Just Another XJ on tons, coilovers, 42's, etc. Build

Well, you gotta love stupid...expensive...mistakes.

I've made a few over the course of the build, but these last two :mad:

1st:

Disassembled the Taurus Fan to clean it up. Was going to put the fan blade back on, and it needed some coercing. Well I went to press the blade back on in my shop press (yes I knew it wouldn't require that much pressure), but didn't think to use a really small socket that just fit over the blade rod (since there is a metal sleeve inside the plastic). Well, that proceeded to put too much pressure on the area around it annnnd BAM...blade broke.

So went to the junkyards to grab a couple fans...only found one. EVERY single 3.8L Taurus was missing the fan except one (went to 4 junkyards). Guess they've gotten even more popular...used to be able to find them all over.

All told: $30 mistake and a bit of time waster.

2nd:

This way my mistake...for not checking a companies threading :rolleyes:

I've had some issues with various companies either not threading things completely, or the threads aren't very clean. I should have known to chase the threads before trying to install.

I don't mean to bash CNC on this, everthing else went together just fine...except one of my Master Cylinders and 2lb. residual valve.

Went to screw the residual valve into the master (by hand). Was threading fine then just stopped. The threads on the residual valve were fine before I installed it (both 1/8" NPT). I think "ok, guess these threads weren't the greatest on the master, i'll just unscrew the valve and chase the threads a little bit to clean them up". Well the threads inside the master were bad enough to have grabbed onto the residual valve and not want to back out by hand...even though I hand screwed them together :confused:. So I get a wrench out and slowly back it out...threads on the master are FUBAR'd, and the last 1/4 of the residual valve are screwed. Thats a lot of damage for fuggin hand screwing them. I was able to take a die and possibly salvage the residual valve. Tried retapping the master with a 1/8" NPT tap...but there just wasn't enough meat on it. So, my lest ditch effort to save the master will be to drill and tap the master cylinder outlet to 1/4" NPT, then get a 1/4" NPT to 1/8" NPT adapter. If that fails...then :mad3:

Long story short...check the threads on your products before screwing them together...especially if they're expensive. I blame this on both CNC and myself. CNC for bad threads, and myself for not double checking them/chasing them.

Ya live and ya learn.

All told: upwards of a $120 mistake :rolleyes:
 
I have had similar experiences with threading. Any inserts I use get chased and lubed if there is a jamb nut to lock it down.

Love the build, can't wait to see it done. My buggy project is outside under a tarp right now :(
 
Well, after a bit of work I got that f'ed up master tapped to 1/4" NPT. Got a reducer to the 1/8" NPT and it seems to all screw together well enough.

Since I washed the ever loving hell out of the inside of the master to get any and all shaving out, I didn't install it to let it fully dry.

So...hooked up my nitrogen tank, regulator, hose, and synergy no-loss chuck to try and charge the ORIs.

Well...the "no loss" chuck isn't so "no loss" :laugh:

Guess I need an on/off valve with it as well, since nitrogen just freely flows out of it. Work like I suppose it should hooked up. I'll give Poly Performance a call and see if maybe I just got a bad one?

Charged the front lowers to 145 (meant to be 120 but accidentally went higher). Rear lowers to 120. Put 200 in the uppers in the rear, 200 in the front.

This initially have me about 3.5" of chrome showing in the front, 7" in the rear. Going to try and lower the rear about an inch. Bumped the front uppers up about 80 PSI...didn't do much. So I said fukkit and bumped them up to 400. Wellllll that definitely gave me more than I wanted and I now have 10.5" of shaft showing up front, and 8.5" in the rear...its really fukking tall now :laugh:

Thing is, looking around at others measurements...i'm not that bad if I were willing to accept it where it is. Belly with it sky high it 26", top of the roof about 75".

Going to bleed it some tonight and try to get the ride height set. I know there will be a lot of playing with pressures and the dampening screw over time, just as one would with coilover springs and pressures.
 
Got her set right around ride height. The front needs to come up just slightly, but this is around where she'll sit.

So different after seeing it at full bump for so damn long!

Kinda deceiving, but I'm 6'1" and its about dead even with the top of my head, and about the same as the TJ in the background.

20140218_195700_zpsb0bce61a.jpg
 
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Well didn't get as much as I wanted done this weekend, was just tired for some reason and didn't feel as up to and motivated to attack it in the garage.

I got the intake done and the AEM filter and sock mounted.

Re-made my front upper link (cut the link DOM too short), mounted the front DS and continued brake plumbing.

Yeah, so not quite as far as I wanted.

Over the course of this week plans are:

- Finish up all brake plumbing (other than fully attach to master cylinders)
- Mount cable shifters back on
- Flush engine coolant passages and get cooling system 100% closed up and ready to fill
- Get new Taurus fan cleaned up and mounted

On a side note...I've thought about getting rid of all the Ballistic Joints and going to FK JMX or EMF rods ends.

Would be an expensive thing to do though...
 
I know Jim's ballistic joint looked bad but I've been running them for years and the only time I've ever seen that sort of failure was when I left the joint in a bung and welded it in the tube...

I'm running them in the white Jeep now too
 
eflores said:
I know Jim's ballistic joint looked bad but I've been running them for years and the only time I've ever seen that sort of failure was when I left the joint in a bung and welded it in the tube...

I'm running them in the white Jeep now too
Click to expand...

Yeah I have no fear of running them, I just think for my application heims just might make more sense.

Part of this is that the Currie Joints I'm running are 9/16" bolt on the frame sides of the lower control arms. I'm thinking I'd like to just step those up to 5/8"...in which case I've thought about just running all heims.
 
freerider15 said:
Yeah I have no fear of running them, I just think for my application heims just might make more sense.

Part of this is that the Currie Joints I'm running are 9/16" bolt on the frame sides of the lower control arms. I'm thinking I'd like to just step those up to 5/8"...in which case I've thought about just running all heims.
Click to expand...

I run a mixture of FK heims, ruffstuff heims, and currie johnny joints, all in 1.25" on the front and rear upper and lower links on my rig. So far the Currie JJ's have lasted the longest (havent touched them in 2 years now), followed by the FK heims, followed by the RS heims. The ruffstuff heims i get about 6 months out of, FK a little more, maybe 8 months to a year. I wheel the same exact trails taking the same lines over and over again so i feel it's a pretty fair comparison.
 
Vanimal said:
I run a mixture of FK heims, ruffstuff heims, and currie johnny joints, all in 1.25" on the front and rear upper and lower links on my rig. So far the Currie JJ's have lasted the longest (havent touched them in 2 years now), followed by the FK heims, followed by the RS heims. The ruffstuff heims i get about 6 months out of, FK a little more, maybe 8 months to a year. I wheel the same exact trails taking the same lines over and over again so i feel it's a pretty fair comparison.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input, that seems to be what I hear with those heims.

If I'm going heim, i'd be going with EMF Heims. $$$ at about 2x the price of RuffStuff...but even the Ultra4 guys says they've never had to replace one or worry about them.

I'd keep the joints for sure if this was seeing more street (built it not planning on going this far, so went with joints for more street-ability).

Nothing is set in stone, just as many things have changed over the course of building the rig :D
 
freerider15 said:
Thanks for the input, that seems to be what I hear with those heims.

If I'm going heim, i'd be going with EMF Heims. $$$ at about 2x the price of RuffStuff...but even the Ultra4 guys says they've never had to replace one or worry about them.

I'd keep the joints for sure if this was seeing more street (built it not planning on going this far, so went with joints for more street-ability).

Nothing is set in stone, just as many things have changed over the course of building the rig :D
Click to expand...

EMF is the only way to go. I will be converting all my Rod ends to EMF as I can afford to do so but they are extremely pricey.
 
what worries you about the 9/16" bolts?

currie does make a 3/4" ball for the 2-1/2" joints and I *thought* they were making a 5/8" as well but I can't find it on the website. might want to call them
 
cracker said:
EMF is the only way to go. I will be converting all my Rod ends to EMF as I can afford to do so but they are extremely pricey.
Click to expand...

Yeah I saw thats what you run, and yeah they aren't cheap...but come highly recommended from the Pirate crowd.

rockclimber said:
what worries you about the 9/16" bolts?

currie does make a 3/4" ball for the 2-1/2" joints and I *thought* they were making a 5/8" as well but I can't find it on the website. might want to call them
Click to expand...

Not so much "worried", but I'd rather just have 5/8" bolts across the board (also helps in the case of bringing spares). I know (or at least could have sworn) Currie does make a 5/8" ball to put in their joints, but that doesn't really matter to me as i'm either keeping everything the way it is...or making this one last final change to the rig before its done.
 
Well looking more and more and more into it today...I think I'll be going with Ruff Stuff heims.

As much as I would love to put EMF joints in there, the cost just isn't doable right now.

Going to wait for the next RuffStuff sale and place an order.

Maybe when money allows after recovering from the build some i'll upgrade to EMF's. FK's are nice, but for a few bucks more you can have the EMF's.
 
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