• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

99 XJ DD & Weekend Warrior

Big Thanks To All That Helped!!!!!!!!!

I have a lot of people to thank for getting me to this point, and if it wasn't for their help, and advice...... honestly, I think I would be either totally screwed, or at the very least, driving around with sub-standard gear, or a jimmy-rigged install.

:worship:
  • Jason (crazymoose) - Thank you for letting me use your reamer, that tool proved to not only be invaluable, but saved me a ton of money from having to buy my own.
  • Brandon (ODGreenOn35's) - dude, your welding skills are seriously awesome, you came out of your way and hauled your gear out here to help me out, and I cant thank you enough.... Had I tried to weld this in myself, who knows what it would have looked like or how well it would have performed. That kind of willingness to help out a fellow Jeeper in need is the kind of stuff we need more of.
  • Jon (Bronzewyrm) Your advice, and more importantly the pictures you sent, totally upon a spur of the moment request, and right smack dab in the middle of this install was a HUGE help. Seriously, without those, I think that Brandon and I would have been flying blind. And thanks again for putting up with all my questions. You were an instrumental part of getting this installation done.
  • Ryan (Bri&BubOffroad) Thanks for all the offers to help me out so many times, and for all the times you let me scope out your and Dana's steering set-ups to get ideas and direction for this phase of my project. And thanks for the HUGE assist that one night at 4Wheel Parts to get my new wheels and tires home.
  • Mike (BHMike) Thanks for keeping the fire lit under my ass, and not letting me give up.... you did a great job of encouraging me to keep moving forward.
  • Brandon (Bmikes) You too buddy, a lot of encouragement came from you as well, and the constant nagging (lol) to send pics of the progress and asking if "I was done yet" helped me out a lot in keeping the progress going.
  • Last but certainly not least Wes (92WarWagon) You helped out with some driving duties, the beer runs, and for the constant onslaught of compliments and encouragement throughout the whole ordeal. Thanks man for being there thru this....much appreciated.

And of course big thanks to JCR offroad, RuffStuff, Amazon, and 4Wheel Parts.
 
Before I can really get up and put this new set-up thru its paces, I need to take care of the suspension travel. 230k miles is not too kind on the factory bump stops....and as much as I absolutely HATE having to limit my suspension travel in any way, some EXTENDED bump stops are going to have to go in.....
I picked these up for $20 last week:

I'm not sure if these alone are going to do it...if not, I will most likely go with the hockey puck mod to the the spring buckets, but for now, putting these guys in are first on the list.
 
Re: 1-Ton Steering Install - May_2013 Wrap Up...(for now)

NW99XJ said:
...started in on prepping the bar.
Click to expand...

Dictionary.com said:
Bar: 1.a relatively long, evenly shaped piece of some solid substance, as metal or wood, used as a guard or obstruction or for some mechanical purpose: the bars of a cage.
Click to expand...
Dictionary.com said:
Tube: 1. a hollow, usually cylindrical body of metal, glass, rubber, or other material, used especially for conveying or containing liquids or gases.
Click to expand...

:D

Looks good, Josh. It's nice having that peace of mind knowing that your steering isn't going to taco on the trail.

I've heard with the inverted T systems you can get some tie-rod roll, which is why some use a poly spacer. Have you noticed this at all?
 
Thanks for the clarification on definitions (dick) :D
(i got your TUBE right here.) <grabbing crotch>


There IS a tiny dead spot, I DO have the poly spacer in place, I would imagine this would be far more pronounced if that wasn't in there.
But really its not too bad at all....
The bump steer is what I cant stand, but I think that too is going to be taken care of soon enough.
I think that MAYBE some of that will also be buffered once I get the stabilizer back on.
 
Re: 99 XJ DD &amp; Weekend Warrior

bmikes said:
Can you explain bump steer?
Click to expand...
In a nut shell......
The vehicle will dodge and dart whenever a bump or hole in the road is hit.
Basically, the vehicle will "steer" slightly when it hits a "bump".....
This is because the drag link is either being pushed or pulled by the vertical suspension movement due to not being perfectly parallel with the track bar.
 
Extended Front Bump Stops_ July 2013

Ok this update is a little late coming but here goes....
It was a last minute job.....done the morning I was leaving for a weekend long wheeling trip, and as luck has it, (and in keeping with the theme of this build thus far...) things did not go very smoothly.
The task? replacing the OEM bump stops, or what was left of them......


The passenger side had all but disintegrated, and was taken out months ago. The replacements were the extended Day Star bump stops I got from Woody's 4x4 in Vancouver Wa. back in June......(since they were the only ones within 200 miles that had them IN STOCK.)
(remember this pic?)


I woke up early on this particular Friday, headed out to the parts store and picked up the spring compressors I "thought" I was going to need to do this job.
Back in mid June I went to tackle this....thinking that all would have to do is jack the jeep up high enough to get the axle to droop far enough that I wouldn't need spring compressors........ I was wrong. So The bump stops sat on my work bench for a month or so until now. Since then I have just been procrastinating on attempting to put them in again.
At this point I had no choice, and could not wait any longer, I was not going to go (another) wheeling trip without them.
With rented spring compressors in hand I set to work, getting the jeep pulled halfway into the garage, and getting the wheels/tires off.
The jack was loaded with a few stacked pieces of wood to give me some extra lift, and I got the Jeep in the air as much as I could. The jack stands went under the frame rails, the shocks were removed from the axle side, and I let the jack go....... SOOOOO anti climatic!!! As before, the axle did not droop far enough for me to just simply pull the springs out.....
So out comes the spring compressor, first working on the Passenger side, I place them and start wrenching..... about halfway thru the travel of the compressors, and a good bead of sweat later, I come to the realization, that this isnt going to work either..... I NEED MORE COWBELL...err... I mean Droop..... I gotta have more droop!.... knowing that its not the panhard bar limiting the sag, I disconnect the Tie Rod from the passenger side knuckle, and start in on removing the lower Control Arms.
Once the Tie Rod, and Both Control arms were off, the axle damn near dropped to the floor..... Now that I had the droop, both springs basically just fell out (with the removal of the retainers of course.)
As I pry the one remaining bump stop out, I notice something that had been bugging me since I picked up the Daystar's a month prior..... The diameter.....
There was a definite difference in the "girth" of the OEM's to the new ones....The Daystar's were substantially bigger....

I was TOLD that these were the ones meant for the XJ.... I have a feeling that these were for a TJ instead.

XJ P/N: KJ09114BK
TJ P/N: KJ09101BK

One digit off...... SO CLOSE!
And since these were "out of box" ...there was really no way to verify sight unseen.....to the untrained eye at least.... and since I got them for such a screaming deal anyways, I really couldn't bish too much.
Here's what I SHOULD HAVE received: (see the difference?)
KJ09114BKlg.png


The solution?....some creative modification of course.
With a cut-off wheel on my HF grinder, I went to work carefully trimming and cutting, test-fitting, and cutting some more, shaving here, a chunk off there, and some more test-fitting and trimming..... in the end.... I had one ugly bump stop.


IT DID HOWEVER Fit nice and snugg.....
To ensure there would be no falling out of the new bump stop, I threw a couple custom "retaining screws" in there to keep things in place for the long run.


It fits, and it does its job..... works for me.
In the last several months I have heard of this EXACT same issue happening to a few other people... since "Actual product may vary from picture shown".... dont trust what you see online.... Go off the part number, and get what you need..... In my haste (back in June) I neglected to follow thru with this, and ended up with an install that took WAY longer than it should have, and required a little modification to complete.
In this pic, you can see the completed passenger side, the lower CA's are still disconnected here, allowing the rotation of the axle, making it look like the springs are rubbing against the bump stops. Once everything was put back to the way it should be, all was normal.
 
josh, to back you up a little bit. Advice on the panhard bar. lay under the front of the jeep, have somebody swing the steering back and forth. pay close attention to the uni-frame all around the panhard bracket. go back and forth as hard as you can. my bracket has weekend the frame and now im having to cut it off, install plate under the bracket (along the outside and bottom) right in the factory track bar bracket location. it is flexing bad, noisy, and I fear it will begin to tear the frame soon. Yes, you can see the frame moving around, its creepy looking.

Bronze.
 
Damn dude......
Thats some scary stuff.
Yea, I'll have to look into that.
Thanks!
 
You need some longarms, then u will never have a problem getting yor springs out after you drop the axle to the ground lol. When i put mine together, i simply set the springs on the perches, bolted the retained on and jacked up the axle! No pushing or shoving or compressing!
 
Bronzewyrm said:
josh, to back you up a little bit. Advice on the panhard bar. lay under the front of the jeep, have somebody swing the steering back and forth. pay close attention to the uni-frame all around the panhard bracket. go back and forth as hard as you can. my bracket has weekend the frame and now im having to cut it off, install plate under the bracket (along the outside and bottom) right in the factory track bar bracket location. it is flexing bad, noisy, and I fear it will begin to tear the frame soon. Yes, you can see the frame moving around, its creepy looking.

Bronze.
Click to expand...
Plating the frame will definitely help spread the force over a greater area, but I'd also look into adding a track bar brace as well. Something that ties in the track bar bracket to the opposite frame rail. I know Rubicon Express offers a brace for their brackets. Shouldn't be too hard to toss something together for the RS bracket as well.
 
TORX said:
Plating the frame will definitely help spread the force over a greater area, but I'd also look into adding a track bar brace as well. Something that ties in the track bar bracket to the opposite frame rail. I know Rubicon Express offers a brace for their brackets. Shouldn't be too hard to toss something together for the RS bracket as well.
Click to expand...

Yup!
The Rugged Ridge kit I USED to have on there came with one, I never used it because it didn't quite line up right for me, I think it was just user error......
There's SOMEONE here that said he wanted it, but I may tell him to pound sand and use it myself if he doesn't step up soon and come grab it.
I think I'm also going to take a page from YOUR playbook, and create some sort of home-brew steering box brace as well.
Thanks for the insight Dustin!
 
99 XJ DD &amp; Weekend Warrior

NW99XJ said:
Yup!
The Rugged Ridge kit I USED to have on there came with one, I never used it because it didn't quite line up right for me, I think it was just user error......
There's SOMEONE here that said he wanted it, but I may tell him to pound sand and use it myself if he doesn't step up soon and come grab it.
I think I'm also going to take a page from YOUR playbook, and create some sort of home-brew steering box brace as well.
Thanks for the insight Dustin!
Click to expand...

You wouldn't be talking about me would ya? :p if you wanna use it go for it man. Being in this internship has me strapped for cash. Plus if I get some pictures of your setup I could make one or something similar myself ;)
 
NW99XJ said:
Yup!
The Rugged Ridge kit I USED to have on there came with one, I never used it because it didn't quite line up right for me, I think it was just user error......
There's SOMEONE here that said he wanted it, but I may tell him to pound sand and use it myself if he doesn't step up soon and come grab it.
I think I'm also going to take a page from YOUR playbook, and create some sort of home-brew steering box brace as well.
Thanks for the insight Dustin!
Click to expand...

X2, im even wondering if there is a way to make a one piece brace system to tie both things in at once.

:repair:
Bronze.
 
99 XJ DD &amp; Weekend Warrior

Bronzewyrm said:
X2, im even wondering if there is a way to make a one piece brace system to tie both things in at once.

:repair:
Bronze.
Click to expand...

John maybe if we get together sometime or even emailing with pics we could design something and I could fab something and try it out? I'm not that knowledgable about that area though so I'd need help and insight on designing it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

F
99 XJ V8 Swapped, now door's will unlock but won't lock
Replies
3
Views
272
FreeRoller16
F
Root Moose
Cooling System Reset (2000 XJ)
Replies
1
Views
1K
Rob Mayercik
R
N
The XJ Unibody Chassis
Replies
0
Views
65
NAXJA_Archives
N
W
Newbie with an XJ
Replies
9
Views
363
Wander Motor
W
Ahouser
AC Compressor Relay Problems
Replies
5
Views
137
Ahouser
Ahouser
Back
Top