Project Un"Limited" Funds

ZPower · Jul 27, 2014

I wanted the hook-up point for the air hose for airing up tires and such to be somewhere on the front bumper, so I fabbed up this sweet little Z-looking piece (Ha, pun intended!) to fasten my air coupler to the front of the bumper. This is sturdy enough so when I am putting on or taking off the air hose, the bracket will not flop around or bend. Here she is all painted and ready to be bolted to the bumper. I used the same bolt that the bumper uses to hold itself to the front frame horns.

And here is a top view looking down on the bumper. You can barely see the Z-bracket poking out from underneath the top of the bumper. I made it this way so that it is not very noticeable, it is protected from almost anything, but I still have a straight shot to get the air hose onto when I am airing up tires and such.

For the air line going to the quick connect on the front bumper, I used over-the-road truck/semi brake tubing. Since the 18-wheelers use air instead of fluid as the medium for their brakes, I thought that those components would work just dandy on my little onboard air system. These Pust-To-Connect fittings on these systems are really kind of cool in design. The have what look like little "Chinese Fingers" on the inside of the fittings with a collar to release the fingers. When a piece of tubing is inserted into the fitting, the fingers spread out to allow the tubing to go inside of the fitting. But, if the tubing is attempted to pull back out of the fitting, the fingers just bite harder into the tubing to not allow the tubing to come out. However, if the collar is pushed towards the fitting, this forces the fingers away from the tubing, allowing the tubing to be released from the fitting. This makes them very easy to disassemble in the field as well as being able to re-use the fittings.

I also used an air coupler to connect the PTC tubing system to the air compressor to allow for easy removal if I ever need to remove the air compressor unit itself. Another side note: The tubing made for PTC fittings is made out of Nylon, so it is very flexible. Also, it is not very good in areas of high chafing, as a sharp metal corner will cut through the tubing if left to chafe for a period of time.

As far as availability goes, since this same type of tubing and fittings are used on over-the-road semis, it is also readily available at any big truck stop along the road. This is a very good thing, because parts are readily available just about anywhere you see semis. Here is the air coupler all hooked up to the compressor. You can also see in this picture the ON-OFF switch on the air compressor body.

The next picture is of the air coupler area all finished up on the front bumper. With the black tubing, it kind of blends right in to the front area.

The last picture I have of my onboard air system is of the switch inside the passenger area. I mounted the switch below and to the left of the steering column, but high enough where my knee wouldn't bump the switch and turn on the air compressor. I used a black switch that is lit up an amber color when voltage flows through the switch, so I know when the compressor is on. But if I ever do bump the switch, nothing will happen because I keep the switch on the actual air compressor itself in the OFF position. Again, going back to when I explained the wiring system earlier, both switches (The switch on the air compressor and the switch in the passenger area) need to be in the ON position for the air compressor to run.

After using the onboard air over past few months, I am extremely happy with the setup. It airs up tires relatively fast, it is not noisy to the point that it is annoying (The air compressor can barely be heard over the noise of the idling engine), and it is a very clean and simple setup. I would much rather have this than having to manually hook up the portable air compressor to the battery and then airing up tires. With this setup, all I have to do is flip 2 switches and she is ready to pump up some tires.

Now that the onboard air system is all documented, it's time to move on to some rear axle modifications. Grab some popcorn!

ZPower · Jul 27, 2014

After towing the Jeep down to Richfield, UT in my parent's enclosed trailer, I noticed a lack of places to tie the Jeep down in the rear area. There was little clearance between my coil buckets and shocks as well, so that was in need of some persuasion. One day browsing on the interweb, I came across some fancy tie-down brackets sold by Ballistic Fabrication. Rather than building some from scratch, the price was too good to pass up when I factored in the time and materials it would take to make my own. Here is the rear axle marked with a silver permanent marker where the tie down brackets would go.

After I ground off the POR-15 coating, I cleaned and prepped the surface to be welded. Here is a picture of the driver's side bracket welded on. What's nice about these tie-down brackets is that they're out of the way enough to not get hung up on rocks but still have an easy place to strap the Jeep down during transportation.

And here is a picture of the finished product all coated with POR-15. She turned out pretty good! On a side note related to the tie-down brackets, I had to move my brake lines up a tiny bit to clear the brackets. This would allow some movement of the brake lines, if there was any, and that the lines would not hit the brackets and fatigue or damage the line. Because, let's be honest, having working brakes is a hell of a lot more important than having some nifty tie-down brackets used during transportation on a trailer. But hey, now I've got both!

Here is a close-up of the bracket after a little massaging with the grinder. I needed to open up the "C" area a little more to fit around my axle tubes.

ZPower · Jul 27, 2014

Since I am running a combination of both lift and bigger bodied shocks, I was having clearance issues between my shock bodies and coil buckets on my rear axle. Between scratching my shocks and causing some minor ride issues, it was driving me up a wall. So, after some brainstorming, the idea was to cut a "U" into the coil buckets in the area where the shock resides. Have no fear though, since the finished product still retains the strength it has from the factory and does not interfere with the coil springs. I took a die-grinder and cut a sort of oval shape on the underside of the coil bucket close to the shock. Then I "persuaded" the outer ring of the coil bucket inwards, which will be clearer in the next photo.

Here is a close-up view of the underside of the coil bucket. It may look like the coil spring is very close to the cut-out, but that is just because of the angle I took the picture. The outer ring of the coil bucket is roughly an inch away from the coil springs, and the cut-out is not close to the coil spring. After I took this picture, I welded up the gap in the coil bucket and coated it with POR-15 to match the rest of the axle. After making clearance for the shocks, I can say that the ride did improve a little bit since the shocks were not hitting the coil buckets now. It wasn't a huge difference, but it seems to ride just a little softer over the small bumps in the road. It may be the Placebo Effect, but I'd like to think the modification helped!

ZPower · Jul 27, 2014

One of the easiest components to add to my Jeep was the ScanGauge II. This handy little electronic device plugs into your OBD-II port and reads all sorts of various data that the computer sees. It then displays that information on a little LCD screen that is very customizable, from the backlight brightness, backlight color, what parameters you want to display on the screen, and so on. Their website has a very good list of all the things that the ScanGauge II can monitor, so google it if you're interested. Below is a picture of the cable hooked up to the OBD-II port. I ran the cable up under the dash, under the plastic A-pillar cover to the left of the windshield, and behind the plastic cover underneath the sun visors.

I then ran the wire from the OBD-II port through a hole I drilled in the plastic piece behind the sun visors. A rubber grommet was installed in the hole to prevent the wire from chafing and breaking the fine wires inside. The ScanGauge II also came with adhesive-backed velcro strips for easy mounting of the display. Here is the ScanGauge II all mounted up and working. This was with the camera flash on, so more detail could be seen.

Here is a picture of the ScanGauge II without the camera flash. This is pretty much all you see at night time.

The display is very easy to read, both at night and during the daytime. One note that I need to mention is that the display kept turning off on me while driving, which was annoying. I had made sure to change the OFF command to turn off at 0 RPM, which worked every time I shut the Jeep off. However, after more digging around, I turned the update rate to “fast” instead of the factory set “medium”. This cured the problem of the ScanGauge turning off while driving. I guess the ScanGauge was not seeing information fast enough from the computer based on its medium update rate, so it would turn off. After having the ScanGauge II on the Jeep for more than 4 months now, I can say it's a worthwhile investment. There is valuable information to choose from, and if you don't see a parameter that can be displayed in the regular menus, you can type in commands to query and display the information on the LCD screen. I have not messed with that yet, since I can see most of the information I want to right now.

ZPower · Jul 27, 2014

Onwards to the light bar! I was not impressed with the lighting setup that came with the Jeep on the front bumper, so I decided to go with an LED light bar. I wanted something that was not too expensive, was good quality, had decent light output, and fit my space requirements. After some searching on superbrightleds.com, I made a decision and went with the ORB-72WD-SP, which is a 14.5” wide LED light bar with 24 LEDs. The light output is 5400 lumens and rated at 72 Watts. It has a 35 degree beam pattern in a spot formation with an extruded aluminum housing and plexiglass lens. Here is the box it came in:

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the PIAA lights I was currently using next to the new LED light bar.

I also needed a light bar that could mount in the existing holes in my bumper. I did not want to drill new holes through my fresh powdercoating. This light bar has a very slick mounting setup to allow for a variety of mounting configurations. It has mounting provisions on the side of the light bar as well as mounts on the bottom of the housing. The mounts on the bottom of the light bar consist of a T-slot with a bolt inside, which allows the bolt to slide along the length of the light bar for various mounting hole spacing. Below is a picture of the bottom mounting configuration.

I didn't want to scratch the powdercoating on my front bumper, so I also installed some Nylon washers between the mounting brackets and the bumper. Below is a picture of the Nylon washer installed on the mounting stud.

The PIAA lights that came with the Jeep were wired into the factory fog light switch and harness, which I liked using, so I decided to run the same setup as before. After I removed the old lights, I stripped the wiring harness down and got it set up the way I wanted. The factory fog light wiring harness splits off and goes to both front inner fenders, but since I only needed one power and ground, I capped off the driver-s side wires and stuffed them up under the inner-fender if I ever needed them again. I cut off the factory connector inside the passenger side inner-fender, since it had been a little beat up ever since I bought the Jeep, and used a GM weatherpak connector. These are renowned for their weatherproof design as well as ease of assembly. Here is the power and ground wires soldered and heatshrunk to my new wiring harness.

And here is the GM weatherpak connector installed in my passenger side inner-fender.

The light bar was finished now, and it was time for a test run. This thing is bright!

Here is a view from the back side of the bumper to show how well this fits within the hoop on my front bumper.

Here is a frontal view of the light bar.

After having the light bar on for about 8 months now, I am very impressed with the build quality. The light output is great for the cost of the unit (I got it on sale for around 180 bucks shipped to my front doorstep) and it is perfect for my needs. I wasn't really in need of any more light on the street, but I was needing more light for the trail at night as I felt like I was outrunning my headlights when it was late at night out on the trail. I would definitely recommend this and two thumbs up!

ZPower · Jul 27, 2014

Alright, onto a little cosmetic upgrade now. I have blacked out most of my frame since I've done the long arms and tummy tuck, but I had yet to do the frame in the inner-fender area as well as the rear frame horns. So I put the Jeep up on the lift, pulled the tires and wheels off, and got to work prepping the frame as well as the inner-fenders for paint. I used red scotch-brite pads to scuff the areas up and then wiped everything down with wax and grease remover. For comparison's sake, here is what the frame and inner-fenders looked like before I painted them.

Unfortunately, I do not have a “before” picture of the front inner-fender, but here is what the front area looked like afterwards.

I used Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black (gloss) on the frame and Dupli-Color Truck Bed Coating for the inner-fenders. Everything turned out extremely nice and I am very happy with the results. The Jeep never looked finished before with the dull and chalked-out finish inside the wheel wells. Here is an “after” shot of the rear inner-fenders. They look better than factory! Plus I get some corrosion protection to keep the Jeep looking like this for years to come.

An upgrade I did a while back but didn't get to putting it in the build thread was a different tie rod link courtesy of Rock Krawler. I didn't have any problems with the factory tie rod yet, but I wanted to beef the steering up just for a little added protection. Actually, both my dad and I purchased our tie rod links at the same time to save on shipping costs. The tie rod I purchased is machined out of solid aluminum and then powdercoated gloss black for a finish that will last quite a long time. Since I had just done tie rod ends less than a year before, I reused those as they still tested good. Here is the finished product.

ZPower · Jul 27, 2014

I did a little painting on the Jeep, such as the headlight rings and a couple of winch parts. For the headlight rings, I scuffed them with a red scotchbrite pad, wiped them down with wax and grease remover, and painted them. I chose Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black for a durable finish that would stand the test of time and still have some sheen to it. On the winch, I painted the two chrome cross bars that connect each side of the winch to the other. For prep work, I scuffed them with some emery cloth and also wiped them down with wax and grease remover. Again, (boy I'm predictable!) I used Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black to paint them. In the picture below, you can see both the headlight rings and the winch cross bars after they are painted.

I also did some painting on my rock sliders. The rock sliders I have are made by Teraflex, and they are of aluminum construction. A faint "Teraflex" script is etched into the front area on the rock sliders, and I needed some color there to break up the monotony. I decided to go with body color for the paint to keep a kind of monotone color scheme throughout the Jeep. Here is the area all masked off and ready to start cutting out the pattern to be painted. I used a pen to outline the area that needed to be cut out with an x-acto knife.

Here is the tape all cut out and ready for the surrounding area to be masked off.

Since this was a very small area to be painted, I used my airbrush for very little overspray and waste of paint. My airbrush is a Paasche VL series, which is great for what I use it for. It is not too expensive, but is a good quality tool for the money. It came with lots of different sized paint containers for various size projects. Below is a picture of the area painted and drying. All I needed to do was unmask it and it was finished.

Here is the finished product. I think it turned out really well and adds just enough contrast in that area to attract your attention.

ZPower · Jul 27, 2014

One other thing I forgot to add to the thread last night was my cromoly axleshafts. After my last trip to Moab, I had a clicking noise coming from my front axleshafts. After doing some digging around in the front axle, we concluded that my stock axleshaft yokes were spreading just enough to warrant some play in my axleshaft u-joints when wheeling in 4-low on a high traction surface (e.g. slickrock in Moab). As I had installed new axleshaft u-joints about 3 months earlier, the u-joints were not at fault. When we were installing those u-joints, we fought to get the passenger side u-joint c-clips into the axleshaft (that go in the outside of the yoke), which was a good indication that the yokes had spread a tiny amount. So I ordered new cromoly axleshafts from Ten Factory while we were still on the trip and had them arrive on my front doorstep a couple of days after we got home.

The Ten Factory cromoly axleshafts were very easy to install and came preinstalled with u-joints, which was a huge time saver. The only picture I have of them is unboxed on the bench, so here they are!

On a side note, I always had a bit of a vibration on the freeway starting at about 65 MPH. Oddly enough, after installing the new cromoly axleshafts in the front axle, my vibrations are totally gone now. I have never heard of axleshafts being out of balance, but if it spins, I guess it could become unbalanced. The Jeep drives and handles as smooth as Barry Manilow at any speed now!

ZPower · Jul 27, 2014

I also painted my factory fuel tank skid plate as I was tired of looking at the dull paint flaking off. I used the same Eastwood Extreme Primer and Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black for a long-lasting, shiny finish.

A long time ago, back when I had my Grand Cherokee, I built a custom hitch cover out of scrap I had lying around. After keeping the cover to use on my LJ, I did not like how it stuck out quite a distance from my bumper. So I chucked it up in the drill press and drilled a new hole for the hitch pin to go through and tuck the cover in close to the bumper. I am kind of sentimental about this cover, so I am glad it all worked out and fit well with the Jeep. Here she is!

ZPower · Sep 26, 2014

During the warm summer months, I was having troubles with the Jeep idling rough after letting it sit warm for about 10 minutes or so. The rough idling would also throw a check engine code, which was a Cylinder 3 Misfire. After doing some digging, I came upon a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) by Chrysler that described my exact symptoms. The likely cause of the symptoms was in the cylinder number 3 injector, where the fuel would boil inside of the injector. This was caused by the close proximity of the exhaust manifold to the injector. Here is a picture of the number 3 injector.

And here is the component that the TSB says to use. It is a piece of spark plug boot insulation that needs to be cut to length and fit over the number 3 injector. The TSB explains how to do this, which is very simple. Simply cut the length of the insulation so that you can place 2 pieces over the metal part of the injector underneath the fuel inlet with the slit on the insulation facing up. I went one step further and installed a third leftover piece above the fuel inlet spigot, but below the electrical connection area.

I also figured it was a good idea to upload the TSB to the forum, so here is the first page.

Here is the second page.

Just for comparison, here is a close-up of the number 3 injector without the insulation around it.

Here is a picture of the insulation installed.

After having the TSB fix on the Jeep for about 4 months now, I can say that the problem is fixed. After sitting with a hot engine for around 10 minutes, the Jeep fires right up every time without missing a beat and idling like a well-oiled machine. If your 4.0 is having the same issues as I described, it could very possibly be the same culprit.

Project Un"Limited" Funds

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