Zombie
Random Dead Guy
- Location
- Sandy Utah
I've seen a few more ZJs popping up here, so I figured I'd share. A few of you have met me, but I haven't wheeled with very many people here, cause my rig has been chronically broken. I've finally decided to do something about that. I've been close to a few different option, but I decided to go this way based on a series of compromises, and a few opportunities.
I'm going with JK Rubicon 44s, selectable locked front and rear. Stock JK takeoff wheels, and 33x12.5 Mickey T MTZs. I also did some research and decided to do clayton's hard arms at the same time. I wanted longarms, and a truss seems a whole lot easier than trying to line up everything for a stock style rear suspension.
Some extra background. I found info to indicate that the CA brackets on the front would work. I've seen guys install them with adjustable short arms, and a couple of radius arm setups as well. I have test fit the front with the clayton's crossmember assembled, and the arms did bolt up easy as pie. The rear axle I've know the whole time that I'd have to change EVERYTHING. My OEM rear axle is a AL44, and is worth a little bit to someone with a D35 ZJ, so I've decided to leave it alone to sell it. I'm planning to modify and re-use the front coil pads from the wasted Dana 30 to put on the rear axle. There are very few aftermarket options for spring perches that aren't really noisy. The stock pads keep things quiet, so I'll be going this way. I'll be moving the OEM JK front pads inward to line up bettwe with the upper coil position.
Anyway, I hope this might be informative for someone, and if anyone sees something I'm doing that is really stupid, feel free to point it out.
Thanks.
Build day 1: The UN-BUILD
Well, I did add something, but I removed a whole bunch.
The first thing I did was to swap spares.
I’m replacing my 32x11.5x15 BFG AT ko’s on Eagle alloy wheels with Mickey Thompson Radial MTZs in 33x12.5x17 on OEM Jeep JK wheels.
Yeah, thats a 32
And thats JUST a 33
I knew the MTZ in this size ran big. With no load they measure about 33 1/16”. They look a little bigger than that next to the old 32” spare. I had been told that this tire wouldn’t fit in the stock spare location. It does. BARELY.
Tight
Tighter
tightest
Then I started on more nitty gritty things.
I started with the rig on the ground. I removed the OEM skid plate, put a jack with a block of wood under the trans pan, and then removed the OEM cross member.
Then I chiseled a bunch of reddish black oily mud off the trans mount, and swept out underneath the jeep.
Stock Crossmembers
I put the new cross member up and in place for a test fit. I marked the edges where it would be welded to the unibody, and removed for surface prep. What a pain. Between the E-coat primer and the galvanizing on the metal my arms were very tired by the time I got both sides prepped. I used wire wheels and a polishing disk on my die grinder, not wanting to use grinding disks for fear of removing metal.
Cleaned and ready for welding
I took a break and then welded some practice pieces with an old dust pan and some 1/4" scrap to get the speed and voltage set right on the welder. I got it figured out at #3, and about 33 wire speed on my Millermatic 210 with .35 wire.
I took another break, and helmeted up to weld.
So my first experience welding directly to the unibody just HAD to be out of position. I had to stop several times to let my arms calm down, or let my back un-cramp from trying to hold myself in workable positions. I'm very happy with the result though. Well worth the pain of making sure I got it right. I did blow through the unibody in one spot, cause I set my shirt on fire, and got distracted for a second. I let it cool; wire wheeled it, and then filled the hole blending it into the rest of the weld. I just moved a touch faster on that part of it. Anyway, I got great penetration, and I'm really happy with the results.
Pics of the welds were shiny blurs. I'll try to get some additional pics.
So with the new cross member welded up, i moved to stripping the front axle and all old components out. I disco'd the sway bar and put it up and out of the way. I tried to unbolt the track bar at the axle end, but the bolt wouldn't come out. I unbolted it at the frame bracket, and removed the drag link from the pitman arm. I took the top nuts off the shocks, and took the calipers off the axles. I cut the ABS lines, and cut the diff vent line at the diff. Then I lowered the jack, and commenced the “Casting out of Satan”. Once the axle had drooped, I was able to remove the coil retainers, and slip the coils over the bump stop risers. It makes it SO much easier to remove the risers if the coil isn’t there. So with the axle out at full droop, I unbolted all the control arms at the chassis side, and pulled on the jack handle. I felt an immense wave of relief as the cursed Dana 30 slid from beneath my jeep.
I took a picture of the D30.
Then I took another picture of me flipping it off.
TRUTH
I started removing things from the 30. All the CA’s came off just fine. These are already sold to a friend of mine, so I’ve been nice to them. Shocks came off fine. Steering linkage separated fine (again, sold to the same friend as an upgrade to his stock TJ linkage). The track bar wouldn’t come off. I planned to remove the coil perches anyway to re-use on the new rear axle, so out came the plasma and I started torching. One I had the track bar bracket off, I put it in a vice to try to get it apart. It turned out that the bolt had seized into the sleeve in the bushing. I used a sawzall to chop off the bolt and bushing, and get the assembly apart. I’m not sure I can get just the sleeve, I might have to order a whole bushing from Rubicon Express, but no biggie. The bushing material itself is just fine, so I might explore some other local options for the sleeve.
And here is where I ran out of time. I tied the calipers up to the chassis, cleaned up the work space and left the jeep alone, and rather strange looking. I had a ton of yard work to do on Sunday, and a ton of family commitments on Monday. I’m hoping to get into it again tonight.
The good from Day 1: Clayton’s cross member installed and welded very well. Welds came out better than I had expected, but took a lot of time thanks to having to stop for rests due to the awkward positions I had to use. Dana 30 removed very well (like it had a choice). I got a decent amount done in 4 hours.
The bad from day 1: The hole in my shirt. That’s what I get for wearing one of my favorite T shirts while welding. I also burned the crap out of my middle knuckle on my left hand. I did that pushing myself out from under the thing when my shirt caught on fire, and I got a back and leg cramp at the same time. Oh well… just weakness leaving the body, right? I count the wasted bushing sleeve and track bar bolt among the bad. These were just disappointing. The most annoying bad is a 15MM impact socket that slipped into the unibody rail when I was unbolting the front uppers. I tried to retrieve it with a magnet tool. I failed. I’ll try again tonight probably. I can buy a new one, but I’m afraid it will settle somewhere under my seat and rattle like hell if I leave it in there. I didn’t have as much time as I wanted to work on it.
Next steps: Measure Dana 30. Find center, and measure spring pad distance from center. I already cut off one of the pads, so I’ll just go this way. Once I have this, I’ll figure out if and how much the JK D44’s coil pads need to move. I’ll also make the truss for the long side of the D44. If things go really well, I might get it under the jeep. I’m not counting on this step. I might pop it in for a mock up to see how the coils sit, and then remove for the truss. I’ve read enough problems with the long side tube for the 07 build years not to add some support to that side even though my axle is an 08 and supposedly stronger.
I'm going with JK Rubicon 44s, selectable locked front and rear. Stock JK takeoff wheels, and 33x12.5 Mickey T MTZs. I also did some research and decided to do clayton's hard arms at the same time. I wanted longarms, and a truss seems a whole lot easier than trying to line up everything for a stock style rear suspension.
Some extra background. I found info to indicate that the CA brackets on the front would work. I've seen guys install them with adjustable short arms, and a couple of radius arm setups as well. I have test fit the front with the clayton's crossmember assembled, and the arms did bolt up easy as pie. The rear axle I've know the whole time that I'd have to change EVERYTHING. My OEM rear axle is a AL44, and is worth a little bit to someone with a D35 ZJ, so I've decided to leave it alone to sell it. I'm planning to modify and re-use the front coil pads from the wasted Dana 30 to put on the rear axle. There are very few aftermarket options for spring perches that aren't really noisy. The stock pads keep things quiet, so I'll be going this way. I'll be moving the OEM JK front pads inward to line up bettwe with the upper coil position.
Anyway, I hope this might be informative for someone, and if anyone sees something I'm doing that is really stupid, feel free to point it out.
Thanks.
Build day 1: The UN-BUILD
Well, I did add something, but I removed a whole bunch.
The first thing I did was to swap spares.
I’m replacing my 32x11.5x15 BFG AT ko’s on Eagle alloy wheels with Mickey Thompson Radial MTZs in 33x12.5x17 on OEM Jeep JK wheels.
Yeah, thats a 32
And thats JUST a 33
I knew the MTZ in this size ran big. With no load they measure about 33 1/16”. They look a little bigger than that next to the old 32” spare. I had been told that this tire wouldn’t fit in the stock spare location. It does. BARELY.
Tight
Tighter
tightest
Then I started on more nitty gritty things.
I started with the rig on the ground. I removed the OEM skid plate, put a jack with a block of wood under the trans pan, and then removed the OEM cross member.
Then I chiseled a bunch of reddish black oily mud off the trans mount, and swept out underneath the jeep.
Stock Crossmembers
I put the new cross member up and in place for a test fit. I marked the edges where it would be welded to the unibody, and removed for surface prep. What a pain. Between the E-coat primer and the galvanizing on the metal my arms were very tired by the time I got both sides prepped. I used wire wheels and a polishing disk on my die grinder, not wanting to use grinding disks for fear of removing metal.
Cleaned and ready for welding
I took a break and then welded some practice pieces with an old dust pan and some 1/4" scrap to get the speed and voltage set right on the welder. I got it figured out at #3, and about 33 wire speed on my Millermatic 210 with .35 wire.
I took another break, and helmeted up to weld.
So my first experience welding directly to the unibody just HAD to be out of position. I had to stop several times to let my arms calm down, or let my back un-cramp from trying to hold myself in workable positions. I'm very happy with the result though. Well worth the pain of making sure I got it right. I did blow through the unibody in one spot, cause I set my shirt on fire, and got distracted for a second. I let it cool; wire wheeled it, and then filled the hole blending it into the rest of the weld. I just moved a touch faster on that part of it. Anyway, I got great penetration, and I'm really happy with the results.
Pics of the welds were shiny blurs. I'll try to get some additional pics.
So with the new cross member welded up, i moved to stripping the front axle and all old components out. I disco'd the sway bar and put it up and out of the way. I tried to unbolt the track bar at the axle end, but the bolt wouldn't come out. I unbolted it at the frame bracket, and removed the drag link from the pitman arm. I took the top nuts off the shocks, and took the calipers off the axles. I cut the ABS lines, and cut the diff vent line at the diff. Then I lowered the jack, and commenced the “Casting out of Satan”. Once the axle had drooped, I was able to remove the coil retainers, and slip the coils over the bump stop risers. It makes it SO much easier to remove the risers if the coil isn’t there. So with the axle out at full droop, I unbolted all the control arms at the chassis side, and pulled on the jack handle. I felt an immense wave of relief as the cursed Dana 30 slid from beneath my jeep.
I took a picture of the D30.
Then I took another picture of me flipping it off.
TRUTH
I started removing things from the 30. All the CA’s came off just fine. These are already sold to a friend of mine, so I’ve been nice to them. Shocks came off fine. Steering linkage separated fine (again, sold to the same friend as an upgrade to his stock TJ linkage). The track bar wouldn’t come off. I planned to remove the coil perches anyway to re-use on the new rear axle, so out came the plasma and I started torching. One I had the track bar bracket off, I put it in a vice to try to get it apart. It turned out that the bolt had seized into the sleeve in the bushing. I used a sawzall to chop off the bolt and bushing, and get the assembly apart. I’m not sure I can get just the sleeve, I might have to order a whole bushing from Rubicon Express, but no biggie. The bushing material itself is just fine, so I might explore some other local options for the sleeve.
And here is where I ran out of time. I tied the calipers up to the chassis, cleaned up the work space and left the jeep alone, and rather strange looking. I had a ton of yard work to do on Sunday, and a ton of family commitments on Monday. I’m hoping to get into it again tonight.
The good from Day 1: Clayton’s cross member installed and welded very well. Welds came out better than I had expected, but took a lot of time thanks to having to stop for rests due to the awkward positions I had to use. Dana 30 removed very well (like it had a choice). I got a decent amount done in 4 hours.
The bad from day 1: The hole in my shirt. That’s what I get for wearing one of my favorite T shirts while welding. I also burned the crap out of my middle knuckle on my left hand. I did that pushing myself out from under the thing when my shirt caught on fire, and I got a back and leg cramp at the same time. Oh well… just weakness leaving the body, right? I count the wasted bushing sleeve and track bar bolt among the bad. These were just disappointing. The most annoying bad is a 15MM impact socket that slipped into the unibody rail when I was unbolting the front uppers. I tried to retrieve it with a magnet tool. I failed. I’ll try again tonight probably. I can buy a new one, but I’m afraid it will settle somewhere under my seat and rattle like hell if I leave it in there. I didn’t have as much time as I wanted to work on it.
Next steps: Measure Dana 30. Find center, and measure spring pad distance from center. I already cut off one of the pads, so I’ll just go this way. Once I have this, I’ll figure out if and how much the JK D44’s coil pads need to move. I’ll also make the truss for the long side of the D44. If things go really well, I might get it under the jeep. I’m not counting on this step. I might pop it in for a mock up to see how the coils sit, and then remove for the truss. I’ve read enough problems with the long side tube for the 07 build years not to add some support to that side even though my axle is an 08 and supposedly stronger.
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