darknezz

I can call RC and see what kind of price they will give me, thanks for the tip. The zone 4.5 kit is $520 and is made by BDS, I'd like to give them a try. But if someone offers me pretty much the same stuff for hundred or more less I might just get persuaded.

I barley feel safe driving it with no lift right now, after a lift would just be asking for something to break. I'll feel good knowing EVERYTHING is replaced and I believe in building a good foundation BEFORE mods.

P.O. cut the exhaust after the cat and clamped a muffler on there, I'll be welding it up and making a side exit pipe.

I really want to replace the cat with one of these. Just to, you know, "test" how much it helps. We dont do emissions testing in Oregon either ^_^

darknezz

The blower motor died again yesterday.

Got a new one today, lifetime warranty from AutoZone for $27.

Put it in during my lunch break, blows awesome now and isn't all noisy lol



Just waiting for all my parts now. It says my TRE's, drag link assembly and brakes should be here tomorrow. But then I gotta wait for my hubs and ball joints as I'm going to do it all at once.



Also picked up 6 quarts of o'reilly brand (its made by shell) 5w30 full synthetic oil and a wix filter for $23. Great deal there. Also got some gunk motor flush stuff.

darknezz

Sucked up half a can of seafoam.

Did my valve cover gasket and cleaned all the crap up in there.

Sucked up the other half of seafoam through the brake booster hose. 10 minutes later drove the **** out of it, nice smoke show.

Dumped in Gunk motor flush and ran for 5 mins like bottle says.

Changed oil.

Runs smoother and SOO much quieter now. Alot of the valve tick and clatter sound is all gone.







By the way. I got a email from autopartswarehouse for an invoice on my RC adj track bar. Ironic thats where I ordered alot of the other stuff. So apparentely the ebay person selling them is a supplier for them?

Anyway it gives the RC part number ROU7571 so it seems legit and a great deal for $51

blankdeluxe

If you haven't ordered your lift yet I would recommend staying away from zone. With 4.5 inch you really need to drop the control arms so that aren't at such a crazy angle. I just got my RC 4.5 with x-series arms, New rear leaf springs to replace the sag that comes with a 25 year old car, and a CA drop kit for a $1006 shipped with the forum discount. Don't forget that with zone you are going to have to get new brake lines too as well as either a SYE or transfer case drop to avoid death wobble on the HWY.

Just call rough country and ask for Jason and let him know your a member on here, its good for 10% off.

That just my two cents though. Lots of people lift their jeeps and keep everything else stock all the time without any problems.

darknezz

I cant spend more than $500 on a lift so thats out.

The zone kit comes with a t-case drop and brake line relocation brackets (not that new brake lines are hard to get) and the longer angled control arms. Like I've said I'll have to build or buy a new leaf pack soon again I know.

The only reason I was going with Zone is I feel its a little better quality than RC.

Kuro89

It looks like you bypassed that stupid little junction box with the valve breather and vacuum lines, I've been meaning to do that as well, very nice job.
How exactly is the valve breather tube routed to the air intake?

darknezz

It doesn't go back into the intake, it just goes down past the engine and has a little cone filter on it.

The other thing I did was remove the egr stuff.
In this picture you can see I looped the egr valve back to the manifold.

darknezz

fedex woke me up at 8 am with this



Just waiting on the hubs and ball joints now. They should be here tonight.

Going to go get my zj tie rod from the jy today too

darknezz

heres the zj v8 tie rod I got at the JY today with the new TRE on it


heres the end of it, looks good


and the rest of the parts to all be put in tomorrow


lots of install pics tomorrow. stay tuned.

oh also while at the JY I looked into getting a bigger sway bar. Apparently my cherokee already has the larger one as all I saw was ones smaller and the same size as on the v8 GC's so I grabbed some good looking bushings for mine as they are completely ripped out...

darknezz

So heres what I did today after setting up a portable garage to work in since it started snowing.

Here was my front end until today.



Wheel off


Rotor off


Hub off...



Getting the hub off was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I torched it pb blaster and hammered on it for 2 hours...

Kuro89

I understand the pain of replacing the hubs, even though my buddy and I had a hub puller it still took forever since we destroyed two of them, good thing they were loners from the auto parts store and they didn't notice when we returned them

darknezz

I hate this, it takes me along time with my limited tools.

I had to go rent a ball joint press... Just wasnt going to happen without it. Made the u joints a breeze though



This pipe is awesome it fits over anything and is SUPER strong. It and a torch have been my best friends through this.




after that I cleaned up the brake calipers for the new pads
oo I need to put that plastic thing around the axle

I should be able to do the other side in half the time since I'll know what I'm doing and have all the tools I need.

so far all the parts I've gather fit! amazing!

homebuilt503

Good progress so far, keep it up man

tommyxj2000

it looking good

darknezz

finally finished the other side.

phone was dead so no pics.

I'll grab a pic of all the new steering stuff tomorrow.

The steering feels stiff and responsive now and it all feels smoother. brakes feel nice and smooth too and I can stomp on them and come to a quick smooth stop.

I cannot align my steering worth crap though, I tried and now my wheel is 90 degrees sideways and its still not right. so gonna get it done at a shop tomorrow.