ZMotorSports 2011 JKUR Build Thread

I am new here but thought I would throw up some pictures of my latest Jeep build. It is not real time as I have owned it now for almost two years.

I bought the Jeep with only 3208 miles on the odometer and commenced building my "Dream Jeep". This is my daily driver and weekend wheeler.

On lift just before sitting it down with the 4" BDS Suspension Lift and 35" KM2 tires/ATX Crawl wheels.

Backed outside the shop after just barely sitting her on the ground with new lift and tires/wheels.

More to come as I dig through the pictures. Also pictured here is the Warn Rockcrawler bumper/Powerplant combination that I purchased used just to get me by until I could fabricated my own bumpers.

Mike.

 

[zmotorsports]

So, you don't want to drill holes in your body to mount this magnificent specimen?

View attachment 145981

🤮🤮🤮

That's a HARD pass.....

 

[zmotorsports]

I've posted up quite a bit of work in the projects thread that I've done over the past few weeks but thought I'd post this one here being specific to my 2011 Jeep Wrangler.

It was time to give it a good once over and prepare the ole' girl for the upcoming travel and Jeeping season so I thought I'd give it a full LOF service as well as install my Nemesis lower front shock relocation brackets that have been sitting on the bench for several months.

Jeep racked, tires removed, oil drained and getting ready to make a small modification to the front suspension.


The Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T's have sure been a pleasant surprise. These things have an aggressive lug pattern yet are quiet on the road, grip fantastic off-road and actually have performed extremely well on snow-packed winter roads. They are still fairly new but wearing well so far. They began life at 18.5/32nds and are now sitting right at 17/32".


Next up is the small modification that I have wanted to do since last summer when I rebuilt my shocks. With a little more suspension travel in the front axle @ 10.5" overall travel now, I noticed that my shocks are just barely coming in contact with the frame at full droop against the limiting straps. I have seen people bend shock shafts and damage shocks due to this so before I do any damage I wanted to relocated the bottom of my shocks outboard a little bit before the Jeeping season started. I was going to fabricate some relocation brackets but stumbled across some made for the Dynastrac ProRock44 by Nemesis Off-Road and the were reasonably priced so I figured rather than reinvent the wheel and to make the job go quicker I would purchase these brackets and weld them in place in a relatively short amount of time.


Here is what I started with.


Here is the small mark that I noticed last year when rebuilding my shocks.


Nemesis lower shock relocation brackets.


These are made to be either welded or bolted on so I used a single bolt to mock them into position, then marked where I was going to weld so I could knock the mill scale off the new brackets and the paint off the axle.


Welded in place and sharp edges radiused and smoothed.


Painted with some Eastwood Extreme Chassis black.


The shock centerline is moved outboard approx. 2.5".


Final shot of the outboard leaning shock.


Probably the thing I liked most about these shock relocation brackets is the fact that they turn the lower shock mount 90-degrees and will put much less stress on the shock bushing.


Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

I have been MIA for a couple of months now due to a health issue.

During late April driving to work one morning I detected a weird noise from under the Jeep. It sounded like an exhaust tick but not a tick.

I hadn't been feeling well so it was several weeks before I could tear into it and by the time I actually diagnosed it I realized it was in the rear end. I rebuilt my rear end back in late 2018 when I switched from the 5.38 gears that I had been running for the previous 90k miles to the 4.56 gears in preparation for my LS swap.

I now have just shy of 50k miles on the 4.56 gears and I don't "hot-rod" the Jeep nor abuse it on or off-road but when I opened the rear differential up I was shocked at what I discovered.


Several large chunks of teeth were stuck in the bottom of the housing and to the magnet. Amazingly, there was hardly any shavings in the oil or inside the housing which indicated this had just recently failed. It had been nearly a month since we had it off-road during our San Rafael Swell trip and I really didn't do much extreme wheeling while we were there so I was confused on what could cause this.


Upon disassembly I found the pinion had failed but it failed well below the surface and deep into the root of the pinion shaft. This is something I hadn't seen before in all the rear ends that I have rebuilt. I have seen teeth sheared off from hard launches back in my racing days and teeth broken off from off-road vehicles as they get the vehicle hopping and then gain traction but this was so far into the core of the shaft.

My son and I were examining it carefully and he noticed that the new 4.56 gear set that I had sitting on the bench had a bit more of a radius at the transition between the bearing surface and the teeth as well as it was much smoother of a radius than the one that failed. I'm not sure if that was the cause or not but also by the way the teeth broke so far below the surface we were wondering if it might be a manufacturing defect such as in the heat treating process. Generally the heat treating doesn't go that deep in order to allow the teeth to have some "give" to them and the hardness is more important at the surface where the contact between the gears is.


The shim packs were very close but I just wanted to "tweak" the backlash a very small amount so got the drawer full of shims out and then began reassembly.




Great looking wear pattern and .007" backlash.


Time to button it up, put some petroleum based gear oil in it and drive it for about 500-800 miles for break-in.



It took me a while but I finally got about 650-miles on the gears and then drained the oil, pulled the cover, inspected the wear pattern and backlash as well as double checked the torque on the bearing caps before closing it back up and putting some synthetic gear oil in it and run it.







Thanks for looking.

 

[zmotorsports]

While I was breaking in the new gears I had another issue with my fuel trims acting weird. This has been an ongoing issue and I have thought all along it was an ECM issue but then again, those rarely fail.

After doing some data logging and sitting on the couch recovering and deciphering the data I came to the conclusion that it was in fact something with the operating system.

I had a newly remanufactured ECM reconfigured and it finally arrived a few weeks ago. This is the old one removed and ready to box up and ship back.


Newly remanufactured ECM installed.


After the initial test drive I thought we could get a little closer on the timing and fuel trims so a couple of tweaks.


This is a different kind of tuning than I'm used to. In my days, the tuning was done by popping the hood, grabbing the distributor and carburetor tools and going to town on adjusting the carb and timing curves. My how things have changed, no need to even pop the hood anymore. That being said, I am not a tuner. I still just a mechanic but I've learned a couple of things to fine tune timing and MAF calibrations to tweak the tune ever so slightly.


Using various tunes that I had saved and comparing them before any changes has allowed me to creep up on what I now feel is a very consistent and strong tune.


After multiple test drives and about a week or so of back and forth to work I think I like where it's at. Next month's annual Ouray/Silverado trip with be the test.



The wife and I did take off last weekend on a few day drives up to the mountains for some mild off-roading to test the tune and I can report that even though I took the laptop with us to make any changes that I didn't feel it necessary as I was happy with the way it performed at all speeds and altitudes, even over 10k feet.

 

[zmotorsports]

A few pictures from last weekends off-road exploring.

















Thanks for looking.

 

[zmotorsports]

I performed a thorough cleaning of the shop for the Christmas weekend and then took some time to record an updated Shop and Toolbox Tour which I posted to my YouTube channel.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

I haven't updated my build thread in a while and to be honest, I've been so busy I really haven't done much other than routine maintenance then drive and wheel it.

A couple of weeks ago after getting caught up in the shop I pulled the Jeep in to perform some routine maintenance and some preventive measure repairs.

Those who know me know that I am a huge proponent of preventive maintenance and even component replacement based on usage even before failures occur. I use my extensive background from 35+ years in the Industrial Maintenance field in addition to my automotive experience to monitor patterns for which to gauge when to replace components before they leave me stranded.

A couple of those items were addressed over the past week or so while I had the Jeep in the shop.

I purchased an OEM alternator as well as OEM brake booster and master cylinder several months ago in preparation for this year's gatherings and rallies that the wife and I have plans to attend. With the Jeep now passing the 150k mile mark and with me seeing failures of these starting around this mileage I thought I'd get ahead of them so as not to interrupt our trip plans.

A few weeks ago in between some side jobs I was able to pull the Jeep in and replaced the alternator.


New OEM Chrysler alternator next to OEM alternator removed from the Jeep to ensure proper clocking and everything is correct.


New alternator installed.


Last week I began the pre-Colorado trip maintenanace. Colorado is the torture test of the year as the altitudes really push the Jeep and all of the subsystems to their limits. Each year is passes but I still insist on being diligent in ensuring it is in proper repair before leaving the driveway.

This year is no exception and with the demands placed on the brakes I opted to replace both the booster and master cylinder as preventive measures. These OEM parts have also been sitting on the shelf for a couple of months awaiting installation.


New booster and master cylinder installed. I noticed some wire loom casings that I didn't care for so I took some extra time to address those.


I replaced the plastic convoluted wire casing with a much nicer, heavier and more heat resistant nylon woven split loom casing.


That looks much nicer.


Next I thought I'd remove the OEM factory 2007-2011 JK battery tray and TIPM mount and replace it with a mount that turns the battery lengthwise in the engine bay like the 2012-2018 JK's use. This would allow some much welcomed space between the right bank and the battery tray for not only maintenance tasks but also to allow better airflow around the engine.


You know how it goes, one change triggers another, then another and so on. Well that's what happened. The turning of the battery and TIPM did create a lot of space on the right bank but it also crowded the air filter even more than before. I really did not like the way I had to tip the air filter down and almost under the TIPM where it wouldn't rub or have interference issues.


I did some measuring and made some alterations to shrink up the intake duct a small amount and then dug through filter measurements until I came up with a K&N filter that was about a half inch less in overall diameter and a half inch shorter which is about all I needed when accompanied with the intake duct being shortened slightly and the elbow trimmed by about an inch. Now the air filter mount can be tipped up and fill the void between the TIPM and core support much better.


More pictures to come.

 

[zmotorsports]

Continuing on with the air filter and intake duct.

New K&N RG-1001RD filter installed clearing both the TIPM as well as the core support and even sitting slightly under the upper radiator hose for a nice but compact fitment.


I can even easily install and remove my Outerwear as needed. Possibly even easier than in the last configuration. I also replaced the plastic convoluted wire casing on the MAF sensor wiring with the nicer more heat resistant nylon woven split loom. I see myself replacing all of this as time goes on.


It's still a very busy engine bay but there sure is a lot more room around that right bank. I think I have better access to some components like spark plugs with the LS than I ever did with the Chrysler 3.8 liter V6.


I then moved on to the brakes. I have had the Teraflex Big Brakes installed for just over 70k miles and I have replaced brake pads twice in those miles. Brakes on this heavy pig don't last more than about 35k-40k miles. During the last tire rotation I noted they were getting a bit worn again as well as some slight wear was detected on the rotors. I figured I wouldn't risk the pad wear trying to get another 5k or so miles out of them with our annual Ouray, CO trip coming up so I ordered new rotors to install along with purchasing new brake pads and E-brake shoes as they were original.

Everything going back together and bleeding the brake system.


With the brakes now complete all around it was time to tackle the last item.


During our last trip about a month ago the wife and I spent some time around Afton, WY and up into Grand Teton NP for a nice drive. During one of our lunch stops when I got the camp chairs out I noted a slight crunching noise going on in the tire carrier. I had also noticed the last couple of trips that I had to lift up ever so slightly on the tire carrier to latch it on the left side. I figured I had better disassemble, clean and repack the bearings in the tire carrier but as I disassembled it I found the upper bearing in pieces.

I went back through my notes and realized that it has been quite some time since I last serviced the tire carrier so this was on me as an oversight. This item will now be checked on a regular service interval, if nothing more than just an inspection.


New bearings purchased to replace the failed upper bearing and not so good of shape lower bearing. Also picked up a new grease seal and dust cap as my last cap had a small dent in it.


Bearings packed and seal at the ready after lower bearing is installed.


Upper bearing installed, washer and nut torqued down to minimize any play and the new dust cap has been bead blasted and painted semi-gloss black before installation.



That pretty much concludes the preventive maintenance and repair items that I've done to our 2011 Jeep Wrangler over the past little while.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

After shortening the intake duct and replacing the air filter I noted that my LTFT (Long Term Fuel Trims) were off ever so slightly compared to where they were with the old configuration. I had played with the tune last year to get my trims perfect but just a little alteration to the intake made a bit of difference.

Yes, I could have just run them the way they were but I guess I can't leave shit well enough alone. (Yes, those are my wife's words).

After a few days of driving the Jeep after completing all of the work I was seeing LTFT's in the -10-12 range so just a little higher negative than I like. I like to be just barely negative of zero so the computer is pulling a small amount of fuel out rather than being positive and having to rely on the ECM to add fuel. Not sure if there's any science to that or not but just maybe going back to my carburetor days.

I also noted that I have not been experiencing any knock retard event and no timing has had to be pulled out due to detonation so I figured I'd throw a few more degrees of timing at it while I was in the tune and see if it liked it. Sure enough it liked the timing and after dropping the MAF Frequency table/formula about 5% I saw immediate results. I drove it that way for a couple of days as I wanted to see what it did after a fueling event.

Everything went perfect but I was still around -2.3 to -3.5 range on trims and still no spark retard was taking place, even on some hard pulls and acceleration events.

Last night I pulled it back into the shop to add another degree of timing and alter the MAF Frequency table another 1%. I think that did the trick as this morning driving to work it was sitting at -.7 to -1.5 on the trims and only one hard acceleration I saw a fraction of a degree of timing pulled back. I'll run it that way for a bit and monitor spark knock and if no events take place I think it is about perfect. It sure liked those few degrees of timing though as it can be felt in acceleration pull.



Back from one of the test drives before cleaning up the shop.


I wasn't sure about posting these next couple of pictures. I am not one to brag but I am however, quite proud of what the wife and I have been able to accomplish as we just celebrated our 34th anniversary a few weeks back.

I had all of our vehicles cleaned one weekend, which seems to be a rare occasion these days and I was planning on sweeping and blowing out the attached garage so as I pulled the wife's daily, our truck and Jeep around to the back yard I figured I snap a few pictures of our fleet.





I remember clear back in Jr. High School I had a poster in my bedroom of a multi-car garage and it had a Lamborghini, a Corvette, a Porsche and another one or two exotics parked outside and it had a statement of "Justification for a Higher Education". Many of you may remember that same poster.

I guess one could call that a motivational poster or something of the sort but I am not what one would call an educated man. Far from it as I barely graduated High School and had no desire to do anything but spin wrenches. I did however, had and still have a great passion for what I do and that is work with my hands. My dream and goal as I exited High School and began my life with my soon to be wife was to learn everything I could and continually build upon my skillset to be one of the best in my field. Now I don't claim to be the best in my field as there are many great mechanics out there, but I am not happy unless I am continually learning and becoming better than I was yesterday. For me I want each day to look back and know that is the best version of myself. Although I must admit, there are days I cannot say I feel that way but my lovely wife seems to help keep me on track.

For me, being a mechanic is so much more than just spinning wrenches and something I do as a job. It is in my DNA and a huge part of who I am. For that alone I feel it has driven me to this point in my life and the above picture is reminiscent of that old poster I had hanging in my bedroom from a young boy and now I look at the above picture and could easily change the statement to "Justification for Busting One's Ass and Hard Work."

Granted all of our vehicles are older and none are exotics but I'm proud of where my wife and I have come after starting with nothing.

Thanks for looking.

 

[zmotorsports]

The wife and I just returned from out annual Ouray/Silverton, CO trip and the Jeep ran and performed flawlessly, again.

I have been unhappy with the matte black hood decal however, as I am not a matte person and it has become quite faded and terrible looking over the past several months. I tried multiple "gimmicks" to bring it back to life and even attempted some polishing, which did help but only minimally.

After tired of pissing around with it before we left, upon our return home I simply went at it with the heat gun and removed it.


It came away from the factory finish quite well only leaving a very small amount of residue in a few areas and a small line where the decal ended which I thought would polish out.


Nearly there.


Decal removed, now the fun begins.




Since I would have the polishing equipment and supplies out I also marked a few areas that needed some attention. I had done a minor paint correction earlier this year when I had the doors off as they were so easy to polish that way but I noted the A-pillars, windshield frame and cowl areas needed some love now. I also put two very small minor scratches in the passenger side doors during our trip last week. I had evidently pulled just a little too far passenger while on Imogene Pass to let a group past and when pulling away a stray branch got me that I hadn't noticed. The wife was quick to point it out to me though.


The hood hadn't been polished yet and was in need of some attention same as the A-pillars and cowl areas. Just minor scratches from daily use. Afterall, it's 12 years old with 153k miles so it should need a little attention.


A-pillar and LS badging masked off as well as antenna removed to prevent damage from the polishing equipment.



Stay tuned for more......

 

[zmotorsports]

Now the fun part begins, the actual polishing.

I attacked the driver's side cowl, hood, A-pillar and fender panel where I had a pretty deep scratch just about 10 o'clock from the club badge. I had to get a bit aggressive on the scratch but it was eliminated using the coarse 3M microfinishing compound and a white wool pad.


Next up was the passenger side of the hood, cowl and A-pillar with step #1.


Cowl area after coarse compound. Deep and heavy swirl marks are visible from the coarse compound.


The Milwaukee cordless tools work well for small touch up jobs like this. I am not all that impressed with the 7" polisher as it eats through batteries at an alarming rate. I had to keep alternating them through the chargers but had I needed to get more aggressive or do more surface area I would have reached for my old tried and true Black & Decker Buffmaster which never lets me down.


Progressing through to step #2 with the 3M Finesse-It compound and yellow wool pads. Now the heavy deep swirl marks from the first step are diminishing and left with finer swirls, but the depth of gloss is really coming on now.


Same results with the hood after step #2.


The couple of scratches on the passenger's doors were also eliminated and the gloss really showing through after step #2.




Lastly, the upper windshield frame and A-pillars were attacked with the smaller 3" polisher and pads. Step #2 here is netting some nice results.





More to come....

 

[zmotorsports]

Now moving on to step #3 which consists of 3M's Perfect-It polish/glaze and a black foam pad on the 3" polisher and a blue foam pad on the 7" polisher. I only recently started using the blue foam pads when I did the paint correction on our Fifth Gen Camaro and really liked the results. Prior to using the blue foam pad I used the black.

Here the final gloss is excellent after completing the third step.


Moving right along.


The windshield frame and A-pillar are also looking good at this point, other than a few small rock chips.


The doors came out well but I had polished them only about 5 or so months ago, this was just a partial polish to remove the couple of minor scratches so no need to do the entire pair of doors. The area where I polished and stopped isn't even detectable.


Doors after removing tape and giving a quick wipe down with microfiber towel.


The hood turned out excellent.




The fender panel also looks good after the deep scratch has been eliminated.


Completed after giving it a once over with Meguiar's Final Inspection and some 303 protectant applied to the fenders.


Backed out of the shop and the colors of the rocks and lawn are even evident in the reflection.



Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

The wife and I took off last week for a trip up to the Madison Valley of Montana to get some much needed R&R.

We had plans to do some sightseeing as well as some exploring around the Gravelly Mountain Range south of the Madison Valley.




Unfortunately, we had to cut our trip short by a few days. We found out a friend and neighbor from our old neighborhood was killed in a car accident and we wanted to attend the services but not necessarily head home early. The next day our decision was made for us when I had a right rear upper control arm break.

The breakage occurred on a flat dirt road about a mile off the pavement. There was a mud puddle that I didn't want to go through, those who know me know that I despise mud and will avoid it at all costs. Well, the road was so smooth I hadn't aired down or even disconnected my front sway bar so I just went high up on the driver's side to avoid the mud. As the front left climbed high up on the bank the weight shifted to the right rear and we heard and actually felt a loud pop.

My first thought was that with the weight shifting and not being disconnected that I must have broken a sway bar link. We pulled forward away from the mud and I crawled around under the Jeep and could not see anything wrong. Nothing appeared to be hanging or loose. I checked for factory welds at various component mounts and didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

We continued on a couple hundred yards until we heard and felt a thud again. I crawled around under it again and this time I could see a shiny spot on my left rear jounce stop block. I remembered notching it slightly to gain clearance between the track bar bolt and the block several years ago but I remembered having approx. 3/4" of clearance after doing so and I have not had any interference issues at all before.

We opted to turn around and head back to camp rather than continue on with the 80+ mile trail. Upon returning to camp, I dug a little deeper into it and found that the bushing housing at the upper right rear control arm had failed right at the HAZ (Heat Affected Zone) of the weld.

I stuck my phone over the tire and snapped a picture of what I was dealing with.


My wife was asking questions about why that one and why now. I really didn't have an answer other than I explained that if one was going to break the upper was the more logical one to fail because the lower is being pushed or rotated forward under power so the bushing housing is in compression and therefore less likely to fail. Plus the lower links, bushings and bushing housings are larger sized. The uppers are being pulled or in tension under acceleration and therefore being forced in the opposite direction of the lowers but by looking at the picture and seeing the area it failed I assumed maybe it was just fatigued metal from the past 9-years of flexing and wheeling.

I built the suspension for my Jeep about 9+years ago and couldn't figure out why it broke now but we decided this was a sign we needed to return home which would allow us to go to our friend's services.

We did stop off at one of our favorite burger joints, Big Juds, on the way home to lunch.


Upon returning home and attending the services the next day I racked the Jeep and tore into the repair.

The following posts will document the repair.

 

[zmotorsports]

The next morning I racked the Jeep to begin the repair.



Upon closer inspection after getting the control arm removed I could see that the area appeared to have been fatigued and cracked for some time before the last quarter of an inch or so failed as the weight transferred and with the front sway still connected all that force went right to the right rear as the front left climbed the bank. The failure appeared to be right alongside the weld bead in the heat affected zone.



I didn't have any of the DOM tubing left over from when I built the suspension 9 years ago so I grabbed a chunk of round stock which just happened to be 1045 steel. This should actually be a bit stronger as most DOM tubing is either 1020 or 1026 and this being 1045 has a higher carbon content.



Old housing cut off the link.



Next, I thought I'd make a slight strength improvement, although probably not necessary as this may have just been a fluke failure after 9 years of flexing and abuse. Now I have not seen this type of modification before to a bushing housing but I know with leaf springs a wrap to the bushing end that is sometimes associated with an upgraded spring pack is referred to as a military wrap. I don't know if this is anything that has an official name or not but I thought I would cut a piece of metal to wrap the bushing housing and tie it back to the link spanning the welded joint.



Next to the lathe to start boring the chunk of steel to reach the ID specified in my notes.



Bam, landed right at 2.050" ID.



Then the OD was taken to size.



After parting off I flipped the part around in the 6-jaw chuck to face the housing to size and chamfer the edges.



Bushing housing completed, next to the old one and the bushing at the ready to be pressed back in.




More pics of the repair to follow...

 

[zmotorsports]

Continuing on with the suspension repair.


The newly machined bushing housing was welded onto the link.



I then ran a wire wheel around the welded joint to prep for the wrap.



I took the strap that I cut and heated a little to bend around a piece of bar stock close to the size I needed. I then placed it over the bushing housing and clamped it in the weld vise to tighten up the gap and proceeded to weld the wrap in place.



After cooling I bead blasted the end of the link and painted with some epoxy paint and let dry.



The bushing was pressed back into the housing in preparation for assembly.



Repaired link was reinstalled under the right rear of the Jeep.



The process was repeated with the driver's side rear upper link, less machining a new housing. The welded joint appeared to be in good condition and no cracks were noticed so I just cleaned up the old paint, added the wrap to the link's end and painted.



Driver's side reinstalled.




And that completes the repairs to the Jeep's suspension. Took me about 6 hours start to finish and I'm glad I didn't have it band-aided by an out of town shop as I don't think I would have been happy and I would have been redoing it once I got home anyways.

Thanks for looking.