SG Mason

Well I have been neglecting this because I was almost finish working on the Stealth and decided I wanted to play with it for a bit before the end of summer. I thought it was all ready to go, the engine was all sealed up with some new part (new brakes all around, new head unit, rebuilt ECM, New down pipe, O2 sensor, catalytic converter, new tires and some old school Enkei Shogun wheels), so I made an appointment for a safety check. I went to drive it home from where I have been working on it for the last year, only to find out the transmission has gone into limp mode and is only giving me 3rd gear in forward
I have a list of 9 possible causes, and have checked off 3 of them. It has been raining most of the time I have been at home this last week so I haven't been able to check off the last 6 items. My fear is that the transmission computer has taken a crap and it is not the leaky capacitors that these computers are known for.
The sad part is that if I had put the money I used to finish off the Stealth towards the XJ I would be sharing trail pictures and not whining about not having a car on the road

Oh well live and learn, at least most of what the XJ needs is welding. I can weld when it starts to get cold, so that means all I have to do to in before it gets cold is change the flexplate, the suspension work, and the brakes. OK time to got do some testing and pull the transmission computer.

SG Mason

OK I think I have the transmission woes on the Stealth sorted out, the transmission control unit's capacitors leaked and shorted the board. I have located a replacement and should have it early next week.

Now I can get to work on the XJ. I am going to be bouncing around on this, but there are things I need to take care of. First off will be the quarter panels, I have two gaping holes that can let wild life in and I need to get that sealed up before something makes a home in there At the same time I order the quarters I will order a new tie rod. The PO bent the stock one when it fell of the jack. They must have done a roadside alignment on it because when I drove it home it didn't cause any problems and I didn't burn the front tires off it.

Next will be to finally installing the new flexplate. I have had it almost as long as I have had the Jeep and just never got around to doing the work Then it will be a set of 3" lift springs in the front and 4 shocks. The rear has already been lifted by the previous owner and a 3" front lift should bring it to level. That will be followed by brakes and any exhaust work that needs to be done.

Some where during all that I will need to do a little floor repair, I know there is one small hole on the drivers side front floor. It is only about 3/4"X1/4" as it sits and the metal around it seems good. I am planning for it to be no more that 1"X2" by the time I get it all cleaned up. Once the floor is done I will do some rust proofing and install a set of frame stiffeners. It will be capped off with a set of 2X6X3/16" rockers that stretch from wheel opening to wheel opening.

How long with all this take? I really don't know, but I will be making my first parts order tomorrow. My goal is early to mid September, but in reality it might take till October to get it done. I will be stuck with the tires and wheels that are on it now for a month or two after I get the other work done, but I will be getting a set of 30X9.5 General grabber AT2 tires and some black steel rims to mount them on. Still haven't decided on what but they will be soft 8 or D window style in 15".

Paint will be a simple rattle can color match deal. For what this thing is going to be used for and what I will put it through I can't see the good of spending $2000-$3000 for a fancy paint job.

So with any luck in the next week or two I should be starting to post WIP pictures

SG Mason

I placed order #1 this morning for quarters and a Rock Krawler HD tie rod, unfortunately I just got this in an email

If I am lucky it will only be 2 weeks and not 3. I suspect it is the quarter panels that are the hold up. I also ordered the MIG conversion for my Century 100 wire feed welder. That is in stock and has an expected delivery time of 5-9 days. If the panels are 2 weeks out and the conversion kit is 9 days out it leaves me enough time to run out and buy gas for the welder.

Almost everything else I ordered today will be in my hands Saturday morning. A new TCM and plug wires for the Stealth, and a transmission filter with gasket for the Jeep. The only thing I will be missing from that group is the TCM, but I figure about the same amount of time as the MIG kit.

The next few weeks are going to be busy for me. I would be outside taking out the last of the interior of the XJ, but there is a thunder storm rolling through. Tomorrow I will go and pick up the steel for my rockers so I have it on hand when I need it.

SG Mason

More money spending today again, not on the XJ but sort of related. I have gotten tired of chasing my tools around so I went out and bought a small tool cabinet. It is only 26" upper and lower units, but it will do me for now. I also bought a new hedge trimmer. How does the hedge trimmer relate to the XJ you may ask. My neighbor has a monster hedge, up to 15' high 6' wide and goes around 2 sides of her property and I trim it for her in return for car parts Last year I cut 6' off the top on the section between her property and mine, I wasn't able to do the other property line because of bad weather, medical issues, and i killed my cheap little hedge trimmer before I could start to chop the top. This year I am cutting another 2 feet of the side I already shortened and making the other stretch match by cutting it down 8'. Yes she knows the tops will never grow back on a cedar hedge, but it blocks all the sun from her yard and the grass is dying.

This year the agreement is she buys me my 3" lift springs and the 4 shocks I want, works out to about $400 after taxes and shipping. Last year the lowest quote she got was $1500 just to trim it over 2K to cut the tops off. I see it as a win win situation. She gets the work done for a fraction of the cost and I get some needed parts for my vehicles. Chances are that once I get both the Stealth and the XJ fixed up and on the road I will continue to do the work, but I will do it for free.

SG Mason

Holy crap I placed the order for the MIG conversion for my little Century 100 wire feed welder yesterday afternoon through Home Depot Canada. I was outside having a smoke, I don't moke indoors, and doing a quick inventory of the things I need to get done before I can start welding the panels and such in and the brown truck pulled up in front of the house. My conversion kit arrived less than 24 hours from the time I ordered it. I haven't even had time to look for suggestions on what gas mixture and how much I should be purchasing

SG Mason

Picked up a LD size bottle of autoweld (75% argon 25% CO2) gas last night to complete the MIG conversion on my welder. It was too late when I got home to hook it up and start testing and practicing, and I told my brother I would go give him a hand at his place today. If I am lucky we will finish up early enough I can do it later today, if not there is always tomorrow. All I have planned for tomorrow is to change the plug wires on the Stealth. I know that sounds like a quick and easy job, but I have learned with that car nothing is quick and easy

I think one of my first projects with the newly set up MIG welder will be making a cart for it. When it was just a wirefeed welder I didn't need a cart, now that it will be sucking on a bottle a cart will be the way to go.

SG Mason

Almost ready to start working on it, with any luck and some good weather I will start the real wrenching next weekend. While I am waiting on the quarters to show up I think I may finally get underneath it and replace the flexplate. I just got home from picking up the transmission gasket and filter, still need to buy some tranny fluid so I can do a complete flush while I am at it, or should I do that first with the old filter in it It is sort of a double edged sword. If I flush then change the filter, which is probably the original, I will get crap from the dirty filter in the new fluid. If I change the filter then flush I get dirty fluid through the new filter and shorten its life span I will decide what way I am going before I turn a wrench.

SG Mason

Not much to update here, still waiting on parts and ironing out the little problems with the Stealth.

My parts order still hasn't shipped but the quarter panels have been picked so I think it is just a thing of waiting for the HD tie rod so they can ship it to me.

SG Mason

After 2 weeks of waiting for my order to ship I called 4wheelparts today and asked how much longer. I was told that the only thing holding up the order was the HD tie rod and it should be shipped out from California tomorrow.

the way I see it is that it will actually be shipped out on Monday, have to go through the 4wheelparts warehouse, then ship to 4wheelparts Canada and finally shipped to me, an easy week plus. I worked at the Polaris/Victory Canadian warehouse in Winnipeg and I know it take a few days for parts that came off a truck to be received picked and sent out, and that has to happen twice with my tie rod. When I explained that to the lady I was talking too she offered to send to my quarter panels right away and they would eat the shipping on the tie rod. With any luck I will have the quarter panels early next week

I am going to head out tomorrow morning and order the steel for my 6X2x3/16" rockers, and order my Staangfab frame stiffeners

SG Mason

Just got home from a tool run and ordering the steel for the rockers/sliders. I went to Princess Auto and picked up a E-Torx socket set for the flaxplate replacement, and a air cutoff tool to make doing the body panel replacements easier. I know I could have just bought some cutoff wheels for my die grinder, but my die grinder uses a lot more air and doesn't have the nice little safety shield. I also picked up some socket holders, I have gotten tired of always having to reorganize my sockets every time someone bumps into the tool box. I really need to get a bigger tool box, but I am scared if I do I will fill it up almost as fast

The steel will be here Monday, but I am not going to start working on the rockers till after the quarter panels are in, they should be here early next week too. Before too long there should be pictures to go along with my ramblings

SG Mason

Just got home from picking up the steel for my rocker panel conversion only to find out that they shorted me a 6' piece of 2" angle:grumpy: Now I have to go back and pick that up tomorrow before I can get started on it.

My intentions of ordering 3" rock krawler springs has been foiled. I would be looking at a 3 week wait for them, just like my HD tie rod I ordered from 4 Wheel Parts. 3 weeks in and it still hasn't been shipped to 4WP let alone to me

Just to speed up the build and save a few bucks I just ordered the Zone 3" AAL kit. Since the rear of my XJ is already lifted there was no need to order the one with full leaf packs. Sure the shocks wont be the best, but they will make do till the spring when I have a bit more money to spend.

If I have time today I will be cutting out the old rockers and prepping for the 6X2 install over the week.

SG Mason

Quarter panels are here, steel for the rockers is in hand, all I need now is enough time and good weather to get started.

I am hoping to start drilling out all the spot welds this weekend. I still need to pick up some body steel to do some repairs to the inner fenders on the back, but I can do that later today or early tomorrow.

The camera is charging right now so I can take pictures as I go about this.

SG Mason

This thing is starting to cannon ball I ordered a Zone 3" lift kit through 2Kool Performance on Monday and I just got the call that it is in and ready to pick up. I am at a little bit of an advantage when it comes to getting things from them because they are only a 20 minute drive for me so I don't have to pay shipping or wait for it to get shipped to me once he gets it. Still 2 day from order to available kicks butt

Still on the parts needed list are front brake rotors and pads, read wheel cylinders and shoes, and full exhaust from manifold to tip. The cross over pipe looks a little too rusty, changing the cat just to me sure I pass emissions, the muffler is banged up and cracked, and the tail pipe is good but has no hanger Oh and the tie rod I ordered 3 weeks ago that wont ship from the manufacture till the 19th.

SG Mason

Finally I started doing real work on the Jeep. I started the day off with some running around and finishing some odd jobs, then I decided I was going to install the front part of the Zone 3" lift kit. It took me the better part of the day, about 8 hours, but I work real slow due to my bad arms

I ran into a problem right away, my jack stands weren't tall enough to keep the tires off the ground I solved that little problem by jacking it up high enough to get the tires off then let it down on to the stands. I then just followed the instructions, more less. There were a number of things they wanted me to disconnect that I couldn't. The cotter pin for the pitman arm broke off in the castle nut, I still haven't been able to get it out to replace it. Then I couldn't budge the bolt for the track bar, and I didn't have a socket that size for my impact gun. I worked around those things, I might of been easier if I had been able to disconnect them, but I got it done.

I was surprised that none of the bolts for the front shocks broke, but I had started spraying them yesterday. What did break was the passenger side sway bar link. It didn't break right away, I had the nut even with the top when it decided that was as far as it was going. The bushings were shot and I was going to replace them anyhow so no biggy.

Because I wasn't able to fully free up the front end I had to get a little inventive to get the old springs out and the new ones in. My solution was to use the factory screw jack to push the axle housing down. I took a 1' piece of 2X2 and put it up in the shock tower, and the jack on the lower shock mount and slowly flexed the front end while watching not to over extend the brake lines. The PS worked like a charm, but I had to tie the jack in place for the DS because it kept wanting to pop out. I used a set of spring compressors to get the new 3" springs in with the front flex for the removal of the old springs.

My arms were pretty sore by then so I took a 30 minute ice break. With some energy back and some pain gone I jumped back in and started putting it all back together. While tightening down the upper shock mounts I would have killed for a stubby 14mm wrench, which I happened to find while cleaning up I had a little trouble getting the PS LCA bolt back in, but after an hour of cursing and swearing it finally listened to me.

After seeing it with the hotrod stance for so long it now looks like the front is a little higher than the back, but the trusty tape measure says that the front is still 1/4" lower than the front. Maybe once I put the splash shields back in it will look more level. I still need to take care of the track bar and get the front axle centered up. I am going to make a run to my brothers in the next few days and borrow his electric impact gun and sockets. My compressor is a little small for my gun and I loose power before stubborn bolts break free. I also need to grab his torque wrench and get every thing tightened up properly.

Weather permitting I will be starting on replacing the rear shocks and drilling out the spot welds on the quarter panels. Depending on how rusted in the shock bolts look I may just be spraying them with PB Blaster all day and actually trying to take them out on Wednesday

I will take and post some pictures tomorrow too if it isn't raining, I finished too late to take any today.

Don't worry about me trying to drive it before I take care of all the little things like the track bar and torquing the bolts. I have a lot more work to do before it is ready for a safety check, till then it is just a driveway queen

SG Mason

OK, so it took me the better part of a day to install the front lift, yes it was long but that is because of my physical limitations.

Today I decided to install the rear shocks. I had been spraying all the bolts and nuts with PB Blaster for the last few days and to my surprise I didn't break an upper shock bolt. What did happen was all the nuts were free spinning It took something like 5 hours to do one shock because of the pain in the butt it was to get a wrench on the nuts.

When I went to start on the other side, I put the 18mm wrench on the lower mount nut and it fell off Who ever put the last set of shocks on must have really over tightened it because all I actually did was put the wrench on the nut then stood up to reposition the creeper. After much cursing and swearing, not like I hadn't already surpassed my years quote fiddling with the spinning nuts on the other side, I ran out and bought a replacement mount, cut the old one off flush, drilled a 1/2" hole and installed the replacement.

Then I was set for another round of fiddling with spinning nuts again I was under the back of the Jeep for over 10 hours and I still only have one shock installed The drivers side is ready to go in, but it is just too dark to try get the bolts and nuts lined up so I will get back at it tomorrow.

While cleaning up and putting away my tools I noticed something odd, one of my rear shocks was black, and the other was blue. The blue one fully extended is slightly shorter than the black one, and is smaller in diameter. I didn't check the compressed length, but I will do that tomorrow along with some progress pictures, once the shock is installed.

I also decided to try out my spot weld cutter once I had all the other tools put away. My plan was to cut 3 welds and head in for supper. I was having so much fun with something working right that I cut all the spot welds at the back of the quarter panel except the one below my cut mark and the 2 at the very bottom. Then I tried out the air punch/flange tool I borrowed from my brother. I think this thing is going to make doing a good seam a lot easier. Now that I know the exact size of the flange (7/16") I can get my replacement panels ready to go in so it will be a case of cut, line up, and weld. I need to play with the settings on the welder so everything is ready and working right before I start welding on the Jeep.