In all honesty I haven't had to deal with SYE's or relocation brackets. I mean I know what they are but just no hands on experience simply because I haven't needed to.

I will make a suggestion that you also post the questions your asking in the modified section linked below. You'll get quicker replies.
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f67/

 

Well, the lift shipped and is due to show up Friday. I’m going to work on getting it in over the course of several afternoons/evening after work. I have all new sway bar bushings coming (front and back), new flag nuts for the top rear shock mounts, new bump stops for the front.

Next I’ll be getting the driver side floor fixed up and treated and back together.

With the lift and the floors done I’ll be itching to get the donor motor in.

One thing I’ll be doing is a DIY hack and tap for and SYE. Seen a video of it using the OEM slip yolk, cut both sides, drill and tap. I have the xfer case on the bench, should be an easy job at this point. Going to use the front DS from the donor as the new rear DS on this one.

Stay tuned for the next update!

 

The UPS man brought goodies today...




Pumped to get this on the XJ! I have a bunch of other stuff coming too, shackles and whanot. Speaking of, anyone know off-hand what size hardware I need for the shackles? Just want to have everything on hand for when the lift is done. Running around while doing the job wats up so much time...lol


In the meantime I got the drive side floor patch made up and ready to weld in.




Hope to get the lift in a few nights after work this week!


Stay tuned!

 

Dayum....what a job that was!!









Now to get the chassis all cleaned up, treated, and painted with rubberized undercoating. Then I’ll get the lift in the rear...

 

Your garage setup and lift are badass. Good job on the patchwork too.

 

Thanks! I have never been much of a body work guy, but I’m always open to doing whatever it takes to get things done. The shop, well that’s my “zen den”....I’m just not ok without some wrench turning on a regular basis. I always have something cookin in there, and there’s ALWAYS cold beer in the fridge when all else fails...lol.


Todays progress involved dropping the fuel tank, charcoal canister, hammer out the nurserts for the upper shock mounts, clean up all loose rust, wipe everything down and give it all a good treatment of rust converter. I also pulled the rear OEM flares, rear bumper caps, rear bumper, tow hitch, flag nuts for the tow hitch.












Got the new bump stops ordered, they will be here next week. Going to do the DIY bar pin eliminator using the donor XJ’s rear sway link mounts. I already have the flag nuts for the top mounts. Ordered new fuel filler hoses (fill and vent).

In the process of pulling the axle I broke the driver side lower shock stud. Im going to do a universal shock stud for a replacement.

Hope to get get the chassis all painted up and prepped for the axle re-install by Wednesday. Kind of a pain having it hog up my bay with no way of rolling it out!

 

So I was doing some research regarding the lower shock mounts on the rear axle. I found the “high clearance” mounts for a good deal (not that there’s much to them). Wondering if anyone out there has used them in conjunction with a 4.5” lift? Should I stay away due to shock bottoming out with the shorter dimension? I like the idea of the higher mounted shock, but don’t want to risk bottoming it out. FYI, I do have extended (2”) rear bump stops coming for the XJ...

 

Made some more progress today. Unfortunately I ran into issues while trying to drop the track bar. Broke the bolt on the axle end, tried several different ways of cutting the bolt, fkn sawzall bucked against the bracket, crushing my fkn hand against the axle. That ended the afternoon, bolt is still in there.

Considering cutting the bracket, getting the track bar out, bolt out, then rebuild the bracket afterwards.

Gonna have to take a couple nights off...Hand took a solid hit.

 

Oooooooookay....needed to take a step back and count backwards from 10.

Now that I’m thinking clearly again, I have ordered a track bar bolt kit, all new leaf spring bolts, welded in the final floor patch on the driver side, primed it, seam sealed it, painted the front swaybar.

Now to figure out how to get the track bar bolt out. Think I’m going to try and source a 6” or 8” cutting wheel and ride dirty (no shields on my older grinder). The 4” wheel is not big enough to get the bolt cut all the way through.

Going to try and take the afternoon off as far as the Jeep goes....it tough though, I want to get this thing to a drivable state ASAP!

 

Im trying to rest my hand, so I limited my work in the shop to painting the underside of the rear chassis. As I detailed above, I had previously treated the entire rear section of the chassis with rust converter. That has set for 2 days, so now I top coated the entire rear section of the chassis with Duplicolor bed liner (black). I like the result, came out good!

The front section and front wheel wells will be getting the same treatment.

 

Back at it today...seems like a lot of little things lately, which makes it slow going.

Anyway, got my new front end service kit and used it to get the old tired steering stabilizer out, and both sway link studs out.




Got the rest of the front suspension out and cleaned up, chipped all the rust, got it all wiped down, treated all the rust with converter. I’ll get both front wheel well areas painted and ready by the end of the week.




Pulled the charcoal filter assembly apart. Had to fab up a new bracket, the old one was just not savable.







I got the new fill and vent hoses in for the fuel tank, going to get help new-installing it tomorrow. It good to be on the “re-assembly” part of the project!

 

Did a couple things tonight, kind of in a holding pattern while I wait for the rust converter to cure (which takes a couple days).

Anyway, got the gas tank back in, replaced the fill and vent hoses.




Got my new needle scaler in, took it to the rear axle....damn, I should havebought one a long time ago! Got the axlecleaned and treated with rust converter.




Now that I’m just around the corner from getting the axle back in I am wondering if the rear sway bar should be left out. I want this to be a good on-road driver, not just an off road machine.
If I were to remove the rear sway bar would that make the handling too soft on road??

 

Nice looking build so far! As far as what I’ve read on this forum, the rear sway bar does pretty much nothing, especially with upgraded suspension. I left mine out after doing my lift and have had zero issues

 

Thanks! I’ve had a ton of fun on this build, it’s deeper than I’ve ever gone with a off road project....been a lot of work, but fun!

I think I’m going to keep the rear sway bar out...seems to be the consensus.

 

Whats the rust converter? Got a link or a brand name? I like that youre coating the bottom side of the Jeep. Id love to do that to mine.