Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ engine mounts

John’s Consistently Inconsistent LJ Build

Today was mostly tidying up from several things I’ve done lately. I pulled the wires from installing the front marker/turn signals into their final spot and pulled the fog light connectors out in front of the grill. I messed with a couple of configurations for the fog lights on the bumper and the spotlights on the bull bar. The Garvin G2 Bumper Guard/Bull Bar has mounts on it already for a pair of lights above the winch, however, I don’t like them. Mounting on top will have the spotlights too high and there is not enough space to mount them below because of the winch. I decided to cut off the welded on light mounts and use a pair of KC 1.75” tube clamp light mounts to hold the lights instead, which will allow me to mount them under the bull bar and in front of the winch in a way that will not be an issue when using the winch. The KC tube clamps are very nice; my broth-in-law has a pair on his Sprinter with the lights mounted almost the same way. I ordered some Stainless 5/16"-18 and 3/8"-16 tri-groove nuts from McMaster-Carr to secure the lights to the mounts and mounts to the clamps and bumper. The are significantly cheaper there than anywhere else. You get 10 for $21 versus 2 for $29 from KC (and they did not have those sizes anyway) or 8 for $50 from Amazon. McMaster will have them here tomorrow as well. I already have a couple of tri-groove sockets. Here’s a shot of the font end to give you an idea of what I’m working with. I will mount the spots under the bull bar with plenty of clearance for the winch and fairlead, even if winching at an angle, and mount the fog lights on either side of the bull bar / bumper bolts, maybe and inch away from the original holes that I can’t use because the bull bar base is in the way.

View attachment 586228

I swapped-in the LED bulbs in the rear brake/signal/reverse lights. Very easy.

View attachment 586229


The only issue I had is the bottom left of the driver side fixture. The molded-in thread was stripped because it had split (before picture) I used some flexible black CA and a zip tie to repair it (after picture).

View attachment 586230
This is crafty, good idea. I'll have to remember this...
 
Today was mostly tidying up from several things I’ve done lately. I pulled the wires from installing the front marker/turn signals into their final spot and pulled the fog light connectors out in front of the grill. I messed with a couple of configurations for the fog lights on the bumper and the spotlights on the bull bar. The Garvin G2 Bumper Guard/Bull Bar has mounts on it already for a pair of lights above the winch, however, I don’t like them. Mounting on top will have the spotlights too high and there is not enough space to mount them below because of the winch. I decided to cut off the welded on light mounts and use a pair of KC 1.75” tube clamp light mounts to hold the lights instead, which will allow me to mount them under the bull bar and in front of the winch in a way that will not be an issue when using the winch. The KC tube clamps are very nice; my broth-in-law has a pair on his Sprinter with the lights mounted almost the same way. I ordered some Stainless 5/16"-18 and 3/8"-16 tri-groove nuts from McMaster-Carr to secure the lights to the mounts and mounts to the clamps and bumper. The are significantly cheaper there than anywhere else. You get 10 for $21 versus 2 for $29 from KC (and they did not have those sizes anyway) or 8 for $50 from Amazon. McMaster will have them here tomorrow as well. I already have a couple of tri-groove sockets. Here’s a shot of the font end to give you an idea of what I’m working with. I will mount the spots under the bull bar with plenty of clearance for the winch and fairlead, even if winching at an angle, and mount the fog lights on either side of the bull bar / bumper bolts, maybe and inch away from the original holes that I can’t use because the bull bar base is in the way.

View attachment 586228

I swapped-in the LED bulbs in the rear brake/signal/reverse lights. Very easy.

View attachment 586229


The only issue I had is the bottom left of the driver side fixture. The molded-in thread was stripped because it had split (before picture) I used some flexible black CA and a zip tie to repair it (after picture).

View attachment 586230

When I had one side done, I compared the brightness to the other side. The brake/signal light is only slightly brighter than the incandescent version. The biggest difference is the LED flashes when signaling whereas the incandescent fades. It’s mostly noticeable when the lights are off since it is alternating between on and off versus bright and dim when the lights are on. The reverse lights seemed significantly brighter, but this may be mostly due to them being a whiter light that the incandescent. I plan on adding a pair separate reverse floods to the bumper or hitch receiver and wire them so I can have them always off, on with reverse lights, or always on (if I need to illuminate the rear for a reason other than backing) or I might just make them on/off with a switch if that’s too hard. I did not include any comparison pictures because the rear of the jeep is 3 feet from the garage door and I did not want to let any 20 degree air into the 60 degree garage.


Once I was sure everything worked, I went and replaced the panels around the steering column. I also tucked the carpet back under the center console from where I had pulled it out when I installed the TC cable shifter.

Finally, I replaced the stubby antenna the PO had installed with a full-sized antenna. We listen to broadcast radio a lot when we travel, so we need good reception. Here is the new antenna mounted with “old stubby” laying on the cowl.

View attachment 586231
Nice work so far. Like a bunch of us on the forum, I origianlly did the simple LED back up bulb swap as well. Even better are the lights @Claytone makes (which work in the stock housing):
(https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/led-backup-lights.57845/)
Here's a comparison of a regular LED bulb (R) vs his light(L):
1737044537221.png

They may be enough to save you the trouble of additional lights.
 
I had about 2 hours of extra time today since I got to work remotely - so no getting ready, no driving in and I can use my lunch.

I decided I'd tackle the rocker rail.

I had to cut off all of the little tabs off of the tub. Here are most of them (one of them is hiding in the garage somewhere).

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I removed the two bottom front most bolts from the rear fender flares as those holes will be reused to mount the rocker rail. I also removed the interior panel on the drivers side that covers all the wires and pulled everything well away from the tub so I would not drill into it. I also plan on placing a 2x4 between the wire and the tub when I drill to be safe.

20250117_052437.jpg


I'm only showing photos of the driver's side but will discuss both sides as the passenger side had some challenges. I lifted the rail into place with my jack and used one of the bolts I removed earlier to secure the rear. It fit nice and flush (unlike the passenger side, more to follow).

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Once everything was lined-up properly, I used a center punch that matched the diameter of the holes in the rocker rails and marked center for everywhere I'd need to drill.

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I drilled all the holes and painted over the holes, random nicks and scratches, and where I cut the tabs off earlier with brush on Eastwood rust encapsolator. It looked really pretty...

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I installed a Riv Nut where I drilled through the UNLIMITED decal. I took several photos and measurements of the decal and may create a pair with out Cricut out of white exterior vinyl and place it in the same spot (or maybe just below the screw). This was only the fifth or sixth riv nut I've ever installed, so I was worried. It went well; I used an actual riv nut tool instead of the nut/bolt/washer deal that came with the rocker rails. Here is a shot of the rail installed on the driver's side.

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I thought I'd knock the passenger side out really fast. I was wrong. First off, either the rail or my tub was warped a little. The Passenger rail did get banged-up a bit compared to the driver's side, so it could be the rail. The sheet metal on the tub under the door on the passenger side is a bit more beat up than the driver's side, so it could be the tub. Maybe it's a little of both. Once I got the rail jacked up and the rear bolt in, the rail did not sit flush against the tub like it did on the driver's side. I used a C-clamp on the front to draw it in so I could mark all the centers for my holes. The top of the rear of the rail was still a little proud of the tub, maybe 1/16".

I lowered the rail, drilled, painted (more paint due to the aforementioned banged-up'ness of the tub on this side), and installed the riv nut. I must not have been paying attention to the riv nut install becuase I did not seat it well enough.

This is probably a lesson many of you have already learned. If you ever have a bunch of bolts to install and only one of them is secured by a riv nut you just installed, install that bolt first. I had not learned that lesson yet.

I installed almost all of the bolts except the one that went through the riv nut. Despite my practically perfect drilling on the driver's side, my holes were off by a wee bit on the passenger side. This is not an issue with regular nuts and bolts and they are very forgiving. The riv nut shows no mercy. The combination of the misalignment and what I believe was a crappy install of the riv nut by me resulted in the riv nut just spinning around. I tried to get it to seat with the tool, but I could not get the tool threaded in far enough for it to work properly due to the misalignment and spinning. I ended up removing all the bolts except for the rear one which allowed me to rotate the front of the rail down enough to cut out the bad riv but (I'd pretty much destroyed it already) and install a new one that I was sure would not spin. I then reinstalled all the bolts, starting with the one that went in the riv nut, and everything was fine. Both sides are installed and feel very sturdy.
 
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Thanks for the advice. What wheels are those?

The wheels are Ultra 5051s (15x8 with 3.65” backspace). I like a bright, simple aluminum wheel. My rig came with aftermarket wheels from the 90s which I didn’t prefer. I thought about finding some stock wheels but the backspace wasn’t correct for 12.5” tires. I first tried steel wheels which looked OK but were heavy and not very round. I also considered Procomp 1069s, a popular choice which also looked good but were not clear coated so the extra maintenance effectively killed that idea. Here are the old black steelies and the 2 aluminum wheels together when I was trying to decide.
1737141467252.jpeg
 
The wheels are Ultra 5051s (15x8 with 3.65” backspace). I like a bright, simple aluminum wheel. My rig came with aftermarket wheels from the 90s which I didn’t prefer. I thought about finding some stock wheels but the backspace wasn’t correct for 12.5” tires. I first tried steel wheels which looked OK but were heavy and not very round. I also considered Procomp 1069s, a popular choice which also looked good but were not clear coated so the extra maintenance effectively killed that idea. Here are the old black steelies and the 2 aluminum wheels together when I was trying to decide.
View attachment 586439

Very nice. I was leaning toward something visually similair to the 1069s in a 16" wheel (Have BMB 16" big brakes, so 16 is as small as I can go). I'm not a fan of the 17" JLR wheels the PO installed, but they have grown on me a little. To me, offroad wheels should look like the wheels on all the pickups in my rural highschool parking lot in the late 80s/early 90s, which is why the 1069s are appealing. That said, I really like your 5051s because of how they dish in, which seems hard to find in a five spoke style wheel without it looking like it belongs on a donk or low rider.

It looks like they make them in 16x8 with 5x4.5 pattern.

https://www.ultrawheel.com/wheel/050-051-type-50-machined-with-clear-coat/163/11/5/?sku=051-6865K

I'm not sure about the backspace, though. They show offset as +25, which would yield a 5.48 backspace, unless they have their + and - reversed (they have some listed as -6 with different lug patterns) as a -25 offset would give 3.52 backspace. Looks like they have two different backspace options for the 15" wheels. I've read a lot here about how 16" is the worst size from a selection standpoint - least number of options for wheels and tires.

I'm tempted to hit my JLR wheels with some Eastwood 2K rally paint (silver), leaving the rim black to create the illusion they are 16". I saw on here where someone did something like that, I believe paining the wheels white and leaving the rims black; looked nice.
 
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Very nice. I was leaning toward something visually similair to the 1069s in a 16" wheel (Have BMB 16" big brakes, so 16 is as small as I can go).
I have BMB 16” brakes and they fit inside the 15” ultras. Others have gotten different 15” wheels to work with those brakes as well.
I'm not a fan of the 17" JLR wheels the PO installed, but they have grown on me a little. To me, offroad wheels should look like the wheels on all the pickups in my rural highschool parking lot in the late 80s/early 90s, which is why the 1069s are appealing. That said, I really like your 5051s because of how they dish in, which seems hard to find in a five spoke style wheel without it looking like it belongs on a donk or low rider.
That dished look is something I like as well.
It looks like they make them in 16x8 with 5x4.5 pattern.

https://www.ultrawheel.com/wheel/050-051-type-50-machined-with-clear-coat/163/11/5/?sku=051-6865K

I'm not sure about the backspace, though. They show offset as +25, which would yield a 5.48 backspace, unless they have their + and - reversed (they have some listed as -6 with different lug patterns) as a -25 offset would give 3.52 backspace. Looks like they have two different backspace options for the 15" wheels. I've read a lot here about how 16" is the worst size from a selection standpoint - least number of options for wheels and tires.
That’s true enough to keep me away from that wheel diameter.
I'm tempted to hit my JLR wheels with some Eastwood 2K rally paint (silver), leaving the rim black to create the illusion they are 16". I saw on here where someone did something like that, I believe paining the wheels white and leaving the rims black; looked nice.
17” used to not get much love here but that’s changed. Some say they feel more stable, especially when aired down and the complaints about ride quality due to stiffer sidewalls (not too many C rated tires in that size) seem to be less prevalent.

Personally, I like the look and ride of my C range 35x12.5x15s and haven’t noticed instability issues (I do run Coyote beadlocks in mine and don’t know if that changes things. But, when I had 33s without the beadlocks, they felt good as well).
 
Very good to know.

If you think you want to do a 15”, order 1, don’t mount a tire on it and test fit it. If it doesn’t work you can send it back. In my case, both the Ultra 5051 and the Procomp 1069 fit over the 16” BMB brakes. They do require care in placing the balance weights.
 
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If you think you want to do a 15”, order 1, don’t mount a tire on it and test fit it. If it doesn’t work you can send it back. In my case, both the Ultra 5051 and the Procomp 1069 fit over the 16” BMB brakes. They do require care in placing the balance weights.

Don’t sleep on that last part. The adhesive back wheel weights will likely hit the 16” BMB caliper when using a 15” wheel unless your tire guy is a unicorn. You want the weights to be outboard as much as possible and no more than two rows. Also, if they don’t do the rear correctly, you won’t know it until you rotate them to the front.

Hold on to the installer tightly if he does it correctly because the next likely guy won’t.
 
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I think I am going to reconnect my front DS to the TC today or tomorrow and get my pinion and caster dialed in.

When I replaced the fixed control arms with the double adjustable, I set them to the length of the fixed arms. I did all of my suspension cycling and everything looked good, thought it may not hurt to move the axle back a smidge based on how close the tie rod and drag link come to the sway bar link brackets (close but no contact). At the time I needed to move the Jeep out of the garage for a few days, so I went ahead and reinstalled everything so I could move it.

The pinion angle is 5 degrees, left over from the old TC drop. My drive shaft angle is likely going to be around 12 degrees compared to a 3' level laid parallel to the jeep on the garage floor (garage is sloped maybe 0.5 degree if I recall what it read before zeroing the angle meter) based on my quick measurement holding the sticking the meter on the DS and holding it up to TC.

So, now that I'm going to set the front pinion angle after getting my TC into its final position with the Savvy UA install, I have a question. My lower control arms have about 5/8" of thread on each end meaning I can shorten them buy about 1-1/4" total. Should I shorten the lowers as I lengthen the uppers while adjusting the pinion angle, or just leave the lowers alone? Is it pretty much a 1:1 adjustment or is there some magic ratio? Should I do anything with the trackbar while I adjust, will I need to re-center the axle? Do the upper arms have an effect on axle centering like they did in the rear? I assume I'm going to need to cycle both suspensions again to ensure the bump stops line up. I do not think I will need to add any bump stop as I was VERY conservative when I installed them.

I'm concerned about the caster as well as It appears it will be zero if my DS angle is, in fact, 12 degrees and I make the pinion parallel. That said, i think I should be able to add a bit of caster in there as, while I never measured the DS angle when the TC drop was in place, I'm pretty sure it was greater than 5 degrees.

I guess I'll have to try the "dial in as much caster as possible until it starts shaking" method. That said, what is everyone else's experience with a 4" lift and tummy tuck with a stock Dana 30 front axle?

Thanks!
 
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I guess I'll have to try the "dial in as much caster as possible until it starts shaking" method. That said, what is everyone else's experience with a 4" lift and tummy tuck with a stock Dana 30 front axle?

I would begin by dialing in your pinion angle so that you don't have vibes. If the steering manners are sufficient, you are ready to dial in your toe and call it good.

If you need to adjust caster some to improve the steering, the goal is to do so without adding vibes. Best to adjust and test until things are happy. I've finally stopped worrying about the numbers on this stuff since it's not the best way to achieve the desired outcome.

I've had it where my pinion angle isn't per spec, yet there were no vibes. I've also had it where my caster was out of spec, yet it drove just fine (decent return to center, steering wasn't heavy, steering wasn't light, drove true doing 85mph).
 
I would begin by dialing in your pinion angle so that you don't have vibes. If the steering manners are sufficient, you are ready to dial in your toe and call it good.

If you need to adjust caster some to improve the steering, the goal is to do so without adding vibes. Best to adjust and test until things are happy. I've finally stopped worrying about the numbers on this stuff since it's not the best way to achieve the desired outcome.

I've had it where my pinion angle isn't per spec, yet there were no vibes. I've also had it where my caster was out of spec, yet it drove just fine (decent return to center, steering wasn't heavy, steering wasn't light, drove true doing 85mph).

Thank you
 
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Is this a repair? When I was pondering the front pinion angle I realized this piece of metal is on the driver side but not the passenger side. The frame had only very light surface rust and no coatings hiding anything when I bought it and the carfax showed no accidents (which I know means no REPORTED accidents). I know the frame is sound becuase I wire brushed every bit of it I could reach before I used rust encapsulator, chassis black, and internal frame coating everywhere.
repair maybe.jpg
 
Since I was procrastinating and only had a little bit of time today, I decided to cur the brackets off my bull bar and plan out my light install.

I used my welding blanket for the first time to protect the Jeep from sparks since I did not feel like removing the bull bar and figured the bumper would hold it in place better than my JawHorse would.

Here is one of the brackets, the cut, and after grinding and flap wheeling.

cut grind.jpg


Here it is after a coat of textured black paint that I used on the bumpers. It's not perfect but it will work. I was going to drill 1" holes and use grommets to run the wire to the lights, but I decided that it would be too hard to remove the guard if I ever need to if I did that, so I think I'm going to drill holes for push mount zip ties and run the wires in some loom on the backside of the bull bar to the lights.

20250118_161903.jpg
 
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Is this a repair? When I was pondering the front pinion angle I realized this piece of metal is on the driver side but not the passenger side. The frame had only very light surface rust and no coatings hiding anything when I bought it and the carfax showed no accidents (which I know means no REPORTED accidents). I know the frame is sound becuase I wire brushed every bit of it I could reach before I used rust encapsulator, chassis black, and internal frame coating everywhere.
View attachment 586711

My 04 LJ has it. I have no idea why. Lol
 
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Decided to reattach the front DS to the TC and work on getting the pinion angle dialed-in. The DS was still attached to the differential, so it was a good workout and I should have called someone to hold in place while I did the bolts. Once attached, my starting point was 12 degree drive shaft and 5 degree pinion. My goal was to get the pinion 2 degrees below the final DS angle - taking a gamble that I would not have vibrations so I can have a little caster.

I decided to start by shortening the lower control arms two full turns and making the remainder of the adjustments on the uppers. I think I ended up lengthening the uppers by 3 or 4 turns. I also made a couple of tweaks all around to eliminate binding (which I may need to repeat since I re-centered the axle later). Here are the measurements I ended-up with 9.5 (90-80.5) on the pinion and 11.5 on the DS for 2.5 degrees of caster. This will be my starting point and I will see how vibrations and return to center are when I get to test driving and tweak from there.

Angles.png


Here is a closeup of the DS to pinion and a wider shot that shows the whole thing from diff to TC (a little distorted due to the wide lens).

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After that I decided to check the centering of the axle because I recall it being off by about 3/8" earlier. I used the method where you measure center between the bumper bolts and site across the center body mount bolt to determine where to hang a plumb bob from the harmonic balancer. I used a very strong magnetic hook to hang the string from. The magnet was so strong I had trouble shifting it, but It was also nice as every time I reconfirmed that it was in center, it was, even after I jostled everything around. I used ratchet strap to relieve tension on the track bar and took the axle-side bolt out. When I removed the ratchet strap everything moved significantly. I then relocated the ratchet strap to the wrong side and fought with myself for about 30 minutes pulling the body the wrong way. I removed the strap and cycled the steering and jounced the Jeep a couple of times. This got me maybe to 3/8 off center again. Will this is technically where I started, it was actually progress becuase there was no tension anywhere else (so maybe I won't need to relieve any binding in the control arms after all, or need to make only very minor adjustments). Some more jouncing and turning the steering a little off center got me to within 3/16" of center. I realized I could move the frame significantly by placing a drift punch between the track bar joint and bracket, which allowed me to slide the bolt in. I was able to get the axle within 1/16" of center. If there was a way to rotate the track bar adjustable end half a turn without changing its orientation, I probably could have gotten everything spot on and would not have needed to use the drift to line it up, but then the adjustable end would have been upside down. I think 1/16" is probably as good as it will get as I imagine my plum bob is not absolutely perfectly centered.

I will recheck and adjust toe-in later. Toe-in was good before today's changes, but steering wheel centering was off so I'll definitely need to adjust the drag link.
 
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Today was a cleanup day. I had empty bags, boxes, tools, bits of wires, metal shavings, etc everywhere. I decided to clean up and put some tools away. In the process of cleaning up I hit my head on the cut end of a zip tie that I had temporarily holding the winch thimble onto one of the loop/hooks on the front hitch receiver. I decided to install the cheapo thimble stop I got from Amazon so I could move it out of the way. I needed to power-up the winch to retract it, so I decided to finish connecting it. I had already mounted a Warn power interrupt and had all the wires ran, they just were not connected. Here there are connected.

20250120_070410.jpg


The interrupt is triggered by one of the switches from my MC6 box (a switch controlling a relay controlling a big relay/solenoid). Worked fine after I charged my battery for a couple of minutes as the MC6 low voltage circuit had kicked-in and would not let me run any accessories. Battery was really not low as the NOCO charger switched over to maintenance mode in about 15 minutes. I then installed the stop on my winch line and retracted the line just enough. Picture below. I'm not sure if I like it all that much. I will probably get a safety thimble fairlead from BMB and a real safety thimble eventually. I have to remount the fairlead anyway as one of the SS bolts that came with it cross threaded and broke when I went to install it and I ordered new ones, using some short bolts I had on hand at the time to temporarily mount it (as you can see below, the bolts don't even clear the plastic in the lock nuts).

20250120_084229.jpg
 
Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ engine mounts