My 1987 Mj

[MiNi Beast]

why not blue drums? 

[Fernando87mj]

Got the rear drums installed , test drove , washed undercarriage from any spilled brake fluid and stared at it. Feels good to finally have a working parking brake after almost 8 years 

[Fernando87mj]

Going too touch up the original front amc mudflaps that came with this truck and get them ready to reinstall them. 

[Fernando87mj]

Got the front flaps installed. 

 

also masked off the center caps and applied of few coats of primer before paint tomorrow. 

[Fernando87mj]

[eaglescout526]

I hope youll straighten out the rear bumper with those fancy mud flaps.

[Fernando87mj]

26 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

I hope youll straighten out the rear bumper with those fancy mud flaps.

I know 

It hasn’t been top priority but I do eventually want to begin looking for a chrome rear bumper , if I don’t end up finding an oem eventually I’ll probably go with a fey aftermarket. 
 

Still want to finish my front suspension . Next up is installing new tie rods. 

[Fernando87mj]

When I did the Ax15 swap I had originally reused the ba/10-5 crossmember with some nuts between the “frame” and the member. 
   I recently acquired a Ax15 crossmember so I went ahead and cleaned it up and threw a few coats of amc blue on it before I install. 

 

[Fernando87mj]

Wheel caps are also ready to be installed. 

 

wish the stickers on them were in better shape but it’s better than nothing 

[Fernando87mj]

Installed actual Ax15 crossmember but forgot to take pictures  . Everything lined up beautifully except for

the last hole which was a pia but finally got it through. 
 

  All my new steering parts arrived alongside new front shocks and steering damper. Made a little bit of progress yesterday and got all the old steering linkages knocked out. Thankfully nothing fought back to bad. Took a couple of hits and everything came out nicely. 
 

 

 

 

I'm going to be upgrading to the v8 zj tie rod while I’m at it. 
 

will update when everything is installed 

 

[Pete M]

getting close! 

[Fernando87mj]

Sigh.. was under it yesterday and saw that the passenger upper control arm bushing on the axle side worked Itself out. Totally not a job I ever want to redo. Thankfully the steering linkage is out of the way right now which might make it easier.  
    On better news I got the new tie rods painted. 

[Fernando87mj]

Got the upper bushing out. Having all the steering linkage out really Helps 

 

 

 

 

steering linkage is all painted up and assembled ready for installation! 
 

v8 zj tie tod Is a big boy compared to the flimsy stock one ! 
 

[Pete M]

indeed.  it's a great upgrade  

[Fernando87mj]

New upper control arm bushing is in and fits tighter but I’m not 100% happy With the fit. I’m guessing it’s slightly wallowed out. Sigh... old jeeps man. 

[Pete M]

it'll never be as tight as a Ferrari.  just gotta make it the  best we can and move on.  

[Fernando87mj]

3 minutes ago, Pete M said:

it'll never be as tight as a Ferrari.  just gotta make it the  best we can and move on.  

Thing is i can tap it with a hammer and it’s start to pop out slightly  

[Fernando87mj]

Just now, Fernando87mj said:

Thing is i can tap it with a hammer and it’s start to pop out slightly 

Not sure what would the next

approach would be Pete , I really Want this baby built right  

[eaglescout526]

Hey, my control arms and the bushings move from time to time and I don't notice anything bad. I put new bushings in my old LCAs and the LCAs kept walking back towards the middle and I had to hammer them every once in a while back to where they needed to.

[Pete M]

tack it in place?

[Fernando87mj]

17 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

Hey, my control arms and the bushings move from time to time and I don't notice anything bad. I put new bushings in my old LCAs and the LCAs kept walking back towards the middle and I had to hammer them every once in a while back to where they needed to.

Well that makes me feel better lol , i just really care about doing this right. My Jeeps

arent the prettiest but i do want them built

right mechanically and I have a tendency of being a perfectionist on certain things 

[Fernando87mj]

11 minutes ago, Pete M said:

tack it in place?

Based on the research I’ve been doing , this might be the best option..

 

I really need to learn how to weld if I want to keep building old cars 

 

rest of the suspension and steering is going back on Saturday hopefully! 

[eaglescout526]

2 minutes ago, Fernando87mj said:

Well that makes me feel better lol , i just really care about doing this right. My Jeeps

arent the prettiest but i do want them built

right mechanically and I have a tendency of being a perfectionist on certain things 

I feel ya on that. Which is why I ended up ordering new MoPar LCA's and UCA's lol. Course that doesnt mean that my uppers at the axle arent messed up. I know I had to really beat the hell out of the old sleeves for the axle bushing eyes when I had the poly bushings just to get them out. Come to think of it, I think I bent one of the eyes close to each other when pressing out a bushing. 

[Fernando87mj]

2 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

I feel ya on that. Which is why I ended up ordering new MoPar LCA's and UCA's lol. Course that doesnt mean that my uppers at the axle arent messed up. I know I had to really beat the hell out of the old sleeves for the axle bushing eyes when I had the poly bushings just to get them out. Come to think of it, I think I bent one of the eyes close to each other when pressing out a bushing. 

Yeah same here, mines fought me a bunch too on the first Round. sucks That they made the brackets So flimsy especially on 2wds. At least on 4wd you only get the flimsy bracket on one side. 
 

 By the way , what’s the difference Between the newer year xj upper control arm and the older years??  Rock auto has a very limited selection for 87-90 but has more selection on 91+ MY.  

[eaglescout526]

1 minute ago, Fernando87mj said:

By the way , what’s the difference Between the newer year xj upper control arm and the older years??  Rock auto has a very limited selection for 87-90 but has more selection on 91+ MY.  

 

Let me look. I remember something weird about them when I ordered mine and I don't remember what that was.