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The Bronzewyrm Evolution

So I ran the t-case dry, and it :explosion
It wore all the plastics inside it down, marrd up the range and mode forks, the chain had stretched to the point of narring up the case and taking out the oil pump pickup. Yeah, it was bad. Luckily SpecFab had one! LairBear had been on his recent extended stay at casa Skinner and I was able to convince him to drag it home with him. Swap some bearings and stuff around put my SYE on it, resealed, and had it in.

Here we go again :repair:



its out!


you will see in the following pictures how well the NP231j runs with no fluid. Not...



some of the damage was chain stretch...





 
My P.O.R.C SYE ready to go back in :sunshine:


Time to call the gear guy...


The donor was a 94 I think. so there were some internal bits that needed changing over to make it mesh with all my 00 junk...

Tearing down the donor


This one had gear lube in it and not ATF? W/E's lube is lube lol



Back together!


Had some shaft issues. lets just say I have spares now :D


If I'm remembering right, this is about OTC15 time. I loaded up the sleeper, hitched it up and set off. I kept getting a squeak, and a burning gear lube smell. It was getting worse... and worse... The pinion bearing was toast in my rear end. Now I had a feeling I had some issues before all of this. I had my gear guy come over and guide me through the t-case and rear end diagnosis. His theory (I had the squeak b4 the t-case got pulled) was that because the case had ran dry and things were riding internally on a bare mode and range fork that the squeak was running down the driveline to the rear end. his theory was that now that I was rebuilding the t-case, I would not hear the squeak. Seemed legit. he's a 3rd generation, old school, gear guy. I trust him. This turned out to be wrong. I had a pinion bearing that was bad. I pulled the rear driveline, and headed for home. Luckily, Tessa got a new 07 WK this year. I swiftly jacked it, swapped the trailer over and bailed out.

no pics of the rear axle. I tore it out and sent it out for new pinion bearing and all new seals. the backlash was off by 3thou, other than that he said had it not been getting hot, he would not have done anything with it. it looked that good inside. and offered no theories on why it went bad. "shit happens" he said LOL. oh well. back in and were off to the races!

did a u-joint



And Tac'd
 
Did a tool inventory...



And New Break pads...


So, it on the road. I made a trail run at tsf. seemed good. so I went to the Pistons Wild show and after we hit up LadeeFlats. The steering box started to squeak and groan, and I had found another good Clunk in the front end.

I run the Ruffstuff panhard bar setup and have been through a couple sets of the heims for it over the years. Ruffstuff has always stood behind them and got me replacements with no issues. But I was ready to do away with the problem for good.

Enter the "panhard bar heim joint" thread. I ended up going with an FK heim. There are a PTFE lined heim, with a far better rating. (3X the price they better be)


It was worth it so far. I have two trips on them and there quiet and as tight as could be.

Bronze.
 
One Thing i had done right off the bat after buying this jeep. but never posted about was/is my rear storage/toolbox area. I get comments on it just about every time i open the hatch. And ill be honest, i catch myself peering into the back of peoples rigs to see just how they keep everything secured for a day on the trails. Im Anal about things moving around in my jeep on the trail. Soda cans on the floor, garbage, bolts, tools, random kids bits, whatevers it is. if it moves around and/or jiggles, or is generally in my vision. I FREAK! I keep most everything on lock down. I figured id share.

Its made from wood and wrapped with trunk liner. it hold my two toolboxes, fluids, fire extinguisher, lunch cooler, and has the option of holding my Sub/Amp box.




The extra flat board and square thing shown here are so that i can run with the Sub box and keep everything snug and square behind the rear seat. (i wheel with 2 kids in tow) OR so i can easily remove the subs and amp, and either slide the box up against the rear seat with it folded up, OR fold the rear seat down and slide it all the way up to the middle of the rig. Giving me some room for firewood and chairs if the kids don't go.


For this trip i was solo and wanted some room inside for wood.






I use the space here for fluids, TP, and random cooking/lunch stuffs. Coffee YES! Dont forget the coffee!

The subs have yet to make it back into the jeep. i like the space inside for coats, sleds, chairs,saw and a couple axes. Its winter and ive been taking the fam out for snow fun lately. :shiver:

Bronze.
 
muddypunk said:
Cool but what do you strap it in with? I plan on putting some 1 inch D loops in the floor I've got 4 waitingfor the time.
Click to expand...

Its is wedged in the wheel well real tight. combined with the 200 lbs +/- of gear, ive not had it go anywhere. If it behind the back seat with the back up. it cant move at all. Im going to a sleeping platform soon so this will all be redone. in the 5+ years of wheeling it. it had only hopped up once. and it was more my fault than anything. (No speakers/amp, light on tools, sand lake whoops snuck up on me)

Bronze.
 
Los Lobos said:
Strap it down. If you roll or get in a front ender that 200+lbs becomes a head crusher.
Click to expand...


X2. Its not like anyone intends to roll. But think about the possibilty of getting in an accident on the highway. Nobody intends to hit a wall at 60mph. But it happends all the time. You want that 200lbs coming loose in that situation? I know i wouldnt. Anytime you stow heavy gear in a passenger cabin it should be secured down. Even if its behind the rear seat. That is still in the passenger cabin for our station waggons. Just food for though.
 
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Now, some of you may be thinking. Damn, hes had some issues. Yeah i have been. BUT you also have to realize that i got my jeep with 184k on the ticker. Started wheeling it right away. It now has just under 240k on it. That means there's close to 50k of Wheeling, DD'n and towing a trailer to and from the trail head almost evey time. IMP it was just a matter of time. i know if i want to keep this xj forever AND wheel it. These thing will happen over the years... Its ok, Just a jeep thing...

After i got the new FK heims in i still had a slight clunking comming from up front, AND the jeep seemed to be "wandering" all over the road. I had had some bumpstop issues, but everybody that has looked at my setup has complemented on the angles and lengths. (the look good) so i have been a little leery. I got a little HD camera with a magnet on it. i figures it was time to try it out on some suspension stuff.

The panhard flex. Turns out that bumpstop, was just the frame twisting...

SO, Now what? Several people told me to just get another xj and start swapping over parts. i knew a long time ago that i would never get rid of this jeep, AND i had to find a solution...

Here We Go!

Just sayN


So the Plan? HAHAHAHAHA. Metal, Metal,Metal, AND more Metal of course...
After i got the front bumper, winch, wiring, and steering box removed. i got to work on the templates i needed. I will also be building a panhard brace and a steering box brace. i have one already (steering box brace) but i want more beef and tie ins up front.






Christmas specials are great. I got me a port-a-band from HF for a huno. I Made up time quick with this. even after going back to salem for blades that are not in stock in independence,or... I knew this was going to be a chore. But after 2 12 hr days on it. it was looking like i still had 2 more to go party1:

got the metal prep'd


Got the plated cut out and drilled.


1st plate in place.



Bottom plate



And now for the inside. Most people that do this mod will just scab a peice of 3/16's in behind the steering box. As my frame was twisting from the bumper all the was rear of the coil bucket. I wanted to build it up back behind the motor mount as well. Stock spacer? YES! i have seen many steering box bolts break on the trail. my theroy here is that the aluminum is there to absorb some of the impact the steering is likely to see. If the spacer breaks, im cool with that, as i would be more likely to get it fixed on the trail, and easy to carry spares for when that time comes. Broken steering box bolts. No-Es-Buneo...
 
So now that that was done, i set out to build up a panhard bar brace. I had an idea, had an extra heim from RS now, and some square tube i had picked up. It took me a little bit to refresh my brain on doing 22.5* angles. but after some thinking, i had it!







had to shorten this a bit




Bronze.
 
That is a crap ton of work. I see it in my future as well. Looks good. So you only solid welded the inner plates parrimeter and stitched the parrimeter on the bottom and outer plates? What are the benefits one verses the other.

I solid beaded my mid stiffeners that was a lot of welding.
 
Last edited:
GordoSmasho said:
That is a crap ton of work. I see it in my future as well. Looks good. So you only solid welded the inner plates parrimeter and stitched the parrimeter on the bottom and outer plates? What are the benefits one verses the other.

I solid beaded my mid stiffeners that was a lot of welding.
Click to expand...

Thanks! All the plates got plug welds. the stitches they all got were 1-3" aside from the inner plate. I just wanted to over kill the motor mount area as best i could while i was in there. Im not a trained welder, but i figure it couldn't hurt. I just plug/stitched my mid stiffies too. Probably just lazy there LOL. they have been fine. even wth the 3link cross member brackets welded to them.

POSJ said:
I dig the brace, interested to see how it works out.
Click to expand...
Thx Tyler! It has helped a TON. The front end feels like a corvette again! ill get a post mod vid up soon. How's that MJ treating ya? haven't seen a post in a bit.

Bronze.
 
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