XJDaniel

UPDATE:

I was able to meet up with customzj79 on Tuesday and pickup my new gas tank skid. He told me it was for a ZJ and when I got there it was actually an XJ skid. When I got it home and tried mounting it up I realized it was a pre-96 XJ skid. So, I made a few cuts and massaged the rear of the skid and it fits like a charm now. I just need to bolt it in now. Thanks for the skid customzj79 and thanks for breaking away from your sisters game. It will work great.

So, I was on here (CF) last night (Wednesday night) and I was lurking in the "Northern Utah BS" thread and saw Gorrillaxj offering a brand new JKS crossmember/transfer case skid up for sale. I didn't really have a lot of extra money laying around, but we worked out a screaming deal so I just had to jump on it. I picked it up today after work. Really nice guy, and it was great to meet another local XJ fan this week.

I havn't been able to get any pictures of either skid yet, but I will definately have installation pictures when I find the time to actually install them. Over all a great week to meet two local CF guys and add some much needed armor to the XJ.

Daniel

XJDaniel

UPDATE:

I stayed late after work last night and finished installing my gas tank skid and new JKS crossmember. Here is the gas tanks skid installed.


While I was installing the gas tank skid I found another corner cut from the last owner. Im guessing the old nut strip came apart, so he ran down to Lowes (or Home Depot) and picked these lag bolts up.


I left it be for now, and plan to order some JCR nut strips when I remove the rear bumper again at the end of the year for RidigCo to weld up my tire carrier. As I continue working on the XJ I keep finding corners cut and sketchy repairs made. On a positive side I'm just glad I find the mistakes and can fix them. Each rapair and modification just makes it a better more capable rig.

Once I got that taken care of I moved on to replacing the crossmember. This is what I started with. I have been paranoid about catching the lowered crossmember on a rock and cracking my unprotected transfer case, so I was looking forward to raising it back up with some added protection.



Out with the old and in with the new.


All done.



Now since I no longer have a transfer case drop kit I can't put the stock driveshaft back in I have been running. No worries though. I have a Iron Rock hack-n-tap and a second front driveshaft sitting next to my toolbox that will need to be installed. That's next on my list of modifications/upgrades.

I am very happy with the results. I feel that my XJ is getting very close to being built and no longer bought. Thanks for reading.

Daniel

rmaytee

I like that cross member. I think those square nuts are typical. Mine had those on the driver side, but a strip on the pass. No worries, especially if you're going to get one of Terry's bumpers. My bro just ordered his front bumper. If I remember right Tom runs some of Terry's stuff.

XJDaniel

Thanks. I think it will hold up to everything I will throw at it. Which probably won't be too much, but you never know what you will get yourself into on the trail.

I am starting to think those nuts are typical too. Someone over on NAXJA said that their XJ had the same thing on just the driver's side. I guess our XJs had their hitches installed by the aftermarket. Just another reason to upgrade.

Im not getting the rear bumper just the carrier. I'm going to give Terry my bumper and he is going to attach his tire carrier to it. He said that my bumper will support it. I do like Terry's bumpers a lot though. That is great to hear your brother is getting one of his great products. I really want to get Terry's sliders someday too.

Tom has Terry's front bumper with Dirt Bounds grill guard. It looks pretty bad a$$. He has Terry's sliders too, and that's how I found out about Terry. I like being able to fund a local XJ vendor that makes great products.

XJDaniel

UPDATE:

I was able to finish my SYE hack-n-tap today after work. I started last night but I burned up my bits before the hole was deep enough. Plus I was exhausted from a very busy day of work. So I called it a night and finished today.

This is what I started with. You can see my mark for cutting. I measured what felt like a hundred times.


I was very nervous to bring my cut off wheel to the output shaft. I read about cutting it while the transmission spun the shaft in reverse. This method is suppose to help make the cut straighter and cleaner. This is what I ended up with.


Now the drilling began. I used Iron Rock's drill jig for centering my bit. I drilled a 1/4" hole and then a 5/16" hole. I used a even smaller bit for a little bit to help speed things up, but I don't remember what size I used. The hole had to be atleast 1 1/8" deep. That may not sound like a whole lot but when your drilling something as solid as this output shaft it's a long way. This is where I was last night.


Today I was able to get the hole the rest of the way drilled and tapped. Tapping it took ten minutes and the rest just fit together. I slid the new yoke on, put some red lock tight on the bolt, torqued it down to 30 foot pounds (per IRO's instructions), and bolted in the new-to-me front driveshaft. Voila!!! All done.



While I was bolting in my driveshaft I noticed how worn my yoke on my axle was compared to the new yoke on my transfer case. Everything should be ok for now, but I will have to come back later and address that issue. I didn't get a test drive it tonight because it was another long day at work, but there will be plenty of time for testing.


On another note. After I welded in my sway bar relocation brackets I noticed that when I turn (either left or right) that the steering wheel likes to rock. Like something is binding up in the steering. So I put it up on the rack on Monday and found that my U-joints in my axle are going bad. That's next on my never ending list of things to do for my XJ. I'm hoping that the hub assemblies come out okay and arn't in bad shape. I don't have a ton of money at the moment and they run about $140 a piece, but if I have to replace one or both I will be using MOOG hub assemblies. I am going to try and get the U-joints done before the end of the month because all of my weekends in June are spoken for. That includes two trail runs if all goes according to plan.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading

Daniel

XJDaniel

UPDATE:

Last night I was able to stay late and get my axle joints replaced. Along with replacing them I found that the driver's side bearing/hub assembly was pretty shot, and the passenger side was starting to go as well. So I replaced both axle joints with Spicer/Dana units, and both hub assemblies with MOOG units. On to the pictures.

Torn down


Axle shaft torn down


And reassembled


I also rebalanced my front two tires since they were off because I didn't want to start wearing out the new parts right off the bat.


I was able to get all that done in about three hours. Not too bad for never tearing down a Dana 30 before. Once I got the axle shafts out it wasnt much different then changing driveshaft U-joints. Now I have the knowlage to tear it down on the trail if that ever happens.

The difference between before and after was like night and day. I just thought my tires caused all the vibration in the front end on the freeway, but infact my bearings were causing it. Now it glides down the freeway with a slight hum from the tires. It feels sooooo much nicer to drive and I don't get the binding I was feeling at full lock of the steering wheel. My power steering pump doesn't whine as much when truning either. Both U-joints where very close to being fully siezed up when I removed them. I can tell that I took a big load off my power steering pump.

I am heading to Greensboro, NC for my sister's gradutaion at the end of this week. Little did I know that Go Ferit Off Road is in Greensboro, so I am going to stop by and pickup one of their tie rod flip insters for my driver's side knuckle.

On Monday I am going to meet up with jmaxj to pickup some rails for the stock roof rack. I just need to gather some hardware and cross bars and I will have a roof rack to work with. I have my eye on HD Offroad's roof sliders eventually, but I don't plan on scoring that until early next year.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Daniel

XJDaniel

UPDATE!!! THREAD REVIVAL!!!

WOW. It has been a year and a half since I have updated this thread. I literally abandoned it. I went over to NAXJA for a little while and then I abandoned that too. Life just took over. My wife and I had a son in September of 2013 and its amzing how many things take a back seat when you have a new baby. Grant is now 15 months old and we are expecting our second son in April. I am hoping that I can keep this thread going better this second time around.

Since I last posted the XJ has seen a few upgrades. I was able to get the roof rack rails from jmaxj, but they were the short ones and I needed the full length ones. I found a local part out that had the entire rack (rails and crossbars), so I traded the short rails and a pair of RE shackles for everything.

I did try to get a hold of Go Ferit Offroad on my trip to Greensboro, but after many attempts at calling and getting now answer I gave up. I returned to SLC from my trip and soon after found out TeraFlex has the same tie rod flip sleeve and they where right down the road from my work. So I fliped the left tie rod ontop of the knuckle. One thing I found out though was that the tie rod now hit the left sway bar bracket and I had to grind it down so I could turn left. After grinding enough away to clear the tie rod I no longer could use the sway bar bracket because it was now too thin where it connects to the axle tube. So, I have been running no sway bars for a year now.

After that the Jeep stayed pretty much in that state. We had a new baby soon after that and that became our primary focus for the last year. During that year though I landed a second job in April of 2014 working for RigidCo manufactuing parts. Since I worked for them I put an order in for and entirely new rear bumper with a tire carrier. I worked from April to November trading time for product to pay for it so I didn't have any out of pocket expense. I got the modified quarter panel option, so I cut and folded my lower quarter panels so the bumper would fit. I got that powder coated and installed in November.

Now Christmas has come and gone and the XJ has seen another new upgrade in the form of RC shackle relocation brackets. I went with these because they were available locally and they came powder coated and ready to install. Plus I didn't want to mess with trying to incopterate the relocation brackets into the sub assembly of my new rear bumper.

Today I took some pictures of the XJ in its most current state.





I know that I am skipping a lot, but I don't want to bore everyone with my life story for the last year and a half so I am just going to pick up from here and move forward. We have aquired a thrid car now, so the XJ will be able to have more down time for upgrades and maintenance.

That's it for now. I plan to be better about keeping this thread alive for real this time. Thanks for reading.

Daniel