Joined the RedTJ club... Kinda

Done! And with very little vibes (back to same or better than originally).

The body lift, MML, and skid I posted a few weeks ago were cake. The LoPro mount and engine skid were a bitch and a half. The LoPro is definitely not a bolt on. The instructions say it won't work with the High-Clearance skid, but it didn't mention the "original extra clearance" which is what I have. I messaged UCF and they said most of the bent leading edge would have to be trimmed.



I mounted the skid, marked the edges of the trans pan, took it back down, and cut 1" off the front and rounded the edges. Then from the inside, ground it flush with the inside of the skid. This clears with plenty of room.

The LoPro instructions talk about you may or may not have to change the catalytic converter mount that is attached to the transmission mount plate. Without modifying it, the pipe that wraps around the oil pan was sitting hard on the right front upper control arm mount. (This most likely was an issue with the stock mount, but I didn't notice). If I would have cut the mount the way the instructions describe, it would have been too low and put the converter on the skid. I cut 3/4" out of the mount arm and re-welded it and it worked well. I don't understand UCF's design here. It seems to me that they could have made the mount replace the entire mount place for a minimal increase in price...

The engine skid... The instructions (or lack of instructions) suck... I finally realized they had another picture on the website that showed a better angle. I did have to grind the ends of one of the mounting struts though. Also, it fits so tight to the trans pan that one of the nylok nuts that attach the engine skid to tcase skid touched the trans pan. I swapped it out for a standard nut. The engine skid fits very tight, too tight. I don't see where it would have hurt to give a little more clearance in a few places.

When I did the MML, I tightened the through bolts down too much and had a lot of vibrations. I backed them off and double nutted them just to be safe.

With the LoPro mount, it basically made everything come up 1" (body, motor, driveline). Without the LoPro, the tcase comes up probably 2" and throws angles off. One thing I was concerned with was the tcase shifter linkage. So many threads say you should just go ahead and buy the cable shifter because it's going to bind... I never touched the linkage. Didn't even unhook it from the body while doing the body lift. Since everything moved up the same amount, it works perfectly.

I have very minimal driveline vibes with 2" lift, the belly up, and no SYE.

Sweet! That smooth flat belly should make up for the extra wheelbase on the short lift

I pulled the engine skid back down today because I noticed the exhaust down pipe was rubbing at times. I lengthened the notch for the exhaust and thinned the lip where it was close to the trans pan. The trans pan had marks where it had touched, so glad I checked.





I also reinstalled it in the lower location that's supposed to be for when you don't have a MML, so should have plenty of room now.

I FINALLY got around to installing the rear MetalCloak arms. Aluminum double adjustable uppers and steel single adjustable lowers. I set the lowers up at stock length and the uppers slightly shorter to get the pinion angle correct. Rear vibes are minimal now.

Not bad for short arms. (The front sway bar is still connected)




I also installed the Bilstein rear shocks. I only broke one of the upper bolts... and probably wouldn't have broke it if I realized you could see the top through the body lift gap and spray it with pb blaster...

I was able to knock the nut off and just put another bolt and nut on it.

Nice!

I wasn't sure if I'd have enough up travel with the rear shocks. After last weekend's ride with the baby, my niece, and a lot of stuff in the back it was bottoming out on every bump. I found out the set of shocks I had were for a 4" lift. The front works perfectly because of how I have it bump-stopped. I bought a pair of 3" lift shocks and swapped the rears out.

I never had a floor track for the wind jammer, but earlier this year I bought a lot of tops, top parts, and accessories. One item was a brand new windjammer with the track still in the box. So, I installed the floor track and the snaps to my duster. Jeep just needs the doors swapped out and its in trail mode.

I took the LJ to Gulches last weekend for a test run. I wanted to hit the usual trails that I'm used to running in the Samurai to see how the Jeep would perform. The traction couldn't have been better with very little standing water but not a layer of dust over everything either. The Jeep really impressed me. It did everything I normally do (except shipwreck) without pushing it hard and felt much more stable in most situations. Only damage was a small tear in the roll bar padding from rubbing a tree in Palmetto Crossing.

Only picture of me. Thanks Tim.


So, after it did so well on 33x10.50s...

I may step up to some 35x12.50x17s at some point...

if it aint broke, fix it till it is right?

Nice. That will look good. Trail grapplers would fit nicely on there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Trail grapplers will kersplode the front end. Them bitchaz is heavy as a mug.

Km2 is 68 lbs
Mtr is 64
Trail grapp is 79

That's equal to 150 lbs of stuff in the back.

After all the winching we did at Windrock, I decided it was time for an upgrade. The Engo didn't let me down, it's just slow. So, hopefully this will find its new home in the ARB bumper before the November trip.

Looks a little more at home than the Engo.

Have the 35s been ordered yet? Or does the Sami have to find a new home first?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ha, no. If/when the Sami goes I will probably step up to a 34-35 MT, but first priority will be a trailer. I've been very impressed with it like it is now.

I noticed some serious corrosion on the battery and cables when I was swapping winches. I really need to replace the factory cables, but I figured this would buy me some time.

The terminals are Knuconcepts and have multiple ports with set screws underneath and give you the post for factory cables.

Unrelated, Friday morning the fog lights wouldn't turn off. The only way that would stay off was with the left turn signal on... I have a new multifunction switch I'll be tackling some time this weekend.

I spent a little extra to get the multifunction switch from autozone instead of amazon because half the reviews on amazon said their original problem was fixed but the turn signals or headlights didn't work with the new switch. We'll apparently those out of the box failures are not specific to the amazon product. Turn signals do not work with the new switch... will have a replacement mid day tomorrow.

No turn signals with second switch. What are the chances of 2 bad out of the box? I can plug the stock one in and they work fine.

After the second one from Autozone didn't work I ordered one from Amazon. It came in tonight. No turn signals...

At this point I figured I had to be missing something. I laid all 3 out to compare (original, 2nd from Autozone, 3rd from Amazon). Useful bit of info it would have been nice to know sooner, the turn signal flasher relay plugs in to the back of the multifunction switch.


So, I pulled the relay out of the original and plugged it into the 2nd Autozone replacement (because it has a lifetime warranty). No turn signals! issed: If I held downward pressure on the relay the turn signals and flashers would work. When you let go, no more worky.

So, swapped the relay to the Amazon one and put it in, all works fine. :cheers:

Do you happen to remember what brand radio install kit you used? I have a radio just trying to find a mount I like.