While I was at it today, took a few other shots of upgrades.

Zone Offroad 3" lift.



Rear with add-a-leaf.



Zone 1" Transfer Case Drop.



Zone Offroad Quick disconnect sway bar.





Zone Adjustable Track Bar (Actually BDS).





Rugged Ridge front Tow Hooks.



Curt Class III Hitch.



Rock-it Intake.



Thats all for now.


K

 

your rigs lookin good. I was wondering how much were those tow hooks and the xfer case drop?

 

Just thought I would post the following occurrences after installing new Champion plugs and the Ford Mustang XR3E Injectors.

Jeep runs cooler. My old standard op-temp was right on the money at 210F. With the new plugs and injectors It's closer to 190-200F.

Outside temp is around 28F with no wind. This hasn't played a role since this past weekend it was around 18F in the mountains and I was running 210F the whole time.

It could also be the new alternator. The one that failed was nigh impossible to turn by hand. The added resistance on the RPM cycle might have added some heat... but nowhere near a change of 10-20.

 

The install on the tow hooks was easy. Took the bumper off, bolted up the rails to the frame with the 4 bolts, trimmed the front plastic bumper cover by the factory fogs, and re-installed the bumper. Took about 1 hour.

J5006 XJ Transfer Case Drop

The TC drop was an ordeal because I broke the bolt on the driver side. Had to hammer it out. I managed to fish a bolt and washer through the unibody and get it threaded. The install should have taken 15 minutes, but ended up taking several hours over a couple days.



K

 

Through cherokeeforum.com I found jonjon99xj who has some fabrication skills. He sent me some pics of his work, and I agreed to have him build some sliders and a gas tank skid for me.

It's been a long process to get this project started, but today I can show some progress on the build.

Here is the slider off the Jeep.



Here is the slider on the Jeep!



Another angle.



They are currently bolted to the pinch seam. I am gonna drill the frame holes and mount the other side either Saturday or Monday. Nice to finally get this started.



K

 

Todo List:

1) Rear disc brakes from a Grand Cherokee Dana35. Will hold off on the Proportion valve swap until I know what the brakes are gonna act like.

2) Jeep YJ rear brake line. ~3" longer than the XJ line.

3) Lock Right in the front Dana 30.

4) Drain and reseal rear differential cover. It started leaking recently.

5) Gas tank skid (which has been sitting in my garage for months).

6) Alignment!

7) Fix that wobbly center console.

8) Fix that wobbly rear hatch handle.

9) Replace headliner.



K

 

Disc brake installation begun, and has so far been the most problematic part of my Jeep build. Why? Removing the Powertrax No-Slip locker.



Problem: I have the Chrysler 8.25 c-clip design. In an open carrier there is plenty of room in the pumpkin to slide the axle in, pop out the c-clip, and pull the axle out. Not so in a Powertrax no-slip. There is a slot about the width of a c-clip, but it's sealed on the other side. So your only options are gravity, or a small magnet. Neither of which worked for me. Sucker would wiggle, but not come out. I even cut up a sliver from a tin can to try and finagle under the clip, but there is just a hair's width of room.



What I had to do was orient the c-clip so that the open side was facing away from the slot, then use a drill bit to cut the c-clip in half. This was an excruciatingly painful thing to do, as I was afraid of ruining a $400+ piece of equipment, plus mess up a perfectly good axle.



FYI, I tried all sorts of picks, magnets, wiggling, hitting with a rubber mallet, brake cleaner, pb blaster, cursing, and beer. Five hours later I finally said F it and started drilling.





The good news, I can get a replacement c-clip tomorrow from the stealership, and it's only $4.50.

I ended up pulling the rear end off the Jeep to get a better angle, and in doing so went ahead and took out the old rubber rear brake line to replace with a longer YJ line. When I did this the hard brake line from the proportioning valve to the subframe disintegrated. So when I placed the order for the c-clip, I also placed an order for the hard brake line. The brake line will take a week to arrive, but I'm in no hurry.



It was close to 1AM by the time I got the drum backing plate off, so for this weekend I'll take some pics, and grind out the center hole on the disc backing plate to fit over the C8.25.







K

 

Just hoppin in here. looks like a great xj, lift and tires fit nice, side rails look great, i prefer d rings to tow hooks but that tends to be an older xj thing i guess.

All in all i like very much.

 

While I was out taking pix of the build on my lunch break, this arrived in the mail!





This is for my DANA 30. Won't touch it until all the other crap I broke last night is fixed.



K

 

So what does it take to put the rear locker back in? Do you have to re set the gear mesh?

 

great build so far but im a little confused on why you had to drill and cut the c clip

 

The locker installs in a specific easy to follow order. After the locker, slide the axles in, install the c-clips, then install the pin through the carrier. The install is WAAAAY easier than removal.

Gear mesh as for the ring and pinion is unchanged.


K

 

ohh iso you already had the locker installed and to do the brake conversion it had to come out?

 

I had to drill because I could not finagle the c-clip out of the slot on the locker. In theory the carrier pin comes out, then rotate the locker so the slot faces down, then move the c-clip 180*. In this position the c-clip should come out with gravity and a little wiggling. I tried this for 5 hours!

Finally with no ideas, I pulled out the rear end, tilted it up so there was pressure on the c-clip to stabilize it, then drilled that F'er in half.


K

 

Thanks, I may end up switching to D-rings. Haven't had to use the hooks yet, so time will tell if that was a good choice or not.


K