That is such a good idea... My boyfriend and I wanted to build my xj a roof rack because they're just so expensive.. I haven't heard of anyone doing that before with window covers.
and we live in denver, just sayin haha. But my jeep needs a little more before i take her off road. she can't flex for ****. I am going to get long arms, and 4link it in the rear (:

 

Thanks Frank it looks great. Can't wait to get mine on.


It works out alright especially if you already have the bars. I ended up adding in two thicker lengthwise beams under those to support the weight of the spare tire.

And yea I would definitely do the long arms and 4-link first. I swear with all the money I spent slowly fixing up all the PO's after market junk to make it in usable condition, I could have a ridiculously good off-road vehicle. Whatever though instead I have a moderately built decently capable jeep with everything in perfect working order.

Long arms and 4-linked rear would be nice though-Eventually I will build up some beefy axles, redo the suspension and throw on some 37's or so.

 

Alright so it has been awhile since my last update, but here is my progress over the last two weeks.

First I installed my new adjustable UCA's from RC with the "xjoints" that allow it to flex pretty well. Paid about $160 for these after using the CF 10% discount. Pretty good deal.



Didn't get any pics of the install process due to being pressed for time, but it was pretty easy. Here they are installed.





I immediately noticed a smoother ride with these, I didn't realize how bad the bushings were on the stock UCAs. I made them about .25" longer than the stock UCAs and that fixed all of the vibes I had. I could probably shorten them a little more to bring my pinion down a little to get a little better castor, but for now I am just happy the vibes are gone and will do that later when I have more time.

Unfortunately I think I ran the front driveshaft with vibes long enough to cause a leak in the front pinion seal. I have to replace that now, and I am really hoping I didn't ruin the bearings also in the pinion.

I also got some new 1-ton steering from FrankZ at serious offroad. I definately like it and wish I would have upgraded sooner. Very beefy especially with the 1 ton tie rod ends that I had to ream out my knuckles to fit. I also replaced my balljoints, between those, my steering, and new uca's my jeep drives so smoothly now I am amazed. I still need to adjust the toe in better, but still I feel much safer on the road.

Here are my old ball joints:


And my new Steering and balljoints installed:


A comparison of my new steering thickness with the old junk steering on the ground:



And the final Picture of it installed ready to go:



It was pretty easy to install the new steering. The ball joints on the other hand were a huge pain and would be pretty much impossible if I didn't have the really nice ball joint press that dealers use from the base auto hobby shop I working at. Anyways though I am done and I am very satisfied with the changes.

Finally I went wheeling with a local club up at Chinaman Gulch the day after I installed my steering and it held up great- I was very impressed.





Another Cherokee representing:




Me almost rolling- man that was so close. I had to have people stand on my sliders to keep me from rolling haha, but at least it all turned out okay.





One of the obstacles I drove through. (don't have a picture of me.)



In the end I had no major damage other than a few more scratches on the rock sliders and I really need to get some differential covers that are stronger than the stamped stock stuff. I am lucky I didn't break the front cover. I also came down on my steering a couple times, but this stuff held up fine. No more than a slight scratch in the paint. If I had my stock steering I would have broke it for sure. (and that is not a leak of diff fluid, just a spill.)



Chinaman Gulch is definitely one of my favorite trails and I am glad I got to do it before leaving Colorado soon. It was a lot of fun.

 

dude that is some serious off camberness sexiness right there!!!i wish i live out in the CO

 

did you drop the front axle to paint it? or did you just get up under there and hit it with a few coats?

 

Man I seriously would have rolled if I went another 3 inches forward into that dip. I gotta get the video that one of the guys took. The trail was a blast though. I am definitely gonna miss Colorado . I am moving out to Texas soon. But first I am traveling on vacation to MOAB, Hawaii and Australia, and maybe Guam over a about two months so I can't complain.


And as far as the the painting...I painted the steering before I put it in. I kind of beat it up when installing it so I need to sand it and repaint it. The axle I painted awhile back, just by cleaning it sanding it and spray painting it while it was under the Jeep. As you can tell from the most recent pictures, the paint didn't stay nice too long-but it kept the rust away which is good.

 

Well here are some updates.

-Went wheeling the 1st to Eagle Rock. It snowed like crazy and it took us a couple hours just to make it up to 1/4 of the trail and then turn around and get back to the main road. This was mostly because I somehow managed to lodge a stick and some gravel between my tire and the rim, letting air out of the bead. I had to change out the tire due to not being able to seal the bead.

Here are some pictures:

Us crossing the stream:






The full size cherokee we had with us:


You can't even see the rocks from these pictures due to all the snow, but they were there haha.





Definitely a fun time even though we didn't get far due to the ice and my tire problem.






More wheeling yesterday-I also went wheeling yesterday up to Illinois Gulch and the stairs. Much better weather probably in the 80's. Perfect example of Colorado's crazy swings in weather for you.

Airing Down:


Going Up:


Video of me- I was the first person to go, and ended up choosing a bad line at the end, but I figured out I just had to cut to the right and made it out of that last spot just fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=http:...layer_embedded

A few of the others I went with:


The scout broke his driveshaft on the easy line haha shoulda drove a jeep




So here is where I am with my build:

-I re-soldered my antenna wire to my cb antenna cuz I ripped it out.
-Realigned the steering after realizing I didn't tighten my jam nut enough and the toe in was way off by like an inch.

On the topic of steering, I am trying to figure out what to do. I have this dang low pinion dana30 which means that I had to extend the ucas to point the axle up quite a bit in order to get rid of the driveline vibes in the front. that noticable messes with my steering due to loosing castor and it just feels sloppy overall. I mean the upgraded steering I have is plenty strong and it drives much better than before, but I think the loss of camber has made the jeep drive kind of crappy.


...Soo I am thinking of what I can do to remedy this. Here are my thoughts.

1. Try to add a little more camber by shortening the ucas by maybe an 1/8 in. Maybe this will help, but I don't want the driveline vibes to come back.

2. I am thinking of jumping on this deal I found for a high pinion d30 that comes with teraflex high steer, a custom 1ton steering and trackbar and bracket, truss, and just likemine has 4.56's, and an aussie. If I sell my setup with steering for ~700 I will be ~300 out of pocket.... tempting...but I also want an arb and d44 or d60 up there...so not sure....

3. My track bar is adjustable and I need to adjust it, but the upper TRE it uses to mount to the frame side has seized threads so I can't lengthen it to the right length so this might affect the steering slightly I guess. (another reason I am tempted to jump on the previous deal I mentioned due to needing a new track bar right now).

4. I am thinking of doing a diy $100 hydro assist, and figure this might help a little bit or at least throw on a steering stabilizer since I am not running one right now.

Anyways, any thoughts, comments, or advise is highly appreciated. Have a wonderful night and wish me luck on my finals tomorrow .

 

HP D30 sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

If you want to spend some coin...
I've a got a narrowed and trussed Ford HP D44 in my garage waiting for a buyer.

 

Lookin sexy Gavin! good wheeling shots

 

Here are some updates:

-I went on a 1000 mile road trip around West Colorado this last week. We went to the great dunes national park (and it snowed lame) and did Medano pass, went through silverton teluride and oury, ridgeway and ended up in buena vista and did chinamen gulch. Had a blast.



A picture from medano Pass:



The cliff dwellings we saw.



One of our sweet camp sites we got to drive through lots of mud to get to:





Our attempt at snowbashing up Engineer Mountain Pass- thats as far as we got haha.



Here is me on chinamen's Gulch on saturday- one of my favorite trails.



And some updates on the Jeep-

-I changed the oil today and got tightened down the ball joint nuts, after realizing that one was super loose. Probably due to the fact I was trying to jump my xj off of some hills while on medano pass haha.

-I measured out my castor angle and I am only getting 3* of caster . I am supposed to have close to 6.5-7, but can't get it much higher without lowering it which induces vibrations in the front. The driveshaft is running at 7* angle to the pinion which is not great, but low enough to get rid of vibes..... so I decided that tomorrow:........

-......I am going to buy the high pinion axle I mentioned last time that comes with Teraflex highsteer/crossover knuckle, 1.5" 1-ton steering, new above axle mounted track bar, a truss, aussie locker and 4.56 gears. I will probably install it on Friday and I will take pictures.

-My current front axle is for sale for a great price and includes my new 1-ton steering. It really is a good axle, but just not for someone running ~6" of lift. Would probably be best for someone who has ~4.5" or lower of lift and wants new steering and a locker.

-I am planning on trading my 3.5" Rubicon Express rear springs with a guy who has 4.5" RE springs, so I will have ~1" higher lift in the rear, and I will be throwing in the stock isolator in addition to the 2" one I have in there to bring the front up about an inch.

-Finally, with all these upgrades assuming they all work right and nothing else major goes wrong requiring more money, I think I am going to go to 35" tires soon . I think my setup will be plenty strong to handle them. I have alloy 29 spline shafts in the rear, with a lockright, and will have a hp D30 in the front. I hear of wronglers putting 35's on LP D30's locked all the time, so I figured with the High pinion I will get by fine. If I break a shaft, I will just get alloys. But I drive pretty mellow compared to most, and doubt that will happen. Have a good night.

 

I picked up my new axle yesterday, and almost finished installing it today. All I have left to do tomorrow is throw the disc brakes and drive shaft back on, and adjust the track bar along with the castor angle, and toe in. Oh and throw some grease in all the TRE's and fill up the diff oil. I took some pictures, that I will post up after I finish the install. Man I can't wait to have proper castor setting and good steering.

 

Saw-Wheat!!

 

I went to Moab Memorial Day weekend with some guys on colorado4x4 and did Behind the rocks, golden spike, poison spider, gold bar rim, and Hells Revenge including the escalator. Huge sand storm came onto our campsite so we were tired and didn't stay long enough to do fins n things or pritchet like we planned the last day. Fun times though- I will get some pictures up soon, but here is a teaser:



-After Moab, I drove the jeep back to visit the fam in San Diego. I swear not a single thing broke or went wrong at moab, but when I was driving on freeway literally in the middle of Las Vegas, I started hearing a loud clanking noise like the lockers tend to make when I am turning. We stopped immediately on the side of the freeway, and I came to realize I lost a U-joint cap on the passenger axle shaft. It must have broke the c-clip while I was in Moab. We hobbled through vegas to the closest pep boys to get a new U-joing and I turned on 4wd to stop the lockers from freaking out. I unfortunately forgot I left on 4wd and while turning into Pepboys heard a loud cracking/exploding noise. I ended up breaking the axle shaft yokes on both parts of the passenger side shaft. That made the day much more interesting since no shops had the whole shaft in stock. I ended up taking a cab to a junk yard and luckily was able to pull the part along with an extra axle shaft, and also scored on finding a Transfercase skid, and a new mirror to replace the one I broke a little while back. Anyways, I changed the axle shaft out in the parking lot of pep boys haha and made it home that night.

Guess my jeep can handle Moab, but Vegas is too much.



I have an actual driveway and warm weather to work on the jeep now for the next couple weeks here in San Diego so I will be doing a lot of things that have building up on the to do list.

So far here is what I have done:
-vacuumed it out super well (that stupid clay dust from moab sticks on everything) and organized everything in the jeep.

-finished rebuilding my spare driveshaft the a new u-joint and yoke

-started polishing the rims with some mothers billet polish-expensive stuff, but works super well

-put a new bolt in the fan shroud to make it stop hitting the fan


And what I plan to do soon:

-balancing the tires with bb's
-performing my biyearly super detail cleaning/waxing/polishing/etc routine.
-Cut off the exhaust end due to it vibrating against the leaf spring and gas skid
-install new transfer case skid
-get new UCA axle side nut and bolt since the current nut stripped and the bushing squeaks due to not being able to tighten the bolt tight enough.
-install new frame trackbar mount - and maybe shorten the track bar due to it being too long to adjust properly
-figure out what the heck I should do about my axle shafts. After seeing those thing get destroyed from the lockers I want something stronger. I could get the almost alloy kit and weld over the u-joint caps for $20, or I can get chromolloy d30 shafts that have a lifetime warranty for ~$600. I don't know though if it would be worth it if the axle housing is just going to break? It has a truss and welded c's... not sure how the housing strength compares to a d44.

-and a huge list of other stuff I will try to get pictures of as I do the interesting stuff.

 

Alloy shafts with fullcircle clips FTW!!

 

Well I have been doing a lot over the last few days and have lots of sweet updates.

First though I wan to post up some pictures I have of some of the stuff I did a couple weeks ago that I haven't mentioned yet.

Here is my new axle I installed- high pinion d30, w/truss, 1.5" .25Wall Tubed 1-ton steering, teraflex crossover knuckle, 4.56's, aussie locker, new balljoints, tre's.



I love the axle accept that I do not have my full turning radius anymore for some reason. Additionally, it also sucks that I happened to explode the passenger axle shaft like I mentioned on the roadtrip back from moab.






Before leaving for Moab I got to get on Left Hand Canyon. Pretty fun trail.





Who Says short arms can't flex? I can unseat my coil now. If I get longer shocks and brake lines I can probably get another 5 inches of droop.



And here are the promised pictures from Moab. That place is amazing, and I can't wait to go again. I liked the fact that you could see some really beautiful sights and then go drive on top of them haha.

Here is a picture of our campsite under the arches.





The first night we got there we went night wheeling at Behind the Rocks. Good time.





Then saturday we did the day-long triple combo of Poisen spider, Golden Spike, and Gold Bar rim.









Our Group





Golden Crack







Golden Stairs





Finally on Sunday We did hell's Revenge.







Entering Hells Gate



Hells Gate with a big crowd.









Here is the escalator. I had this guy telling me it was impossible for a cherokee to do it without body damage. I swear he was freaking out and telling me I can't do it and that he rolled with a caged, 37" tires cherokee. I said lets see what happens and after I completed it very easily he claimed I was super lucky. It seriously just comes down to not driving like an idiot.













That was it for us due to having that sand storm keep us from getting any sleep the saturday night. All in all it was a great trip and I made it out without any damage...other than the broken shaft in vegas haha.

I don't have time to add updates on everything I been doing the last couple days, but I will post an update with pictures on all that stuff soon. Until then let me know what you think.