My XJ build thread

[dantheman!]

extended bumpstops for the rear arrive today. depending on weather im going to try and knock a bunch of stuff out on the xj this weekend. have to fly out to denver for work on sunday so saturday is the only time i have but 60% chance of rain. here's hoping it holds out.

 

[dantheman!]

Saturday was productive!

i got the rear fender flares off and tried to flex it out to see where it would contact. my jack ran out of reach before getting there.

So i decided to work on something else. Pulled the jeep in line with the tree in the front yard and with some finesse, a big hammer, a tow strap and a come-a-long i was able to get the frame end mostly straight, enough to get the bumper on.

Then i figured i might as well wire up the lightbar to the factory fog light harness. I had a weather pack pigtail i got off a junkyard XJ and spliced it into both sides. mounted it up and fired up the light bar.

was going to start on the transcooler after that but the rain moved in and shut me down. still got a bunch done which was awesome. feeling real good about it.

 

[R6TeXJ]

nice progress man!

 

[dantheman!]

Check that your speedo gear is meshing with the worm gear on the output shaft. You should be able to loosen the clamp bolt and rotate the drive housing by hand. It's an eccentric design so by turning it you can make the gear engage or disengage. That was my "no speedometer" problem on one of my previous XJs when I did the SYE kit. That may or may not be the issue but it's worth looking at if everything else seems okay.

Thanks for this! Exactly what I had to do to fix it.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Glad to hear it worked!

 

[Veeb0rg]

Saturday was productive!

Looks like the bumper is slightly higher on the passenger side.

 

[dantheman!]

It is. The homes are slotted and all the way down. I'm going to try moving the drivers side up.

 

[dantheman!]

so yesterday i trimmed my rear wheel openings and folded them up. threw some paint on it and took it for a test drive.

balancing beads in the tires work awesome. had it up to almost 60 without any vibrations in the tires or the driveline. tracked straight and the wheel returns to center on its own. not bad for my first alignment!

took it out to a piece of property and tested everything out. my friend has a couple videos ill link once he uploads them to youtube.

and of course my two buddies with JK's who went out with me egged me on into taking it across a ditch that with all this rainwater and flooding we are having was basically a creek and it ended up looking like this after i got stuck.

otherwise the suspension and tires did work and it made it everywhere i pointed it.

need to get the trans cooler installed as the trans got hot again. oil pressure stays around 20psi now. going to change the oil and filter and hope that i just dislodged some gunk with all the 4000+ rpm stints it did out there. Other issue was when i splashed into a big puddle to rinse some of the mud off the tach went to 0 (engine was still running but sputtering) and when i came out of the puddle it was stammering for a few seconds. after a couple revs it normalized. guessing the distributor got a little damp. was planning on doing plugs, wire, cap and rotor soon anyway so thats on the list now as well.

just empty every pocket.

 

[dantheman!]

trans cooler went on last night. Spliced it in and bypassed the factory cooler. it doenst get cold enough here to worry about it.

Makes sense why the trans was getting hot. This is the HOT line out of the transmission kinked almost completely.

people doing shoddy repairs makes me crazy.

best part NO LEAKS!

fixing the blinker tomorrow so i can get it inspected and back legal on the road. planning a beach trip next weekend so hopefully ill get a couple pics of it playing in the dunes.

 

[dantheman!]

Blinker fixed, passed inspection. About to go out and start measuring for the hood louvers.

 

[dantheman!]

Got it registered and new plates for it last weekend and ran into an issue where it wouldnt start. ended up being a weak ground from the battery to the block. added an additional one using some old amp power wiring i had laying around and its working fine now.

hood louvers done.

rock rails and rear bumpstops are the last things i need to install.

changed the trans fluid yesterday and it was pretty cooked from that kinked line. shifts better with the fresh fluid even when its up to temp which is where it would slip a bit before. going to drive it some this weekend and change the fluid one more time.

need to order a tcase skid as well.

overall really happy with how the jeep has turned out and how well it performs.

going to enjoy it for a couple months then start looking at the next round of upgrades.
Winch
high amp alternator
Longer shocks
swapping in my 8.8 i have
lockers front and rear
regear
ball joints up front
ABS delete
shackle relocation bracket

 

[dantheman!]

Got some pics of the suspension working. the shocks are really limiting it on down travel.

and then this happened.

stalled out in the water. Thinking the CPS or coil/cap. it acts like its losing spark as it sputters and then cuts off. second time it did it. CPS is cheap enough as is coil/cap so ill probably end up doing all of that. It started up fine after it got out of the water. cranked over slightly longer than usual but it cranked up. no water in oil or trans based on dipsticks so i think im fine in that regard.

the alternator however, did not survive the trip. its i am looking into ordering a replacement for it that puts out higher amps. But its going to have to wait a couple weeks as my daily is acting up and i need to get it sorted out.

its sitting like this for now.

 

[dantheman!]

my buddy finally uloaded the videos he took a while back.

[youtube]FvbbefhUbZk[/youtube]
[youtube]N6Cm_fTr4yk[/youtube]
[youtube]Er2WX9_YtGI[/youtube]

 

[R6TeXJ]

sub'd to ya

 

[themauler]

and then this happened.

stalled out in the water. Thinking the CPS or coil/cap. it acts like its losing spark as it sputters and then cuts off. second time it did it. CPS is cheap enough as is coil/cap so ill probably end up doing all of that. It started up fine after it got out of the water.

Been there before. Eff that. Water in floor boards and sucked it back into the tail pipe. A plus was that I was on a power company's property where people get busted :anon:. Cussing like hell when I couldn't get the jeep to stay running :laugh2:. Basically had to start it with the pedal on the floor and keep the throttle over 3000 rpm. That was six years ago and have avoided mud holes like the plague since :skull1:

Nice work on the XJ too. Time for a winch!

 

[dantheman!]

yea its annoying when it happens. thankfully i only got a little bit of water in the floorboard, probably only like 12-16oz. no worse than spilling a drink. fairly certain its the coil/cap though. i was rinsing off the motor the other day and it started that stuff when i sprayed the passenger side. need to do some more testing but im thinking thats my culprit.

im not a huge fan of mudholes either and when that happened i was rinsing the thicker mud off it. the water is nasty but the bottom is really well packed so its nice to splash through a couple times leaving that area to break up the big mud chunks from the undercarriage.

thanks! winch is on my list but the list is really long haha.

 

[Joecam18]

Subbed! Looks great!!!

 

[dantheman!]

got the front brakes sorted out finally.

if someone wants an alternative to the expensive brake options out there. rock auto had all the same parts for 200 shipped. centric premium rotors, centric calipers, and powerstop carbon ceramic pads. after having to do a couple emergency stops on the road trip to the beach and back, im a fan of those powerstops. i am actually looking at getting a set for my GTO.

And finally the payoff.

first time leaving houston with it since building it. made the drive just fine. was a bit low on coolant after we left the beach and made it to my friends new house to check it out. we filled it up and burped the system and my dumbass didnt secure the radiator cap 100% before leaving. got to the gas station and it spewed everything out again. so my wife and i refilled it, reburped it and i secured the cap properly and drove the rest of the way home. ran without the AC on just to minimize heat. sun was going down so it was cooler out. downsides of the drive, my power seat stopped working, im guessing when i got water in the cab. ill address that this week hopefully its just a popped fuse. fuel consumption. thing was getting single digits. it wasnt liking trying to hold OD with the converter locked at 65-70 (rpm was around 1600-1800 so i had to keep it in 3rd.

oh yea, the AC, works great now that the alternator is working correctly. funny how that works.

 

[Joecam18]

All look beautiful man! might do all that brake stuff, although ill skip on the rotors as i just replaced mine

 

[dantheman!]

sigh, not the update i was hoping to post.

was going around 70 on the freeway headed to a bbq at my friends shop when all of a sudden a puff sound followed by some knocking and obvious combustion blowing past the headgasket. stupid damn thing. we made it off the freeway but as soon as we hit the surface streets it died and wouldnt restart. we pushed it into the parking lot in the picture. called the wife to bring the tahoe so i could flat tow it home.

it was almost out of coolant, but none in the oil, so im guessing i had a cracked/warped head that was weeping coolant into a cylinder or two, until it was out and overheated. temp guage never moved from 205ish. havent started actual diag on it yet so we will see. it starts up now and no knocking which is good. i havent run it for more than 30 seconds at a time just to try and isolate whats going on.

really was hoping to not spend much money on this thing for a while and go wheel it.

i picked up a 8.25 from a naxja member saturday morning too. was gunna delete the d35 and hopefully go have a lot of fun with it.

thing has me real damn frustrated. mainly with the previous owner. all of the problems i have with it seem to be derived from him being shady af.