The Tool Box Build up

[N2L 96XJ]

Painted wheels and clear marker lights off ebay:

 

[austinaubinoe]

are you just gonna leave it in primer? Wonder if you could get it painted on the base with some of that HD military paint!

 

[shawnhancel]

Hey man, nice work, I live right down the road from your buddy, N. Witchduck and Independence, I have a green 95 sun burnt with prerunner bumpers. Seems to be a few of us here, maybe a M&G is in order! Was you out with the Enterprise strike group, I got back a month a go too.

 

[N2L 96XJ]

its staying primer until I do the body work and reprimer necessary for paint. It looks okay in pictures but its really rough in person. There are bad visible sanding marks and streaks throughout. I do love that flat tan from our humvees though...

I'm down for the meet and greet. I just joined up with tidewater fourwheelers and it's nice to have other wheelers around. I was indeed on that cruise... Regretably. Haha.

 

[N2L 96XJ]

Just picked up a 29 spline Chrysler 8.25 with ZJ brakes swapped on from a good dude out in VA Beach swaping that in sometime in the next week or so. If anyone wants the 27 spline 8 &1/4 I have now let me know. Its the 3.55 geared type from a 4.0 with an AW4.

 

[N2L 96XJ]

Painted my flares, rockers, and door handles (which I never should've painted in the first place) black between midnight and 2am like some sort of crackhead. This working nights stuff has got to go!

BEFORE!

AFTAAAHHHHH!

 

[Lowrange2]

I'm right there with ya about the graveyard shift has to go.

 

[N2L 96XJ]

Most frustrating day of (attempted) work on this thing in quite some time. It took 5 sawzall blades, 3 cutoff wheels, and a center punch smacking me in the face to cut through ONE bolt! It was the upper bolt for my lower control arms; the shaft of these bolts are frozen to the steel sleeve inside the bushing. Unfortunately using a torch is not an option (a very very very very very frustrating non-option)... Now I have to wait for a day off on Monday to cut the other one while she shits with a "custom 3 link" as the guys at the shop were calling it.

Anyone had a problem like this? These are some of the hardest bolts in terms of actual metal hardness. They were wasting my sawzall blades, and cutoff wheels like they were made of cheese. I was considering drilling, but I don't know if I can get drill bits as hard as Superman's skin.

Cliff notes:
-GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!
-Bolts stuck
-Halp1!111!!!!One!!!1!

 

[N2L 96XJ]

Been awhile since I updated this but here is the latest:

LCAs switched out with my nice new 4.5" ryobi angle grinder (30 bucks! Thanks home depot!)
Death wobble still present
Full run through about to go down!!

I purchased the following and I'm trying to figure where the hell to get it shipped to:
Crossover steering
1.75 spacer
1.5 lift shackle
Shocks
SYE
Tom woods shaft
Extended brake lines
4.56 gears
33x10.5 KM2s!
Cragar soft 8's 4" backspace (wheels too shallow now, and rubbing LCAs at full lock)

So once everything gets here its going down!



Stay tuned!

 

[fyrfytr1717]

Wow! Sounds like you're about to step it up from "budget" to "built" with all those mods. Going to make a huge difference.

 

[N2L 96XJ]

Well I got the front end done. There were some hiccups that cost me serious time (upper control arms), and I ended up not having enough time to sort out the rear shackles. I still have to put the SYE in, and have the gears done, but after I get some more shop time I'll have the lift finished. Here's how she is sitting at the moment:

As you can see the front is about 2 inches taller which is driving me nuts to look at. I'm also sitting a little higher on the passenger side for some reason...

I'm going to have to replace my upper shackle bolts. Has anyone done this before? What size bolts will I need? How did you get a new nut on the back? I spun the nut inside the frame and the welds have snapped.

I'll upload a picture of the inside later today.. everything is in the cherokee. You wouldn't think you could fit an axle, 4 33's, 4 rims, and all your tools in a cherokee, but the passenger seat totally counts as a storage spot.

 

[N2L 96XJ]

Well the old wheels and tires sold fast so I had to put the 33s on before finishing the lift in the back... I need to trim my flares, get the shackles in, and install my SYE and Tom Woods driveline post haste. I took a good chunk out of a few lugs which was a major bummer, but I had no other way to get the thing back to the shop.

Here's a few shots of my well stuffed 33" KM2s pre-fender cut. IMm thinking bump stops will be necessary until I can go a little higher.

Shows the new stance pretty well. No more rubbing when steering in the front!

You can really see how bad the clearance is in the back.

Identical to an earlier photo for comparison.

 

[1990JEEPXJ]

looks awesome with those tires. youll love them. i have the exact same ones

 

[N2L 96XJ]

Well my shop time was reappropriated against my will this past Thursday... my rear had a sheared stud as you can see in the photos from the profile, and in the attempt to remedy this, I somehow spun an axle shaft around in a way that caused some gear problems. I backed out of the shop, and BOOM! Something popped in the diff, then BANG! 3 out of 5 studs snapped on the drivers side, and like that I was on my ass, with one front and one rear tire on the ground... I got it back into the shop enough to get it back on all fours, but have yet to swap the axle. I wasn't planning on doing this until next weekend, but until I get that in I suppose I have to wait for the shackles, and fender trim. I believe the studs were overtightened by the guys who installed the wheels & tires, so I'm ordering new lugs and studs all around.

Anyone know any good replacements that fit easily? Someone recommended OE studs from a liberty because they're slightly longer, but they're also (apparently) slightly thicker, and don't fit into my axle. I'm more than likely going to have to get these from the net since I can't get to any shops without wheels.

 

[fasteddieyj]

Every single bolt in the rear ended up shearing off in the process of removing them, and while taking the last bolt out (front bolt for the leaf on the passenger side) I snapped my breaker bar's head off, broke the socket, and sheared the bolt head off all at the same time.

Now that is impressive. And some crappy luck.

 

[Shorty]

Well my shop time was reappropriated against my will this past Thursday... my rear had a sheared stud as you can see in the photos from the profile, and in the attempt to remedy this, I somehow spun an axle shaft around in a way that caused some gear problems. I backed out of the shop, and BOOM! Something popped in the diff, then BANG! 3 out of 5 studs snapped on the drivers side, and like that I was on my ass, with one front and one rear tire on the ground... I got it back into the shop enough to get it back on all fours, but have yet to swap the axle. I wasn't planning on doing this until next weekend, but until I get that in I suppose I have to wait for the shackles, and fender trim. I believe the studs were overtightened by the guys who installed the wheels & tires, so I'm ordering new lugs and studs all around.

Anyone know any good replacements that fit easily? Someone recommended OE studs from a liberty because they're slightly longer, but they're also (apparently) slightly thicker, and don't fit into my axle. I'm more than likely going to have to get these from the net since I can't get to any shops without wheels.

crappy luck-- I'm off tomorrow, if you need anything give me a ring (Jared/scarylilguy has my number if you don't)

 

[N2L 96XJ]

Now that is impressive. And some crappy luck.

Everyone around was pretty impressed. I've never seen everything break all at once before. Thought my shoulder broke too haha.

crappy luck-- I'm off tomorrow, if you need anything give me a ring (Jared/scarylilguy has my number if you don't)

Sounds good Shorty. I'm hoping things will go smoothly, I grabbed a lug from the store today, and I've got a few good ones to take from the passenger side for the new axle. The main thing I'm worried about is all the brake connections. I just can't imagine that part is going to go well... They're all stock, and look like they've never been touched. In my experience with this XJ, any factory parts I touch become scrap.

 

[N2L 96XJ]

Well, the axle swap is done! And I got the rear shackles installed. Here's a halfway there shot from the swap:

With the shackles in, my clearance issues are resolved for regular driving. Next comes a fender trim, and some bumpstops. I've still got the rear brakes lines to install, but I wanted to wait until I get the new pads, and rotors, since I need new hard lines anyway. I can feel that its stopping way better. After all that is sorted out, I need to source an e-brake cable from a grand.

Here's a shot of the current status:

I can't wait to get back to the "wheelable" stage. My motivation always dips down when I can't enjoy the project as intended...