'93 AX15 ZJ

[gogmorgo]

3 hours ago, Pete M said:

there's nothing worse than thinking you have a safe way to extract only to find it ripped out the sheetmetal and mangled the body (plus you're probably still stuck)

Is that commentary on the factory tow hooks?

Those are the Rusty's version, Mopar is NLA, but this is the parts diagram. 

From online reviews, it looks like the Rusty's kit has parts 4 and 8, but is missing #1, the reinforcement plate. Also part 15. But looking at things just now, I'm starting to think part 15 is the possibly a tie-down bracket (parts manual calls it "TOE EYE, front"), and so may be present already, and then plate #1 might already be there. I haven't actually checked. It's due for an oil change soon so I'll likely wait till then. We got 18" of snow this weekend and now it's about -20°F with much lower windchill, and I've already had enough crawling under vehicles outside in the snow in the last few weeks. Yeah I'm getting soft. Whether plate #1 actually provides reinforcement or is just holding the nuts together, I'm uncertain, but the manual does call it "PLATE, Reinforcement Tow Hook".

 

The primary advantage of the Kevin's Off-road design is it ties both sides together, although it does also provide some bash protection for the radiator. But the drawbacks include loosing the attachment points for the bottom edge of the bumper cover, and having to trim a bit to get at the shackles. I also saw someone mention loosing the angle supports for the front edge of the fenders. I'm not really building a wheeling rig, just a more-competent-than-average daily driver, and don't really want to go full mall crawler with it. Keeping stock appearance is semi-important to me. The most probable scenario of me getting stuck with it would involve shovelling out a bunch of snow before I give anything a real hard yank, and if I'm recovering anyone, the newer recall-installed trailer hitch will be doing that job. 

[Pete M]

nah, the factory units should do fine.    but I've seen some scary "recover points" in my life.     A uniframe Jeep needs a proper "sandwich" on the sheetmetal and as many connective points as possible. 

 

I'm sure a factory setup will pop up on ebay now and again. 

[gogmorgo]

I took a bit of a peak underneath and there's so much snow from smashing through plow rows that I can't see anything. The new tires are awesome. 👍

Fired up just fine at -20°F just on its own. But the street's getting reall narrow so it's moved off the street now and out of the way of the plows, to a place I can plug it in for the night. -25°F low (so not so bad) and -45°F windchills expected, not that the Jeep cares much about the wind. 

[JMO413]

I never knew they made a manual ZJ. Now that I do I really want one. The Jeep addiction is real. Looks good with the new tires!

[gogmorgo]

3 hours ago, JMO413 said:

I never knew they made a manual ZJ. Now that I do I really want one. The Jeep addiction is real. Looks good with the new tires!

They only built about 1000 of them. '93 and '94 only. You do see them come up for sale from time to time, but yeah, it's a pretty rare occurrence. Maybe two to three times a year across the continent. This one was only about four hours away, and I jumped as soon as I saw it, within a couple hours of it going up for sale. The guy said he got a couple hundred calls about it between me and responding, I was the first who said I'd pay asking price and could be there that night with a trailer. 

[gogmorgo]

So an interesting thing happened, as is the way with older jeeps I suppose.

During the massive freeze at some point my driver's side wiper arm quit parking all the way down. There was quite a bit of solid ice jammed up on the cowl, so I figured the wiper arm slipped on the spindle. So a few days ago I went to do something about it, because the wiper was sweeping itself off the side of the windshield, past the a-pillar. I was just going to pull the wiper arm and put it back where it should be, but in doing so I noticed the spindle was moving around. So I pulled the cowl off and discovered this:

The piece of what I suspect is glass-reinforced nylon holding the wiper linkage broke off. 

I pulled the bolt, cleaned it up, and dug out the Ukrainian JB-weld equivalent I got from my Lada parts guy a while back, and used that to put it back together, using the bolt to clamp it.

Not the cleanest job I know, but it's hopefully only temporary. I let it cure for a couple days before testing out the wipers, and so far it seems to be holding. 

So that's something else to add to the junkyard shopping list. Haven't called the dealer yet but I'm finding nothing online with the Mopar part number, and I seem to be striking out on getting a new linkage anywhere else. Even rockauto doesn't have a listing. I'll see about calling Lordco tomorrow, they're usually pretty good at obscure stuff. 

[gogmorgo]

Ever have one of those moments where you blow your diff apart to change pinion bearings only discover they were only loose because the yoke nut back itself off?

Oh well. The Truetrac going in will be worth it. 

[gogmorgo]

 

Slowly working towards getting it in. I got the ring gear moved over and bearings pressed onto the carrier and pinion gear, then apparently it was absolutely critical I go sit on the beach being bored for a couple hours. Interestingly the SKF d35 bearing/seal set I got at Napa had Timkin pinion bearings, and then some chinesium carrier bearings. So that's a little odd. The idea must be the carrier bearings are way easier to swap out when they die prematurely. 

[gogmorgo]

Well got her buttoned all back up this afternoon. Seems to be doing great, just took it on a 40-mile test drive. Gorgeous evening for a cruise. 

I would've got it done yesterday but I wasn't happy with the pinion seal that came in the kit. Just a cheap single-lip one. Fortunately d35 parts are common enough. 

 

I also discovered between knocking out the old pinion races that there were some chunks of gear tooth hanging out between the bearings. Ring and pinion look okay still but upon closer inspection the spider gears were shredding themselves. 

So there's some real justification for the time and money. That also explains the big clunk getting on and off the throttle... It's nice that that's gone now. 

[gogmorgo]

Gave the truetrac a solid workout today, drove up to the wreckage of a DC-3 that went down in January of '46 up in the Crowsnest Pass, just east of the continental divide. Between the Truetrac and the Grabber ATXs, I've got traction to climb hills that are too steep for my stomach to handle, so I guess I can't complain about that. You can only point the nose so high before it feels like the front's about to come off the ground. 

 

 

I also managed to grab a factory tow hook set at a wrecking yard recently. Still haven't installed them yet, but that'll come. 

[Pete M]

cool wreckage! 

[Drahcir495]

4.0 with a 5 speed . I love the Grand Cherokee builds. can't believe how amazing the scenery is! 

[gogmorgo]

Well what with all the crap going down and not being able to go anywhere, and with the weather improving it’s time for more work on this thing. 
I got that tow hook set installed last night. For anyone who found their way here through google, you’ll have to do more googling to get install photos unfortunately. My phone died... it was nice and sunny but only 3°C which doesn’t do much for battery life. Here’s the finished product:
Rolling back up to the initial commentary on the factory setup, no, part #15 wasn’t there. The “toe eye”. I’m thinking that’s supposed to be an attachment point for a flat-tow setup, if you wanted to tow it behind an RV or whatever. But not positive. Looks to be a direct replacement for the tow hook bracket without the wing that goes around to the front of the rad support. I’d expect you’d know you have it from the eye sticking through the bumper cover, and if present you’d have the #1 reinforcement plate. But this is pure speculation. 

As to part #1, the reinforcing plate, the biggest advantage during the install is that funky tongue thing, which allows you to hang onto the plate, instead of having to fish fasteners down into the frame. There’s debate online as to whether it provides actual reinforcement or not, whether just using washers and nuts like the aftermarket kits would be enough. Well the plate does hold the nuts together, that’s for sure. But unlike part #3 that holds the studs together with a strip of 14(ish) gauge steel, the reinforcement plate is closer to 3/16” thick (I didn’t actually measure). So take what you will from that. 

[gogmorgo]

The head scratcher, why am I like this? So concerned about preserving originality, instead of putting another one in, I have to fix the D35... 

Still need to get the axle back under the ZJ, but this is take two at the TrueTrac install. The D35 has been making noise since roughly that trip up to the DC-3 crash site. If you’ll recall, the TrueTrac went in because the pinion bearings were loose, because the pinion nut had backed off. I didn’t really set up the gears, I just put all the shims back where they were on the new carrier. Well suffice it to say, running with the pinion flopping around hadn’t done the gears any favours, and they didn’t exactly take to the new pattern. Also probably doesn’t help that I somehow tore the axle vent out, pulled the threads clean out of the axle tube, so when I pulled the shaft I found this:

Rocks and glitter... the ladies might like them but I wasn’t happy to find either in the axle. Somehow the bearings atill looked pretty good for the most part, although they were all pretty new still from my last attempt.
 

So not only have I done the dumb and thrown money at a D35, not only did I put new gears into it, I left them the same ratio. 3.55 on 31’s. 
Setting up the gears wasn’t the massively huge deal that it’s made out to be, although the amount of stress out there over getting it correct definitely meant I was making damn sure I knew what I was doing. I also had the final pattern approved by a journeyman mechanic before I buttoned everything back together.

The master install set I got came with a note telling me not to use shims under the pinion bearing cup to set up the gears, except the shims that came with it were for under the pinion cup, so that was annoying. Also the markings on the new pinion or the one that was in there didn’t make sense with what all the guides suggested I should be seeing for my initial shim pack, so I just started out with all the old shims in the same place again. This resulted in gears pressed so hard together I couldn’t spin the diff. Shifting the carrier over 0.030” got it spinning again but with so much backlash it wasn’t worth measuring. I moved it back .010” and got .008” backlash which is in spec, but I wasn’t happy with the pattern, so I moved it another .005” which resulted in .004” backlash, but still not an ideal pattern. I needed to increase the pinion shim to bring it closer to the ring gear, so I put a .005” shim under the pinion cup like I’m not supposed to do, and because that was supposed to decrease backlash I also went back to the carrier shims from when I had .008” lash at the same time. This resulted in a good centred contact patch and .006” lash. Win. Only my 5th shim set. And yes, I did use a pry bar to load up the carrier to check the contact pattern.

As far as addressing the torn out vent threads, the hose barb is also the hold-down bolt for the brake line T, and I wasn’t optimistic about finding another hose barb that could do the same job. So instead, I found the biggest bolt that would fit down the hole in the T, m12x1.75 in case anyone’s wondering, then redrilled and tapped the axle tube to that size, drilled a hole down the centre of an appropriately long bolt to hold down the brake T without interfering with the axle shaft, and then tapped the bolt head for an 1/8” npt barb. If it’s stupid but it works...

 

And if attempt #2 at fixing the D35 also fails, it’s getting a junkyard axle. Throwing more money at this one would just be dumb. 

[Pete M]

the dedication to originality is typically some combination of commendable, frustrating, rewarding and futile.   

[gogmorgo]

Axle’s in. Test drive went well. I’d gotten so used to the rear diff howling that it was almost eerie driving it with that noise missing. I also freaked myself out with all kinds of crazy pops and clunks from the back end before I remembered that I hadn’t actually torqued any of the suspension yet. I corrected that situation, and now it’s almost whisper silent. Well, except for the tire hum, the wind noise, the trans making a slight whirr... all the creaks and rattles of a 28-year-old Jeep. Suffice it to say those gears were LOUD.

Also while I stopped at the shop to borrow the torque wrench, I dragged out the headlight aimer and “professionally” aimed my headlights. I still haven’t been happy with the e-codes, even after messing with the aim a whole bunch trying to get it dialed. 

This headlight aiming device is required equipment for commercial vehicle inspection shops, however ours sits in the back corner covered in dust because no one touches headlight aim unless the driver complains, and then we usually just eyeball it until the driver is happy. The “machine” however is incredibly easy to use. The trickiest bit is just getting it calibrated to the shop floor, and then making sure it’s parallel with the vehicle’s centre line.

I took it for a spin the other day with my MJ’s stock sealed beams that were badly off where they should be pointing, and got those dialled quite nicely. With the ZJ’s E-codes I had already aimed them with the tape-on-the-wall method, and it turns out I already had them pretty close to bang on. Ended up moving the driver’s side a hair outwards, but not really enough to make any sort of difference.

The big issue with the E-codes is the cutoff on the low beams. I get why it’s there, glare reduction, yada yada, but the reality is you can’t use the low beams on twisty hilly dark roads, because you need at least a little light up above that cutoff to see the road on the other side of the dip or around the corner, and the E-codes give you absolutely nothing up there. And the high beams are great for seeing what’s on the road way up ahead of you, but they don’t do much for you off in the ditches, and they throw light so far ahead that you need to dim the headlights pretty early for oncoming traffic, and then you’re back to the low-beam cuttoff where you can’t see much except the patch of road directly ahead of you. Guess I’m still a little bitter about going to all the trouble to get and install NOS Mopar E-code housings after they got such great reviews only to discover they’re not all they were cracked up to be.

But at least now I can honestly say that I do have them aimed correctly, and they still suck, and it’s not just me, because I actually aimed them with a real headlight aiming device, not just getting them close-ish with some pieces of tape on a wall.

[gogmorgo]

Added a bit of bling, so now everyone will know about my very expensive Turdy5.

In reality, I mostly just wanted a cover with a drain plug. Easier said than done. This one seemed one of the more legit options, a bit more beef, but a solid casting, not a welded design, which seems to maintain factory splash properties, and possibly enhances cooling. My only complaint is the inlet for the drain plug in the cover looks to be higher than the bottom of the housing. I took a die grinder to it to deepen than somewhat, hopefully leading to a better drain, but we shall see.
So far so good though. I wanted to drain out the break-in oil after the diff rebuild, otherwise I wouldn’t have been so quick to dump the new gear oil. And so far so good on the rebuild as well. I’ve got about 700 miles on it so far, and it’s doing great.

[Pete M]

'tis the shiny-est thing under your Jeep  

 

I wish every axle came with a drain plug.  

[gogmorgo]

16 hours ago, Pete M said:

'tis the shiny-est thing under your Jeep  

 

I wish every axle came with a drain plug.  

Axles, transmissions... it all should have a drain. Almost everything in the heavy equipment world that could possibly be drained has a convenient way to do it, even going so far as to add remote drains to make it easier. Heavy equipment that’s easy to work on sells, because it means less down time. It’s funny how that’s not what happens in the automotive world. And not “haha” funny.

[MiNi Beast]

Drained 

[gogmorgo]

Well I pulled the trigger and bought myself some “real” winter tires. Running up and down to the ski hill every week told me the ATX wasn’t quite good enough. It’s great on compact snow, but the frost on the basin road is slick and I’m getting sick of the tail end stepping out every three corners. 

So it’s a set of Hakka 9’s in 265/70r16 to best match the 31x10.5 15’s, and some KJ Renegade Icons to mount them on. This is my first set of studded tires, and I’m still not sold on studs, but hopefully I’ll get them mounted up this weekend.

[89 MJ]

2 minutes ago, gogmorgo said:

Well I pulled the trigger and bought myself some “real” winter tires. Running up and down to the ski hill every week told me the ATX wasn’t quite good enough. It’s great on compact snow, but the frost on the basin road is slick and I’m getting sick of the tail end stepping out every three corners.

 

So it’s a set of Hakka 9’s in 265/70r16 to best match the 31x10.5 15’s, and some KJ Rubi Icons to mount them on. This is my first set of studded tires, and I’m still not sold on studs, but hopefully I’ll get them mounted up this weekend.

Those Icons should make your ZJ look extra classy. I'm excited to see it.

[Pete M]

snow tires are like having super powers.  

[gogmorgo]

2 hours ago, Pete M said:

snow tires are like having super powers.  

Arguably the Grabbers are already winter tires. They’ve got the same snow-peak-whatever-you-call-it winter rating. They’re legal winter tires in every jurisdiction. And they kick the pants off of most other all-weather tires I’ve tried. They’re awesome on snow, even compacted snow, they only really struggle on polished ice, and I guess the frost on the shady bits of the road up to the ski hill. This is why I kinda felt the need to go all out on the Hakkas. It seemed pointless to replace what’s already a winter tire with something that was only going to have average winter performance, so I got the best. If it keeps me out of a guardrail, they’ll have already paid for themselves, too.

 

5 hours ago, 89 MJ said:

Those Icons should make your ZJ look extra classy. I'm excited to see it.

Yeah I’m excited to see how they look too, although it’ll be tough to make a rusty ZJ look truly classy.

I’ve got one highway trip and what promises to be a bit of a mud bog tomorrow morning so I want the grabbers on for that still, but hopefully the Hakkas will be installed by Sunday evening. I’ll be putting them on the wheels tonight though.

[Pete M]

arguably any tire that isn't a "snow tire", isn't a snow tire.   that little snowpeak only means that the tire isn't completely deadly when the temps drop.  you'll see what I mean soon enough   I was one year from having an AWD stickshift MJ with snow tires as my winter beater.  then we sold the house and I had to cull the herd.  dang.   was super looking forward to that.