IntrepidXJ's Adventure Weblog

I got my 2nd upper control arm mount built for my Dana 30 axle

truss welded on

tubes welded

where it sits now

OK, with my control arms done and out of the way….time to start working on the axle again.

After work I managed to get a bit of work done….I finished building the driver side UCA mount.

nothing a little hole saw can’t handle

JKS bushing cradle

where it’s going

but wait, let’s make it look kinda pretty, and not like i just stock a piece of box tubing with a hole in it up there

some 1/8″ flat will cap that off nicely

here’s where a TIG would have come in handy, but i don’t have the money for one of those yet….so I’ll use what I got

…and tacked in position

I sleeved my broken JKS control arm to keep as a spare.

For those interested in seeing where my JKS control arms broke. Here’s a pic of the broken arm.

Here’s a closeup of the threads that are used to assemble the arm. These are what I stripped out on the 2 arms, causing them to pull apart

the start of the full-sleeve

I decided to keep the grease zerk on this one (as opposed to the other one i sleeved in a hurry)

assembling with the sleeve

just needs to be welded

done

I got one of my control arms half-sleeved, though. As some of you may know, I have busted 2 JKS arms where they are assembled. They have pulled apart the threads. Anyways, I love the way the JKS arms perform on my rig, so I decided to modify mine so they won’t pull apart again. I also didn’t want to lose any clearance on the bottom of the arm, so I went with a half sleeve on the top. This should prevent it from pulling apart

testing the sleeve fit

hole drilled for zerk….so i can still grease them if needed

prepped for welding

did i mention i love my Miller 175?

done.

I started on my bumper brackets finally, tonight.

didn’t get too much done on them yet……but it’s a start

OK, I made some good progress today…..and got to play with my welder and plasma cutter a lot. It was a good day Now on to the pictures

welded a little 3/16″ steel to the bottom of my new cover, so I would have a nice ramp to help push the diff up and over obstacles without getting hung up

then ground nice and smooth

cut out my inner-C gussets

tacked in place

thanks to my new plasma cutter, this took a whole minute to cut off (it would have taken me a lot longer using cutoff wheels)

new lower control arm mounts tacked in place. about 2.5″ higher than stock. those are the Currie mounts flipped upside down and switched sides.

much more clearance than stock, plus with it being flipped over, the skid is already built in

truss tacked in place (had to clearance it a little around the new LCA mounts)

ready to build my new UCA mounts, also 2.5″ higher

cutting the tube to sleeve and half sleeve my lower control arms

cut in half….and that’s where i stopped today

Well, I headed over to The Cliffs today to meet up with BurnedBronco and xj4life even though I didn’t have my rig with me. After bringing BB back to his shop to get a tow truck since his fuel pump crapped out, we did get some wheeling in. Here’s some pics.

more pics here:

http://myxj.net/g2/v/2006_Trips/cliffs101406/

You might remember that my tranny went out on the way back from Tellico in July. Zach saved me by getting his companies tow truck and picking me up near Lafayette, Indiana.

When he made it to The Cliffs this morning, the fuel pump on his truck went out. So I got to drive him back to the shop to get the same tow truck.

Here’s a few pics

Some steel showed up today so I can start building my new front bumper