1989 Jeep Cherokee 1 ton swap

[RunningProblem]

Bought this April 20, 2019 for $2,500. It had a nice 4.5 inch lift from Rough Country on it, 33s, and smittybuilt built bumpers and winch.

Upgraded to a SYE with a flange and a lock rite. Took it to Rubicon as my first trip three months after buying it. Had a blast and made it to Soup Bowl before heading out and going home.

Bought two Ford 9inch reads with plans to make a 609 axle. A 609 axle is CRAZY expensive. I landed a pair of 1 tons out of a 1989 F350 on February 20, 2020 for $1200. High pinion Dana 60 with king pinions, and a Sterling 10.25 rear. I bought them after only seeing them in a text message. I have absolutely no clue what to look for with a used axle. All I knew was it was a kingpin 60, and those were the greatest thing ever. I didn't really know the difference between Ford and Chevy other than driver/passenger drop and I'd have a high pinion so it would keep the driveshaft out of the rocks. I paid for them through paypal and Add delivered them to my house shortly after. I didn't fully comprehend how heavy they'd be until we unloaded the front axle out of his truck onto some harbor freight vehicle dollies.

Both axles sat here for a while because I didn't know what I didn't know and what I didn't know was "this is expensive." What I DID understand was most people with a Cherokee swap in a Ford 8.8 for the rear, and build a Dana 30 as much as possible until they want to upgrade it. It's all the same work, but tons are just WAY bigger.


I replaced the blown lock rite for free thanks to Summit Racing, went to Fordyce, ALMOST made it to Winch Hill 1 on Memorial Day Weekend 2020 (mud pit at the bottom of the hill before WH0.5) and blew the locker up in a stupid spot. Got out and started working on the 60, and the Cherokee in general, for real.


Photos from the day I bought it. I thought I’d drive it home, and was told to trailer it. THANK GOD I did. It had maybe 1/2 a quart of ATF, it was really low on oil, the radiator bottle was cracked (closed Renix system) and just not maintained as well as the seller convinced me.



Edit: added a photo with a bunch of measurements I took in August 2020. Also a bunch of random measurements I thought would help me. These were taken with the Dana 30 under it.



Edit: December 10
77” to the roof
23” to the crossmember
12 3/4” to the bottom of the front diff
~12” to the bottom of the rear diff
A little under 85” wide.
Tires are worn 40x13.5x17 Toyos at 34 PSI.
King 2.5 14” coilover a up front with 2” king bump stops
Rough country 4 1/2” leads our back
35 spline chromo outers up fromt with Yukon hubs and Stage 8 lock nuts
Grizzly lockers front and rear
Ram 2500 master
Jeep 94 brake booster
Home made intake
Ruffstuff shock towers heavily modified
DIY 32 bolt beadlocks (20-22 ft lbs) I bought used.
Stock NP231 with SYE (Atlas flange) and a Wide chain and Adams Driveshaft 1350 front output yoke.
1350 rear yoke.
1330 big cap (stock Ford) front yoke
Grizzly lockers front and rear.

 

[Add]

About damn time!

 

[RunningProblem]

About damn time!

It’s on a different website.


The rocks in the shade was a hard spot. Another Cherokee was stuck in the shade, and I learned it isn’t ENTIRELY my responsibility to worry about someone else’s rig. I didn’t hit it, but it was a serious introduction to the ‘sucks to be you’ aspect of life on the trail.


I didn’t have any rock sliders for this trip. Just threw in a $300 LockRite, some spare U joints and went. This is with the Sierra Rock Crawlers for their annual 31s run. Fully built rigs taking 40s off and putting 31s on. I almost flipped over dropping back into the gatekeeper from the trail. Passenger rear over driver front.

 

[RunningProblem]

I got bored one day, and thought I was saving myself some shop labor. I started cutting apart the rear axle, and pointed it with weld through primer. I don’t think I’ll ever use this weld thru primer again. It seems to make welding to the axle tube worse. It just seemed to stop the electrical current until the primer melted.

I REALLY like the grinder.

 

[RunningProblem]

Buddy who invited me to the 31s run invited me to Fordyce. He was fully built on 40s, as were his friends, and knew exactly what I had and what my skill level was. He told me to put it on a flatbed and meet at Cisco. I had absolutely NO clue what I was in for. I’d already blown up a lock rite and replace it under warranty.


I blew up my locker on this trip. Going IN to winch hill one. I bypassed driveline hill, and going down to the first water crossing was probably the hardest wheeling I’d done at this point. Along the way the Dang Gang saw us and said ‘no way that Jeep is making it out at Committee.’ I had no clue what they were talking about or how far away it was. I just had two sandwiches and some drinks. Figured it would be a short wheeling day. On Fordyce. It wasn’t.


I blew up the lock rite being stupid and wedging myself into a spot, then trying to rock it out. BANG! Yeah…I probably should have winched or just waited for help. Made it to the downhill just before winch hill 0.5. It was flooded, logs were being used to help provide traction, and I’d walked to drop off a funnel at Winch hill 1 for a guy who rebuilt a transmission. It blew my mind someone rebuilt a transmission on the trail. Obviously these guys are skilled and hardcore.

A large chunk of my locker would wedge itself into the carrier, and give me better traction. So the way out wasn’t HORRIBLE, until I had to go up after the water crossing. I had 94 ft of winch cable hooked to my buddy who would go as far out as he could, I’d winch over something, and he’d go forward. My winch out speed was slower than his crawl ratio so I’d feel the winch jump/lurch when he was pulling it out. So glad I had a winch because the 30 ft strap I had wouldn’t have been fun.

I’ve no photos of this trip on my phone (posted elsewhere), but it was a solid 12 hour day over Memorial Day weekend. I came home and said ‘fuck that. I’m getting serious about one tons.’ Two lunchbox lockers blown on 33s with an empty rig sucked. Even if I got up V Rock/the crack at Moonrocks with it (smashed the driver mirror once). No photos because no one else was there, and I deleted the shitty video someone recorded of it. I think he wanted to record carnage and ended up recording an inexperienced wheeler conquering V Rock with 33s and a $300 locker.

 

[RunningProblem]

The Fordyce photos. The last one was where the Damg Gang told me ‘I hope you walk this thingy’ after the guys with 40s KIND of struggled. They just had to bump it. I had zero clue what I was doing. Point. Shoot. Hang on.

 

[RunningProblem]

Fordyce damage

 

[RunningProblem]

June 15 my front locker showed up. Yukon Grizzly. I’d not known much about selectable (read: anything) and just saw $500 for a front locker and knew lockers were going to be necessary for where I’d be going. It’s a 35 spline series 3 locker (4.10 and lower) so if I want to buy taller gears/higher number oval ratio I’ll need ‘thick cut’ gears. As of June 2020 Yukon made 4.88 and 5.13 thick cut gears. At this point I was more focused on the transfer case doing most of the crawl ratio change than gears. I still want to be able to drive this around town. I don’t have any clue how much 4.10s and 38s or 40s will suck around town.


Second photo shows the ring gear from the Dana 35 I’d run on Fordyce.

 

[RunningProblem]

I bought some high steer arms and studs off Pirate because they were less expensive than fancy name brand ones, installed bronze bushings, clean up and painted the hubs, inner Cs, brake caliper bracket and knuckles. I bought new rotors and brake calipers as well as repacked the lower kingpin bearing. I chased every thread I could find because the Dana 60 had sat outside for probably a few years, and I had lots of free time.

Metal Cloak had a sale, and I was told to order joints from them. Since I've no experience with this stuff I just kind of did what I was told assuming I was being fed the best information. I bought 8 builder joints (joint plus tube insert) because that is what I was told. I am pretty sure a 3 link only has 6 joints. When I bought these I didn't even understand the naming/labeling of the joint. "Forged Duroflex Builder Joint, 2 5/8" x 9/16" BH x 2 5/8" Housing x 1 1/4" Straight Shank" umm...straight shank. sure. Thankfully Metal Cloak has photos for idiots like me who don't know what they're doing. It is essentially a 1/14" joint and research told me this is the big boy shit you want for tons. 9/16" bolt hole. 2 5/8" wide joint and the shank was 1 1/4" diameter. 4" of thread. Sure. Just buy it because you apparently need it.

When they showed up I couldn’t believe how large they were.

 

[RunningProblem]

More photos. I HATE red.

 

[RunningProblem]

Since I hate red so much, I bought some beadlocked steel 17s with red rock rings. I’m pretty sure they are powder coated, and at one point I was convinced I’d just drop off the rings to have them painted blue. It’s been probably 2 years and three are still red. One is bare metal.

A buddy gave me some 40s his friend replaced. I mounted them.HOLY FUCK MTRs have a strong sidewalk. YouTube is a fucking LIE with how hard beadlocks are to Mount.

 

[Add]

Look at you with a legit build thread....

Slow day at work?

 

[RunningProblem]

Look at you with a legit build thread....

Slow day at work?

Actually no on both accounts.

The real legit build thread is on Reno4x4. I’m moving it here to help build the site.
Also maybe get so ideas as to what I should do.

 

[RunningProblem]

At some point I swapped out the single diaphragm booster for a WJ/Grand Cherokee dual diaphram. It was so much better. I asleep swapped in a Durango steering box. It seemed to make a difference in how strong the steering felt. Maybe my box was shit.

The Jeep always had a leak coming off the transmission. Everyone points to rear main seal on these. I’d noticed it was coolant after cleaning everything up. So I pulled out the transmission. To be clear, I’d never pulled a transmission in my life.

Edit: you can see the rear has a flange. I bought a slip yoke eliminator kit with a wide chain off Pirate thinking they’re all the same. I pulled the transfer case out, installed it just to find out I needed the rear output seal, and the transfer case lever would need to be trimmed. I didn’t do a 6 pinion upgrade. The parts I bought had the gears already installed so it was easy to install other than sourcing the output seal. The flange can work for anything from a 1310 yoke to a 1410. I bought it thinking ‘I’ll be able to upgrade the rear shaft and not need to change this.’ I’d actually rebuilt a CV knuckle on my tailgate in the summit racing parking lot. Again, having never done any of this before.


The driveshaft I had was apparently too long. I didn’t know this until later. There was little to no slip at ride height.

 

[RunningProblem]

Turns out my leak was the rear freeze plug. I’d wiped off the gunk trying to see a leak about three times before lightning struck and I thought ‘OH! It’s the freeze plug in the bloc!’ I’d thought it was in the back of the head. I used some Permatex sealant on the new bronze freeze plug.

Photo of the removed freeze plug.

Edit: I also swapped in a new crank position sensor. I had no clue when the one I had was installled, I did the ‘advance timing’ trick where you slide (read: break plastic) the CPS farther one way to get better timing or something. I keep the one I knew worked as a spare because I was told it sucks to change on the trail, and you’re not going anywhere if it goes bad. Preventative maintenance I think.

Upon reinstalling the transmission I hated my fucking life. It wouldn’t line up. Ever. Took HOURS to finally get it in, and then I forgot to put the cover on thinking ‘fuck this thing. I’ll put it in later.’ Joke was on me. Needs to go on BEFORE being installed. Dumbass.

I kind of became OCD on cleaning stuff while it was out after having to guess what was actually leaking. Did I say this jeep was kind of neglected? Guy told me he drove it 3 hours one way no problem a month before he sold it to me. I know why he had coolant in the back. ‘If it leaks it means it has some’ mentality.

 

[RunningProblem]

I discovered I needed engine mounts one day. I don’t know if they were like this when I bought it (probably) or they just broke after all the hardcore wheeling I was doing. I ordered polyurethane Brown Dog mounts. If rubber rotted out once I didn’t want to do this again. Polyurethane definitely put a vibration in the steering wheel after install. I didn’t care because I wanted mounts that last. It was such a pain in the ass. I’d never done motor mounts in my life. Trying to install mounts when both are shit kinda sucked.

It wasn’t fun. Driver side went just fine. Little bit of work but nothing extensive. Passenger side required a few HOURS of work for me. The engine was twisted so that it was at the very front of the engine mount. Lifting/lowering/pushing/pulling/prying/crying in every direction from both sides and below just wouldn’t do it. Nothing seemed to work so on DAY TWO I pulled out the GoPro, lines up the holes the best I could see and shoved the bolt in. Eventually I grew the balls to try tightening the bolt through the two mounts and it started poking through. I put the bolt in backwards because the radiator side of things was giving me so many problems with not aligning I wanted to start there. Well I discovered on the Renix engine the bolt only goes one way. So our came the grinder and off came the end of the bolt.

 

[RunningProblem]

Failed smog. Twice. First time I fixed it because one of the hoses to the EVAP canister was broken. Pressurized the gas tank enough to shoot gas at the kid testing the cap. High CO at idle and high throttle along with high HC PPM.
Second test I’m high for CO only at high throttle. After the test I discovered the idle was high while in park and it wasn’t coming down. I discovered a vacuum hose disconnected from the ‘junction box’ of vacuum connections by the air filter. I believe this came apart when I was installing the Durango box and I never saw it because I never inspected it.

Broken EVAP hose. I saw this a while ago and didn’t think much of it. Kind of assumed since it passed smog before it would pass again. Broke off the small section and jammed it back on. Idle CO and HC PPM problem fixed. Might should replace the hose itself since it’s probably older than me at this point.


This still didn’t pass smog. I heard a leak near the intake/exhaust manifold so I obviously assumed the worst. I bought a new gasket, and some copper RTV. If some is good more is great. I just kept slapping it where I heard the leak. Turns out it was another small vacuum line from the MAP sensor to the throttle body. I’d knocked it out while removing or reinstalling the intake manifold. Plugged it back in and it magically worked. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut. Again with the cleaning of the removed parts. Again with the ‘I’ve never done this.’ I also thought a stud was missing but apparently it wasn’t, and it just doesn’t exist or something. It was a while ago. I forget.

I’d also replaced the oxygen sensor with the expensive NGK brand. I guess one might have been bad. Good and bad test results in the photos.

 

[RunningProblem]

I also scored some locking hubs for $150. Thankfully these WERE NOT on the book of faces because they would have been GONE. Guy was even cool enough to hold them until I showed up with a second offer standing in front of him buying more parts. Yeah. Karma is a thing.

I listed his advertisement in some local groups and i WOULD have bought the 38” boogers on 16” aluminum Eagle alloy beadlocks if they were 17s. Yeah they looked like a few trips old and definitely not destroyed.

I was not fully aware these would require new outer stub shafts. They were just a great deal plus web wheeling Yukon gets you extra cool factor. ‘Yeah I got one tons with a Grizzly and Yukon hubs’ sounds bad as FAWK until you explain it’s just parts in the garage not going anywhere any time soon.


Edit: I found 35 spline Yukon outlets on Craigslist outside of Sac for $180. I ordered an Artec TJ One ton swap truss On November 9, 2020. One of their 17-20% off sales they were having all of 2020 and into 2021. This lived in a box on a shelf with all the other parts for a long time. I had ZERO experience welding. This was just more parts for the guy I planned on having do the build for me to use.

 

[Bmxbry9]

Sweet build. Are you out in reno? I'm heading that way end of April to hit moon rocks

 

[RunningProblem]

Sweet build. Are you out in reno? I'm heading that way end of April to hit moon rocks

Sure am. Hit up V Rock. I did it alone in 33s in this thing. Only cost me a driver side mirror, and some dents on the A pillar.

 

[RunningProblem]

So while all of this "parts gathering" was going on I was taking welding classes at the local community college. I spent a LOT of time there in 2020 and 2021 (thank you Biden bucks) because I didn't even know how to weld. Yeah that's right. I bought a Cherokee and wanted to have a 1 ton swap done and I didn't even know how to weld. My father in law gave me a MiG welder and after 2 semesters of community college practice I consider myself skilled enough to know the overall concepts of welding. I'm no pro, and I think the hours of practice on good machines really helped. Started out with stick welding (90 am 6010 and 7018 rods) then went to MiG (0.035 wire and 160-180 ipm around 17 volts) and oh boy was MiG so easy compared to stick welding.

Since I have a gas dryer, and the house came wired for both, I robbed the electrical breaker for my welding outlet in the garage. I have a healthy fear of electrical work on cars so doing this was pretty much out of my comfort zone and I'd probably make OSHA and every other safety inspector proud with my working conditions.

The welds are from a Lincoln flux core welder I was given. It's NOT what the Viper Mig welder was putting out. Thankfully there is a Viper dealer in town, and it also takes Binzel nozzles and parts available at Harbor Freight. 75/25 gas tank in the back was $209 AFTER I bought a used tank out of date on Craigslist for $100. I should have skipped Craigslist and gone straight to buying a new customer owned tank. At some point I will stop learning things the hard way.

 

[RunningProblem]

35 spline chromoly shaft upgrade day.
Old on the left. New on the right
1.25” old diameter
1.45” new diameter
Measure with my dial calipers.

The Yukon shaft measured about 1/4" longer than factory. I think this is just Yukon's way to make everyone with a Ford upgrade to their hubs. I had the hubs so it wasn't a problem, but without them I'd not only have 35 spline outers with 30 spline locking hubs, it would sit too far outside the hub for everything to go back together. The spiral snap ring Yukon uses is pretty sweet. I think it's a full 2 rotations of the axle shaft vs a C clip. It seemed to go on better.

New Spicer non gRemoving the old stub shaft was fun. Rust and age are a GREAT combination. New Spicer u joint and it slid right in. The Yukon hub selector has an O ring in it. There isn't a great photo (read: ANY) of this disassembled in the manual. Once you instal them and test it out not only is it stiff, but it sounds "like there is a goos inside your hub" according to Add. It still makes me laugh thinking about it. So I took them off, popped them apart, snapped a photo and put them all together. So now I have a rebuilt Kingpin 60 with chromoly 35 spline outers, Stage 8 spindle nuts, and Yukon locking hubs. Pretty bitchin setup...on paper.

I also upgrade to Stage 8 lock nuts after seeing videos or hearing a recent story of a wheeler who had their hub nuts come unlocked. Stage 8 locking spindle nuts are BAD...ASS. Kind of tricky for a newb like me to figure out how they go in without assistance (instructions and YouTube) BUT once you do it a few three times you'll understand how it all locks together.

 

[RunningProblem]

I found what I thought was a good deal on Coilovers. This is exactly how I picked them up. Pretty sure they were about $600. A friend sold them to a stranger, who sold them online to me. I didn't know what I didn't know. They're missing the stop nuts, the slider, the top spring retainer thing, and the bottom piece. I priced these out (not horrible) and it just made the shocks no so great. Nevermind the pitting on one of the shafts.

I took them to Phil. Phil was called "shock Jesus" and is one of the first members of Pirates of the Rubicon after the President and VP were selected.
Liberty Mountain Fabrication

Phil looked at them, said they were dated, and actually offered me a set of brand new 12" Radflo coilovers, minus springs, for my 14" Kings. I was hung up on bling and brand. I should have taken him up. When I picked them up he told me if he would have seen the shaft (shocks compressed) damage he would have been able to quote me for a shaft, and "these are good for a season or so. It was a good lesson for the internet." I coudln't dig up the post but it is from May 2021 if you can scroll through his social media for the photos. Pretty much these were used hard and without coilsprings, hence the brown rust from tire rubbing, then sold, and sold, and sold. It ended up costing me about $1,400 to buy used shocks, replace the missing parts, and have them rebuilt. I could have bought brand new King or Radflo coilovers for what I ended up spending. Oh well. They're mine. 14" King Coilovers.

My buddy told me after "when Shock Jesus offers you a deal you take it." Live and learn. I guess Phil was just trying to look out for my best interest.

 

[RunningProblem]

Now, lets get into some MORE stuff I have no clue about beyond internet research.

February 24, 2021 I ordered a Yukon Grizzly for the Sterling 10.25 I owned. $751 shipped and today it costs $825. I bought the dana 60 one June 13, 2020 for $530.11 shipped and today it is $645 "on sale" from $707 according to Amazon. I bought a USA Standard (Yukon off brand) install kit. I'd never installed gears and was quoted over $1,000 from a shop who told me it would be LESS if the axles were installed because somehow doing this with the axles off the vehicle is harder. Something about "well I have to put them on a rack and move them around." Fuck it. For that much money I'll just do it myself. It doesn't look hard. It just looks REALLY detailed, and REALLY time consuming. If I'm to believe my reviews about my performance at work I'm NOT detail oriented, work constantly needs correcting, and I can't get it right the first, second, third or fourth time. Perfect type of person to install gears. "Hurry up and get this done so I can figure out what I did wrong."

Sterling 10.25 Yukon Grizzly install was interesting. You would THINK replacing the carrier and bearings would be as simple as ‘installation is the opposite of removal’ and it’s somehow not.
First install was so tight I broke a factory shim.
Second was so tight I scuffed up some of the thicker shims and then couldn’t rotate it. Assuming it was too much carrier preload I just kept removing shins then replaced the other factory shin with aftermarket ones. There is probably too much carrier bearing preload when you consider measuring backlash on the yoke because you can’t rotate the carrier easily.

0.006-8” backlash measured the best I could. Before removal it was about 0.012-13”. (first photo of dial indicator)

No desire to replace the pinion bearings because the inner one is MASSIVE (close to 4” diameter) and I’m not changing gears. (second photo of empty carrier)

Nothing but MEAT. Gotta keep that meat juice smell off my locker too. Freezing the locker to shrink it for gear install seemed to go very fast. I put it in there for max 1 hour and the ring gear seated nicely as long as I did my part to line up holes. I kept the tone ring because maybe one day I use it for a speedometer. (third photo of locker in freezer with bearings) These are some of the biggest bearings I've seen in my life. After seeing them and reading about the 14 bolt I'm not exactly sold on the "third bearing" superiority. They're something like 4.125" bearings. Seriously, they're massive. I'm still amazed at how BIG one ton stuff actually is, while also understanding why moving to one tons is a great, and horrible, idea.

For fun I tried to weigh the factory one complete. It’s more than the 55 pounds my scale can hold.

Installed...with carrier bearing preload so tight I’ve broken a shim and will take a break to wonder how effed I am.

 

[RunningProblem]

Gear setup just took some time. I took a pattern of the gears before removal. Also a photo of the speedometer gear for no reason other than I’d not seen one before. There is a tab/notch that needs to be lined up for the gear to fully go on.

 

[RunningProblem]

Whole bunch of photos of the installed gear pattern. Interestingly the bolts included with the install kit were longer than factory bolts. I believe Dana 70 bolts are commonly used for locker installs on Sterlings because the factory ones have a tendency to back out.

First photo is final install drive side.
Second photo is a few teeth farther down the ring gear.
Third and fourth is drive side before the gears were removed.

Fifth is current coast side.
Last two are coats side before I removed the gears.



Backlash was 0.012”. Kinda out of factory spec. Driver side shin is 0.262. Passenger side is 0.270.

 

[RunningProblem]

April 20, 2021
Slight modifications required for the frame stiffeners. I bought these used and I believe I was told they are RuffStuff BUT I have no way to confirm that other than assuming. One tail piece was already cut off. I’m cutting off the front piece right now in the interest of time. I’ll weld it on at a later date.


Current problem is I own the Rusty’s off road cross member. It bolts through the unibody to some flag nuts. The stiffeners aren’t cut with the opening the flag nuts go through. Simple solution is to weld the unibody bracket to the stiffeners (requires removing powder coating) and keep the removable part of the transmission crossmember. Hard solution is to cut the stiffeners for the flag nuts to somehow be inserted OR weld the flag to the unibody, drill the stiffeners for bolt holes, and try to line everything up to weld it in. I’m 90% sure I’m welding the stiffeners to the body and the crossmember bracket to the stiffeners.

Bolt holes not lining up. Stiffeners also extend past the inner portion of the body.

Trimmed them up to fit the Jeep a little more.

Test fitting things. Front portion that folds up has been removed. These just look like Ruffstuff stiffeners to me.

Oh and I had to cut out a spot for some random screw that hangs below the body. I don’t know what it does, and it was just enough ‘not in the right spot’ for the stiffeners not to want to move.
The flag nuts would go near the front C Clamp if I decided to drill holes in the stiffeners and somehow get the nuts inside....So I could remove the outer bracket which I probably will never do.

the random bolt ended up being a seat bracket bolt. I needed to clearance the stiffeners so the front section would fold up enough.

 

[RunningProblem]

Photos of shitty welds inbound. Thanks to being compact (5’8) I could kind of fit under the Jeep comfortably and weld more horizontally than overhead. I don’t own a crane and don’t have space to flip this over in my garage. I’m not sure if the crossmember wanting to move back is due to my install of the motor mounts, or luck.

Frame stiffeners welded mostly on the passenger side. Tacked up the driver side. Now the Rusty’s Cross member doesn’t want to line up. It wants to slide BACK an inch. So this should be fun.

It definitely helps to have a 4x4 block and some 6 ton jack stands. Mock up, check figment, and mark without needing to hold everything with knees, arms, head, and back at the same time.

 

[RunningProblem]

May 4, 2021
Shocks are completed. dropped them off and had Liberty Mountain Fab order missing parts and work his magic.

kind of easier to see what is missing now.

 

[RunningProblem]

June 1
stock steering box tapped for hydro assist.
Started with a 1/8” pilot hole and stepped it up three or four times before stopping at 29/64.
Harbor freight 1/4 NPT tap cut just fine. I didn’t cut the tap to make a bottoming tap. I need to find what size fitting I’ll need for hydraulic hoses and get an NPT to AN fitting. This is definitely more intimidating than challenging. Having a reason to walk away, or only an hour to work on it seemed to help. I’d drill a few seconds, remove chips, and keep going. I used the grease you can see in the first photo on the drill bits and it helped pull chips out while drilling.

in august, due to the air quality being 300+ (Lake Tahoe fires) I welded up my rock sliders. They sit about 1 5/8“ away from the Jeep. I bought these used of NAXJA also I don’t know what thickness they are. They. Kind of look homemade (custom).