1:58 am
Club Member
September 3, 2008
Offline
Looks good. 
Um...what?
8:04 pm
January 27, 2011
Offline Just had another of those "what was I thinking" moments this week. While replacing the OEM brake lines and E-brake cables, I took a long look at the brakes front and rear.
Original calipers, original wheel cylinders, original spring kits ... and all the rust to prove it. So, now I have all I need to do a complete brake job front and rear, new SS lines front and rear and new E-brake cables (from YJ). After all that, I should be able to stop much more effectively.
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If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
8:07 pm
Club Member
July 10, 2003
Offline Cool. Good luck with the brake project.
I used to wheel a lot. . .
2:23 pm
January 27, 2011
Offline Completed the rebuilding of the brakes and installation of the new brake lines (stock +6") and E-brake cables (from a YJ). Those will no longer be my "limiting straps"! 
One thing I did find interesting ... there were 2 grooves worn in the top of BOTH steering knuckles, where the brake pads ride, that appeared to limit the movement significantly. They were deep enough that in order for the pads so contact the rotor, they'd have to "pop" out before sliding over. In all my years in auto and truck shops I'd never seen such a thing but a buddy of mine, who's been around Jeeps forever, said he's seen it many times. :dunno:
We took a grinder and slowly worked the material on the sliding surface until the grooves were worked out. Not sure if it is a "proper" repair but short of replacing the knuckles there was nothing much else to do. Initial test drives show the braking to be WAY better than before and much more responsive.
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If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
2:25 pm
January 27, 2011
Offline OH! And it was good to find out I hadn't forgotten how to make my own double flares for the hard brake lines. 
Of course I had to cut off the old ones!
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If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
4:45 pm
May 4, 2004
Offline "TomD" wrote: I'd never seen such a thing but a buddy of mine, who's been around Jeeps forever, said he's seen it many times. :dunno:
I haven't seen that personally but I've read about it many times on the various forums.
6:36 am
January 27, 2011
Offline Removed the headliner with the intent of replacing as it had been sagging badly for a few months. Found out I had a rig built in a VERY short interval that had no backing ... just foam with a color co-ordinated fabric cover. Now looking at the possibility of (1) making my own "headliner", (2) building an internal cage and (3) just coating the roof for noise and temperature resistance.
Regardless, will pull carpets and repair a couple of rust spots then Herculiner the floor this week.
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If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
4:32 pm
Club Member
July 10, 2003
Offline You are doing a lot of good stuff to the XJ. It's going to be really nice when you're done.
I used to wheel a lot. . .
6:41 pm
January 27, 2011
Offline "JohnDF" wrote: You are doing a lot of good stuff to the XJ. It's going to be really nice when you're done.
Done? Hmmm, done. I didn't think that was allowed?
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If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
4:23 pm
January 27, 2011
Offline Before starting on the headliner project, I thought pulling the seats and carpeting up would be a good idea. Give me lots more room and see what it will take to repair the leak on the passenger side, front. Here's what I found ...
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
6:46 am
January 22, 2011
Offline
I found this as I was looking through my pictures of my pathfinder runs. This was an xj that had the whole knuckle ripped off leaving him sitting right in the middle of the Rubicon Trail on Labor Day weekend. It took him two days to catch up with us in camp at Buck Island. They tore down another jeep to rebuild his axle so they could drive it out to Loon Lake then they had a quad drive the axle end back in to the jeep they tore down leaving them to hoof it from Loon to Buck. Just an FYI
3:26 pm
January 27, 2011
Offline "Path 88" wrote: I found this as I was looking through my pictures of my pathfinder runs. This was an xj that had the whole knuckle ripped off leaving him sitting right in the middle of the Rubicon Trail on Labor Day weekend. It took him two days to catch up with us in camp at Buck Island. They tore down another jeep to rebuild his axle so they could drive it out to Loon Lake then they had a quad drive the axle end back in to the jeep they tore down leaving them to hoof it from Loon to Buck. Just an FYI
Certainly don't want to be "that guy". What did he do to rip it off? How did he rebuild/modify so it wouldn't happen again?
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If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
3:59 pm
January 27, 2011
Offline Thought I'd post a quick "after" picture of my sanding, grinding, and painting before the Herculiner gets rolled on. Gotta love POR 15 and fiberglass.
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
4:56 pm
January 27, 2011
Offline Oh, and what 4x4 would be complete without OFFICIAL CHP/Elk Grove PD approved mud flaps!! 
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
7:37 pm
Club Member
July 10, 2003
Offline The floor looks awesome...
The flaps not as much.
Do your tires stick out that far?
I used to wheel a lot. . .
8:17 pm
January 27, 2011
Offline "JohnDF" wrote: The floor looks awesome...
The flaps not as much.
Do your tires stick out that far?
Thanks. It took me WAY longer to get everything to bare metal then I'd originally thought
Yeah, once I get the full width bumper made I can build the flaps into that. It will be a quick disconnect when I get it all brewed up. At the time I had no flares on as I was doing some fender repair. Once the fender flares are on, then the tires are only sticking out ~2" and I'll take off the mud flaps and see if I can get away with it. Drove it for 8 months all over the state highways and byways with only the flares and never got a second look.
The tires actually stick out from the fender 4" in back and 5" in front ... 33x13.5/15
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If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
5:54 pm
January 27, 2011
Offline With all the threads with questions I've started over the last 4-5 months, I thought a status update might be in order as the XJ just hasn't been sitting still.
For starters, ran into a bit of a $$$$ challenge so not everything I wanted to do before this season starts will get done. I know everyone understands that position. So here's what will happen:
1 - Ordered/received a D30 cover from Ruff Stuff. All I can say is GEEZ ... that thing is heavy. This is to reduce (eliminate?) flex in the housing.
2 - Ordered a combination rocker guard/slider/frame reinforcement from DetoursUSA. Covering a lot of bases with one product. The frame reinforcement part is welded to the unibody "frame" at the edges and using rosette holes.
3 - Ordered a spare tire carrier from Detours as well. It's called the Knucklebone. That will free up some space inside where I've been hauling the spare tire.
4 - Also from Detours, I ordered an alternate mount for the spare tire carrier and a mount for the recover point. Both are to bolted to the receiver hitch, but I'll most likely have them welded on. That way I have tire carrier, recovery point and keep the receiver as a small trailer is also in my future.
5 - Picked up a factory steel tank skid. It's pretty solid and WAY better than what I have now which is nothing.
6 - Picked up a factory X-fer case shield. Again, better than nothing and can't beat the price.
7 - Picked up the factory front shield to protect radiator, steering pump, etc. It's benefit is probably more mental than actual but that counts also.
Everything not already here is in the pipeline and should be delivered and installed by end of April/early May so I'll be ready for whatever is on the calendar. Re-gearing will get put off until the $$$$ is available. Hopefully that will be this summer.
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If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
2:08 am
Hey tom
On that ruff stuff diff cover. When I installed mine I needed to drill a couple of the holes a fraction of an inch bigger to get all the bolts to fit.
I also did some clean up on the inside with a dremel tool before painting with por-15.
Just a couple of points before you install.
This is just normal prep work to make it our own.
3:38 am
January 27, 2011
Offline "rick-rock" wrote: Hey tom
On that ruff stuff diff cover. When I installed mine I needed to drill a couple of the holes a fraction of an inch bigger to get all the bolts to fit.
I also did some clean up on the inside with a dremel tool before painting with por-15.
Just a couple of points before you install.
This is just normal prep work to make it our own.
Thanks for the tip!
The D44 I picked up has a Ruff Stuff cover as well that has never been installed. Cleanup and POR 15 it is.
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If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
3:40 am
January 27, 2011
Offline "Wh1t3Nukle" wrote: Great stuff!!
Pictures boss, pictures!! 😀
Let me break them out tomorrow and post some pics prior to cleanup and POR 15.
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If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
1:35 pm
January 27, 2011
Offline This is a little out of order, but I just had to put up the pic of my new front bumper ... a buddy made it for me while we were on vacation last week. Better pics later.
I have a rear bumper as well, but it will take a little work as I did not get all the numbers I needed before leaving.
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
3:49 pm
Leave no rock unscathed! I should have sent my work offsite too! 😀
Nice
4:07 pm
January 27, 2011
Offline "Wh1t3Nukle" wrote: Leave no rock unscathed! I should have sent my work offsite too! 😀
Nice
I was actually good timing on my part. My buddy was looking to improve an internal process and needed a non-standard item to go from engineering, to laser cutter, to break to welding to powder coat. We designed this over a beer one evening. The rear we did the next day at lunch so he had 2 that would be put between standard production items ... my gain x2!!
Only thing was I didn't realize some restrictions on the rear bumper and will now need to do a little cutting and welding to make it work. But you won't see any like these around for sure.
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If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading -- Lao Tzu
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