93 XJ build

ckruzer said:
what have you learned, and what are you considering?
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adamk said:
I'll be going with the Barnes kit again because of price and the fact that they are local. Biggest thing I learned was to make it as long as possible and as flat as possible at the shackle. The one I have now is only about 2.5' long and is at about a 30* angle when it mates to the shackle. This has caused a lot of vertical force into the frame. Couple this with the fact that it's on the driver's side and the torque twist is much greater than I expected and ever wanted. The next one will be on the passenger side if I can make room for it. it will also go from the axle all the way to the trans cross member making it almost a foot longer than the one I have now.
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I did a slip and twist over the axle center. I learned that it put a lot of pressure on the center 1.75 DOM cross bar and had to go back and put braces to me hoop it's mounted to. Not that anyone asked but I really like how the slip and twist works.
 
NickMaul said:
Extremely tempting! However I still need it because of all the hoes that like to pile in on the weekends :D

We will see just how creative I can get with this.


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I removed mine and now days I wish I had not..... When I redo mine at least one seat will be put in the back..... Looking good Nick you should come up to the Crawl this year if its wheelable!
 
ghost said:
I removed mine and now days I wish I had not..... When I redo mine at least one seat will be put in the back..... Looking good Nick you should come up to the Crawl this year if its wheelable!
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I would love to however I have a commitment to take the GF on a wheeling trip this summer. And sadly Harlan would be too much for a first timer ;)


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I have not been feeling very motivated lately. The long list of things to do seems like pooh since I wanted to go on a ride after Memorial Day but that ain't happening.

I was motivated enough to drill the back of the trans to clock the dana 300 lower. I made a template from the flip ring that was on the tcase. With some simple maths I was able to get it to line up almost perfect with the original holes.

Basically the ax15 comes with enough meat on the back to have a tcase in two clocked positions. AX15 wranglers have the highest clocked position and Cherokees had a position clocked lower. Well my ax15 came from a YJ and the way it is clocked now the front output yoke was basically rubbing the floor board. No bueno.

Factoring in how little castor I may end up with on the front axle I have no choice but to clock the dana 300 lower. I still believe it won't hang below the frame rails which is nice.

Here's some advice when drilling the back of the trans. Take the time to start with a tiny drill bit and work your way up. I thought this would be a walk in the park but laying down and holding the drill at a decent angle is a bitch. Unlike steel the drill bit will walk on its way in even when you are keeping the bit square.

Basically I f'd the first two holes that I tried. The bit walked way off and before I even recognized it it was jacked. I took that lesson and drilled the next four holes with basically perfect precision using a series of 5 drill bits starting super small.

Because of this I am now crammed in the trans tunnel with a dremel and carbide burr slowly getting the hole to be in the right spot. It sucks balls.

My make shift clocking jig :flipoff2:
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NickMaul said:
I would love to however I have a commitment to take the GF on a wheeling trip this summer. And sadly Harlan would be too much for a first timer ;)


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No it wouldn't, may as well break her in right the first time.
 
Chris_Keziah said:
Stay on the Harlan side, not the Evart's side.
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That is where we always stay and host the event. I meet Nick up there a couple years ago. You want to break her in right let her ride in my junk.... Then she will love yours! ;)
 
ghost said:
That is where we always stay and host the event. I meet Nick up there a couple years ago. You want to break her in right let her ride in my junk.... Then she will love yours! ;)
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Something about this comment and talking about Nick's GF just sounds wrong hahaha
 
Driveshafty goodness has been handled. The front driveshaft will be a V8 WJ driveshaft. The tube diameter is a size smaller than a normal XJ driveshaft but that doesn't bother me for the front. I would have just resized my oem driveshaft however I noticed that the WJ driveshaft has a slip that is much larger than the XJ slip. For now this will get me by.





Olivers came through on a whim and has this to my door within a week. Super impressed and will happily place another order for the front when it is time to upgrade.



Recently I have been working on getting the cable shifter mount ready to go. Only gripe was out of the box it didn't even fit on the front of the tcase. After some grinding and bending of the tabs it fits. Only to realize I need to trim it to fit around the transmission mount :(

Lastly I got some rear shock hoop motivation from Barnes :bounce:
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My final contribution before the holiday weekend. Getting really antsy to finally fill this up and see if it immediately starts to leak :flipoff2:
When I get back from vacation the shifters are going to have to find a nice cozy home in all the mess.

I got very personal with the cable bracket. Very tight package no doubt.


Also overdid the chop on the crossmember. Can't wait to Frankenstein that thing back to life o_O.




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Busted out both the stick and MIG yesterday. Clearances still tight. Need to trim what I just welded on haha.

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After testing the crossmember out it needed more trimming. The dang bracket for the cable shifters sits like an inch and a half below the tcase and would contact the skid when twisting.

Marked it up and started cutting away. Also gave some real estate to the cables themselves so they are as strait as possible bolting into the bracket. Add a trick tab to zip tie them down and we can finally move onto mounting the shifters in the cab.

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Close up pics of the said stick welds or they didn't happen.
 
Besides setting up the dana 300 gears this might be the most challenging hurdle to get over. Mounting the cable shifters without cutting a massive hole in the tran tunnel, however looking back it may not have been such a bad idea :D

I ordered the JD fab shifters without doing a super detailed measurement for fit type of deal and I didnt realize how small 48" cables are when you make a big "U" with them. And gosh darn are they stiff as balls.

Anywho I present hole in with shifter plate


Took me a lot of thinking to get to this point


Now the shifters are basically in the same hole the original shifter was in except it is longer. Move the shifters any more toward the dash and length of cable gets close to no room for error. Some bracket fabbing and hardware get me complete and permanently mounted. I will be adjusting to how tall they are and the loss of leg room for the right leg :(


Underneath it packages nicely but the cables are at their limit for being in such a small area. I am thinking of banging the floor board open where the tunnel ends. This is the tightest clearance as the bend of the cables are getting interfered with.


So I promised not to laugh and see just how long it took for the case to start leaking gear oil. After about 10 minutes I saw the first drip, but thankfully it came from the sight tube fitting. The original sight tube I picked was ordered from mcmaster and was fade resistant but extremely stiff, basically plastic. Well the fitting didn't like that and was dripping in no time. So I swapped it back out for the cheapo tube I had bought from the hardware store and no more "immediate" drips :D


Closer up view of a small gap seperating the tcase from the shifters. Maybe <1"


I test drove it in my long driveway (to afraid to take it down the road at the moment):lol: The reduction is awesome. It barely even moves in reverse. Shifters are very tight. The rear axle shifter has less resistance than the front axle, which concerns me about popping out of gear but we never know until it gets out onto the trail. Let's hope I don't have to tear into this for any reason. Lowest forward reduction is 3.83 x 4.56 x 4.0 = 69.9:1 It's no yota but it should perform well!


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Test drives have been a success. Driving around the neighborhood causin terror :cool: This morning I enlisted the GoPro to be my eyes and check in on the axle wrap symptom I created by pushing the axle back with a glorified block. Even though the leaf springs are pretty stiff coming from a 3/4 ton van they are wrapping enough just by accelerating hard on the pavement to give me the fritz.



@adamk gave me his experience with his wrap because he had a similar type of axle stretch and decided to rush an order to Barnes for a traction bar kit + DOM tubing. It will be almost 4' long which is a good length from my research. Before the weekend is over I plan on having the rear frame section welded with stiffeners in prep for 14" bilsteins through the floor :driver:​
 
BigClay said:
Go straight to links and coilovers!
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Ha then I wouldn't be able to wheel until 2020!

It does bring up a good point that hopefully if I try to do anything like that in the future this work will be for the good. Have to run to the store tomorrow to get a 3" and 1.75" hole saw plus some goodies to keep the mud and muck from coming up the shock holes.

Prep dat metallll


Scientifically Engineered Reinforcement Plates



Uncover mediocre sheet metal. Not too crusty!


Desired/planned set up




Static Shock Height, 6" compression 8" extension, why not :D
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Getting very tired but I want to wheel so badly. Rear shocks are done. God damn that was finicky to fabricate. Learned a few things that will help out in the future especially bending tube. No mistakes but required a little extra work to get done right. One traction bar and I will be ready for Potts :bounce:







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