Mtbxj87's 1989 XJ
- Thread starter mtbxj87
- Start date
Anak
Stranger
I did have a few snags I wish JCR would take care of. One is the fender support bracket. I read up on thes install of the kit and most people completely removed it. Well, that's all fine for your jeep but not mine. So I cut a notch in to the plate. Easy enough.
I like your build. The priorities are very similar to mine.
I know you have already made the cut to your frame tie-in, but to offer an option for others who may wind up walking the same path I would like to offer my solution. I am in the middle of a frame plating job, and ran into the same challenge, and like you, I wanted to retain the factory fender brace. I found a way to keep my plating intact and still retain my braces with a minimum of modification to them. You do have to fully remove them though. For the sake of the frame plating I had mine already entirely removed.
The only modification is elongating the two upper bolt holes:
Note that bit of marking from a black Sharpie to the right of the upper elongation. That was where I first planned to elongate that hole before I thought about fixing the angle created by spacing only one of the frame side mounting points. The plating only affects one of those two bolts. After thinking about it I decided to add a couple of washers so as to equally space out both of those bolts. You can sort of see the washers at the top here:
Here it is all mounted up, looking as stock as possible:
I will also note that you are very much correct about the quality of the washers that come with the JCR kit. I have the same kit. I am only using the steering box spacer and the two front angle brackets. The side pieces seem a bit redundant to my frame plating and I think where they wrap around underneath will interfere with my planned steering gear-box support/winch mount, but I digress. When tightening down my steering gear box with the new bolts I could not believe how much the washers were deflecting. I went out and bought some hardened washers for there. I can only imagine the cheap washers compressing, loosening up and creating all sorts of interesting problems. This doesn't cut it for me:
I got some time to do a little project I've wanted to do. Higher clearance crossmember. I had a stock trans crossmember already, and a piece of .25"x4" plate.
I started with a initial measurement.
Cut the bottom off, it's kinda just dead space really.
Cut the plate to fit nicely in side the opening then cleaned everything up.
Painted the inside of the plate to seal it up.
Tacked it in and burned it home. The welds look like **** cause of flux core, but they penetrated well.
Drilled locator holes from the opposite side.
Then used a step drill to make them .75"
Cleaned it up and painted it with my favorite spray bomb, vht. Then took a after measurement. Gained a inch.
Doesn't look like much but will make all the difference. Also when I make my skid plates I can drill and tap threads right into the crossmember and not bother with nutserts.
I started with a initial measurement.
Cut the bottom off, it's kinda just dead space really.
Cut the plate to fit nicely in side the opening then cleaned everything up.
Painted the inside of the plate to seal it up.
Tacked it in and burned it home. The welds look like **** cause of flux core, but they penetrated well.
Drilled locator holes from the opposite side.
Then used a step drill to make them .75"
Cleaned it up and painted it with my favorite spray bomb, vht. Then took a after measurement. Gained a inch.
Doesn't look like much but will make all the difference. Also when I make my skid plates I can drill and tap threads right into the crossmember and not bother with nutserts.
XJSuperman
OhIOWAn
So the skidplate work was just for that inch of ground clearance and future skid mounting? Hmm. Im still running my stock x-member and Im welding my homebrew tcase skid to that.
XJSuperman
OhIOWAn
Yeah, mines got a couple dents, but not bad enough for me to remove it and fix it yet. Not much rocks here out east, but lots of wooded trails and mud.
stoicalpear
Member
Looks real good man! Glad to see a build thread with an older XJ.
Thank you. It's been fun, I love it. I'm just upgrading where necessary.
It's been a while since I updated anything. I've been really busy with life. But the xj is a part of that. Here's some things:
Installed Ruffstuff lower arms and BDS upper arms. Also I drilled the track bar bushing out to 12mm bolt from the little 10mm bolt. (I hope the images work)
Looks rusty, it's just dirt
IRO leaf shackle. 0-.75" lift. ( I'm on the stock height for now)
Installed Ruffstuff lower arms and BDS upper arms. Also I drilled the track bar bushing out to 12mm bolt from the little 10mm bolt. (I hope the images work)
Looks rusty, it's just dirt
IRO leaf shackle. 0-.75" lift. ( I'm on the stock height for now)
I hustled getting everything installed cause I committed to doing a few sections of the ORBDR.
I had a blast. We had a group of 9 rigs, mostly yotas, the group was formed on ih8mud.com. All great guys and girls. The rigs held up fine and no one was a serial killer. Here's some pics:
Airing down in Prineville,or
It was dusty as hell
A 10 mile section had trees down every 100 yards or less. It was a long day.
I had a blast. We had a group of 9 rigs, mostly yotas, the group was formed on ih8mud.com. All great guys and girls. The rigs held up fine and no one was a serial killer. Here's some pics:
Airing down in Prineville,or
It was dusty as hell
A 10 mile section had trees down every 100 yards or less. It was a long day.
More pics
My favorite pic of the trip
River crossing malhuer river.
It was up to my rockers, I had a pucker. Made it through fine though
Break time before another river crossing, it was shallow but long. About 1.5' deep.
Beautiful country.
Good trip, about 250 miles on dirt. Prineville to Seneca, Seneca to Sumpter.
My favorite pic of the trip
River crossing malhuer river.
It was up to my rockers, I had a pucker. Made it through fine though
Break time before another river crossing, it was shallow but long. About 1.5' deep.
Beautiful country.
Good trip, about 250 miles on dirt. Prineville to Seneca, Seneca to Sumpter.
After the trip I became more motivated to get the xj where I've always wanted it.
My rack sucks so I started there.
I realized steel in my area is cheap. So I bought some. I used 1x2 .120" to replace the crossbars so it would support real weight.
Then I decided to make it a low profile rack. Helps with wind resistance, looks better and is lighter.
I replaced the stock track rails with 1" .120" flat stock and welded the uprights to that. I also fixed my water leak by removing the stock rails.
Under the headliner there is a brace, it doesn't touch the roof skin for unknown reasons. I drilled it and put my bolts though the rack, roof skin, spacers (5/8"), then nylock nuts. The rack is way surdy and stiffens the roof. I also used sticky back foam to insulate the skin and the factory bracing.
Gutter mounts suck.
My rack sucks so I started there.
I realized steel in my area is cheap. So I bought some. I used 1x2 .120" to replace the crossbars so it would support real weight.
Then I decided to make it a low profile rack. Helps with wind resistance, looks better and is lighter.
I replaced the stock track rails with 1" .120" flat stock and welded the uprights to that. I also fixed my water leak by removing the stock rails.
Under the headliner there is a brace, it doesn't touch the roof skin for unknown reasons. I drilled it and put my bolts though the rack, roof skin, spacers (5/8"), then nylock nuts. The rack is way surdy and stiffens the roof. I also used sticky back foam to insulate the skin and the factory bracing.
Gutter mounts suck.