4x4Turtle

good looking build. like how you post the wheeling pics as well. the black interior would look nice and you should rhino line the interior floors and even the exterior. my jeep is waiting to be painted

BODCherokee

yeah i have to get new steel on a lot of the floor pans first. I have almost no pass floor left. Driver side is good and there is a little missing around the edges in the back especially around the fuel neck. I think i'll just use reinforced fiberglass for the back.

BODCherokee

And thanks for reminding me about the wheeling pics, i have more. Went to Mabell two weeks ago and Dry hill same day.



Showing some flex

BODCherokee

got the new track bar installed last night. Only took like 45 mins. Drives a hell of a lot better now. I also adjusted the drag link so my steering wheel is finally straight. I still have a little wobble between 40 and 45 mph but i'm gettin new adjustable LCAs next week so that should fix it.

just_jeepin

Looking good!

BODCherokee

so yeah, the death wobble returned this morning. Im not to happy about it but i called my parts guy and i'm going to go pick up new adj LCAs after work. I'm going to look into some adj uppers too and finish off this short arm kit. some polly bushings for the axle side uppers would be nice too.

BODCherokee

Picked up the new LCAs last night. These things are crazy head duty. They have the rebuildable superflex joints too. Can't wait to test them out this weekend.

rctrav

Nice Build. I see you got CT. plates I live in enfield ct. I haven't seen many lifted xj in my area.

Heyitisjoe

im likeing the TJ fender flares, i picked up a set for mine a while back i just need to put them on, i cut them to fit, i was thinking about drilling holes threw the fender and the flare and throwing a bolt and two washers and a nut through both sides ever three inches or so. how did you mount your TJ fenders...

BODCherokee

Yeah most of the ones in my area are from western MA


I just used hex head self tapping screws. I used masking tape over the area before i cut. Then a small sharpie to mark the holes on the tape. Pre drilled the hole with the screw, then mounted the screws with a ratchet wrench. I'm going to drill new holes next to the current ones up front so i can mount the front flares with zip ties. That way when i flex out the front, i won't lose any metal if i snap the flare.

BODCherokee

So yesterday i went to pass a garbage truck and the ******* decides to gun it as i'm passing him so i matted the skinny pedal to get past him before i was involved in a head on collision. This caused a 20 year old dry rotted fitting on my tranny cooler line to explode. Billowing smoke and all kinds of horrible noises followed. I thought i had blown my motor but after i pulled over to inspect the damage you can clearly see the bad line that got sucked up into my serpentine belt and chewed that all up which then proceeded to wrap around my fan clutch. Got it towed to the shop and it's only going to be a few pieces of tube, a new belt, and tranny fluid to fix but damn was that nerve racking. You can see a piece of my belt and the tranny cooler hanging down off my bumper.

BODCherokee

So i fixed the tranny line in the parking lot after work on friday. Only took me an hour or so and all looks well. Tranny isnt acting any differently so i think i'm ok. On sunday i came to the shop and ended up fighting with the jeep for 2 hours to get the new longer front brake lines in, but it is finally done. It took forever to get the old lines to break loose off the hard line. PB Blaster wasn't doing a damn thing and i let it soak for a few days before hand. I decided to test out how much slack i have and at full flex they are still swingin in the wind.

Fully flexed




I think i may have broken something because i now have a new noise. I heard a nice pop when lifting her and now something is rattling against the bell or firewall. Maybe i blew my tranny mount or something.

I also did a practice run on my upper control arm bushings. I pulled the one out of my spare axle to see if my method would work

Heat for 5 mins with torch

Push out pin and bushing material with screwdriver

Cut bushing sleeve with hack saw

Cave in the sleeve with a screw driver and pop that out as well


Got it out in just under 30 mins. I know what you're going to say though, bad idea to have that much fire under the engine compartment. I figure i have enough axle droop where i can jack up the body and not worry about it though. I'm going to replace all four on the jeep this week so we'll see how it goes.

BODCherokee

so because of all this ***** out heat, i decided to grab a new bolt for my spare motorcycle mirror and pop the doors off the jeep. i gotta say, driving around with no doors in an XJ just puts a smile on my face. I get all kinds of looks and people love to either give me the thumbs up and say awesome or a**holes who call me an idiot. And of course i'm wearing a seatbelt. Oh and out of a miraculous stroke of genious, i decided to swap my good rear tires up front to see if it helped with the wobble. It almost fixed it. I have just a little shake left so i know my crap tires had something to do with it.

BODCherokee

So for my monthly update. Still just been tinkering with it making things a little better here and there. I'm currently working on eliminating all the annoying noises she makes. I replaced the other two leaf spring u-bolts because it was still creaking whenever i moved. I finally mounted up the wrangler mirrors a few weeks ago and i'm loving them. Takes less than 5 mins to be driving doorless and the doors stow in the back a lot easier without the mirrors on them. I also have been having issues with it running hot so i removed the a/c condensor, it helped a little but not as much ad i wish it had. I also went through and sealed up a few holes i had leaking water in when it rained. Mostly the upper right hand side of the windshield is rotted so until i can afford to have the frame rebuilt, i used some window sealer for now.

BODCherokee

So the jeep has been down since my last wheeling trip in june due to failing parts. I finally got around to ordering them up. I got my new Dana Spicer ball joints, new 99+ intake with power steering pump and bracket, 97+ 297 u-joint axle shafts. Still gotta get the inner axle seals and wheel bearings to finish out the front axle. Once i get the seals this week i'll start tearing the spare D30 aparts to prep it for paint and swap. I'll keep it updated