ZMotorsports Shop Projects 2.0

[zmotorsports]

Cover installed and ready to stab under the Jeep tomorrow.


Mike


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[zmotorsports]

Didn't get much done tonight. Got home from work, mowed my lawns and just got ready to stab the front axle under the Jeep when my neighbor stopped by with a bag full of vegetables from his garden for us. I shot the **** with him for a bit and then put the axle under the Jeep before going in for dinner and calling it a night. Man I sure love my new neighbors. Great people so far that we've seen.

Axle hanging under the Jeep.


Hope to get much more done tomorrow night.

Mike


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[C_F]

I've got an older guy at work who brings us various veggies almost daily, this time of year. Which is great, but damn, I'm getting tired of eating veggies!

Looking good so far on your new axle swap!

 

[zmotorsports]

I've got an older guy at work who brings us various veggies almost daily, this time of year. Which is great, but damn, I'm getting tired of eating veggies!

Looking good so far on your new axle swap!

Thanks.

My wife and I are extremely grateful for their generosity. Absolutely great guy and I enjoy his company when he stops by to visit. Unfortunately, he stops by at the worst times.

So far we are loving the new neighborhood and hope it stays on the current course that it is on as far as friendly and everyone keeping up on their properties.

Funny thing, I was concerned when we bought the house because I thought we would end up being the noisy ones in the subdivision with my shop activities and all. Come to find out almost every household in the neighborhood has a RZR or some form of side by side and they rip **** up and down the street and house to house all the time. We have to really watch out going in and out of our driveway as there many times is a RZR driving by. Usually by 9:00 or so it is so quiet you can hear insects having ***.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

Tonight installed ball joints, knuckles, swaybar links, driveshaft and electrical connections. Between tomorrow night and Saturday I will rebuild my RCV shafts and install new unit bearings and finish her up.





Thanks for looking.

Mike


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[macgyver]

While the Jeep is on the lift you should box in the front lower control arm brackets! Quick easy and a great strength upgrade.

 

[zmotorsports]

While the Jeep is on the lift you should box in the front lower control arm brackets! Quick easy and a great strength upgrade.

Don't have time while it's on the lift this time.

To be honest I had forgotten all about that until I was dropping my old one out last Saturday. That's when my son said "oh cool, I won't have to box these lower control arm mounts."[emoji15]. Oops, forgot about that. I will have to add those next time it's on the lift. You're right, quick easy mod that is very well worth it.




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[zmotorsports]

Rebuilt my RCV axle shafts tonight and got them installed. Cleaned and rebuilt axle awaiting installation with the old cage and spider assembly in the foreground.


I then double checked my steering angle to make sure I was under the maximum 42* steering angle that RCV recommends. Yep, tad over 38* angle.




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[zmotorsports]

Finished her up today. She's ProRocked!

Prior to installing my passenger side RCV shaft curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to see what my freshly rebuilt RCV shaft maxed out at. I turned the joint to maximum angle where the sphere of the birf was contacting the shaft and I measured just shy of 40* angle.


I opted to install a shim under my hard stop in the knuckle which reduced it just about a degree. I am now sitting at 37* steering angle so I am certain not to oversteer the CV joint.

I also opted to install a beefed up trac bar so I went with the Teraflex HD trac bar. Look at the difference between the 1.125" diameter OEM trac bar and the new Teraflex measuring 1.375" with forged ends that accept press in replacement bushings.




Steering components all bolted in place.




After the test drive I crawled under it and double checked my suspension fasteners.


I hurried and installed my LED headlights before calling it a day.




Thanks for looking.

Mike



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[LXCam]

Kickass Mike. Hopefully you'll be happy with the LED swap too. We did that to my kids truck last year and those were so much better than the previous 4-5 stabs at some HIDs. He'll be swapping out to LEDs on his new ride pretty soon. Matter of fact today's adventures revolved around a good buddy of mine changing out all the dash, switch and interior LEDs to red. Turned out SICK! It's amazing how small this stuff has become. My buddy has to use a 200x's microscope for modifying / changing out these things. I'm glad he's got the patience, I'd gladly rebuild 10 diff's to doing what he did today.

So when is the next big adventure for the Jeep to test the new and improved housing?

 

[zmotorsports]

Kickass Mike. Hopefully you'll be happy with the LED swap too. We did that to my kids truck last year and those were so much better than the previous 4-5 stabs at some HIDs. He'll be swapping out to LEDs on his new ride pretty soon. Matter of fact today's adventures revolved around a good buddy of mine changing out all the dash, switch and interior LEDs to red. Turned out SICK! It's amazing how small this stuff has become. My buddy has to use a 200x's microscope for modifying / changing out these things. I'm glad he's got the patience, I'd gladly rebuild 10 diff's to doing what he did today.

So when is the next big adventure for the Jeep to test the new and improved housing?

Thanks Cam. The Jeep Wrangler headlights are dismal at best. I've been experimenting with different bulbs over the last six years but finally decided to go with the JW's like I should have done from the start.

We'll be hitting Moab here in a few weeks to give the ProRock its test.




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[Boosted1]

Your new axle setup looks really nice. The LEDs should make a noticeable difference at night.
Do you disconnect the sway bar when you go offroad?

 

[jalbrecht55]

I've been considering new tires for my LJ (in a ~35" size) and was wondering what your opinion is on both the BFG KM2 that you ran previously and the KO2 that you currently have. How do they compare in terms of traction (both on road- rain, ice, snow etc and off road), road handling, noise and fuel economy? Mine is also my DD, so road handling/noise is definitely a factor for me.

I'm in the NW so we see a mix of mud, dirt, wet roots, wet rocks, snow, etc off road and lots of rain and some ice and wet snow on the roads. I know I can't expect much in the fuel economy side of things, but just the same it's a consideration and also indication of how much rolling resistance there is, which translates to how well I'm able to hold speed on the road.

I'm mostly considering one of the BFG's, one of the cooper STT's or possibly the wrangler MT/R.

 

[zmotorsports]

Your new axle setup looks really nice. The LEDs should make a noticeable difference at night.
Do you disconnect the sway bar when you go offroad?

Thanks for the comments.

Yes, I disconnect my swaybar when off-roading. I installed the EVO manual disconnect in place of the electrically actuated one as they are known for premature failures. I also didn't like the OEM one because as soon as you surpass 17 MPH the disconnect reconnects. I hated that and this works great being able to kick it back into 2HI and run the speed up between obstacles while still having the swaybar disconnected.

 

[zmotorsports]

I've been considering new tires for my LJ (in a ~35" size) and was wondering what your opinion is on both the BFG KM2 that you ran previously and the KO2 that you currently have. How do they compare in terms of traction (both on road- rain, ice, snow etc and off road), road handling, noise and fuel economy? Mine is also my DD, so road handling/noise is definitely a factor for me.

I'm in the NW so we see a mix of mud, dirt, wet roots, wet rocks, snow, etc off road and lots of rain and some ice and wet snow on the roads. I know I can't expect much in the fuel economy side of things, but just the same it's a consideration and also indication of how much rolling resistance there is, which translates to how well I'm able to hold speed on the road.

I'm mostly considering one of the BFG's, one of the cooper STT's or possibly the wrangler MT/R.

My son and I both ran the KM2's on our Jeeps prior to switching over to the KO2's and both were daily drivers. That being said, I prefer the KO2's hands down. Not that the KM2's were ****, they just didn't fit my driving demands as much as I thought they would when I purchased them.

Let me preface by saying I HATE mud and that is about the only place the KM2's outperformed the KO2's in my opinion. Most of my driving is on pavement as daily driver, flat-towing behind our coach and off-roading in areas such as Moab (and other southern Utah areas), SW Colorado and Arizona for the most part and I try to avoid any mud I may come across.

The KM2's were not noisy for the first 40k or so but then as they were getting to the last 20% of so of their life they started to pick up a road howl. The KO2's were dead quiet from day one and the ride was better than the KM2's even being new, more than likely due to the lug size differences.

The KO2's grab rocks so well whether in Moab or SW Colorado although Moab rocks are more like sandpaper than rocks but even the smoother rocks in SW Colorado like climbing the wall on Pougkheepsie Gulch or over the wet rocks of Black Bear Pass they grip fantastic and never slipped or give me any indication they wouldn't grab the rocks.

My biggest complaint about the KM2's was winter driving. Snow packed roads were a joke with the KM2's. If I stopped on any kind of grade or stop light, most of the time I had to put it in 4HI just to get going again. I found myself driving to work in 4HI a lot with anything more than a small skiff of the white stuff on the ground. Fast forward to having the KO2's and it was the difference of day and night. I can't tell you the last time I had to put in in 4HI to drive on snow packed roads. This past winter was the heaviest snowfall winter we have had in about a decade and I never once needed more traction. THAT alone was probably the biggest difference.

Sorry for the long explanation but I wanted to be thorough.

 

[Seagoon]

Please educate me because I know nothing of Jeeps or off-roading. What is the reason for fitting a different axle casing to the front?
I can understand the changes to the suspension for greater wheel travel and articulation but changing one solid housing for another has me beat.
BTW thanks for the clear descriptions of everything you do - you make a very good teacher.

 

[zmotorsports]

Please educate me because I know nothing of Jeeps or off-roading. What is the reason for fitting a different axle casing to the front?

I can understand the changes to the suspension for greater wheel travel and articulation but changing one solid housing for another has me beat.

BTW thanks for the clear descriptions of everything you do - you make a very good teacher.

Thanks for the comments.

The reasoning behind swapping in a ProRock housing (or other brand such as Teraflex or G2) is to remove the deficiencies that the OEM Dana 44 axle have. The biggest being tubing size and wall thickness which are quite anemic. Next are the bracket material that also is quite thin and thirdly the cast center section is improved upon as well as the outer "C's" with the ProRock housing.

There are things that can be done to improve the strength of the OEM axle housing such as installing sleeves to the tubes which add wall thickness and gussets that add strength to the outer C's but a ProRock housing is still a lot stronger than a beefed up OEM housing.

I hope that made sense.

Thanks again for the comments and for following along.



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[LXCam]

What's mikes not sharing is the most important attribute


They look fricking AWESOME! Heck I did an eaton locker and a set of 4:86 in my kids 2x last year and just adding the G2 dif cover made it look cool as all get out.

Thanks for the comments.

The reasoning behind swapping in a ProRock housing (or other brand such as Teraflex or G2) is to remove the deficiencies that the OEM Dana 44 axle have. The biggest being tubing size and wall thickness which are quite anemic. Next are the bracket material that also is quite thin and thirdly the cast center section is improved upon as well as the outer "C's" with the ProRock housing.

There are things that can be done to improve the strength of the OEM axle housing such as installing sleeves to the tubes which add wall thickness and gussets that add strength to the outer C's but a ProRock housing is still a lot stronger than a beefed up OEM housing.

I hope that made sense.

Thanks again for the comments and for following along.



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[Seagoon]

Thanks for the comments.

The reasoning behind swapping in a ProRock housing (or other brand such as Teraflex or G2) is to remove the deficiencies that the OEM Dana 44 axle have. The biggest being tubing size and wall thickness which are quite anemic. Next are the bracket material that also is quite thin and thirdly the cast center section is improved upon as well as the outer "C's" with the ProRock housing.

There are things that can be done to improve the strength of the OEM axle housing such as installing sleeves to the tubes which add wall thickness and gussets that add strength to the outer C's but a ProRock housing is still a lot stronger than a beefed up OEM housing.

I hope that made sense.

Thanks again for the comments and for following along.



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Certainly does make sense but just to go the last bit - is it to improve the handling by the extra stiffness, or to make the axle last longer, or a bit of both?

 

[Seagoon]

What's mikes not sharing is the most important attribute


They look fricking AWESOME! Heck I did an eaton locker and a set of 4:86 in my kids 2x last year and just adding the G2 dif cover made it look cool as all get out.

Of course. Silly me! It's obviously worth spending heaps of dollars to make your Jeep look more awesome

 

[zmotorsports]

What's mikes not sharing is the most important attribute


They look fricking AWESOME! Heck I did an eaton locker and a set of 4:86 in my kids 2x last year and just adding the G2 dif cover made it look cool as all get out.

I forgot about that one Cam. Although I already had an ARB cover but the massive tube does look cool. And I gained just a tiny bit of ground clearance with their center section design, but then you are tied to using their diff cover. [emoji12]

But ya, they do look cool.[emoji41]




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[zmotorsports]

Certainly does make sense but just to go the last bit - is it to improve the handling by the extra stiffness, or to make the axle last longer, or a bit of both?

You really won't notice anything in the handling department unless you go with the one that has extra caster built into it and are running somewhere in the 3-4" of lift range like I am. The extra caster does help keep it pointed straight and centers the steering wheel a bit easier. Also takes that little bit of "twitchyness" out of the steering on a lifted Jeep. Mine handled pretty good with the long arm suspension but I've noticed now it is solid as hell feeling on the interstate and when turning the extra caster does add a little "heavy" feeling to the steering but I'm very okay with that.

The main benefit is overall strength for off-roading though.

Thanks for following along.


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[zmotorsports]

Of course. Silly me! It's obviously worth spending heaps of dollars to make your Jeep look more awesome

It makes sense if you don't think about it. [emoji15]


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[csp]

You're still stuck with the D30 strength outers and unit bearing though.

 

[JustinS]

You're still stuck with the D30 strength outers and unit bearing though.

Unless you're moving to a 40" tire or a v8 swap there is no reason to upgrade past a pr44.

 

[readhead]

Cuz you want to is reason enough.

 

[zmotorsports]

You're still stuck with the D30 strength outers and unit bearing though.

Yes. As far as strength it is way overkill for my setup but unless going to 40" plus tires the outer C's are plenty strong on these axles.

I have been contemplating on stepping up to the Warn outer stub shaft and tapered bearing kit with manual hubs but that may be a bit down the road. There is nothing wrong with the unit bearing setup for the time being.

 

[zmotorsports]

Unless you're moving to a 40" tire or a v8 swap there is no reason to upgrade past a pr44.

Cuz you want to is reason enough.

^^Exactly. Although even with a V8 as long as you drive with a half a brain you'll be fine on a ProRock44.

Thanks for following along guys.

 

[zmotorsports]

Here are a few pictures from mine and my wife's trip to Capitol Reef NP last week.

Campground was a little more overgrown than expected and the sites were much narrower than we were told when we made the reservations but the two campgrounds we usually stay at were already booked and this was the last option on such short notice.


One of the days we took a drive over to Goblin Valley and did some hiking among the hoodoos.






On another day we drove over to Boulder on the scenic Hwy 12 and took the Burr Trail back to Torrey and saw these Big Horn Sheep relaxing in the crevices of the canyon walls.




On Friday the wife and I took off on the Great Western Trail out of Torrey and took in some more off-roading.








All in all a great little getaway with the wife for a few days of relaxation.


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[bullfrog123]

Great pics!!!!!

Couple more Jeep questions for you. Parts are going to be ordered this week, (sold my 68' Ford Bronco project... coincidently it is now in Utah). FINALLY!!!!! lol. Anyway.....

What LED headlight kit did you use?
And those wheels are killer looking, what are those ones?

Thank you.

 

[zr52002]

Great pics!!!!!

Couple more Jeep questions for you. Parts are going to be ordered this week, (sold my 68' Ford Bronco project... coincidently it is now in Utah). FINALLY!!!!! lol. Anyway.....

What LED headlight kit did you use?
And those wheels are killer looking, what are those ones?

Thank you.

Those are JW Speaker headlights. I run them in my JKRU as well, they are amazing.

 

[zmotorsports]

Great pics!!!!!

Couple more Jeep questions for you. Parts are going to be ordered this week, (sold my 68' Ford Bronco project... coincidently it is now in Utah). FINALLY!!!!! lol. Anyway.....

What LED headlight kit did you use?
And those wheels are killer looking, what are those ones?

Thank you.

Thanks for the comments.

ZR is correct, the headlights are the JW Speaker Evo J series with the black bezel/trim. They work great so far and are a HUGE improvement over the OEM lights, even with different bulbs which I have tried about 5 different ones now. Should have just upgraded to the JW Speakers 6 years ago rather than mess around with bulb replacement options. My only concern about the JW Speakers is winter driving in Utah. I kept my OEM's with the thinking I may have to reinstall them for winter driving but will wait and see.

Wheels are 17x9 ATX Crawl model. A bit scuffed up though do to some rock dings.

Thanks again.

 

[csp]

Unless you're moving to a 40" tire or a v8 swap there is no reason to upgrade past a pr44.

A friend's gutless 3.7 JK, with the same outers this one has (they are D30, not D44 BTW), blew up the outer C, ujoint, balljoints, etc with 35s. We're not sure which part failed first, but the chain reaction led to one helluva mess.

One of my CJs is on a true D44 and I know I'm pushing my luck with 37s and a 258 inline six.

 

[bmxdad]

And here I was rocking 34x9.50 Swampers with a Dana 27. Never had an issue. Only had a 225 V6 with headers and an Offy dual plane holding a 500cfm 2 barrel holly, but I could go mudding with the big guns. Guys redlining their 460s and spinning their 44" Swampers .... crazy .... but I would just chug right on through

Mine is the orange one

 

[zmotorsports]

And here I was rocking 34x9.50 Swampers with a Dana 27. Never had an issue. Only had a 225 V6 with headers and an Offy dual plane holding a 500cfm 2 barrel holly, but I could go mudding with the big guns. Guys redlining their 460s and spinning their 44" Swampers .... crazy .... but I would just chug right on through

Mine is the orange one

What you have to understand though, is that I'm running that monster 3.8l engine that comes in the JK's that puts some serious power to the ground.

 

[csp]

And here I was rocking 34x9.50 Swampers with a Dana 27. Never had an issue. Only had a 225 V6 with headers and an Offy dual plane holding a 500cfm 2 barrel holly, but I could go mudding with the big guns.

Obviously the traction situation, turning angle, wheelspeed, etc all play a part. The point was that a Dana 44 is NOT up to pushing tires up to 40".

I'm sure that you know that mudding puts a lot less stress on parts than sudden traction in slickrock (which isn't slick).

Mike knows better than anyone what works for his rig. Personally, I would never spend the money on an upgraded axle like was used and not go bigger on the outers, but that's just my opinion.

 

[zmotorsports]

Installed some adjusting screws for my headlights tonight. When I installed my JW Speaker LED headlights a couple of weeks ago I completely forgot about the horizontal plane not being adjustable, only the vertical plane. I ordered the OEM adjusting screws from my local Jeep/Mopar dealer before I went on vacation and picked them up on my lunch hour today. I was getting the giant "X" pattern the last two mornings and wanted to adjust that out.

Jeep pulled back to the shop to pull the grille and install horizontal adjusting screws. Kinda gives a perspective of the back yard with the Jeep parked in front of the shop. WOW that's a lot of concrete to blow snow off of in the winter.




Here are the adjusting screws and part #'s.


Non-adjustable stud next to the adjustable screw. The threads easily cut themselves into the composite housing.


Adjustable screw installed and ready for reassembly and adjusting of the headlights.


After completing and adjusting I can't believe the difference in lighting, shoulda done this six years ago when I purchased the Jeep.



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[zmotorsports]

I received a call last week from a long time client and friend asking me to work on a grille for his '34 Ford. I had built a chassis for his '38 Chevy about 8+ years ago and built up the frame and drivetrain/rolling chassis for a 1976 Scout II several years ago as well. Now it looks like he's building a '34 Ford. I informed him again that I had dissolved my business last year and wasn't in the position to take on any work at this time because I was still setting up my shop and organizing. He continued to plead with me telling me he didn't trust anyone else to weld and straighten it and I eventually caved in and agreed to work on it. I guess I should be flattered but I was instead frustrated as I had other things I would rather be doing this week.

I was able to work on it for a couple of hours this afternoon/evening and made some serious progress on it. Here it is after about an hour of straightening the two bars that were tweaked/bent.




Next up was to tackle the two large cracks/breaks at the bottom.


I forgot how many tools I end up getting out to do small sheet metal/body work jobs.


I drilled a small .045" hole at the end of each crack to prevent them from propagating any further.


I clamped the bottom to prevent movement and give some rigidity while moving the cracked edge into position for welding.


Top crack after TIG welded, ground, blended and metal finished.


Tomorrow night I will tackle the lower crack and weld a small reinforcing piece in behind it before returning it to the owner.


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[bmxdad]

Obviously the traction situation, turning angle, wheelspeed, etc all play a part. The point was that a Dana 44 is NOT up to pushing tires up to 40".

I'm sure that you know that mudding puts a lot less stress on parts than sudden traction in slickrock (which isn't slick).

Mike knows better than anyone what works for his rig. Personally, I would never spend the money on an upgraded axle like was used and not go bigger on the outers, but that's just my opinion.

It's good ... just wanted to show Mike my Jeep. Was very proud of it.


Mike, have you upgraded the bracket that connects the track bar to the axle? Seems the factory one is super flimsy compared to the upgrades. Just wondering your take on it.

 

[zmotorsports]

It's good ... just wanted to show Mike my Jeep. Was very proud of it.


Mike, have you upgraded the bracket that connects the track bar to the axle? Seems the factory one is super flimsy compared to the upgrades. Just wondering your take on it.

Yes, that was upgraded six years ago when I first built the Jeep. I beefed up the bracketry at the axle as well as at the frame. The ProRock 44 housing came with beefed up trac bar mounting brackets as well.

Thanks again for checking in and commenting. Liked seeing picture of your Jeep.