Overland XJ Build. Not my first Rodeo.....(video included)

[Overland History]

While I had the assembly installed I marked where to drill my front two holes.

Something worth mentioning, because I struggled with it, is the steering column brace(which you can see I pulled down a little and slightly out of the way) is a complete pain in the southland to get the bolt through with the pedal assembly lined up, and then threaded into it's hole. I ended up pulling the brace down and wallowing out the hole with a drill only on the side of the hole where the bar runs up to the column. Be careful how far down you bend the bar, as you don't wanna break it. I had to use a pry bar just to get it back into place with the assembly once I remounted it.




I then used a punch to dimple my hole marks so the drill bit wouldn't walk around on me, then drilled the holes.




Looking up inside of the fender, this is where my holes ended up. They just barley cleared the bend for the door pillar with a small washer and lock washer.




I used stainless hardware in the drilled holes....

 

[Overland History]

Now that the assembly was fully prepped with paint and grease, it was time for final installation.

I used a little bit of RTV on the steering column brace bolt just to make sure it's sealed.

I used a VERY generous amount of RTV on the inside and outside of the front pedal mount holes to insure there are no water leaks, ever.






Pedal finally mounted.....




Fully dressed with the pedal release mounted and hood release(which can be seen with the broken pull handle). Also, make sure that before mounting the hood release latch, you route the harness with the grey and black connectors underneath of it.





This shows the pedal functioning with everything routed and where it's supposed to be. Triple check that the moving parts of the pedal assembly at the back aren't making contact with the wiring harness coming out of the bottom left of the fuse panel block. I found that it was making contact, so I triple zip tied the harness up and out of the way, making sure none of the connections were stressed. Obviously the hood release cable runs to the outside of the assembly and should clear everything just fine, BUT, you may have to trim a 1/4in of the rear mounting post for the hood release to clear the front lip of the pedal assembly.

 

[mtbxj87]

Cool. Do you use a Comanche kick panel?

 

[Overland History]

Now that the pedal assembly was mounted, I finally had a starting point for figuring out how and where the E-brake cable should enter the Trans Tunnel with respect to bending of the cable and trajectory.

As mentioned previously, the cable that I bought is the Comanche "short bed" cable. It's 96.53" long overall and can be found here:

http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=2953707&cc=1181720&jsn=400


It's very important to remember to save the cable splitter from the original console E-brake assembly, as this gets used again for final adjustment!




With the cable hooked up to the pedal assembly, I ran it down the driver's side door sill along the floor pans, and allowed the cable to make an S-turn to rest just over the rear console tie down. There are a few reasons for the S-turn:

1. The cable is too long, as it's made for a Comanche short bed to run out of the center of the cab. I went with this cable, as it's easier to find sticking to OEM parts, rather than having a custom length cable made or trying to find something that will work from another make/model car.
2. It also can't be bent to a 90*, because it will kink and not work properly when moving through it's sleeve.
3. You want correct cable trajectory to be able to align the mounting bracket with the two cables that run to the rear axle.




The reason that I centered the threaded adjustment end of the cable over the rear console bracket, is because my rear E-brake cable ends sit just below that area of the Trans Tunnel. You can see the burn marks where the bracket was welded from above. This is exactly where the splitter from the old console E-brake will be "floating" when attached to the cables. With the threaded adjustment centered, it allows me room for error in regards to where to mount and weld in the Trans Tunnel Span Bracket to keep the cable in place.





This pic gave me a really good idea of where the cable should enter the Trans Tunnel. You can see a little circular notch stamped into the Trans Tunnel from the factory. The cable rested just below that during the visual mock up. Just below my hand in this picture is the Transfer-Case itself.




I marked my Cable entrance hole and drilled a hole just big enough to fit the largest part of the cable end through....






This picture was taken with the Driver's seat installed to get an idea of if there was any stress on the cable from the seat being installed. As you can see, the cable is routed down the door sill, does a 180* turn through the rear mounting points of the Driver's seat, then starts to head upwards and into the Trans Tunnel, between the seat's front and rear mounting points that are closest to the Trans Tunnel.





This pic doesn't really show the fact that the cable is almost doing another 180* turn to sit at the approximately correct location with respect to trajectory. The cable does it's turn just above the Transfer Case.




I fabricated a Trans Tunnel Span Bracket out of 1/8in plate and 1/8in 1x1 angle.

I cut 2x2 plates for each end of the Angle, to get enough of a bite on the inside span of the Tunnel, as there will be a good amount of force from the cables pulling on it. Plus, I wanted it almost overbuilt, so that the bracket will never break at an inopportune time, sending the Jeep down a hill.

 

[Overland History]

The reason that I used 1/8in thick 1x1 angle, is because it's the perfect thickness to allow the retainer clips to seat perfectly when mounted opposite of the rubber gasket it has.




You can see how it's the perfect thickness in this pic....




I drilled a hole in the center of the 1x1 angle just big enough to allow the cable end to seat properly...







These are the 2x2 1/8in thick plates that go on either end of the 1x1 angle. "P" and "D" represent the passenger and driver's side. You can also see that I had to put them in the vice and bend them slightly to contour to the inner curvature of the Trans Tunnel.






Roughly what the bracket will look like....




This is the visual mockup of where and how it will sit inside the span of the Trans Tunnel once it's welded in. You can see there is plenty of room to clear the Transfer Case and Driveshaft. I want to say there is a good 2in of clearance from the top of the Trans Tunnel. If you look just above the center of the bracket, you can see where the original console E-brake assembly used to mount before the hole was welded up!

 

[Overland History]

I cleaned the area that the 2x2 plates needed to be welded to inside of the Trans Tunnel and marked exactly where the brackets should sit on either side. Again, you can see in both pics where the original console E-Brake assembly used to be....






My buddy Paul welded the Trans Tunnel Span Bracket in for me.....





A better pic of the Cable entering the tunnel and turning above the Transfer Case towards the Span Bracket....




Everything hooked up and adjusted into place with the cable splitter. The splitter clears the top of the Trans Tunnel perfectly!!

The entire assembly works excellent!!

 

[jswift716]

👌 oh man that is perfect, one try too awesome!

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

[Overland History]

Now, to button up the project completely, there were still a few things to take care of....

The hole where the Cable enters the Trans Tunnel needs a rubber grommet. I picked this one up in the Hardware section of Lowe's. The inner diameter of the grommet is a bit bigger than the cable itself, but that was done on purpose because the cable enters the tunnel at an odd angle, so something more snug wouldn't have seated well.






I cut a slit in the grommet and slid it on the cable.....






I worked it into place and then proceeded to use a VERY generous amount of RTV to seal up the remaining hole, as to not let water or hot air from the drivetrain leak into the cabin.




I also used a piece of coolant hose that I had laying around to protect the cable where it sits on top of the Transfer Case, to prevent chaffing over time that could lead to failure of the cable....






I also noticed that the cable could potentially chaff through where it runs underneath of the Driver's seat next to the Trans Tunnel. I took a piece of 3/8" coolant hose and zip ties it to the bottom bracket of the seat to prevent any issues...

 

[Overland History]

I also used Automotive Seam Sealer to make sure that if there were any micro holes from the welded in panels, that they were completely sealed....






I hit the rest of the Trans Tunnel with a high speed wire wheel and some coarse grit, then painted it with POR-15.




As it was drying, I prepped my carpet to go back into the Jeep! After months and months of having no carpet, this was a proud moment!!!




When reinstalling the carpet, I realized the there was some unwanted downward pressure on the freshly routed E-brake cable. I ended up cutting a large slit in the carpet to relieve the pressure and allow the cable to flow like it had without the carpet installed.






Looking at the back of the Driver's seat, it worked perfectly!

 

[Overland History]

Since the carpet and seats were finally back in, it was time to install the Freezer Console.

I cut some openings in the carpet to allow the Freezer Console Brackets to come through...






This is the clearance that I've got with the 10gal water tank dropped into place....




I figured that the best way to tie down the Freezer Console would be Velcro, so I picked this up from Lowe's. It's the perfect width at 1.5in and it's plenty strong to keep it tied down!




Since I had to buy 30ft of it just to get it in 1.5in wide, I've got a ton of it left over for other projects.

Now, the console barely moves at all!

 

[Overland History]

Since I originally cut my console bezel too short, a buddy gave me his out of his parts XJ so I could give it another try.




After some careful measuring, I cleaned it up and installed it. I even cut a hole for the front Freezer Console bracket to pop through. I also left enough room for the Console Freezer to be wired properly.

I think it turned out wonderful, almost like it was meant to be there.






Anyways, that's all of the updating I've got for now.

I've already began measuring and shopping for plumbing for the On-board 10gal Hot Water Shower project.

That project begins tomorrow.

 

[Whaler]

love this build. thanks for taking the time to document it so well. it's an inspiration for a few things that I have in the works, long term

 

[Overland History]

Cool. Do you use a Comanche kick panel?

Nope, I'm simply going to cut the proper amount out of my current kick panel to compensate for the pedal setup.

This is what a stock Comanche kick panel looks like with the cut out....

 

[Overland History]

�� oh man that is perfect, one try too awesome!

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Thank you!

I hope this makes the swap easier for you!

 

[Overland History]

love this build. thanks for taking the time to document it so well. it's an inspiration for a few things that I have in the works, long term

Thanks for the compliment! It takes a lot of time to document and write-up the build. I do this for other's benefit as well as myself. This thread is a great reference point for myself, should I ever need to order parts or replace something in the future. Call it an external internal monologue.