Pirate 4x4 banner

High travel, high clearance & high octane, a streetable adventure LJ story

81K views 541 replies 48 participants last post by  toximus 
#1 ·
This new build thread comes at the intersection of my previous "Red the LJ" build thread and a honest conversation with Blaine (MrBlaine here on the forums) where, put simply, he told me that I need to start all over.

After a day of mulling it over, start over I did.
 
#400 ·
Earlier this week I sent my steering gear off to PSC to adjust which torsion bar is in it. So my Jeep is parked until I get it back.

When ordering the -10 AN fittings for the steering pump feed hose I was sent the wrong blue/red color and was told to keep them and was refunded my order since they were unable to get the correct color for me. I reordered the silver color from another store and they've been on back order since October. I finally got them on Friday and while I have a steering fluid mess going on I figured there's no better time to swap the hose.

 
#401 ·
I cut the cargo area carpet to fit around the fuel cell. This should help cut down some noise. It seems like the short piece is staying put but if it moves around I'll put a strip of velcro under it. The wheel arch carpet will be going in after I secure the coilover covers (after I'm "done" tuning so removing the COs is easier).



 
#402 ·
I custom ordered a tire tie down strap from Mac's. It's their 1" strap lengthened for a 37" tire. Normally they use a 2" strap and larger ratchet but I think it's overkill for this position. This 1" strap is rated to 2800lb minimum breaking strength. The tire is already wedged in the tub so all I'm looking to do by adding a strap is to prevent the tire from flying in the event of a rollover.



The ends are light weight adjustable loops. The tire is still quick to release by undoing the ratchet -- the loops don't need to be touched.




(Painting the beadlock ring was something I tried. However I think I'm going to strip it back to raw aluminum.)

I'm starting to assemble my Jeep tool kit, spare parts, and recovery gear. Once I can lay it out and see the physical size I'm going to figure out how to best pack them in the Jeep.
 
#403 ·
To install the center rock lights I drilled and tapped 2 holes in the body mounts to #10-24. I had some leftover bolts that were the perfect length to thread into the body mount without sticking out on top -- little things like that make it nice when you run your hand over it and don't snag skin.

 
#405 · (Edited)
That would make it easier. Or an ORB fitting. Unfortunately PSC used welded AN fittings and I don't think the wall is thick enough to convert.

Edit: I talked to PSC on the phone and what's currently in there is a 6MJ-6MB. They look welded in to me but the guy I talked to said they screw in. So they should be convertible to an ORB. Good thinking @rockwood!
 
#407 ·
I'm super curious about this too. I have a hard time believing that it's under stock weight, but also the springs and shipping weights should be accurate or over. It's hard to compare by using my "butt dyno" since I don't know how much power the SC is adding but it certainly doesn't "feel" heavy like this Jeep did when it had steel bumpers.

Once I get to breaking in the gears will bring it by a scale. Just need to solve the HA fitting problem and get my gearbox back. Hopefully late this month?
 
#413 ·
toximus said:
There's some noise coming from contact between the driveline and tub that I need to solve that I couldn't hear before
I think I found where the noise was coming from. The transmission lines were pressed against the driver's floor. They had already done a good job of denting the tub so I finished the job by wedging a prybar between them and made some room.

 
#415 ·
I cut the Savvy skid stiffener to clear the muffler.

First I traced the stiffener onto a cardboard template and traced around the muffler:



The plasma torch was used for a rough cut followed up with a flap disc:



A perfect fit:



I did not add any plating to spread the load across this area. The remaining material should be sufficient but I'll keep an eye on it after the skid gets some hard hits.
 
#418 ·
The upper mini-cats can burn unburned fuel and mess with the true air to fuel ratio. To get an accurate reading on the AFR gauge I decided to gut them. This will allow me to get a better tune into the engine and hopefully in the end will be better for the environment compared to running the engine too rich. The lower cat will be staying as there's only benefits of keeping it.

I took some readings on previous test drives so I can compare and see if removing the cats before the AFR sensor makes any difference.



 
#419 ·
You may remember that my AFR sensor hit the engine skid brace and needed to be moved.

I wire brushed the surface clean and drilled a 7/8" hole for the new bung.



The bung is Summing Racing part number SUM-G2990SS.



I welded it in place with a plug screwed in to keep the threads from distorting. Normal carbon steel wire would have worked but due to my location being favorable to rust I opted to use a small 2# spool of 308L stainless welding wire to weld the bung in (Hobart H522506-R19 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DZG11S/). I didn't want to invest in tri-mix gas so I used C25 which seemed to work fine but with more splatter than is normal.



I applied antiseize to the plugs and sensors and bolted the exhaust back up. Now there's plenty of room!

 
#421 ·
While I was tidying up the AFR wiring under the hook I finally terminated the ends of the rock light wiring. I decided to run each light/area to it's own fuse so if one wire gets pinched offroad it won't take out all of the lights. It also allowed me to use a lower fuse rating so a shorted wire will be more likely to blow the fuse than spark against the frame.

 
#426 ·
While I was tidying up the AFR wiring under the hook I finally terminated the ends of the rock light wiring. I decided to run each light/area to it's own fuse so if one wire gets pinched offroad it won't take out all of the lights. It also allowed me to use a lower fuse rating so a shorted wire will be more likely to blow the fuse than spark against the frame.
Why didnt you just ground back to the frame?
 
#422 · (Edited)
I appreciate everyone's help looking for a hydroassist fitting but unfortunately I was unable to find a fitting for my HA cylinder that would work off the shelf. Thankfully @mrblaine figured out a wonderfully simple solution. He cut two 90* fittings and brazed them together with a section of stainless tubing between them. I feel confident that I could make one myself next time.



It's a tight fit but it works at full bump and full lock:



 
#423 ·
The steering gear box came back from PSC with the new 0.210 torsion bar. It appears that they actually sent me an entirely new box... it must be simpler and cheaper for them to resell the used box and build one new with the requested torsion bar?

To get to the fittings on top I needed to remove the grill body snubber which requires removing the headlight since I have the Savvy body lift. Ever since upgrading my headlights to LED I have had trouble getting a torx driver into the bezel screws because the headlight is so bulky.

Last month I ran across ball end torx drivers and decided to pick up a T15 bit (Bondhus 11331) to remove the difficult to access headlight bezel screws. With some inward pressure it worked like a charm!

 
#424 ·
Back on my first test drives I noted that the high pressure line fitting into the steering gear leaked and needed to be replaced. I replaced that and also noticed that the pitman arm has been brushing into one of the lines down to the cylinder. I couldn't angle the fitting any further up or else it could make contact with the radiator when the body flexes (which the grills/radiator moves A LOT when it does flex). I bent the 90* fitting into more of a 45* and angled it outward to get around the pitman.







I cycled the suspension one last time to verify everything is in a good place and I had just enough Swepco 715 fluid on the shelf to bleed the steering. I ordered more this morning to have on hand.
 
#425 ·
I had lost oil and introduced air in the rear coilovers when changing the remote reservoirs to Fox DSCs so I took them apart and bled them. It took just under a quart of shock oil to do both.





They're actually very quick to rebuild, just messy.

I did mess up one bearing cap. Thankfully @pcoplin gave me a tip which redeemed the part and thankfully I didn't have to wait on a replacement.

I followed these video tutorials for rebuilding the shocks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POunLnsInQk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRaOceJt12U
 
#428 ·
I loaded up the coilovers with their new springs and got them back on the Jeep.

The front springs are Eibach 2.5" 14x150/16x250 with 1" preload.
The rear springs are Eibach 3.0" 14x125/16x200 with 1.5" preload.

The lockout rings which stop the dual rate slider were set to prevent coil bind on the upper springs. I'm going to play around with the position to see if an earlier transition into the harsher spring is beneficial.

I charged the coilovers with 200psi of nitrogen. The idea here is that the nitrogen keeps pressure on the internal floating piston (IFP) which separates the nitrogen from the oil. If you have too low of pressure the piston can cavitate in the oil, if you have too high the IFP won't be able to move. Generally, ride quality changes should be made by changing shock shims not by changing nitrogen pressure.

The pressure in the bumpstops is set to 1/6 of the corner weight. The front corners weigh 787lbs so I set the front air bumps to 130psi. The rear corners weigh 590lbs and the air bumps are set to 100psi. Unlike shocks, air bumps can be tuned with pressure. 1/6 of weight is just a starting point and will change as I get the suspension dialed in.

The ride height with those springs came out just about perfect. I'm going to see how things settle over a few drives, and may need to adjust preload slightly to dial in ride height. Right now the coilovers have the factory tune in them. Once I get a baseline on the ride quality I'll figure out how I want them tuned.






(The rear parking brake cable gets in the way and is disconnected until I finalize the tune in the coilovers)

 
#430 ·
Currie's break in procedure for new axles is 5-6 heat cycles by driving at varying RPM for 30 minutes and then letting the gears completely cool. After 500 miles the gear oil needs to be changed.

I'm marking my windshield with dry erase how many heat cycles I've done along with mileage for easy recording.



Having some fun flexing on snow banks:



 
#433 · (Edited)
On my test drives I've noticed:

1) I have multiple minor electrical issues. a) the headlights brights don't work (I solved this by seating the connector on the driver's side fender) b) the interior lights didn't turn on once (I'm still debugging this since it only happened once) and c) the transmission temp gauge keeps powering off (I found a loose connection in my wiring behind the dash which is the cause).

2) The shocks need tuning. I have the DSCs on the softest settings and bumps in the road hurt. I still need to pay more attention to what's happening but right now it seems that it's the "landing" that hurts more than the bump itself. It feels like there is no rebound happening and the compression is extra stiff during that second "landing" impact. I scribbled on the shafts with a marker and only about 2" of each shaft is being used which is exactly how it feels. I'll be coming back to this after more test drives.

3) The steering is scary. @mrblaine is helping walk me through dialing in the steering and he described it best as "non-linear steering response". It's not so much an issue driving slow but on faster roads with turns is when this issue really rears it's head. What's happening is that when I turn the steering wheel a little bit for the turn the Jeep only turns slightly, I then turn even more to try and get the steering response I want, and then slightly more, but then the weight transfers to the outside tire and the Jeep quickly turns way more than I'm expecting. It all happens in a fraction of a second and has had me pointed into the oncoming lane more than once. Which then results in me jerking the steering wheel in the opposite direction and veering right and left in my lane during a simple curve in the road. In my next update I'll post about how I'm going to correct this issue.
 
#434 ·
Looks great! Will be curious to see what the steering issue is. I know mine on my TJ (AGR Chevy 3/4 ton pickup box with custom internals, CBR pump, 1.75x6" ram) was a little squirrely the first time I drove it. The fix was to inflate the tires (37 sticky Treps) from 20 psi to 24 psi and the problem went away - so check the simple things first.
 
#436 ·
3) The steering is scary. @mrblaine is helping walk me through dialing in the steering and he described it best as "non-linear steering response". It's not so much an issue driving slow but on faster roads with turns is when this issue really rears it's head. What's happening is that when I turn the steering wheel a little bit for the turn the Jeep only turns slightly, I then turn even more to try and get the steering response I want, and then slightly more, but then the weight transfers to the outside tire and the Jeep quickly turns way more than I'm expecting. It all happens in a fraction of a second and has had me pointed into the oncoming lane more than once. Which then results in me jerking the steering wheel in the opposite direction and veering right and left in my lane during a simple curve in the road. In my next update I'll post about how I'm going to correct this issue.
The issue with my steering is that it is unable to achieve Ackermann. This is something that I've been aware of since day 1 of the build and I knew I'd have to dial in the steering.

Thankfully today was a nice sunny day with 50F weather which made for a good day of getting out of the Jeep a bunch of times and dialing in the steering on the side of the road with a couple of trips back to the garage.

To dial in the steering I started by centering the steering wheel. Because the steering stops are perfectly set up so the knuckles, hydro, and steering box stops all hit at the same time at ride height the only way to center the steering wheel is to adjust the ride height. Ride height is adjusted by moving the preload nuts on the coilovers up or down.



I brought the toe to 0 (meaning straight; no toe in or out).

I then went for a drive on a paved dry road with lots of turns to establish a baseline. The handling was horrible due to the non-linear steering response. It was so bad I was honestly worried it wouldn't be fixable.

To get the steering to be good, I started by placing a mark on the top of the tie rod and rotated the tie rod half a turn of toe out at a time. As toe out increased the steering response became more linear. I kept increasing toe out until the steering became vague on center (similar to a dead spot I had trouble going straight but turns were fine) and then I turned the tie rod back half a turn to the sweet spot.



There was a point where I could tell that I was steering by reacting to the road because I had muscle memory from how it handled in the morning even though it was starting to handle better. I've had this Jeep since stock and I think I have so much muscle memory of how it's handled over the years. So I stopped at a gas station for a little snack and a break so I could approach the Jeep with fresh eyes again.

The sweet spot wasn't quite good enough to feel comfortable handing the keys over to Mrs Tox for an unbiased opinion so I dialed in more caster angle by shortening the upper control arm 2 rotations and went through the process again of finding the sweet spot. Pinion angle is nice but isn't a huge concern since I have locking hubs.

I got the steering dialed in to the point where I could drive and enjoy music without having constant vigilance micromanaging the steering. I found that instead of pushing myself to drive the speed limit I was now driving faster naturally because I had confidence in the steering and it was easy. I'm not sure that I found the perfect sweet spot yet because the suspension is so firm that anytime there's a bump in the road I was thrown around and I would bump the steering wheel. I'm actually pretty sore from driving all day on paved roads.

One last thing, something that I had done last month is I sent my steering box to PSC to swap out the torsion bar with their firmer .210 bar. This helped slow steering response and make high speed driving better.

It took all morning and afternoon to go through this process and was well worth the effort since my Jeep is actually starting to be fun to drive -- which I'm thankful for after putting so much hard work into it! Next up is dialing in the suspension!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top