a couple of months ago.

Thanks though!

[cal]

Well, I have updates for this thread. I started fixing posts with imgur, but I'm not pleased so I guess its going to wait until I find a new host.

[Anak]

I sure hope photobucket dies a spectacular death.

If there is any company on the internet that deserves to blacklisted it is photobucket.

Come to think of it, that would probably be the most appropriate response for all other forums and things like facebook. Simply block everything from photobucket. Treat them like a spam or porn site. Give them a dose of their own medicine and see how they like it. Invite anyone else to play the same game.

Hmm...

Where do I start an online petition to the innerweb at large? Probably facebook, and I am not on there.

[cal]

So we'll try imgur out for a few posts and see what happens.

Front end on the unicorn was sloppy and the car was wandering a bit. I have bare HP30/XJ44 housings on the shelf for this build, but am not there yet, and couldn't wait. I was going to just rebuild the front with the 2wd beam, but Asa brought me a 3.55 geared lp30, so I slapped that in.

The dirtiest axle I have ever seen. Came out of a rock quarry.

So, off with the old.



Tossed in some new bumpstops and coils.

The bumpstops are just OEM replacement Crown Automotive stuff. The coils are RV778's from Rock Auto. OEM height progressive coils, with the same 2" spacer above them I ran before.



Slap in the new axle, and knock the balljoints out.



They were TIGHT in the housing. We broke Dallas's balljoint press and ended up borrowing a new OTC press from a friend.

Seriously, we did damage to the joints removing them.



New Spicer joints going in.



Before going too far into reassembly, we did UCA bushings as well. Replaced them with JK UCA bushings. Bolt in replacements, but uses a 7/16 bolt (or some communist metric equivalent). Had to drill the UCA's for the bigger bolt.

[cal]

Got the new balljoints in, and got the knuckles on.



Tossed some new Spicer 760's on the shafts, didn't bother grinding for full circle clips, this will get alloys before too long.

Andy Bagwell has been pushing these Chinesium unit bearings that he claims are just as good as Spicer, but are $50 a pair. We'll try them out.

(Have you noticed that since facebook has taken over, i can't even remember peoples usernames here anymore..?).



These don't look too bad.




Can't read the fine print.



Installed.

[cal]

There are of course new Centric premium rotors and Black Magic pads going in.

I seem to be missing a few photos here, I blame photobucket.





And suddenly a giant window of missing images, but the brakes got installed.

Next I did a new Moog trackbar and all new Moog Problem solver steering, with the SFR aluminium tie rod replacement, that uses factory XJ tie rod ends.





Lowered the car, did a quick alignment, and then back on the lift for some branding.

[cal]

Dallas had the shackles from his MJ sitting around, so while it was up on the lift I tossed them on the rear.





Tie rod is available here:

http://www.stinkyfab.com/vehicle-spe...t-tie-rod.html

1.25" solid 7075. Probably about the same strength as a ZJ tie rod, except that it bends back and uses factory XJ ends, so easier to keep track of stuff.

Intentionally didn't buy a steering damper, wanted an honest feel for how the front end feels. I planned to add one later, but I may leave it off just to drive rockclimber crazy.

Stance with the new leafs and coils:



Been driving it for a couple of weeks now, its a whole new car. I'm a driveshaft and bolting shifters in away from 4 wheel drive, which is nice too, but still mostly incidental.

The coils were a game changer, really softened up the front end. Now I just need to order up some Bilstein shocks and add a couple of hundred horsepower under the hood.

[chris420]

Your XJ looks brand new good work.