Nice looking jeep and great thread so far! Enjoy that jouney into Alaska assuming that by now you are. Also, thanks for your Service! What branch are you in? Navy Chief here and would love to go to Alaska maybe one day. I'm far but not far from there now being in Washington.

 

Thank you! I'm glad you were able to make it to the end even though half the pictures are missing now that photo bucket has betrayed me. Alaska is incredible so far. very different from Florida, but very nice. I'm an E-6 in the AF. Thank you for your service as well! I hope you make it up here one day.

 

Just went back through the build thread and a million thanks to whatever mod went through and rehosted all the pictures. You are the real MVP.

 

HAHAHA!!! Thank you for this!

 

This is finally happening...tonight! At least the lowers that is.

 

I had to buy another 21 MM socket and long handle 1/2" ratchet, but control arms are swapped out. It drives much more smoothly now and doesn't rub at full lock anymore. I need another attach bolt to do the uppers, so maybe next weekend for those. Also reattached my front DS in preparation for the snow thats coming soon, which has been off since my SYE install. Finally, temp installed LED lights in the bumper. Its very dark driving home at night from work, so I'm going to need extra lighting soon.

Bye old LCA...



New J-Flex JKS control arms...



LEDs mounted on the bumper. I wish they were the bigger 9" lights, but they'll do to get through winter...Still need to wire them up tho.

 

 

Really got the bug today...Decided to go ahead and wire up the lights. The wire for the switch power was not long enough to install the switch where I wanted at the moment, so right now the switch is only temp installed. Will have to mess with it more when I'm feeling more froggy. Also, driver's side light was a dud, so I swapped it for another of the ones I had sitting around. Luckily, I had four for my roof rack. The lights are super bright though and will be perfect on dark Alaska roads.

 

Today kicked my ***...Installed the front Bilstein shocks, so now all four corners are on 5100s.



I tried to remove the axle side bolt of the UCAs but that bolt defeated me. How do you remove it? It has a tab on the inside, nut on the other side.

 

Man this is a great build and a beautiful XJ. Clean, simple, capable, and only getting better. I'm also a bit jealous that you now live in the wondrous Alaskan wilderness and you got to bring your XJ with you. . . . and your fam jam. hahaha. I'm hoping to pickup my 3rd XJ this upcoming weekend.

 

Tap the side with the tab with hammer and start to loosen up the nut and as the bolt moves the tab will catch on the the upper mount to allow easy loosening of the nut...

 

I got the nut off pretty easily. Do I hammer the bolt out after that? I just didn’t want to mess up any threads, so I tapped it a few times, but didn’t want to get serious until I knew more.

 

Last time I had a similar issue having to hammer out one of those bolts...
The other side I had to put the jack under the track bar bracket and got it in the right position to easily slide the bolt out...

 

Thanks. I was doing it with the weight on the wheels. I'll give it a shot this way.

 

Its getting cold up here!!




Unfortunately, I think my thermostat is going out. Heater is blowing cold air, operating temperature is not moving even if I let it heat up for thirty minutes before driving and MPGs seem to have dramatically plummeted. I made a thread about it in another section of the forum, but that sounds like a stuck thermostat, right? Also wondering what temperature thermostat is best for cold weather. Local autozone sells 195/180/160 degree versions.