Nate's crappy 93 XJ

N-Smooth · May 3, 2014

dutchman said:
I'm guessing the code is for XJ

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Good work. 100 awesome points for you!

ricsrx · May 3, 2014

hahaha, my first love for an off road rig was an XJ, Nate I love what you have done with yours, I am envious that I don't have a 4runner just like it!

TJDukit · May 3, 2014

Nate is dumb.

N-Smooth · May 3, 2014

ricsrx said:
hahaha, my first love for an off road rig was an XJ, Nate I love what you have done with yours, I am envious that I don't have a 4runner just like it!

Thanks! It's a fun rig- no fancy bells and whistles and definitely not as cool as Hunter's hydrostatic crawler but it's mine and it gets me out on the trails.

N-Smooth · May 3, 2014

TJDukit said:
Nate is dumb.

Hahaha you win... Except you didn't win because you couldn't crack the code. I'm just sayin...

ricsrx · May 3, 2014

I am serious! I have had so much fun with Hunters truck, my next runner will be just barley street legal with full exo and the bare necessities!

dutchman · May 3, 2014

xj_nate said:
Good work. 100 awesome points for you!

Score!

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Kevin B. · May 4, 2014

ricsrx said:
my next runner will be just barley street legal with full exo and the bare necessities!

Get busy with that please. I have a hankering for another Ric build.

N-Smooth · May 10, 2014

Got some stuff done on this-
Changed my fuel cell vent and added a shut-off valve per OSRC rules.

Also got my Ruffstuff heim steering kit (tube not pictured) in the mail and a new hi-lift (broke mine at EJS)

And most importantly, today was the OSRC pre-tech and I passed tech and got registered for stock class starting with a -12 due to my little tires! I'm not sure if I'm more excited for the crawling or the race!!!

N-Smooth · May 13, 2014

So I spent quite a bit of time on this thing today and all it did was make me mad... I got my RS heim steering kit and so the plan was to get that on and done. Not. Even. Close. I got the stock steering removed in like 3 minutes and measured for bolts (3/4") since I had to go to lowes for a drill bit cause mine disappeared. Lowes didn't have 3/4" grade 8 nylock nuts and the bolt selection sucked too but I just grabbed some and a bit and headed home. Got the knuckles both drilled out fairly easy though they're not as tight as I'd like. Oh well, they'll do. Drilled the pitman from the bottom up and it was going fine but all of a sudden just stopped making progress. Went to take it off and of course it was never coming off without a puller. Went to autozone to rent one and got some better bolts and nylock nuts at a supply store. Came home and got the pitman off with a little work and proceeded to drill it. Made a tiny bit more progress and the drill bit threw in the towel. Tried sharpening it and it just didn't matter. Full of rage at this point I went to buy another $20 drill bit thinking that would solve the problem and it was worth the money. Got home and drilled for 10 seconds and that bit was ruined too. Thought about lighting my jeep on fire and shooting at it but resisted and got out my files. Sat there and filed the pitman for over an hour and now the bolt fits (really tight too) and I'm just glad it's over. I hate working on stupid stuff like this! Anyways, I have all of the heims on there to mock it up and it looks like I'm going to be able to go straight to the knuckle with the draglink instead of putting tabs on the tie rod. It looks like the drag link angle will even work well with my tracbar! That makes me happy.

I'll get back on it on Thursday night and see if I can't get it buttoned-up.
On a positive note, I've been overthinking a car-seat mount for my son and just today I got the seat delivered and got the chance to mock it up. It's going to be very easy to mount with a crossmember from the crossbars and some chain links for LATCH mounts. I'm excited. I even held a piece of lexan up to see how it would look for a back "window" and I'm pleased with it. It'll be great to get the kid out wheeling!

wheelewagon · May 15, 2014

Sounds like it got hot and work hardened while you were drilling.

N-Smooth · May 15, 2014

wheelewagon said:
Sounds like it got hot and work hardened while you were drilling.

That's what I figured as well. It was soooooo dumb.

ricsrx · May 15, 2014

xj_nate said:
I've been overthinking a car-seat mount for my son and just today I got the seat delivered and got the chance to mock it up. It's going to be very easy to mount with a crossmember from the crossbars and some chain links for LATCH mounts. I'm excited. I even held a piece of lexan up to see how it would look for a back "window" and I'm pleased with it. It'll be great to get the kid out wheeling!
View attachment 91407

I took Hunter with me everwhere i possibly could as soon as he was out of dipers anyway.. get that seat installed!

N-Smooth · May 15, 2014

ricsrx said:
I took Hunter with me everwhere i possibly could as soon as he was out of dipers anyway.. get that seat installed!

And it paid dividends, now he's a regular rockcrawler himself! I've just been waiting until my boy is a little bigger. He's 16 months now and he thinks the jeep is the coolest thing ever so I know it's time. We'll see how he does after OSRC since we're going to Sand Hollow!

N-Smooth · May 15, 2014

Got the steering all done tonight. I couldn't be happier with the angles. I even flexed it out and everything looks great.

I Lean · May 16, 2014

Watch that passenger side steering arm closely--setups like that really like to wobble and make the hole sloppy, if they get ANY amount loose. If you're feeling saucy, you could double-shear the upper, above the drag link. I did that to Cody McCoolGuy's ZJ, and it seemed to work well.

ricsrx · May 16, 2014

That looks great!

N-Smooth · May 16, 2014

I Lean said:
Watch that passenger side steering arm closely--setups like that really like to wobble and make the hole sloppy, if they get ANY amount loose. If you're feeling saucy, you could double-shear the upper, above the drag link. I did that to Cody McCoolGuy's ZJ, and it seemed to work well.

Yeah, I was just planning on keeping the bolt super tight but if it comes to making it double shear I'm fine with that as well.

ricsrx said:
That looks great!

Thanks. I'm happy with it from the little drive I took. The old steering was trashed. I should take pics of it and post them

skippy · May 16, 2014

hECK YES!!!!

N-Smooth · May 17, 2014

Got the mounts made for the boy's car seat.

We actually ordered another seat so we can just keep it in the jeep and let it get dirty and not care. It's actually a really big seat that he can use for a long time as it's weight limit is 110 pounds!

I took him for a quick ride around the neighborhood and he loved it. He actually got mad when I went to get him out so I left him in there for probably a half hour while I worked on other stuff. Then later on we went for another ride and my wife came and we went in the field to see how he likes being offroad. He was perfectly chill so I have high hopes that he'll be good when we're on the trails.

I also did a few little things like fix my whip flag since I'll need it for StG. I also re-mounted the passenger seat because one of the nutserts was spinning and this way Skippy won't die during the rock cross.
The only things left on my list are mounting my new hi-lift, adding some "oh &$@%" Handles and making some more tabs for my todo to keep it from rattling. Only the last one is really mandatory so we'll see what I can done this week.

Nate's crappy 93 XJ

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