yeah I think so... heard it said once that you would never expect a single tube of antiseize to coat an entire garage floor until you've experienced it :wow:
My first CPS took forever! But since then I've subsequently figured out the secret... use an air wratchet. It's literally a 5 minute job now. If you don't have one, the aggravation savings from this single job makes the purchase well worth it.
Broken rear shock bolts used to take me hours as well, laying on your back and drilling them out stinks. But someone on here let the cat out of the bag... just air-chisel the welded-in nuts out! I broke 2 the other day and was still finished with both rear shocks in under an hour taking my time. The tough part now is fishing bolts through from the top. I taped them to a 1/2" wrench (use masking tape so it tears easily so you can get the wrench out).
Another way to do this if you have the tools is to take a couple of pieces of strap metal, about 1/8 inch thick, 1/2 or so wide, around 6 inches long, and drill and tap a hole at one end. You can then stick those into the space, bending the strap as needed for clearance. Thread bolt into hole, job done. No need for metrics here, just do US coarse 5/16. Next time just shear them off and pull them out. If they're not too rusty, cut the end off, drill and tap another hole, repeat.
Hell....if you only got it in two places (place the spot you want it) your doin good man.. :eyes: What the......:dunno: How'd it get there? I swear it jumps of the brush.
Hell....if you only got it in two places (place the spot you want it) your doin good man.. :eyes: What the......:dunno: How'd it get there? I swear it jumps of the brush.
The hardest thing i've ever worked on was a renix, i own both a 90 and a 95. The 95 has proven to much simpler to work on. As far as replacing a part, it has to be the CPS on the 90. It took me about an hour, i had to drop the front drive shaft and the kick down cable bracket on the trans to get to the 2 bolts. (Yelling and Cursing was key to my success.) The only thing i havent torn completely into on an XJ is the dash.
'90 XJ - I really didn't enjoy putting my head back on. All things considered, it came off pretty easily but first I forgot to put that one nasty bolt in the back into the head before installing it which meant I had to take it off again. Then I had no end of trouble trying to find a socket/adapter combo that allowed me room to get my torque wrench into that spot. Finally settled on a 3/8 deep socket (1/2 was too deep), a 3/8-1/2" adapter and then I could finally torque it down.
Another job that wasn't fun was replacing the dash. PO had pushed their thumb through the top of the dash and it looked horrible so I got the brainwave of ripping a better one out of a local junk yard. I finally had to give up on the center mounting screw under the windshield until (I can't believe I was happy about this) I got a big crack in the windshield and had to replace it. While the installer had the old one out I quickly reached into my bag of parts, grabbed a screwdriver and got that stupid screw installed. The vibration of that top panel would drive me nuts so the new windshield was the best $150 I have ever spent.
Another job that wasn't fun was replacing the dash. PO had pushed their thumb through the top of the dash and it looked horrible so I got the brainwave of ripping a better one out of a local junk yard. I finally had to give up on the center mounting screw under the windshield until (I can't believe I was happy about this) I got a big crack in the windshield and had to replace it. While the installer had the old one out I quickly reached into my bag of parts, grabbed a screwdriver and got that stupid screw installed. The vibration of that top panel would drive me nuts so the new windshield was the best $150 I have ever spent.
cps is easy with lots of extensions. drop the trans crossmember (still bolted to the trans) and lower it down with a jack. 2 feet of extensions to reach the bolts, and it comes right out. to get it back in just stick one of the bolts through a hole in the new cps and use the extensions to feed it back in and get the bolts started.
Nope. The 1/2 drive socket I had on hand was too tall and I couldn't get it over the stud section at the top (it would hit on the firewall). The 3/8 drive was shorter so I could get it into place easy enough and with the 1/2"-3/8" adapter I had just enough room to get the wrench on it.
The most aggravating so far has been hands-down replacing the leaking O-rings on the 4.0L oil filter adapter.
All thanks to the "genius" designer who only put 2 inches of clearance between the torque bolt on the adapter and the uni-body/motor mount. That bolt is almost impossible to get too without dicing up your knuckles, and yelling "Who the F*&K designed this shit to be "serviceable"?!?
All you need is a throw away Harbor Freight 10MM combination wrench and a 6ft aluminum fence post for a cheater bar...seriously. I have done 3 of them and the combination wrench is now S-shaped. But the job is easy with this method...
All you need is a throw away Harbor Freight 10MM combination wrench and a 6ft aluminum fence post for a cheater bar...seriously. I have done 3 of them and the combination wrench is now S-shaped. But the job is easy with this method...
All you need is a throw away Harbor Freight 10MM combination wrench and a 6ft aluminum fence post for a cheater bar...seriously. I have done 3 of them and the combination wrench is now S-shaped. But the job is easy with this method...
Depends on the year. My 95, for example, had a T-60 Torx head bolt. The indentation on the head of those is very shallow, so even a small error that mungs it up can be fatal. It's too hard, shallow and tight for vise grips, and too close to the frame for a plain torx bit on a 1/2 inch drive handle. Way way too tight to take the insert out of a torx bit and drive it with a small wrench. What I ended up doing was taking a Torx drive head of the sort that has the bit pressed into a 1/2 inch socket, welding a big stamped metal Yamaha box wrench to the outside of the socket, bending that wrench to the right vertical angle, and using a three foot cheater bar on that. To keep it from popping loose I put a wedge between the home made wrench and the frame. I was at the limit of my strength when I broke it free, standing braced in the engine compartment. Having done ball joints and axle nuts and other stuff, my rough estimate is that it was torqued in at over 120 foot pounds, crazy tight. After that, I took the torx wrench apart and used a metric open end wrench on the insert (can't remember whether it was 10 or 12 now). Even then it took a long time to do. It was definitely a huge pain! An evening's work for a five minute replacement, but worth it since my rig was puking out oil at a terrible rate. Allen heads, found on some, are a little easier, and outside hex heads such as the old Renix had, easier still.
building a hybrid roll cage by myself kinda sucked.
i hate doing ball joints.
the older tnt long arms suck becuase of the fact that the belly skid and tracnny/t case cross member are all one piece, so swapping t cases is not as easy as when i had the stock X member.
Rear shocks for me where the biggest hassle, they of course all snapped. The weld nuts were Really welded on and not just spot welded so I couldn't pound them out. Did the whole cut up the rear floor to make access holes. Was just more frustrating than anything else.
CPS was easy, I got my air ratchet up there and zipped the bolts right out/in no issue. Oil filter o-rings were a bit of a pain until I cut down a socket to make it fit and used a big enough breaker bar. Exhaust manifold was no big deal with the right tools(flex head ratcheting wrenches). Gas tank dropped right out for me. I've been really lucky except with the rear shocks lol.
For me, biggest hassle was a seized shackle bolt on the spring side. The nut came right off. The bolt didn't come out of the bushing, though. Impact gun twisted the sleeve free & tore hell out of the rubber. I just put the nut back on & forgot about it.
