04 LJK Repair, Redo, Recycle - The 3 R's of a First Build

Absolutely, I’m planning for poly towers front and rear. It hard to see it in the closet but right now my Forest Service job has me renting (got relocated) without a garage - it’s really too bad I can’t run my welder in the parking lot 😂 For now I’m just vicariously living through your build
Haha well alright, I'll keep the pictures coming I still have about 3 months of trials and tribulations to document lol.

At this phase I did the pull everything, paint, reassemble and .... Cycle. Once everything was bolted up cycled everything once again. Before moving to fenders I wanted to get all the power steering lines ran which means I had to mount a cooler. I have already pulled the radiator three times now I once replaced the radiator, then added a transmission cooler with aux filter with temp sending unit then pulled again to put a bigger cooler! The problem is when I'm going 25mph up steep long logging road hills and the torque converter slips the trans will heat up. I stop or switch to 4LO when it gets to 225. Unfortunately even the largest cooler on Amazon isn't enough. As long as my Tc Is locked it's no problem so I run in 4lo or 2lo.

Anyhow I was not stoked to pull the radiator again so when I saw this cooler from Howe I was stoked. I was able to weld on the mounts in through the grille without removing radiator.

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It was about august now, this jeep was pretty much my second job. I had to take a little break to put some meat in the freezer. Had a quick trip to the WA mountains to chase black bear then a trip to AK to chase cohos.

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Mounted the reservoirs to the hoops themselves with same style mount as used on the steering cooler and then checked tire clearance just to be sure.

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And then ran lines for the ram and also measured for an internal stop. I called up PSC and they made and mailed me a spacer to out inside the ram.

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I tried a bunch of different hose routings and this was my final routing. It does make the lines do like an S Around the trackbar. I wrapped the lines in this anti-wear plastic wrap from the hydraulic shop. I also had them make me a swaged fitting on the ram end.
 
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Ok finally the front midarm was done, new steering box and ram installed with lines just not bled, drag link and track bar are nearly exact length and as close to parallel as my eye can see, coilovers and air bumps are in and waiting to be charged and springs added and everything is set to get 6" uptravel at about 21.75 frame height. I was ready for highlines!!

First step is to cut the perfectly good hood. Theres lots of documentation here, use the masking tape. I used Blaine's method of I stalling fender with hood raised marking fore and aft points on the body, remove fender lower the hood then scribe a smooth line between the points. I used a piece of tape to go between the points it worked ok I guess.

In the same fashion as other aspects of this project at the very end of fender install I had to recut my hood on both sides to get the hood pins in. I initially set up both my cuts by leaving a 1/4" gap at the grill to hood. I should've cut till the bumpers touched at the hood corners.

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I used this trim for the hood sides and I also put it on my inner fender cuts after they were in. It makes the cut sheet metal a lot nicer looking. I used the same stuff when I did the high clearance bumper and cut my rear quarter panel on my Tacoma. Paint the hood edges first so you don't get rust bleeding out.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BWKCUAO/?tag=wranglerorg-20
 
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I started with the passenger side for remounting the internals after the highline. The battery bracket / tray from Genright was a PITA and did not work well. I did manage to make things work though. My Odyssey battery did not fit in the bracket it contacted the ECM. I had to drill new holes in the upper battery bracket and move the tray forward to clear the ECM. I notched some material on cross support and added the same edging I used on the hood to soften the edge for the harness.

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Due to the angle of the coilover hoops I really had to chop a lot out of the fender and due to the moving of the battery tray I had exactly one place I could put the fuse box. I cut off the bottom of the fuse box bracket, welded some nuts on the side and used cutting board as spacer between box and fender.

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I made a new battery hold down bar from some square tube I had laying around.

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I was able to mount the vacuum box under the battery.

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I didn't talk much about the actual profiling and cutting of the inner fender. It's a Pita. One trick Blaine passed onto me was to split the inner fender in half since the hoop would require it to be split anyway. It allowed me to take smaller pieces. Fit, mark, cut repeat until it clears the hoops. I spent almost three days (part time) on each side of the engine compartment. I did about all my aluminum cutting with a Bosch jigsaw.

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I was very happy to see this side come together. Driver side has more components but no battery so I would say this was the harder side. I would love to do what Blaine did on his tj+6 where you build a batter compartment in the rear seat foot well.
 
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Some major components that have to be rearranged were:
1. TCM
2. Washer fluid bottle
3. Air compressor
4. Air manifold
5. Air filter assembly

The trimming went better the second try. This time I taped up the coilover hoop because the aluminum Jack's up the paint pretty bad. I did have to notch around the bottom of the steering support as well.

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For the washer bottle I used:
Dorman 603-001 Coolant Reservoir Bottle

I drilled pulled the oring and put the OEM pump right in it and it works and seals well l.

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I was able to cut the OEM TCM mount weld the original tab back on and mount on fender near the exhaust manifold.

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I was previously running a Puma air compressor and had it mounted on tray under the brake booster. The puma was big and loud and I had to add all the extra stuff like pressure switch, relay etc. I picked up a dual ARB compressor since it's smaller and has really great reviews and also constant duty. I tried to find a good spot to put it but nothing I tried was as simple or as convenient as the MORE off-road mount which places the mount over the intake manifold.

I also picked up the ARB manifold to replace the generic one I had been using. I ran a high temp swivel hose from the compressor to the manifold. One of the manifold ports has the ARB solenoid for rear Ox locker. The other port I ran to a pressure gauge in the cab. The final port I put an air hose fitting for airing up tires.

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My intake situation isn't the final solution but it's good enough for now. I used a spectre Performance 9131 filter, and AEM1-4007 dry filter bag to keep water out. I cut the intake tube at the end of the hard plastic straight section. I used an adapter section to hold it all together.

I added a support on the crossover tube but left it loose and just held it snug with zip ties but left room for the engine to move and hopefully not load up the intake.

I think I will probably due a Windstar filter with a cowl intake eventually.

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My intake situation isn't the final solution but it's good enough for now. I used a spectre Performance 9131 filter, and AEM1-4007 dry filter bag to keep water out. I cut the intake tube at the end of the hard plastic straight section. I used an adapter section to hold it all together.

I added a support on the crossover tube but left it loose and just held it snug with zip ties but left room for the engine to move and hopefully not load up the intake.

I think I will probably due a Windstar filter with a cowl intake eventually.

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The wind star filter is awesome. Having seen one in person it’s probably the next thing I’ll do to make room for high lines. I’m curios why the genright Inners are so poor on their brackets - is it worth it?
 
The wind star filter is awesome. Having seen one in person it’s probably the next thing I’ll do to make room for high lines. I’m curios why the genright Inners are so poor on their brackets - is it worth it?
The inner fenders are fine it was just the batter support brackets that didn't work so well. I'm not sure they are worth it or not, I'd have to look at other solutions. It would be most cool to put the battery inside the cab and free up that space for other stuff.
 
The inner fenders are fine it was just the batter support brackets that didn't work so well. I'm not sure they are worth it or not, I'd have to look at other solutions. It would be most cool to put the battery inside the cab and free up that space for other stuff.
I’ve considered putting it inside as well - move room to move stuff back and for accessories. I believe @Blaine did a build with a tub battery - but I could be remembering wrong.
 
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I’ve considered putting it inside as well - move room to move stuff back and for accessories. I believe @Blaine did a build with a tub battery - but I could be remembering wrong.
Ya that's the only example I've seen of that and it's awesome
 
To finish the hood work I installed hood pins to hold things down. This is when I discovered I had not trimmed enough of the hood sides off and got to go back and cut again. Hah! But like usual it turned out better the second time. I kept the rubber bumper on the fender to be my stop in addition to the ones at the corner of the grille.

I chose hood pins because I think they look cool. That is all.

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Brake lines:
This was another of the items I was avoiding messing with... Then took on the project and LOVED how it turned out. The whole coilover project I had been moving the brake lines around as I welded and positioned and such and it all worked ok. I didnt love how the 22" brake lines looped from the frame but I hadn't caught it on anything yet.

After welding the driver side hoop on I was grinding to smooth some blobby welds and my grinder flap disc hit the brake line. It didn't leak but it flattened out a spot in the hard line. I had no brake line tooling or experience but when that happened I said FINE! I ordered the master cool hydro flaring tool some stainless lines and got a full masters degree course on brake lines and fitting options from the Wizard himself. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NCYKQSN/?tag=wranglerorg-20

I followed suit to examples toximus showed and departed in a few instances that I thought would work better for me.

This is going to lead me to redo my rear brake lines in stainless when I do the rear midarm and I'm super stoked to add cutting brakes for the rear when I do that also. You don't see a lot of people do that but damn it helps the rig pivot on a dime in my buddies TJ.

Driver side first:
I ran all the lines (locker, breather and brake hose) down the UCA.

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Passenger side next:
By luck was able to sneak the Hardline JUST behind the bump stop pad.

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Finished up with 10" soft lines to the caliper. All AN fittings after the master cylinder.

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I have always had issues with a squishy pedal and not stellar brakes. I was expecting the Jk Caliper to be a good enough upgrade from the TJ and it's part of the reason I went with a jk axle. I was able to source front knuckles and brakes for near free off Craigslist. So after guidance from the Blaine I bench bled the master cylinder and swapped in Black Magic brake pads. Wow what a difference. I am now satisfied with the brakes! Of course I can't leave well enough alone though...

I scored a full set of JL rotors calipers and pads take off from a new Sahara for $150! I will be swapping these in in the future and I am stoked to feel the difference. I may have to upgrade master cylinder after also. Cool part the sahara is the HD dual piston caliper in front. What a tard the guy was who swapped these out! He was on 20" rims and 35s and thought he needed bigger brakes.

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Brake lines:
This was another of the items I was avoiding messing with... Then took on the project and LOVED how it turned out. The whole coilover project I had been moving the brake lines around as I welded and positioned and such and it all worked ok. I didnt love how the 22" brake lines looped from the frame but I hadn't caught it on anything yet.

After welding the driver side hoop on I was grinding to smooth some blobby welds and my grinder flap disc hit the brake line. It didn't leak but it flattened out a spot in the hard line. I had no brake line tooling or experience but when that happened I said FINE! I ordered the master cool hydro flaring tool some stainless lines and got a full masters degree course on brake lines and fitting options from the Wizard himself. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NCYKQSN/?tag=wranglerorg-20

I followed suit to examples toximus showed and departed in a few instances that I thought would work better for me.

This is going to lead me to redo my rear brake lines in stainless when I do the rear midarm and I'm super stoked to add cutting brakes for the rear when I do that also. You don't see a lot of people do that but damn it helps the rig pivot on a dime in my buddies TJ.

Driver side first:
I ran all the lines (locker, breather and brake hose) down the UCA.

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Passenger side next:
By luck was able to sneak the Hardline JUST behind the bump stop pad.

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Finished up with 10" soft lines to the caliper. All AN fittings after the master cylinder.

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I have always had issues with a squishy pedal and not stellar brakes. I was expecting the Jk Caliper to be a good enough upgrade from the TJ and it's part of the reason I went with a jk axle. I was able to source front knuckles and brakes for near free off Craigslist. So after guidance from the Blaine I bench bled the master cylinder and swapped in Black Magic brake pads. Wow what a difference. I am now satisfied with the brakes! Of course I can't leave well enough alone though...

I scored a full set of JL rotors calipers and pads take off from a new Sahara for $150! I will be swapping these in in the future and I am stoked to feel the difference. I may have to upgrade master cylinder after also. Cool part the sahara is the HD dual piston caliper in front. What a tard the guy was who swapped these out! He was on 20" rims and 35s and thought he needed bigger brakes.

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Those are really nice 😍 score man!
 
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I didnt take any pics of the next part which was setting up ride height. Accutune recommended 125/250. Those were too soft. I went up to 150/250 and they barely get me back to my desired ride height. My final numbers with spare on the backand otherwise not loaded is 6" UT at front, about 5.75" UT rear. The frame has a slight slope front CA bracket frame height is 22" rear suspension bracket frame height is 21.75". Now that I"m typing this out I should probably dial a bit of lift out of front so that i have the opposite, 1/4" high in rear.

This rollout ranks up there with winning a fight, getting married or seeing my kid be born haha. It was a good feeling. Took me about 5 months or so of work, June through October i treated the jeep as a second job. I only took a few short breaks. It was easily 20-30 hour weeks and waaaay too much money.

Some issues that i discovered after rollout:
I had this knocking when driving down roads, like something hitting the tob. I chased this for like years, but it didnt happen every bump just bigger inputs. In my previous MetalCloak setup the front was quite a bit lower sitting than the rear. Now that the front was lifted up the rear went down and the knocking was like every bump. I chased it around and found it was something to do with the rear shocks. I got the shocks rebuild by Fullstack with LSC adjusters and I ground the shock mounts on the outboarded shocks down near the top of the clevis. This fixed things up and I was ready for the first test run!

As a good reminder, i kept my checklists, some of these were front and back.

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I didnt take any pics of the next part which was setting up ride height. Accutune recommended 125/250. Those were too soft. I went up to 150/250 and they barely get me back to my desired ride height. My final numbers with spare on the backand otherwise not loaded is 6" UT at front, about 5.75" UT rear. The frame has a slight slope front CA bracket frame height is 22" rear suspension bracket frame height is 21.75". Now that I"m typing this out I should probably dial a bit of lift out of front so that i have the opposite, 1/4" high in rear.

This rollout ranks up there with winning a fight, getting married or seeing my kid be born haha. It was a good feeling. Took me about 5 months or so of work, June through October i treated the jeep as a second job. I only took a few short breaks. It was easily 20-30 hour weeks and waaaay too much money.

Some issues that i discovered after rollout:
I had this knocking when driving down roads, like something hitting the tob. I chased this for like years, but it didnt happen every bump just bigger inputs. In my previous MetalCloak setup the front was quite a bit lower sitting than the rear. Now that the front was lifted up the rear went down and the knocking was like every bump. I chased it around and found it was something to do with the rear shocks. I got the shocks rebuild by Fullstack with LSC adjusters and I ground the shock mounts on the outboarded shocks down near the top of the clevis. This fixed things up and I was ready for the first test run!

As a good reminder, i kept my checklists, some of these were front and back.

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That right there is art! I’m drooling
 
Whelp... first run was bittersweet.

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All went fantastic, shot some guns, wheeled a bit, grilled some meat, 10 miles from home.... BOOM something let go. Initial guess was pinion seizure.

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I left it in the garage and chased some horns in the great state of Montana and researched a lot of diff / transfer case issues.
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Anything over about 10mph a terrible grinding would start. I pulled the front driveshaft and the grinding did go away but something sounded wrong inside transfer case as well. I ordered a Novak rebuild kit and 2-low kit and pulled the transfer case.

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After the transfer case rebuild and also ordered a new Adams driveshaft put everything back together .... And grinding was still there so it was definitely the diff. Ugh.

Ended up getting a new gear set under warranty from ECGS so that was cool even in an uncool situation. Two weeks 500 mile break in ... And the pinion seal was leaking. So back to shop and there was a bit of metal that was jammed between bearing and housing during install. Got ANOTHER new gear set and bearings and just finished another 500 mile gear break in. And that brings us to now!!
 
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Ahhh I forgot to mention in the spirit of redoing.... I actually had to pull the transfer case for a third time. First time was at beginning of build to do SYE. 2nd was to investigate noise and do rebuild kit and added Teraflex 2-low, and third time....

I was dealing with a lack of repeatability in shifting sometimes it would go into 4hi, sometimes it wouldn't and sometimes it wouldn't come out of 4hi. So out it came again and I found I forgot to install a retaining ring on the transmission side.



Even after this fix, i was going 35mph in snowstorm and it popped into neutral. I didn't have the 4wd light working at that time so I put in a new switch and maybe I was on the edge of being out of detent or something. Don't know. Hopefully it doesn't happen again. I'll have to run 4hi on some logging roads and test it soon, might be coming out a fourth time hah.

This leads me to my next modification. I'm going to a transmission crossmember and a dedicated skid plate. My current plan is to have ab aluminum plate bent up and cut up a JL upper control arm I got for free to be my crossmember.

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I had the day off and honestly just didn't want to tear into anything right now. So I dipped my toes in garage organization. I'm planning to do french cleats throughout my garage and shed/shop. I have one skinny wall next to garage door entrance that I thought would be a good test run. My main goal was to get a spot near the door where I could hang all my families skis to dry.

The garage has drywall already but I wanted to put a wood backing, to keep water off the drywall and for looks. Went with 1/2 plywood and the cleats are 3/4" plywood. Stained the backer board and will stain the cleats later. Ski hangers were some 2x6 with 1/2" bolts left over from metalcloak bump stop kit with some 1/2" ID water hose plastic tube from Ace.

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