Woodrow's 97 Green TJ Moderate Build

[Woodrow]

Today, I finished the Dana 30 front e-locker install. After finalizing the carrier bear shim stack with setup bearings detailed above, the new Timken bearings were pressed on the carrier over the final shim stacks. Next, the housing was prepared by drilling a 15/32” hole in a thin area near the breather vent:

The metal shavings were carefully removed, the housing was cleaned w/ brake cleaner and dried with compressed air. Then new tube seals (National part no. 710068) were pressed in:

Once the carrier was back in place, the cap screws were torqued to 60 ft.lbs. and lash was re-checked. Still at 0.006”

The e-locker wires were now run out of the housing via the new hole. The rubber grommet fit nicely and was also sealed with black RTV:

The 4340 chromoly 27 spline shafts went back in, the brakes and wheels went back on and the differential cover and LubeLocker were replaced followed by 1.3 qts of Valvoline 80W90. Now I started the e-locker electrical hook up. This went pretty quick, having done it for the rear not too long ago. I began at the axle and went up the UCA towards the frame:

At the firewall, the excess was looped and zip-tied with the rear wires. Then it went through to behind the dash using the same factory grommet as the rear:

Now here’s an issue: Tap a fuses are great for one or two things (like when I did my seat heaters). But this is getting out of hand! However, it’s temporary. I’ve ordered a 7 circuit block from Painless Wiring (yet another idea I got from reading @Wildman ’s build thread). That block will have room to get all of this out of the factory box and for some other planned accessories. For now though, it sure looks like stereotypical Jeep wiring

It all works however. The rig is fully locked

As an aside, while I was rooting around the fuse box trying find acceptable locations (sort of) for all these tap-a-fuses, I discovered position 4 which didn’t have a fuse is for the interior lights to come on when you open a door.

It’s purpose is to allow defeating the lights always being on when running no doors. I never knew. Now I have a lighted interior when I open a door at night. Bonus!

 

[Wildman]

Today, I finished the Dana 30 front e-locker install. After finalizing the carrier bear shim stack with setup bearings detailed above, the new Timken bearings were pressed on the carrier over the final shim stacks. Next, the housing was prepared by drilling a 15/32” hole in a thin area near the breather vent:
View attachment 395824The metal shavings were carefully removed, the housing was cleaned w/ brake cleaner and dried with compressed air. Then new tube seals were pressed in:
View attachment 395825Once the carrier was back in place, the cap screws were torqued to 60 ft.lbs. and lash was re-checked. Still at 0.006”
View attachment 395826The e-locker wires were now run out of the housing via the new hole. The rubber grommet fit nicely and was also sealed with black RTV:
View attachment 395827The 4340 chromoly 27 spline shafts went back in, the brakes and wheels went back on and the differential cover and LubeLocker were replaced followed by 1.3 qts of Valvoline 80W90. Now I started the e-locker electrical hook up. This went pretty quick, having done it for the rear not too long ago. I began at the axle and went up the UCA towards the frame:
View attachment 395828
At the firewall, the excess was looped and zip-tied with the rear wires. Then it went through to behind the dash using the same factory grommet as the rear:
View attachment 395829
Now here’s an issue: Tap a fuses are great for one or two things (like when I did my seat heaters). But this is getting out of hand! However, it’s temporary. I’ve ordered a 7 circuit block from Painless Wiring (yet another idea I got from reading @Wildman ’s build thread). That block will have room to get all of this out of the factory box and for some other planned accessories. For now though, it sure looks like stereotypical Jeep wiring
View attachment 395830
It all works however. The rig is fully locked
View attachment 395831
As an aside, while I was rooting around the fuse box trying find acceptable locations (sort of) for all these tap-a-fuses, I discovered position 4 which didn’t have a fuse is for the interior lights to come on when you open a door.
View attachment 395836
It’s purpose is to allow defeating the lights always being on when running no doors. I never knew. Now I have a lighted interior when I open a door at night. Bonus!
View attachment 395835

Nice work on the front locker. Looks really good.

That header looks real nice poking out near the bottom of your engine too.

I've got to decide where I want to install my aux circuit panel too. I'm not sure if I have the space near my stock fuse panel since my welder control box is there. Did you order the cover for the panel too? I just got mine Thursday.

Let us know once you have ran the Jeep for a while if you noticed any temperature differences with the ceramic coating or not.

 

[Woodrow]

Nice work on the front locker. Looks really good.

That header looks real nice poking out near the bottom of your engine too.

I've got to decide where I want to install my aux circuit panel too. I'm not sure if I have the space near my stock fuse panel since my welder control box is there. Did you order the cover for the panel too? I just got mine Thursday.

Let us know once you have ran the Jeep for a while if you noticed any temperature differences with the ceramic coating or not.

Thx Rick. I’m looking forward to driving it with the new header and trying out the new lockers. I will report back on temps with the ceramic coat. I know what you mean on aux fuse box location. There’s not a lot of space (even without a welder). I’m hoping near the stock box.

 

[Wildman]

Thx Rick. I’m looking forward to driving it with the new header and trying out the new lockers. I will report back on temps with the ceramic coat. I know what you mean on aux fuse box location. There’s not a lot of space (even without a welder). I’m hoping near the stock box.

My fuse panel is moved a little bit.

 

[Wildman]

Here's that cove you can get from Painless.

Not really needed for it if mounted inside but I liked it for keeping any splash I might get since I have mine mounted on the kick panel on the left side.

 

[Woodrow]

Here's that cove you can get from Painless.

View attachment 396056

View attachment 396057

Not really needed for it if mounted inside but I liked it for keeping any splash I might get since I have mine mounted on the kick panel on the left side.

I’ve considered the same spot

 

[Wildman]

I’ve considered the same spot

I've got the 3 circuit one there now but needed the additional circuits so will throw this 7 circuit one there and may use the 3 circuit one some place else.

 

[Woodrow]

I had my header pipe re-worked (again) last week. It was originally a stock style stainless piece from Magnaflow. It got modified with a flex coupler a while back. Then my JBA header broke and got replaced by a Banks. Although it fit, it was not tension free and to (hopefully) avoid early failure of the new header, I asked the same guy who has done other custom, stainless, TIG work on my exhaust to modify it one more time. After trying some simple changes to get the collector and header pipe to meet perfectly, it became obvious that a new custom segment from just distal to the upstream O2 sensor to the passenger side of the oil pan would be better. Today I unbolted it at home and it is truly without stress at the junction

One nice thing about the new custom segment is there is more clearance by the frame side of the passenger UCA so I could use a standard (instead of 90 degree) zerk again and access for the lube nozzle is much better.

I hope I’m done with exhaust for a while. In addition to taking the Jeep down for a few weeks, the JBA header failure was expensive (new header, ceramic coat and custom work $$).

 

[Woodrow]

I bought a Warn winch with 3/8“ x 100ft. 12,000# synthetic rope. It came with a steel thimble but I want to use @mrblaine ’s WRG aluminum thimble and fairlead. So as with many TJ projects, I learned a new thing: splicing the rope around the new thimble. Pretty simple really. I took apart the splice around the Warm thimble and replicated it around the WRG piece. The splicing fids included with my WRG purchase made the whole thing much easier.
First I slid the excess short end out of the middle of the long end.

The I pulled the long end out of the short end.

Then the short end was pulled out of the long end, thimbles were exchanged and the short end goes back through the long end.

Now the long end goes back through the short end.

Finally, the excess short end is threaded back into the middle of the long end and done:

Here‘s a schematic of the splice. 1,2 and 3 are separated for clarity but in reality, they are immediately adjacent. The rope is also pulled tight between each step.

 

[Wildman]

I bought a Warn winch with 3/8“ x 100ft. 12,000# synthetic rope. It came with a steel thimble but I want use @mrblaine ’s WRG aluminum thimble and fairlead. So as with many TJ projects, I learned a new thing: splicing the rope around the new thimble. Pretty simple really. I took apart the splice around the Warm thimble and replicated it around the WRG piece. The splicing fids included with my WRG purchase made the whole thing much easier.
First I slid the excess short end out of the middle of the long end.

View attachment 399062
The I pulled the long end out of the short end.
View attachment 399063
Then the short end was pulled out of the long end, thimbles were exchanged and the short end goes back through the long end.
View attachment 399064
Now the long end goes back through the short end.

View attachment 399065
Finally, the excess short end is threaded back into the middle of the long end and done:View attachment 399066
Here‘s a schematic of the splice. 1,2 and 3 are separated for clarity but in reality, they are immediately adjacent. The rope is also pulled tight between each step.
View attachment 399067

I've got to do this soon myself so thanks for the lesson. I used to do stuff like this with dog sled ganglines when we built our own but I haven't played with winch rope yet. Nice work.

 

[Woodrow]

While collecting things for my upcoming winch project, here’s a silly aside-
The recent activation of the interior lights was nice but I guess I’d gotten used to not having them. They were too bright or something. So I decided to try going with red LEDs which might protect night vision a little, or just look cool? My wife was not impressed

Anyhow, there you have it.

 

[MountaineerTom]

While collecting things for my upcoming winch project, here’s a silly aside-
The recent activation of the interior lights was nice but I guess I’d gotten used to not having them. They were too bright or something. So I decided to try going with red LEDs which might protect night vision a little, or just look cool? My wife was not impressed
View attachment 400735

View attachment 400736Anyhow, there you have it.

I did all mine, including all the dash lights, in green. Nice and easy on my eyes.

 

[JMT]

I did all mine, including all the dash lights, in green. Nice and easy on my eyes.

While collecting things for my upcoming winch project, here’s a silly aside-
The recent activation of the interior lights was nice but I guess I’d gotten used to not having them. They were too bright or something. So I decided to try going with red LEDs which might protect night vision a little, or just look cool? My wife was not impressed
View attachment 400735

View attachment 400736Anyhow, there you have it.

Put you two guys together and you get Christmas. I gotta say, that’s a bit wild.

 

[Woodrow]

I started mocking up the winch last night:

Since I have a Swayloc and therefore no stock sway bar over the frame in front of the grill, I'm using a UCF carbon steel YJ winch plate on my stock stubby bumper. This allows me to add a third bolt on each side for strength and eliminates the cut outs for around the stock sway bar brackets for aesthetics. For comparison, here is the TJ plate:

Turns out the width and depth of the TJ and YJ plates are the same, but I will need to weld and re-drill the rear hole and drill an extra front hole on each side to make it work.

 

[Woodrow]

Put you two guys together and you get Christmas. I gotta say, that’s a bit wild.

Well if that weirds you out, how about this?

 

[JMT]

Well if that weirds you out, how about this?

View attachment 401253

It makes more sense to me on a sports car.

 

[Woodrow]

I was able to work on the YJ winch plate today. First, the rear frame mount holes were welded up (I just received that copper bar to the left from eBay. It works very well as a backing for closing a larger hole):

Then, after grinding the welds flat and measuring 2-3x, new holes to match the front TJ tow hook hole and front TJ sway bar bracket hole were drilled:

The other TJ winch plates I've seen just use the tow hook holes. That's probably fine but they are fairly close together so I feel better spreading the load out some.

EDIT; Here is a little more information on my thought process for the winch plate:
I originally wanted to use an aluminum plate for weight savings. The UCF aluminum TJ and YJ plates are the 6061 alloy and are 1/4” like their carbon steel versions. UCF says “Weighing in at just under 8lbs, they save 15lbs over their carbon steel cousins while only sacrificing 4% of their strength”. However, modifying the YJ plate required the above welding and would’ve significantly weakened the aluminum‘s yield strength in what I think would be a critical area. Also, I haven’t done any aluminum welding.

So the options were 1) use a TJ aluminum plate and accept the additional overhang of plate vs the bumper and gap between the plate and grill or 2) use a modified steel YJ plate. This time, looks and strength won over weight. In the end therefore, the entire winch assembly (winch w/ rope, plate and fairlead) adds about 80 lbs, instead of 65 lbs to the front of the Jeep.

 

[Woodrow]

Continuing with the winch project. The winch and fairlead were mocked up on the bumper. This required drilling some holes in the top of the bumper to clearance the front 2 winch mounting bolt heads because I wanted the winch plate to sit farther back (possible with a non-raised winch plate because the stock sway bar is longer in the way).

It still hangs over slightly but I think it looks good and it fits well so it all came off and the winch plate, bumper and tow hooks all are out for powder coat.

Next, on to some electrical preparation. My alternator (I think) has been noisy at start up. I suspect a bearing going out. That and the soon to be mounted new winch lead to a search for a new and higher output alternator. Here we get into more ‘97 electrical weirdness. Newer TJs (I’m not sure when they changed) have different electrical connections on the alternator which apparently makes the 160 amp Durango swap a direct replacement. When I first looked into a 160 amp Durango unit, I thought it would be incompatible because they look different. When I started asking too many questions at the local NAPA store they referred me to Russ at Romaine Electric in Portland, OR. He told me the wiring is the same but the connections are different. Here‘s my original alternator on the left and the new one on the right (actually a Romaine Electric custom made 240 amp unit-model no. 13302HP).

The bracket for mounting is the same as is the location of the power output (red arrows). The 2 field wires bolt on to the old unit and use a hairpin connector on the newer units (green arrows). There are also 2 external grounds (black arrows) on the old unit and none on the new one. Here‘s the old one still connected:

I mounted the new alternator and did a temporary connection to confirm it would work (it did):

No warning lights and charging:

So, now I cut off the old connection block and the temporary connectors:

And spliced in the new pig tail (polarity matters not per Russ and my testing) and put a different end on the ground (maybe unnecessary but I put it to the bracket where my non-existent AC pump would bolt on).

Then I added some wire loom cover and put it all back together:

I also had to swap the old pulley onto the new alternator as the new one was about 3/8” bigger and that was enough to make the belt not fit. That will increase the alternator rpm about 15% which should increase output at idle and since the engine never sees prolonged high rpm shouldn’t cause any over spin issues. I was a little concerned that removing the pulleys would be difficult but a strap wrench and impact driver made quick work of it.

In addition (just in case the bearing noise wasn’t the alternator) I also replaced the 2 idler pulleys and the belt with NAPA branded Gates stuff. Which ever, now its nice and quiet

That was more complicated than anticipated per usual but this new 240amp alternator should help the battery when winching and power a nice stereo, if I ever get to that

 

[Woodrow]

More incremental winch project progress this weekend.
First up; new and better battery cables. I bought some 2 ga. welding cable on amazon. Its much larger than stock and has good heat and oil resistance properties. It also has fine copper strands so its nice and flexible. I was originally just going to do military spec battery terminals, a new alternator cable (which goes to the PDC) and the battery to PDC cable. However, I’ve never been a fan of the stock cables. Poor routing makes the oil filter change harder than it needs to be and its both stiff and small gauge. So, it‘s all getting swapped. Here’s the stock set up before de-looming (right on the oil filter):

And, after the loom was removed. The green arrow shows the 10 ga. fuse link where the alternator cable comes up to the PDC. Another thing that has always bugged me; no insulators covering the battery terminals. I especially don’t like the unprotected positive side right next to the fender steel (although there is a cover on the fender).

This is everything that came out. You can see I cut the old terminals off and stripped the stock wires for new lugs when I was still planning to use them. As is often the case when I’m in the garage, I spent more time staring and thinking than actually doing anything

Here’s a comparison of one of the stock grounds to the new stuff. I don’t know the stock gauge (6 or 8?) but its both way smaller and much stiffer than the 2 ga. welding cable.

Here‘s the new set up. Mil spec terminals (with covers) that will easily accept the 2 gauge winch pos and neg, 2 ga. grounds, 2 ga. starter and PDC cables. I brought the PDC cable to the inboard side to keep it away from the fender. I still need to make a new 2 ga. alternator cable but I’m waiting on a fuse block for the 250 amp fuse which will replace the stock 10 ga. in-line fuse.

Next, I wanted to deal with some frame rust that I found under the stock sway bar bushings when I installed the SwayLoc. There was some pretty significant scale with pits underneath (worse than anything I’ve found in the more usual places) I’m not worried about it structurally at this point, but I certainly don’t want it to progress. The inside actually looks great. I did the grind, prep, rust reformer, 2K primer and Krylon semi-flat black routine that I’ve done elsewhere. Only problem is the weather (45 degrees today). But I don’t want to pull the winch later to deal with this, so I closed the garage doors, cranked up the pellet stove and supplemented with a heat gun. Should be fine

If you look close, with the light angled right, you can see the pits on the more effected driver side. Glad I got it when I did.

I also played around with the winch itself. I briefly considered remote mounting the contactor box, but decided I like the look and convenience of mounting it on the winch (and I got a cover).

Warn’s cables seemed too long but after messing with it for a bit, I decided not to shorten them for now:

Also, what’s up with the grade 5, 3/8” mounting bolts? I assume they are up to it since Warn supplied them with the winch but I think I’ll get some grade 8 zinc plated bolts instead.

So now I just need to make and replace my alternator cable and install the winch. Hopefully, this week this project will be done

 

[Woodrow]

Allright. Finished the winch. The alternator cable has been made to match the battery cables with the same 2 ga. welding cable with water proof shrink wrap at the lugs. An in-line 250amp fuse with fastronics block is on the back of the air box, just before the PDC, replacing the stock 10 ga. fuse-link. And the 2 ga. Warn positive and negative cables were shortened and routed to the battery.

The modified UCF YJ winch plate, modified stock stubby bumper and stock tow hooks all came back from powder coat (50:50 flat-gloss black for the bumper and winch plate and shiny silver for the tow hooks). All of that and the Warn 9.5XP-s winch and WRG fairlead were then mounted.

I like the way using the YJ plate allows me to move the winch back closer to the grill with less overhang of the stock bumper.

The cover fits pretty well and is nice to have when is wet out.

My battery is 3+ years old. I‘ve had decent (but not outstanding) luck with standard Interstate liquid lead acid batteries but for this application, I’ve got an Odyssey AGM 34/78 on order.

Many thanks to @Blackjack for technical pointers throughout this process