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Joel's multipurpose XJ build (rocks/boulevard)

I think you have to be red letter in order to edit your posts.
 
F-me. 7 years already? Time flies when you're on the run.

NAXJA's been good. Really had a wonderful time every time I've hung out with folks (SoCal fest's etc) and I've learned a ton. I still can't help trying some weird stuff every now and then, which hopefully keeps this thread interested.

Completely agree re: forums superiority vs. social media, not just being civil, but the ability to search what others have done is invaluable... Actually one of the few things that I don't like about NAXJA is not being allowed to edit posts when I find errors after the fact. It's just dumb. None of the other forums I'm on do this...

Speaking of Hawaii there's news:

I almost don't want to jinx it least the deal fall apart, but we are in escrow to buy a home that'll have us end up with a workshop on a few acres. We're through home inspection and only little stuff found there, so that's the first big thumbs up. If the appraisal comes in we should be in good shape.

For what it's worth, here's the garage & shop. Current owner's stuff (he's a wood worker).

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The office just upgraded to LED light fixtures and they offered up the old T8 versions to employees so I brought home a few.

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Best part of the house is a huge wrap around porch.

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Backyard's not half bad either.

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Massive garden that hopefully is cool without taking over my life... I think it has 17 kinds of fruit? I'm just stoked that it has both avocados and cilantro. Guacamole for days!!!

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Anyone wants to check out the Big Island I'm sure we're game to host.
-Joel

At first I wondered how many gazillions they were paying you to work there...

Then I looked up real estate on the big island and it's not too different than SoCal... Nice score sir!
 
I think you have to be red letter in order to edit your posts.

Interesting... I don't have much ability to hook up and wheel with NAXJA folks these days so I let mine expire a while back. I might need to look into that again.

At first I wondered how many gazillions they were paying you to work there...

Then I looked up real estate on the big island and it's not too different than SoCal... Nice score sir!

It's not Oahu that's for sure. This house is going to be about 25% more than we sold our SoCal house for. That said, we're still putting everything we got from that one back into this and I still expect to be eating ramen for a few years. It's a stretch but also a heck of an upgrade and looks like a good life.

I'll just have to move somewhere else when we retire someday because this just became the retirement fund.

Working on a shop layout if anyone has comments/suggestions...

ManaLayoutRev3.jpg
 
Yeah, make a full sized table on wheels...never know when ya may need it.

I made one, and it fits perfectly under the bench in the 1st pic (think nesting tables). It has held a TF727 trans/np203/np205 setup with no problem....

I use it all the time when I have to work outside the garage on something.



 
Got any more detail on that? I was under the impression we mostly cared about service conditions and durometer... I don’t have nitrile in the right size at the moment, but it's probably worth a try.

Most of my personal experience comes from generic viton o-rings. Basically a plastic ring as far as I was concerned at the time and you could see the parting line of the mold. Nitrile o-rings are often times used for their grip and flexibility while the "Viton" o-rings I've dealt with wouldn't work nearly the same in those applications. Open grain/cell vs closed grain/cell is the best I can describe my experience with Viton. It's been a while and "Viton" may not be.

More recently, when dealing with an issue on one of our products, I made a comment along the lines of "if we can't fix the heat issue, I guess we'll have to go to Viton seals". The reply was emphatically "You don't want to do that! You think you have leak issues now?" This was the technical expert from a leading integrator of hydraulic components. I trust his word over my own experience and anything I'll find online. Cheap to try at least.
 
Yeah, make a full sized table on wheels...never know when ya may need it.

I made one, and it fits perfectly under the bench in the 1st pic (think nesting tables). It has held a TF727 trans/np203/np205 setup with no problem....

That's pretty trick... I have the casters from my HF tool boxes lying around so that wouldn't be too bad to make a stout rolling work surface. I also have a leftover chunk of butcher block that measures 25 by 26.5" (more of of a utility cart kinda size but I could tuck it under my weld bench this way).

I was thinking I might use that piece of butcher block for a base on my mitre saw but the benefit of the roving cart/table version is probably higher. I can make a basic steel base for the saw. Either way I want to mount the saw on something as it lives on my weld table now and you have to move it to use it. I'm planning to use the deck of the mag brake next to it as a material extension when I chop stuff.
 
That's pretty trick... I have the casters from my HF tool boxes lying around so that wouldn't be too bad to make a stout rolling work surface. I also have a leftover chunk of butcher block that measures 25 by 26.5" (more of of a utility cart kinda size but I could tuck it under my weld bench this way).

I was thinking I might use that piece of butcher block for a base on my mitre saw but the benefit of the roving cart/table version is probably higher. I can make a basic steel base for the saw. Either way I want to mount the saw on something as it lives on my weld table now and you have to move it to use it. I'm planning to use the deck of the mag brake next to it as a material extension when I chop stuff.


I didn't mention before, but there's not a lot of wasted space either, as you can see the lower shelf on the table, and when nested, the table top is 1/2" below the skirt on the bench....so it's a tight fit.

Actually surprises most people when I pull it out.....but it is very handy.
 
Interesting... I don't have much ability to hook up and wheel with NAXJA folks these days so I let mine expire a while back. I might need to look into that again.

David Bricker is moving over there too, though I don't recall which island. But I think he is still leaving his Jeep in Death Valley.

Nonetheless, that still makes a minimum of two NAXJA members in that state.

You guys will have to pick a time and place for a M&G. Give the rest of us a good excuse to come visit.
 
Sister lives on the Big Island, Waimea. I visit every 2-3 years. I really like your build thread. I’ve got two daughters, too, and plan to carry over some of your ideas to the next phase of my XJ build.
 
Wow I just spend 3 hours reading this entire thing. All because of a search on frame stiffeners and down the rabbit hole I went. Great work.
 
Wow I just spend 3 hours reading this entire thing. All because of a search on frame stiffeners and down the rabbit hole I went. Great work.

Thanks, enjoying the heck outta the rig.

Been working on setting up the new place but there has been a good amount of wheeling and exploring too. Mostly before all the COVID crap went down, but now starting up a bit again. Trying to give my daughters a love of adventure and exploration. It mostly seems to be working.

Big lava tube and big smiles.

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Some of the remote beaches are pretty rad, the diversity of terrain still blows my mind.

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I still prefer the rig without flares, but I’m getting a bit more use to it with.

Oh and the workshop is coming along well. Even scored a lift off a local mechanic who was closing.

NCDFsetup50.jpg



The shop needed better lights in a big way so I spun wire nuts till I had blisters.

NCDFsetup38.jpg



Lots of projects while we hunker down!
-Joel
 
More info on the white car??


Good job pops! Love to see the kiddos having fun on the ride, good stuff man!



My littles have a bad habit of “go faster” in my big turbo subi and “we can climb it dad” in my trail rigs... worried about the day they get keys! Lmao


Good stuff brother
 
More info on the white car??

It's a 1990 Mazda Rx7 with a 429ci LS2. Makes pretty close to 600 hp and runs 315s and 335s to go with the widebody.

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I used to run SoCal track days with some regularity but here on the island it mostly sees windy roads and autocross.

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I'm one of the owners of Ronin Speedworks--www.roninspeedworks.com-- and we specialize in engine swaps and such (which is how I pay for my car hobbies).

FC_HiloAutocross10.jpg



Anyways, there's a full build thread over here if you're curious: https://www.norotors.com/index.php?topic=1274.0

Thanks for the kind words. I hear ya on tossing the kids the keys. I've started letting them drive trails and do the steering while I work the pedals. Country living is rad.

-Joel
 
Nice!! Will def peep the build thread... looks like a fun car to drive! The wide body threw me off- I almost threw out rx7, but was seeing 240sx too... love it man!

Rx7s always hold a place in my heart... back in the PlayStation 3 days on gran tourismo 5, the rx7 was the best of class to modify... 3k hp o think you could get it up to! Lol


As with the Jeep, clean work and great attention to detail... I will pop some popcorn and settle in if that build is anything like this one
 
I miss being out and about. There’s just so much neat stuff to explore. This is probably a 2 miles stretch between nearby beaches and had dozens of shady spots perfect for fishing or picnicking.

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Definitely getting spoiled over water this blue. These pics are straight out of the cell phone from before the shutdowns. Hopefully a good reminder that there’s a big beautiful world out there.

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I haven’t touched the ocean in 3 months, but it looks like we might get to change that this week.

-Joel
 
First post COVID run happened last weekend. The shelter in place orders were reduced to social distancing so the Big Island Jeep club had a run up the Maunakea on R1. 17 rigs. JKs, JLs, a couple gladiators and 1 lonely XJ (oldest vehicle there by far). Guess who was pushing the crew to drive harder, move faster?

XJ_MaunakeaR1_05-20a.jpg



Yep, me and one friend ran ahead repeatedly. Every 20 minutes or so we’d stop and wait 10… On the one hand waiting sucked, on the other hand, it’s easier to run fast in a small crew while having a bigger group behind us is comforting in case something broke that was more than 1 support vehicle could cover.

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There must have been some newbies in the big pack because they were just kinda meandering. Clearly, I’ve gotten spoiled in the times I’ve run with NAXJA. Still a good day.

XJ_MaunakeaR1_05-20c.jpg



By the way, there’s no drones allowed on Maunakea, so the club member who shot the wide view pic above had to climb the mountain opposite to get the shot. Not trivial at 11,000 ft.

Jeep ran mostly okay. I can tell it’s down on power at altitude. The only real issue is that this is the second time recently I’ve managed to blow up my front upper shock bushings. I’ve done it twice now.

XJ_MaunakeaR1_05-20d.jpg



To be fair my last repair job used some converted motor mount pieces from a random application (not even XJ), but still, these blew after only a couple days on trail and you’d think motor mount bushings would be decent rubber.

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I’ve also heard about folks failing the shock mount sheet metal so I may want to reinforce that during an upgrade. Anyways, it has me thinking about shocks. I know I’m hitting stuff pretty hard and I like running reasonably fast, so I want to do something better. I also decided I’m keeping the XJ long term. Even when my FJ40 Cruiser is done, I’d rather have a loaner vehicle for when folks come visit or a backup if another vehicle is down. So that means I’m about ready to go a bit gnarlier on the suspension.

I’m short enough on time these days that, I’d like to keep the custom fab to a minimum. Any have suggestion on factors to be thinking about for damping on a rig that crawls occasionally, yet sees quite a bit more fast trail riding these days? It seems folk are specing things stiffer for Jeepspeed.

Best resource I’ve found so far was the JeepSpeed suspension thread.
https://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=25592

It’s long so I just wrote a summary of my takeaways with a bunch of questions as well.
https://naxja.org/forum/showpost.php?p=246690382&postcount=270

If folks wouldn’t mind giving that a read and then offering suggestions I’d appreciate it. At a minimum, I’d be looking at Bilstein 7100s, but I’m also debating getting out of the 2” shock class. Right now King smooth body 2.5s seem like a healthy step up without being total ridiculous. Problem is that the bodies lengths of the Kings (or Fox) are significantly longer for a given stroke.

An advantage of staying with the 2.0 class is that I might only need to replace my front shocks. My fronts are still the BDS originals (9 years old and cheap but I haven't killed them yet, the rears are Bilstein 5100s (10” stroke 255/70 valved) and only a few years old. Up front in a 2.0 class shock, I actually like the Bilstein 5165s more than the 7100s (prefer their reservoir mounting and hose orientation) but they’d have to be revalved for the 275/78 damping that seems more popular up front.

From what I can tell 7100s short bodies are offered in 3 valvings: 255/70, 275/78, and 360/80. 5165s are a very similar form factor (just a touch longer body) but only offered 255/70 and 360/80.

Anyways, thoughts appreciated. I also need to figure out how much usuable travel difference I’d see if I upgraded to 6” lift springs instead of the older 4.5 BDS springs plus 2” blocks I have now. Rates seems fine so I’ll stick in the 230 lb/in range.

-Joel
 
Joel, I've run 11.60" 5165's with 255/70 valving (25-175783) up front for 12yrs/120k miles and they are still performing well.
EB1 mounting top and bottom, with my own upper mount similar to JKS units, and have never had them loosen up.

My front axle mounts are tabs which I welded to the outboard side of the LCA mount.

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I too like the reservoir on body mounting option, which keeps the package compact.

I went with these units on the recommendation from Joel@Bilstein and they can be rebuilt/revalved, with a modification to the remote rest.

I run 10" 5150's out back and these are still doing the job. I fabbed my own upper mounts to eliminate bar pins. https://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=913774&page=13

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Bilstein Shock Model chart: https://cart.bilsteinus.com/Portals/0/PDF/BILSTEINORCatalog2020_WEB.pdf
 
The track bar only moves out of its resting plane based on the center of axis of the axle as it moves up and down. Not much, hence the rubber bushings. A double sheer advantage is not understood by me unless the stock configuration limits vertical travel, which the double sheer does not do. But the double sheer does impede the movement along the arc of the axle. for reference, here is a pic of mine. It is an IRO with their drop bracket of only about an inch or so. They also offer a flex joint that would mitigate the resistance through the arc.

P1030339, on Flickr
 
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