2008 Jeep Jk 4 Door

[stlaser]

So after moving this rigid light bar box around three dozens times I figured today was as good as any to install it. I got as far as getting it mounted and realized the Hella relay block doesn't work with the hella relays I purchased.    Quite honestly I'm not sure what relays this block is supposed to use as the actual hella relays are identical to any other automotive relay I have ever bought. So wiring will be put off until I find a nice 3 or 4 spot relay block holder with pigtails. If anyone has a good link to one let me know. Oh and just for Ashley, we now have symmetry! Can't have him with his panties all in a bunch when he visits this summer.....

[TexasRedNeck]

Like this?
https://m.delcity.net/store/Relay-&-Socket-Harness-Kit/p_72563.h_72767

I usually get my stuff from Del city


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[stlaser]

Like this?
https://m.delcity.net/store/Relay-&-Socket-Harness-Kit/p_72563.h_72767

I usually get my stuff from Del city


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Kind of, hoping for either a block to stick relays in or a plug that already has a mount built in. The ones with the mount built into the relay don’t help me much as I already now own twice as many bare relays as I actually need thinking that hella relay block was going to work out.

Edit: for the record I can find the bare relay block holders on eBay I’m just too lazy to buy them as I have to wire up the pigtails, so may have to go that route if I can’t find a cheap alternative with pigtails. Apparently after further research I bought a hella micro relay box (didn’t realize there was such a thing as a micro relay) & regular sized auto relays are what I had in stock.

[JR]

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-890019-7/overview/

[stlaser]

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-890019-7/overview/

Thanks JR, I just broke down and bought the hella 4 place mini relay box from them that I thought I was buying the first go around when I ordered the micro. Guess I’ll donate the micro to the xj at some point....

[stlaser]

Been busy with other jobs, hoping to get more time on jeep tomorrow (want to get started on dual battery setup).

I had the bandsaw out today running a couple cutting jobs & managed to get the mounts cut for holding the axle in place to weld truss on. I need to drill several holes and I’ll add pics and detail what I’m doing in that regards hopefully tomorrow.

Several items for various upgrades should arrive by Friday. Hoping to square away wiring the relay box, set of A pillar switches, light bar and dual battery setup sometime at latest next week. Goal is also to get truss completed by end of next week as well. Oh & taxes too!

[Mrwoody]

The retrofit source has the Morimoto relays for light bars. All of the stuff they sell is first class. A bit pricey but works good.

[stlaser]

The retrofit source has the Morimoto relays for light bars. All of the stuff they sell is first class. A bit pricey but works good.

Good info, I think I’m set for now as I ordered the right hella relay block (not inexpensive either) but needed a solution & should come in by Friday.

[Flyin6]

X2 on the Morimoto stuff

[stlaser]

 So I was able to squeeze a little more in today on that front axle. Between going cross-eyed staring at bank statements for taxes and machining parts I finished fabrication of all the mounts from scrap steel I had laying around and was able to get the axle secured to the table via five mounting points. It is level as if it were still hanging under the front of that 1 ton ford. This gives me a baseline when welding the truss onto the housing. Being that the JK only has a 3-4" lift the stock pinion angle for the ford should be a good starting place. The mounts I built are pretty strong but the reality is that I will still take all the precautions to keep the housing from warping. Once it is completely welded I will wait until it is completely cooled before removing from the table mounts.   

[TexasRedNeck]

Will skip welds help prevent warping too?


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[KensAuto]

Yes Charles, if he skips the welding step, it should stay straight. 

[stlaser]

Yes Charles, if he skips the welding step, it should stay straight. 

Never mind the children jeering from the cheap seats......

So heat is the biggest issue, too much over too great of an area will be a problem. So taking my time when welding to the tubes and working back and forth. I plan on getting the truss tacked in place on tubes and then working on the center section. Once the cast is welded in good on the inside then go work on tubes. The truss is fairly rigid so that should help keep things straight if done in the proper order.

[stlaser]

OK, so today I installed a set of these

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0762JL7WQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I didn't take any pictures of the install as it's pretty basic, unbolt old units and bolt in new. The brand is Anzio and they take a month plus to receive so I'm thinking china but they had great reviews and price was right. They came packaged very well and had nice instructions which I never read but for those who may be challenged they are there and of good quality. Machining looks solid and they are stainless and I believe aluminum construction.

The problem is the original Jeep parts allow what they call "hood flutter" yeah here I thought that was what happened every time H tripped? Who knew? So anyhow the hood will move up and down a bit at high speeds on the freeway. It's annoying but really doesn't hurt anything if you don't change them out. It's been on my list of things to upgrade so I pulled the trigger. I'm quite happy with the product. The pins have a push button release and are tethered so you can't lose anything and doing it one handed is possible.

[TexasRedNeck]

Well since you brought it up




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[stlaser]

Well since you brought it up




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Careful, Ken lurks around here & he might get offended. 

Darn it, and I was doing so good mentioning H & not referencing Ken too! 

[JR]

And for those who wish to see it as it happened;

http://video.dailymail.co.uk/video/mol/2018/03/13/311413424283272711/640x360_MP4_311413424283272711.mp4

Now she is sporting this arm cast;

[stlaser]

OK, so this sitting here and no action in my way on my bench was starting to annoy me. So today I clamped the truss in place and leveled up the passengers side only. You start on this side and get the 4 pieces underneath in place first.





Then I tacked all of it on the outside first both sides.





The housing was next, no preheat or special precautions (it's a tack if it breaks or cracks tack it again which I did in one spot).





So I let that cool for ten minutes and referenced the instructions. I then located the tab and bracket that get slipped under the top piece on drivers side. Note I did not weld the top piece in place at this point it is merely for keeping things aligned.

Now we have a problem, apparently this gusset on the pinion side of the housing needs clearance to allow a bracket to slip into place.





For reference I marked the casting gusset with a chalk stick



I then started by drilling a roughly 3/8" hole in the back corner. I try to drill holes in the corners whenever possible. Reason being it is harder for a crack to start in a rounded corner versus a 90 degree straight inside corner.



I cleaned it up with a cutoff wheel to each side of the hole in a 90 degree fashion (sorry forgot to grab pic of it)

So here is the bracket now clearance and fitting





Bracket and tab in under the top plate drivers side.



For being some KY windage I sure did drill that vent hole in the right spot  doesn't get much better than that......



Then I had to clean up to go to an 8th grade track meet, Shelby my middle daughter is neck and neck with another girl for fastest 100M sprinter. She came home the other night after beating her at practice and claims "I'm the fastest girl in school!" To which my reply went so was your aunt............   different subject though! 

[stlaser]

I did run into a slight issue, the inside between the two pieces that run lengthwise down the axle doesn't give me much room to fit my large welding nozzle in there. If I had a better option (well less expensive and quick) I would use a stick welder. My welder can convert & do it but I don't want to screw around with setting it up and I'm sure I would have to spend some money on something to do so. I'll manage with getting my big gun in there (yeah my gun is too big, what she told me anyhow!  ). The reality is it doesn't need a lot of weld on the inside and the outside will get a bit more now. In the end it will be ok but a welding rod in there would be the easiest and in long run best option if anyone is looking at doing this modification in the future.

[TexasRedNeck]

(yeah my gun is too big, said no woman ever!  ).

FIFY


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[JR]

Sean, it always fits,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[stlaser]

Not a whole lot to report, new parts keep arriving. I worked on wifes lexus last weekend so it ended up being a wash for the JK. I have welded some on the truss, basically 1" welds in several spots then let it cool on the passengers side tube. Have yet to weld the housing, maybe in next day or two depending on how things work out. So far I haven't heated anything up enough for stuff to move and top plate keeps dropping back in place after welds so all is going good and slow.

[stlaser]

I spent an hour this morning welding the cast section of the housing. I welded on the two vertical uprights that go almost from C to C. At this point I have about 1/3 of these 4 bottom components welded to the passengers side tube. The idea is if it moves now it shouldn't move much. I also have it tacked solid to the housing in several places.

Unlike the tube welding we are going to get that center section warmed up and slowly let it cool over the next day. They claim 24 hours on the instructions for cooling but they're silly honestly. That center section will be room temperature in half that time and that is with me pre heating and post heating every weld and then letting it sit under a welding blanket. That includes going  back and post heating that housing and welds one last time after twenty minutes of sitting. Really I wanted to check the welds one last time before I left it for a few hours.

OK, so here we start. I had prepped the housing with a flap disc and since the needle scaler was new I wanted to see it work so I used it on all the spots that were to be welded prior to doing so. If roughs the steel up a bit and I thought that seemed like a good idea for the welds. Here you can see my two fingers and the top is a before what it looked like and the bottom finger is an after needle scale session.

[stlaser]

a closer view of the needle scale prep and fit of the truss, I will say that fit is somewhat loose in places.



Here is a temp stick, pretty simple rub it on and heat it up until the marks turn to liquid. I suggest putting it away from direct flame to get an accurate read of the steel. After thought a thermal gun would work as well, guess my age is showing there....

[stlaser]

That housing took me roughly an hour to weld up. I set my welder for 1/4" to 1/2" steel plate settings, the heat from the gun was a little much I think but I never reset it while I welded it. The weld snapped and popped some, if I had used less heat it may not have puddled up so fast. I know I have good penetration and that was my main focus. A couple welds on the inside are less than desirable as I couldn't get my gun in very close and the angle was off considerably. So I ran over both of those welds a second time.

The process goes like this, prep the steel well. Mark with temp stick, pre heat with torch rose bud. Weld two or three 1.5-2 inch long passes. Then needle scale those welds immediately after welding them. Finally post heat the welds you just made and preheat the next weld areas. As I progressed I kept post heating all of the welds. When I was done I covered it with a welding blanket and took a 20 min break then went back and did one final weld inspection and complete post heat then covered up and left for the day.

Here is a quick pic I snapped of the welds before covering it up.



Here it is for the few hour cool down

[stlaser]

For the record that housing welds like crap, is what it is and I'm glad that is done. I also checked the fit of the top plate several times as I welded. It still fits but needed a little persuasion by my 5# hammer to get it back on at the end.

[cudakidd53]

Nice work Shawn - you say you did the housing with a wire feed and not a stick?  Any special wire for cast iron then?

[stlaser]

Nice work Shawn - you say you did the housing with a wire feed and not a stick?  Any special wire for cast iron then?

I did mig it, I run Lincoln wire exclusively. Years ago we had a job making hydraulic tanks from customer supplied drops of 4x6 1/4 wall tube. We were running whatever Chinese cheap wire we could get by the pallet. It welded nice & we would go to air test the welds & pin hole air leaks would suddenly pop up. Lincoln wire never did that so I pay for good wire. There is no special wire to my knowledge for cast. I always run 95-5 gas mixture which welds on the hot side which is worth noting.

If you arc weld it you should run a nickel content rod for best results. After about 6 hours I checked it and I'd say it was 95% cooled off. I decided rather than mess with it to just leave it overnight. Planning on finishing it up in the morning.

[JR]

Interesting, I have seen guys put heaters on them overnight to slow the cooling.

I want to fab some simple trusses for the burb. Any ideas for the 60 front and 14bt rear that don't break the bank?                                                                                                 

[stlaser]

Interesting, I have seen guys put heaters on them overnight to slow the cooling.

I want to fab some simple trusses for the burb. Any ideas for the 60 front and 14bt rear that don't break the bank?                                                                                                 

Have a tube bender or access to one? JR, second thought, give me until the first of next month I might have another valid idea.

[stlaser]

First thing this morning I pulled the welding blanket off and checked for cracks to the welds on the housing. No issues there and I proceeded to weld to the passengers side tube finishing up the interior welds. I then took a break to let the housing cool once again and came back two hours later. I was able to convince that top plate to go back on without too much effort (yes the 5# hammer was used) as things were tight but still lined up close enough to fit back together. Once I had all the tabs from the lower portions at least started into the slots in the top I then proceeded to start clamping which resulted in this.



For the most part everything was able to snug up and the truss is still level side to side. One area I ran into was on top of the cast center section. There really is not good way to clamp that and the forming of the top piece was close however on the passengers side coming off the top of the casting I do have a solid 1/16 gap between the top plate and the vertical uprights that were already welded on yesterday. I think regardless I would have had a slight gap somewhere. Forming isn't perfect and it's as good as it gets which I think is good enough anyhow. Also on top of the housing it is now not level front to back. Being the cover side I was able to pull down slightly more than the pinion side. Again it's close enough and the two top mounts links have adjustment in them as well.

Here it is with the clamps removed and essentially plug welded at every tab. The two link mounts are underneath on the drivers side and tacked in place. I believe I will be welding to the cast housing one last time on the shock bracket pinion drivers side where I notched that gusset out. There is one spot that needs that bracket welded vertically to the original spring mount pad and that should be it for cast welding. At this point I let it cool and have meetings this afternoon to attend to.

[EL TATE]

Lookin good there fella

[JR]

Solid looking. Bet this is not your first setup 

Yes, I have a bender. We'll talk more when I get back on Spartan.

[stlaser]

Thanks guys, first time I ever used a kit to do it.

Sounds good JR

[TexasRedNeck]

Not bad for a hippy. ;-)

Looks stout for sure. 


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[cj7ox]

Looks good!

[OldKooT]

looking good man..... all that heating/cooling.... man I dunno. Pretty fancy....its a Jeep =P

I envy you regardless... your building a toy...I have spent a week rebuilding my car trailer. Probably yet another week to go I might be able to use it.

[stlaser]

Ok, so little more progress. I am going to get the rear axle painted tomorrow. I had assembled the third member prior but needed to get it stuffed into the currie housing. One thing I noticed the guy who ordered this housing didn't opt to pay $120 to have a drain bung welded into the very bottom so I could drag it over everything. Fortunately, years ago I designed these HD fill bungs for my diff covers and buy them in bulk so I had one laying around and decided we would install it so I could change the fluid easier in the future. These weld in bungs run $7 retail so it's a steal if you can drill a hole and weld it in yourself, as an added bonus you can put it where you want. I chose off to the side a bit away from the magnet currie has glued inside the housing.

[stlaser]

Housing with a lube locker gasket, LL needs to address fitment on the Ford 9 third, it's off a bit. I made it work but one of the lower bolt holes tore on the outside of the bolt. I think it will be ok but time will tell.



40 ft pounds and torque pattern



Tate's pretty parts including a grizzly locker & believe it or not that little hobart welding table is holding up this axle for assembly......

[KensAuto]

Looks great Shawn.


..nice parts Tator!

[Nate]

Hopefully you took some pics of the fitment issue so you can send them to Tate and he can have a discussion with lube locker?

[stlaser]

Hopefully you took some pics of the fitment issue so you can send them to Tate and he can have a discussion with lube locker?

Thanks Ken, I didn’t but Tate can take one of his third member chunks & pull
an LL gasket then mate the two together & see for himself. Mine may very well seep from that lower bolt hole & if it does I’ll have pics then too.....

Just so someone doesn’t misread this the Yukon third and the Currie housing aligned perfectly when mating them together.

My only complaint in regards to Randy’s parts if there was one were the smallish bolt heads for the ring gear. I’m guessing it is a universal standard bolt they use and clearance with some components may be an issue on certain applications. So it’s not really a complaint as I get the manufacturing side of why they did it & it was only $10 or so for me to get ones that had a larger head. Reality is the ones in the kit would probably have been ok but for $10 it was worth it to me to use a beefier bolt.

[Nate]

I'm hurt.......

[stlaser]

I'm hurt.......

Stub your toe?

[KensAuto]

Nate is a simple man..he likes pics and you're too selfish to notice. ;)

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[Nate]

 

[stlaser]

Ok Nate, I didn’t use politically correct forum decorum apparently......

Yes, I quoted you but replied to both you and Ken’s comment. Ken stated the parts look good or something & I thanked him, then your quote I answered at length.   

[JR]

Well, for those welds you will e forgiven. I mean to horas is one thing, but big pointy arrows to the offense? 

[Nate]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Flyin6]

^^^^^ DOTs^^^^^^^