XJ Build

[xjh3]

Also, what should I do about the surface rust on the rotors? Think I need to get them turned?

[smichaelR22]

take a wire wheel to them if it really bothers you, otherwise ignore it.

[MrMindless]

Nick wrote:
That is a score on the axle.


You should be careful with moving the tracbar mounts around with stock steering. If you get the tracbar and drag link out of parallel you will get death wobble. So if you have it all together and randomly now you have it, it is most likely that.

Like he said, bump steer - not death wobble.

same slope AND same length are the critical items.  otherwise it takes some trig to figure out where you need to be.

[xjh3]

Mine weren\'t the same length from the factory. I\'m hoping it will be a little better, if nothing else I got rid of the weak stock mount.

[85jimmyguy]

your 8.8 is alot prettier than mine...lol

[xjh3]

Weston!! Get going already would ya??

[xjh3]

Finished up the rocker sliders albeit a top coat of paint on the driver\'s side. I ran into some corrosion issues with the pinch seem I was planning to weld the tube to on the bottom. I ended up cutting it off and braking a 2\" x 3/16\" piece to weld in along where the pinch seam was. I found a few more places that I\'ll need to address when I do my floors this summer too.

Now that they\'re on, I think the 3\"x5\"x3/16\" tube may have been a little big. I wanted 3\" to meet the bottom of the pinch seam but the 5\" is a little wide. I researched and measured, but I didn\'t realize it until I got them on how far out they really were. Better than not enough I suppose. I decided to not include the front fender in this, mostly as an effort to keep my trimming options open down the road. I didn\'t think it would be much of a problem too often that close to the tire.

Since I am working in our storage bay at work, (we call it \'the annex\') I have welded everything so far with my 110V Lincoln wirefeed. The fluxcore burns pretty good into the 3/16\" and 1/4\". I ran solid wire on every seam that has sheetmetal. I got it used for $250 this summer and so far it\'s been great.

[MrMindless]

I think the 5\" looks good, and I love the little dovetail at the front end.

[smichaelR22]

the 3\" does look a little thick, but i like it.

it was too cold this weekend to start on mine but im in the same place, with 14\' of 2x5 sitting in the shop waiting

[Wingman]

Looks great, Harrison!

[xjh3]

Thanks guys, I\'m happy with how they came out.

Left I have:

Ball Joints
Wheel U-Joints
D30 Aussie
8.8 (and all associated unexpected details)

After seeing some FL4x4 rigs today at Monster Jam I kinda caught a wave of motivation to get mine wheeling again... Just need more time!!!

[MrMindless]

Glad we could share some motivation! And thanks again for your help.

[xjh3]

I rented the ball joint tool from Autozone and got the passenger\'s side done. One concern though, the new ball joints (Spicer) seemed to press in considerably easier than the old ones came out. Not loose or wobbly in the hole, but I expected them to kinda pop in the last little bit but they didn\'t. They are in all the way. Tightened up with the knuckle on and everything seems tight. Thoughts?

[MrMindless]

no rust holding the new ones out like was holding the old ones in.  unless they slid in really loosely it\'s probably nothing at all to worry about.

[xjh3]

Great! Thanks Mindless.

Front end is reassembled with Aussie minus calipers and diff cover. I didn\'t have two tires to do the lock/unlock test with so I used two friends and some pry bars on the wheel studs. I\'m guessing this isn\'t ideal but it gave me the idea that it would ratchet under the conditions in the manual. I watched it with the cover off and noticed that it looked like only the driver\'s side was ratcheting, while the teeth on the other side were staying engaged. Does it matter as long as it was ratcheting?