Son of Stink

[Gjeep]

Got the TJ rear sway bar mock/mounted up. Looks good and centered around the offset D44 pumpkin. I ended up mounting it with the arms behind the axle. Next, I needed to bend up new brake lines/ bleed the system, so I went ahead and got that done. Going to tack it to the axle tomorrow once I do some final measurements, and then remove all sway bar components and do a proper weld. Follow-up will be cutting/ drilling/ mounting the end link brackets in the ‘X’ crossmember.

 

 

 

I’ll also be welding new upper shock mounts up as the PO snapped one of the studs and replaced it with an M8 stud wrapped with a ton of electrical tape instead of the proper M12. I want both sides matching so I cut flush and will weld a modified aftermarket upper shock mount in place.

 

 

[buxmj]

Wow, that is really clean. Great work! 

 

Buck

[Minuit]

That speaker bracket mod is really makin' me think. Might be possible to get some stealthy bass in there after all.

 

A master class in how to do a Jeep build properly, as usual.

[Gjeep]

Got the sway bar axle brackets welded up, brake lines up and out of the way, and paint is drying. Next step is mounting the end link brackets to the 'X' member under the bed. I know the easy way to go is to use a nut and bolt on each bracket, but I'd like to us the plate/studs that belongs to that end link bracket setup if possible. Need to see how much metal cutting I would need do to make that happen. Will see.

 

 

 

Also welded new driver and passenger side upper axle studs up. Driver's side below.

 

 

[JMO413]

You do amazing work! 

[Gjeep]

Was going through my garage and found the sound bar I removed from my '97 XJ (in favor of the more integrated headliner design the late '99+ XJ's had)... Thought it would be neat to add a couple more speakers to the MJ cabin. Then found the spare '99+ XJ sound bar support I had and thought maybe I could use that and integrate it better to the cab back wall.

 

 

 

Got lucky at the local yard this morning and found a soon to be scrap 99+ XJ -- and scavenged what I needed for the MJ. Rockford makes 6.5” slim mid-woofers that'll fit once I carve out the plastic of the former XJ overhead set up. Should be plenty of decent bass once I adjust the dedicated subwoofer amp. Lots of trimming will need to happen to get the former headliner to fit the MJ back wall, but it'll happen...Want it to fit right and overlap front side of the back of cab wrap b-pillar panels just as the factory carpet board did. 

 

[Strokermjcomanche]

Keeping the XJ dome light too ? 

[Gjeep]

I haven't decided...but most likely not. Going to carve out the behind the scenes plastic support to make room to hide the subwoofer amp. I'll have 2 overhead lights already from the overhead console I've made, footwell lights, and B-pillar lights. If I do keep the light on that sound bar, I'll end up putting the subwoofer amp under the passenger seat or under the passenger side B-pillar plastic. Need to figure it out. A work in progress.

[Gjeep]

Got to putting together my rear sway bar set up this afternoon and realized…there WAS a reason I was originally going to have the sway bar arms pointing forward…to clear the shocks! Needed to go with the alternate endlink set up I was considering before the Dodge 2500/ Ford Explorer set up – Using a 90’s Camaro/Trans-Am endlink ‘bucket’ mounted to the MJ’s frame side, XJ front sway bar end link, and grade 10.9 bolts through the frame (possibly sleeved or just damn careful not to crush the frame when tightening). The new brake lines on the passenger side of the axle are good, but the short driver side brake line need to be revised. This set up though different will work just as well. And because the endlink mount is attaching to the side of the frame I can position it straight down when attaching to the sway bar. It won’t be at an angle as the other set up was.

 

 

Here’s some pics of the work I got done today.

 

 

[Gjeep]

Devil is in the details...My MJ bed is almost a 1/2” higher on the passenger side center rear section starting at about the fender well. Shimmed less than perfect from the factory (hard to imagine)!  I learned this as I was readying to attach sway bar end links. Took all sorts of measurements and level points. And yes, ground the MJ was on was level...I get to pull the bed and re-shim this weekend!

 

Also, removed the camper shell and bedliner...Aside from a 2" dent on the front end panel, the inside of the bed is straight. 

[Gjeep]

Spent a while under the MJ removing anything that was hanging off the bed of the truck -- fuel tank, exhaust, etc -- and spent quality time with a level. Seems the odd-- spot on the MJ are passenger from corner needs less shim and the driver side rear corner needs more shim. The bed was under tension/ popped when I was removing the nuts that held it to the frame. When I removed the bed on my '89 MJ it was level and quiet. 

 

Balance of my time was spent aligning door and fender panels; in addition to marking any dings/ dents that I need to deal with prior to painting it in late summer or early fall.

 

 

 

Some of the weekend will be spent with the bed off shimming...and cleaning up the frame.

 

[Gjeep]

Wasn't a fan of the oversized oval hole in the transmission cover-plate for AX-15's. Got a scrap MJ column shift AW-4 with an XJ AW4 trans cover-plate and made the below...Centered hole with the full console support bracket. All stainless M4 & M5 hardware sits in nutserts.

 

 

[Gjeep]

Busy morning with the MJ…Had help lifting the bed off at the crack of dawn, removed the fuel tank -- and then went to town brushing, vacuuming, scrubbing, degreasing, scuffing and then painting the frame satin black. Got about half-way done, but still need to tackle the cab unibody underside and inner front fenders. I’ll need to spend plenty of detail time taping/ covering so I don’t over-spray on the installed suspension goodies. I like how it looks though. These photos show some of what I got done today...

 

 

 

 

 

Once I ran out of paint for the day, I took a dry scrub brush to the underside of the bed and repeated the steps to prepping the uni-frame above. That too will get hit with satin black coverage.

 

[Gjeep]

Been cleaning up and painting the underside of the MJ for the past little while. If I were smart, I would have done this when the engine/ trans was out…

 

And after I don’t know how many ‘options’ shipped to my house or pulled from a salvage yard for rear sway bar end link and mount considerations…I stumbled on the perfect bracket at Home Depot while shopping for a house project – Simpson Strong Ties heavy-duty 90* brackets. Brakes lines, shocks, and other rear-end components are loose – and no holes have been drilled into the MJ frame yet, as the bed needs to be in place for final weight/ height adjustments…but if I’ve measured correctly, the top most part of the 90* bracket will be touching the top most part of the MJ frame overhang. Only modifications I made to the brackets themselves was 2 additional lower holes for triangular grade 10.9 attachment to the frame itself. The endlinks I went with are the same I’m running on the front sway bar of the MJ – Tomken 2” XJ/MJ lift endlinks (TMT-4013-X2). I like these because they are beefy and come with over-sized rubber bushings.

 

 

 

[Gjeep]

Spent a lot of time (too much time) scrubbing the factory undercoating over-spray off the back of the cab wall exterior side. 1/4 the way up the cab was sprayed with undercoat and didn't want to paint over that. Front of the bed was the same, as was the rocker panels. My '89 MJ had no where near that amount of over-spray. 3 cans of 'Goof Off Overspay Remover' and DONE! There's 4 holes (passenger side) on the back of the cab wall where a CD changer was installed by the PO I need to fill before paint.

 

 

 

Also cleaned and refinished the eBrake under bed bracket and spare tire hoist. Next up is to clean dirt and grime off the fuel tank before re-installing.

[neohic]

On 4/29/2020 at 5:39 PM, Gjeep said:

 

Curious about how you mounted the sway bar. Think there’s any future issues with contact between the axle tube and the bar?

[Gjeep]

Good eyes...that’s just a rough mock up of how it will be set up. There will be 2” between the bar and axle. 

[Gjeep]

Since I got good at cleaning off excess undercoating this week -- I decided to clean up the fuel, brake, and breather line running down the frame of the MJ. I've got about 75% sparkling...just the bed length of the coiled brake line to go. As you can imagine, cleaning 250K worth of road grime off this particular line is a good time with liberal use of a stainless steel hand brush. A bit nuts, but with the chassis looking good, I know I'd regret not putting this detail time in. And yes, a new inline fuel filter and hoses will be installed. The frame bracket for the filter is being detailed and painted a cast silver.

 

 

 

[Gjeep]

Finally finished detailing all the fuel and brake lines on the truck. The coiled armored ones were the biggest pain, but look the best when clean.

 

 

 

As I'm seeing this MJ come together, I'm thinking about a non-metallic silver. Either the factory 1992 Jeep Silver Star color minus the metallic flake...or the newer Toyota Cement color. I've seen both in person and they are surprisingly close to the same color. For the sake of this forum, I grabbed to similarly lit photos of the 2 colors. Will see.

 

 

[eaglescout526]

3 minutes ago, Gjeep said:

 

 

 

This makes me want to do mine now. Yall gotta stop giving me ideas. Did you wire wheel them?

[Gjeep]

Nope -- GooGone Pro Power soak, terry cloth towel scrub/ wipe, then red scuff pad soaked with GooGone Overspray Remover, wiper down, hit with brake cleaner, GooGone ProP Power spray and brush with small soft steel brush, towel wipe down...repeat I don't know how many times until clean. And then cleaned again one last time to be sure.

[Gjeep]

More detail work...Since I removed my axle load sensing valve a while back (because I'm running an XJ brake proportioning valve and have a camper shell with additional weight on the bed) my MJ second chassis brake line was deleted -- so I can run one less channel brake line clips all the way back. Since the XJ/ MJ clips are no longer available, the closest option for a 4-channel frame rail clip is off the Liberty. Only difference is, the newer (OBD2) vehicles don't have 2 fuel lines coming from the tank, so one of the slots needed to be enlarged for my other chassis fuel line (at right in photo). 

 

 

 

 

Also, cleaned and painted the bracket for the rear brake line support at the 'X' member under the bed. A new drivers side brake line has been bent for 'T' split on the rear axle so to not get in the way of the sway bar.

 

 

Currently degreasing the front fender openings so I can spray it satin black as the rest of the 'frame'...

 

 

[Gjeep]

Front fender wells are painted. Currently drying so loose parts and missing shocks. General clean up to do, but the chassis paint is done. The bump stop tower will be body color.

 

 

[Gjeep]

Cleaning crud today -- Tail light sockets are always a mess on MJ's. Disassembling and cleaning them out. The terminals come out easy enough. The clear back side I'm just going to replace versus cleaning... Fill it back up with dielectric grease and replace wire loom with a new.

 

 

Also, for those who haven't noticed, the turn signal socket gaskets all around on the '97+ XJ are worth swapping over to your MJ. They're a high quality gasket, unlike the foam gasket MJ's and early XJ's.

 

[Gjeep]

Took a bit, but finally clean.