AuxBeam light installed, these LED headlights are based on the Morimoto 5x7 LED headlights that they discontinued because they were slightly oversized for a 5x7 housing. But, all you have to do is get longer bolts that hold the headlight surround in.




Halos wired up.


Here's a video of them installed.

Then the next day I installed the LED cubes,


Old Hella's, as you can see, they are pretty worn out and lenses are cracked... Still worked though.


Then, something I've wanted to do it a while, I cleared out a lot of old wiring I did when I was younger. Still have more to clean up but I need a weekend to do that.



Here's what the Jeep looks like as of a couple hours ago.



And a picture I uploaded in Instagram yesterday.


Next thing I should be doing is installing the track bar and ball joints. That should be next week. I hope to keep this up to date like I do my Yukon build thread and try to keep it from falling behind again. But I was holding off because of all the missing pictures so I mostly blame that... and it took HOURS to fix.

 

Well I got the track bar installed and changed all the tie rods but I still need to do the ball joints. One thing I need to do is swap the frame drop bracket back to the Rugged Ridge one because the new one is about an inch or so longer and I believe it's affecting my steering/driving since I don't have a drop pitman arm. It seems to be worse in the shaking/dethwable since I install the new trackbar and I think it is from the bracket being longer.

Or is something else and maybe the ball joints fix it, we'll see next week.

First of all I painted my new track bar and drag link since my old ones were painted and why not.



Then I drilled out the bushing sleeve and the heim joint spacers to 1/2" to fit the new 1/2 bolts I got. Main reason I did this was because the axle side mounting hole I drilled out to work with a 1/2" bolt to use with the Rugged Ridge track bar since the sleeve is 1/2" on it but the bolt was not and ended up causing issues with popping a couple years ago so I drilled out the axle hole to get a bolt that fit tight, which was a 1/2' bolt.



Drilled out the new frame mount. (Will end up replacing with the Rugged Ridge mount as explained before.)


Then I went ahead and made a new captured nut since mine had been long gone since I upped the lift from 3", and also I never made one when I upped to a 1/2" bolt with the Rugged Ridge track bar and getting a wrench behind the bolt is kinda tricky.



The Rugged Ridge track bar off.


Tie rods off.



New frame mount. (again, being swapped back out.) Yeah it's dirty, had a power steering line leak that went on for a couple years but wasn't that back. Until about a month ago when a pin hole formed so I decided that was the time to replace the lines. Though it had been on my to do list for years.



New temporary track bar in place.



The nut locking tab



All the tie rods in place. And as you can see here the angles of the the drag link and track bar aren't even close to being somewhat parallel and that's key to the drivability stability of the front axle. At least with the Rugged Ridge track bar frame mount it's more parallel. Will eventually get a drop pitman arm.


So next week I should be able to do the ball joints and hopefully wash the thing if the weather isn't too cold.

 

Yeah, been a while... again. But I'm here to update... Still have death wobble even after I did the ball joints so I got a new gearbox, a Ironman 4x4 Fab steering box/sector shaft brace, new bushings for my rugged ridge track bar, and lower control arm bushing.... All still waiting to be installed. I just haven't had the time to work on the Jeep with classes and my senior project which is building a bumper for my Yukon. Hopefully in a month or so thing will calm down and I can install everything... then HOPEFULLY, death wobble will be gone.

Now on to the pictures of installing ball joints, a light bar I got, new battery tray (finally, been broke since 2008), and a picture from wheeling. I got some video I need to cut up and I'll post that later.

Taking the knuckle off.
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First off I found out after the fact that the driver side upper joint was an offset ball joint. Didn't have another one to put in to I just installed the Synergy one I had. Anyway, since it was offset I had to shave the upper part of the joint to fit the cup over the joint from the press.
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Then I still have to use heat since the ball joint bottomed out in the cup.
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And then it exploded and shot across the garage. still had to hammer the carcass out.
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Both joints out.
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Both joints in place... after a trip to get a special adapter set. OEM 27310.
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Knuckle and axle back on.
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Then next I ripped out all my old LED strips I used as rock lights. More old, crappy wiring I did years ago. I took it out since I ordered an RGB rock light set, still have yet to install that and I think I will actually put in on the Yukon and order another set when I get this thing back on the road.
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Replaced the battery tray.
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The broke tab.
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All back together.
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Teaser pick of the light bar I took. It's an AuxBeam 32" V-Series bar. It's a great light bar and really bright. Plus it's RGB backlit.
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Took the old knockoff 5" daylighters off.
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All the halogen lights I replaced with LEDs in about a month's time.
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Installing the light bar, took the roof rack off first. Looks so weird since I've had the rack on for about 5 years now.
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Welding new night bar tab mounts... after a trip to get more welding wire.
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light bar mock up to drill holes.
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Painted.
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Only gripe with the light bar is not enough wiring if you are mounting on the roof, so I had to extend the wiring about 2 to 3 foot.
Routing the wiring through the fender and up the weather stripping.
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Extending the RGB harness.
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Light bar in place.
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Light bar installed. On the green of the RGB backlighting.
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All my accent lights lit.
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A Video I did of the light bar.

Then it snowed. So here's a video I took of a "cold start" of my XJ and Yukon.

Here's the Ironman 4x4 Fab steering box/sector shaft brace, steering box spacer, and sway bar drop bracket that you need with the brace.
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And here is a picture from Saturday night/Sunday early AM from the wheeling we did. That purple XJ is my buddy's GFs, he is the one I'm going half and half with to get the 2 XJ's and parts.
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I'll hopefully update when/if I got that XJ over the weekend and whenever I do the rest of the work to this XJ.

 

Here's the video I put together of me wheeling the other day.

Also here are some pictures of the Jeep afterwards in daylight.



Also, picked up a new Jeep!! Finally got a dedicated trail rig. It's a 1991 Laredo. Plus a ton of parts.


My buddy also picked up its twin. 1990 Laredo, they were built only 4 month apart. Both have 3" lift.


Here's a night video of the new Jeep, I'll have another video tomorrow hopefully if I get it running.

 

Haven't forgotten about the 2000, just still haven't had much time between work, school, and senior project to work on it. Granet I could've worked on it last week (Spring break) but I wanted to get the trail Jeep running so that didn't happen.... Hopefully over the next couple weeks, I can find the time to work on it and replace the great box and put that brace from Iron Man 4x4 Fab in it and stop the death wobble.

Guess I'll do a quick update on the trail rig.

Got it running last week, all it was was a fuel pump, and also when wheeling a little with it but not much.

I'll start another build thread sometime this weekend of the trail rig with more details.

But here's a couple pictures and video of the last couple weeks.

When I was working on it to get it running.


When it showed and got the front TSLs on it. Also put my old Rampage Conversion headlights on it from when I switched to LED on my 2000.


When I got it buried on Sunday.


One of the multiple videos I've taken of the Trail Jeep while fixing it up.

 

Finally started a thread for the Trail Jeep.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f46/91...l-jeep-234322/

 

(Started to type this out in April but just now finished and posted it.)

Haven't done much work on the Jeep in a while. Been either working on the Yukon, messin' with the Trail Jeep, or trying to finish up, hopefully, my final semester of college. (Now Graduated) So haven't really messed with it.

But a couple weeks ago (now 2 months ago) I was able to at least install the new gearbox and the IronMan4x4Fab steering box brace with sector shaft support and steering box spacer. I was also able to reinstall my Rugged Ridge track bar with new bushings. I was able to finally get in touch with Rugged Ridge to get the bushing part number I needed to replace my worn out bushings.

I was going to also install lower control arm bushings, but didn't get the chance so I still need to do that. After all that, I still have a little death wobble when hitting a pothole on one side but it seems that while going straight it's tracking good. Plus I can go over 40 MPH now without it wobbling.

Might need to look at the passenger ball joints even though they seemed good in when I did the driver side. Also need to check the UCAs. (Have now installed UCAs and Passenger ball joints)

First of all, I made a 40 so odd minute video on installing this thing. Somewhat of a step by step to an extent.


Anyway, Here's the brace and bearing, steering box spacer, and sway bar drop that you need with the sector shaft support. And the hardware.




Took the sway bar off.


Rugged Ridge Track Bar vs the eBay Track Bar


Lower control bushings, track bar bushings, and JKS disconnects rebuild parts.


Reman Gearbox and fluid.


Taking the pitmen arm and steering shaft off




Gearbox and stock aluminum spacer out.


Through a quick coat of paint on the parts that can be seen.


Set the gearbox spacer in place



Gearbox in place (had to loosen later on to get the sector shaft support lined up.)


Sat the brace in place and ended up having to ovel the bolt holes out, maybe due to previous frame damage from the original owner.



Got the new extended sector shaft nut, got the bearing installed, and the sway bar drop brackets.



And that is it with the brace. That fixed a lot of my death wobble at speeds and changed it to only when I went over uneven bumps.

I have since installed passenger ball joints and Core 4x4 adjustable UCAs and now have no death wobble. I don't have the pictures uploaded yet but hope to soon. I have videos on my Youtube of the installs though. Just wanted to go ahead and post this now and hope to post the other pictures later.

 

This is going to be the pictures from when I installed passenger Synergy Manufacturing ball joints and the Core 4x4 UCA's.

Since I'm doing so much videoing now, I forget to take pictures like I used to.

Taking the ball joints out, with the extra adapters.
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Ball joints installed.
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Video installing the ball joints.

This is installing the UCA's. I chose the tier one with OE rubber bushings.

Here's the control arms. If you get the Core 4x4 arms, look for the decals in the packing. I missed mine and found one of them on the garage floor a week later, but it was ruined.
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The control arms adjusted to 16 and 5/8 inches for the roughly 5" of lift I have.
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Had to make a run to the parts store to get axle side bolts that were longer. Since the stock flagged bolt will not work and is too short. I also needed to pick up a magnet since the frame bolt fell inside the unirail.
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Arms mounted and death wobble fixed!!
Passenger side.
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Driver side.
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Here's the video of the install.

Then, the next day, on it's maiden voyage after fixing the death wobble.... and for the first time in over 6 months.... The heater hose blew on interstate on the way home. Lucky come coworkers came with a 3/4" union and some antifreeze.
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Here's a video I put together with the dash cam and a video I made when I got it fixed.

Here's a couple picture I took of my vehicles after I installed a light bar on my Yukon. The same bar I have on this but 42" and not 32".
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And that's all caught up to date. Don't really know what will be next, but 'Til next time!

 

Well, it's been about 6 months since my last update. New, better paying job since then also, finally don't have to do customer service anymore.... 2.5 years was enough. Not too much in updates on the Jeep though, been trying to save up to SAS my Yukon. But I've done a couple things and been wheeling a number of times, still have over 3 hours of videos to edit from my GoPro/cell phone videos from those trips over the last couple weeks.

First off, after I installed the Core 4x4 arms I decided to replace my marker and corner light housings since they were coming apart and leaking so the LEDs were going out. While I was at it, I decided to color match the housing this time and not paint them black (they come chrome)

I don't have as many pictures, I've kinda gotten away (and forgetting) from taking a lot of pictures since I've been making a lot of videos for YouTube.

anyway, here's the lenses apart.


Here's the can, the color is PJP or Medium Fern Green Pearl. I will say though, the place I ordered from mixed it too dark, but oh well, it's green.



Here is after paint and clear coat. Looks fine in these pictures, but I think it darkened after drying.



I then added some more butyl rubber and resealed them, here they are resealed and you can't really tell the color difference.


Then I installed the side markers, also changed the 194 LED to an updated type of LED. It uses the more efficient SMD 5730 led chips over the SMD 5050. Here you can really seen the color difference.



I then changed the one of the front housings. You can see the RTV around the outside to try and hold the housings over, didn't help long. I also changed the LEDs out from the SMD 5050 LEDs to 50w CREE LEDs. Didn't get any pictures of them though.


Here you can see the brightness difference (still more then the camera picks up). The housings are also more reflective than the black of the other hosting.




Done.


Here's two videos. The first is color matching the housings, the other is the install. Lot more information in the videos then I posted.


Also picked up a couple Jeep (XJ) flags, one green (this Jeep) the other red (trail Jeep).


Next I decided to flush my coolant system since it overheated then time the heater hose busted and the system was full of trash anyway. No pictures but here's a video.

Then I guess both age and driving roughly 30 miles (all highway) to my new job for a couple weeks (swapped back and forth between the Yukon), my water pump finally started to leak out of the weap hole. These are after being parked at work from 7am to noon... also this was the day if the ellipse so I think my Jeep was also excited.





Luckily my buddy works (well just quit) at the same job I do. So I rode home with him and the next day I brought a trailer and picked the Jeep up. As you might be able to see by the picture, I now work at a shop. More specifically a GM dealership, my buddy worked on the body shop side. I'm on the mechanical side.


Here's the video of me replacing the water pump.

Now I have a number of pictures from multiple wheeling trips in the Jeep. Mostly flex shots. Most of these pictures are from Sugar Creek Trails, a local ATV place but the trails are big enough for Jeeps and the owner lets pretty much anything in. Road here a lot on ATVs for years, only recently been Jeepin' here though.

This is probably my favorite pictures.







From the trails you can drive all the way to the Mississippi river, here it is.



Back in the pines



Back at Sugar Creek, these are from last week, (on three wheels also) and apparently some passersbys wanted to take pictures too.








That's it for now, again I have hours of videos to go through and make one or so videos. Don't know when I'll get the chance to go through them though.

'Til next time.