Yeah u prob would have rubbing. Unless you got new control arms that push axle a bit forward. That's what I needed to do to my jeep while having 31's on 3 inch lift

 

I had rubbing at lock before my lift, curious to see what I have now. I don't mind rubbing at lock because I never really turned that far, even in parking lots. My new rims that I picked up have less backspacing though, so we'll see what happens. Without doing any measuring the other day, it APPEARED that my wheels were centered front-to-back pretty well in the wheel wells, but proof will be in the pudding when I get it running.

 

I had only minor rubbing on right side because I didn't center my track bar at the time and it was only so little, it was touching the fender flare's lips. That's all. It didn't touch the control arms or any other parts though

 

Got the old intake and exhaust manifold off today. Yup, the exhaust was cracked. Hard to believe such a small crack could make so much racket. I'm nervous about putting the new intake on and getting it to seal with the APN. Guess I just need to dive in and try. I also need to figure out the routing of the vacuum lines since they're different on the 99+ head. Maybe I'll have her running in a few days! *fingers crossed*

 

So the wife was watching TV and I was bored so I went outside to work a bit more tonight. The APN goes on easy, but I can't get the intake on in the back. I can get the front stud in fine, but it seems that the intake and header are in the way of each other and I can't get that back stud on. I ground the intake a little bit to try to make some clearance, but that didn't seem to help. I ended up calling it a night and I'll try some more tomorrow after work. I will see if I can figure out what is interfering. I might pull the APN off and grind the support beam (for lack of a better term) between 5 & 6 to see if I can get the intake onto the stud.

 

No joy on the install last night, but I was able to get the intake onto the studs and really close but it's just not quite on yet so I gave up for the night. Getting those bottom bolts in and tight is a real challenge since the header won't allow you to get a socket onto the bolts. A trip to the parts store netted me a ratcheting combination wrench so I'm going to try to tackle it again today. Already got it taken apart and some more grinding on the intake and some massaging of the #6 header tube with a hammer is already paying off. Hopefully next is getting all the bolts back on and tight and then start trying to remember where all of my plugs and vacuum lines go.

 

Success! Well, partially at least. A trip to Autozone to pick up some vacuum lines and fittings and I got everything buttoned up I think. I tried starting it and it wouldn't start. Went to double check stuff and whoops, forgot to hook the fuel line back up. Gas everywhere. LOL Got the hose out and cleaned it off and hooked up the fuel line and it actually started right up. Ran a bit rough, but the idle didn't seem high, so hopefully that means no vacuum leaks. I also have the CEL on, but I still haven't extended the wires for the IAT (I think that's what it is) sensor on the manifold and I didn't have any O2 sensors hooked up at the time, so hopefully it's just a matter of getting that stuff hooked up and clearing the codes.

I tried to start putting the exhaust on, but I kinda mangled the flange donut thingy, so I have to pick up another one of those. Filled the back pumpkin with gear oil, so I can check that off the list.

Today I need to pick up a couple of bolts to hold the air box down as I had to butcher them to get them out, a length of 2.5" exhaust pipe to get the muffler/tailpipe installed, and I think some heat shrink for splicing a length of wire into that sensor line.

Not sure if I'll get it done today as I've got the cable guy (not Larry) coming over this afternoon, and it's actually snowing pretty good here so depending on how wet everything is, I might not want to crawl around on my back under the Jeep. On a positive note, after I lifted it I don't need to jack it up any more to crawl underneath and work on the exhaust.

 

Well, good news and bad news. As far as I know I have everything back together. It started right up when I just had the downpipe on, but it didn't sound that great, but I didn't expect it to. CEL was still on, no air box, disconnected IAT, but it ran.

Spent a couple nights putting things back together and finally got the complete exhaust on and the air box back on. Still have to secure the exhaust better temporarily while I figure out what brackets I need. I reset the computer and went to start it and I had to feather the gas to get it going. Didn't think much of it but if I took my foot off the gas it would die. I could keep it running well enough with some attention to the gas pedal, but she wouldn't stay lit. I also have some exhaust leaking from the header where it is bolted to the head. Cranked the bolts a little tighter and took it for a ride around the block. I didn't get too crazy with it since the exhaust is just hung with some wire for the moment, and after my trip around the block it idled ok in the driveway, I'm guessing around 700ish RPM, but the CEL was off at this point. Popped the hood and there was still some smoke coming from near the head. I'm not too worried about it at this point as I'm not terribly sure that it's exhaust smoke, or if it's just crud burning off from having everything apart. My main concerns are the idle and when I was driving it around the block I had a pretty bad vibration. I do have 2 oddball tires on the front though that I've never driven on, so I think I will swap the other 2 back on that I drove around with for a week or so a while back. I'm hoping it's a tire issue and not a drivetrain vibration, but with my luck it's the more expensive problem. I really was hoping to avoid an SYE and/or a TC drop, but I should know more in the next few days when I can investigate more.

The 2.5" exhaust with the hi-flow cat and the magnapack is pretty loud. Not sure if I like it or not because it is a bit droning, but again, I only had it running for 10 minutes or so.

At this point I'm a little depressed about it because I've got about $3000 into it and I may need to throw more $$$ at it.

 

Picked up some new battery terminals today at lunch and I'll try to get those on tonight. From some of the reading I've done having a bad battery connection can lead to idle issues, so I hope that takes care of that problem. if I have time, I'm going to put those two other tires on and get the exhaust shored up a bit and then try to drive it again. I still have to do the track bar relocation bracket, but I don't think that would have caused the vibrations, but maybe.

The guy from Sears called me and asked if anyone had called me about my tires, or if I had come and picked them up. I said No to both questions and then he said that he was going to have to hunt them down. That doesn't sound promising. lol

 

Got a little more work done today and took it for another spin around the block.

Shored up the exhaust better, put the electric fan back in, put the plates on it and then put the other 2 tires back on the front that I had on before and made sure all 4 tires had the same amount of air.

It does idle a bit better, but so far I've only had it start once where it kept going without betting on the gas a bit. I'm almost certain I need a new battery though, so I might have to push that off until next payday.

On my drive around the block I realized how darn loud my exhaust is. It almost sounds like I'm driving around with the back hatch open. Not sure how I feel about it yet, I guess the real test will come when I have the nerve to get it on the highway.

It's still shaking pretty good when I'm on the gas. Seems to start around 25ish MPH but I haven't gone a whole lot faster than that on city streets, so I don't know if it goes away after a certain speed. I think the only thing I have left to accomplish is the track bar relocation.

Other than that I think I'm going to pay the shop that I generally go to to do an alignment when they put the new tires on.

 

Haven't done much lately. Not much money until probably early next year with Christmas and stuff coming up. I still need to tweak my exhaust a bit as it's touching the boot on the shock and has melted it a bit, but that's fine. I will either take the boot off or replace it down the road. Still waiting on my tires to come in. Been two weeks and the guys at Sears seem clueless. Perhaps I can get the to mount and balance them for free for me if it takes much longer.

Other than that, I need a new battery and I think I'm going to jack up the rear and see if everything is still tight, or maybe I didn't get something tight enough and that is causing my vibrations.

 

Got the exhaust tweaked I think to the point where it's not touching the boot any more. It's cobbed together pretty good, almost to the point of being funny. If I can get the vibrations figured out, I'll probably take the thing to an exhaust place at some point to get it shored up properly.

STILL haven't heard from Sears regarding the tires, but I don't have the cash at the moment for a battery anyway, so I haven't been driving it. I will probably see if I can make the guys at Sears do a free mount/balance since it's been almost a month since i ordered the tires.

 

Any updates so far? Any luck with the tires?

 

Not a heck of a lot. I don't have a garage so I'm slave to the weather and daylight, and this weekend it's colder than heck outside.

The guy from Sears called me and said that he couldn't track down the tires that I ordered from any of his sources. I will probably call him back on Monday and go with BF Goodrich or some Cooper Discoverer AT3. I did call another Sears to see if they could track them down thinking maybe the guys at the other Sears were just clowns, but he hasn't called me back yet, so maybe he's having difficulty too.

I think my next step is to try to drop the transfer case and see if I can eliminate some vibes. I really wanted to get the new tires on first just to see if perhaps the crapola tires I have on there now were contributing to the vibrations.

Oh yeah, I did get my stereo installed. It's an old Sony that we had in a car we got rid of. I ordered a wire harness and bracket off of ebay for around $12 and got that all popped in yesterday. Took me all of about 3 seconds before I realized that I'm going to want to upgrade the speakers too. It's been a LONG time since I've been in the car audio game. My past few vehicles have been just fine as far as the stock stereos go.

 

Oh yeah, i also got the rear bumper and end caps bedlined. I'm waiting to see how durable it is after it's dry to see if I want to put some more enamel or something over the top. It was pretty soft when I left work, but it hadn't been drying for more than a few hours. I was going to wait until I got the trailer hitch situation figured out, but seeing as I never need to tow anything, and if I do I have a hitch on the van, I guess I will leave that on the to-do list for a while.