High travel, high clearance & high octane, a streetable adventure LJ story

[toximus]

It took me half a day to get the old brackets and trackbar mount off the front of the frame even with plasma:

I can't rave enough about the Metabo angle grinder I bought at the start of the year when I was working on the rear. Paired with Walter flap discs this combo makes the work bearable.

 

[toximus]

I rolled the front axle under and hooked up the lowers to get an idea of what I'll be dealing with.

It's going to be a tight fit.

 

[toximus]

I won't bore you guys with pictures of me mounting beadlocks. Instead I will show off the tool I made that I forgot to show a few months ago when I mounted the rears.

I've found when mounting beadlocks the bead keeps slipping out as I go around the tire, by mounting these plates to the areas where the bead is already seated it is held in place and won't slip back out. Not every tire needs it. Some tires need 3 plates.

 

[toximus]

The driveshaft came from Tom Woods on Monday as they said it would but when I was unwrapping it I realized that I had completely forgotten to order u-bolts. None of the local shops carry quality Spicer u-bolts so I ordered them next day from Amazon and they arrived today (Wednesday). The driveshaft is in and I set the pinion angle. The brackets will need to be rotated slightly to compensate.

 

[toximus]

I was using 4" taillights and 2.5" backup lights with grommets but they are difficult to install and remove without sitting in the sun first. I thought about going back to the stock look with Savvy's taillights or ORO's LiteDOTS but I want something flush to the back and timeless looking reminiscent of the old military CJs. I have a friend who looks to go out and explore random forest roads. A lot of times we need to turn around while exploring these tight wooded trails and it's nice not having to worry about ripping stuff off your rear end while pressing it against trees.

Super Bright LEDs has 4" stainless steel flanges for only $5ea that work with most 4" taillights and fit mine perfectly (saving me a few dollars from having to buy new lights). I bend them slightly to match the curve of my tub. I also purchased 2.5" round backup lights with a flange from them that fit my existing holes. I thought that they were also chrome for some reason but they turned out to be a dull gray. I'm going to have to look into painting them both black or find chrome paint.

 

[toximus]

I fitted a waterproof cap onto the Split-Second box's serial port just in case any water ends up splashing up behind the dash. Easier to keep those little connectors clean than have to clean them out later.

WPSD1-CVR http://www.l-com.com/d-sub-ip67-connector-cover-for-db9-and-hd15

 

[toximus]

Before burning the brackets on the rear axle I tested clearances one more time by traveling the axle. One difference this time was I used a tire inflated to 25psi instead of 8psi. This changed things slightly. I'm going to have to widen out the wheel arches by another 1/2" and at full articulation the tire hits the antirock.

I pulled the straight arms off the front and moved them to the back.

The reservoir has to be relocated as there's no room once the heim is added:

They allow for the same travel as the bent rear arms however once you add in the heim joint they come into contact with the tub:

Using the ballpeen hammer I clearanced the tub:

I think the carpet will lay right over this.

When I went to order new arms for the rear I noticed they have a few versions of the straight arms, one is half the thickness designed for the front of a TJ (to get around the steering bolts). Since there's minimal side forces on these arms I went with these thinner arms for slightly more clearance.

 

[toximus]

Currie did not tap the diff housing all the way to the bottom which causes issues with the longer bolts used with the cover I'm placing on the front axle. I used a 3/8-16" bottoming tab and blew air down the holes to clean them out.

 

[toximus]

For the brake lines I decided to run the front lines down to the axle along the UCA (much like how the rear stock lines run). This is cleaner, less to snag on branches and trees on the trail, and with 14" of travel doing a drop is a lot of line hanging. I removed all of the stock lines on the frame.

There are a few different models of the brake distribution block with different fitting sizes if you find this post from searching I suggest you check your own block before ordering parts. On my distribution block there is a ORB union on the rear most port that goes to the front passengers brakes. I won't be needing it and I plugged it with a stainless steel 1/2"-20 ORB from Brennan Industries (6408-05-O-SS). I then bent up new 3/16" annealed stainless steel brake lines with stainless steel inverted flare tube nuts. Eastwood's brake flaring tool is a huge asset when doing the inverted double flare on each end.

At the other end down on the frame for the front and rear I used a 3/8"-24 inverted flare tube nut to terminate the hard line and a inverted flare to -3 AN adapter fitting (Aeroquip FBM2936) so I can run AN flex line down to the axle (more on that later once I get to it). The adapters are held in place on the tabs I welded to the frame earlier.

 

[toximus]

 

[toximus]

I pulled the rear axle for finalizing the welds.

The LCAs in the rear had been hitting the frame side bracket slightly under full articulation. I clearanced them a little bit while I have the arms out.

 

[toximus]

I wrapped up a bunch of loose ends in the rear. The reason behind jumping around so much and leaving little jobs undone is due to needing a little screw, drill bit, paint or other minor part to finish something. I try to wait and combine orders to save on shipping as much as I can so I end up working on something else for a few days. UPS has been delivering packages every day lately.

I received the longer 5-1/2" 1/2-20" bolts for the belly skid today and mounted that up to get it off my garage floor. On the top side I used nylock nuts.

For the rear taillight bezels I drilled and tapped for #8 (5/32") so the bolts tighten down to the corner armor without requiring a nut on the back side. I mounted a laser level to my garage door to get the lights perfect. It really bugs me that the small backup flange has "top" written on it off center. I filed that lettering off before painting.

At first I was thinking about chroming the rear taillight bezels and switching my front headlight bezels back to chrome. I couldn't find any chrome to match the front in a spray can so for ease, I decided to shoot the bezels with a satin black paint. In the future I may get them chromed professionally. I tried a new paint Krylon SUPERMAXX that is supposed to stick to plastic and metal... we'll have to see how it holds up long term.

The small backup lights were held in by a small amount of glue and do not snap back in. I used a dab of plastic epoxy on each light before pressing them back together. Looking back I probably should have used hot glue so they'd come apart again if ever needed... Oops!

 

[softballnrd27]

Any updates to your build?

 

[toximus]

Any updates to your build?

There will be this week! I have been busy getting my garage/workshop ready for winter. I'm excited to get back on track with my build!

 

[Chris]

How much longer do you think you've got until it's done? Or at least drivable I guess.

 

[toximus]

How much longer do you think you've got until it's done? Or at least drivable I guess.

The rear is completed except for waiting on a few brake line fittings (which I ordered yesterday after having dropped the project where I left it for the last month). Maybe 2-4 hours tops left in the rear.

The front has not been started aside from my previous posts and has probably a month or a month and a half left until it could be driven. At this point however, I may just do the other work I want to do on it (rollcage, rock lights, CB, modify carpet, fit engine skid, wire boost and AFR guages, plumb lockers, design custom fuel cell, air filter, etc.) while it's in the garage and clean. Thankfully I ordered all of the parts for the front before I started on the garage (obviously aside from the parts I need after I start working on it, lol).

 

[Chris]

The rear is completed except for waiting on a few brake line fittings (which I ordered yesterday after having dropped the project where I left it for the last month). Maybe 2-4 hours tops left in the rear.

The front has not been started aside from my previous posts and has probably a month or a month and a half left until it could be driven. At this point however, I may just do the other work I want to do on it (rollcage, rock lights, CB, modify carpet, fit engine skid, wire boost and AFR guages, plumb lockers, design custom fuel cell, air filter, etc.) while it's in the garage and clean. Thankfully I ordered all of the parts for the front before I started on the front (obviously aside from the parts I need after I start working on it, lol).

So it sounds like maybe by Summer it will be ready to go have some fun? Maybe...

Either way, it does make more sense to do all the rest of that stuff while you're already in there.

 

[toximus]

So it sounds like maybe by Summer it will be ready to go have some fun? Maybe...

Either way, it does make more sense to do all the rest of that stuff while you're already in there.

If it's drivable, I'm taking it out regardless of being "done" once the snow melts. Hopefully I'll be done before then for some winter wheeling.

 

[Chris]

If it's drivable, I'm taking it out regardless of being "done" once the snow melts. Hopefully I'll be done before then for some winter wheeling.

Do they salt the roads where you are?

 

[toximus]

Do they salt the roads where you are?

Only the highways so back roads are safe for test drives. Everything else gets sand which also does considerable damage blasting the finish off parts.

It's inevitable that I will be driving my Jeep on salted roads going to various trails or events in the winter. By having a humidity controlled garage now I think that will help keep the damage more under control. I also will try to get better about washing my Jeep more often. Time will tell how much damage happens, but I am willing to put in the work to continue restoring my Jeep.