Who and what did you email to find out the build info on your jeep? I've got a 96 xj also but many of the parts underneath have been under coated so I can't tell what they are such as the diff

 

Wow, gonna keep watching, didn't make it all the way through yet.

 

Try this link and see if it works for a build sheet. I don't remember exactly where I went. It took a couple days to get it. All I really wanted was my Jeep's birthday though and that wasn't included. lol

I might run to the parts place at lunch and pick up some stuff so I can get my intake cleaned up and purty. Slow at work today so some time out of the office might be nice.

 

R u planning to paint the intake as well,


Someday I would like to paint mine yellow.

 

Yeah, I plan on painting the intake before I install it. I tried cleaning the bottom of it today but I forgot my bottle of brake cleaner. Tonight I'll give it a good bath. The plan for tonight after work if I have time is to get the other rear wheel off and see if I can start getting the old suspension off, but who knows what the kids and wife will let me accomplish. Maybe I'll just drink beer.

At some point I want to have the intake, fuel rail and valve cover painted. Since I will have the intake and exhaust manifold ripped off at some point in the near future, I might as well paint the valve cover. We'll see how adventurous I feel. I might paint the throttle body too, but I'd like to bore it out before I do that.

 

Sound like a plan .

 

Generalization of what working on Jeeps comes down to.

 

I actually did some of both tonight!

Nothing terribly exciting. Got the u-bolts off the other side of the Jeep now I just need to get the leafs off. I'm hoping that they go easier than the passenger side, but I have no idea why they would. Once I realized that the new leafs had degree shims, I knew that I had to pull the other side apart before I did anything else. I was originally just going to slap the new stuff on the passenger side and then work on the drivers side. I bought an M14x2.0 tap and die so that I can clean up the front weld-nut on the leaf. I cleaned up both the bolts with the die and ran the tap through the nut and they're way better than they were.

Scrubbed the heck out of the intake and am just letting it dry so I can access the condition of it before I paint it. If I had my druthers I'd have it bead blasted, but I'm far too cheap and impatient to do that.

Not many pictures tonight, but here's a couple parts, one after paint and one before the wire-wheel and Rust Reformer got taken to it...

 

Oh yeah, I also crunched some numbers and I've spent over $2100 for my "free" Jeep and I haven't even put the expensive stuff (tires) on it yet. *sigh* Gotta keep that number from the wife. I've done it over the course of a couple months or so as to not raise flags

 

ive got the same leaf springs. they work good but that bottom leaf started moving on me when i was offroading. cheap ubolt to fix it and have fun with those rear shocks. no rust on my jeep and all 4 bolts still snapped .....soak em first

 

Oh I already broke the two top ones on the passenger side, haven't tried the drivers side, but I assume they're going to break as well. I bought an air hammer and I'm just going to blast the weld nuts out and drop bolts in from the top, or use the taped-nut-in-the-wrench trick if I can't get the bolts in. At this point, I'm not too worried about it, but then again, I haven't tried anything with them yet. I still have to open my shocks to see if I need to press out my old bars from the shocks.

 

Morning update! Got several coats of 8 bazillion degree grey header paint on the bottom of the intake and it looks really nice. I need to go get some more painters tape before I start the top. Got a couple more coats of paint on the leaf springs, because hey why not? They were already black but look like they were painted by my 6-year-old. Lots of runs. I don't care all that much since you really won't see it, but I figured I'd just get another coat of paint on things to try to delay the rust a salted road or two.

Took a 13mm socket to the driver's side shocks. Not even a 1/4 turn and both nuts snapped off. Kinda figured. I'm going to have to press the metal bars out of the old ones. I figure I'll just cut them out when I get some time.

Here's a question... The new shocks have the rubber/poly bushings and then a couple of sleeves. The sleeves don't fit over the studs on the Jeep. Do I need them or can I just put the bushings right over the stud?

Got the rear leaf spring bolt out without TOO much swearing. The front one came out easier than the passenger side and I think it's out of the rail, but now it's not backing out any further because I think it's caught up in the bushing. I think I'll take the sawzall to the leaf and see what kind of access I can get to it. I think this is an opportune time to by an angle grinder.

 

Got a bunch done with my limited time this weekend. I took 2 sawzall blades to the rear leaf and it just giggled at the blades and I wrecked 2 blades with barely a nick on the leaf. On a trip into town I stopped at Menards and picked up a cheap $22 angle grinder and a 10-pack of cutoff wheels that cost almost as much as the grinder. I was super happy that I could fit the business end had the clearance to get at the leaf. I was shocked at how fast the cut off wheel went through the leaf. After some grinding and cutting and prying I was able to get the bushing out, then some more prying and cursing I was able to get the bolt out of the seized on sleeve. Yay me!

I also finished painting up the intake, but I can't get a decent picture of it to save my life. I will try to get some more pictures tonight. If I have time tonight I'm going to try to slam the shock bolts out of the rail and get the shocks in, but daylight is getting less and less. I picked up some grade-8 bolts to get the shocks mounted. I also want to knock the rear diff cover off and get that cleaned up, it's pretty rusty, go figure.

I'm hoping the front lift goes smoother, but why would it?

 

After work today I took a 12" socket extension and a hammer and crawled under the Jeep. A couple whacks with the hammer and the weld nuts popped right off. I used a piece of wire through the hole and into the access hole, wound it around the bolt and pulled the bolt in through the hole. Took a couple tries but I finally managed to get the driver's side shock mounted. Curious about actually finishing a side, I grabbed a leaf and started trying to get that in. It was a lot harder than I thought. I got the front mounted pretty easy but the back was a pain. I had to use my jack to raise and lower the axle to get it positioned, and then using a pry bar I pushed the shackle forward but I couldn't get the holes to line up so I could get the bolt in. Tweaking the height of the axle and getting my wife to help me I pried and pulled things until she could get the bolt in. Some more jimmying and I was able to get the bolt in and tight.

It was a huge pain in the butt trying to get the u-bolts on because I couldn't get the centering pin on the leaf pack into the right place on the axle. I ended up putting the jack on the front of the differential and tilting it up a bit to match the degree shims and them moving the axle around until I got the pin in and then I tightened it up. I think the next side will go smoother, but it was already pitch black and I was just working with my flashlight.

 

Good news everyone! Well, good for me at least. Got the rear suspension done yesterday. It definitely sits higher than it did before, but I haven't gotten around to measuring it yet. I also popped the diff cover off to clean it up before putting it back on and adding new gear oil. I'm guessing it was the original gear oil in there, and there didn't really seem to be that much in the pan when I was done. That stuff has a smell that sticks with you, hey?

So now it's onto the front. I'm not sure how to tackle it yet, but I guess I'll figure it out as I get into it. I figured it would be easier than the back, but I kinda forgot to factor in the steering stuff, so maybe I'm in for a world of hurt.

I also picked up a map gas torch today at lunch. Me and a coworker used that and a propane torch to heat up my down pipe so it was a nice glowing red color. I used the handle of a couple crescent wrenched and slowly worked the kinks and dimple out of the stock down pipe. It's not perfectly round, but without a pipe expander I think it's pretty good, and I think I significantly increased flow through it. I also didn't want to mess up the angles. I don't have my other exhaust picture on this computer, but it's somewhere in this thread. Here's a camera phone shot of what it looks like now. I think I'll be able to salvage it and save myself $60-$70.