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

Well I was having this odd clunk intermittently, I thought it was coming from the front end and I retorqued everything on the front end but today I was driving without doors and noticed it actually coming from the rear.

A little investigation showed I might have smacked my rear caliper at some point.

So I haven't worked on rear brakes before. It appears the caliper mount is part of the backing plate / parking brake assembly. Are these mounts all cast aluminum ( edit it's steel)

@mrblaine do you have a caliper flip plate for JKs? If I have to replace this it might be nice to move caliper to the front so I can have more shock room at the back.

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Good News: I will have you all know, i was eating pizza in the jeep with the kids at Mod Pizza and someone walked up and admired my mirrors and said how much better they looked than the big stick through the door hinge ones they had.
Bad News: He owned a JK.
:cry::sick:

The mirrors did great though, no vibration while driving. Not superb visibility but should suffice for doorless days.
 
Been putting this off for too long. Starting the savvy rear midarm to match the already completed front. Doing caliper flip also after breaking backing plate last week and going to JL brakes in rear also to match front. Hoping to avoid moving gas tank or jump to coilovers ... But who can tell.

I do have to modify truss to fit the Jk44 (ECGs 489 axle).

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JL rear brake is also quite different than the jk caliper.

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Today's job was getting frame prepped for cycling. Cleaned up all the frame side brackets, control arms and track bar. Soooo stoked to never see those land anchor short arm brackets again!!

Midarm brackets are tacked at exactly 19" from center skid bolt. Had to trim the heat shield above the passenger side joint. The joints are seriously stuffed close to tub maximizing that separation.

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Why isn’t this a swap more Jk owners are doing? Seems like a great upgrade.
I'm not sure if it's very easy to come by these. I happened to get very lucky the first time I searched Craigslist I found a JL owner who had upgraded. Also JK owners are turds.
 
I should note the JL backing plate is a different part number, so not sure if it will all work. Rough tape measurements looks like parking brake interface is the same...
 
Worked on the truss today. Got it welded in thanks to some good ideas from Blaine on how to tweak it to fit the Jk44. Ended up flaring out the legs at the top bend in the harbor freight press. I had it really good and a tight fit on the casting then I took it back to the press to make it clear a bit more and ended up over shooting the width a bit but still made it work.

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Once i got it wider than the casting then I added on new legs with 5"x.25 bar. I chopped up my old front cover to make use of the locator bracket that comes with the savvy truss. So now I have to figure out how to tie in the truss to my Ox cover... Then I'll install calipers and axles, route brake lines figure out the e-brake cable setup and get this thing back under the jeep.

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Well I'm having like PTSD flashbacks to last summer where working on the jeep was pretty much a second job. A other full 5 hours after work in the garage getting after it. I really enjoy working in the garage with door open and sunny weather. A lot of people save projects for winter but I do them all in summer. I don't have a ton of space so I really like to do grinding and cutting outside if I can.

I was able to get the whole cover tie im worked out tonight. I'm really happy how it turned out. I actually found some thick wall tube to use a bolt spacer and stood those off from the ox cover. Then I added 1.5" flat bar on for additional length. Welded in the old bolt holes and drilled new ones to match truss. So I guess that answers it, there's one way how to do midarm with a Jk swap. I like it when a problem I've been thinking about for a long time (last fall) finally gets worked out.

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I also added some tie ins to the sway bar brackets. The clearance was tight next to the sway bar bracket so I couldn't get a great weld to the tube there. The tie in is extra insurance though I'm sure it would've been fine. Unlike the front I have seen some pictures of ripped trusses. There must be some decent forces due to the triangulation.

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Well I'm having like PTSD flashbacks to last summer where working on the jeep was pretty much a second job. A other full 5 hours after work in the garage getting after it. I really enjoy working in the garage with door open and sunny weather. A lot of people save projects for winter but I do them all in summer. I don't have a ton of space so I really like to do grinding and cutting outside if I can.

I was able to get the whole cover tie im worked out tonight. I'm really happy how it turned out. I actually found some thick wall tube to use a bolt spacer and stood those off from the ox cover. Then I added 1.5" flat bar on for additional length. Welded in the old bolt holes and drilled new ones to match truss. So I guess that answers it, there's one way how to do midarm with a Jk swap. I like it when a problem I've been thinking about for a long time (last fall) finally gets worked out.

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I also added some tie ins to the sway bar brackets. The clearance was tight next to the sway bar bracket so I couldn't get a great weld to the tube there. The tie in is extra insurance though I'm sure it would've been fine. Unlike the front I have seen some pictures of ripped trusses. There must be some decent forces due to the triangulation.
Is there a correct clocking for JK axles? I know they make the jig for TJ but I wonder how you got to that specific orientation for your JK axle.
 
Looks like it’s coming along. Nice job on the diff bracket. I’ll go back and do that with my larger diff cover or order the ramped cover I’ve seen Blaine use.

Looks like you have tons of room. I just wrapped up my midarm. Working in a 10x20 garage. If I park perfectly in the center I can opened both doors on the Jeep with a few inches to spare before touching the walls. I have all my tools stored in the back. Now that’s a tight squeeze! Removing/installing the wheels with my back up against the wall is a challenge lol.

Off to finalize my alignment tomorrow and get the exhaust done.
 
Is there a correct clocking for JK axles? I know they make the jig for TJ but I wonder how you got to that specific orientation for your JK axle.
I'm hoping it's the same clocking Jk to tj... The clocking is done with that standoff bracket off of a standard diff cover, so I used the Dana cover to position them adapted it to the Ox cover. The clocking is to ensure at full stuff you don't smack the truss into the control arms. The truss is pretty much rotated as far forward as it could go based on clearance to diff housing and location set by the diff cover tie in. I REALLY hope it works lol because that will not be fun to cut off. Although these diablo Sawzall blades kick ass.
 
Looks like it’s coming along. Nice job on the diff bracket. I’ll go back and do that with my larger diff cover or order the ramped cover I’ve seen Blaine use.

Looks like you have tons of room. I just wrapped up my midarm. Working in a 10x20 garage. If I park perfectly in the center I can opened both doors on the Jeep with a few inches to spare before touching the walls. I have all my tools stored in the back. Now that’s a tight squeeze! Removing/installing the wheels with my back up against the wall is a challenge lol.

Off to finalize my alignment tomorrow and get the exhaust done.
Haha I guess it's all relative, I feel cramped but you're right it's actually pretty roomy. A couple small things would help. First I currently have a full size freezer and full fridge in the garage. I need to get rid of the fridge. Then I need an extension cord for the welder so im not tied to the one far wall. Then build a rolling welding table with vice. I have a kick ass vice and workbench but they're in the back part of garage that I don't like to cover in metal dust due to freezer and furnace and water heater.
 
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I have to say, I might just be learning some stuff through all of this. I was able to cut the diff spacer pieces to +- .020 with my metal chop saw by using a scribe line instead of a marker (thanks Blaine) and matching up a spot on the saw tooth with that line.
 
I have to say, I might just be learning some stuff through all of this. I was able to cut the diff spacer pieces to +- .020 with my metal chop saw by using a scribe line instead of a marker (thanks Blaine) and matching up a spot on the saw tooth with that line.
You're welcome and the .020 may be to swapping offset on the teeth. Most teeth alternate back and forth slightly so you need to make sure that you are using the one that will cut the widest against the line. Guessing that is with the new Diablo blade?
 
You're welcome and the .020 may be to swapping offset on the teeth. Most teeth alternate back and forth slightly so you need to make sure that you are using the one that will cut the widest against the line. Guessing that is with the new Diablo blade?
Flashback to highschool shop class..."Make sure you pick the right tooth to line your mark up on!" I think saw kerf was covered on the first or second day of class. Bigger deal when you're working with wood and screwing it up means your off over 0.060"
 
You're welcome and the .020 may be to swapping offset on the teeth. Most teeth alternate back and forth slightly so you need to make sure that you are using the one that will cut the widest against the line. Guessing that is with the new Diablo blade?
Yes exactly the new diablo is great. Wow previous blade was shot! I meant to say plus minus 10 for a total of .020. ah shoot I didn't check for the widest tooth. Good, room to improve.
 
Flashback to highschool shop class..."Make sure you pick the right tooth to line your mark up on!" I think saw kerf was covered on the first or second day of class. Bigger deal when you're working with wood and screwing it up means your off over 0.060"
Some of the newer grinds on the metal cutting carbide blades are a very minor offset with a 3 tooth set up. I believe they call them triple chip grinds where the offset teeth are separated by a middle tooth that is centered and has small bevels ground on each corner of the tooth. You have to really pay attention to see the offset.
 
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