Louie4's YJ by Louie4

6 minute(s) of a 411 minute read

I haven't been doing anything to the jeep lately. Been busy with work, seeing friends, and my nephews 6th birthday party was this weekend. However I do plan on getting the knuckle sand blasted and have the linkages painted this week. I also got a set of stock tail lights from a buddy (thanks Nacho) since mine are shot it works out good.

Some pics of the tail lights and the ones I busted on a tree a while back.

5-10-2012

I finally stopped being lazy. I primed my knuckle and I may paint it tonight. I also drilled all the holes for my spring plates. I still need to cap the ends with some gussets but it's coming along.

5-14-2012

I had to bury Phil at work because I think my apartment complex would frown on me doing that there. After I got done burying him I grabbed a bite to eat and started doing some work for the jeep. I didn't want to sit around at home and mope all night. Tonight I got the gussets welded onto the end of my u-bolt plates. I think I'm going to have them sandblasted them I'll paint them. I also painted my Teraflex knuckle. It's kind of bright but that's the paint I had laying around.

Oh yeah, here's the knuckle I painted.

5-16-2012

Well I started messing with the knuckle yesterday. I now know it's reamed for 1 ton TRE's on the upper arm for the drag link and the lower arm for the tie rod. However the arm for the tie rod is tapered so the TRE is under the knuckle. I didn't really want to run the tie rod under the knuckle. I can't ream the knuckle from the top down because it wouldn't give a lot of meat for the TRE to grab. So I have a few options.

1. I can drill the knuckle out and buy a 1 ton TRE insert... I think. Then weld it in there.
2. I can drill straight through and buy some heim joints.
3. I just leave it with the tie rod under the knuckle.

What do y'all think?

5-17-2012

I got my u-bolt plates done today. I started after work. Here's my work space.

Check out the difference between what I had on there (the Ford Explorer plates and u-bolts) and the new plates and u-bolts.

If anyone is into beer I had the last two of the Oak Barrel Stouts I got from Fredericksburg, VA while visiting friends. It's delicious.

Here's the plates on with the untrimmed u-bolts.

Here is them trimmed.

I also stopped by Lowe's and found an XJ next to me. Looked pretty good.

I'm hoping to do some work on the steering this weekend. I may need to order another insert to flip the drag link under the top arm.

5-18-2012

I had an experienced welder TIG the bottom plate to the angle pieces on the sides. I welded the gussets in. It's just as thick, if not thicker, that the stock Explorer plates and it will keep my leaves from rotating around the center pin. When I took my old plates off I had to knock a couple leaves back straight with a hammer on both sides.

The clearance is great and I'll even venture to say that I get more with these than the Dynatrac kit. Reason being is because I used 1/4" plate on the bottom. The u-bolts on those kits are 9/16". They are still solid kits but I like the way these turned out. I'm thinking about doing some for the front.

Also, RockWoRM and maybe a few other guys are running similar ones that they bought.

Well I started this today. My hands are shot and I'm still not done.

5-19-2012

OK, finished the knuckle. I took Pete's advice and used a 7/16" 12 point socket. Worked like a champ in terms of saving my hands but still took some effort.

I also replaced my tail lights with the ones my buddy donated to me. Here's what my drivers side looked like after I took the screws out.