Offroad-Express

coop wrote:still might give her a go up Thompsons this weekend

Whats haps? Doing it or not Coop? RJ and i are going for a little tiki-tour on saturday now that nes got his shit sorted.

xj wrote:coop wrote:
still might give her a go up Thompsons this weekend


Whats haps? Doing it or not Coop? RJ and i are going for a little tiki-tour on saturday now that nes got his shit sorted.

coop wrote:still might give her a go up Thompsons this weekend

Whats haps? Doing it or not Coop? RJ and i are going for a little tiki-tour on saturday now that nes got his shit sorted.

OK, today we had great progress. Airbag in and working, well the light on the dash turns off so it must work. Rear track bar relocation bracket fitted, sort of shifted the back end over, its better than what it was, so thats good. So could be a go for a look up Thomos Sat arvo.

bb402c wrote:old men are great arnt they
did you go over and see nibla about your control soilonoids
i have got a couple of good ones here if you need them

yip got the simex for queens bday aswell
henry gave me two mint ones so it should be sweet

xj wrote:

coop wrote:still might give her a go up Thompsons this weekend

Whats haps? Doing it or not Coop? RJ and i are going for a little tiki-tour on saturday now that nes got his shit sorted.

Gday, will be missing out on this one. Got my springs back today, put em in tonight. i asked for a 60mm lift, theyre about twice that lol. So that will be me forking out for some shocks tomorrow and making up some g/b spacers tomorrow night after work. That leaves my bank account rather dry haha.

coop wrote:

xj wrote:

coop wrote:still might give her a go up Thompsons this weekend

Whats haps? Doing it or not Coop? RJ and i are going for a little tiki-tour on saturday now that nes got his shit sorted.

Gday, will be missing out on this one. Got my springs back today, put em in tonight. i asked for a 60mm lift, theyre about twice that lol. So that will be me forking out for some shocks tomorrow and making up some g/b spacers tomorrow night after work. That leaves my bank account rather dry haha.

Bugger. We popped RJs 2 inch lift in his Wrangler tonight and will be heading up tomorrow afternoon.
Good luck sorting the chokee out.

Yep got it done, Cheers xj and pete. 2" BB with 1.25" BL to come.

Before and after:
[
Couple side on

After putting my reset springs in on Thursday, I had to pull the bastards out yesterday as the R/F sagged down to original height. Wasted about 10 hours all up and rather fucked off.
But I ended up buying that dirty XJ in Wellington thats on trademe for $1500 so am picking it up on Queens bday w/e. Should provide me with some spares for when the inevitable happens. Just hoping theres a decent LSD in there because mine is fucked, pretty much undrivable in the wet in 2wd haha. Geez my old XJs LSD was nice and tight, used to get both the rears smoking in the dry.

XJ I saw what you wrote regarding Thompsons, glad I didn't go afterall, my mates who went up there on dirt bikes said the same thing, you might have seen em, in a dirty old Chev pick up.

Cheers.

Just finished swaping the motor mounts (out went Daystar poly bush ones - in came Brown Dog rubber bush ones). Whoever came up with the idea for that bolt hitting the a/c compressor on the passenger side needs their head examined. Took the whole bracket thing off the block and changed it (its much easier that way). It must be a Jeep thing, which I understand.

I was warned that bushing might be a tight squeeze and needing soap or similar lubrication, but it went in without a problem.

This is what the new ones looked like:



Before I painted them black (can't have yellow things on a black Jeep):

arsed about with the tranny plate (see thread)

Got some spring spacers in a courier bag ready to send off to TJ to assist him in the future should he have any sag issue with his springs.

Finally gave in to Winter (shakes fist at the sky) and took the bikini off and put the full soft top back on...... held out for as long as i could.

Yesterday removed, or tried to, the transfer skid plate to remove the mud still jammed up after a trip into Rallywoods several weeks ago. Two of the three bolts came out, one spun round and round, the captive nut in the cross member must have broken free.
Removed 2 10 litre paint buckets of clay from up around the transfer case and then went to put the skid plate back on which I had just twisted out of the way.
The captive nut in the chassis rail had disappeared too, so tied the skid plate up out of the way and will get it repaired in the next few days.
How easy a simple job can turn into something more difficult

Last weekend I installed:

JKS TJ 1.25" Body Lift
Rubicon Express TJ 2” Spacer System (W/ Monotube Shocks)

Got the bus sorted for heading away tomorrow arvo.... spares packed (2 x axles, track bar, drive shaft uj's, axle uj's, tie rod, winch solinoid) plenty of coolant on board, strops, portable welder, air compressor, tool box etc etc........ all ready to rock!!!!!!!

xj wrote:Got the bus sorted for heading away tomorrow arvo.... spares packed (2 x axles, track bar, drive shaft uj's, axle uj's, tie rod, winch solinoid) plenty of coolant on board, strops, portable welder, air compressor, tool box etc etc........ all ready to rock!!!!!!!

......... and today found there was a need to replace the bushes in the lower control arms, and that one of my quick disconnects had somewhere along the line, quickly disconnected! Not surpirsing i never noticed that it was off, as the thing wallows like a drunken chick out of Jenny Craigs anyway.

Fixed the quik disconnect. Replaced lower front control arm bushs, only to find that the upper front ones that were replaced 1188kms ago are shot already. Time to flick them completely and make some adjustable upper arms with rose joints. (cant affort to buy em!!)

Pulled out front upper control arms, put the old ones back in and will be getting some nolathane bushes tomorrow. Never been a fan of nolathanne, but they have to last longer than the last rubber ones i got.....







thats from the left rear bush. The other 3 are at the point that you can push the sleeve through with ya finger, but not munted like this one.
Replaced these bushes 1188kms ago... but they've been shot for longer than that, I just didnt realise how bad.
The idea of making some seems to be out the window too... retail price on the rose joints that are the required size are $130.00 each + gst. May as well buy some made up.

did ya try cardwells racing for the rose joints

bb402c wrote:did ya try cardwells racing for the rose joints

nope, ive got a mate at farrell bearings that did the research for me. Problem with a simple rose joint is the theyre not wide enough to fit inside the bracket snugly. There would be heaps of side to side motion on the bolt. Really need what the yanks call "johnny joints" but havent managed to hunt any down in NZ yet.

Where is Cardwells located Shayne, wont hurt to give em a call.

um they in chch thats were i got all my rose joints from when built rally truck i could pull my arms out of my cherokke and you could copy them i think they the da same as tj ????

the front upper arms are the ones im after and yeah theyre the same. A pic or two should be enough to get an idea of what is in yours. Ive taken the strengthened/rooted ones out and have the original ones back in. They can stay there with new bushes for the meantime.

Did you mod your XJ ones yourself?

sweet will take some pics 2mrw

bb402c wrote:sweet will take some pics 2mrw

Thanks Shayne, appreciated.

it never ends............... about to take out the rear sprins and then if need be the front springs.

Rear from passenger to drivers has dropped 22mm, front from passengers has dropped 15mm (when in place). Wife suggested i need to drop a few kgs.
Potentially ill get the springs re-set, or just buy new ones... will see how they look once out.

Yippee

xj wrote:it never ends............... about to take out the rear sprins and then if need be the front springs.

Rear from passenger to drivers has dropped 22mm, front from passengers has dropped 15mm (when in place). Wife suggested i need to drop a few kgs.
Potentially ill get the springs re-set, or just buy new ones... will see how they look once out.

Yippee

WAH HA HA !!!!!

Safari or Cruizer running gear will fix that!!

not gunna happen Dixie.

So took out the rears, and theres a bit of a twist in the top of one where it aint supposed to be which makes it kinda a bit shorter. Figured that id swap them to the opposite sides and see what happened....... took 4mm out of the 22mm, bringing it to 18mm out on the same side (WHAT THE!!!!????)

Remeasured the front springs while in place and figured that taking out the 15mm spacer in the top on one side should level it out..... wrong again.... still 15mm out.

Fuked if i know.

It took me over three weekends to finish it all up (primarily because of rain and having to have the cables crimped properly by a shop). Finished the winch install. This is what the front looks now with 9.5xp:



Solenoid box tucked away with 0 AWG cables (50mm2 welding cables):



Used 5-core trailer cable to take the controls inside the cab (though only needed three wires, two will remain as built-in redundancy). Cut a couple of holes just in front of the cup holders. Trigger is switched with ignition key and has a blue LED to indicate its "armed" (using a black safety switch cover):

Normal condition:


Ready to go:


Winch in/out is a DPDT momentary switch. Tested it with me in the rain and wife on controls. Works brilliantly. I can still use the original plug-in remote if I want to be in front when pulling the steel cable in.

Future mod will be to replace the steel cable with synthetic when its damaged enough. Can't justify additional expense for now (gotta earn some brownie points with wife first).

Next on list is putting the spacers (thanks XJ) in to counter the sag in springs from the winch.

xj wrote:not gunna happen Dixie.

So took out the rears, and theres a bit of a twist in the top of one where it aint supposed to be which makes it kinda a bit shorter. Figured that id swap them to the opposite sides and see what happened....... took 4mm out of the 22mm, bringing it to 18mm out on the same side (WHAT THE!!!!????)

Remeasured the front springs while in place and figured that taking out the 15mm spacer in the top on one side should level it out..... wrong again.... still 15mm out.

Fuked if i know.

Drive around and then measure again. Springs might need a little to shift things around. Driver side rear normally goes south first because of engine torque (ever notice how front passenger side lift under heavy acceleration)!!!

TJ wrote:Drive around and then measure again. Springs might need a little to shift things around. Driver side rear normally goes south first because of engine torque (ever notice how front passenger side lift under heavy acceleration)!!!

Been there, done that... shucked the overalls, closed the garage door and walked off in disgust.

what did i do to my jeep today

smashed right rear tail light

smashed right rear window

major cracked windscreen

put more dents in every panel

pushed that stupid roof gutter in on the right side so now cant open the rear door

just bout burntout my winch winching da jeep after he managed to park it on a punga leaving his rear wheels 1.87m of the ground

had a shit load of fun was a mean track

smashed right rear tail light

That is obviously a common one, I have smashed that one twice now on the same track in Rallywoods. I have a spare, 2nd hand one, sitting in the garage for WOF time, the rest of the time I drive around with a coloured led light bulbs in what is left of my original one.

Glued it back together the first time, still haven't got around to that the second time.

Cheers
Ian