got the rest of the front body torn down to get it ready for the door hinge brackets.







the nut clips broke on both the bottom bolts




driver hinge, definitely needing repaired, the door drops about 3/8"







the passenger side is starting, but not near as bad. this side doesn't drop when opened.



quality pieces from Hooligan off road





today my rough country track bar and new bracket showed up, still waiting on my dirt bound steering.

 

why do engineers insist on putting steel bolts into aluminum brackets? snapped one of the a/c compressor bolts last night trying to remove it so i can install the bypass pulley.

 

One of those better ideas that I think Ford came up with.
Frustrating as all he** when it happens though.

I am also going to purchase the hooligan door hinge brackets, My XJ is not even cracked yet, so I figure it is the perfect time to make sure they never do.

 

planning on installing mine this weekend, they are quality pieces.

 

last night i finished removing the A/C, it didn't work anyways. While it does get hot here, most of the time i will be driving it in the summer i will more than likely be door less or tube doors.So i went and bought a A/C compressor bypass pulley, yesterday while cruising the forums i ran across where some people have relocated their alternator to where the A/C compressor was and then also deleted a couple of other pulleys (fan clutch and idler), so that's what i was working on last night. It was too dark for the pictures to come out but all i did last night was remove everything, my local Ace hardware didn't have the flap disk i needed for my grinder so i will pick one up today and get it back together.

when i bought the jeep the mechanical fan was gone and it just had the secondary electric one, the PO said the radiator was fairly new and it looks like it. But.... i ordered up a new 3 row aluminum radiator with aluminum shroud and three 9" electric fans yesterday.

 

Got the brackets all ground down last night and bolted together, bolted to the engine and the alternator mounted back up. wrapped some bailing twine around the pulleys to find my belt length, looks like 73" but i have some room to adjust shorter so i am going to try a 72.5" belt tonight.

one thing that sucks about doing stuff in the dark, now i have a ring terminal with a short lead coming out of the bundle of alternator wiring that i dont remember where it came from.

 

so to start off with i figured out that my "extra" wire was the ground wire for the alternator, so i got that fixed.

When i got the jeep the mechanical fan and clutch were non existent and while it didn't get hot driving down the road it also was not summer. i picked up an electric fan to install but the studs that the fan clutch were supposed to be on were in the way. original plan was just to change them over to button head allen bolts, but the size i had was the wrong thread and i stumbled onto other posts where people had gotten rid of their A/C and moved the alternator up higher so that's what i did.



pile of stuff removed



i got rid of the A/C pulley, idler pulley, and the fan clutch pulley. since i didn't have a puller to remove the fan clutch flange, i cut around the bearing then used the shop press to push it out the front, and cleaned it up with a flap disk. you can also see i had to clearance an unused bolt hole on the timing cover.





72.5 inch belt and everything lines up nicely



i finished that early Saturday morning so i could load the jeep up and take it an hour away to my parents place where my welder and plasma are so i could weld in the hooligan door hinge braces. fitment wasn't the greatest, i had to bend the passenger side one to fit and there were some fairly big gaps to fill in, BUT the doors don't drop anymore when opened. (looks like i didn't take any pics of those)

Once those were welded on i moved on to adding the winch mount to the previous owners bumper. down the road i plan on building a different style bumper but at least now i can mount the winch.



i still need to paint the bumper and door braces and put the front sheet-metal back together, my new radiator/shroud/fans are supposed to be here tomorrow along with the Renix upper radiator hose to go around the back of the alternator.

and i am still waiting on my DirtBound steering to show up.

 

goal was to work on the jeep both days this weekend and of course that wasn't happening, Saturday was shot with family issues. Sunday morning was bringing in 4 tons of hay but i did get to work on it some Sunday afternoon.

before shot



when relocating the alternator, the original upper radiator hose wont work



using an upper hose from a renix engine moves the routing behind the alternator



with the radiator removed here is a good straight on shot of the new belt routing



new 3 core aluminum radiator with aluminum shroud and 3 electric fans









i had to clerance 2 places, 1 being behind the fill spout so the cap would turn. 2 being in the middle of the supprt



finally getting some sheet metal put back on it.





i still need to finish the sheet metal, and then rip into the steering and install the rough country double sheer track bar and the dirt bound steering.

 

wasnt working on the jeep but prepping some metal and building a stand for the bead roller.







and ya, next time he needs on long pants lol.

 

my daily driver is having issues so its a good thing i have this, i hurried Sunday night and hooked up 2 of the electric fans for the radiator and finished putting the front end sheet metal back together. the middle fan is hooked up to ignition power, the driver side fan is hooked up to the original wiring for the stock electric fan, and i will hook up the passenger fan to a switch, but for right now the one fan and 3 row aluminum radiator is keeping it a lot cooler than it actually needs to be.

now if i can just get the trans tunnel insulated it wouldn't be so bad to drive. at 70 MPH i am turning 1700 RPM's

 

since the day i bought the jeep, it wants to pop out of second gear unless you hold it. it was real bad when i first bought it, then i changed out the detent springs for the shift rails and it helped a little bit. i ordered up new detent ball bearings the other week, what a hassle. UPS lost the first order, then they shipped the replacements ground again and i get a package with 3 ball bearing packages (all beat up) and only 2 ball bearings, the next day i received another package with 3 nicely packaged ball bearings. so looks like UPS lost them, found the package open and repackaged them (outside package was in good shape) and delivered them, then the replacements showed up a day later.

so a month after i placed my order i finally installed the new detent ball bearings, it helped a little bit more but it still wants to pop out upon either letting off the throttle or if i down shift at too high of an RPM.

 

 

Thanks,

ya its a pretty rare color for sure.

 

well the Jetta was in the shop for like a month and a half, almost 2 months with electrical issues, so i was driving the jeep. driving it every day for 100 miles a day just reaffirmed that it needed a lot more work to get it where i wanted it and a guy at work has been offering me money so... with the Jetta out of the shop, the jeep is now sold for a nice profit.

 

Possible that engine was swapped with one from a TJ with that lack of adapter. Looks like the build is coming along nicely!