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My steering box is wet af. Not sure if its leaking or if I'm leaking trans fluid from the fitting above it. If my box is leaking I'll look into using the winch mount/sector shaft brace with a Durango box.
From what I've seen there seems to be more issues than success stories from a Durango box and with a sector shaft brace you don't really need the extra beef people says they swap it in to get in my opinion. Personally I rebuilt a stock Cherokee box and am glad I made that decision.
There seems to be a lot of complaints of loss of turning radius and stuff and I didn't want to fool with getting the wrong box or something. I just went with what I know has been working on my Jeep
From what I've seen there seems to be more issues than success stories from a Durango box and with a sector shaft brace you don't really need the extra beef people says they swap it in to get in my opinion. Personally I rebuilt a stock Cherokee box and am glad I made that decision.
There seems to be a lot of complaints of loss of turning radius and stuff and I didn't want to fool with getting the wrong box or something. I just went with what I know has been working on my Jeep
I've also been down the rabbit hole of reading about Durango boxes, which one is correct, potential loss in turning radius, how to modify them to get it back, etc, etc. I came to the conclusion I wouldn't go down that road because of the lack of concrete information surrounding the swap. However, a few months back there was a thread about Red Head Steering Gears. On the page for XJ boxes there is a sentence about calling them to ask about putting a Durango box in a Cherokee. I haven't called, and likely won't unless I do end up needing to replace/rebuild the box, but I figured if anybody had the low-down it would be them.
You say you rebuilt your box yourself? How was that? I haven't looked into doing that. At ~$400 plus shipping for a box (tapped for hydro-assist ) from Red Head I would definitely entertain rebuilding my box myself.
In other news, I tried to do my rear wheel bearings/outer axle seals tonight. I borrowed a slide hammer from a friend and made no progress with it. Gonna see if I can pick up a bigger one tomorrow, along with a proper bearing puller set.
I've also been down the rabbit hole of reading about Durango boxes, which one is correct, potential loss in turning radius, how to modify them to get it back, etc, etc. I came to the conclusion I wouldn't go down that road because of the lack of concrete information surrounding the swap. However, a few months back there was a thread about Red Head Steering Gears. On the page for XJ boxes there is a sentence about calling them to ask about putting a Durango box in a Cherokee. I haven't called, and likely won't unless I do end up needing to replace/rebuild the box, but I figured if anybody had the low-down it would be them.
You say you rebuilt your box yourself? How was that? I haven't looked into doing that. At ~$400 plus shipping for a box (tapped for hydro-assist ) from Red Head I would definitely entertain rebuilding my box myself.
In other news, I tried to do my rear wheel bearings/outer axle seals tonight. I borrowed a slide hammer from a friend and made no progress with it. Gonna see if I can pick up a bigger one tomorrow, along with a proper bearing puller set.
The worst part was the ball bearings. I ended up buying the $25ish tool to follow the worm screw (might be the wrong term) and it was totally worth it. Then just make sure you don't pinch the big Teflon ring on the rack piston nut (that's what the guy in the write up I followed calls it) and the rest was a cake walk in my opinion. I bought a big drip pan to do the rebuild on so the ***** don't roll away which I recommend, and just take your time. If you google "how to disassemble your Saginaw zj steering gear" and "how to rebuild your Saginaw zj steering gear" you should find the write up I followed on Jeep
Forum. So recap, the tool was like $25, the pan was like $10-$15 I think, $20ish for the rebuild kit and like $25 for a junkyard box to rebuild so my Jeep wasn't down while I did the rebuild, and I got one with lower miles since the rebuild kits don't come with bearings. So right under $100 and I have a new tool and new drip pan. I plan to get a ZJ quick ratio box for my Comanche so the tool will pay off even more for me when I rebuild that one. Oh and I learned how to do something new so that's worth something to me.
The worst part was the ball bearings. I ended up buying the $25ish tool to follow the worm screw (might be the wrong term) and it was totally worth it. Then just make sure you don't pinch the big Teflon ring on the rack piston nut (that's what the guy in the write up I followed calls it) and the rest was a cake walk in my opinion. I bought a big drip pan to do the rebuild on so the ***** don't roll away which I recommend, and just take your time. If you google "how to disassemble your Saginaw zj steering gear" and "how to rebuild your Saginaw zj steering gear" you should find the write up I followed on Jeep
Forum. So recap, the tool was like $25, the pan was like $10-$15 I think, $20ish for the rebuild kit and like $25 for a junkyard box to rebuild so my Jeep wasn't down while I did the rebuild, and I got one with lower miles since the rebuild kits don't come with bearings. So right under $100 and I have a new tool and new drip pan. I plan to get a ZJ quick ratio box for my Comanche so the tool will pay off even more for me when I rebuild that one. Oh and I learned how to do something new so that's worth something to me.
Those write-ups are phenomenal. Thank you for steering me towards them (see what I did there?). After reading that and comparing prices, I will likely end up rebuilding my box. If it comes to that. Also, since I (eventually) plan to go hydro-assist, there is even less of a reason to go for a Durango box because that will take even more stress off of the box itself.
Didn't get to the parts store today. All the places around here friggen close at 6 PM! Our governor issues a stay at home order (not shelter in place) starting tomorrow night and closing all non-essential businesses so I'm really hoping I can get my hands on the tools I need before that.
Got to the parts store today to rent a bigger slide hammer, bearing puller kit, and bearing/seal press cup set. Got the bearings and seals out easy-peasy and everything back together no problem. Had a harder time with the new parking brake pads than I did with the bearings and seals lol.
Got up to something cool this weekend. I was disappointed with the results of adding a speaker amp and rewiring my speakers so I did some research and learned that I needed to put in some more effort to get good performance from my system.
Its all about the install. The 6.5" Alpine Type-R speakers I have are high end, and are being driven by a quality amplifier, but they sounded hollow as could be after just slapping them in my doors. Completely lacked mid-bass.
My goal was to turn my doors into an enclosure for the speakers. This entails sealing up the holes, and also reducing resonance of the sheet metal. What this boils down to is sound deadening!
I ordered 11 sq ft of Soundskins Pro on Amazon for $100. I was expecting to be able to do both front doors with that amount. Its pricey, but turned out to be great stuff to work with.
Step one was to clean all surfaces that would be sound deadened, which was essentially all flat surfaces on the inside of the outer door skin and the inside of the door. This was tough because the inside of the door was filthy. Brushed it out and wiped it all with acetone. It needed it! Notice where I wiped/haven't wiped in the picture below.
I then got to work making cardboard templates, followed by applying the treatment. Check out these pictures that show the deadening I did on the outer door skin.
Moved onto the inside panel after. This template was pretty challenging to make. Took me a few iterations with cardboard but it fit well when the time came to stick it on.
Moved onto sealing up holes. Used some 1/8" ABS sheet, sealed with double sided tape.
Also purchased some of the foam speaker rings. Came with one that goes around the front of the speaker, one that goes under it, and a bigger piece that goes on the panel behind the speaker.
Used some aluminum tape to seal up all the other holes and go around the latch/lock arms. And that's a wrap!
I used about 75% of the roll of deadener doing this one door. I know everyone will say that I only needed to cover 25% of the surfaces or whatever the rule is, but I couldn't not do it like this. I had to. Idk lol. I wanted to go overboard doing these doors because its for audio sound quality, not just reduced cabin noise.
Knowing that I'll be buying another roll, I used the remaining Soundskins on the inside of the door panel. I need to pick up some new clips before installing the panel because I have about 4 good ones out of the combined 20 between both sides.
After going through all this and demoing the system with one side sound deadened and the other side not, all I can say is WOW. I am a believer. It is a drastic difference. I can actually hear and feel bass guitar solos. I can feel the bass in my chest from this one 6.5" speaker. Playing my system with all 4 speakers sounds like the bass is coming completely from the one corner.
I'm stoked.
I spent probably 6 hours doing this one door. Took me wayyyy too long. This was a labor intensive process and was not fun but the results are well worth the effort. I'm hoping the passenger side takes me about half the time. I'm tossing around the idea of moving my rear speakers from the headliner into the hatch so I can build a pseudo enclosure for those speakers as well to get some more mid-bass in the rear. We'll see if it comes to that.
Last edited by XJlimitedx99; 03-30-2020 at 09:00 PM.
Nice job on the landscaping trim. Ran them for years on my MJ and despite the flak from some people i can still appreciate seeing them on other rigs. Best bang for your buck when it comes to wheel coverage IMO.
Nice job on the landscaping trim. Ran them for years on my MJ and despite the flak from some people i can still appreciate seeing them on other rigs. Best bang for your buck when it comes to wheel coverage IMO.
Thank you! The flares are definitely something that I'm proud of because how well turned out for their level of jankiness. No complaints here for putting $20 into flares.
Got around to finishing up sound deadening on the passenger door. Went much faster this time around, mostly from being able to reuse the templates from the driver's side. However, I then spent far too long getting my door panels to fit back on properly. I picked up some new door panel clips from NAPA. Part number shown below because I had a hard time finding the replacement part and took a chance ordering these. Turns out they are correct and worked mint. I also trimmed out a section from the speaker grills in the door panels because my tweeters were hitting on the inside causing me not to be able to aim the tweeters up. The cuts did not come out that great but I'm not too worried about it.
The system sounds KILLER now. I spent the better part of an hour sitting in the driveway adjusting the amp gains and the crossover, and just listening to music. I set my gains by measuring the resistance of each channel (front, rear, sub) at the connection at the amp and using that resistance, and the rated power of the amp, to calculate the ideal output voltage at the amp. I can actually feel the bass guitar through its entire range now.
I did not realize how much I'd enjoy learning about car audio and get as in depth with it as I have throughout this. I could definitely see myself going farther with this because I like loud music.
In other news, I picked up this little piece for $100 the other day:
That is a Dana 44 front from a late 70's-80's Chevy. When I was picking it up I thought it was the unicorn early 70's model with flat top knuckles on both sides, whereas these later models are only flat top on the passenger side. Realistically, I'm only out an additional $100 for it not having the driver's side flat top because a new knuckle machined for flat top cost about $220 whereas the OEM flat top would have needed to be sent out and machined and likely would've cost me north of $100.
I'll also be using the spindles. caliper mounts, and outer stub shafts from this axle. The rest of it will be sold cheap, given away, or scrapped.
Plan for the front axle right now is:
73-77 Ford Dana 44 housing (high pinion, ~65" WMS)
Chevy flat top knuckles (high steer)
Chevy caliper mounts
Chevy calipers
Chevy small bearing spindles
Ford hubs (5x5.5)
Ford rotors
Then pair with some high steer arms for true crossover with TRE's. Also gonna need a truss of some kind for the brackets and whatnot. Haven't searched for that yet.
Have not been having any luck finding one of those housings. Likely from 40 years of people scavenging them because they're desirable. Gonna keep my eye out. Hoping to find a 44/9 combo that I can pull at the same time. Haven't done as much research on the rear but I know I'm looking for a big bearing 31 spline 65" WMS. Ya, good luck, right?
However, I then spent far too long getting my door panels to fit back on properly. I picked up some new door panel clips from NAPA. Part number shown below because I had a hard time finding the replacement part and took a chance ordering these. Turns out they are correct and worked mint.
Could have just asked me. I work there and still keep them in "stock". LOL.
Could have just asked me. I work there and still keep them in "stock". LOL.
How convenient! I'll keep the fact you work at Napa in mind
Got that axle torn down last night/today. A few minutes in I realized I did not have a spindle nut socket and would not get very far without one. I was fortunate enough to be doing this job at a friend's shop so I milled/turned a socket that worked. What fun!
I was looking at these flat top knuckle studs knowing they were gonna be an issue. They laughed at me trying to back the studs out with a double nut. Had to resort to more persuasive techniques..
Cut the studs down and welded nuts onto them. Even with the heat and an impact they still put up a fight, but we got all 3 extracted successfully.
Used a shop press to do the ball joints. Oh my god having machines and proper tools is unbelievable. Makes things go so much faster and smoother. This is the setup on his hydraulic press. Notice the spreader bar wedged in to prevent the knuckle from flexing.
and here's the knuckle stripped down!
Also pulled the spindles, caliper mounts/backing plates, stub shafts, and the locking hubs! I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Ford/Chevy share the locking hubs. One of the hubs on this axle is a Warn too!
Already have the housing and rest of the parts back up on marketplace. The hunt continues for a Ford housing and 9 inch rear.
Last edited by XJlimitedx99; 04-05-2020 at 10:08 PM.
[How convenient! I'll keep the fact you work at Napa in mind
Your Napa does not have the big loose leaf binder of all that stuff and the display of all the stuff in it?
Not having the display I get but not the loose leaf binder. The display with all the parts does take up a fair amount of room.
And I work for a small independently owned store. So retail space is at a premium. Yet we still have one.
The cool thing about the loose leaf binder is that it is not pictures but the actual part of all sorts of stuff like that.
So makes matching up stuff super easy and if there is not an exact match most times you can find something that will work.
Your Napa does not have the big loose leaf binder of all that stuff and the display of all the stuff in it?
Not having the display I get but not the loose leaf binder. The display with all the parts does take up a fair amount of room.
And I work for a small independently owned store. So retail space is at a premium. Yet we still have one.
The cool thing about the loose leaf binder is that it is not pictures but the actual part of all sorts of stuff like that.
So makes matching up stuff super easy and if there is not an exact match most times you can find something that will work.
This was the first time I have looked for anything of this nature. I actually have not been inside my local NAPA since moving up here. Even the other day was a curbside pickup sorta deal. The store is on the Vermont side of the river and VT is pretty locked down right now with this virus going on.
This was the first time I have looked for anything of this nature. I actually have not been inside my local NAPA since moving up here. Even the other day was a curbside pickup sorta deal. The store is on the Vermont side of the river and VT is pretty locked down right now with this virus going on.
When things get back to normal, if ever and assuming we are still all alive (LOL), you should go check it out.
There is all sorts of stuff in there. Next time something like this comes up you might remember seeing something that would
fit the bill.
I buzz through it every once in awhile just to refresh my memory. MLOL.
03-25-2020, 08:32 AM
) from Red Head I would definitely entertain rebuilding my box myself. 
