It's at least driveable now and I've put about 1k miles on it testing, breaking things in, etc. I've heard such comments as "thats beautiful", "beautifully done", "thats dope", "thats the tallest Wrangler Ive ever seen", etc...etc...
Things left to do....
None of the lockers are hooked up, nor is the compressor...
Still need to hook up the switch center and all that entails...
The gas tank is messing up bad! It takes 30 minutes to put 15 gallons of gas in it. The nozzle keeps clicking off after about 8 cents. After looking into it, it's becuase there is no vent and the tank is filling up with air. I relocated the canister, and some of th elines were kinked, but I fixed that. So now I'm not 100% sure what I need to do to fix it...
The front sits really high! I need to swap out the 16" shocks for some 12". The top of the frame in the front is at 41" and the rear is at 35". The rear I have turned the springs down to get as much lift as I can, without binding the driveline and theres still a 6" difference. Also, becuase of this, the rear tires rub on the coils.
Since I'll be dropping the front end, I'll have to change the exhaust back to stock as the driveline will now hit. Dumby me when I was trying to triangulate the front and clear upper control arms, I didn't take into consideration the driveline
...I agree, not too smart! I spent a day just on the exhaust, too.
After dropping the front and getting the ride height fixed, I need to hook up my anti rock. Right now I don't have any mounts on the axle, so I'll need to do that as well. The shock (valving)/spring combination does pretty good at keeping the thing from rocking side to side. I think it's better than it was before the swap.
Since the front end is so tall, I only have about 3* of caster and there is no more adjustment on the upper control arm to make it more. I'm hoping that by dropping the front down, the caster will be closer to 7* (which is what I want right now). If not, I'll have to shorten the link... Right now it really wants to wander!!!! Very scary over 70 mph....
Nothing is painted and everything is bare metal/weld. After I get everything how I like it, I have to take it all apart and paint it - and before I have a rust pit!
The brakes are awesome! I haven't had as good of brakes on this thing in.... I never have! Not even new with 31" tires.... However, there is a lot of peddle movement and when the motor is running, they are kind of spongy becuase of it. I may put a master cylinder in from a newer 1 ton Dodge - it's a bolt in but has a larger bore and will supply a lot more fluid to run those very large dual piston calipers. But I can lock up all four 39" tires at 40 mph on pavement. Did I mention I really like the new brakes?
I'm sure there is more, but I can't think of it...?
My gearing/tire combo is perfect. My speedo is only 3 mph fast. Before the swap (35's/4.88's), my speedo was 15 mph fast. Much better...
After I got it done, I lifted the driver front tire with a fork lift 42" off the ground before lifting any other tires. All four shocks were either fully compressed or completely extended. Pushing on the Jeep trying to make it rock, it seemed pretty stable.
Anyway... I should be back from Hawaii the end of next week. I'll work on getting more pics up then.... I'm hoping to have it completely done by June 6th, so I can head down to Price for the King Challenge - right now I'm thinking probably not.... I'm very burned out on this thing and ready to put it way out back where I dont' have to look at it. Hopefully the vacation will fix that and I can come back and work on it.
