Red Rocket

The vultures are circling.

bmikes said:
Well I had sometime this evening to tear into the front end of the jeep today. It felt like it had a bent rotor or needed brakes or something because when I would stop it would act like it would catch, then let off, then catch, and do that.

Long story short, I got the drivers side torn down. The rotor was straight, pads still had plenty of material on them, the unit bearing checked out fine, and then.... I looked up....

There was almost an eighth inch between the C of the axle, and the top of the knuckle!!

I tried tightening up the ball joint nuts, but they were extremely hard to tighten, defiantly more than the 75 ft/lbs that chilton recommends. So it looks like I won't be driving it until I swap over the drive train from my '93, or I buy ball joints for this axle.
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Did you feel for play in the ball joints? With the tire on the axle, grab it at 12 and 6, and wiggle to feel for play. Do the same at 3 and 9. Vertical play is usually in the ball joints, and horizontal being the wheel bearing.

I can't really see ball joints causing the front end to pull under braking. I know when I lift my front end, the ball joints "unload" and create a gap.

If the brakes are pulsating, my guess is a warped rotor.
 
My tire sits with a good amount of camber, and I could lift the knuckle up and down by hand.

I didn't have time to pull the passenger side apart, but the drivers side rotor was straight.

I'm not too worried about it though, I would love to drive it right now, but the smartest thing financially for me is to just let it be and wait until I put my axles under it. When I do that I'm going to put moogs in it, fresh seals, put my ballistic fab lca brackets on, skid them, and possibly truss it. After reading about your run in with the rock at naches I feel like a truss would be a good idea. At the very least though I'm going to reinforce the uca mount, and possibly reinforce the C's like you did as well
 
excuse my ignorance, but what does it mean to clock the transfer case? im mgonna be putting my 231 back in, so im interested in learning about that. also, Bmikes, if you do that transfer case shift linkage, would you let me know? id like to learn how/do it along with you...
 
rabitz said:
excuse my ignorance, but what does it mean to clock the transfer case? im mgonna be putting my 231 back in, so im interested in learning about that. also, Bmikes, if you do that transfer case shift linkage, would you let me know? id like to learn how/do it along with you...
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What it does it it turns your 231 up ish, making your transfer case sit up higher, giving you a better ground clearance and keeps it away from rocks and such. That's why there are skids for our transfer cases as they sit a bit low, coincidentally if you get a aw4 from a wrangler, it'll also have its bolt holes clocked a bit higher giving you a clocked transfer case. Or it was the wrangler transfer case lol I'm tires so I'm not fully thinking
 
XJROMEO said:
See bmikes! Now all you gotta do is butter him up, call him biscuit, and get a price quote!! Lol
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Think he likes "I can't believe it's not butter" or margarine better? :p

whatcha think John?? I remember there being a rear bumper that someone was interested in.... :D haha
 
bmikes said:
whatcha think John??:D haha
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th
 
Well it's been a few days since I've said anything, so here's a couple updates.

My Clayton kit came in yesterday, but I didn't get a chance to open the boxes yet :/

I changed my mind on the HD Offroad frame stiffeners and went with Ruff Stuff one, they were ordered last week and already sitting in my garage.

Last night I pulled the trigger on Rubicon express 5.5" coils, and rubicon express 4.5" leaf springs. I'll pair the leafs up with my 1.5" shackles and with the weight of a bumper and possibly a tire carrier things should level themselves out.

The 93 chop top is basically dead.. I pulled the heart of it out yesterday with some guidance from my dad. First time we've worked together in a while! So the motor and the trans are out, the tcase was out a couple days ago. Both axles are out, I sold the suspension and sliders within the last few days, the doors and seats are spoken for already, so basically the only things I have left to do is pull my led lights and wiring, all my switches, and maybe the steering wheel and then find someone who's willing to help me get it to the scrap yard! :D

I've got some other things to take care of in the up coming week or two, but after that it's build time for the red rocket!! Yee-yee!!
 
I live close and have a car hauler. Only thing we would have to get it loaded without axles and without messing up my nice shinny new paint job to bad.
 
I have wood that we could lay down to skid the frame rails on. I'll keep that in mind when the time gets closer Dave. Thanks for the offer!
 
No problem. I'm not really that worried about the paint. I've already scratched it up some. I just don't want this trailer to end up looking like my last one.
 
Alrighty guys, I'm getting a lot closer to being able to tear into this rig. Only a few more projects for other people and then it's go time.

As of right now this is the pile of junk I have sitting in the garage waiting to go into the '99:
- D30 geared from the 93, with a Clayton stress and ballistic lca mounts.***
- c8.25 geared
- np231 with sye
- clayton front 3 link setup
- ruff stuff main frame stiffeners
- 5.5" RE coils
- 4.5" RE leafs
- 1.5" drop shackles from the 93
- 6" extended brake lines

That's all I can think of now.. My like has been growing though.

So this is the order of things I need to do to get the rig drivable:

1) weld on ruff stuff stiffys
2) get the Clayton kit setup and burnt on
3) ***weld on the ballistic lca mounts on the d30, and weld on the truss.***
4) drill the aw4 to clock it up
5) install rest of suspension.

Here's my questions that I need some advice on:

So as far as welding on the truss and the lca mounts, do I need to have the suspension on the jeep in order to tack the lca mounts on the axle? Or is there a way to do it separately from the vehicle? I'd really like to get the axle work all done before I work on the '99 since it's already taking up space in my garage, but I wouldn't know how to mock up the rotations of the truss and the lcas.

Can anyone shed some light on this subject for me?

And is there anything I'm missing that I'll need to get the '99 driving with the setup I've listed?

Edit: also after I drill the aw4 to clock it, I also need to make new shift linkage
 
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