gully369
Mud Slinger
Barely Started
Posts: 127
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Post by gully369 on Dec 13, 2008 2:13:04 GMT -5
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Brian
Moderator
Donator
CSM, U.S. Army
Posts: 1,470
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Post by Brian on Dec 13, 2008 22:08:37 GMT -5
Good lookin ZJ...the last photo is making me home sick...I have not hit any trails here in Washington yet, but I doubt they will have the views we enjoy in Colorado. Thanks for sharing your Jeep with the rest of us
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Lou
Moderator
Injanir
Posts: 577
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Post by Lou on Dec 14, 2008 11:04:55 GMT -5
Finally, some life in this forum! Good lookin' ZJ by the way.
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gully369
Mud Slinger
Barely Started
Posts: 127
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Post by gully369 on Dec 26, 2009 13:37:02 GMT -5
My most recent improvement was swapping in a 2001 intake manifold and a Doug Thorley exhaust manifold. I have read a wide array of potential horsepower gains from 3HP(stock)-25HP(stroked & mods) on a dyno just for the intake. Someone supposedly talked with some one at jeep who said it is a 15 HP increase. Here are the comparisons between my 98 HO and a 2001. The 98 has 2.6L of air and the upgrade has 4.3L of air. and look at how much curve are in the new runners I added this view since I had not seen it anywhere and it puts it into perspective nicely. So after seeing the High HP gain mentioned above I figured I had to maximize my upgrade and took the dremel to it and cleaned up some resctictions. I did not go to the lengths in the original article of flow matching all 6 but here is the most restrictive inner openings and how much I took off of it. One of the nicest things is that since I was in the 96+ years I already had the power steering setup that the upgrade requires...score ;D And now for the whole reason this all started...my cracked exhaust manifold...well it was actually in two pieces. So on doing some research and not being able to find a Mike Leach header, I decided on the Doug Thorley header. You can see the crack on the engine side pic down by the collector Next I had to open up the gasket restrictions with the dremel and throw on some copper coat. and putting things back on But ran in to my first snag...the motor mount...Dremel to the rescue I'll have to get a pic of my creative wiring and vacuum hose routing.
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Post by yjsaabman on Dec 31, 2009 13:01:02 GMT -5
Good stuff! :thumbup: Need to fix thast last pic link,though. Missed the final "]" on the HTML code.
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gully369
Mud Slinger
Barely Started
Posts: 127
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Post by gully369 on Aug 24, 2010 1:13:56 GMT -5
Well have had many crazy months with buying a house and remodeling and should post up a recent upgrade. With me still not having my garage reclaimed from the move ant time restraints I decided to farm out what I thought was my next problem. I noticed I was having some classic front end break noises until I pulled the wheel. My caliper was dragging inside my rim . The bolt had stripped out of the knuckle. I figured it was caused by the ball joints that have been bad for the last six months. So I figured time for a improvement ;D WJ knuckle conversion ;D Switching to a bigger breaking package and getting some added turning abilities and having the ability to convert to hi-steer sounded great. So I sent the boy's at 4x4 off road on their mission, and learned a few things along the way. They replaced the menacing ball joints, put the WJ knuckles on (which I learned I can move to dana 44 latter ), ground the new calipers down to fit over my 15's (they told me they would never do that again for a 15" rim), and used factory xj brake hoses so they could reposition them to give me more play. As it turns out I was not able to convert to high steer at this time. Need more lift, which I figured, and with having to replace the sway bar mounting bracket to clear the over the knuckle steering seemed like to much when looking at the bill and realizing there would be no room for discos. I decided to keep the stock steering components for now . The shop also suggested I pick up some larger rims when I buy new tires to give me a little clearance around the caliper since I am around 3/8" in the tightest spot, it looks really tight in the pic above, replace my front track bar, and that I have bearing noise under acceleration. With the MT's I still can't hear it. After driving for the last month and realizing one day I have completely chewed up my tires that were suppose to make it through the winter, since this has been fixed. So time to find someone to align the jeep since the shop took it to the only place they could find to get it in they day they had it and they would not work on it due to a piece of my tie rod being pealed back, d**n rocks . Come to find out my tie rod end is stripped.
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gully369
Mud Slinger
Barely Started
Posts: 127
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Post by gully369 on Aug 31, 2010 17:19:17 GMT -5
So I am finally gathering up all of the parts for an intermediate lift. I picked up some OME springs that should give me 4" of lift, some OME rear shocks, JKS rear trackbar, and KOR front trackbar with bracket. I was a bit miffed to see that the KOR track bar was the exact same as the JKS, the only difference was a bend in the threaded end. I will get some pics up when I get the chance. I picked up a set of factory JK rubicon rock rashed wheels with 4 32" bfg mt tires with 60-70% tread and some cosmetic damage. One was a bran new spare, So I purchased another new tire to put on the 5th wheel. I also have picked up some spidertrax wheel spacers to convert my 5 on 4.5 to the rubicon 5 on 5. I have ordered a transfercase drop kit through the shop which should be in on Friday. Which means the ZJ will be growing up this weekend . The only other things I need to grab are a larger set of jack stands, and a spring compressor and I should be good to go. This will be my first lift install so I'm sure it will not be without it's complications but I have all weekend. I will go out and start PB blasting everything I can think of tonight to make things easier. Anyone have any tips and advice?
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Post by yjsaabman on Sept 13, 2010 12:50:23 GMT -5
About two weeks late, most likely, but you shouldn't need a spring compressor. Disconnect the swaybar, shocks, and trackbar and you should be able to drop everything far enough to get the taller ones in. You can also use a bottle jack between the axle and the frame to carefully gain a little more room. Might not be a bad idea to remiove the brake calipers just to make sure you don't ever extend the hoses. :thumbup:
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gully369
Mud Slinger
Barely Started
Posts: 127
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Post by gully369 on Nov 14, 2010 22:38:39 GMT -5
So I finally got the lift almost done so I should probably update everyone. I had the really rusty springs sandblasted and then I rattle canned them, and I sanded down the trackbar by hand not wanting the bushing wrecked. The TC drop kit came in on my birthday...it was a sign to start this...at least in my mind. I have never seen a pick of this trick so I thought I'd throw it in. I blame the shop for my first problem...they put the idea in my head about the weld breaking off the nut inside the unibody rail. The first side went smoothly and the second I snapped off a bolt and sure as nuts... spun the second one loose, even though I soaked them in PB. No big deal since the shop was going to put my new tierod and ends on anyway on Monday. The project continues... Good thing I picked up the spring compressor since I could not get the front trackbar loose. After the whole jounce bumper issue, they were replaced with poly ones which made them such a pain, I finally got the spring in, after cutting the first one off with a hacksaw due to my frustration. So now I don't have one on this side for now. Drivers side went smoothly but that d**n trackbar bolt still won't budge. Made a trip to HD and picked up a sawzall and 3 diamond blades. I finally got through the bolt on both sides of the track bar. I burned through all 3 diamond blades and 4 bimetal blades. d**n those bolts are hard. Here is the new KOR bracket to get rid of the old post style version. Looks like he just welded a piece on to the bottom of a factory bracket. The rear went much smoother...except for the track bar...I snapped 3 teeth of my T55...imagine that
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gully369
Mud Slinger
Barely Started
Posts: 127
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Post by gully369 on Nov 14, 2010 23:08:16 GMT -5
So the somewhat finished lift sitting in the driveway looks like this with a slight rake, 4" in the front and 5.25" in the rear. So the shocks which you probably noticed were missing in the picks above were back ordered...just my luck... So I put the shop back to work fixing my mistakes and checking things over. Man I spend to much money there I did pick up some nasty death wobble. The first time it hit me it tore the wheel from my hand and scared the daylights out of my son in the backseat as we were racing to get him to school. "Dad, what was THAT" I finally got it to stop a block latter, I coasted out of it. Now I just hit the brakes . Already had the alignment scheduled for the next day so I wasn't to concerned. The alignment helped but the symptoms only lessened. They got everything spot on except for the caster which they could only get to 6.5 since I am still on factory arms at this point. The bushings are also shot in them. But otherwise things looked good. Did also learn that one of my used tires is 1" bigger than the other. Stopped in at the shop on the way home. And the took a quick look at it in the parking lot. They said that my steering angles looked close and they didn't think that was the problem. In my research I couldn't find even one person use a drop pitman arm with this lift, since the XJ/ZJ ones are already an inch taller than other jeeps. So as you can see I got my OME shocks finally cleared from customs, N39L for the front, Backs N40L came with the used springs and a SD40 steering stabilizer. These have helped to mask the death wobble, and I am now not afraid to drive it faster than 45mph ;D. But the issue is still there and I can feel it when hitting a manhole cover but I would only call it a slight shimmy now. So what's left...I still have to get that rear track bar on. I should be getting an impact wrench in a couple weeks that should knock that one off the list. I have heard that factory JK control arms are 3/4" longer than my factory ZJ ones. I have been searching CL for them and have been thinking about only doing the lowers, not even sure if the uppers will work on the ZJ. I should probably level the front out, but don't want to add more things into this equation right now, but may have to if I have to rework my drive shafts with the longer arms.
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Post by yjsaabman on Nov 15, 2010 12:51:22 GMT -5
Looking good! Just doing LCAs will help with you caster angle in the front, though 6.5 degrees is d**ned close to the 7-ish I thought they were supposed to have. Looks like you need longer arms in the rear more than anywhere. Those suckers are almost in the rear doors!
The biggest thing on the death wobble in relation to steering is the relationship of the draglink angle to the trackbar angle. These two should be parellel to prevent any kind of bumpsteer/shimmy. It looks pretty good in that last pic, actually. I also spy the upgraded OME stabilizer in that pic. When's the last time the tierod ends and ball joints where freshened up?
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Post by neil on Nov 15, 2010 17:44:02 GMT -5
Actually the drag-link and track bar being parallel is an old wives tale when it comes to death wobble. Getting your full left to right steering is true along with correcting bumpsteer,but death wobble is primarily corrected with toe and caster.
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gully369
Mud Slinger
Barely Started
Posts: 127
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Post by gully369 on Nov 18, 2010 0:17:08 GMT -5
The tie rod and both tie rod ends were replaced this month and the ball joints were replaced about 4 months ago. The draglink ends are a little sloppy but the shop said they would do until I'm ready for high steer. It is really questionable if I have enough lift right now for it. I have been looking into a steering box brace, but If I could just find some some used JK control arms I could rule out the worn out bushings.
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Post by yjsaabman on Nov 19, 2010 12:02:22 GMT -5
Sorry, you are correct, Neil. I had a brain fart on that one. Draglink and Trackbar angle are, indeed, for bumpsteer, as much as anything. Proper alignment (most often toe angle) and worn components for DW.
Oh, and I'm a big fan of the doubled up wrench trick. Been using it for years!
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gully369
Mud Slinger
Barely Started
Posts: 127
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Post by gully369 on Dec 8, 2010 0:38:20 GMT -5
Well Ifinally rounded up two pairs of jk rear upper control arms...I really think I need to get an impact gun before getting this project rolling though
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