99 XJ DD & Weekend Warrior

[NW99XJ]

Steering Upgrade Cont..... March_2012

Been an eventful week as far as deliveries go.
My Durango Steering Box arrived....in not so good of packaging.

The seller (Detroit Axle) had basically thown the box in a box, and thrown THAT box in another box, and called it good.

Neither box was in all that great of condition.

At least it was still "contained" in the boxes.....and there was no damage.
The gear box has a good coat of paint on it, (prob just primer) and shows no signs of damage (ie; shiny metal, damaged threads, broken/bent ears, etc...)

Overall I'm happy (enough) with the product I received.

I DID contact the seller....let them know the UPS driver even had to make a note on the account of the condition of the packaging, and shared with them the pictures above..... They since have changed their policies on shipping items, and have started to include some additional protection in their packaging.

Also arriving this week was my inner steering box spacer/support bracket from C-Rok.
Just as beefy as I was expecting!

This will get a fresh coat of primer and paint this weekend along with the bars.

That means all the pieces of the puzzle are finally here, and as soon as I track down a reamer.....I'll be getting to work.

 

[bhmike]

Work party at your house ?

 

[bmikes]

99 XJ DD & Weekend Warrior

Can't wait to see all them parts in action!

 

[NW99XJ]

New Daily Driver, April_2013

$40 every other day in gas after many many months has led me to retire the Cherokee from DD status.
As of this weekend (03/31/2013) The Jeep is now a dedicated trail rig.
$400 a month JUST to get to & from work wasn't cutting it.... I have hated throwing all that money away, when it could be going towards the build fund.
After weeks and weeks of searching and inspecting vehicles that had no business being up for sale, I finally found one that I could settle on.
Enter a completely unmolested 1996 Honda Accord LX, 4cyl, 5sp, air, cruise, power everything, and in great shape,
PLUS it has had all the major stuff already done to it by a certified Honda Service Tech.
Clutch, throw out bearing, pressure plate, head gasket, valve cover gasket, struts, brakes, water pump, timing chain, etc...etc....
It's immaculate under the hood, and drives like a dream.
New 80k mile tires, and best of all 32+ MPG.
Picked it up for less than he was asking, and couldn't be happier.
I figure with the money I'll be saving on this, It will have paid for itself in a matter of 6 to 8 months.

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

Josh..Word of advice, while you have everything out, Throw in a steering box brace! they are $70ish bucks.. Its worth it! I have a little more expierince then i wish to admit installing and dealing with steering box'z, If you need a hand or just someone to supervise and make fun of you while you throw it all together... Let me know!

 

[NW99XJ]

Josh..Word of advice, while you have everything out, Throw in a steering box brace! they are $70ish bucks.. Its worth it! I have a little more expierince then i wish to admit installing and dealing with steering box'z, If you need a hand or just someone to supervise and make fun of you while you throw it all together... Let me know!

Thanks Scott, yea some supervision, finger pointing and and extra hand to throw me a beer would be great!
A steering box brace is definitely on the list. (might have to wait a paycheck though)...the MORE brace was one that has my attention right now....they all look pretty much the same, so it's just gonna come down to price.
I've blown a lot of cash the last several weeks, AND just bought a car....so the brace being something that can go in "after the fact" WILL get put in, but prob not for a couple-few weeks.

I'll post up when I know for sure this stuff is going to go in....we'll have a little pseudo-work-party.

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

Thanks Scott, yea some supervision, finger pointing and and extra hand to throw me a beer would be great!
A steering box brace is definitely on the list. (might have to wait a paycheck though)...the MORE brace was one that has my attention right now....they all look pretty much the same, so it's just gonna come down to price.
I've blown a lot of cash the last several weeks, AND just bought a car....so the brace being something that can go in "after the fact" WILL get put in, but prob not for a couple-few weeks.

I'll post up when I know for sure this stuff is going to go in....we'll have a little pseudo-work-party.

See, Now things are awkward

 

[Red91Laredo]

Nice build, I like how you're documenting everything step by step. I'll definitely be referring back to this thread for future projects.

I just ordered a Durango steering box as well. Did you order the spacer direct from C-Rok? I swear their website was down for a while so I'd assumed they had went out of business. Of course now that I've ordered a steering box brace and spacer elsewhere their site is up again, go figure.

 

[NW99XJ]

Nice build, I like how you're documenting everything step by step. I'll definitely be referring back to this thread for future projects.

THANKS!!!
That was the main point of this, to document the progression of it all, and to hopefully help others learn along the way.

I just ordered a Durango steering box as well. Did you order the spacer direct from C-Rok? I swear their website was down for a while so I'd assumed they had went out of business. Of course now that I've ordered a steering box brace and spacer elsewhere their site is up again, go figure.

Yea i ordered the spacer direct from C-Rok..... Took me a while to find them, and the scary thing was, after 48 hours, I hadn't received any conformation email (other than the standard "you just bought something" email from Paypal) ....I started to worry... SO i sent a couple emails to a couple different addresses, and they both got bounced back. I tried calling both the numbers listed, and one was out of service.... I left a message on the other, and thankfully, the very next day, I got word back on the order.
Neal was nice, and apologized for the delay in response, apparently he was just back ordered on some stuff, and had his hands full filling orders.

I actually received the spacer sooner than I was expecting.
Going to paint it all and install it this weekend, .....cant wait.

 

[NW99XJ]

1-Ton Steering Install - April_2013

OK, ....I'm waaay behind schedule getting this up, so here goes...
As many of you know, I have converted to a 1-ton OTK Steering set up. Using GM 1-ton Tie Rod Ends, and JCR's 1.25" Diameter 1/4" wall DOM bars that are already cut to length and tapped. This conversion also included a Durango Steering box upgrade, C-Rok inner brace with thru-frame inserts and grade-8 hardware. A cross frame steering box brace will be coming in the near future as well, but for now let me bring you up to speed with the rest of all this......

I knew all along that I was going to paint the bars, so I wanted to make sure that I did all that I could in prep, to ensure the paint would stick, and hold up well enough.
Some grease & wax remover works very well for clearing off any excess coolant/oils from the cutting/machining of the bars:


Making sure to wipe them down real good and vigorously with some Scott Shop Towels:


After that the oxidation and whatever else was cleaned off, and the surface was roughed up with some red Scotch Brite to give the primer a chance for good adhesion.


For painting metal, a good Self Etching Primer is the best choice.


Several overlapping coats of this went on to create a nice, strong, high build. About 5-10 min in between coats did the trick.


Next up was the actual paint, for my build I couldnt think of a more appropriate color than hot pink:


Of course if you have spent ANY amount of time reading this build thread or know me personally, you would have seen right thru this, and would know that I would never do such a thing, and that was just for a laugh....
Black all the way baby!


The strong automotive grade acrylic paint went on easy. I took my time, and did many many coats, making sure to let it set for a good 10 min in between coats.


This of course ate the time away pretty fast, but the results are pretty good.

 

[NW99XJ]

1-Ton Steering Install - April_2013 Cont....

Now that all the prep work was done, it was time to get to work on the reaming that was required.
The Moog ES2233L is the passenger side TRE that connects the knuckle and the draglink together to create the “Inverted-T” set-up. This hole does not come large enough out of the box to accept the corresponding rod end of the drag link, and needs to be reamed to get it to fit. Slow speed, and low temperature is the key here….taking precaution to keep your angles right, and use lots and lots of cutting oil.
The reamer required is a 1.5” per /foot or 7° taper.

After that was done, I moved on to the Jeep, and started removing all the old steering linkages, and get everything out of the way to make room for the new stuff.
The Steering dampener was removed:

The cotter pins were removed from the TRE’s

And the best/easiest way to remove the TRE from the knuckles is to use a BFH:

The last thing to do was to remove the drag link from the pitman arm:

Then it was time to remove the pitman arm from the steering box……
I knew this was going to be a chore….. I had no idea just how much of a royal PITA this really is.
I tried for three hours, reefing, pulling, hammering, heating, bashing, banging, and lubing…..nothing.

I decided to give up, and let the penetrating oils do their thing with the pitman arm puller still attached and at a hairs breath away from completely grenading under the extreme pressure I had put on it.
There it sat, overnight.

The next morning I started in on it again…applying what can only be described as a thermo-nuclear device worth of heat to it, and enough swings of the BFH to bring down the Empire State Building.
If you are going to try to remove YOUR pitman arm…… these are the BARE MINIMUM for tools you will need.

Now with enough effort, applied heat, time with penetrating oil, and one helluva swing enough times with the BFH you will have success. Be warned, you will most likely toast the seal on the box with the torch. (no biggie for me, as the whole box was getting replaced anyways.)

 

[NW99XJ]

1-Ton Steering Install - April_2013 Cont....

OK, so now that everything was off and out of the way, I could finish the reaming.

The knuckles were last on the list, as I knew they were going to take the longest.
Again, slow RPM's and a ton of cutting oil.

After the knuckles were properly reamed, I moved on to the removal and re-installation side of things.
The old steering box was first on my list, In order to take it out, you first want to loosen the retaining bolt on the shaft.
This little guy right here:

Once that's sufficiently loose, you can move on to the three main bolts that mount the box to the frame.
In my case, since I had relocated my horns, the one on the Driver's side, was in the way of the upper left most bolt.
(seen top center-ish of this pic)


So with the horn removed, I was able to get to all the bolts with ease.

They had been thoroughly drenched several times in PB blaster for days from all sides, so I was somewhat confident that I wasnt going to have too much difficulty removing them. With a little help from a breaker bar they came out with ease.

I left the mounting bolts in about half way so that I still had some leverage to remove the two steering fluid lines from the top side of the box.

Once off, I just routed them up and over the pump/reservoir to keep them out of the way, and from draining all over the place.

The old OEM Box was removed and after bleeding all over the place it was set side by side with its replacement.
OLD (obviously left) NEW (obviously) right

The differences are subtle, but they're there.

 

[NW99XJ]

1-Ton Steering Install - April_2013 Cont....

I'm sure many of you have seen the comparrisons of the OEM steering box spacer, and the aftermarket ones.
The C-Rok inner brace/spacer is by far way more beefy than that flimsy stock one.

I had been a little worried, that I would find some sort of stress crack, or something on the frame rail by the steering box.
I was very glad to see, that everything checked out just fine.

Getting the new box installed wasn't all that difficult, but it was a a little awkward, due to the size and weight of the thing, and me working alone.
First thing was first, I cleaned everything up and started knocking in the inner frame sleeves for the mounting bolts of the new box.


These sleeves are going to add strength to the area as a whole, and tie in the outer to the inner sides of the unibody right there, to increase the shear strength at each mounting point.

With the sleeves in place and pressed in nice and flush, I slid the new spacer bracket into place and fed in the new grade 8 hardware.

The box was fenagled into place, and the hardware threaded in.

The splined input shaft of the steering boxes have a flat spot.
….This is where the retaining bolt of the mating sleeve from the shaft will lock down onto

Matching up the flat spots, you will have enough room so get the shaft from the steering column onto the input shaft of the box.

With that done the lines can be hooked back up.

 

[NW99XJ]

1-Ton Steering Install - April_2013 Cont....

At this point my garage was a compete disaster area, but my work was nowhere near done.
I knew I had some major modifications to do to the axle, but I wanted to get all the new linkage put together so I could start mocking it into position. Here I am (with camera in a shaky camera hand) rod in vice, and tie rod end getting screwed into its new home.

As I was doing all this, I came across a great photo-op that I couldn't pass up and I figured I would share.
This picture gives you a good idea of the level of strength you get from stepping up from one to the next.
Here is all three phases of my steering build's rod ends, side by side.
From Left to Right..... Stock XJ TRE on RC Tie Rod / ZJ TRE on ZJ Tie Rod / GM 1-Ton TRE all by itself.

The stock XJ steering linkage in comparison to the new stuff would be a joke, besides, I think I threw it out long ago anyways.....
Here is the ZJ set-up next to the new 1.25OD 1/4” wall DOM tubing and 1-ton TRE's

Trust me, its a massive difference:

Now that I was done playing around, I got out the grinder and cut off wheels, and went to town on my D30.
The sway bar end link, axle side mounts MUST be removed for clearance sake. I cut off the majority of the end link mount, leaving the lower most section still on, to retain some strength to the coil bucket mount.

Next up was the steering stabilizer mount, that too has to go.

These are all just rough cuts, again, just to get to the point where I can start mocking things into place.


Once I had things roughly cut enough to get the new linkage mocked into position, I mounted it all up (just set into place really - not torqued down) to have a look.

Yes I know, my pretty paint job was partially ruined by the need to clamp down the bars, to get the rod ends threaded in enough.


It's apparent that I need to do more cutting/trimming:

 

[NW99XJ]

1-Ton Steering Install - April_2013 Cont....

I cut some more, then cut some more, and I ground things down pretty good too.....
I got it good enough that I could move the steering thru most of its range, so I decided to start torquing everything down.
The 4 different rod ends all come with grease zirks, cotter pins, and nuts for the tapered ends.
As I gathered them all up from their various boxes, I noticed that some were different.


I decided that the larger ones would best be served on the TIE ROD, and the smaller ones would go to the DRAG LINK


With that little issue taken care of it was time to re-check everything and see how it looks all mocked up and into position......That's when I noticed the first problem......


IF you cant tell.......The Tie Rod is interfering with the Track Bar....LAME!!!!!!!!!


Thats not only going to cause issues with turning, but also in articulation.....The fix? OTA (Over The Axle)....
Yup, The fix is to relocate the track bar mount above the axle, and out of the way of the steering.
My choice for this is going to be either total custom fab (too extensive for me right now)

OR.... The Ruff Stuff Panhard Kit:

I ended up ordering the Ruff Stuff kit, I know a couple guys running this set up, and they have said its extremely strong, and easy to set up.
In any case, I figured I was screwed at this point, so I had best button things up so that I could at least get the Jeep drivable again (Somewhat) so that it could be taken to a place to do the more extensive fab work required to fix this.....

Thats when the second problem arose.....oh yea, it gets worse.....


Thats right, as soon as I go to mount the rim.....I find that it interferes with the tie rod end....ever so slightly.....


Its JUUUUST enough that when the wheel is torqued down, the tie rod end is biting into the wheel preventing it from turning.....

 

[bmikes]

99 XJ DD & Weekend Warrior

Hey josh now that you have the ream and all the other tools I can do this now too! looks good man! I can't wait to see it in person!!

 

[NW99XJ]

1-Ton Steering Install - May_2013

SO after a few weeks of the jeep sitting stagnant in the garage, and selling off a ton of my old jeep stuff, I made a quick call to RuffStuff, talking with the guys there to make sure I Was ordering the right configuration of the kit..... (didnt help, one of the brackets they sent me was wrong anyways)
In any case, the kit arrived later that week (Pure.... B E E F)

Before:


After:

 

[NW99XJ]

1-Ton Steering Install - May_2013 Wrap Up...(for now)

The panhard kit sat around for a week or so, I posted up for some welding help, because although I can stick two pieces of metal together well enough, I wanted to make sure that the welds were as good as possible. So enlisting the help of someone with better welding skills than myself was the best way to go.
Several of you offered, but when it came to schedules and free time, hooking up with Brandon (ODGREENON35's) worked out best.

since the jeep was basically immovable, he graciously offered to come over to my place, bring HIS grinder, welder, AND gas.... I of course was extremely glad for his help.
Upon arriving, we got to work right away....
I finished off the removal of the old Rugged Ridge track bar kit, and he started in on prepping the bar.


The old track bar bracket was cut/grinded/shaved off and the new axle bracket was mocked into position, and we started looking at geometry, position, and taking measurements.


The brackets were just barely tacked into place, and we mocked the freshly cut bar and ends into place.


Once happy with the positioning, Brandon got to work on welding in the bungs for the heims.


After that he moved on to burning in the rest of the welds for the new brackets, and I started prepping the bar for paint.


Brandon's welds are awesome, seriously great work... Between his good work, and a far better (and gassed) welder than mine, I had very little cleanup work to get this ready for paint.


As I mentioned, I got the wrong frame side bracket, so there were some slight modifications that had to be made in order for it to work perfectly. After bouncing a couple ideas back and forth, Brandon continued with the work moving right on to burning it in.


After Brandon finished up and left, I went to work on clean up and painting everything.


Thanks to a lot of pre measuring, mocking up, and test fitting, the final installation went together real well.




The kit came with a little extra piece of metal, that was perfect for a little gusset.


The "ears" of the bracket were cut off as part of the modification to get it to work just right, and were re-purposed as reinforcements:

 

[NW99XJ]

1-Ton Steering Install - May_2013 Wrap Up

The finished product is awesome, a great looking and performing 1-ton OTK steering set-up.


Before:

After:


I still have some fine tuning to do, there IS a tiny bit of bump steer, so I'm going to move the axle side heim up one hole, and figure out a way to get my stabilizer back on.
Unit then, here's a couple more shots just for grins and giggles....

 

[NW99XJ]

New Wheels & Tires May_2013

OH....and I cant forget about the new shoes either......
Because of the TRE interference with the wheels, I had to AT LEAST get new rims, I figured while I'm at it I might as well get new tires as well.....
After a lot of mulling around, and more indecision than I care to think about, I finally pulled the trigger on THESE:

15x8 ProComp 152 Rock Crawler Series wheels, wrapped in the brand spanking new, just released 33x12.50 ProComp MT/2's


I was a little worried about all the black.....but honestly, it doesn't look half bad (to me)