Chamba
Not obsessed: focused.
- City
- Vero Beach
- State
- FL
This could be perfect for an XJ fan
Raven - 2001 XJ
- Thread starter bigwalton
- Start date
This could be perfect for an XJ fan
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Personally do not like the pre-97 look but it looks solid.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Did the ball joints, unit bearings and swapped in the low-mile stock steering setup I had hoarded from the old LJ. Someone had done the ujoints and brakes fairly recently, so that was a nice surprise.
Looking at the rear end, whoever put the lift on put pinion angle shims in backwards and the angles were a mess. Got into the pack and switched that around. May not need the shims at all, have a slight vibration on deceleration now but the vibration is much improved and I did the driveshaft ujoints which were on the way to needing done soon.
The real fun was getting the lug nuts off. Managed to get one of 7 that both impact guns wouldn’t touch and had to go buy a 3/4” breaker bar and adapter. With that on there plus a cheater bar, they all finally let loose with the loudest bangs I’ve ever made a bolt make personally.
But finally got that all done and have driven it to work the last couple days…
Hoping this plan works and it gets me through the winter so I can do the 4wd swap on the black one next spring.
Looking at the rear end, whoever put the lift on put pinion angle shims in backwards and the angles were a mess. Got into the pack and switched that around. May not need the shims at all, have a slight vibration on deceleration now but the vibration is much improved and I did the driveshaft ujoints which were on the way to needing done soon.
The real fun was getting the lug nuts off. Managed to get one of 7 that both impact guns wouldn’t touch and had to go buy a 3/4” breaker bar and adapter. With that on there plus a cheater bar, they all finally let loose with the loudest bangs I’ve ever made a bolt make personally.
But finally got that all done and have driven it to work the last couple days…
Hoping this plan works and it gets me through the winter so I can do the 4wd swap on the black one next spring.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
It’s a lot better than I thought it was going to be when I went to look at it. The main “frame” channels are really good. The rockers and the substructure around the rear upper shock mounts are the worst, easily. But the PO had added a set of the “Y” replacement captured nuts for the upper shock mounts and installed a set of bar pin eliminators already.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
What up with that sweet TJ in the parking lot from the picture above
Smartass (guys, Raymond saw this photo via text message and just wanted to make me explain again to give me &$^# for not buying it)
That's my boss' 60th anniversary edition TJ he bought new. It's got a good amount of rust, similar to my XJ. It used to be stored inside the shop but we got a new press brake that required it to be moved outside. It's been in that parking spot since I started in April. I asked about it and he said something vague about transmission issues parked it (he now has a JKU that annoys him constantly) and when a coworker started it to move outside it had "major engine problems." He said he'd really like it to be running/driving again but he's pretty cheap and I don't ever see it going to a shop. My motivation to work on anything that's not one of my own Jeeps is pretty damn low, so there it sits. It is a shame and it's solid enough to be a good Michigan driver.
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- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
So, I'm writing an article on the 4WD conversion for Jeep Action magazine out of Australia and through that I got hooked up with a Zone Offroad 3" lift with full leaves and new coils/shocks all around plus a JKS adjustable trackbar to get things set right again after the lift.
This will make things nice and new underneath and I have a Teraflex SYE and Novak 231 rebuild kit coming. May as well do it "right" while I'm pulling things apart.
Also installed an Azzy's Design Works "pocket" panel in the fake storage cubby on this and the kid's XJs and now I can actually keep fluids in that totally useless space (to the right of the Zone box).
This will make things nice and new underneath and I have a Teraflex SYE and Novak 231 rebuild kit coming. May as well do it "right" while I'm pulling things apart.
Also installed an Azzy's Design Works "pocket" panel in the fake storage cubby on this and the kid's XJs and now I can actually keep fluids in that totally useless space (to the right of the Zone box).
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Oh, forgot to mention that the radiator tank in the maroon one cracked on me about a month and a half ago, so I got to finish out the winter/snow driving in 2WD in the black one. Only one really bad day/drive home with ice where I got VERY lucky that the one stoplight I hit that has an incline coming up to it was green. I had to stop at one of the other lights on the drive and even on level ground, it took significant doing to get moving forward. The F-150 behind me wasn't happy with my slowness.
My daughter's XJ got a HD Summit all-metal radiator thanks to @Randyzzz not long before I bought it and it unfortunately managed to develop a crack. I swapped it for an aluminum Mishimoto unit (I had store credit for years that I needed to use up) and I now have the Summit one in here at work for a co-worker to braze up when he gets a chance (I work at a welding/testing/fab shop of sorts). I'll swap it into the black one to replace the part-store crimped plastic tank radiator that's in it now and probably do a thermostat and water pump.
My daughter's XJ got a HD Summit all-metal radiator thanks to @Randyzzz not long before I bought it and it unfortunately managed to develop a crack. I swapped it for an aluminum Mishimoto unit (I had store credit for years that I needed to use up) and I now have the Summit one in here at work for a co-worker to braze up when he gets a chance (I work at a welding/testing/fab shop of sorts). I'll swap it into the black one to replace the part-store crimped plastic tank radiator that's in it now and probably do a thermostat and water pump.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Good use of it but that's not what Jeep designed it for, though. I've always thought that it's like the designers started that panel and then forgot to finish it out before it went into production.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
The harvest has begun!
Have a friend coming in two weeks to help so I need to have the 231 rebuilt and SYE installed along with whatever else I can get done before that.
Decided I’m parting this down and scrapping it rather than try to make it drivable, so this was the last time it moves on its own.
Have a friend coming in two weeks to help so I need to have the 231 rebuilt and SYE installed along with whatever else I can get done before that.
Decided I’m parting this down and scrapping it rather than try to make it drivable, so this was the last time it moves on its own.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Overdue for an update on this one... getting everything off of the maroon one was fine enough. Trying to get the supension off the black one, even with almost no rust underneath, was met with a frozen front spring eye bolt on the back end, left side. That screwed up a planned work weekend with a Jeep friend and severely limited progress. I ended up having to cut the spring eye apart and cut through the sleeve in the spring eye to get penetrant inside it to finally break it free.
While I was pulling the 2WD stuff out from under the front end, the steering box decided to start leaking like a sieve, so I had to get a new unit and swap it in, which isn't the most fun on these. Then life happened and it sat for MONTHS.
Finally had local Scrambler guys @wimps81096 @dmorolli and Chuck over for a work day a couple weeks back and got most of it back together. I picked away at the list and finally got it out of the garage under its own power. LOVE the stance with the 31s, one of my favorite lift/tire size combos on any model Jeep. I used the non-adjustable lower arms off of the maroon one to replace the stockers with the Zone lift and JKS trackbar. Had to run to get a 9/16" drill to drill out the stock tapered trackbar hole but otherwise everything went on fine. Love the ride so far.
These wheels (and maybe tires) are temporary. They're a little weather checked and I have the take off BFG ATs from the kid's XJ, but they have less tread than these. I have a set of Interco Birddog wheels that will be going on this with one set of tires or the other after some dismounting/mounting happens.
Put the front driveshaft in, need to make a call on what to do in the rear. The stock front shaft actually fits absolutely perfectly, but it's a CV shaft and the rear pinion isn't angled up as it should be for a CV. Could find a part-out shaft and tackle the angle with shims or just have a regular shaft made up... need to get that sorted sooner than later. Might swap the front shaft on the rear just to see what kind of vibrations I get. Probably the best first step.
Also realized I need to figure out a 4WD indicator switch harness. The wiring isn't there to the tcase on this 2WD. Not sure what all is involved there.
The Azzy's Design Works shifter linkage works and went in easily, I get all the slections, but 4H and N aren't lined up with the gate at all. I think I need to drop the tcase side of the linkage into the middle of the three holes, I have it in the furthest out/longest hole. Pretty easy to adjust the throw now that he went to a reverse thread on one end of the adjustment rod, but getting the link end off of the tcase side is tougher.
I'll get more detailed photos up.
While I was pulling the 2WD stuff out from under the front end, the steering box decided to start leaking like a sieve, so I had to get a new unit and swap it in, which isn't the most fun on these. Then life happened and it sat for MONTHS.
Finally had local Scrambler guys @wimps81096 @dmorolli and Chuck over for a work day a couple weeks back and got most of it back together. I picked away at the list and finally got it out of the garage under its own power. LOVE the stance with the 31s, one of my favorite lift/tire size combos on any model Jeep. I used the non-adjustable lower arms off of the maroon one to replace the stockers with the Zone lift and JKS trackbar. Had to run to get a 9/16" drill to drill out the stock tapered trackbar hole but otherwise everything went on fine. Love the ride so far.
These wheels (and maybe tires) are temporary. They're a little weather checked and I have the take off BFG ATs from the kid's XJ, but they have less tread than these. I have a set of Interco Birddog wheels that will be going on this with one set of tires or the other after some dismounting/mounting happens.
Put the front driveshaft in, need to make a call on what to do in the rear. The stock front shaft actually fits absolutely perfectly, but it's a CV shaft and the rear pinion isn't angled up as it should be for a CV. Could find a part-out shaft and tackle the angle with shims or just have a regular shaft made up... need to get that sorted sooner than later. Might swap the front shaft on the rear just to see what kind of vibrations I get. Probably the best first step.
Also realized I need to figure out a 4WD indicator switch harness. The wiring isn't there to the tcase on this 2WD. Not sure what all is involved there.
The Azzy's Design Works shifter linkage works and went in easily, I get all the slections, but 4H and N aren't lined up with the gate at all. I think I need to drop the tcase side of the linkage into the middle of the three holes, I have it in the furthest out/longest hole. Pretty easy to adjust the throw now that he went to a reverse thread on one end of the adjustment rod, but getting the link end off of the tcase side is tougher.
I'll get more detailed photos up.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Found a stock front driveshaft local for $30 and ordered the 3 joints and centering ball to rebuild it this weekend. Took me a while to sort out how to pull the old centering ball, probably should have left the "inside" u-joint in place to hold the body of the CV and used that to pry on... but I got it.
Driveshaft rebuilds are great while-watching-football projects, btw.
When you do a SYE on these and do any kind of lift (it may fit stock too), a front driveshaft fits perfectly in the rear. So now I have identical front/rear shafts in this Jeep, which is a super cool side benefit in addition to being a lot cheaper than getting a new custom shaft built.
Also found that the front spring retainer clips/bolts on the axle were loose and that was the light noise I had been hearing on my first test drive. While pulling those (the bolt holes are stripped, I'll tap for larger bolts when I go to install the extended front bump stops I have sitting on the bench) I also noticed that I overlooked putting in the grease zerk on the JKS drag link, so I did that and lubed it up. Happy accident being able to catch that oversight.
Test drive went well. Hit some rough dirt roads on the way home and only heard normal old Jeep interior noises. Was a little worried with the CV and stock-ish pinion angle, but all I noticed was a very slight vibration around 30-32 MPH when off the throttle. On throttle I got it to 70 and had no issues. So now it's all officially 4wd.
Still need to do some wheel/tire swapping to get my Interco Birddogs onto it, but I'll be DDing this thing for the winter now
Still need to do a garage alignment, I think I'm too toe-in now with the lift and the stock Y-link steering.
Driveshaft shot and you can see how clean this thing is and why I went through all the trouble (and well-lubed with ATF from the leaking 2WD trans slip yoke
You can see where I cleaned off some of the muffler before finally giving up on it, and the underbody above the driveshaft got a bit of a wipedown.)
@spankrjs swore that the angles were good, based on this photo and that I wouldn't have a problem.
Beauty shot now that it's officially 4wd.
This one just made me happy... Mater will be headed into winter storage shortly and Raven won't see the inside of the garage much at all. You can see the issues with the hood and roof paint here. Totally baked and cracked/pitted from sitting out in Oklahoma. On the lookout for a good used black hood and will probably just treat/rattle can the roof.
Driveshaft rebuilds are great while-watching-football projects, btw.
When you do a SYE on these and do any kind of lift (it may fit stock too), a front driveshaft fits perfectly in the rear. So now I have identical front/rear shafts in this Jeep, which is a super cool side benefit in addition to being a lot cheaper than getting a new custom shaft built.
Also found that the front spring retainer clips/bolts on the axle were loose and that was the light noise I had been hearing on my first test drive. While pulling those (the bolt holes are stripped, I'll tap for larger bolts when I go to install the extended front bump stops I have sitting on the bench) I also noticed that I overlooked putting in the grease zerk on the JKS drag link, so I did that and lubed it up. Happy accident being able to catch that oversight.
Test drive went well. Hit some rough dirt roads on the way home and only heard normal old Jeep interior noises. Was a little worried with the CV and stock-ish pinion angle, but all I noticed was a very slight vibration around 30-32 MPH when off the throttle. On throttle I got it to 70 and had no issues. So now it's all officially 4wd.
Still need to do some wheel/tire swapping to get my Interco Birddogs onto it, but I'll be DDing this thing for the winter now
Still need to do a garage alignment, I think I'm too toe-in now with the lift and the stock Y-link steering.
Driveshaft shot and you can see how clean this thing is and why I went through all the trouble (and well-lubed with ATF from the leaking 2WD trans slip yoke
You can see where I cleaned off some of the muffler before finally giving up on it, and the underbody above the driveshaft got a bit of a wipedown.)@spankrjs swore that the angles were good, based on this photo and that I wouldn't have a problem.
Beauty shot now that it's officially 4wd.
This one just made me happy... Mater will be headed into winter storage shortly and Raven won't see the inside of the garage much at all. You can see the issues with the hood and roof paint here. Totally baked and cracked/pitted from sitting out in Oklahoma. On the lookout for a good used black hood and will probably just treat/rattle can the roof.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
The donor went away tonight. I wish I’d been able to strip a lot more off it but this year was just all wrong to get it done and it needed to go away.
I do have almost new injectors and all the cruise control bits that will need to go
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Appointment tomorrow to get a set of used 31 BFG ATs swapped onto the set of interco Birddog wheels that I've been holding on to for years to reuse...
I'm like a freaking kid on Christmas eve... I may not sleep tonight!
On the LJ, the best wheel/tire set I ever had on it.
I'm like a freaking kid on Christmas eve... I may not sleep tonight!
On the LJ, the best wheel/tire set I ever had on it.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Update on this one, been driving it all winter on the old wheels/tires. I completely forgot that the Birddog wheels are 17", so they wouldn't work with the take-off BFGs 
New tires were too much to swallow around the holidays and I haven't seen anything good on marketplace that I could get to reasonably. One good deal, but I was out of town when I saw it 
Other than the shifter lights and the 4WD indicator lights not working and the front driveshaft having some vibration, it's been solid. Reeks to all holy hell for the leaks in the engine bay and I hope to tackle some of that this summer when I do the cruise and maybe swap in the new injectors that came off the donor.
I've had a P1494 - emission solenoid pump thingy code since I got this one and finally swapped that out for the one that I pulled off the 4wd donor this weekend. Nice to drive in without the CEL.
Still need to swap in the cruise control stuff and the forecast was good enough for me to go ahead and pull the front driveshaft to rebuild this week.
Would be nice to get new door stops installed, they both just swing freely on the hinges but overall, this has been just what I hoped it would be so far
New tires were too much to swallow around the holidays and I haven't seen anything good on marketplace that I could get to reasonably. One good deal, but I was out of town when I saw it Other than the shifter lights and the 4WD indicator lights not working and the front driveshaft having some vibration, it's been solid. Reeks to all holy hell for the leaks in the engine bay and I hope to tackle some of that this summer when I do the cruise and maybe swap in the new injectors that came off the donor.
I've had a P1494 - emission solenoid pump thingy code since I got this one and finally swapped that out for the one that I pulled off the 4wd donor this weekend. Nice to drive in without the CEL.
Still need to swap in the cruise control stuff and the forecast was good enough for me to go ahead and pull the front driveshaft to rebuild this week.
Would be nice to get new door stops installed, they both just swing freely on the hinges but overall, this has been just what I hoped it would be so far
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Oh HELL to the NO!
They will get used on this XJ, I just have to find the tires. I haven't held onto them for all these years to sell them off.
Hoping the MIL and wife team up to get tires for me for my birthday next week.
