New Member New Lift

[RAM-ROD]

Southwest of Rockford. Omly been over that way a couple of times but nice looking country. Reminds me of Indiana i much perfer the more rural areas to where i am over by the lake. But being by the lake does help being i race sailboats when not working on the heep.

 

[RAM-ROD]

WELL WELL ...Look who finished his lift. The pics are not the best. Took them with my phone. I will get more uploded of the second half of the work and with my Midwest stickers on her. So i took it for a drive yesterday and guess who has the "VIBES". Well i knew i would but was really wanting to get by without the SYE and new shaft. Well i just place my order for the SYE and new shaft and 4DEG. shims.

 

[RAM-ROD]

So i started on the back and of course being that i was still working outside it rained all weekend...uggggggggg oh well the rear should be easy being there are less parts. I take back the rusted comment i posted before. it was a full on break fest of bolts. one of the lower shock mounts broke off about three threads from the stud. now that is one hard ass stud. I was able to drill and tap it with a 7/16 grade 8 bolt flat washer and lock washer. all the upper shock mount bolts broke off and these were even replaced by the dealer that put new shocks on about two years ago. So i went back to Strykers great post and came up with a little different method. I took a punch and drill bit from the bottom and drilled up with a tiny bit to find the center. they were off a bit being the heads do not sit flat i made the correct adjustment and drilled a 7/8 dia hole in the floor so i could get a 1/2" socket on it. went to lowes and bought some 7/8 plastic plugs. now i have a clean looking set up but can also get back to those bolts from both ends anytime i want or need to. The u-bolt nuts came right off the rest of the rear spring mounts were a PIA. well time to get her dirty and see how she flexes now. I have flex pictures from before so when i get new ones with the lift. (hmmmmmm Redbird) I will post them up.

 

[RAM-ROD]

Just a bit of an update. I have been working on the heep everywekend since my lift arived. If you have been reading this post you have seen some pics and read what problems i had and did not have. So i get everything together drop the xj off for the alinment and boy did i have vibes between 20 and 30 mph. They were so bad i parked the jeep until i could get my new SYE and DS. I really really wanted to go full on Tom woods with this stuff but i was alos getting the eye from the wife everytime i looked at a parts web-site.. Ok not really she is pretty cool about this stuff, but i sort of felt bad because i was really hoping to not need that stuff right now. anyway i received my RE HnT SYE and drive shaft. They were made very nice and being i have a metal working back ground the cutting and tapping was not much of a worry..ok i was scared crapless to cut my output shaft off but kept telling myself this has been done tons of times i can do it. lol
well every thing went perfect. Pics to come.
test drive NO vibes..ok well tiny tiny bit of vibes but about the same it had before the lift.
this is the question the rear shaft and pinion angle are almost dead on. the vibes feel like they are coming from the front shaft. ( D-30 LP) Anyone had this on a post 97? I have a 2000 the lift is a RE 3.5 suoper flex that turned out to give me 4.5 after it was done. RE says it will "settle" a bit and to drive the crap out of it. Will the front shatf get better as it "settles"? or should i yank it drive it to make sure that's where the vibes are coming from. put a new u-joint in it. the one in it now has been in the jeep in the midwest for 75,000 miles. then put i back in and if i still have the slight vibes does that mean it's time for UCA's? like i said pics to come or the sye install.Thanks for any help.

 

[FlexdXJ]

The LP is prone to being a PITA on a lifted XJ. They seemed to work ok on TJ's since their wheelbase is quite a bit shorter! I'd say when you have the spare cash swap it out for a HP D30 from an older XJ.

 

[RAM-ROD]

Aaron: Now i like your thinking. I think that falls along the line of me staying up at night dreaming about HP 9" front and rear or maybe a nice set of dynatrac 44's. well i am going to try to hit Redbird for the clean up and meet some of you guys.

 

[FlexdXJ]

Aaron: Now i like your thinking. I think that falls along the line of me staying up at night dreaming about HP 9" front and rear or maybe a nice set of dynatrac 44's. well i am going to try to hit Redbird for the clean up and meet some of you guys.

Its looking like i will be there. I think my buddy is gonna come along with his ZJ. May have to get him signed up on too. He doesn't own an XJ anymore but still loves them as much as he loves his ZJ!

 

[RAM-ROD]

Here are some pics guys. Comments are welcome of course.

 

[FlexdXJ]

Here are some pics guys. Comments are welcome of course.

Nice job man. I thought about a HnT but not sure if i can do that good of a job on it. My dad should be able to do it but he lives in Indy so i would have to make it a weekend thing at his shop.

 

[RAM-ROD]

Nice job man. I thought about a HnT but not sure if i can do that good of a job on it. My dad should be able to do it but he lives in Indy so i would have to make it a weekend thing at his shop.

Thank's Aaron. It was not that hard. I have a bit of metal working experiance but the main thing was to go slow measure many times and recheck your work. being a shaft it is case hardened so the center is softer than the outside. That made the drilling and tapping not to bad at all. If i was not basicly on the wisconsin border i would head down there and lend you a hand.

 

[RAM-ROD]

Couple more pics.

 

[RAM-ROD]

last one till i get some real pictures

 

[FlexdXJ]

Thank's Aaron. It was not that hard. I have a bit of metal working experiance but the main thing was to go slow measure many times and recheck your work. being a shaft it is case hardened so the center is softer than the outside. That made the drilling and tapping not to bad at all. If i was not basicly on the wisconsin border i would head down there and lend you a hand.

Right on man! My dad is a fabricating machine so i'm sure he can tackle it but i'll probably just end up getting a SYE that isn't HnT.

 

[dj's 2000 xj]

Nice XJ! Terrible flag! LOL Just another Cards fan givin' to a Cubby fan! Straight up nice work on the other stuff though

 

[RAM-ROD]

Right on man! My dad is a fabricating machine so i'm sure he can tackle it but i'll probably just end up getting a SYE that isn't HnT.

Aaron: What transfer case are you running? I have the 242 and was more worried about taking it out of the heep and tearing it apart then getting it back in. I was also on a time frame as my Xj is also my DD

 

[RAM-ROD]

Nice XJ! Terrible flag! LOL Just another Cards fan givin' to a Cubby fan! Straight up nice work on the other stuff though

Thanks for the comment. I was waiting fro someone to chime in about the Cubs flag. Hey is anything else cubs games are a great thing to watch while drinking beer. but what isn't?

 

[FlexdXJ]

Aaron: What transfer case are you running? I have the 242 and was more worried about taking it out of the heep and tearing it apart then getting it back in. I was also on a time frame as my Xj is also my DD

I have a 231. I had a spare 231 that i was gonna rebuild and throw a SYE on it but ran into a cash flow problem so i sold it to a guy who blew his t-case up. I should have another XJ pretty soon so when this one is down fot the SYE i'll have a back up ride. It's gonna be a while before i throw that kind of money at it(other than tires) so i'm not in a big hurry!

 

[RAM-ROD]

I have a 231. I had a spare 231 that i was gonna rebuild and throw a SYE on it but ran into a cash flow problem so i sold it to a guy who blew his t-case up. I should have another XJ pretty soon so when this one is down fot the SYE i'll have a back up ride. It's gonna be a while before i throw that kind of money at it(other than tires) so i'm not in a big hurry!

Fully understand the cash flow thing. The industry i work in has been hit pretty hard the past year and a half. I am still rolling the new BFG 30x 9.50 AT's because i can not come up with the cash yet for the 31" or 32" BFG MT's. I was ondering about the T-case because the HNT on the 242 is just that there is nothing to remove other than the DS with the 231 as i understand it you have to remove the tail come wich is easy enough but one more step.

 

[FlexdXJ]

Fully understand the cash flow thing. The industry i work in has been hit pretty hard the past year and a half. I am still rolling the new BFG 30x 9.50 AT's because i can not come up with the cash yet for the 31" or 32" BFG MT's. I was ondering about the T-case because the HNT on the 242 is just that there is nothing to remove other than the DS with the 231 as i understand it you have to remove the tail come wich is easy enough but one more step.

Yeah i work in the diesel industry. Our orders have dropped out from under us. I went from working 7 days a week in november to working no overtime in December. I have had to take one week off already and another coming in July! I'll be going with some 31 inch Treadwrights since my 235/75/15 treadwrights are so damn good for what i paid.

 

[RAM-ROD]

Yeah i work in the diesel industry. Our orders have dropped out from under us. I went from working 7 days a week in november to working no overtime in December. I have had to take one week off already and another coming in July! I'll be going with some 31 inch Treadwrights since my 235/75/15 treadwrights are so damn good for what i paid.

I just checked those tires out. Pretty cool the price sure is great. Did you run the MT's. The tread pattern looks good.