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Daily Driver 5.9 build thread - bumpers, tube rockers, etc..

157K views 399 replies 65 participants last post by  Rotheeno 
#1 ·
Daily Driver 5.9 build thread - lot's of DIY fabbing. Engine build going on..

As some may notice from my signature, I'm building an XJ that has Unimog 404 portal axles, 42" Pitbull Rockers, full cage, etc.. My ZJ is the tow rig and my daily driver so I don't want it to be overly built.

Being a Jeep guy, I can't resist taking my ZJ out on the easier trails sometimes. So it needs to be built so that it can take some rock rash without trashing the body panels. Finally had the time to start building it to better suit my needs for a "sunday wheeler".

I bought the ZJ last July, in absolutely mint condition. Zero rust, ~90k miles, all original. I couldn't keep it like that for too long, so I added 2" budget boost, longer shocks, some fender trimming and 32 x 11.50 BFG KM2s.



I drove it like that for the winter, and wheeled it occasionally..





 
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#129 ·
just remove the abs
 
#131 ·
I just wrote above I cannot remove the abs :rtft: It is required by law on vehicles that were equipped with abs from the factory. It kind of sucks, but what can you do.. damn regulations :nuts:

Did you consider simply getting the Vanco brake kit vs the WJ knuckles?

If you did, was there a reason you decided to go with WJ/hi-steer instead of Vanco/other steering?

I was leaning towards Vanco/Currie steering with flipped tie rod because it seems like there are lots of little problems the WJ setup presents.
Vanco setup isn't any cheaper, and it does not provide you with a pass. side knuckle that allows you to run true cross-over steering. So why WJ? Bigger brakes, possibility for cross-over steering with WJ or chevy c/k30 1-ton TREs, either otk or utk. I did consider chevy 1-ton steering, but decided to go with WJ parts, because they gave me a bit more room with bends in them.

WJ knuckle swap isn't a bolt-on, but nevertheless fairly simple. If one wasn't running OTK steering, didn't have much front WB stretch and ditched the abs system, this would be a real easy swap.

Whatever knuckles you use,if you are gonna run OTK steering the knuckles will need to be drilled/ reamed anyway :)
 
#130 ·
Did you consider simply getting the Vanco brake kit vs the WJ knuckles?

If you did, was there a reason you decided to go with WJ/hi-steer instead of Vanco/other steering?

I was leaning towards Vanco/Currie steering with flipped tie rod because it seems like there are lots of little problems the WJ setup presents.
 
#132 ·
I got the front caliper bracket mounting bolts today. They are allen-head, class 12.9 (stock ones are 10.9), 12mm x 1.25 thread pitch, 50mm long. I need to shorten the bolts about 1/8". Ended up costing me about 10$ with hardened washers. That's fairly cheap compared to stock bolts; order from USA they would've cost me around 20$, and the local stealerships ask 15€ (=~18$) for just ONE bolt! :D :nuts: I can't see a reason why these wouldn't work.

I bolted the brackets and calipers in place, measured what kind of spacer I need to cut between knuckle and caliper bracket - 1/4". I've seen write-ups with and without spacers, dunno where the difference comes from.
I'm damn sure I'll have a lot more stopping power with these, compared to the wimpy stock brakes :thumbsup:



The dual piston WJ caliper is huge compared to the single piston stock one. Disc diameter is also 1" bigger :)



It's a little cramped fit with a 15" wheel.. OEM 15" wheels would not fit at all, it's very close with these as well. I will shave between 1/16" - 1/8" off the calipers on the outer edges, there was literally a hairs' width of space between the caliper and wheel :shhh:



..from behind..:



No problems using OTK steering with WJ TREs on 15" wheels with 4" backspacing :thumbsup:

 
#133 ·
Rear trackbar frameside mount needed to be redone. After lifting and WB stretch, it wasn't exactly in ideal location. I added some frame plating (mostly 1/4", some was slightly thinner), and fabbed a new mount from 4" x 2" x 3/16" wall box tube. Double holes for trackbar angle fine- tuning. Upper one is around 1/2" lower than stock, and the other one is 1.5" below upper hole.

Now that I have the rear axle under the vehicle, I realized I should've built the axle trackbar mount higher up. It is now in it's stock location, but I would've had room to raise it about 1.5" higher for a flatter (more horizontal) trackbar. My front trackbar will be almost horizontal, rear could've been the same. Oh well.. not gonna redo it again :D
Rear will be about 1"-1.5" lower at ride height:



..I need to add a little bit more supports on the trackbar mount, and finish the frame plating on the inside of the uniframe rails.



Could've done a better job with the frame plating (making it reach higher up), but that would've involved cutting into the coil bucket, dropping the coil, grinding off a lot of stuff and welding in awkward positions. If I crack the frame close to the panhard mount, I sure know why it happened :D :laugh:

 
#136 ·
Rear uniframe plating is now done, all I need to do is clean some of the rust, then prime and paint the rest of the plating. Tomorrow I'llgo pick up the JKS rear trackbar (for TJs) from the customs post office to pay for import taxes and VAT. Rear is mostly done after that :thumbsup:

I highly doubt this "Made in Taiwan" c- clamp was forged steel :D 4" long version, I used two fingers to close a roughly .40" gap between the uniframe rail sheetmetal and 1/4" frame stiffener plate.. :rolleyes:



It was used where the hole is, to squeeze the uniframe against the plate. The upper section of the 1/4" plate wasn't even welded. Talk about crappy quality :rofl: :D

 
#139 ·
Front axle is bolted in, I still need to do afew thing on it:
* Get the draglink and tierod fabbed (a friend will do that in a lathe)
* Cut the passenger-side brake caliper adapter plate, and install brakes (driver's side done)
* Fab and burn in panhard-bar mounts on the axle and frame.

I got the balljoints replaced, cost me ~40$ for the work (I brought my own balljoints); lowers are Moog, uppers are Spicer. I also pressed out the old UCA bushings and replaced with new ones. Here's a little proof why you should NOT buy the "el hecho mexico" whatever-brand-replacement parts. Notice how the hole is the same 10mm on bot :rolleyes: :rofl:



Stock brake hoses were too short with the WJ brakes and some of the updates I did on the rear axle. I bought a matching set of new stainless steel braided hoses. Fronts are designed for up to 6" lift, rear is the same thing. Both reach more than fine now and I certainly will have enough slack on the hoses :)



Front driver's side mostly done:



Rear panhard is also bolted in; the TJ panhard bar is actually slightly too long for the ZJ to center the axle exactly (it's off by something like 1/4"-1/2"). No biggie.. Rear is mostly done now :thumbsup:

 
#140 ·
Had to choose between working on my Jeep today, or go watch a NEZ Cup Formula Offroad Race. It wasn't very hard to decide between the two :D

A nice little flip:
(rolled five times, not all shown below)















Bent his KOR coil-over, bent all three front CAs and one of them also sheared off the mounts, bent frame.. He did the same yesterday and the mechanics were able to put it back together over night. Here's the one from yesterday:



This guy almost made it, fronts were almost on flat ground when the drivers front catched the wall:



..and over it goes :D



The driver of this vehicle is over 70 years old! :eek: :nuts:



He made it up :thumbsup:



He did not :D



Speed stage:
(timed for fastest racer)



View from behind the wheel of a 1600hp, 1400lbs/ft Unlimited- class racer. Has a Chevy LS3 twin turbo with nitrous injection :D



Two videos from earlier this season in Sweden and Norway:



 
#142 ·
A couple more.. The roar from these engines is pretty damn amazing. Modified- class engines produce around 600-800 HP, Unlimited- class have 800-1500 HP + nitrous oxide injection when needed. Amazing machines that can climb over vertical walls on soft sand :nuts:























 
#144 ·
Yeap, it's great sutff. What I can tell you it doesn't look even closely as insane on the TV/youtube than it does in real life watching it close enough. We were lucky to be able to get to right where the action is, on all stages (6 stages per raceday) we were shooting pics from 50-100 feet from the start line :thumbsup:

These video are from Sunday stage 6, which usually is the hardest one and where the drivers do the craziest stuff.. nice entertainment :D Videos are not shoot by me.











Nice jump at the end here :D :thumbsup:

 
#145 ·
Incar video from Race Linda; IIRC he came second on overall scores on Sun., Sat. race I don't know.
Picture below is taken at approximately 2:36 on the sunday incar video:



Saturday stages:



Sunday stages:

 
#146 ·
Major progress today :D

Front DS slip joint was almost stuck so I took it apart, cleaned and lubed it. Good thing is the blue coating on the splines was intact, considering the DS came out of a 1990 XJ that had 160k miles on the clock it isn't bad at all. No slop in the slip joint at all :thumbsup:

I then cleaned all the rust off the front & rear driveshafts with a flap disc so I can paint them tomorrow. Lots of things going on :laugh: :D New front trackbar at the bottom..

 
#148 ·
Higher? Most likely not, or at least no more than up to about 3". There really is no need for going any higher. I could run 33s or even 35s with some added bumpstopping.

Front could use a little more uptravel, I only have ~3.5"-4" of uptravel which IMO isn't enough. Rear is pretty damn good at slightly over 7" of available uptravel without any rubbing. If I were to run 35s I'd either need to do a little modding on the rear fenders, or limit uptravel. I actually didn't make the rear tube fenders wide enough to be able to stuff something like 35s which was my original plan. Dunno how I managed to mess up in that area :D :laugh:

As far as belly height, it sure isn't too far up. That's why I need to fab a belly skid to keep the TC alive and be able to slide over rocks. This also is my daily driver and tow rig, so I want to keep it fairly low for good stability and handling :thumbsup:

I've got my XJ project, and when it gets finished my ZJ will see a lot less trails than it does now. That's another reason I'm not doing a "full on"- build on the ZJ at this time. I would put it this way: it is being built for possible future upgrades, when I've got the money to buy a newer tow rig/ DD and I get bored on the XJ ;) :laugh: But for now, this is about as big as it gets :thumbsup:
 
#149 ·
A little bit more uber- bling for the front axle.. calipers and brackets painted with high-temp silver :D also painted both driveshafts (silver) and front trackbar (glossy black). Got the new rear DS 1330 u-joint too..

 
#150 ·
Got the steering linkage tubes from a friend today. They are roughly 1 1/4" OD .250 wall DOM (metric stuff, but measurements are close to that). M24 x 1.5mm right hand threads were done by my friend, he didn't have the M24 x 1.5 LH tap so I had to drop the tubes to a machine shop and have them cut the threads. I'll get 'em back next friday. I also should receime my Goferit flip inserts next week, so I can install them as well.

On the to-do-list to make my Jeep run again:
* Get the steering linkage back from machine shop
* Install and weld the goferit flip insterts
* Bleed the brakes
* Replace one u-joint on the front DS and bolt it in
* Fab frameside and axleside trackbar brackets for the front axle
* Bolt in rear swaybar and fab swaybar endlink mount onto the axle
* Cut, notch and burn in a few support tubes to the rear bumper and rockers; clean up and repaint all the tubes, rockers and skid plates
* Finish up tranny x-member/ TC skid
* Re-install gas tank & skid

All are actually fairly small things, but takes a while to get 'em all done. I did finish the front axle swaybar mounts today. Made from 1/4" steel plate that had a 90* bend on it.. it was supposed to be a winch mounting plate but I never used it. It was time to cut it and find some other use for it :D





 
#152 ·
Sort of like that, but their real goal really is getting all the way up the slopes :D

Damn, the burner cable on my MIG broke today. Inner insulation had melted for some reason and the weld wire of course kept shorting inside the burner cable all the time, resulting in serious wire feed problems and bad welds. A few other broken parts on the burner (which haven't caused any major headache so far), but after this failure I couldn't do crap with it :brickwall

Gotta go buy a new one or get a couple of spare parts. My welder is already 5 years old and has been in fairly heavy use, so might be a good idea to buy a complete new burner cable anyways since it is a wearing item on the welder. I'll keep the old one as spare that can be repaired if need be. Nothing wrong with the machine itself though, gotta love quality machines :thumbsup:
 
#153 ·
Got the tierod and draglink that my friend tuned and tapped on a lathe. They came out very nice! I pressed in and welded the Goferit flip inserts and painted them yesterday. Today I started doing some serious work with the trackbar mounts and testing how everything fits there with the OTK steering and relativily low lift height. It's tight, but I've got enough room :thumbsup:

Frameside trackbar mount; it need some gusseting and cutting to give it enough strength and clearance (it's a pretty damn tight fit at full compression):



Plenty of room for the front trackbar :D



Looking from the front it may seem that the trackbar and draglink aren't parallel; however if you watch where the trackbar mounting holes are it's spot-on level. The small bend on the adjusting end of the JKS adjustable trackbar kit makes it look a little weird. I would've preferred a straight end.

With steering and trackbar angles like this at ride height, I should have no worries about bumpsteer :thumbsup: With the OTK steering, I also have plenty of room under the tierod to keep it from hitting rocks etc..



It's a little tight @ the passenger side knuckle and swaybar endlink mount area. Turning left to full lock, there is around 1/4" clearance between the endlink mount and also trackbar mount and jam nut.

However, turning towards full lock to right, the draglink TRE and jamnut hits the endlink mount. I made a stupid measurement error. Top of endlink mount is 3/8" too forward. Same thing on the other side, but there's nothing hitting. I need to notch, bend and re-weld both mounts. :( Other than that, everything looks really good :thumbsup:

 
#155 ·
There might be a problem running that diff cover.... jk man.

Looks good as always. What are you plans to plate the frame side track bar mount?
 
#156 ·
I'll make a gusset from box steel (2" x 4" x .250 wall) facing forward, to provide a bit more side- loading support, and of course cap the uneccesary holes tehre are now. It should make teh mount sturdy enough. I used 1/4" plate under and around the uniframe where the mount is, it also supported from underneath with some rosette welds and the two engine mounting bolts. I had to make a relief cut on the 1/4" plate to be able to bend it, need to weld the relief cut too :)

edit: I'm also thinking of fabbing an extra mount to connect the trackbar bar mount to the passenger side uniframe rail.
 
#157 ·
Got the frameside trackbar mount almost done. I had to cut a piece off to avoid hitting the coil bucket on the front axle at full bump - yet I needed to notch a little bit off from the corner of the coil bucket :D

I probably should've moved the trackbar mounting hole a little bit further towards the center of the vehicle, but at this point I wasn't gonna do that. I'll keep an eye on that area if the bumpstops do their work as they should. Tomorrow I'll plate & weld the rest of the holes and fab the fishplates to strengthen the extended section on the mount.



I can't say the axle side was any less of a PITA, there's just not much extra space with only 1.75" lift and OTK cross- over steering. Thank god I have extended the wheelbase by almost two inches in the front and moved the coil buckets back 1.75" so they are centerd on the axle tubes. There is absolutely no way I otherwise could've fit all this crap in that cramped area :nuts: :laugh:

All the axle side mounts are now done; I finished the trackbar mount, I cut, bent and rewelded the swaybar endlink mounts (they are now 3/8" closer to the coils -> I'll have a minimum of 1/4" clearance between the endlink mounts and draglink at full steering lock). Plenty of room :D



Hopefully tomorrow is the last time in a while I need to put in the coils and all the linkage on the front end.. I must've taken out and put back in the steering linkage, trackbar, coils, and endlinks at least a dozen times today to see that everything fits. Crazy stuff :rolleyes:

That's where the front passenger side coil goes..

 
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