IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Let’s start with the driver’s side. It is the easiest side because the hinge pin is pressed in from the top. You have two options here. First, you can take the door off by getting at the 6 torx bolts holding the door to the hinge. That is how I did my driver’s side. The second option is getting a sawzall at the hinge, and cutting off the bottom part with the door still on. I used this method on the passenger side because I couldn’t get the bolts out.

Here is the hinge on the driver’s side:

This is around the area you want to make your cut on the hinge:

Here is the bottom of the hinge cut off:

From this point, I cut the bottom of the hinge pin shorter so that I could easily lift the doors off the hinges. You will repeat this process on the second hinge on the door.

Now we move to the passenger side door. This side is a little more complicated because the hinge pin is pressed in from the bottom, however, if you managed to complete the driver’s side door, you should have no problems with this side. You want to cut the bottom of the hinge off just like you did with the driver’s side door. Once it is cut, you can pound it off with a hammer, but realize that the pin will come out with the bottom part of the hinge you just cut off, so make sure to support the door.

I found two partially threaded bolts at the hardware store that were the same diameter as the original hinge pin, and cut them down to the size I needed. Then I slid this bolt into the hinge from the top. Here’s a picture of the bolt in the hinge:

I then tack welded the head of the bolt to the hinge, so it would not slide up when putting the door back on:

Then all you have to do is put the hinge back on the door, and the result is the same as the driver’s door:

Just finish the second hinge the same way, and you are done! The passenger door will now lift off and back on like the driver’s.

Grinding the bottom of the hinge pins/bolts so that they are kind of rounded helps assist in getting the doors back on. Also adding a little grease helps the doors slide on and off more easily. Including the time it takes me to disconnect the wires I can get both doors off in under 3 minutes. Putting them back on takes me about 5 minutes total.

As for electrical wiring, I have completely removed my kick panels. Then when I want the doors off, I just disconnect the wires behind the kickpanel and feed them out.

I decided to go with the JKS ACOS so I could fine tune my front suspension as needed in the future. The install was pretty straight forward and not too difficult. Here’s what I did.

First things first, you need to drop the front axle and remove the spring. Then you have to pull out the rubber bumpstop and factory spring isolator. The rest of this install will be for the welded on bumpstop holders, because that is what mine had. If yours aren’t welded on you can skip the next part.

Now it’s time to cut off the welded on bumpstop holder. I tried using both a sawzall and an angle grinder. Each worked fine, so use whichever one you feel more comfortable with (or have on hand).

Look inside the holder and you will see a flat washer with a hole in it. The bumpstop holder must be cut off even with the bottom of this flat washer. The flat washer does not line up with the weld on the outside of the bumpstop holder, so it will be cut below the weld on the bumpstop holder. I just cut below where the washer was and then used an angle grinder to grind the rest even with the flat washer. This method worked pretty well for me.

Next you will need a 10mm x 1.5p tap. Use this to tap the hole in the washer that you just cut the bumpstop holder level with. It’s not very thick, so it only takes a few turns to cut the threads. Just make sure to use some cutting oil when cutting the new threads.

Now all you have to do is take the pre-assembled unit and install it with the large ring at the top, over the coil post. It will be necessary to unscrew the large ring away from the adjuster ring prior to installing the assembly, then hread it out until the end of the tube is even with the threads on the transfer ring.

Make sure the transfer ring is NOT up against the top flat surface. At this time also make sure the new lower bumpstop support fits into the threaded tube with the notch fully engaged into the threaded tube. Install the new bumpstop with the cap bolt. Snuggly tighten the allen head bolt into the coil support from the bottom using an allen wrench. Now adjust the transfer ring so it now touches the upper flat surface above it. Loosen the cap bolt so you can drop the threaded tube a little, then adjust the transfer ring one-half turn up towards the flat upper surface. Then just tighten the allen head bolt snuggly until the bumpstop starts to flatten out a little.

Now is the time to adjust the coil adjuster to the height you want and then tighten the adjuster bolt.

Then all you have to do is reinstall the spring and repeat the process on the other side. Then you are done!