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..
I should get it back on to the roads and trails by the end of the week. Worked on it today for 10 hours straight, got everything done at the front what I needed to. Brakes are on, steering is bolted (not adjusted), front DS on, etc...
I need to find a diff cover that has no hole in it
Now the front tires sit on the wheelswells like I want them to. I have some spare room for some bigger tires too. My gut feeling on correct trackbar length wasn't too much off when I adjusted it before bolting it on - I only measured the axle location when everything was installed - it's only 1/8" off center
Front pinion angle couldn't be much better:
The high pinion front axle really raises the front DS a lot higher up. It is really noticable with such a low lift height. With the stock LP D30 it was almost as low as my LCAs :laugh:
You can see the nice big dent on my tranny oil pan, and it has actually started seeping a little oil out from the gasket. Gotta do something about it when I've got time and energy for that..
First testround succesfully done after 5 months of sitting on axle stands! :thumbsup:
Few issues:
* Steering needs to be adjusted, it has way too much toe-in
* Couple loose bolts & nuts on the control arms
* Plenty of bad odour and smoke from the new muffler (has some sort of grease on it for storage/ shipping protection)
* Some slop on steering/ trackbar.
Trackbar issues at first I though was kinda weird since I drilled all the holes like should. However there was some play on the frame- end at the trackbar itself. I first thought I got bad parts on the flex joint, but I then went on to measure the mounting bolt that came with the kit - I didn't use it 'cause it had a grease hole drilled thru it lenghtwise.
Well, it has a diameter of 7/16", where the mounting holes and bolt I used are stock 10mm (3/8"). Good thing is I have a couple extra steering box bolts that are 7/16", are correct length and are grade 8. I only need to drill the holes on the mount to 11mm (7/16") and all should be good.
Adjusted the steering, and handbrake so I could go get the Jeep inspected and back on the road. I took all necessary tools with me if anything came loose during the drive to the inspection station (cheapest place was 15 miles from home).
Gotta say the Jeep drives a LOT better with the OTK WJ steering! Very precice steering (as much as it can be on vehicle like this), no bumpsteer at all, no play and no "dead" center as was with the stock inverted- y. I'm happy. Also the breaks have a lot more power and need less effort to stop. The 4.56 gearing is spot on for the 32s, around 2100 rpm. @ 60mph, and ~2300rpm @70mph. This thing flies now, slightly quicker than stock :thumbsup:
For some reason the glass from the front headlight housing (Cibie H4 stock housing) fell off when stopping to red lights. Suprise the glass broke, and now I need to get a new housing.
The inspection officer was a moron:
* my wiper fluid reservoir was empty but the pumps audibly worked. Failed inspection due to non- functional windshield washing system.
* one of the draglink locknuts had worked itself loose. I tightened it at the lift when the officer was checking steering linkage. Failed inspection due to loose steering parts. I questioned him for this, saying there are no loose or warn parts, everything is brand new and is now tightened. His reasoning: "There must be something worn out, because the locknut hadn't stayed tight".
What a moron.. so now my Jeep is deemed "not suitable for road use" until I get it fixed and re-inspected. That is, fill my washer fluid reservoir and replace the headlight assembly
They'll get done, just had to get it inspected first.. I will either grind shallow slots to the center of the tubes, or I'll drill M24 or M26 nuts to 32mm, weld them on to the center of the bars, grind welds smooth and be done with it :thumbsup: If they whine me about welding to steering linkage @ the inspection station, I'll tell them the tierod and draglink where machined from hexagonal tube
I changed the tranfer case fluid today. When I bought the vehicle two years ago, the previous owner told me TC fluid was replaced ~6k miles ago, or ~20k miles ago at this moment. This is how the fluid looked like when drained into a clean container:
Good thing is there were virtually no metal shavings in the oil or on the drain/ fill plugs. Bad thing is, I'm fairly sure these are the original TC fluids that came from the factory when the Jeep was built. There really was no signs of red on that fluid, and it smelled BAD.
As always, one should change all the fluids on a used vehicle with any unknown history..
To keep the inspection officer happy, I had to add mudflaps to the rear. These fugly things will be unbolted the minute I drive out of the inspection garage
I've now clocked about 550 miles with the new gears and they have been run-in. I changed the diff fluids, looked good. A little bit of metal flakes and darkish oil from both axles, which was expected. Gear patterns look very good.
I happened to stop next to a new Range Rover on red lights, I was on the wrong lane. I was first on the line so I floored it and merged in front of the Range so I could turn left. On the next traffic lights RR came on my side, sort of.. well.. "I wanna race"- kind of attitude. I have to admit I could not keep up with it (we went up to ~60mph before slowing down, he was about 1.5 car lengths ahead of me at the time). Apparantly the new 5.0 V8 RRs are pretty quick I had to check, they have ~500hp/ 460lbs/ft., 0-62 (0-100km/h) in 6.2 seconds. No wonder I lost :laugh: Considering I've got half the hp and less torque and being around 800lbs lighter, it was a fairly good result anyways. I usually don't race like this, but couldn't pass on the opportunity
As for the fabbing part, I built a stronger diff cover for the front axle as well. Made of 1/4" steel plate, similar design to what I did for the rear axle. At the moment I only have a rubber plug on it, I need to find a 7/8" tap or whatever the stock fill plug is, so I can use the stock fill plug that has a magnet on it. I made it slightly bigger-than-stock for added oil capacity, and I also located the fill hole ~3/4" higher than stock for better pinion bearing lubrication.
First some modelling with cardboard:
..cutting the steel plate and doing a few relief cuts halfway through the plate:
After bending, welding, grinding and painting it looks like this: :thumbsup:
You mean hit it? It won't - has more clearance on the top than the stock one actually
The picture lies quite a bit, there's a good 2" clearance between tierod and the cover when going straight, at full lock slightly over 1". Draglink get's a little close at full bump, but it clears the top of the cover by about 3/4" :thumbsup:
I managed to snap both my front shafts today at a rocky steep incline. I first snapped the left side, then backed down, took an easier route with the front locker engaged - and *snap*
Next on the to-buy-list: cromoly- front shafts :thumbsup:
I had to measure the thickness of the CV shafts at their narrowest point where they neck down to the CV- joint splines. IIRC stock u-joint shafts are 1.16" (that'd be 29.46mm). The CV shafts only measure 24.43mm, which is 0.96". I didn't expect them to be that narrow. All three of my CV shafts have snapped right at the neckdown where they are the smallest diameter.
I measured using a high- quality micrometer, dimensions shown in millimetres. Picture lies a little bit (showing over 25mm diameter) because it is taken at an angle. True measurement is 24.43mm, or 0.96". I've seen a formula for calculating torque handling capacity which states that torque handling capacity changes to the power of four when diameter changes. In this case, the difference in diameter is almost 17%, which would result in the CV- shaft being able to handle almost 47% less torque than a stock u-joint shaft! :nuts: I have to verify this though, I can't remember if the smallest diameter on u- joint shafts is 1.16" or less. However, this would explain a lot why the CV shafts are so damn bad..
I need to see what's up with it, whether it's an electrical- based or a mechanical problem. I hope for an electric grmelins, much cheaper and easier to fix.
If it's mechanical, I need to see if I can find a donor 46RE but I highly doubt I can find one. If I can't find one, I'll order a full rebuild kit and probably some sort of shift kit and I'll do the valve body mods people usually do with these to allow for better fluid circulation. I want to optimize the tranny behaviour for my kind use, and I will be doing the rebuild myself if needed. It's a lot of work, but good thing goood write-ups are available.
So no I only have two of the funkiest repairs to be done:
* steering box rebuild
* tranny rebuild
Why'd you get an hp30 and not keep the bigger u-joint shafts? Seems like an obvious weakness to keep the cvs, especially after all your awesome fab work
Because I bought an (almost) empty housing, the guy selling the axle wanted to keep the shafts as spares. I was eventually gonna upgrade to cromo- shafts anyways, so I figured I'll use the CV shafts until then. Just didn't realise they are so damn weak :laugh:
Anyone know from where to buy 46RE replacement solenoids and output speed sensors etc. online (and who ships international)? I got the codes read and it seems my output speed sensor is bad, and some problems with governor pressure (= governor needs to be replaced).
I tried googling and found a few online stores that sell replacements, just have no idea what is a reputable place. Thanks for the info!
I looked at those and I think I'll get the heavy- duty replacement parts from Cascade transmission. :thumbsup: I noticed they even have a stock stamped steel pan for rather cheap (only 50$), compared to well over 150$ for the aluminum deep pans I don't even want.
A view from under the nose.. This shot shows fairly well that I need to swap to an XJ pitman arm. ZJ arm has 1" too much drop in it so draglink and trackbar angles are a little off. I'm also hitting the tierod with the draglink drivers' side locknut on big hits
The small lift sure helps achieving that, as does using WJ knuckles & OTK steering. As soon as I get the XJ pitman arm swapped on, I really can't think of any way I could make the steering feel any better on a Jeep with solid axles :thumbsup:
Not really, at least not anything that concerns my ZJ (or XJ).. I did order a set of AlloyUSA cromo shafts for the front a while ago from Quadratec, but they haven't arrived yet. We're expecting a snowfall of around 5"-8" tomorrow slightly north of where I live, so I'd like to get the shafts and be able to use four wheel drive again :laugh:
This little project has taken most of my spare time lately and will do so until next autumn.. Will be a 1700 sq.ft. two- storey house + 300 sq. ft. on the sauna/ bathroom section, and another 350 sq.ft. on the garage. Suprisingly, my bank account hasn't seen a lot of extra money to spend on the Jeep
Apart from the house project being at this stage at the moment:
I finally got the front cromo- shafts and get my 4wd back
27- spline AlloyUSA 27- spline shafts with full cirle snaprings on the u-joints. Should be ~30% stronger than stock XJ or TJ shafts, and I'd say 70-80% strogner than ZJ CV- style shafts I also got a 40- tooth speedo gear to get my speedometer read correctly (it's now showing +20kmh readings ) and JKS quicker disconnects.
Here are some measurements of the shaft diameters at their narrowest. There's a whopping 6mm (1/4") difference in diameter between the two - quite a lot!
..both shafts side-by-side; both are 1.27" diameter at thickest sections.
First real snow came late this winter - but we got about a foot in one storm and it's still snowing :thumbsup:
AlloyUSA cromo- shafts work, but I gotta say the stock CV- shafts were about a million times smoother in deep-snow-action compared to u-joints. Guess I should've went with the steeply-priced RCVs instead of u-joint shafts...
First real snow came late this winter - but we got about a foot in one storm and it's still snowing :thumbsup:
AlloyUSA cromo- shafts work, but I gotta say the stock CV- shafts were about a million times smoother in deep-snow-action compared to u-joints. Guess I should've went with the steeply-priced RCVs instead of u-joint shafts...
Lmk if you do get rcvs my pos could use those shafts
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