Project Un"Limited" Funds

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

Alright, the next part is not really a mod, but it is for Utah haha! Whenever I turned the heater or defrost on during these cold times, I would get a strong whiff of an antifreeze smell. I also noticed that my coolant level was slowly dropping, and there were no leaks in the cooling system. Those two observations led to a hunch of a bad heater core. So, without further adieu, I dove right in. Of course, after disconnecting the battery, I went to work tearing out the dash. From everyone I talked to, it was a total nightmare to replace a heater core. But, like most things, people exaggerate, but it was not too terrible. The hardest part was actually getting to the heater suitcase which required the whole dash to be removed from the vehicle. When performing this repair, make sure to take your time. Also, it helps to have two people when removing the dash from the Jeep as the dash is not necessarily heavy, just awkward. It is also handy for the other person to hold the dash out away from the Jeep to make sure all of the wires/HVAC lines are disconnected before completely removing the dash. Another tip is to remove the steering column completely from the vehicle before starting on unplugging the wiring, as the column will just get in the way later on. The steering column can all be removed inside the passenger area by removing the 4 bolts that hold it to the body and loosening the slip clamp that connects the steering column to the actual steering linkage. Anywho, here is the dash out of the vehicle.

Here is the inside of the passenger area. Notice anything missing? Hahaha

After I got the heater suitcase out of the Jeep, I unbolted it to find the cause of my antifreeze smell and missing coolant. Here was what the heater core looked like when I pulled it out of the heater suitcase:

And, here is the bottom of the heater suitcase when I pulled the heater core out. It was not leaking enough to dampen the passenger front carpet area, but it was definitely not getting any better! While I was in the heater suitcase, I decided to also replace the A/C Evaporator core. There was nothing wrong with it, but I could not get it clean for nothing! I even tried to blow the crap out of the fins with compressed air with no success. I didn't want to go through this whole process again, so the Evaporator core was replaced too. Again, here was the bottom of the heater suitcase where the heater core sat:

Here is the un-cleanable A/C Evaporator core on the right and the shiny new one on the right:

Here is the inside of the heater suitcase full of new parts (Okay, only 2) and ready to go back together. The heater suitcase was kind of tentative to get back together, since all of the blend doors and hoses had to be in the right spots in order to be assembled. But all in all, it was not too terribly bad.

ZPower · Jul 14, 2014

While I had some time with the dash, I notice my stereo head unit was scratched to High Heaven. So, out came the Novus plastic polish (Which I absolutely swear by for polishing any type of plastic). Here was a before picture of the head unit. Pretty scratched to heck.

After progressing through the three stages (Coarse, Medium, and Fine), the head unit turned out freaking awesome! It's a lot nicer using a little elbow work on something rather than either just living with something crappy or buying something completely new.

Here is a close-up of the head unit after the polishing. This thing is as smooooooooooooooth as Barry White now!

Here is my front sway bar after I used some more of that Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black on it. Again, almost everything I do to this thing nobody will notice. Sigh...

Here is the battery tray all buttoned up and in it's rightful place. Another thing I've done that won't be seen by people!

Also, since I was adding in auxiliary backup lights, I needed something to switch them on and off. I wasn't going to tie and untie a couple of wires together haha. Here is the kick-A wiring loom I made. I purchased the lighted single-pole, single-throw switch from the local NAPA Auto Parts store. I don't know about any of you other TJ/LJ owners out there, but the switches below your HVAC controls, such as the Overdrive on/off, rear window wiper, and the rear window defrost switch are hard to see the little indicator light because of the plastic between the switches and the HVAC controls. To prevent that problem with the new auxiliary backup light switch, I oriented the indicator light down so it can be seen by me regardless of whether the switch is in the On or Off position. Again, here is the wiring loom for the new switch.

Here is the new switch installed in the empty location next to the 3 switches. This is best done with the dash out, since it is a real bear to get to the backside of the switches. A little tip is that the filler piece (where the switch is located in the picture) pops out, so that makes it a little easier for switch installation. The new switch almost looks factory, don't you think?

Just a side note, here is the view that we have most days at around dusk. It almost makes me want to stop working on the Jeep for a minute to take in the wonderful scenery out my back window.

zmotorsports · Jul 15, 2014

I had almost forgot about the heater core/dash work we did on that. That was right after you got the Jeep you were noticing the coolant level dropping and noticed the smell the first cold snap in the weather we had.

Mike.

zmotorsports · Jul 15, 2014

rholbrook said:
You will have to bring it by so I can see it now. You are right, I do miss it more. I saw your dad's JK and the quality work that he has done to it so I know how yours will turn out.

Yeah, you will have to check it out. It is also long-armed now and tummy-tucked as well as Ten Factory chromoly axle shafted and Tom Wood's drivelined. I don't think Jared showed those mods yet.

You probably ought to change out your avatar now as well as it doesn't even resemble the Jeep it was any longer.

Mike.

rholbrook · Jul 15, 2014

Mike, you just gave it away. I'm just too lazy to change the avatar.

ZPower · Jul 22, 2014

Before, I left off just before the front axle tear down. For the front axle, I decided it would be easier to pull it out of the Jeep completely for a tear down on the bench. So after disconnecting everything that held the axle in after draining all of the fluid, it was on the bench. While the axle was still under the Jeep, everything from the knuckles out (including the axle shafts) were removed for a little lighter axle to carry over to the bench. Here is the axle as soon as we muscled it up onto the bench:

Before I got started on installing the C-gussets and lower control arm skid plates, I noticed that the passenger-side upper control arm mount on the axle seemed a little anemic. Out came the 1/8" steel plate, and I boxed in the upper control arm mount on the axle tube. I had to do some funny angles to get the plate to conform to the mount, but it is a heck of a lot stronger than stock now! Here is the gusset tack-welded in place before the final welding.

Here is a picture of the gusset all welded in. Notice that I left the bottom corner open to allow any water or debris to fall through the gusset rather than sit on top of the axle tube and corrode the mount away.

Now it was time to move on to the C-gussets and lower control arm skid plates. Here is a close-up of the C-gusset welded on. These gussets go on the outside of the axle C's to help add some rigidity. These things are very beefy, but I had to do some massaging with the hydraulic press to get them to fit correctly on the contours of the C's. Also, make sure to position the gussets away from the coil springs as the constant contact from the gussets will fatigue and crack the springs in the long run if they contact during axle movement.

Since I was replacing ball joints anyways, I decided to blast both knuckles with the media blaster and paint them. Here is a before and after shot of the knuckles after the media blaster. The knuckle on the left has already been blasted with glass beads. I do not have any finished pictures of the knuckles painted by themselves, but a couple pictures of the front axle completely back together and you can see them installed later on.

Here is the front axle after all of the welding and fabricating done. I wanted to coat both axles with POR 15, which is a brush-on finish that dries ultra hard.

Since I wanted to coat the entire axle with POR 15, I needed to get the axle off of the jack stands. So I made a make-shift rotisserie so I can rotate the axle any direction and not worry about coating the jack stands with POR 15. When POR 15 is on a surface, it is on there permanently! A good suggestion is to wear latex gloves when painting just to prevent any of this stuff from getting on your hands. Just like all other painting processes, a good surface prep is needed to ensure that the paint stays adhered to the surface. I took the DA to the axle surfaces as well as a wire wheel and scotch-brite pad to get in all of the nooks and crannys. Another good idea is to cover up the surface that you are painting on (such as the welding table in the picture) with paper to prevent any from sticking to the surface. The only way to remove POR 15 after it is fully cured is with an abrasive disc on a grinder. It dries that hard!

Here is a picture of the axle after brushing on POR 15. Even though the paint is brushed on, the brush strokes disappear when it dries. I did get a few air bubbles in the paint as well as some bristles from the brush, but I am very pleased with the end result. Another great property of POR 15 is it is immune to all of the fluids in your Jeep, such as fuel, oil, brake fluid, etc., although I would not want to try it!

Here is a close-up view of the front axle coated with POR 15.

ZPower · Jul 22, 2014

About that time too I got a call from the powdercoaters saying that my stuff was done, so I picked them up. I am very happy with the way everything turned out, let me know what you think!

Now back to the front axle. I was going with 4.88s with Detroit Truetrac limited slips all around. After having the Truetrac with the new ring gear in and out of the axle probably 6 times searching for the correct pinion preload and gear backlash, we hit our mark. With the carrier and pinion fully bolted in with setup bearings (old bearings that have been modified to just slide on and off of the carrier and pinion without the need of a press) we had 13 in./lb. of pinion preload (without the pinion seal) and 7 thousandths of an inch of gear backlash. This is pretty much spot on for how we setup the axles. Ideally, you do not want a gear set that is too tight or too loose as it will make some funny noises as well as not be as strong as it can be. We also checked the wear pattern which is crucial for a long-lasting gear set. Yukon has a handy little book that usually comes with new ring and pinion purchases which is a very thorough guide to setting up a ring and pinion. Check their website if you have any questions as I am sure they have an online version if it as well. Here is the wear pattern on the drive side of the ring gear. It is centered both toe to heel as well as face to flank, so this gear set is going to be super strong as well as a quiet operation.

And here is the wear pattern on the coast side. A good way to remember which is which is that the drive side is trying to flatten out the curve of the gear.

A very handy tool that is used for final setup of the gears is the bearing heater. This will allow the bearing to expand just enough to slide over whatever surface it goes on without having to use a hammer and punch or a hydraulic press and risk damaging the bearing. Although, do not get the bearing too hot as it can permanently harden and/or damage the bearing, which will not last as long. Here is the bearing heater in action!

Here I am torquing on the ARB diff cover. I am torquing on the cover because I am using a LubeLocker gasket instead of RTV compound to seal. Boy, I really need to shave, I've been obsessing over the Jeep too long haha.

I did not plan this (Although it worked out for the better!), but the ARB cover and POR 15 actually match really well haha. Here she is!

Here is the aforementioned LubeLocker gasket. It has 3 beads of silicone around it (already set-up) which even allows the gasket to be used multiple times. I highly suggest these, as they make servicing the axles much less of a mess over having to scrape off all of the old RTV compound. Plus it comes with a shine sticker! As the sticker says, "Throw Your RTV Away!"

Here is the front axle back under the Jeep with all of the other parts back on her. My brake rotors were just barely over the serviceable limit, so I decided while I had everything apart to just install new rotors. Everything is back on except for the tires! I am very pleased with the way everything has turned out.

While I was right there, I decided to stay out a little longer and install the front bumper as well as everything that mounted to it. Here is the finished product.

I also decided to throw on the CB antenna bracket that was also re-powdercoated after I trimmed it a bit. Here it is installed and the CB wire hooked back up. Dang shaky hands again!

ZPower · Jul 22, 2014

The first thing to do on the list was strip the axles, old carrier and ring and pinion out of the rear axle so I can get it prepped for POR-15. After that, it was coated in POR-15 just like the front axle. The next step was to get all of the goodies sitting on the bench into the axle, and they weren't going to do it themselves. So, in went the new Truetrac limited slip, new Motive Gear ring and pinion, and the new inner axle seals and pinion seals. The backlash, pinion preload, and gear wear pattern were all set to within specifications. Here is the gear pattern of the drive side on the rear axle ring gear:

Here is the gear pattern on the coast side:

After getting everything set up and in place, the pinion and the carrier with the ring gear was installed in the rear axle for the final time. The bearing caps and pinion nut were torqued on for the final time and the black ARB diff cover was torqued on afterwards. A side note, that the rear axle was done completely in the vehicle. The rear axle was not taken out and done on the bench like the front axle.

ZPower · Jul 22, 2014

Here is what was in the box! It's a Banks Power Monster Exhaust system. I was debating between this exhaust and the Magnaflow exhaust. After hearing the Banks Exhaust on a Jeep, I was sold. I am very impressed with the fit and finish of the system, and would definitely recommend it. Here is what was in the box:

Since I regeared both axles and had different size tires than stock, I needed to correct my speedometer. On the TJ/LJ, the speedometer is driven off of a gear in the transfer case. This is different than the JK's, where it is controlled electronically through the computer. While my dad was able to use an AEV programmer on his JK to correct his speedometer (It sounds wrong saying speedo haha

), I had to choose a different tooth count on the gear to correct my speedometer. This was probably the easiest part of the build, seeing how it only took 5 minutes to do the whole thing. The speedometer sensor was removed from the transfer case, the old gear was pressed off, and the new one pressed on. Then the speedometer sensor was installed back in the rear of the transfer case. Here is the old (green) gear out on the bench as well as the new (red) gear, the speedometer sensor, and the new o-ring.

When installing the speedometer sensor with the new gear, there is definitely a right and a wrong way to do it. There is a sort of two-pronged "lock" that holds the speedometer sensor onto the transfer case. The speedometer sensor has to be indexed a certain way, since the sensor itself is an eccentric. Simply count the number of teeth on the sensor gear and match that up with the numbers on the sensor. The correct teeth numbers that correspond to the gear face the arrow on the transfer case. This will ensure proper mesh between the speedometer gear and the gear it drives from in the transfer case.

On an interesting side note, when we re-sealed my dad's transfer case in his previous Jeep (Grand Cherokee), we found red shavings inside. We could not find where they were coming from until we were putting the speedometer sensor back into the transfer case. The previous owner had put the gear in and clocked it the wrong direction, so the gear was forced against the transfer case gear too much, and the weaker plastic gear (speedometer gear) had to wear to compensate for the added stress. Moral of the story is to clock the speedometer sensor the right way to prevent any increased wear in the system.

ZPower · Jul 22, 2014

Here is the rear axle all buttoned up and ready to fill with oil. She sure looks purdy!

Here is the exhaust all installed. Boy, does that lift sure make all of this stuff easy!

Here is another shot of the exhaust under the Jeep. It tucks up nice and snug against the body to prevent it being hung up on the rocks. Or the neighbors' Prius, a stray dog, police car, whatever. Again, sorry for the shaky hands.

Here is another underside view of the exhaust. Very nice fit and finish, I am very impressed with the quality.

This is basically all you can see when the Jeep is at ride height. It sure looks good seeing that polished tip under there.

Here was where I put the Banks Power badging, right above the Jeep Unlimited stickers. I think it sure finishes the outside of the Jeep off nicely.

Now on to the final powdercoated pieces. The rear bumper and custom tire carrier were installed without too many hiccups. Here is the back end almost all buttoned up:

Here is a more straight-on view of the back end:

This picture shows the gap between the tire and the third brake light. This way the tire won't rub against the third brake light and squeak or cause a weak spot in the tire, or something stupid like that. Because I know if it can happen, it will happen to me!

Here is a close-up of the latch mechanism for the spare tire carrier. This thing turned out freaking wicked!

Here is the rubber backing that was placed on the bumper latch to prevent any harsh transmission of vibration from the tire carrier to the bumper and to prevent the tire carrier from rattling. I used a very thick piece of rubber and glued it on with some weatherstrip adhesive to keep it in place. The yellow tape is just a temporary thing to prevent the rubber from sliding around while the glue sets up.

Here is the freshly powdercoated tramps stamp on the rear gate. Something I didn't pick up on was that my reflection is in all of the glass, tramp stamp, and rear bumper. You could say I like shiny things...

This picture shows the little aluminum spacers I machined to space the tramp stamp out away a little from the vent in the rear gate. This way whenever I use my vent, heater, or air conditioner, the spent air has a place to exit the vehicle, otherwise the air systems will not work as efficiently. Like your grandma always says, "What goes in, must come out!"

Here is the routing of the wiring for the third brake light run up the back side of the tire carrier. I used some frame clamps to keep the wiring from moving around and chafing against who-knows-what. A neat trick for whenever you are drilling into a painted or powdercoated surface is to drill through a piece of tape. The tape prevents the paint/powdercoating from peeling away from the freshly-drilled hole, as well as prevent the metal shavings from scratching the paint surface.

The last thing I left off with was a front brake line swap. I've read that rather than buy expensive aftermarket extended front brake lines, an inexpensive alternative is to buy factory YJ front brake lines and install them. Here is the stock front TJ/LJ brake lines at full droop:

After swapping over to the stock YJ brake lines, I bled the system, then checked for clearance everywhere. The brake line does sit against my shocks, but there are "wear rings" around the circumference of the brake line in that section that will prevent the line from chafing and eventually causing a catastrophic failure. Here are the front YJ brake lines installed:

The brake lines cleared everything, including my wheels and suspension. The long metal piece on the brake line helps keep the line away from the rotating wheel, which is a very nice thing.

ZPower · Jul 22, 2014

First off is the new wheels. I decided to stick with a 16 inch wheel, since then I could just run my same tires (305/70-R16). I was really wanting to step up to 17 inch wheels and stick with 33 inch tall tires, but then I feared I would have too little of a sidewall and risk damaging the wheel. Plus, the tires for 16 inchers are less expensive and more common. I also wanted to go with just the right amount of backspacing to avoid re-using my wheel spacers with my previous wheels (I really hated those things!). I was definitely leaning toward the Mickey Thompson Black Classic Locks, but they did not make the right backspacing for my application. After much internet searching and hair-pulling, I decided on the Dick Cepek DC2 wheels. They are a great looking wheel (They kind of get a bad rap, I really don't know why) and I am impressed with the quality. They are clearcoated and easy to clean. Here is a close-up picture of 'em:

Here is a picture of Jasmine (Yup, that's Jasmine the Jeep!) with the short-arm suspension system and the stock skidplate (make note of that for later).

Here is a frontal/side view of her. Also note my smoked turn signals/marker lights I bought off eBay. These things definitely add to the menacing look!

Here is a back view of the Jeep with the spare tire also in the picture:

Okay, this one I definitely had to post! Look closely at the windshield. There you will see my other love (motorcycles). Also note the Buell sticker on the back window in the previous picture. One thing's for certain: If I'm not driving the Jeep, I'm on the Buell!

After doing quite a few measurements, I determined that the new wheels tucked into the wheelwells about a half an inch more than my previous setup. I have no rubbing issues at all and still maintained the stance I wanted. These wheels have 4 inches of backspacing and are 16 x 8" on a 5 x 4.5" bolt pattern.

zmotorsports · Jul 22, 2014

Great pics son. Although you had better get rid of that Buell sticker now that you are riding a Harley.

Mike.

ZPower · Jul 22, 2014

Alright, the next task was to replace my water pump. Every once in a while, I would get a very loud squeaking noise at idle, which was magnified on a cold day. After locating the noise to the belt train and then to the water pump, I decided to replace it. After getting the old water pump out, I also noticed that it was weeping slightly out of the weep hole at the bottom of the water pump, so I caught it just before it started giving me real problems. After comparing the old water pump to the new one, the impeller on the old water pump was much closer to the pump housing than the new one was. Plus, there were scuff marks on the inside of the pump close to the impeller, so there was where my noise was originating. Here is a close-up picture of the old water pump. You can make out the scuff marks and ridges on the aluminum water pump housing very well.

After having the new water pump on for around 3 months now, I haven't heard the noise since. The other noise I was hearing now was my auxiliary fog lights rattling because the rivets worked themselves loose. Also, the beam of light when they were on, was bouncing around like a puppet on strings, which looked tacky. Since a weld would be much stronger and last longer than the rivets, I welded the bracket to the light housing. After welding, I scuffed up the housing, wiped them down with wax and grease remover, and sprayed some gloss black paint on them to make them look like new. Here they were before I painted them:

Sadly, I do not have any finished pictures of them on me right now, but I will try and find them later on. The next little thing to do was to pack/stuff my speaker pods with polyfill. There are numerous people that have done this to their speaker pods, and have had amazing results on the sound quality. Since polyfill is found in pillows, it was a cheap source for sound deadening material. So, I headed off to Target on a quest for a sacrificial pillow! I pulled my speakers down out of the sound pods, and to my amazement, these things had a huge empty cavity where the speaker was held. This would not force all of the resonance from the speakers out of the cone of the speaker, and some of it would be lost bouncing around in the cavity not producing clear sound. Here was the cavity behind the speaker inside the speaker pod:

Here was the insides (polyfill) of my sacrificial pillow. Be careful not to get this stuff everywhere, as it sticks to fabric like white on rice! (P.S. don't eat this, it isn't cotton candy haha!)

ZPower · Jul 22, 2014

Here are my purple half-doors that I purchased for the Jeep. After a quick check to make sure they fit, back in the garage they went for later painting.

After some recent wheeling trips, I noticed I had small pebbles between my fender flares and the body. This would push my flares out a little bit at the top, and trap even more crap in the slot. Plus, if the rocks were left in there for a long time, they would eventually rub through my paint and cause the body to rust. Since I definitely wanted this Jeep to last for a very long time and not have to do any body work, I pulled my fender flares off and cleaned behind them. While they were off, it was easier to apply Back to Black to them to make them look like new. The rear flares I could not get off because the little nut inserts were just spinning in the body. Since I am planning on swapping over to Bushwacker flat style fender flares in the future, I decided it wasn't worth it to pull the rear flares. But to get the rocks and pebbles out, I pulled the flares away from the body slightly and used compressed air to blow the pebbles out from between the flares and the body. I then applied a couple of coatings of Back to Black to the rear to match how good looking the front flares turned out. Here is the Jeep without the front flares on. This thing looked way sick without any front flares! But, the fuzz might not like it as much as I did haha.

Here's another shot of the front end without fender flares:

ZPower · Jul 22, 2014

The next project was the long arms, tummy tuck/belly skid, transfer case slip-yoke eliminator, and new driveshafts. The long-arms and tummy tuck were UnderCover Fab and the SYE was from Advance Adapters. The first order of business was to sand the tummy tuck with the DA (Dual Action) sander to both smooth out the surface and provide a good tooth for the paint to bite into. Just for a little FYI, a DA sander rotates/spins like an ordinary sander, but also spins in an elliptical pattern too. This dual action eliminates any deep scratches that are common with a traditional rotating sander and is used as a final finish before paint. Here is the belly skid all sanded with the DA and posing also in the picture is the paint I used. I used Eastwood's Extreme Chassis Black (both the primer and gloss black finish) on the belly skid.

Here is the finished product after paint. Just look at that reflection!

Here are the UnderCover Fab long-arm brackets that will be welded to the frame. A unique aspect of the UnderCover Fab long-arm system is that they use Rough Country links. I did not particularly like the stock Rough Country long-arm mounting system since it used a big belly skid as the mounting point. If (sorry, when) I do any work that requires removing the skid plate, i would have to support both axles also. With the UnderCover Fab system also, they use Currie Johnny Joints instead of the regular Rough Country sperical rod ends/joints. But, they retained the rubber isolators on the other end of the links to prevent any vibration transfer to the body of the Jeep. Here are the long-arm brackets after I beadblasted them.

Next up is a picture of the rear long-arm mount clamped to the frame. On the left-rear mount, I had to move the brake lines up above the mount to properly position the mount flush against the frame. I then built a little bracket in front of and behind the mount to attach the brake lines to, since I did not want the brake line moving around and eventually fatigue cracking from not being mounted solid.

Before anything was welded on though, I took the plasma cutter, a grinder with a cut-off disc, another grinder with a flap wheel, and a couple of handheld air grinders with finer discs on them and removed all of the original link mounts from the frame. I got in as far as I could inbetween the engine and frame and removed the two front original mounts, which were the hardest to get to. Then I removed the rear two mounts, which were pretty simple. I cleaned up the area on the frame where the original mounts resided and ground off the paint where the new mounts went. Here is the right rear long-arm mount welded onto the frame.

Here is the right front long-arm mount welded to the frame. These things are definitely a whole lot stronger than the factory ones!

After everything was all welded on, I wiped everything down with wax and grease remover, then brushed POR-15 on both the frame and the new long-arm mounts. I also brushed POR-15 where the old control-arm mounts went, just to prevent any rust from forming and ultimately weakening the frame. Here is the frame and mounts all painted with the stock skidplate still on.

Here are the long-arms on the bench waiting to go in. The two black links were what I had on the Jeep originally. The top black link is the factory front upper control arm and the black link closest to you is the bottom front Rough Country control arm. This arm was a little longer than stock, which restored most of my front axle geometry back to stock. The new long-arms are in a Y-link design for the front and a 4-link in the rear. Front and rear are not triangulated, so track bars have to be kept in order to maintain road manners. But the way that the long-arm geometry is set up is that it eliminates anti-squat and anti-dive, which is where all of the power is transferred to the tires, and the Jeep neither rises or falls during acceleration and braking.

ZPower · Jul 22, 2014

Alright, the long-arms are done and dialed in. Here is a shot of the rear links installed. A very good tip is to not tighten up everything on the control arms until the vehicle is set on the ground and at ride height. This ensures that the bushings and joints are not placed under added stress from being tightened and then rotated around the bolt, which can cause premature wear on the bushings and joints. When the bolts are tightened at neutral ride height, this provides the longest life of the joints and bushings in the control arms.

Here is a shot of the front control arms in place. The driveshaft was disconnected because I had to move the axle around to maneuver the links into place, which was a ton easier with the driveshaft not connected.

Here is another shot of the rear control arms. These things look amazing under the Jeep! Too bad most people won't see them though.

Here is the factory skid plate and a 1 inch spacer that was installed when I bought the Jeep. The spacer was to "correct" the driveshaft geometry to prevent any vibrations while driving the vehicle at elevated speeds. Since the long-arms could be adjusted a lot more than the previous short-arm setup, I could get away with a better skid plate with more ground clearance. The factory skidplate and 1 inch spacer measure around 7 inches tall, with the new belly skid/tummy tuck measuring an astounding 4 inches tall. This 3 inches more ground clearance is like running 40 inch tall tires on my Jeep with the previous factory skid plate and 1 inch spacer. In easier terms: 40" tires and 1" spacer between factory skid plate = 33" tires and belly skid/tummy tuck (As far as ground clearance goes).

Here is another shot of the front control arms. The Y-links are a very good design in my opinion. After having the Jeep long-armed for probably 3 months, it rides so much better than the short-arms I had before, even with the same amount of lift. The flex is pretty amazing too, even with the swaybar still hooked up!

On a little bit further down the timeline, since I am thinking about it, I was installing a Bestop Trektop NX on my LJ, and needed a place to store my hardtop and full doors during the summer when the soft top and half doors were on. After browsing online for quite some time, I decided I could build something far cheaper and it would suit my needs better than anything I could buy online. So, I built a sort-of trolley for my hardtop and full doors. I built the frame out of steel square tubing and used casters to make maneuvering the trolley around very easy. I also glued some extra carpet I had laying around to points where the top would contact the trolley as to not scratch my hardtop. As far as the design goes, I tipped the roof of the hardtop inwards to make it more stable and move the center of gravity inwards to make it not so "tippy". Here is the top resting on the trolley.

To keep the glass shut on the hardtop while on the trolley/cart, I purchased a bar from Quadratec that was specifically built to secure the flip-up glass and not let the glass open with the bar installed. Here is a close-up shot of the hardtop trolley finished. You can see the curved metal piece that the hardtop rests on to provide more support and keep the rear glass away from the trolley. The top is very secure and stable on the trolley and will not fall over. I also put locking casters on one side of the trolley to keep the trolley from rolling around when trying to place the hardtop on it. That would be a real nightmare chasing the trolley around the garage while carrying a hardtop! There is also a ledge where the bottom of the top (The area that bolts to the body of the Jeep) rests against so the top doesn't slide off of the trolley.

ZPower · Jul 22, 2014

The next project was to install the slip-yoke eliminator on the NP 231 transfer case. After draining the fluid from the transfer case and removing the transfer case from the vehicle, the teardown started. I placed the transfer case on a big cookie sheet (and no, it was not my mother's) on the bench to catch any fluid or stuff that fell off the transfer case during the disassembly. Plus, if something vital did fall out of the transfer case, I did not want to be chasing it across the shop floor. Here was the transfer case when I took it out of the Jeep:

Here was the transfer case cracked open. While wheeling with it before the teardown, I thought I had a slack chain in the transfer case that was causing it to ratchet. I was getting a very weird sound when applying power while in 4-low. After inspecting the chain and gears, this was not the case. As it turns out, after inspecting the shift linkage for the transfer case, the shift linkage was bent and was not shifting all the way into 4-low. The transfer case would be in 4-low until I applied a little throttle, then go partway back into neutral, thus the ratcheting. After straightening the shift linkage back to where it should be, the transfer case shifts in and out of each gear smooth as butter.

After finishing completely tearing the transfer case down, I cleaned everything in the solvent tank. I then assembled everything up to the point of installing the SYE (slip-yoke eliminator). I also swapped out the old chain and shift pads for new parts from the local drivetrain shop. You can see the new shift pads in a couple of the pictures, they are blue in color. Here is a close-up of the new chain installed as well as the shift pads.

And here is a shot of the SYE installed. The Advanced Adapters NP 231 SYE was a very straightforward installation. The instructions were a little confusing at times, but all around very helpful. I am also very impressed with the quality of the kit, it seems to be a very stout addition to the drivetrain.

After I stabbed the transfer case back in, I then installed the custom driveshafts I had fabricated by Tom Woods Driveshafts. This will be my second set of Tom Woods Driveshafts I have owned, as I had two installed on my old Grand Cherokee before I bought this Jeep. These driveshafts are built tough, priced competitively, and are balanced really well for no driveline vibrations. Two thumbs up from me!

ZPower · Jul 22, 2014

I don't have any great pictures of the underneath all done just yet, but there is more planned for the underneath of the Jeep. Since, at that time summer was coming, I definitely needed my Bestop Trektop NX installed. Before I get started on the install, here is a quick picture of my Jeep without the top on. Shortly after though, it started to rain, so the Jeep was rushed back into the shop. And yes, that is me. Don't worry, those are my work clothes, I don't go out in public in them. The clothes I am wearing in this picture are special clothes only privileged to get Jeep crap on them from the undercarriage.

Here are the door surrounds installed on the Jeep. The doors close up very tightly against them, I am very impressed with the fit and finish.

Here is a picture of the front support screwed into the top fabric. I was a little unsure about this, but it has surpassed my expectations. Oh, just an FYI, make sure and set the top out in the sun for a while to let the fabric stretch out before installing it. It also helps to install the top in warm weather, as the fit of the top when the fabric is cold is EXTREMELY tight. It took both my dad and I to stretch the top on the Jeep, and we were both very sore the next day after the install.

Here is the top installed. Don't worry, the windows smoothed out in the warm sunlight. I am very happy with the top. The Sunrider feature is very cool, to say the least. It is quite fun to just flip the front area of the top back (much like the freedom tops on the JK's).

Alright, here is a picture of the Jeep a little further along, but it is a good picture of the top all installed. Don't mind the Jeep, it found some dirt.

Alright, stay tuned, my half-doors are getting painted next. Oh, a little teaser, the doors turned out freaking amazing!

ZPower · Jul 22, 2014

Okay, after what feels like a long hiatus (and what actually is), I'm back to updating the build thread! Back to the half doors: After sanding them down to make sure the sealer/primer/paint had a good tooth to bite into, I got to work filling in the dents and imperfections with "mud" (body filler). Then, after letting it dry, the doors were sanded again to make sure everything was smooth and flat. I then used a cheese cloth (a tacky type of cloth that will remove dust from the surface before painting) to wipe the doors and hinges down and then wiped all of the surfaces down with wax and grease remover. Here is a picture of the doors hanging up ready for some sealer!

After sealer, it was time for some wetsanding. This would seal bare metal from the next layer applied (primer). If a sealer wasn't used, the bare metal is known to "suck" the paint down into the surface, and you would see sand scratches and the bare metal surface through the paint. Here are the hinges and doors sealed:

I do not have pictures of the doors and hinges primered, I will still describe what I did. After repeating the same processes for prepping the surfaces after sanding the sealer, I then applied the high-build primer. The high-build primer is used to fill in the sand scratches and imperfections after the sealer, which will provide again a smooth surface for painting. The high-build primer is different than regular primer because it contains a higher percentage of solids, thus filling in slightly bigger imperfections while still flowing out well when it dries. After a couple of coats of high-build primer was sprayed down, a guide coat is used to visually inspect low and high spots in the surface. A guide coat is a lightly applied coat of paint (black aerosol paint works very well for this) on top of the primered surface, so as you sand through the guide coat, it reveals high and low spots in the surface. If the surface has too many imperfections, then another coat of high-build primer may be required to bring everything up to an even "level" to cause a mirror-like surface.

After the primer layer was completed, it was time for the fun stuff: Paint! Again, repeating the process of prepping the surface (cheese cloth, wax and grease remover, etc.) the doors and hinges were ready for paint. I applied two medium-wet coats of paint and then a lighter coat of paint to help smooth out the surface. The key with painting, along with a lot of other things (such as owning a Jeep!) is PATIENCE. Let me repeat that again, be PATIENT between coats of paint, otherwise you'll cause runs and curtains in the paint, resulting in a paint surface that is not as smooth as glass. After waiting for the paint to dry, next up was the clear coat. (Oh, by the way, we're a PPG family. My dad has always used PPG products, so that is what I'm used to.) After prepping the surface again, I applied two medium-wet coats of clear, then over-reduced (applied a little more reducer than normal to the clear coat mix) the third coat to help the clear "flow out" smoother, resulting in a mirror-like finish. Here are a couple close-ups of the paint finish and some reflections from the doors. Just look at those metallics!

And yes, this is a reflection of the shop's ceiling! Just look at that reflection...

Here are the doors installed as well as the Bestop upper windows. After having the half doors on all summer, they are amazing to pop the windows out and cruise around town. Although, I still love my full doors, because you would definitely not want to scrape these in the winter! After the clear had dried, I cut and buffed them within the curing window (about a week after you've clearcoated the surface) to produce an even better surface finish. Since i wanted to surface finish to match the rest of the Jeep, I did not do the coarsest cutting (wetsanding) that I could do. This way I could still retain some orange peel on the surface to match the rest of the Jeep. Oh, and that's a bicycle rack in the second picture in my hitch, my best friend (kootdog) and I were tearing it up on our 29ers on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Woot woot!

Up next is the onboard air system. Stay tuned folks, and thanks for checking out my build thread!

ZPower · Jul 27, 2014

Here is the Viair 400C I used for my onboard air system. The 400C is a portable system, however, I transformed it into an onboard system. Here she is!

Here is where I decided to mount the compressor: The tray where ABS pump mounts on so-equipped models.

So here is the plate out and on the bench. It is held to the body with 3 bolts, but has various other holes that are unused. The other holes I chose to use for bolting the "pedestal" for the air compressor.

Here is the top of the pedestal that I fabricated from 3/16" steel. I also used some rubber isolators to isolate vibrations from the compressor and transfering to the body.

Here is the bottom plate of the pedestal. I transfer-punched the holes in the ABS pump plate to the pedestal mount plate and then drilled the holes fo the bolts to go through.

Here is the general area where the compressor will be sitting. It is out of the way of everything else and kind of "hides" over in the corner. I've had a couple of people now, when I was airing up my tires, want to know where I mounted my compressor, even with the hood up and the engine running! I guess it's pretty stealthed out in the engine bay!

Here is the pedestal all MIG-welded and ready for paint.

This is an aerial view of the pedestal all painted and bolted up. I just love shiny black parts under the hood!

I decided to route the air inlet for the compressor into the passenger area, where it would draw in clean, cool air rather than hot and dusty air from the engine bay. Even though the inlet air would be filtered, it would be cooler than being drawn in from the engine bay. By drawing in cooler air, this would reduce the compressor temperature, thus prolonging the life of the setup. There was a little plug where the manual-transmission equipped Wranglers utilized, so, since mine is an automatic, I took that out and drilled a hole large enough for routing the air inlet tubing through. I also used a rubber grommet on the drilled hole to prevent any chafing, which would eventually rub a hole in the tubing. This would allow unfiltered air, possibly containing dust particles to enter the air compressor. As you would guess, this can cause increased wear inside the compressor.

Now onto the wiring part of the system. Since the air compressor has a built-in ON-OFF switch, I decided to utilize that along with a switch in-cab. This would force me to open the hood while airing up, flip the switch on the compressor, and then flip the switch inside the cab. By having the hood open during air-up, This would allow the hot air compressor to radiate the heat it builds up, prolonging the life of the compressor. I used a relay also to not flow all of that current throught the electrical system. I also did a built-in redundancy system for the ON-OFF switches, requiring both switches to be in the ON position for the air compressor to operate. So if someone ever bumped the switch in the cab, the compressor would not turn on. You can see the inline-fuse that was already built into the air compressor. I decided to make it easy on myself, as this was a quality fuse holder worthy of going on my Jeep. The next picture is of the clean installation of the wiring system wrapped in convoluted tubing to match the factory wiring harnesses. The question is, can you tell which wiring loom was not on the Jeep from the factory?

Here is the the rest of the wiring close to the battery, all covered up with convoluted tubing.

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