My '96 progress thread

[Georgia Mike]

Thanks. I'm not 100% sure why my bearing failed, but I'm sure the fill plug being below the axle tube level didn't help, so that's why I have the Xj backed up on the trailer while topping it off. I took the following pic last year when I replaced the bearing and it shows the differences in height from the ID of the tube to the fill plug:

 

[Luke95]

I went solid on my cover so I'm not worried by it.

Pro tip at the very least run some good warn premiums on your dana 44. If you have some $$ buy the yukons

 

[The Hard Struggler]

Are you going to keep the new axles 8lug?
If you wanted to run 5 lug on the D44 with high steer, I've got flat top chevy knuckles, spindles, calipers with brackets for sale I'd make you a good deal on.

The knuckles are ready for high steer arms.



Great score on the 77-79 F250 Dana 44! It's by far the strongest iteration of any front 44, pure beef.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Yes, the plan is to stick with the 8 lug stuff.

Thanks for the offer!

 

[Georgia Mike]

So Glenn (Ghost), Andy (a-mechanic), Mark (MarkWNC) and I went to Durhamtown Tellico last weekend (March 21st). We had a great time! Rode all day and still didn't see it all. It was a very slick, muddy mess due to a lot of snow & rain from the previous weeks.

I spit out a u-joint cap on Knuckle Buster. We were out there pretty late and I didn't know I had an issue until I heard an unusual "pop" on the way back down to the parking lot.




Rear bumper, tank skid and frame rails took a beating. Not all this damage was from there, but there's a lot here that I don't recall being there before.







I ordered a set of frame rail stiffeners a while back. I guess I should get to work installing them :doh: At this point it looks like I'll need to drill access holes in the floor to beat the rails back into shape so I'll have something to weld to lol

Before I took the XJ off the trailer I took the opportunity to pressure wash the undercarriage. Have I mentioned that I hate mud?



And something I noticed today while replacing the front axle stub shaft: I was hesitant to buy & install a set of ball joints I got from Omix-Ada, but at the time it was a money issue so I rolled the dice. While the joints still seem to be okay, it looks like the rubber seals are already failing with just over one years use.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Wow time flies! I pretty much took a couple months off from wheeling and working on the XJ, or anything else for that matter if I could help it. I decided I should really get back on it if I'm going to do any wheeling this fall....so back to the shop it went for some much needed lovin'



The plan is to, at the very least, get those frame rail stiffeners installed, and maybe do a rocker replacement with box tubing. I knew my rockers were a little damaged, but I didn't think they were all that bad until I took off the rails. I've definitely seen much worse, but I was a bit surprised.




Got the main rail stiffeners test fit into place. I still have a little bit of grinding left before I can weld them on. Hopefully I'll get that done tomorrow evening.




Somehow I feel like I used to get a whole lot more done in the same time frame than I do nowadays.....maybe it's the heat. Or maybe I'm just getting older and lazier lol

eace:

 

[Georgia Mike]

Got the middle stiffeners almost done. Did the passenger side last night, and the driver's side tonight. With the frame rails being much worse on the passenger side, coupled with the fact that I left my glasses at home, that side didn't turn out very well. Driver's side welds and overall fitment is much better.

Passenger side fitment issues. I'll have to drill holes in the floor and beat the rails down to finish welding them



Driver side not quite as bad



Almost finished




Before I left the shop I started poking around on the front axle. I found the passenger side UCA mount was badly bent. I'd already booger-welded it back onto the axle tube once before, so I guess it's just time to replace it with something better. I ordered a new one from Under Cover Fabworks. I also discovered that my passenger side unit bearing is trashed, as is the driver side stub shaft. I have a spare unit bearing, and I'm going to go ahead and order a set of Ten Factory shafts for a bit of an upgrade in strength.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Got the front axle out yesterday morning and started cleaning it up a bit. I figured since I was going to be doing more than one job on it that it would just be easier overall to pull it out. Plus it makes for easier access to the frame rail area for the stiffeners install.

Ten Factory axle shafts arrived on Friday, only two days after the purchase. Gotta love that. On the contrary, the passenger side UCA mount has yet to show up even though it was ordered days before the axle shafts. Some may be asking why I'm investing so much in the D30 when I have the 44 to build, and rightfully so. I have simply back-burnered that project because I feel that with the alloy shafts and heavier-duty CA mounts (the lowers were replaced before I bought the XJ) this axle will serve me well for the foreseeable future. One day the 44 will get built, but for the time being I'm taking the easier route :dunce:

Shafts arrived quickly!


Front axle is out!


While it is out I took the opportunity to clean it up a bit with the pressure washer. That thing was filthy. I'll be adding the new shafts, new UCA mount, and also replace the axle seals since they're both leaking pretty badly. I also have a set of Iron Rock Offroad inner C gussets that have been kicked around the shop for a couple of years now that I may install. I may even throw on a coat of Krylon's finest while I'm doing it all. And check out those stands. Quality equipment right there!


Wasted UCA mount in which I'd made several attempts in the past to save. From booger-welding it back on after nearly ripping it completely off, to a half-hearted attempt at straightening it....I think I can stick a fork in that one-it's done! The pressed-in bushing came out by hand pretty easily.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Didn't get a whole lot done this evening. It's my wife's late week at work so I have less time in the afternoons to work.

Got the axle totally stripped down except the pinion. It shouldn't need to be pulled since the seal is okay. Went ahead and pulled the ball joints too since I'll be welding on the inner C's and I didn't want to ruin the things in case they have any delrin or other types of plastic inside for bushings.


Look at all the crap that was inside the axle tubes! Pretty sure that this, coupled with continually breaking u-joints and shafts, is why the seals were leaking so bad. I think I'm going to spend the last of my funds to buy a set of tube seals.


Mocked up the driver's side front rail stiffener. With the bumper mounts going so far back, and they're nearly twice as thick as the stiffeners, I'll drill the rear two bolt holes in a plate so it will lap over and bolt to the bumper mount, then weld that plate to the stiffener. This should allow removal of the bumper in the future if need be, but avoid a potential weak area between the two pieces. Or at least that's my theory and it sounds good in my head :looney:

 

[Georgia Mike]

Another slow day today, but any progress is good.

The UCA mount finally showed up today. It was a bit puzzling because the gusset was welded to the mount, but only on one side of the "wing" (kind of hard to explain and I forgot to take a pic beforehand). The body wasn't welded at all at the joints, save for the tack welds in two corners and the backsides of the gusset "wings" weren't welded at all. I finished off the welding on the joints with the TIG, and I can say it wasn't my finest hour behind the torch. That's right....forgot my glasses again! I guess I'm lucky it turned out as "well" as it did lol


Went ahead and cut off the old mount to make way for the new one, and I have to say the plasma cutter makes jobs like this a lot easier! Gotta thank Will for the heads up on these little machines!

 

[Georgia Mike]

Yet another slow evening, but it's Wednesday so only two more slow nights until the week after next when she has to work her late shift again.

I got the booger-welds and residual bracket pieces ground off the front axle at the UCA mount. Test-fitted the new UCA mount. Didn't weld it on yet because the new XJ bushings I had on the shelf are a loose fit in the bracket. The mount is listed for a TJ, so I'll go to the store and see if the TJ bushing shell is slightly bigger, or if I'm gonna have to figure something else out. I seem to recall the ZJ bushing shells being slightly bigger, so maybe I'll be in luck.


Also got the front driver's side frame stiffener welded in

 

[Georgia Mike]

Woke up Thursday morning with a mild case of welder's eye so I took that evening off. I had inadvertently set the shade too low on my hood and didn't realize it until I'd already had white spots in my vision, then Thursday morning it felt as if my eyes were full of sand, so take that as a precaution guys....if you have an auto darkening helmet make sure it's set to the process you're doing before you start every time!

This evening I got the UCA mount welded on


And I also got the outer beads laid on the inner C gussets. I'll do the inner welds tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have the axle painted, reassembled and ready to reinstall before the weekend is over.


And just one of those :doh: things that happens to me all the time; have you ever noticed that when you lay down a nasty looking weld, it almost ALWAYS happens in a spot where EVERYONE will see it? May as well put a neon sign pointing to it!

 

[TRCM]

Woke up Thursday morning with a mild case of welder's eye so I took that evening off. I had inadvertently set the shade too low on my hood and didn't realize it until I'd already had white spots in my vision, then Thursday morning it felt as if my eyes were full of sand, so take that as a precaution guys....if you have an auto darkening helmet make sure it's set to the process you're doing before you start every time!

And make sure the batteries in it are good !!!!!!!

 

[Georgia Mike]

Saturday's goal was simple. Finish welding the front axle, wire brush it and paint it to have it ready for reassembly this week. Then install the passenger side front frame rail stiffener. Sounds easy enough.....but it went more like this:

 

[Georgia Mike]

And make sure the batteries in it are good !!!!!!!

Yes, this is also good, solid advice. And since we're on the topic of welding, another bit of good advice is to make sure you have enough shield gas before the weekend. I discovered at 9:15 AM, a solid 15 minutes after I got started working......that I just ran out of gas :doh:

Got the lower inner welds done on the passenger side


Aaaaaand I'm out of gas as soon as I started the driver side


And NO welding supply houses in my area are even open for a half day on Saturday. So I messed around with a few small jobs that would need to get done eventually without the immediate need of a welder.

Got the track bar mount put back on. It only took a minor amount of work to make it fit again.


On to the t-case skid plate. I can't remember who made these but I helped install one on one of the giveaway XJ's about 10 years ago. It was a very tight fit over the factory frame rails. After adding the stiffeners on my XJ, it just wasn't going to go at all. I had to cut the mounting ears off so I can widen it just a bit. I'll add a 1" or 1-1/2" strip over the cut and weld it all back together.



And with the extra thickness of the stiffeners I was able to tap the bolt holes instead of relying on the thin sheet metal of the frame. It's not optimal, but it's a lot better than before!




Then I finally started making the frame tie-ins for the cage. They're offset from the plates inside and I'll weld them to the stiffeners, as well as add diagonal kickers to the frame on each plate. Due to the design of the front floor plates, I could only get two bolts to hit the lower plate with the material I have on hand. I'll drill another hole to strengthen it a bit, and possibly drill/tap another hole directly under the tube to have a total of four bolts on that plate. The inner plate does currently have four bolts through the floor (as well as being welded), but I didn't add the extra bolt in that area when I originally installed the cage because it fell right over one of the floor drain plates. I have yet to decide if I'll add a second plate to catch the two rear bolts (hard to see-circled in red) or just add the other bolt(s) to the lower plate. The down tube lands directly between the two bolts that are in the lower plate in the picture. I'm sure that to those that are reading this, my descriptions here are as clear as mud. But hey, it makes sense to me! :dunce:

 

[TRCM]

Are you doing any kind of pre-heat on those inner C gussets ??

What about from the top of the C to the tube ??

How are you making sure you don't warp or twist the C from the heat ??



They look like they may hinder lock to lock turning, and I know they would make an outer axle tube seal a real PITA to put in.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Well those inner C's are pretty thick forged steel so I don't think my little 135 amp welder is gonna have enough grunt to put that much heat in them. I did try to walk the heat around the C's by only welding 2"-3" sections at a time, altering top to bottom and driver side to passenger side. I didn't preheat the gussets. Maybe looking back on it, it could have been something to consider. Too late now, but I feel like it'll be okay. I've only bent one C in my life, so time will tell. I just figured that since I had the axle apart, and I had these gussets kicking around for at least two years that now would be a good time to use them. As for them hindering turning, I don't think they will, but again...time will tell and if need be I can clearance them with a simple grinder.

As for the tube seals, yes the gussets will add a bit of difficulty to their installation. As they are, the zerk fitting just touches the inside of the gusset enough that I feel it would break off if I forced in. As I see it, I have two options; option A is to drill an access hole for the zerk and install it after the seal has been installed. Option B is to simply install the seal with the zerk facing upward. I think if I'm careful I can get it positioned where I'll still have access with the grease gun and not have to drill holes in the gussets. I may need to buy a couple angled zerks, but they're common enough that I can find them almost anywhere. But that's the only issue. They still have plenty of clearance for the body of the seal to slide right in with no problems at all.

 

[TRCM]

gotcha........was asking cuz I am looking at maybe having my axles out for regearing, and was considering some gussets, altho the ones I was looking at went on the top & bottom.

And my 210 welder just might heat it up some......

Same thoughts on the axle seal install. My axles will have them this time.


I also got to install my frame stiffeners as well. Not looking forward to all that upside down & vertical welding...especially on thin sheetmetal. And since I got the ones that have a lip up onto the floorboard, I get to pull all that interior out as well so I don't burn it all up.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Luckily all my carpet was gone when I bought the XJ. When I installed the cage I went ahead and took the headliner and all of the remaining interior panels out and tossed them. I did leave the door panels in place, though. It makes it a ton louder when driving on the road, but it only sees 10-20% street use so it's no biggie. Those stiffeners with the lip up top are nice. I didn't see those until after I'd already bought mine. I'd have most likely bought those instead of the ones I got.

You probably already know, but just take your time and focus your heat on the thicker stiffener and walk the puddle to the thinner sheet metal. That's what I did when installing mine, and also when I welded the 1/4" cage foot plates to the floor. And yes, welding overhead is a real pain, but fortunately when I installed my center pieces my welds turned out better than usual when doing it. I still need to cut access holes in my floor so I can beat my frame rails down so I can weld them. They are in bad shape from the lower control arm mounts on back, and there's a big "elephant in the room" that keeps staring me in the face on the driver's rear rail. That will definitely have to be addressed very soon.

And I got to thinking about the preheat thing on the gussets. I think I'll preheat them a little before I weld the inner beads, so all won't be lost if they needed it.

 

[TRCM]

I use mine more as a daily driver, and for hunting...so interior pieces are nice to have still.

I will also try to figure out a way to cut down the height of the seats, as even tho I am not tall, they have my head 'up there' more so than my 88 (currently driving a 96).