Eric's '96 ZJ (Update: Limit straps, ABS delete, trail pics)

[JayROD900]

you should have been there the other day man. I had 4 grand cherokee (3 zj's and a wj) at my uncle's property. it was a good time. We had a blazer to but i had to winch him

Let me know abou the OSJ. I been interested a long time in joining. I have talked to the guy that drives that red cherokee cheif. Let me know.

[Technohead]

Some photo's and video from a recent trail ride.

Here's my buddy trying to drive off a miniature cliff. At this point the fender and A-pillar were already dented so we winched him back up:



The easy way down:





A couple videos. The first is my buddy going up one side of a little hill and the second is me going down the back side:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufSDVF4irLk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzMe1SByvi4

So far, the Clayton suspension and new axles are working out great!

And BTW, are there any tags to directly embed YT videos into a post? The [youtube][/youtube] tags don't seem to work here.

[Technohead]

A couple videos from last weekend's trail ride:

www.youtube.com/watch?=UQgvalsMaBk

www.youtube.com/watch?=qzBR2t-tr-w

Picked up a Superwinch and ordered some Super Swampers:



Designed a belly skidplate. Green is the existing structure. Blue and red are the new skidplate. Just need to finish up the dimensions before ordering the steel:





Lot of trail rides planned for this season. Stay tuned for the footage!

[faststang1]

Looks the same as the one clayton sells...lol
How much more are u saving VS buying it from clayton?

[Technohead]

Looks the same as the one clayton sells...lol
How much more are u saving VS buying it from clayton?

The ribs make it over 2x more resistant to bending than Clayton's; about $50 worth of steel vs $225 of the shelf.

[Technohead]

Time for an update. It will probably take 2-3 posts to fit everything in. First, I bolted on my Superwinch and it was stolen from my driveway a few days later before I could weld the bolts! I'm still following up leads and if I ever locate the scumbags lookout. In the meantime I bought another one.

A few of us from OSJ wheeled with New England Jeepz back in March. Lots of carnage. Finally tally for me was 1 front axle shaft, 2 ball joints, rear passenger door caved in, peeled the drivers side front fender, cleaned out marker lamps and header panel, and cracked the windshield. My friend Bill snapped his rear driveshaft and cracked his windshield. I still can't believe we were able to pound the ball joints back in an get out of the woods.
Everything started out innocently enough:







Oops, whats wrong with this picture:



Not good:





Bill's driveshaft:



Ran into a wall of sand trying to get out in 2WD:


The video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ukD5OZMf3E

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxXm3XkKP5U

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrGQkPu28_A

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlUM2et5Chs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAvGR6QrdSo

[Technohead]

And now the fix. But first a few more pics of the damage. Here's a good shot of the stub shaft clearly showing where the yoke yielded:



The broken windshield. Fender bent back into the corner:



And the rear door. This was the first damage of the day:



Lower ball joint partially pressed back in on the trail. I drove out with it like this:



And now to the repairs. Here's the replacement Moog ball joints. I did both sides:



Alloy axle shafts and Spicer 5-760x u-joints. These u-joints are about the strongest you can get for a D30 without going stupid expensive (and just plain stupid):





Thanks to club member Jeff for owning a real ball joint press. I can't imagine doing this job without it:



A good shot of where the knuckle got peened when the yoke snapped. This is why we could not get the ball joint all the way back in on the trail:



One of my favorite tools of all time comes to the rescue again:



Going back together:





Torquing the "spindle" nuts. Interestingly, the nuts were barely finger tight when when I took them off despite torquing them to 180 ft-lbs when I installed them last summer. Strange! Need to check them this time. Snapped my expensive torque wrench but the back-up came through:





Drank alot of these along the way:



All back together and shiny:



Next step is the body work. Here's the parts vehicle (thanks to John!):



Now lets git-r-done:

[it usually runs fine]

what made the balljoints go?

[Technohead]

what made the balljoints go?

The lower ball joints press in from the bottom. What usually happens is when the yoke grenades the shrapnel impacts on the lower ball joint and presses it out. And the upper ball joint just goes along for the ride. I've seen it happen many times.

[it usually runs fine]

Thats surprising knowing how much force it takes to usually press in a balljoint. thaks 4 the info

[Technohead]

Time for an update. Got the body back in shape. More-or-less. Still need a windshield:







Finished in time for OSJ's May trail ride:







Unfortunately, we dropped the ball when it came to video footage. Basically all of them sucked. Here's the best of the worst:

YouTube - OSJ May 2010 Trail Ride

YouTube - OSJ May 2010 Trail Ride

Stay tuned. Lots of trail rides planned for this summer.

[Technohead]

I got tired of waiting for Trxus to become available again and picked up some Maxxis Bighorns today:





Paid $190 a tire which is about $80 less than I was looking at for the Swampers. This is the tirst time in over 20 years that I've run something besides Swampers or BFG's on a trail rig. Guys in my club have been running the Maxxis and they are holding their own. Let's see how it goes. . .


Look's like I never posted footage from a recent camp-n-wheel in Southern NH. It was another one for the record books. Carnage on Saturday included 3 snapped axle shafts, broken ball joints, popped bead, severely bent tie rod, broken leaf spring mount, and broken leaf spring.




























YouTube - June 2010 Trail Ride

YouTube - June 2010 Trail Ride

YouTube - June 2010 Trail Ride

YouTube - June 2010 Trail Ride

YouTube - June 2010 Trail Ride

YouTube - June 2010 Trail Ride

YouTube - June 2010 Trail Ride

YouTube - June 2010 Trail Ride

YouTube - June 2010 Trail Ride

YouTube - June 2010 Trail Ride

YouTube - June 2010 Trail Ride

YouTube - June 2010 Trail Ride

[Technohead]

I started building my new rockers today. Not a moment too soon because the original rockers have seen better days:



The basic structure is 4"x4"x3/16" wall tubing. Whats left of the original rockers will be cut out and the new rockers will be tied into the A/B/C pillars. They will also be tied into the uniframe to help resist side loading:





Here's what can (will!) happen to shocks if you don't run limit straps on a link suspension:



Limit straps have been on the TODO list but I kept putting them off. The crazy thing is I just replaced the shocks and will not have time to fit limit straps before the Fall Crawl next weekend. Maybe I will just remove the shocks and wheel without them:

[Technohead]

Got the drivers side slider built today:







Next step is to start hacking off the rocker panels. I'm not looking forward to it.

[it usually runs fine]

Looks really good man.

[Technohead]

Finally made some more progress on the rocker replacement. Both rails were completed over a month ago:



The second stage of the project was cutting off the old rockers. The design calls for tieing directly into the pillars so I carefully cut out the old material which revealed solid structure for the a-b pillars but nothing much for the c-pillar.

Here's the b-pillar structure:



And here's the a-pillar structure. There was quite a bit of rust on the passengers side (shown). Not so bad on the drivers side. The sliders will also tie into that channel running under the floorboards to the frame:



The third stage of the project was making some mounting brackets. Here I used 4" wide by 1/8" thick sheet welded into an "angle iron". These brackets are welded to the pillars and the unibody structure as shown in the photos below. Lots of care was taken when fitting these brackets so that the sliders would line up perfectly. This was a real PITA but well worth the effort. The photos also show how I peeled back the remaining rocker panel metal for access. In the end I will fold this metal back into place and stitch-weld it directly to the slider rails.

Photo showing how the a-pillar bracket was attached. You can also see the other two brackets toward the rear:



Photo showing how the b-pillar bracket was attached. I used a similar bracket for the c-pillar area but since there was no pillar structure back there I could only weld onto what remained of the old rockers (i.e. similar to the vertical welds show here):



With the brackets fitted it was then a simple matter to hoist the rails into place and burn them on. The following photos show how the rails were attached to the top edge of the brackets. The same was done on the bottom edge of the brackets:





And this is where I stand today:



The remaining work includes folding the sheet metal down and stitch-welding it to the rails then some prep/seam sealer before coating the whole thing with Herculiner.

These things are incredibly strong. I can lift the whole side of the vehicle off the ground with a high-lift and there is zero deflection.

[SirFuego]

I like the mounting idea you did with the pillars. I know the A and B pillar are incredibly strong, so that should help in allowing the rockers to hold up. I'm curious how they will hold up, though, since they aren't tied into the uniframe like every other "successful" cutout I've seen on a ZJ. Mine boatsided after my first big hit, but they weren't tied in as well as yours. I needed to run supports to the uniframe to make it hold up (plus those supports really strengthened everything up for the cage).

Do you have any pics of the C pillar mount before the sliders were burned in?

Do you ever make your way down to PA for wheeling? Or do you usually just stick up in the NE?

[ELLLLLIOTTTTT]

Screw the tech... there is some awesome carnage in this thread!

[Technohead]

I'm curious how they will hold up, though, since they aren't tied into the uniframe like every other "successful" cutout I've seen on a ZJ.

The will get tied into the uniframe as well. I have 1"x3"x0.120" tubing with flanges on the end ready to go. I'm installing these after the fact so that I can precisely tweak the fitment.

Do you have any pics of the C pillar mount before the sliders were burned in?

Not really. You can sort of see it in one of the pictures. Basically the bracket is welded to metal just above where the pinch seam was. On the top it welded to the wheel well and the remaining metal from the rocker (all thin gauge sheet metal).

Do you ever make your way down to PA for wheeling? Or do you usually just stick up in the NE?

Not yet. Thinking about a trip to RC. Need to get a tow rig first.

[downtowncb]

Where did you get that new plastic grill insert? Mine is broken and stitched back together with lots of plastic epoxy.

[AgitatedPancake]

I picked up a header panel for my WJ once on ebay. It was OK, but cheaper qulity plastic that was more brittle so it broke a little easier the next time

[Technohead]

Where did you get that new plastic grill insert? Mine is broken and stitched back together with lots of plastic epoxy.

Crown Automotive. I'm lucky enough to have their only retail outlet in my backyard. Otherwise any 4x4 place that deals in Crown can get them (Rustys, 4WD Hardware, etc). It was like $50 (compared to $180 from the dealer). Like AP says, its a little more brittle than the OEM and needed some slight customization in order to fit.

[Arsonist_Bob]

Screw the tech... there is some awesome carnage in this thread!

agreed

[squashman702]

Crown Automotive. I'm lucky enough to have their only retail outlet in my backyard. Otherwise any 4x4 place that deals in Crown can get them (Rustys, 4WD Hardware, etc). It was like $50 (compared to $180 from the dealer). Like AP says, its a little more brittle than the OEM and needed some slight customization in order to fit.

That's in Canton, right?

[biggoofy]

What was the tube diameter and wall thickness?