Lemans

Another hot-arsed day on Friday, so we were slow to start and less motivated... We were also still waiting on the UCA's and Steering brace to show up, but where I live everything takes one day longer than the shipping you pay for, not much to be done about it.

So the front end finish will have to wait till next week. So we started on the SYE install and all the other parts involved or waiting on that to be complete.

First we removed the x-member and got all the fasteners for the tranny mount and frame connections cleaned up. Then we test fit the x-member and TC skid plate for fit and clearances. It all looked good except the bolts sent with the TC skid assume you have the stock x-member and were too long for the 1" drop x-member version, as shown in photo 1.

Started the shopping list with that, then quickly noticed the rear OP shaft seal was starting to leak. No one had that in stock, so Sat morning pick-up for the seal.

On to the SYE from there, and after marking the correct length on the splined shaft with a paint marker for reference Dad started the cut as shown in photo 2.

Photo 3 shows the shaft partway cut with a break for Dad's arms and to check the cut alignment. Not long after we had the stub cut and the results are shown in photo 4. As far as I am concerned Dad did a great job on the cut, better than I would have managed myself.

Next we put a small bevel on the edge of the splines to take the sharp edge off and assist in fitting the new flange. Photo 5 shows the flange in place to assist in centering the retaining bolt hole we need to drill for tapping the shaft.

I didn't take photos of the drilling process, we've all been there... I am out of practice on doing this type of thing and honestly my drilling work was sloppy as a result. Doesn't help laying on your back at a bad angle, etc.

I will also mention that I was unimpressed with the quality of the steel on the stock OP shaft. I may be out of practice but I still know what I feel when I'm drilling. It honestly felt like the steel mix wasn't heated properly or some part of the process was faulty in some way. We blew through bits and edges hitting hard chunks of steel or cast and then would blow through soft sections until you took out another edge on random hard bits.

Not fun and delayed the process by requiring additional high quality drills to be purchased. More items for the shopping list

At this point we were heat soaked and frustrated so we called it a night until we re-upped on tools and motivation.

Lemans

We started the day with the errands run for parts, fasteners, tools and the like, with me picking up another pair of 6-ton jack stands and ordering rear shock boots and a front greaseable Anti-sway bar bushing hit. The special order stuff should be in next week sometime and will make nice additional finishing touches to the suspension rebuild.

We got back to business and finished drilling out the rear shaft. We went through a few more new drills and had to start resharpening again, but we finally got the OP shaft bored out for tapping. The tapping went much more smoothly than the drilling, but suffered from the poor steel quality as well, with some cutting almost breaking the tap and other sections cutting like butter.

Once that was complete we pulled it all down and cleaned things up in preparation for replacing the rear OP shaft seal.

I worked the press-fit dust cover off the shaft and cleaned and painted it in prep for re-install, then we removed the thrust washer and c-clip that backstop the dust cover. First clip I dealt with after buying a new clip pliers set and it's the kind with no holes, just small negative angle cut on the ends.

Photo 1 shows the new seal in place in the housing (yes, you _are_ allowed to laugh at my drilling work, it was awful), followed by a snapshot of my improvised c-clip removal and installation tool - lol

In photo 3 I'm fighting the c-clip back on, though I had to flip it over to get it far enough onto that shoulder to stay when we released the vise-grips. In photo 4 the c-clip is back on the shaft and the thrust washer is re-installed.

Photo 5 shows the dust-cover tapped carefully back into place, just until it touches the thrust washer. Don't over do it, a light touch counts here if you want it to stay on tight etc.

That solves that leak! Next!

Lemans

Now that the rear OP shaft seal was replaced, we were ready to re-install the SYE flange as shown in photo 1. It bolted up nicely and the lock washer was fully flat, doubt I'll ever touch it again unless I twist the shaft apart...

In photo 2 I have the new RE CV drive-shaft installed and the nylocks on the back of the flange. If that ever comes apart I'll be looking for a guy with a wrench in his hand, 'cuz it ain't falling apart!

Then I took a shot of the installed CV shaft, which shows clearly the improved geometry from the SYE/CV change combined with the 1" x-member drop and 6 deg shims on the rear springs to point the pinion at the rear OP. (Photo 3)

For the record, I would say that the overall gain on the SYE install was roughly 2" in additional length. My shaft was a 33.5", replacing a custom length 30.5" that was installed by the OP for the 3" lift that used the stock slip yoke.

I think I made the right call with this combo for this lift. Thanks to RE for their high quality SYE kit and CV Shaft, and Rusty for his HQ x-member and lift kit!

With the new shaft installed we were ready to fit the TC skid plate. I took a couple shots pre-install for those interested. It's an excellent design IMHO, and a breeze to install.

Lemans

Once the photo-op was over we bolted the x-member in place. Well, right after we redrilled the holes we were using on the edge of the plate, since for whatever reason they didn't size correctly for the bolts used.

Only three holes to drill in the "frame" after that, then used the self-tapping bolts supplied to mount the supoort.

I took a couple of post install photos and it looks good. Mirror finish on the paint atm, doubt that'll last! :-p

It's rock solid and has the correct coverage and clearances required to get the job done. It looks good doing it too, which never hurts :-P Dad and I were both surprised that the side bolt wasn't a through bolt on the framerail, if I'm bored one day I'll change that over for the helluvit.

That's a wrap on major work until the next parts show up and I find time to finish up the front-end. Vaca is over and it's back to work for us on Monday. Might be at late as next weekend, but if the temps come up might pull a couple of late nights to avoid the heat.

rjxj

You're guys' garage is way too CLEAN.
Does dad want to come to Cali and work on my XJ or SJ?
Keep up the good work.

Lemans

It's too clean because I literally just converted it from a parking garage and storage bin to a temp shop until we find a house we want to buy in this area. With a little luck it'll have a shop and then I get to clutter more lol

I just moved to this area about 1.5 yrs ago from the Bay Area, no plans to move back to CA anytime soon, too expensive I've lived in most parts of the country, this suits me pretty well. You are always welcome to try and bribe Dad into a trip down, he has more bodywork and paint experience than I do, you two would prolly get along just fine :-)

Btw, I had fun reading your FSJ "Chief" build thread, nice work! I have a touch of that "wanting to clean everything" that you exhibit, amazing how easy it is to dig deep on a project because something is dirty and bugging you :-p If I have a shop proper I will be doing more of it.

I _think_ I managed not to drive Dad nuts with it when we did this week's work...

Lemans

Sorry for the delay on wrapping up the Suspension Install, but you know how life can be sometimes :-)

So, once the UCA's and the steering box brace arrived, it didn't take long to get this stage completed. In the first and second pic you can see the UCA's installed and the initial routing for the new extended brake lines and the basic adjustment to the control arm lengths.

We ended up routing the lines more vertically and adding a second attachment point. This keeps the line clear for maximum tire turn radius and anti-tangle from ground debris by using the LCA as a shield so to speak. We used the natural directional bias in the line to let it keep itself out of the way as shown in the third pic.

The fourth pic shows Dad attaching the frame end of the steering box bracing bar, with the last one showing the attachment to the steering box itself using a bolt-on clamp.

Lemans

The first photo here shows the completed install of the steering box brace and it's general geometry to the vehicle. I removed the bumper for installing this part since I had spare time before we got to finish the FE.

The second shot shows the FE complete with all adjustments done. I replaced the stock ASB bushing and brackets with a greasable poly set from an aftermarket company. I picked them up from a local vendor for about $20 when I ordered the rest of the shock dust boots (inc. the one on the steering damper in that photo).

In the third shot I am showing off my cleaned up battery box and install. It's not perfect, but it is an improvement from where I started. I will have to switch a few connections around when I install the winch later, as I only read after I did this, that they recommend the winch be connected to the top posts and the vehicle feeds go to the side posts...

Ideally I would run a second battery for winching and back-up power with a good switch setup, but I don't see a good way to wedge that extra battery in just yet, so we'll see how that plays out in the long run I guess.

After that was all done, I set it down on all four wheels and started torqueing all the suspension and shock connections until all the new parts had been checked three times, because I kept thinking I forgot something LOL

Next up was bleeding the brakes to clear out the air, which went so smoothly it made me suspicious. Makes me wonder what I used to do wrong or something! hehehe

Once I was convinced it wouldn't fall apart on the road, or fail to stop when I wanted it to, I took it out for a quick run around the neighborhood. Green light on all systems, so I dropped out to the main artery and ran it up to 60 mph to check for death wobble, which did not rear it's ugly head!

Next day it went to the alignment shop, and they dialed it in for me without issue. They adjusted the track bar final position as part of that, and we were back in business, as shown in the last two pics. First as the daily driver as a backstop on lagging issues, then on the shakedown run to rattle loose anything that was unhappy with the current setup.

In the end I had to shorten my sway bar links a bit to keep them from bashing on the disco pins, and replace a badly installed seal on the TC output shaft. I didn't follow my gut and it failed on the third day of DD testing. I made a seal installation aid from thick 3 mil plastic sheeting and scotch tape and the replacement went in properly.

The issue is the c-clip groove on the ROS and it's distance from the rear of the case, you don't have room to work the seal past it before you're mating the outer seal to the case. This causes the lip to not seat properly on the shaft and fail in about 100 miles of driving. Lesson learned, tool made, problem gone! woot

Overall change:
Total of 3" lift gained over the original 3" lift, as the original suspension components were EOL. 6" of wheel well clearance went to 9". I think with appropriate stops installed I will not have any problems running 33x12.50x15's on 15x10 wheels, though I don't know if I will have to adjust the backspacing or not until they arrive. (someone kick BFG in the ***** and make them produce my frikkin tires already! please?)

The newer suspension components are stiffer spring rates and much heavier linkage strength. I am confident in it's ability to take a beating and keep going on the trail.

The stiffer rates will be important when I hang 500 lbs. of steel armor and equipment on it, especially around drivability and neutral suspension loading.

Final conclusions on this stage of the build:
It was fun
It was challenging
It was overbudget (!)
It was worth every penny!!

NEXT!

THENNING

good lookin xj buddy like the color as well...great build thread!

Lemans

Next on the agenda is: Safety Equipment

I was taught from the beginning of my off-road experiences by my Uncle Mike, that if you are going to do anything serious in a Jeep (Yeah, we're a Jeep kinda family ) that you did it with a roll CAGE (not to be confused with a roll BAR) over your head, no other way was going to fly. After I got out and had my fun, I was very glad I was taught that way! (seriously)

I looked at some "order in prefab parts" options and thought about my current welding skills and (lack) of equipment and decided a local fab was a better direction. Some research showed that Holaday's Custom Muffler & Fabrication over in Wenatchee had been doing custom rollbars for folks, up to and including cages for local race cars, so I went over with my project and had a chat.

We reached a mutually satisfying agreement on the fab and what features we wanted, and I left the XJ with him for the week. He wrapped it up in 3.5 days and gave me an excellent price on the fab and install.

He was pretty flexible about the project and his work showed care and understanding of use of the vehicle. He even discounted the labor cost to help bring it in on budget! That's my kind of owner-operator/customer relationship! Chad Holaday was curteous, made suggestions helping fill the gap in my knowledge and design plans, and was generally pleasant to conduct business with. Based on my experience, I would recommend him to others for quality work.

I will be going back to see him once I sort out how I'm going to mount the harness belts to have him add any nec supports, and I may have him add a gusset or two once I get the interior setup dialed.

Here are some post install pics in various lighting and angles.

Lemans

Thank you kindly!
I have a lot of time, sweat, and money involved in the project at this point. I appreciate the validation :-)

Brian

Great looking XJ buddy and I LOVE the new roll cage!
thats just amazing!
Has a handle on the passenger side to?

I would love to have something like that in mine for piece of mind in case the dreaded ever happens.

Looks like if you wanted to do rear shocks through the floor, now you have a spot to mount them to as well.

anyway keep up the great work and post awesome pics of progress!
Take care.

Love the color
5*'s & Subscribed.

Lemans

The shakedown runs with my woman and her family revealed that the seats and restraints in our rig were not up to par for reasonable comfort, and iffy on safety at best, for our intended use.

I recently had a minor back issue at work and the next couple of runs made me sore, indicating my body was doing more work than it should when wheeling. Closer inspection revealed that the bolsters on the stock seats were shwoing their age and were not going to help us out much.

This was an unplanned upgrade consideration at this stage of our build (shame on us) so I did a fair amount of research to select replacements without breaking the bank. As it trends with such projects, the cost of the primary items is only ~50% of the project cost when doing custom upgrades. (YMMV)

In the end I decided to go with Corbeau and order from them direct since no one really discounted their items significantly and I could deal direct and skip the middleman on service issues.

I ordered:
http://www.corbeau.com/products/susp...seats/baja_rs/
x 2 in Grey cloth/vinyl

http://www.corbeau.com/products/harn...harness_belts/
x 2 in Blue

http://www.corbeau.com/service/seat_brackets//
with double locking sliding base (+15 each for the dbl locks)

And I ordered 3 yrds of material for the back seat to be re-upholstered and resprung at a later date. I haven't found anyone who makes a replacement for the fold and tumble rear in these so far.

I installed them yesterday with assistance from Dad (thanks!) and took some snaps of the final assembly which I'll post in the next msg with applicable details...

Brian

Awesome can't wait to see them!
they look comfortable yet supporting.!

Lemans

Dad and I spent most of the day doing prep and paint on the arrived armor yesterday, which I will take up in a subsequent post... then we decided to get the seats and harness gear installed before it got dark.

The first two photos show how accurately the new brackets bolted up in the pan. Nice clean install, zero hassle, good quality fab.

Due to the connection points for the harnesses, we decided to forego the standard instructions and assemble in the best order for actually making it work! The ends of the belts have to pass through the seat before they can be bolted down, and the anchor point on the outside pillar is buried once the bracket and seat are installed.

We passed the the belts through the seats and pushed > the seats into the backseat to bolt in the outer lap belt anchor. Photo 3 shows it installed and re-interior paneled and the seat proximity. After 12 years the interior panels are brittle anyway so trying to install them with those clearances is a bad joke if you had the seat in place already. :-p

In the fourth shot you can see where we tied the inner lapbelt to the floor anchor. My original seat had the lap belt attachment on the seat frame and used one beefy stud to anchor that corner of the seat bracket to the tub. Since the belts are long enough to reach the floor, and it keeps it pretty equal in length to the outer pillar mount, we went right to this stud to skip the bracket > stud interplay.

The last shot shows the shoulder mount with the retraction spool on the backseat as I debate where and how I want to mount it. I am going to temp it to the second hoopm with the supplied offset straps wrapped around the bar, until I decide on the final geometry.