Gorillaxj

looking good! they do look a lot a like and have a lot in common.

FlemingXJ

Where is this? I hope its not out by Ouray cause thats way to far

gvns8

Haha yea man that was near Silverton I think. A little south of Telluride. My buddy read about the location in some photography book and figured out how to get there and I just followed him, so I can't remember the exact location.

gvns8

Did some work on the xj yesterday.

-I changed the oil with some synthetic

-Installed my new Chrome Moly Shafts I bought from SeriousOffroadProducts in the front axle w/full circle clips and a ten year warranty



-I attempted to get change the bushing on the axle UCA and man I could not get them out. I will try again with a sawzal when I have more time.

-I also bought a 4x8 trailer yesterday and a 7.5" drop ball hitch to tow it with my xj when I move. I am thinking of converting the trailer to spring over axle to lift it up another 3 inchs or so. It also turns out the trailer wheels have the same 5x4.5" bolt pattern as a jeep, I might have to throw some big tires on it and soop this trailer up haha.

sneekeepete

Awesome build man!

gvns8

So here is what I have been up to on the jeep:

-I installed some new alpine speakers yesterday. Some of the old crappy sony ones were blown and a local shop was having a sale so I figure I might as well.

-After getting an evap leak code again, I figured it must be more than a loose gas cover. My gas mileage has also been bad recently which I believe may be partially due to the evap leak. I tried using carb cleaner to find the leak with no luck, so I decided to go to a local shop and have them do a smoke test today. They found two lines with cracks that were leaking. It was pretty cheap and I just picked up some new rubber hoses from pepboys for $3 to replaced the cracked parts and hopefully fixed the problem.

-I spent the rest of the day dealing with my transfercase. I pulled it out, took it apart, and attempted to install a 6 planetary gear upgrade. I planned to take two planetary gear sets and combine them to have a total of 6 gears on one. I was thinking the donor gear set was from a newer style (94+) xj transfercase, but I made the mistake of not double checking. I attempted to combine the gears anyways just to see if I could manage to make it work, and long story short, it doesn't work- I tried multiple ways and there is no way to make it work. It is super easy to do what I was trying to do by basically just pressing or hammering out the retaining bolts on each small gear, but you have to make sure you have planetary gears from the same year/style 231 cases.

Here are some pics I borrowed from jeepforum of the 94 and older style gears:



And the 95 and newer:




I ended up just replacing the cracked planetary thrust washer shims, and said forget about the 6 gear upgrade at least for now and put the case back in the jeep.

I also pushed the cup bearing forward since last time I followed some bad advice and pushed it all the way into the input shaft...this is how the bearing is supposed to look:



This improperly installed cup bearing was causing the case to vibrate pretty badly, so this is the main reason I pulled the case, along with replacing the shims. 6 gears would have been a nice upgrade though...oh well.

Other things I plan to get done this week are
-install uca bushings
-tighten the x-joint on the uca's since the uca can move forward and backwards about 0.5"
-install hydro assist ram/steering box/steering box cooler
-alignment and lengthen uca's for more castor
-weld on raised sway bar tabs I bought and connect sway bar (finally!)
-hard wire air compressor with 4ga wire I bought
-build a rear storage box

1FSTREX

I just bought a trailer: Pac West 6x12. I had a factory spring over done on it, installed some Cragar D-Windows to match my Jeep and threw some Toyos on it. Super sick looking! Next plan is to throw some blocks or shackles to lift it a little more then its getting some 30" MTs!

O yeah Jeep is nice! LOL

gvns8

Nice, I am thinking of converting it to a offroad trailer of some sort in the future, maybe weld some new spring perches and throw some leaf springs on it from a truck. Got any pictures of your haha?

Today I also got to work on my jeep.

Here is what I got done:

-Installed my new double shear track bar mount and adjusted the track bar

-Tightened the "x-joints" on the uca's due to them having about a half inch play. They are good now.

-I tried to replace the uca bushings for the axle side and gave up and plan to have a shop do it.

-I did an alignment again with the tape measure and adjusted my caster up to 4.5degrees compared to the previous 3 degrees.

-I laid some 4ga wire for my air compressor/cut through the firewall.

-I re-tapped the screws for the spring retainer clips and put some new bolts

-Topped off the transfer case fluid.

-Sold my old engine skid that doesn't fit the jeep anymore due to the above the axle track bar.

-Got my 2" raised sway bar mounts in the mail today.

That's about it. Been pretty productive the last few days.

gvns8

SO its been awhile since I put up any updates, but I have been quite busy working on the xj and also enjoying some vacation time. Here are some of the things I have been up to on the jeep:

-I had my uca bushing installed and had the hydraulic ram mount tabs and sway bar raised mounts welded onto the axle at a local shop. They also did a computer alignment.







-I bought/installed some JKS quicker disconnects and new sway bar bushings.



I had to trim down the bolt on the passenger side so the nut wouldnt hit the high steer arm:



Bad picture, but this is how much clearance I have between the teraflex knuckle high steer arm to the sway bar mount:



These helped make the sway bars nice and quiet:



Finished Job:



-I installed new speakers in my jeep sinces a couple were blown. Alpine of course. Here are the old crappy ones and the new ones:



-I ran the lines for my cb antenna and tucked them into the side wall.

-I installed new hydrolic steering box and pump. I also installed a transmission filter and transmission cooler on the return line for the steering box in order to keep my steering fluid in top condition.

The box:



The cooler:



The ram:



While installing the RAM for the steering, I overtightened the connection on the hydrolic hose going to the box and broke the hose connection. so I had to take the ram off and plug the steering box connections that go to the ram. I actually plan to get a new hose made today.

-I retapped the threads on the crossmember for larger bolts due to the previous threads being so bad that the crossmember bolts literally fell out one day while I was driving.

This is what it looked like haha.





Much better:



-Finally, I opened up my transfercase...again... and replaced the planetery gears with some out of a donor case I picked up the day before heading out on my road trip.

Pulling mine:



Mine and the donor case:



The nasty partly rusted interior of the donor case: This is what water does when it gets into the case. Extend your breathers people!!





Luckily the planetary gears were good on the donor case and none of the small thrust washers were cracked like on mine, so the planetary gear is the only part I took from the case.

And here are some pictures of the jeep all ready to go before picking up my trailer to head out:





I then headed out on 12 day road trip basically with a group called MilitaryJeepers on the yearly event called Camp MJ going on trails around Ouray, Teluride, Moab, and Grand Junction. Then I traveled home to the family in San Diego. No breaks and all around I had an amazing time. I will post some pictures of that trip soon.

gvns8

SO here are some pictures from the military jeepers event I went on to ouray/teluride, Moab, and Grand Junction.

Some of the jeeps that came:



The first trail:










One of the many views:





Blackbear pass is crazy. You are basically on a cliff with 13 switchbacks that zig zag down it.







Sweet waterfall:



Next was moab:



Uranium arch:



Video from poison spider

one more:

Another video from poison spider




Some poser flex shots:



Then there came grand junction with lots of mud:




Great trip overall. Nothing crazy like last time I went to moab and did behind the rocks, but some amazing views and good people to hang out with for 10 days. I highly recommend checking out militaryjeepers.com and getting plugged into some local chapters if you are in the military or ever have served. Ouray is also one place I would recommend going to at least one time in your life. They call it the Switzerland of America because of the amazing views.

gvns8

I have also managed to get some stuff done on the jeep recently.

I had a new hydrolic hose made since one of the ones I had broke and I installed the hydrolic assist ram for the steering and bled the system.

Here is a picture of the Hydro assist steering *Fully installed*. It made a world of a difference. When driving down the road it now feels like steering a stock vehicle and it tracks with the road still I even put it in four wheel drive with the front locker engaged and I could still drive it and turn around corners, tires screeching and all. I drove on one dirt road and it was noticeable easier to control. I can't wait to trail test it.



Where the lines connect to the steering box



I also cleaned out the engine bay with some degreaser and armorall.



And cleaned the air filter:



And I put on this "pre" air filter which is supposed to keep large dirt particles from clogging up the filter and repel water due to being water resistant. They use it in racing applications and apparently it doesn't restrict air flow.





Other than that I also removed and re-tightened/greased my rough country upper control arm "x-joints" AGAIN for the 2nd time in the 2 months since I purchased them. Pretty poorly designed product in my opinion if they require this much maintenance.

Finally I am in the middle of troubleshooting my engine and trying to figure out why it feels lagging while accelerating, has a sucking noise when excellerating(almost like a vacuum leak/spitting sound) and the gas mileage has fallen from 15-16mpg to 12mpg. I think I have a cracked exhaust manifold or a leak in the exhaust manifold gasket... I will be taking the intake manifold off tomorrow to get a better look at the exhaust manifold to look for cracks. I wouldn't mind getting some performance headers, but I have be sure that will solve my problem.

Jeepfreak1020

Hey man how is it driving it with hydro assist? I have been thinking about it but wasent sure with the jeep being my DD and trying to drive with it

gvns8

DO it. But make one yourself though. The tubes are 35 bucks each and you can get the fittings at a hydrolic hose place or farm supply place (find one local) and the ram can be found online. Then find some instructions on tapping the box. That can be done for like $150 total.

It drives perfect on the road, actually much better than before. The best way to describe it would be that it is like having a steering stabilizer on there with 2000lbs of force . I even got up to 85mph with it and tried jerking the steering wheel a little to make sure it wasn't squirly and it drove just normal.

Jeepfreak1020

I remember with that set up I had on there it was almost like you had to chase the jeep as it was driving because it would wonder all over the road. My jeep still does it. Im not sure If I could run a Ram with a Y link set up. I would prob have to build what I did on your axle. Where did you get your ram from??

Also what did you use for a box? Just the stock box or what?

gvns8

I personally bought a complete redneck ram setup off a guy lightly used (they go for 600 bucks, but I paid half that). It uses the stock box and taps it. Looking over it I can see how easy it would be to make one myself though. I also had to replace one of the hoses that I broke, and the shop made one in about 10 minutes so getting that would be easy also. You would have to do some research on how to tap the box, or there is one of the colo spring guys on naxja that will rebuild/tap yours for like $100 I think, then you would just need the hoses and ram. Just figure out which size is used by redneck ram and a tractor supply place will have the ram or look online.