JD Cravin

My new project XJ is named after her...

I sold "Angelina" to get her...I was willing to trade for a built XJ but I had no takers. Here are a couple pics of her.

Built 99 NBM Firehawk #121...Just about everything you could have on her, she had it.




Built LS1 with the works...




Anyway...out with the old in with the new...




So yesterday I installed my Neon injectors from Programbo (thanks bro!) and that was my 1st official mod. It went fairly smoothly...only hiccup was that 2 of the pintle caps were broken on the Neon injectors. (UPS was rough on them)

Of course I couldn't find anywhere to buy new ones...even the dealership didn't carry them. I figured I could just JB weld them since they just hold the new O-ring on, and once in the manifold, they would be cool.

So that's what I did, and viola! Good to go, no leaks and the XJ runs great.

Old injectors...what to do with them? Do people buy these, or are they just trash?





Last week I recieved a large part of my build parts:

RC 6.5" LA kit
SYE + Driveshaft
Currie HD Stearing kit
33x12.5x15 MT/R Kevlars on Cragar Soft 8's
Dana 30 3.75+ Carrier
Moser 4.56 gears for Dana 30 & C 8.25






Only issue I had was that the Carrier for my Dana 30 was packed completely loose in a huge box. It ended up destroying the shim pack and gasket that came with it.







I'm sure when I call RC tomorrow they will take care of it. Everything else looks fantastic...I am quite impressed with all the parts, they are beefy as hell and everything was included with my order.


So today I got Scarlett up on stands and commenced to PB Blast every nut and bolt that I will be removing in 3 days. I am going to PB Blast every day till Monday when I start the actual R/R of the LA kit.








I have a question, as I was PB Blasting, I noticed I have a front skid plate. Do all XJ's come with this front skid plate?



Just one more thing that impresses me about these Jeeps. ^^


Also, what is this thing? It has a skid plate and it looks like fuel lines from the gas tank go into it and other lines go out of it. It's a rectangular box...fuel pump??



Anyway...that's it for now. Tomorrow, more PB Blaster.

Still waiting on: (ordered)

Front winch bumper
Rock Sliders
Aussie locker C 8.25

Wish list:
Aussie locker Dana 30
Rear bumber with tire carrier
Roof Rack
Fender flares
More armor
Engine stuff...

Hope you like the build!

JD

89whiteXJ

Nice parts. Not all come with the Front skid plate. Once you lift the jeep it will not do as much for you as your axle will be lower. But it may keep some mud out of you engine bay.

JD Cravin

My jack stands didn't provide me with enough lift to allow full droop on my suspesion, so I fabbed up some wood risers.

Made from 1.5" X 9" X 11" planks. These gave me 5 extra inches of lift.




I've also got smaller stands underneath the front and rear axles for saftey.





If you build a rig, it's allway better to be around to enjoy it. Saftey first kids...no exceptions.

I then went ahead and PB Blasted every bolt again for day 2 of PB Blaster.

Tommorow: Final day of PB Blast, then the R/R of the LA kit.

havensov

Looking good, bummer about the shims tho...

Should rock when all done!

Irongrave

nice work man

JD Cravin

After a long delay due to various issues, I was able to begin the removal of the front suspension.

First I unfastend the upper shock bolts...15mm IIRC


Then the lowers...




Next came the spring retainer...




I then undid the top nut on the sway bar endlink, the the lower nut. I thought I would need the T55 torx bit but the pin needs to be hammerd/pulled out.



I rented a pitman arm puller from Autozone for the task as I've seen others do on thier builds. This made quick work of the pins.


Here you can see the press fit end.



Then came the trackbar bolt and flag nut. You can see the flag nut handle sticking out the back.



The RC directions said to pull out the springs at this point, but I couldn't get the suspension to drop far enough. I rented some spring compressors but I hate using them. I once had one pop on me and trust me, you don't want that to happen.

So I just moved on to the lower control arms, as I could see they were binding on the shock mount. So off they came with a little impact action. 21mm socket for the bolt and with adj wrench for the nut.



After that the shocks and springs came out easily.

The next step in the RC instructions is to cut the LCA mounts even with the frame. I'll have to wait until tomorrow as I need more blades for my reciprocating saw. Here is a pic of where I will finish my cut.



That's it for now, tomorrow I'll continue and get a pic of the old parts vs the new.

odgreen

man i wish i had your budget lol gonna be sweet when its done.

JD Cravin

lol, well if I hadn't sold my Firehawk, this would be a "$300 budget build".

1sckrs

Y would you sell a firehawk ? Car is rare man

JD Cravin

Cuz I was done with it, and I wanted to build an XJ.

So here I am.

1sckrs

Damn how many miles it have nd what year

JD Cravin

67800, 1999 NBM

XJeeper193

wow!!!
your gonna have a sweett setupp cant wait to see the end product

JD Cravin

thanks to all for the kind words! ...keep them coming!

Jor2010dan

Xj can go over more stones. When the zombies come you'll want a built xj, not a speed demon