Jake's 99 XJ continuing build

Junkyard. There is a guy in NH that parts out Jeeps. I will look for the name of the place.

I was wrong he is in Maine:

http://www.onlyjeepparts.com/contactus.html

Thanks! Just talked to him, he only has one out of an '84 though and doesn't want to split parts up. I know the clutch style is different but the pulley may be the same. Either way, I ordered a new compressor/drier/orifice tube from rockauto this morning for $200 after shipping. Doesn't hurt to overhaul the AC system I guess. Still not happy of course though lol.

I'm was skeptical about buying a full compressor and pulling the pulley as all the ones I found in the JY were in bad shape, bearings rust welded to the pulley.

So new compressor drier orifice tube came in last night. Went to install compressor so I could drive it to an AC shop and let them do the rest of the AC shenanigans andddddddddd snapped one of the mounting bolts. I was even using a torque wrench, pretty sure its cause I put anti-seize on the bolts (they were seized in there when I took them off). Last time I do that, so glad there was a bit sticking out that was easy to back out with a pair of vice grips. Had to order stuff from McMaster as the dealer has nothing and its a hard to find size for hardware stores (M8 100mm flanged grade 9.8 ). Losing faith in my own competence at this rate.. Can't do anything right it seems.

hobhayward wrote:So new compressor drier orifice tube came in last night. Went to install compressor so I could drive it to an AC shop and let them do the rest of the AC shenanigans andddddddddd snapped one of the mounting bolts. I was even using a torque wrench, pretty sure its cause I put anti-seize on the bolts (they were seized in there when I took them off). Last time I do that, so glad there was a bit sticking out that was easy to back out with a pair of vice grips. Had to order stuff from McMaster as the dealer has nothing and its a hard to find size for hardware stores (M8 100mm flanged grade 9.8 ). Losing faith in my own competence at this rate.. Can't do anything right it seems.

Dude that just sounds like brutal bad luck...what was the wrench set at?? I always though anti sieze only affected torque values for high torque bolts and all the lower valued bolts the affect of anti sieze was pretty nominal...

Not that it matters now but do you have a ACE hardware near you? I've found them to be 100x better than crappy home depot or lowes for both quality and variety of bolts.

There is a fastenal across the street from my old apartment in Brighton...loved that place.

Hmm I hadn't thought about fastenal, though looking now they only have socket cap screws in that size locally, could work. Went to home depot last night as it was the only thing open with low expectations, they were met. Went to a true value this morning that has a pretty good selection but no high grade metric at all.

Oh well, at least my McMaster order should be here tomorrow morning (gotta love em for their standard shipping).

Torque spec I found was 30ft-lbs. Seems a bit high but not crazy. Oh wellllllll.

There's a place in Wakefield, I believe Metric Screw and Tool, or something like that, that I've been recommended to for those bigger Metric bolts/nuts.

I've had Fastenal be a pain, just wanting one or two bolts. They like big commercial orders usually.

janesy wrote:There's a place in Wakefield, I believe Metric Screw and Tool, or something like that, that I've been recommended to for those bigger Metric bolts/nuts.

I've had Fastenal be a pain, just wanting one or two bolts. They like big commercial orders usually.

That place looks awesome and it's only 10 minutes away from me...I think you've just given me a new favorite store

I doubt it was the anti seize as well. I've used it on everything for years and never a problem. That bolt was most likely over stressed from removal and ready to break regardless.

Got the AC issue sorted.. my $23 bearing replacement turned into $370 worth of parts and labor. Yay.

Did my manifold gasket again last night andddd, it looks like Fel-pro thinks the 99 gasket should be the '00-'01 style, which is wrong.. gasket overlaps the exhaust ports a bit. I said fuck it and put it on anyways because can't return it once its open. Anywho, pretty sure its still not sealed. Soo annoying.

You can gasket match it. Just use a nice sharp xacto knife and you can make a perfect match.

dongalonga wrote:You can gasket match it. Just use a nice sharp xacto knife and you can make a perfect match.

It looked like it has rings around each of the ports, not sure if they're the metal style, but if they are, won't be able to cut and would explain it not sealing as is. If trimming is an option, I'm still not getting it to seal properly =/

Jake wrote:
Torque spec I found was 30ft-lbs. Seems a bit high but not crazy. Oh wellllllll.

Hate to ask stupid questions, but it wasn't supposed to be inch-lbs, was it? You wouldn't be the first or the last to break something because of that difference. I personally made the mistake on my valve cover gasket.

Nah, foot pounds.

Been busy with other hobbies, but this week I loosened and re-torqued the manifold bolts, marginal improvement. Waiting to hear back from APN on the runner being rusty when I got it. I feel like the fact that runner was not as smooth as it should be might just be the issue. The fact that I seal the intake every time but get minor exhaust exhaust leak every time really makes me think its not my doing?

Also finally swapped out the brown dog engine mount bushings with the softer rubber. Less vibration is certainly nice, though its still more than stock mounts. For future reference, I was able to press the new ring onto the metal sleeve with just a mini sledge without any issue.

New Bilstein 5125 shocks should be here Monday, along with the 1310 flange adapter I need to finally get the 8.8 installed.

Need to figure out how I'm going to obtain metal for bumper and skid construction, hard when all the places are open M-F and close at 5.

What rear end is in there now? From the pics at the beginning of your thread it looks like an 8.25, but it's pretty much impossible to tell without being under the thing. I've been floating a crazy idea in my head of possibly fabbing up a 29-spline 8.25 for under the YJ, so if you have plans to get rid of it I might be interested.

THOOPY3 wrote:What rear end is in there now? From the pics at the beginning of your thread it looks like an 8.25, but it's pretty much impossible to tell without being under the thing. I've been floating a crazy idea in my head of possibly fabbing up a 29-spline 8.25 for under the YJ, so if you have plans to get rid of it I might be interested.

Yep, it's an 8.25. I was confident that the pinion bearing was on its way out way back when. Turns out a lot of whine was coming from an exhaust leak... Really have no idea on the condition of the pinion bearing but now that I have the 8.8 might as well toss 'er in. Main reason now is for the 4.10's.

Very interesting. If it's 29 spline definitely keep me in mind once your swap is complete. I have no intention of swapping my XJ's rear axle out because I don't plan on running 'big' meats on it, and the idea of having matching axles (front and rear) on each vehicle really appeals to me in the parts department, especially for trail spares and such. I know you have plans for 35s so the 8.8 makes perfect sense for you, but I think our plan is to call it a day with 33s so an unlocked 8.25 (even a locked one from what I've read) should hold up to that, especially with a four cylinder powering it.

Hadn't actually realized they came in different spline counts. Looks like it should be a 29 spline based on the year but I'll let you know when I pull it.

Not actually sure if I'll end up running 35's or not (I want to). But as I already have everything (and a fair amount of time spent on it) to swap it in I may as well rather than losing money trying to flip it on CL or whatever. At this point I'm mostly doing it for the 4.10's, real peace of mind that it will not be a weak point, and kinda just because I want to. Just need to learn how to set up gears in the front now =/. Ideally for 35's though I wouldn't spend time/money re-gearing the front to 4.10 when I should re-gear both to 4.56 or 4.88.

New things showed up yesterday, planning on pulling my 8.25 tonight and test fitting the 8.8 before I burn on the mounts.

Started the swap a couple days later than I was planning but we're underway..

Step 0:


Step 1:


Step 2:
Got the springs off and the bushings out, wish I had taken a picture f how bad they were, probably could have fit two sleeves side by side in one bushing if I tried. Have a full set of daystar poly bushings to pop in ($44 for the set with free shipping, vs like ~$30 per bushing from the parts store =/)

Any suggestions on spring refurb? questioning whether to paint them, might throw some graphite in between the leaves, but I read that petroleum based greases are bad for the springs..

Next step, clean and paint the undercarriage, get the springs and new shocks installed and then get the new axle under there to check the pinion angle.

Yay pictures



Making center pins out of hex cap bolts on ze ghetto lathe


Daystar poly bushings installed, seems legit




Need to modify the exhaust so its not hitting the shock (didn't care before cause I knew I was replacing the POS that was installed before, don't want it rubbing on the bilstein tho). Also noticed one of the studs on the new axle was bent.. wondering how that happened. No problem to replace, just curious why. Still haven't checked runout so I may go grab an indicator from work in the morning just to make sure everything is the way it should be.

Nice progress!

Ring gear runout measured at ~ 2 thou which is good, spec says a max of 4


Flange runout probably should have been measured with the adapters off but I was lazy, oh well. Both came in around 5 thou, max is 8 so we're good there too.


Don't have a picture of the axle installed, but its looking pretty good. Shocks have about half an inch of unused downtravel (as measured without wheels with just the weight of axle), I'm not sure if I should be flexing one side all the way up and checking the opposite side, gotta look into the procedure. Probably going to need to remove the brackets and tweak them a couple degrees though which kinda blows lol. Also there's so much room and I don't have enough uptravel to stuff the wheel wells, makes me wish I had gone with 35's like I wanted.. perhaps in the future.

Pinion ended up being at -3* so I rotated the brackets 1*.. ended up at -1*. Said fuck it that's close enough to -2* and burned the mounts on. Still need to do the truss and por15.

Also need to figure out brake lines, which I've never worked with so that'll be interesting.

Hey Jake,, looks like your making good progress.
One degree is fine and brake lines are easy, you can do it.

Bit more progress


Getting decent with the arc welder