LS2 XJ

I'm pullin for ya 'cause I wanna see this thing at Harlan!!!!
 
I bet that thing sounds GOOOOOOOOD!
 
Its loud when you rev it up. I mean... it doesn't sound bad at all, but its super aggressive. We may change it later, but its not my call. That's all up to Brent.

I had to come in for a few minutes and cool off. I was getting too hot. So... what better to do than get on here and make an update from the progress I made this morning; narrowing the front axle!

I had already cleaned it up, so it was basically ready to go. First thing to do was cut the welds that held on the Inner "C"s.

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Then I chained the housing to His jeep so I could hit it and it wouldn't just slide. It took about 20 hits per side with a 10 Lb sledge, but they did come off!

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Then it was time to cut the extra tube off. I had already calculated that I needed to remover 1.75" from the long side and 3" from the short side. Got t marked and threw it in the chop saw to begin cutting. It made pretty quick work of it.

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I then took a flap disc and cleaned the tubes up really well to remove the hammer marks and to make installing the inner "C"s a little easier. I also beveled the end of the tube to allow me to weld the inside of the C as well.

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I then slid the "C"s back on, made sure they were in the right place and at the correct angles. Then I tacked them. After double checking everything, I burnt them in really good on both inside and out.

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I forgot to take a picture of the whole axle, but I will do that once its all put together with gears and a cover, knuckles, etc. Here in just a few minutes Im gonna run and grab some Ball joints and get them pressed in. Then hopefully when I get back I will have all of the parts for the front axle and I can get it all put together.
 
Well, today turned out to be pretty successful after all. Gears FINALLY came in around 5:30 but I really needed to get them put in, so I got to work. I got lucky with it... and after a couple of hours, I got it perfect! Im really happy with it, got a really good pattern and .008" of backlash.

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Then... I couldn't resist. I broke out some goodies and put them together, then slid them into the axle for a test fit.

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Tomorrow I'll finish it up and throw on these goodies!

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Then I'll be finding small stuff to do again until the ARB arrives for the rear axle.
 
OOoOOOOOoooooo AAAAAAHHHH :worship:

Sound good?
 
Nice. That d44 must have $2K easy into it.
 
LOL!!! 2K??? Seriously? I wish! But, parts like these are needed when you are gonna run 37s and a 400 HP engine, it's the only way it will survive.
 
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LOL!!! 2K??? Seriously? I wish! But, parts like these are needed when you are gonna run 37s and a 400 HP engine, it's the only way it will survive.

Was being sarcastic.... I had $3K in mine.
 
LOL!!! 2K??? Seriously? I wish! But, parts like these are needed when you are gonna run 37s and a 400 HP engine, it's the only way it will survive.

Those shafts alone are like $900 aren't they?
 
I don't think custom length is extra, but it sure does make it easier to order them when you can have an off the shelf application. Waggy width seems to work really well, so that's what we went with. They are $1280 plus slugs which are an extra $200. He got lock out hubs and slugs to run as spares. If a hub breaks, we will pull it off and throw in a slug and keep on rocking it.

Today I went to the shop and balanced the Wheels/tires. I was very impressed! the worst one only took 7 ounces, one took 5, and the other 2 took 2 and change. I thought that was really good!

I then finished tearing apart the rear axle in preparation for the gear install. The rear ARB showed up around 3:00. and by 5 the gears were set up. I wasn't as happy with this pattern as I was on the front; I was able to get the drive side perfect, but the coast side was a little to the inside. I tried everything to make it better, but this was the best I came up with, so I decided the drive side is most important and left it be. Like I said, it was perfect, and backlash was .0075" so that's on the tight end of spec... right where we like it. After getting it all put together, I threw in the Superior shafts and C clip eliminators... then noticed a problem. The locker was locked and there was no air pressure in it... So, lucky me got to tear the whole thing back down to the bare bones and tore down the locker to see what they had done wrong when they "repaired" it. I pretty quickly found out that the seal thing in the case half wasn't seated all the way, so the sliding collar (the part that the air pressure pushes over the side gear to lock it) wouldn't retract all the way. A few taps with a hammer and it was fixed. I then put it all together and finished it up! So, no both axles are put together for the most part. They still need brackets and paint, and the front needs knuckles and all the outer stuff assembled (wanted to wait until after paint), but other than that, they are done.
 
Well, tonight I have a sore behind from the royal screwing I got. 2 Weeks ago I ordered the suspension from Rock Krawler. I made it VERY apparent of how big of a time crunch I was in, and told them I needed it by the end of last week. Well, Chris assured me that it would be here by today at the latest. Well, when 3:45 rolled by and UPS still ahdn't showed up, my stomach started turning... I am already in a bad position time wise, and set backs like this can cause this project to become impossible very easily, and keep me from reaching my deadline, and therefore keeping the jeep from making the crawl. So... I call them up. I am informed that they supposedly had an issue with their powder coater and it took a few days to get it fixed. As of 3:45, it still hadn't shipped, but he said it would go out today. I was pissed b/c they didn't call me and inform me of the situation. I would have told them to knock some money off of the kit and I would have just painted it. No big deal. The bad thing was that they had no intentions of getting it out today, they were going to put it on tomorrows truck and it would have arrived to my door at 3:00 PM on Friday... my goal is to have it driving again by Friday evening, so that would have in no way worked. He is actually going to ship it to the UPS customer service department here in town, that way I can go pick it up on Thursday morning instead of having to wait all day for it to arrive. Fortunately, there are some small things I can do such as put some brackets on the front axle in the morning and finish putting it together after a coat of paint. I can also install the dual battery kit and the ARB stuff. I have to go get the parts for that, but its still stuff that has to be done, so at least I won't be wasting time.

GAH!!! Im so pissed at them! It royaly screwed up my timeline for this week. I can still do it, but it just throws everything out of whack.

On a brighter note, I was able to get all of the old suspension removed, and I also finished up the frame stiffners. Tomorrow I am going to cut out the factory front spring buckets and maybe bend up some hoops (can't install yet though), and then fab up some mounts for the axle end of the ORIs and for the lower control arms too.
 
Just came in for a bite to eat. This morning I got the coil buckets cut out and cleaned up. bent up some hoops for the upper ORI mounts, and the axle is now bracketed; all except for the track bar mount and the upper mount, both of which I will have to do once it's in the jeep. I am about to go out and paint the outer ends of the axle and install the Reid Racing knuckles, high steer arms, RCV shafts, spindles, hubs, rotors, calipers, etc, that way I am at least getting some small stuff done. I may go ahead and try to get the axles on some stands under the jeep with the tires on that way I can maybe see where its gotta go... but that's a big maybe. I may just go ahead and try to get the ARB stuff hooked up that way they will be ready once the axles are installed permanently.
 
You gona take a vacation when this project is done?
i may drop by just to see the progress after work

mark
 
You gona take a vacation when this project is done?
i may drop by just to see the progress after work

mark

He is its the Crawl! party1: :yelclap:
 
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