Weekend Warrior XJ
- Thread starter kingpin1094
- Start date
kingpin1094
Well-known member
Well not much has happend since the trip. Working on finalizing the design of the spare tire carrier, and will hopefully start working on that shortly. For now though, just driving the Jeep a few days to work a week, and missing the west.
kingpin1094
Well-known member
Simple update. Not much Jeep work has happened. I bought an 06 STI and have been toying around with that since my trip out west. But I am starting to get the Jeep itch again. I stretched the rear axle by drilling another hole in the perch to better center the axle. (it may be too far back now, so I may shift it 1 hold back forward, yay for leaves making this process super fast.) I took it on a short local wheeling trip and noticed the front passenger tire would not get power. Climbs that were easy with open diffs and 33's became challenging on what should have been a locked front, LSD rear and 35's. Goiing theory is a broken shaft that is somehow not making any noise? The STI is about to be out of the garage so the Jeep can go in and I can check the shaft and front locker. As long as 1 vehicle can get you to work that counts as 100% reliability right?
Added some more character last wheeling trip too. (I blame 3wd not allowing me to straddle the rut like I wanted to)
STI pic for fun
Added some more character last wheeling trip too. (I blame 3wd not allowing me to straddle the rut like I wanted to)
STI pic for fun
kingpin1094
Well-known member
Hard Line Rob said:
In this case I doubt rock sliders would have helped. It was a rutted out trail tilted on a 20-30 angle toward the passenger door. Off the passenger door was a mud/root wall that was tilted toward the top of the vehicle relative to the ground. All this means is the door hit the wall, and the rockers prorbably had 10" of clearance.
At the end of the day I never built it to be a show Jeep. While I do try to keep the body off stuff as much as possible I think with my front locker borked it would have been tough. The door and window still works, its not exposing bare metal, so in my eyes no harm no foul. Just one more degree of separation from the mall crawlers lol.
Seeing [member=673]Teej[/member] work on his jeep gave me the itch to dig into mine and figure out whats wrong. And as it would appear the front locker was broken.
Called powertrax, they said that this failure is common during install. The active spacer isnt set in place right and when an axle is slid in it can side load that tab snapping it. They explained to me that this piece works like a synchro to better engage the center and axle side teeth. Luckily they sell it as a service part and I'll have it in a week or 2.
I had the locker installed by the person who dit the gears since I figured it would be easier for them to do while it was apart. Which is a little annoying...
This also means that it likely never worked in Moab or Colorado. In Colorado I never saw the symptoms I did in ohio, and in Moab there would really be no way to know doing the beginner trails since there is just so much traction out there.
Anyway, I'll get her fixed up and out on the trail again shortly.
kingpin1094
Well-known member
Well I may as well post some pics up since TJ broke the news.
Had to flex her out on the pose stump. based on this I need to shift my rear axle 1 hole forward. Went too far back the last time I did it. That and some bump stops and the rear of the Jeep will be set.
Always come prepared. Luckily I had a winch and was able to grab this stump to pull TJ out. Would have been tricky otherwise.
And some other photos
Had to flex her out on the pose stump. based on this I need to shift my rear axle 1 hole forward. Went too far back the last time I did it. That and some bump stops and the rear of the Jeep will be set.
Always come prepared. Luckily I had a winch and was able to grab this stump to pull TJ out. Would have been tricky otherwise.
And some other photos
kingpin1094
Well-known member
Well as you can see, I'm very bad at build threads. STI has still been receiving the most financial and physical attention, however the latest wheeling trip is starting to shift my focus a little. (insert shameless STI pic)
So I had a rear brake issue, which after fixing once realized what the actual root cause was. I was using the factory 8.8 driver flex line, which also has the T block attached to that. Well the flex line is short so I mounted the T block to the rear of the truss. You can just barely see it behind the shock in this pic
Well with the rear now flexing good, the shock body would come down and slam that block and shear the brake line. So now I use 2 passenger flex lines and the dodge dakota T block with hardline run to the front side of the truss.
Another XJ wheeling trip, including a stop at the poser stump.
I was really learning to use the skinny pedal on this trip, and well of course I went a little too far.
Womp womp, first driver side U joint to pop and destroy the stub shaft ears as well. #justdana30things
Overall this trip was fantastic, I got the heep up a significant obstacle I wasn't sure would be possible. Feels like every trip I learn a little more, and become more comfortable with what the ol XJ can truly do.
Looking to the future, I need to get a windshield washer bottle bad! I'm also about done with my track bar mount rubbing the spring, so I think I'm going to get the Ironman 4x4 track bar, since it kicks inward and should give me more clearance. Dirtbound is also now offering a DIY tire carrier swingout, I am going to pick up to add to my rear bumper to finally clear up some cargo space.
So I had a rear brake issue, which after fixing once realized what the actual root cause was. I was using the factory 8.8 driver flex line, which also has the T block attached to that. Well the flex line is short so I mounted the T block to the rear of the truss. You can just barely see it behind the shock in this pic
Well with the rear now flexing good, the shock body would come down and slam that block and shear the brake line. So now I use 2 passenger flex lines and the dodge dakota T block with hardline run to the front side of the truss.
Another XJ wheeling trip, including a stop at the poser stump.
I was really learning to use the skinny pedal on this trip, and well of course I went a little too far.
Womp womp, first driver side U joint to pop and destroy the stub shaft ears as well. #justdana30things
Overall this trip was fantastic, I got the heep up a significant obstacle I wasn't sure would be possible. Feels like every trip I learn a little more, and become more comfortable with what the ol XJ can truly do.
Looking to the future, I need to get a windshield washer bottle bad! I'm also about done with my track bar mount rubbing the spring, so I think I'm going to get the Ironman 4x4 track bar, since it kicks inward and should give me more clearance. Dirtbound is also now offering a DIY tire carrier swingout, I am going to pick up to add to my rear bumper to finally clear up some cargo space.
kingpin1094
Well-known member
Well it sure has been a while since I've posted here. But TJ mentioned digging around here for my snorkel build and I figured what the hell might as well throw a BIG update in here. After breaking a many a D30 shaft, and TJ finding some JKR44 axles I decided to also try and find some fresh axles for the ole XJ.
And what do you know I came across these:
Set of JK Rubicon 44's. They were trussed for a JK, they had 5.13 gears, covers, front and rear chromo shafts, tube seals, teraflex BJs, and of course factory e lockers, and he also had some DV8 beadlocks with some pretty shot 38" Patagonias [henceforth known as patagoners]. All in for $3800.
Unfortunately the truss and gussets for the front axle would not work for the XJ. So I bought the Artec JK2TJ Truss kit, and started cutting off the old stuff. Lots of cutting and grinding later, it was bare.
I then decided to focus on the rear axle since I knew it would be easier to get that in and done. The rear was pretty simple, I left the truss with upper link mounts on for simplicity, and for possible 4 link in the future. Weld on some Barnes leaf perches, shock tabs, paint it up and install it.
The next part of this process I thought would be the hardest and most worrying, but as it turns out its really not so bad. I really like to drive my jeep around, and I wanted to make sure it was very drive-able even with the larger tires. The JK axles have even less caster built into them than the HP30 and I was already well below the caster spec with my HP 30 (about 3 deg). So a cut and turn was in order.
For those that havent done a cut and turn, it really isnt that bad. just cut down and make a 90, then work the cutoff wheel in a little more, hit with a hammer till you get a crack all the way around, then use the hammer to rotate it to the desired spot. Doing this allows me to have a perfect pinion angle and still have about 8 deg of caster. No more wandering on the highway!
Another thing we did when building these axles was to rotate the coil buckets back even more than the artec recommendation. We did this to accommodate the stretch we run on the front axle. Artec says to rotate 9deg, we did about 11.5deg. As you can see from this pic the spring is pretty well centered and liner of the axle:
For reference here is what my spring used to do under full compression
The next issue I ran into is the PO of my axles cut off the driverside axle mount in favor of running a passenger 3 link. Well for whatever reason I had 0 exhaust clearance on that side. But some sawzall and welder work I was able to get the exhaust shifted over and make room for my new upper link. To make the upper link I cut off the end on the stock Cavfab upper link, welded in an insert and added a LH Johnny Joint.
After that just paint it up, and I ended up ordering a custom track bar from ironman 4x4, which in reality I could have just gotten their OTA track bar and it would have been fine. My JK Axles also came with the tie rod flip. you can see now how flat the drag link and tie rod are.
ANNNNDD BAM here it is all done sitting on the 38" Patagoners
Still need to wire up the lockers, and touch up a few odds and ends, likely I will cut my rear shackles shorter to get rid of some of the rake it has, but overall I am super happy with how it turned out. I am even more happy to finally be able to wheel with lockers front and rear, and not break those stupid 1310 u joints every freaking trip!
And what do you know I came across these:
Set of JK Rubicon 44's. They were trussed for a JK, they had 5.13 gears, covers, front and rear chromo shafts, tube seals, teraflex BJs, and of course factory e lockers, and he also had some DV8 beadlocks with some pretty shot 38" Patagonias [henceforth known as patagoners]. All in for $3800.
Unfortunately the truss and gussets for the front axle would not work for the XJ. So I bought the Artec JK2TJ Truss kit, and started cutting off the old stuff. Lots of cutting and grinding later, it was bare.
I then decided to focus on the rear axle since I knew it would be easier to get that in and done. The rear was pretty simple, I left the truss with upper link mounts on for simplicity, and for possible 4 link in the future. Weld on some Barnes leaf perches, shock tabs, paint it up and install it.
The next part of this process I thought would be the hardest and most worrying, but as it turns out its really not so bad. I really like to drive my jeep around, and I wanted to make sure it was very drive-able even with the larger tires. The JK axles have even less caster built into them than the HP30 and I was already well below the caster spec with my HP 30 (about 3 deg). So a cut and turn was in order.
For those that havent done a cut and turn, it really isnt that bad. just cut down and make a 90, then work the cutoff wheel in a little more, hit with a hammer till you get a crack all the way around, then use the hammer to rotate it to the desired spot. Doing this allows me to have a perfect pinion angle and still have about 8 deg of caster. No more wandering on the highway!
Another thing we did when building these axles was to rotate the coil buckets back even more than the artec recommendation. We did this to accommodate the stretch we run on the front axle. Artec says to rotate 9deg, we did about 11.5deg. As you can see from this pic the spring is pretty well centered and liner of the axle:
For reference here is what my spring used to do under full compression
The next issue I ran into is the PO of my axles cut off the driverside axle mount in favor of running a passenger 3 link. Well for whatever reason I had 0 exhaust clearance on that side. But some sawzall and welder work I was able to get the exhaust shifted over and make room for my new upper link. To make the upper link I cut off the end on the stock Cavfab upper link, welded in an insert and added a LH Johnny Joint.
After that just paint it up, and I ended up ordering a custom track bar from ironman 4x4, which in reality I could have just gotten their OTA track bar and it would have been fine. My JK Axles also came with the tie rod flip. you can see now how flat the drag link and tie rod are.
ANNNNDD BAM here it is all done sitting on the 38" Patagoners
Still need to wire up the lockers, and touch up a few odds and ends, likely I will cut my rear shackles shorter to get rid of some of the rake it has, but overall I am super happy with how it turned out. I am even more happy to finally be able to wheel with lockers front and rear, and not break those stupid 1310 u joints every freaking trip!
