• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

another build thread. . .

Here's some of the passenger side. It came out ALOT easier and better than the driver's side.


And a couple of the "finished" product :)



I'm hoping to drive it by wed or thurs and work out any little bugs that might come up. If everything goes well, I'd like to test it out at the local mud bog. I figure if I'm going to test it, might as well give it hell 30 min from home, vs. 5 hours at Uwharrie.
 
That front end pic Looks MEAN!!!!!!!! :thumbup:
 
thanks! It looked alot better with the 13.5" wide Gumbo mudders, but they're just spares since one's got a sidewall slit.
 
I am hated. I keep the noise to a minimum until 10 AM and after 9 PM. But I am hated. (until they need something fixed:) )
 
Just a couple updates. I've been driving it to work and back thurs and fri last week without any mechanical issues. However, I'm now throwing 2 tranny codes-P0705 and P1694 and an emmisions code-P1491. I'm pretty sure I got the emissions one taken care of, one of the clamps off the tank was loose and I could rotate the hose with my hand. The tranny codes are new though, but it's shifting fine. . . huh. I also have two gauges that seem to be on their own program. . . My fuel gauge doesn't read anything, not sure what's going on there. I spliced 30" of new wire in the harness to reach my tank new home, so I'll probably be taking that apart and redoing it. Then there's the oil pressure gauge. You start it up and it shoots straight to 80 psi. I changed the oil/filter and it still does it. Once the engines warmed up it might creep to 40 or so. I drove it for 3 days and it doesn't do anything wierd, so I'm assuming it's the gauge. I'm thinking that maybe I didn't reconnect a ground somewhere, but I can't seem to find a schematic that'll help me out. The only one I can find is for the PCM. . .

On the bright side, I bought a new tranny cooler and turned my old one into a power steering cooler. It gave me a good reason to finally flush my power steering fluid-which was black. . .
power steering

and giagantic tranny cooler

Other than that I took it out to the mud bogs last night to try and break something. Well. . .I ended up not running becuase my class wasn't going to start until 11:00, but I did drive around a bit in 4lo with the spools. . . man, I knew my steering would suck, but that's ridiculous. I might have to re-evaluate some things here. . .
 
ok, well, I took her out today and a couple things reared their ugly heads. . . I blew the high pressure power steering line, front bumpstops collapsed more than I had anticipated and the trackbar is contacting the diff, shock mounts rubbing the tires when deflated, the tires are rubbing the front bumper under full stuff, the fuel gauge still doesn't work, and my windshield still needs to be replaced. . . I think that about covers it. I'm going to be busy this weekend, but hopefully I can address some of these things. I'm going to be rebuilding the radius arms a little. I'll be cutting the red boxed piece out and grinding the green boxed part of the arm down and bending the top plate flush with the arm and welding/gusseting it in place. That'll gain me about 1"-1.5" that I can make up for with a taller spring.

Then I'll be cutting the boxed red section out to make way for the new trackbar mount which is the green box.

I'll be moving the mount up considerably higher and will be shortening it a bit, but I'll be leaving it like that until the high steer arms are done. I'll just live with the bumpsteer.
Then I'll be moving the shock mounts up higher and out of the way

I'm not real excited that I have to pull the front back apart and change things already, especially since there's so many loose ends I still have to tie up, but it is what it is.
 
Well I got a little wrench time in last night, which is good because today is taken up by the DMV . . . I redid the front spring relocation plates and almost got the trackbar done.


It was alot easier and quicker than I was anticipating. I just cut the old gussets out, got out the 2.5 lb. hammer and "moved" it flush with the radius arm. I reused one of the old gussets to keep things from shifting and failing.
The trackbar took me longer than I thought it would. I couldn't bend the steel I got from work to match the contour of the axle tube. I was getting pretty frustrated with it, so I built some spacers for the trackbar to push the plates to the outside of the axle tubes and burned the one side in.

When I get home tonight, I'll cycle the suspension to make sure I'm not going to hit anything. I'm going to have some "less than desirable" bumpsteer, but I guess that'll just make me get my high steer done quicker. :)
 
Been a while since I posted up here. I've gotten a bunch of stuff done but haven't had the motivation to update the thread. I've gotten the tank relocation 95% done and painted, the front coils remounted and gusseted better, "limiting straps" (cable), fixed the fuel gauge, relocated the lower shock mounts, and got speakers that work in there. I'll get some pictures hopefully this weekend. I'm taking the Jeep out on it's first trail ride tomorrow at URE. So hopefully it won't fall apart and self destruct. We'll see. I'm picking up some bigger/better axles on Sun, so this fall I'll be re-doing the whole front again. I genuinely do not like having 4" of up travel, even though I've got 20" of down travel, I don't like hitting the bumpstops every 5 mins.
 
Got back from URE last night and man it was great to get the Jeep out there! It handled everything without a problem, even with the stock 3.55 gears. I'm pumped to get the new axles in there this winter. I'm pretty much a retard, though, first trip out and what do I forget? my camera. . . Luckily the guy met yesterday morning that trailered my rig with his got a couple pics.



All in all everything went well. I used cable and clamps for a "limiting device". I'll have to rethink that, or get better clamps. They held, but slipped a little. . . I lost my lower spring retainers, and almost lost my p/s spring, (that was scary), and I had a hellaciously hot engine the whole day. (It overheated once at idle) It was hot as all get out yesterday, and I still haven't gotten the correct diode for my high speed side of my fan setup. It forced me to drive with the heater on all day, in a black jeep, in 90* weather. awesome. I'll be looking to do the whole hood spacer thing until I get a spare hood and make a cowl induction. Really besides that, I had a blast for my first time out doing any trails that tough, and I feel pretty good about how the Jeep worked out. The 4" of uptravel didn't really limit me besides coming off an obstacle, so I'll keep the front end the way it is for now until I swap the new axles in. I'll get some pics of what I did the last month later today.
 
picked up the axles today and got about what I expected.
threw in some 16.5 AL rims with 33 mud dawgs-good for rollers.

Converted the unit bearings to warn hubs

Had a fabricator friend build a "high steering arm"-just a drop pitman welded in with 3/4" and 1/2" plate. It's burned in there pretty seriously, I may consider using it.


That's all the pictures that I could get before it started downpouring. He swapped out the stock covers for some really thin chrome ones, so I'll be in the market for some stock ones to plate with 1/4". True to his word they're 5.38's front and rear. The front still has the grease paint on the teeth with an Auburn locker. The rear has a full Detroit, but what he didn't say was he had already blown up a set of gears in the rear with a shaft.Either way, the gears look ok, not great. The pinion looks fine, but the very outer part of the ring gears teeth have some pitting, not sure if it was from the shaft he blew up or what, but either way I'll be taking it apart, checking all bearings and running patterns front and rear. The carrier bearings felt tight and the backlash was also .06, so it can't be that bad. The one thing I'm a little concerned with is the spring pad on the driver's side is right were I need to put my radius arm wedge:

I'm not sure what and how much of the housing I can cut off before I have an issue. We'll see. Either way I feel that I got a pretty good deal. I ran a list of everything he had put in it, not including the price of the axles themselves, and he had over $2300 invested. I got everything for $1500, plus he drove to within and hour of me. Build up 2 starting in Dec. . .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
XJ brake upgrade
Replies
7
Views
117
RCP Phx
R
R
Which steering box brace? Bearing or not?
Replies
7
Views
380
75SV1
7
L
Manual to Auto transmission swap
Replies
9
Views
207
lvcanyoneer1
L
T
XJ shackle with custom springs question.
Replies
11
Views
210
XJlimitedx99
X
ehall
steering overhaul
Replies
7
Views
143
Evan03
E
Back
Top