Project CRD MJ is born:

This is a KJ 8.25 not a ford 8.8. The KJ 8.25 is a fair bit wider than the 8.8. No spacers for me.

zluster said:

This is a KJ 8.25 not a ford 8.8. The KJ 8.25 is a fair bit wider than the 8.8. No spacers for me.

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Oh yea looked back for that post and see it now. Stripped it looks a lot like the 8.8. I've been looking around for a Jeep D44 rear but that might be a better option.

Man your amazing thanks for sharing your incredible talent

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Loving this build!

Ok, bought a bunch of vac fittings, clamps, and fuel vapor hose at the parts store so I could get the evap system complete. No pics of the evap system because its boring. But its complete and shouldnt give me any issues with CELs.



And then last friday (1 week ago), I got my exhaust done! However I have determined it is hitting the X frame where the stock cutout for the pipe is, needs to get clocked to the drivers side so it doesnt bang on the X frame all the damm time.




And then I did a truck thing, went to costco for some groceries with my Dad, and came back with a chest freezer.



Then I went over to Justins to use his ramp......which probably hasnt been used since this thing was last running with the 2.5L! I ran it up on the ramp enough to flex out the rear to measure for shocks. Got some shocks ordered for the rear after this.





Likely could get more but I started digging a hole on the right front in the dirt!





Looooong wheelbase! Also discovered that I needed to reroute my rear parking brake cables. Got those modifying in a different routing that should let me flex correctly without pulling them out of their holder.



So then I got my bumper prepped, and had Justin touchup a few spots on in, then go back for finishing. I then cut holes in the bumper for the LED floods, and drill and tapped the bolt holes for them:







And then I dropped it off to be galvanized. Same price for up to 600 lbs. Since this bumper weighed 55lbs you could do a bunch of stuff at once for the same price.....$310.



Got my sway bars shortened and installed, though I still need to install the keeper that holds them up out of the way.



Then I did some work on the Wildernest back window, installed a new handle with key, installed a new strut support ball, new struts, fixed messed up hinge, straightened the whole hinge. So it opens and closes correctly:

I love that you are having the bumper galvanized.

I have an old truck bed trailer ('50s GMC) that I am toying with disassembling and having all the pieces galvanized. For something that is going to lead a rough life it makes far more sense than paint.

Anak said:

I love that you are having the bumper galvanized.

I have an old truck bed trailer ('50s GMC) that I am toying with disassembling and having all the pieces galvanized. For something that is going to lead a rough life it makes far more sense than paint.

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Ya this is a first for me but conceptually I really like the idea of galvanized bumpers, and rock sliders, and so on.

I got a call from the galvanizers today, it’s dropped off Tuesday ready for pickup today. Hopefully I’ll get the bumper installed tonight, reverse lights hooked up, etc.

Man this is a fun build! In for the updates

Got the bumper picked up and installed, as expected zinc filled in threaded holes, I knew that they would need to be tapped out after galvanizing.



























And then.......camp time! Went up to the Snowy Range in Medicine Bow:









Diesel approved:



Folded up and dusty:



Found a nice alpine lake:









Found another nice lake, water was a good temperature:





Making a sandwich:

Man your rig is coming along nicely

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Very cool.

I expect the bumper will lose its shine, but I think that was a great choice.

Thanks all! And yes I think aged galvanizing has less shiny and more dull. Thats ok. Eventually it will get painted anyway. I'm just enjoying the knowledge of the ultimate rust protection. I haven't seen it all, but I have never seen anyone with a Jeep with galvanized bumpers or other parts before. Its very common in the Land Rover world, since they rust so bad, so part of the galvanizing was me doing a dry run for when I want to get parts for my Defender 110 galvanized.

Ok more progress. I got a hole holesawed out for the backup camera. I got a rubber grommet for one of the firewall plugs and got the wiring run through it. I ran 12AWG wiring back for both of the lights, ran in in stainless steel snake skin down the firewall near the exhaust, heat shrinking the ends to hold it in place, and then ran the rest in flexible black wire loom.

Inside the cab I tapped into the reverse light feed, ran that wire up to a relay, and the radio. The radio uses the reverse feed to kick on the backup camera, the relay is what turns on the rear floods. Also tied into the trigger of the relay is my rear flood light switch. This switch is the factory rear fog switch from the UK. It lights up with the headlight backlight, and the indicator light turns on when the rear floods are on. As factory and clean as it gets. May seem like a minor thing, but this was two evenings of work to get it installed to my standards.





Using front fog wiring to reference:


Success!


Rear fog indicator switch:


Lit up:




Left to right:
Heated mirror, Extended Idle(not hooked up yet), Front fogs(No fogs yet), Rear Fog. I wish I could find a factory extended idle switch!




Then this morning I helped a friend install an eaton elocker in his spare D30A for his CRD. I got to use my new Yukon clamshell bearing puller. Works REALLY well.



Then I got to doing a little cleanup and organizing. I ordered a white board earlier this week for project planning. I got a big one because I figured why not. But after it came in I realized it was freakin big and the walls have stuff all over them that blocks easy access to it. However if I turn it upright, turns out its exactly the size of the door. So I borrowed a hole saw from Justin and made it fit. Great use of space that otherwise would never get used! Proud of myself for that idea.





So I got the workbench starting to be cleared off. And then got the vise we bought last week mounted. Honestly I should have bought one months ago, I've made do without it for this project, but there were some many times I was wishing I had one.

Very impressive.
I like how we think alike.
I plan on adding some aux lighting in the rear of my XJ.
I have sourced a rear fog light switch myself to use for that.
I just thought it would be cool cause the symbol is different then a regular fog light switch.
I also have a factory 4 slot bezel but in my '00 XJ there is no room for the rear fog light switch. Cause I am running a Factory Ext Idle switch myself with the defroster, rear wiper, and front fogs.
Got lucky finding one but it cost me $75. Which I think was too much but really wanted it. LOL.
I plan on running a 4 slot bezel in my overhead that this guy designed.
Plan is 3 factory fog light switches and the one rear fog light switch.
I was going to just hang some low profile lights back there. But have seen where guys have cut them into their rear bumper. Was toying with that idea. But in a stock bumper.
Seeing yours just reminds me how much I would really like to do that. MLOL.

Thanks!

Yes I like that the symbol is different! front fogs point left, rear right. And the lines are a little different. Again makes it feel OEM which is what I’m trying to do in my build. Anyone can drill a hole in the dash and put in a crooked toggle switch with rats nest wiring, and for this truck, no way in hell I am doing that.

I’ve poked around by haven’t been able to find a factory ext idle switch yet, I’ll keep looking, but what I have right now is still pretty good, it’s not a perfect OEM match, but pretty close.

For the rear fog I decided to swap the cover to a factory front fog switch.

Since I don’t have the rear wiper I have that extra slot available. If I wanted to forgo the heated mirrors, or find a way to drive them based on temp automatically, I could have another slot. But I love heated mirrors in the winter.

4 slot bezel on overhead? News to me. That probably won’t work for me since my overhead console is from a ZJ with sunroof, so it’s short.

My change tray/ash try is going to be used for the factory heated seat switch’s, so that’s out for a switch mounting location. If I add a locker in the future I will likely just grab one of the 3D printed switch panels and lose one of the 12V outlets.

I’d flush mount these same style of lights in a factory rear bumper, should work just fine even with the uneven surface of the rear bumper. I was actually looking up some smaller single row flush mount pods to put in the wigs of the bumper that point more towards the side.

I think I started messing with what you have.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/making-ext-idle-switch-242355/

But gave up on the project cause I found one.
I was just going to use the toggle part and put it on a regular fog light switch.
Got that far before I bailed.

I was also going to do what you did with the rear fog light switch.
I could tell by playing with it that it operated differently.
More like rear wiper switch in an XJ. Like it had 2 positions but would snap back to the first. Ya know when you use the rear washer.

This is what I am going to use in my overhead:

https://www.shapeways.com/product/LTSNRJUA2/4-oem-switch-garage-door-panel?optionId=63515302

Takes the place of the garage door opener panel.
Also figure out which fuse in the Junction box run all the little lights.
So I can get the symbols to light up when I turn on the headlights.

Curious as to what you are doing concerning the heated seats.
Did you remove all the pictures from your thread?

All the pictures just magically came back. LOL.

Ya that’s a nice solution in the console, I never use the sunglasses holder or garage door opener thing anyway. One of the wires in the overhead console should be the dimmer signal as well, so you can tie into it up there for the backlight on the switches.

I didn’t bother to mess with how the stock rear fog switch worked, I looked at the diagrams and it goes through some sort of logic/diode module, which seems to also be looking at the headlights being on. I’m guessing it’s some sort of latching solid state module. Which means for us it’s probably not useful. It just means we have to sacrifice some more front fog switches as well.

I did think of tapping into the overhead for the illumination but think a fuse tap in the Junction Box is less intrusive.

Like I said curious about what your plans are for the heated seats and the factory switches.

Ralph77 said:

I did think of tapping into the overhead for the illumination but think a fuse tap in the Junction Box is less intrusive.

Like I said curious about what your plans are for the heated seats and the factory switches.

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I’m going to use the factory heated seat driver, I’ll need to add a temp sensor to each heater and then wire them all up. I’ve got everything I need, but when I pulled it I didn’t realize it was all one harnes that runs from the power connector under the pass seat and I could have unplugged it. I might see if I can find a junkyard on car-part that will ship that stuff so it’s a little less hack job.

I have some generic heated seat elements from amazon.

In newer Jeeps there is some of the wiring in them used for the heated seats.
Runs up to underneath the passenger seat.
Putting them in my Jeep was easy.
Just needed the rest of the wiring harness. The 2 heated seats with the power seat bases.
When a Jeep has heated seats both sides are power.
And the SHIM (Seat Heater Interface Module) and a relay that are located on the passenger seat base. Plus a 25 amp circuit breaker that goes in an open slot in the Junction box.

Thing is heated seats in an XJ are a really bad design IMO. The heated seat element is actually a wire sewn into the seat cover.

So I have been wanting to see if there was a way to improve that. Using a factory switch with an aftermarket set up that comes with its own harness.
Maybe just using the heating pads themselves with the factory harness. Etc.

Might want to check this out:

https://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?p=246702654#post246702654