Been grinding away, mostly finishing up the front axle build. Drilled & tapped axle housing for bulkhead fitting air line, gears & locker are installed, tossed hubs & rotors on to measure toe & build tube tie rods. Once welded up, the threads got a little funky.... I need to chase them with a 7/8" tap but nobody local has one. Painted the tie rods & knuckle spacers with Steel-It.... that stuff is amazing. Spendy, but sprays and coats so well!
Had to fix some brake lines, the rear brake line runs down the top of the upper link tube and was at risk of getting pinched at full bump. I bent up a new piece of brake line to move the tube more to the side (it has tabs welded on the link, can't just rotate it down).
I tossed the front axle under the TJ, bolted up the shocks & links and set it at full bump.
Next up, some adjustments to clear steering & track bar bracket, bolt brakes back on & bleed system, connect air line for front locker, tighten & torque all nuts & bolts (links, steering, etc), connect steering lines & bleed system, build new exhaust, figure out fuel pressure issue.
With the exhaust, I was going to try building a 2 into 1 like it had before. The manifolds dump at the rear and previously the exhaust on the drivers side made a sharp 130* turn and ran around the front of the oil pan. You could see how the driveshaft had hit the exhaust previously, so it wasn't ideal. It's even tighter around the front of the engine now at full bump, so I was going to try squeeze the drivers side exhaust down between the driveshaft and engine, then run it across between the oil pan and transmission.... but that's way too tight.
I decided the best route will be to run dual exhaust, right along the frame rail and past the Atlas, using 2.5" pipe to 3" Magnaflow mufflers and having them dump just past the rear 4 link crossmember.
It's tight on the drivers side, but possible. I don't have enough 2.5" exhaust and needed to order a 2nd Magnaflow muffler, so I ordered those parts last night. Planning to possibly coat the exhaust with ceramic coating & also header wrap to keep the heat down and away from other critical parts. Building the collecter on the drivers side will be a test of patience, there will be a few bends to clear the starter, link bracket & then line it up to the muffler.