THe NAC Lots-O-BFG KO2 Thread

[MoparManiac]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Haha why do you think I DD my XJ for 2 years? You've also ridden in mine before. I had the exact same setup as him.

He asked me a bunch about my setup at the last UJ M&G. His is pretty much exactly how mine was.

I had 5.5" RE coils, Bilstein 5150s, TNT longarms, rear 3.5" REs, edelbrock IAS, TNT 1.5" shackles. The rear sat a tad lower than the front but still rode nice.

EDIT: This was right after throwing the 35s on.

 

[MoparManiac]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Oh and Adam helped me do that super clean flare trimming.

Came out awesome.

Then got destroyed :laugh:

 

[asp]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

This is the first longarm kit I've installed, but It went together pretty well and the parts kit was pretty complete. A couple small headaches along the way, but that's to be expected when any drilling or fitting is required.

The things left to take care of on Sheep's XJ are:
-trim driver's side LCA bracket a little more. I didn't want to get the torch too close to the fuel line (thanks for the reminder, Adam) and we were kind of hurrying at that point.
-top off tcase. (It maybe has 1.75 qts instead of 2, BFD...)
-unbolt factory UCA's from the unibody. We completely forgot to do this :laugh:
-there are no compression washers on the leaf spring plates. So uh, that'd be good to fix. Dunno who put those together without those.
-install front driveshaft
-trim fenders and install big taars
-alignment (read: make tie rod a little longer till it drives straight)

He should be able to get it wheeling for next weekend.

 

[kastein]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Ken's list is pretty accurate.

Yeah, but it rarely seems to work that smoothly :laugh: If I assembled the oil pump part of the 231 correctly the first two times we'd have been done even sooner. :eyes:

I've never worked on a jeep with a cleaner underbody than this one.

I thought we weren't gonna talk about that :shhh:

Yeah, it was scary clean. Only bolts we broke were the upper shock bolts and that was mostly because we didn't heat em up to cherry red before turning them probably. The late model weld nuts are super easy to punch out anyways, I always wondered why people said they were so easy because mine had a good fat 1/2" long weld bead down each side. These literally took like 3 whacks with a BFH...

I'm not making excuses, but I had a few too many people crowding the workbench and was just thinking "oh, let's put all this on" not "this piece needs to be in the tailcone." It was my fault. Conveniently, I have about 2.5 NP231's to take spare parts from. So part of Colin's old 231 might be in Sheep's XJ. Not sure whose old 231 the oil pump came from.

Sheep's XJ rode really really nice. We took it for a quick spin, hit some bumps as hard as we could and no rattles, clunks, etc. If I had a jeep that rode that nicely, I'd DD it.

The TNT kit is definitely not designed for '01's. The exhaust on Sheep's was not only bigger but hung a little lower than the normal setup. His exhaust is resting on part of the crossmember. I'm not really sure anything can be done other than installing a new exhaust system and massaging it to clear.

To answer Ken's question about installing the kit, after we got the crossmember up bolting the long arms up and getting all the links connected took 45 mins tops. We didn't start dissasembling the front end and stuff till about 6pm last night. The front was back on its own weight by about 7:45 or 8. That comes with practice. The first time I swapped control arms all I changed were short arm lowers and it took like 4+ hours. Didn't know what the hell I was doing and had about half the tools I do now.

Yeah that crossmember is great, but definitely not designed with the 00-01 exhaust in mind at all... and I'd like to meet the person who welded that pipe anyways, because it nearly took billy's teeth out when the whole weld pulled off the flange at once with no warning whatsoever.

Cleanest XJ I've ever worked on for sure, even the leaf bolts came out with very little persuading. Brake lines don't have a single spot of rust on them, they came loose barely even trying with a 3/8" box wrench. Mine all rounded off with a good quality 3/8" line wrench.

 

[MoparManiac]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Didn't I give you a spot weld bit Anthony...? Can't remember. Could have used those for the LCA brackets.

Just shoot for 1/8" toe in and FIRI. That's all I ever did for my XJ. I NEVER got an alignment on that thing.

Unbolting stuff doesn't take much practice, to me finally having a torch makes stuff go SO much faster.

 

[asp]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Oh, and my 3/4 drive ratchet basically paid for itself this weekend. It got a lot of use. Very happy with my purchase.

 

[masswrecker]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

i thought you werent gonna mention the oil pump anthony but is was smooth goin til that happened

 

[MoparManiac]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Oh, and my 3/4 drive ratchet basically paid for itself this weekend. It got a lot of use. Very happy with my purchase.

What the hell did you use that for...?

 

[kastein]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

What the hell did you use that for...?

EVERYTHING!

Seriously, it was worth it. Lugs, leaf bolts, track bar bracket, bunch of other stuff.

I would buy one of those for that price just because it would mean I no longer needed a 1/2" breaker bar and ratchet. Does the job of both quite nicely with a 3/4" to 1/2" adapter.

Also, doubles as a self defense weapon.

 

[asp]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Didn't I give you a spot weld bit Anthony...? Can't remember. Could have used those for the LCA brackets.

Just shoot for 1/8" toe in and FIRI. That's all I ever did for my XJ. I NEVER got an alignment on that thing.

Unbolting stuff doesn't take much practice, to me finally having a torch makes stuff go SO much faster.

You did, but torching off the LCA bracket just enough so that the long arm will clear takes about 5 minutes while spot weld drilling takes at least a half hour per side. Remember, we didn't drop the front end till 6 pm last night knowing that he had to drive home in just a few hours.

Yeah, that's what he'll do I'm sure. We just didn't do it yesterday.

The torch is nice but we really only used it for cutting the LCA brackets. Nothing needed heating.

I'd rather see the rear upper shock bolts break and punch the nuts out than need to deal with questionable hardware later. It's just too easy to replace the nuts on late models.

 

[asp]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

I mentioned to Sheep at about 8:30 that the one thing that could go wrong that we'd have no way to fix would be a bleeder screw snapping when we went to bleed the brakes. All 4 of them were stiff, but thankfully none of them broke. Bleeding the brakes took maybe 15-20 minutes and the pedal is firmer now than it was before.

 

[kastein]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

I mentioned to Sheep at about 8:30 that the one thing that could go wrong that we'd have no way to fix would be a bleeder screw snapping when we went to bleed the brakes. All 4 of them were stiff, but thankfully none of them broke. Bleeding the brakes took maybe 15-20 minutes and the pedal is firmer now than it was before.

I have 2 sets of 8.25 drums+hardware and 2 sets of d30 calipers with bleeders sitting in my back yard.

Actually, if anyone ever needs any of that stuff, it's free. Come and take it.

 

[asp]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

I have 2 sets of 8.25 drums+hardware and 2 sets of d30 calipers with bleeders sitting in my back yard.

Actually, if anyone ever needs any of that stuff, it's free. Come and take it.

Cool, but you're an hour and 45 mins away haha. It would have been easier to wait till this morning and go to the parts store and get a new cylinder or caliper

 

[MoparManiac]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

EVERYTHING!

Seriously, it was worth it. Lugs, leaf bolts, track bar bracket, bunch of other stuff.

I would buy one of those for that price just because it would mean I no longer needed a 1/2" breaker bar and ratchet. Does the job of both quite nicely with a 3/4" to 1/2" adapter.

Also, doubles as a self defense weapon.

1/2" breaker bar > 3/4" ratchet.

I have both, barely ever use the ratchet.

You did, but torching off the LCA bracket just enough so that the long arm will clear takes about 5 minutes while spot weld drilling takes at least a half hour per side. Remember, we didn't drop the front end till 6 pm last night knowing that he had to drive home in just a few hours.

Yeah, that's what he'll do I'm sure. We just didn't do it yesterday.

The torch is nice but we really only used it for cutting the LCA brackets. Nothing needed heating.

I'd rather see the rear upper shock bolts break and punch the nuts out than need to deal with questionable hardware later. It's just too easy to replace the nuts on late models.

True, I just hated having leftover sheetmetal hanging around down there though. Always bothered me.

I'm sure nothing did, I'm just saying on every other vehicle I've worked on the only reason bolting/unbolting took forever was because I had to work bolts out. With a torch everything comes out wicked easy.

Understandable, especially since he'll be wheeling it. I didn't punch my brother's shock nuts out on his and they're holding up fine, granted he doesn't wheel it.

I mentioned to Sheep at about 8:30 that the one thing that could go wrong that we'd have no way to fix would be a bleeder screw snapping when we went to bleed the brakes. All 4 of them were stiff, but thankfully none of them broke. Bleeding the brakes took maybe 15-20 minutes and the pedal is firmer now than it was before.

:thumbup: I HATE it when bleeders snap. I'm always reluctant to heat them and risk blowing out the seals.

 

[vetteboy]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

With a torch everything comes out wicked easy.

Know how I know you're from New England?

 

[asp]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

1/2" breaker bar > 3/4" ratchet.

I have both, barely ever use the ratchet.

True, I just hated having leftover sheetmetal hanging around down there though. Always bothered me.

I'm sure nothing did, I'm just saying on every other vehicle I've worked on the only reason bolting/unbolting took forever was because I had to work bolts out. With a torch everything comes out wicked easy.

:thumbup: I HATE it when bleeders snap. I'm always reluctant to heat them and risk blowing out the seals.

I disagree. My 3/4 ratchet is stiffer and longer than my 1/2" drive breaker bar and it ratchets. The breaker bar is nice because it's lighter and easier to handle. The ratcheting feature is worth the extra weight IMO, especially with a 3/4 to 1/2 adapter.

Yeah, I would too. I'd fix it later if it were mine. It was really just in favor of time.

No really, everything came out like it had already been heated. It felt like cheating.

I recall a certain time that Adam and I were finishing my WJ swap and one of the bleeder screws was stuck. I was using my 1/4 drive but wanted to open it with my 3/8 drive ratchet and he wouldn't let me. Then I broke it with my 3/8 drive. :banghead:

 

[MoparManiac]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Know how I know you're from New England?

atriot:

I disagree. My 3/4 ratchet is stiffer and longer than my 1/2" drive breaker bar and it ratchets. The breaker bar is nice because it's lighter and easier to handle. The ratcheting feature is worth the extra weight IMO, especially with a 3/4 to 1/2 adapter.

The whole point of a breaker bar is it BREAKS stuff free. I don't get why you people use ratchets to break stuff free and expect them to hold up.

Break something stubborn free with the breaker bar, then switch to the ratchet.

It's not a hard concept.

Is the price really worth the 5 seconds it takes to switch a socket over to a ratchet from a breaker bar?

Hell, for lugnuts I ONLY use a breaker bar. Just swing it around in a circle.

 

[kastein]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

I disagree. My 3/4 ratchet is stiffer and longer than my 1/2" drive breaker bar and it ratchets.

that's what...

 

[RCman]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Snowing again...

Two months ago I loved it and wanted nothing but snow. Now I'm sick and tired of the salt on my truck and all it does is snow 2" every other day.

At least Thursday is predicted to be in the lower 50s and sunny.

 

[asp]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

The whole point of a breaker bar is it BREAKS stuff free. I don't get why you people use ratchets to break stuff free and expect them to hold up.

Break something stubborn free with the breaker bar, then switch to the ratchet.

It's not a hard concept.

Is the price really worth the 5 seconds it takes to switch a socket over to a ratchet from a breaker bar?

Hell, for lugnuts I ONLY use a breaker bar. Just swing it around in a circle.

Or... use one big ass ratchet. It came in really handy for installing and tightening everything up too.

I've only ever used a breaker bar for lug nuts before too. But I think I'll be using this from now on.

5 seconds over and over? You could argue that I'll have this tool for the next 60 years or so. How much time will it save me over the course of it's life? It's all about making our job as the mechanic easier. Granted, I don't run a business and make money with my tools...