Leonmac

Yeah, Pureora has some real testing tracks, the pic of the Nissan up the page a bit is the top of the Bogin Rd Loop. In the wet its a 4hr loop and its 4kms long. Don't even think about it if you don't have big tires and a winch. Have you done "Thompsons Track" at Te Aroha or any of the tracks in the Thames area, If you look at the Photos in my album, the rainy ones are "Thompsons Track" in winter and the sunny ones with the Nissans in the big holes are in the summer. Cheers Leon

Leonmac

Hey Guys, Spent the day fitting the Coilovers in the front yesterday, Looked at a couple of ways to do the mounts and settled on the easy way. I mounted them in the position of the original shocks this ment I could use the bottom mount with no mods and gave me the length needed the top mount is a box section welded to the tower, Don't look to hard at the welding its only tacked and I will get it welded properly later. I only have a stick so I will get my mate who has a good Mig and is a good welder to fully weld it. The other option was to mount them where the old coil went but that ment making a bottom mount and atop mount and there was much less length and may have ended up lifting the truck to 5" which I don't realy want, also this means I can use the original Bump stops. I still have to add 50mm to the stops. I also trimed the grill and fitted it back in. Its nice and tight and the winch is snug back in the grill. Cheers Leon, (Sliders and Long arm coming soon)

4.3L XJ

Hey mate, looking like it is starting to come together. One suggestion though, beef up that lower mount. I don't think it will hold up. Also I would suggest some upper poly bushings

Testament

Yeah know the tracks around bog inn road, and out by the YMCA camp have not been over the western side though - I understand there are some tracks that you have to come into from near bennydale?

We have done thompsons but not right through, track was blocked by a stuck lwb patrol with a flat battery on the te aroha side of the bombsite so we just walked the rest, it really does get quite ridiculous on that katikati side! done a few others around there, waitawheta and around waikino.

some video from the bullring track in pureora (not jeeps unfortunately!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYOCJ...ature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivoEb...ature=youtu.be

cantab27

mmmm,, sounds like i gotta do a road trip some time up to the pig islanders.....have a couple of other jeepas up that way on local 4wd forum.....gives a heads up if ya ever coming down south fellas.....we got some tracks ya can run.....

Leonmac

Wayne/Testament, Those pics in the rain of thompsons are from the Katikati side, the boys took 8hrs to get to the bomb site which is only about 3kms from the start of the track, they gave up and turned back at that point. The day we went in sunny conditions it took 8hrs from the TeAroha side but its all down hill and it took 2hrs to get 5 trucks through the bomb site. Its a challenge, NO Doubt, We have taken over 12hrs to do Boggin RD and the loop, ending in the dark at 10pm. GREAT FUN. cheers Leon

Leonmac

Hey guys, some more work on the XJ. Have sorted out my wheel issue and bought some new tyres. I bit the bullet and went to 35x11.5x15 Silverstones. I was going to stick to 33s but a few mates got in my ear and what swayed me was if I had probs with the diffs at the end of the day and ended up changing them out I would regrett not having the bigger tyres also the price diff was 30 bucks a tyre. As for wheels I cut the centre out of the jeep wheel and welded it into a Nissan shell this gave me a 0 offset which fills the flares nicely and when I do the beadlocks they will grow another inch. I may need some more lift or some more gaurd trimming also the front diff could do with being pushed forward an inch or 2 to clear the back of the inner gaurd. Anyway here is some pics.

cantab27

selling mine leon......have brought a v8 tj.......ya may know it

will pm ya some pics.......hows the build going ....

99 Purple XJ

Jeep looks badass with the 35s and hows the coilovers and whered you find them

Leonmac

Hey guys, Had the XJ on its first trip over the NYear Break, it performed above my expectations and managed not to break the front axle so at this point there wont be an axle swap. the gearing on the road is bad and towing a trailer I couldn't pull 4th gear but it did 95kms @ 2000rpm in 3rd and managed 6kms to the litre I can live with that. On the trail the gearing didn't seem to be an issue and it pulled well in 1st and 2nd on most climbs, I,m happy with the power and being light was great when winching. I was able to out climb a couple of very trick HiLux's on a couple of hills (much to there surprise) so all in all I was very happy. Now for the bad stuff (MY fault,Not the Jeep) I did have some suspension issues. I hadn't quite finished my 3link LA and decided to leave the stock top arms in place as a 4 link set up this was not a good idea as when flexing and jumping arond the loading and twisting was too much for the arms and they ended up looking like spaghetti after half a day so we had to do some mods on the job and beefed up one arm and 3 linked it. It saw the week out but wasn't happy.
Well I have been working on the 3 Link and it is now finished and it drives SOOOOO much better now the Kingpin angles are right and its all solid again. now I just need to do bump stops and then move to the rear and sought out some desent shocks to get some flex (Killed the stock jeep shocks in 1 trip)
Here are some shots of the 3link.

4.3L XJ

I know what you mean Leon. I like mine too, especially when flexing and steering. How does the coil overs work?

Leonmac

If you look at the Cross member you can see I have dropped the G/box mount 1" into the box section, with mt 3" lift this has got rid of the small vibration I had in the drive line and it runs smooth as silk again (No SYE at this stage) I like the 3" lift but need to get some more droop out of the set up for better flex, I'm running open front and LSD in the rear and other than when I get cross axled do to lack of flex it seems real good and hopfully will keep the D30 alive for a while. A few more shots of the 3 Link.
Purple XJ, the coil overs are home made from a set of RS5000 Rancho's I had lying around, hence they are not adjustable but its easy to make spacers if you want to lift. There are 30mm spacers in them now but im going to change the bottom mount so I can remove them as they rob me of some extra droop.
Wayne, You will have to post some pics of the new ride mate.

Leonmac

Hi 4.3, The coils work good, I may go to some longer shocks later but happy so far. I need to get some more flex from the rear. I think I will need to extend the shackles a bit and put some 12" travel Ranchos in there. what are your thoughts, is there some hints you could share, Mate.

Leonmac

Hey guys, been a while since I last posted but thought I would chuck some shots on from the newyear trip. I have since gone back to the conventional coil/shock set up in the front. I put a set of 12" Rancho's in and that should give me some real flex in the front end. Next is to do the rear end, at this point I'm thinking of putting the coilovers I had up front in the rear, still retain the leaf stacks to locate the diff but drop out a couple of leafs and add a torque rod to stop axle warp. Eventually I may go to a "A"arm 4 link. the problem over here is you have to certify all mods if you want to keep it Road Legal so I'm trying to keep it simple.

Leonmac

Hey guys, been a while since I last posted but thought I would chuck some shots on from the newyear trip. I have since gone back to the conventional coil/shock set up in the front. I put a set of 12" Rancho's in and that should give me some real flex in the front end. Next is to do the rear end, at this point I'm thinking of putting the coilovers I had up front in the rear, still retain the leaf stacks to locate the diff but drop out a couple of leafs and add a torque rod to stop axle warp. Eventually I may go to a "A"arm 4 link. the problem over here is you have to certify all mods if you want to keep it Road Legal so I'm trying to keep it simple. I'm having problems down loading photos will try later