Too bad you couldn't spray some nail polish remover in there to loosen up that super glue and get your wrench back.

R.I.P. little 15mm open-end wrench. We turned many a nuts together, you will be missed.

As far as test driving goes, almost there. Just gotta make one more brake line connection, the softline to hardline in the rear. When I initially tried to make the connection a few days ago, it would not seal. The leaking brake fluid was making a mess so I gave up. I'll go at it again today though because I only gave it one attempt. I'm hoping the hardline doesn't need to be re-flared

It's always nice getting a 2 for 1!

Yeah, I never knew that owning a Cherokee meant you had to develop certain skills...namely fishing, broken bolt extraction, etc. When do I get to develop skills for things like wheeling?

You will after you master the wrenching and the wallet quick draw skills.

Well, technically it's still connected to the fishwire. So if I pulled hard enough, it MIGHT come out. But, I got to thinking.... do I really want to take it out now? I mean, it allows me to tighten AND loosen the nut. It's very functional.

I might just leave it in there, part of the XJ now. Call it the Craftsman 15mm open-end wrench mod.

LOL! Yeah, I've already got a lot of practice in that department. Autozone, Lowes, Harbor Freight, etc... on a DAILY basis.

Last and final step before heading off to the alignment shop, bleeding the brakes.

I did the rear last night and no big surprises. I moved onto the front today. The bleeder screw on the passenger side was seized on pretty good and I ended up rounding the screw up. Had to bust out the vice grips, which worked, but not before a lot of swearing.

The bleeder screw on the caliper has a rubber nipple covering it, remove that and hook up your tubing...


Screw is loosened and tubing hooked up here...


Pretty simple setup really, just some tubing going into a bottle...



Now all you gotta do is have a friend pump the brakes until no more bubbles/air come through the line. Make sure to keep the reservoir in the engine compartment topped off during the process.

Now it's time to reassemble and head to the alignment shop!

By the way, anybody have any opinion on how to orient the lower control arms as far as whether or not the grease fittings should be pointing up or down?

When I was installing them, I noticed the instruction pictures had the fittings pointed towards the ground, so I did just that. But then I got to thinking about it when I moved to the other side.... Why not flip them up, so as to protect them from getting damaged during off-roading?

Here's what I'm talking about, this is the driver's side LCA. The grease fittings are positioned up:


I am almost positive that they won't hit the bracketry even during the most extreme articulation.

This is the passenger side, look how vulnerable those grease fittings are!


Dark picture, but you get the idea.

Is there any reason I shouldn't flip it?

I'm super pressed for time right now, but I wanted to get you guys a teaser shot before I head out the door.

This is how she looks, right before I dropped it off at the alignment shop.

What do you think?



Might need new tires........

There's also a slight rake, but I think that's due to my shackle angle. Which I'll discuss later as well.

I'll post a few more pics later, gotta go.

lookin sexy!

looks great! cant wait to see that thing on a trail and with some tires!

Thanks guys!

Here's a few more pics, they were taken with my phone though so quality is lower. My memory card conveniently ran out of space on my camera and I was rushing out the door so no time to unload the images.





Also, the replacement u-bolts came in that are appropriate for my axle...

I'll get those installed when I get the Jeep back this weekend hopefully.

In the meantime, I'll be researching tires!

Looks great man! Don't worry about the rake, the leaf packs still gotta break in and they will settle a little bit.

i don't know if yours is like this but when i had put my rough country short arm lift on the grease fitting had to face down because they were pre drill on the side oriented to be facing down. If you look at the control arms they are actually off set to one side of the poly bushing mount so that it can have clearance with the LCA mount on the axle when flexing. I would cycle the suspension on it to see if anything is binding, its always a good thing to do even when using a a after market lift kit

Firstly, that's a good point. I didn't notice the offset during installation, but after reviewing some pictures on page 3 of this thread, I think I can see the offset you're talking about on the axle side of the control arm. The picture where I am adjusting the length of the arm is where I see the offset. The jeep is at the alignment shop now, so I can't go out and take a closer look at the moment.

Secondly, did you have the "new" x-flex control arms as I do? The shafts are definitely straight, unlike the curved stock components and older design RC LCA's. But, I agree, there appears to be a slight offset at the bushing from the picture on page 3.

I might stop over to the alignment shop and take a look because I had also asked them to flip the control arm to make it match the other side (keeping grease fittings up).