Pinkyman

Well I just got home with her new shoes! They look good sitting there. I'll probably have to wait until spring to take the snow tires up and bolt these on. It looks like I may need to do some trimming also.

Pinkyman

This guy at my work has the 2" BB, and im higher than him in the front, but not so much in the back.... I guess its time to get some rear shackles or new 3.5" IRO leafs in, and get my bigger tires on......








Im also going to be back flushing my heater core (Thanks Xj-Jake!) to try to get some heat back in this thing!

Pinkyman

Well my icehouse fits in the back with all my gear with about an inch to spare!

I also noticed my rear leafs are getting pretty "s" shaped.... So new 3.5" leafs will definitely be in the works in the upcoming weeks....

Pinkyman

I also never realized how short the Xj is. I will have plenty of room to get the rear leafs done and get my bigger tires and wheels on, and momma will still have room to park comfortably in the garage while I work on it

Pinkyman

I finally got around to backflushing my heater core. I went through it a few times, and now she's nice and toasty! Granted it gets warmer at higher rpms, but it will work lol.

Here's some of the crap that came out, and yes, that is a giant chunk of crud in there. This is only some of the crap that came out after one of the times I went through it.





AND here's what it looks like when you open the garage door when it's 45 inside, and -3 outside....

Pinkyman

Well it looks like it's time to order some shackles and bushings and u bolts, it's time for the Jeep to gain some altitude!

I just picked these IRO 3.5" leafs for $70, and they even already have the leaf pins!

Pinkyman

Well, i havent driven the Jeep in a week or so other than just moving it in the garage to work on it. So this isnt what i was expecting when i woke up this morning :-(

It looks like its coming from almost right under the battery somewhere. I checked the t-stat from when i installed a new one the other day, and it was dry. Im hoping that maybe i just cracked a heater hose or something when i was backflushing the system the other day. It has been -10*F or so for the last week, so things are probably a little brittle.

I just hope its not that stupid tube off the water pump thats all rusty......

Pinkyman

Damnit........

Apparently now that the heater core has good flow, it allowed my pressure to build and found a weak point. Ugh, I guess I'll be putting a radiator in this weekend before I get started on the lift.

Pinkyman

Getting there... Picked up a shiny new lifetime warranty radiator today. This weekend is going to suck.... Lol

Pinkyman

I talked to my father in law last night. He hasnt pulled his project (The Wippet) into the shop yet, so he said i can use it to work on the Xj on Saturday. Hes got an overhead winch, torches, a wire feed welder, air hammers etc and any tool i could possibly need. So needless to say im happy that i can get it done over there.

Im planning on basically every bolt breaking. This way i should be able to make fairly easy work of the rear leaf bolts if i need to make a cut in the frame or the floor to get at the nuts, and i can heat the transfer case bracket bolts (or weld on new ones when they break). And im going to have to chisel off or cut all 4 of my rear shock bolts, since the welded nut came loose, and all they do is spin.

Plans for Saturday:
New extended shocks (all 4)
Rear IRO leafs
Rear shackles (IRO 1")
Transfer case drop
New radiator and flush the system
Maybe put on my new wheels and tires if im feeling ambitious once everything else is done.


Picture of the shop just for fun

Pinkyman

Well, 7 gruesome hours later, she's all finished up! I ended up not needing the t-case drop, and after 7 hours of sitting, the radiator didn't leak a drop, so I'm holding off on that for now.

With the help of my father in law, we got the rear leafs replaced, and all 4 shocks, including taking care of the stupid shock bolts that just spun, and fishing in new ones. I'm glad to say, not a single bolt broke, they were all just a ***** to get out lol. I still may end up adjusting my rear shackles up since they are currently on the lowest setting. I also need to invest in an extended rear brake line, which will probably involve replacing all the lines in the rear since they are all rusty.

On to the pictures!





Apparently this is all that was holding my drivers leaf spring on....

Pinkyman

I also noticed that my heat still sucks. It worked well when parked, but it got colder as I got moving. So today, I made a piece of calibrated cardboard and put gorilla tape over it (for aesthetics, and to protect from the elements) and stuck that behind the grille. Hopefully that will help it slightly, but I guess we will see tomorrow.

We're also supposed to get 3-4" tomorrow, so we will see how the MTRs mixed with the ATs will work. At least they all have good tread. If they suck, I'll be putting my snow tires back on tomorrow night.

Pinkyman

Well i drove her into work today. I have heat again!!! The whole way here at sat at the 165 where it usually sits, and bumped up slightly when i was idling in my work parking lot, but the heat worked great the whole way in.

It also rides pretty nice with the extended shocks. There is some creaking coming from the rear, but im assuming that its probably the poly bushings... I hope lol

This is as hot as it got this morning, and i actually had to turn my heat DOWN for once, thats a first!




And here she sits.... I really need 2 more MTRs :-(

Pinkyman

Im still trying to figure out a good way to get some front recovery points on here. I also found out that the mixture of tires that i had on didnt work on ice really at all.

So i put my snow tires back on, and now im looking at some other sets of tires. I may be picking up some goodyear duratracks in the near future to replace the 2 MTRs and the 2 ElDorado all terrains, and i will finally have a matching set.

Heres how the poor girl is sitting. It looks like such a baby, like i shaved off its beard or something

Pinkyman

Well were supposed to get like 10" or something today, so i drove the Jeep into work. I noticed some pretty decent driveline vibes at like 20-40MPH. I guess im going to have to do my t-case drop after all.

The weird thing is that it didnt seem as bad with my 245/75/16s on, but its really noticeable with the smaller tires.