Minuit

You had me scared for a second. :thumbsup:

Golly that's pretty.

:???:

:drool: :drool: :drool: I have to say, this truck is nearly perfect. Very well deserved.

Right on, man. I hope you're right. :thumbsup: What A Naive Thought: July 2014 Yeah, that was pretty optimistic of me thinking I'd get the WJ control arm swap done in a day. :laughin: My truck's alignment had been acting up recently. The steering refused to center itself, and driving in a straight line down the highway was almost impossible. These are the symptoms of a bad caster angle, and that's adjusted in the lower control arms. The bushings of which looked like this: :eek: Enter the WJ control arms. These things are seriously beefy and weigh significantly more than the stock arms. The bend is for clearance with large tires, which is what I originally bought them for. Now is probably a good time to mention that you really don't want the control arm bolts seizing on you. I didn't have any problems but my truck is probably an outlier here. Spray them with penetrating oil a while before you plan on starting the job. Regardless, these bolts are torqued at 130 ft-lbs. You'll need some serious leverage to get them off. Remember to only remove one at a time, or you'll have a hell of a time getting them back on. The biggest issue with this swap is the bushing width on the WJ control arms. GoJeep has a frequently referenced article that suggests modifying the control arm mounts themselves. Personally, I'm not willing to bend the control arm mounts on my truck, so I decided to cut down the control arm bushings. The stock control arm bushings are 66.5mm wide at both ends. The WJ control arm bushings are 72.5 mm at the axle (round) end and 79 mm at the frame (oval) end. It's not critical that you absolutely match this number, but you need to be decently close. This caused me problems when I was trying to fit them in the mounts. They need to be able to slide in fairly easily. On my first try, they were too tight to fit in with one side connected. Tip: If you're cutting or grinding near rubber bushings, you must keep them cool! A spray bottle full of cool water works well. Heat will shorten the life of the bushings. My method of choice was a Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel, since I could get a clean, precise cut. A little word of warning: The normal Dremel cutoff wheels are very fragile. I went through no less than 24 of them for this job, although this is partly my fault. If the wheels grab, they will break apart. They like to do so violently, and chunks of cutting wheel that were spinning at 30,000 RPM isn't something you want hitting you in the face. A welding helmet or something similar will make sure it doesn't happen. Anyway, I made very sure that the axle didn't move and I still needed to move the axle forward significantly. I think I found why my caster angle was so far out! The stock widowmaker jack is perfect for pushing the axle forward. Doing so will add positive caster, which stabilizes the steering. The WJ control arms are exactly the same length as the old ones, so my guess is that the old LCA bushings were ruined to the point of not keeping the axle in place. I couldn't fit both the jack and the LCA under there so I had to do this a few times, using a tire blocker to hold the axle in its new place. I didn't have to do this for the driver side (jacking it up and down until the bolt holes lined up worked fine) but the passenger side needed some more adjustment. It took longer than I expected, but it was very worth it. Handling is pretty noticeably improved (can't wait to see what a 28mm sway bar does to it!). Stability at speed is now much better, and ride quality is also slightly better. My upper control arm bushings are probably also toast. They'll be replaced eventually. Here's the truck as she sits now: Total Expenditures since January 2014: $2,379.39 Junkyard Parts: Door panels: 1988 Jeep Cherokee Limited Front bumper guards: 1992 Jeep Cherokee Sport Windshield wiper motor: 1998 Jeep Cherokee Sport Tailgate handle: 1989 Jeep Comanche Mud flaps: 1987 Jeep Comanche Interior Quarter Panels: 1989 Jeep Comanche Courtesy Lights: 1994 Jeep Cherokee Country Maintenance Status: Oil changed 6qt generic 10W-30, 150,580 Brake pads, rotors, fluid and calipers replaced at 152,455 Brake shoes, drums, hardware and wheel cylinders replaced at 152,295 Odometer: 152,563 :banana:

Sure, I don't think bedlining a red Eliminator is ideal, but the current paint job is absolutely toast anyway. In the end, it's his truck and he can do whatever he wants to with it. If the truck had an absolutely pristine, garage kept, always waxed finish? That would be ruining it. This is a good start to the thread, controversial or not. I'll be looking forward to seeing more updates on this one.

http://comancheclub.com/topic/41648-aw4-gm-60-bellhousing/ Hasn't been updated in ages, but he might still have it.

You could also fix the problem at its source and install WJ lower control arms and improve handling and ride quality while you're at it.

Beautiful truck, man.

My fellow Tennesseean is correct. Replacing the stock parts will just give you stock braking power again. The booster upgrade can be had cheap from most junkyards (95 and 96 were some of the highest production years for XJs), just make sure you get a good one. Of course, nothing bad will come of freshening up your brakes unless you mess something up. Make sure to pack the bearings correctly, don't just rub them with grease. If OP isn't interested in the booster/mc, I am. :)

At first I was skeptical (it is a one of a kind truck after all) but I'm really glad that it's being used as a racetruck instead of just sitting there. I'd do unspeakable things to get an opportunity like that. :bowdown: I wouldn't be surprised if this guy got caught by the addiction. Just sayin' :thumbsup:

Centric rotors + Black Magic pads are apparently a common combination with XJ owners with good results. The small amount of Centric stuff I've used has been acceptable quality wise. I've heard to stick to the premium line, though.

I wasn't expecting the check to be hard and to be honest I was actually kind of glad when it broke. Of course, I won't be so glad if I ever need to park on a steep hill before I fix it. :yes: At least that stupid popping noise is gone. Considering what I paid for those rotors, I don't suppose I really had any reason to complain. I wasn't really worried about it, especially since that stuff probably got sanded off in the first few miles of driving anyway. The pads seemed to bed just fine, and my front brakes are pretty much working at 100%. The second I saw the old brake fluid I knew I needed to flush it - "all the nasty crap" was indeed referring to the old fluid. Every corner was bled until I got 100% clean fluid out of it. The master cylinder is full of good new fluid as well. Don't worry, I share your pedantic nature. :cheers: I have the truck 90% mechanically reliable right now. The bear in the room is the D35, which is, true to its nature, slowly killing itself. It's making quite the variety of interesting bearing noises that haven't been getting worse but still worry me. If anyone has a line on a cheap 29 spline 8.25 (my local junkyard certainly doesn't - he seriously tried to tell me he wanted $500 for one) that would be lovely. I'm currently not actively looking, but I am scouting around. I can get a low mileage example for $150 near me, so I may just be jumping on that. Thanks for commenting, genuinely. I'm certainly aiming to have one of the cleanest trucks here, although MJs are definitely not a competition! Unfortunately, the rate I'm going is about to become unsustainable. I'm starting university in less than a month, so wrenching is going to become a very limited activity, unfortunately. :( The front brakes are going to get a good followup inspection this morning. I'm installing my WJ control arms today - I'm about to start soon. If everything goes to plan (hahahaha what a naive thought) I'll be making another update today.

I meant you don't typically see a gloss finish on the "military style" paint jobs. Either way, looks good.

I'm liking the slightly glossy finish that you normally don't see with this kind of paint job. Looks great. :thumbsup:

What a shame. It was a great looking XJ. Hopefully you'll put it to good use!

How many miles are on the XJ?

:drool:

Here is the new owner's thread: http://comancheclub.com/topic/43778-new-member-in-tn/ It'll be sad to see you go but I'm glad the MJ is staying in the family. He's got big plans for it and it seems like he's going to act on them pretty fast. Good luck with the YJ!

:drool: :drool: :drool: It even has good rear mud flaps. 4.0, 5 speed, 4x4. This truck has it all.

Thank you very much! :thumbsup:

Damn, now I have to fix it... ... at least the stupid thing can't make any noise now. :fs1:

As much as I'd love to have that camper (it is very nice) the one I've got will be alright for what I use it for. I've really taken a liking to having the bed open so my truck would probably have a camper on it a couple weeks out of the year. Thanks for offering and good luck with the sale, though. :thumbsup:

Looks fantastic. Congrats.

When I broke my phone a while back my two choices were the S4 (which is what I got) or the Rugby. How do you like it as far as the interface goes?