Well today was like Christmas for me. I got my Bilstien 5100 shocks in the mail along with my JKS bar pin eliminators to get rid of that clunking sound. Then I up drove up to denver and bought some new BFG All Terrain 33x12.5 tires from someone off craigslist. I just have to decide now whether I want to remount the tires onto my old rims (american racing aluminum) or just keep them on the ranger aluminum wheels they are on now with the white lettering facing out. What do you guys think? (rims that came with the tires are 15x7 and wheels I have now are 15x8 I believe)

 

Update: I put my new tires on my old rims and balanced them today. Took me about 2 hrs or so of work but man it was worth it. I now have a spare tire, and the ride is much smoother. Also my jeep looks way better with those 33's. Here are the pictures and a before and after.

 

so this means means wheeling this weekend right.. haha

ill give you a call this weekend


lookin great!!

 

Well this weekend was pretty dang busy to say the least.
Friday: made a hooked bolt thing to hold the spare tire on the roof.

Saturday: Installed my new 3.5" Rubicon Express leaf springs and my new bilstein 5100 shocks. Unfortunately I couldn't get the bar pins out of the bushings so I couldn't install my jks bar pin eliminators . I will have to order some new bushings online and take out the shocks and reinstall them with the bar pin eliminators. The rear suspension turned out great. Took about 6 hrs or so because the thread stripped on the bar pin screws, and the front bolt for the leaf springs took forever to get out, about 2 hrs even with the air impact wrench. Luckily though with lots of liquid wrench no bolts broke. The lift gave me another 1" in the rear. So with the longer shackle its about a 5.5" lift in the rear


Suspension started out like this:



Here is the final product :



Sunday: I went back and torqued everything down properly and put in shims to fix the drive-line angles, but I still have bad vibes and need a sye. I also replaced my broken axle u-joint today. The C-clips were a pain to get off, but after using a chisel and liquid wrench I got them out. I luckily had a u-joint tool which made the rest of the process a breeze. By the way the part number for the axle u-joint for my 01' cherokee was neapco 10298.








Definitely a long weekend, but very productive to say the least. And sorry I couldn't finish in time to take it out Jordy. We will definitely have to go hit up some trails soon.

 

Did you use an angle shim in the back to get a better pinion angle?

 

Yea I used a 2 degree shim. I drove it without and with a shim and it seemed to help but only slightly. I don't have an sye yet because I wanted to make sure that the lift height would be right so that the new cv driveshaft is the right length. But yea pretty rediculous driving around with about 5.5" of lift and no sye. I think the previous owner may have put on a longer driveshaft though. not sure.

 

Well last week I noticed some leaking around the driver's side axle shaft onto the tire. So I came to find that when I replaced the axle after installing a new u-joint, I messed up the seal. So spent a day taking the axle apart and replacing the seals- more expensive than I would have preferred- (Seals-$50 at dealer, gear oil-$15, base auto shop fees-$20, brake cleaner-$5). Here are some pictures of the process.

 

I also detailed/waxed the xj after camping this weekend before the snow comes so here are some pictures.

Next up before the winter-
-SYE and CV driveshaft
-install 2" spacers up front
-get a dang alignment
-install skid plates I bought
-install lights I have onto roof
-install new fuel injectors bought from no rdplz
-buy/install cb antenna
-buy/install rock sliders
-replace fluids in differential, flush radiator, power steering, and new fuel filter

 

I just installed my "upgraded" 784 fuel injectors from a 2000 stratus that I purchased from no rdplz . They definitely made a noticeable difference when accelerating. My old injectors were pretty nasty when I took them out, so just having some clean injectors probably made a huge difference in itself. I am excited to see how it affects my gas mileage. I normally get about 16-17 after adjusting for speedometer error I will report back later after going through a few tanks.

I also installed a cb antenna and bought a few other goodies: a new speedo gear, 2" spacers, and slip yoke eliminator/shaft finally on its way in the mail !!

Here are some pics:

 

Here are my lights installed along with the 2" spacer up front. Turned out well. What do you all think?

Also I got an sye and planning on doing it on Sunday. I have new 4.5" RE coils on the way because I realized one of mine has an inch broken off and I just picked up some rock sliders that I need to install.

 

That rocks man! Lookin real good. Show AND go....lookin forward to the next addition to it

 

looks like mine

 

looking good man...

 

thanks guys its a work in progress. Zackqb2 what size lift is that? do you have a stock drive-shaft in the front or an extended one?

 

it about 5.5 yea its a stock drive shaft.