ZMotorsports Shop Projects 2.0

[LXCam]

Sorry Cam as that probably not what you wanted to hear about the ball joints.

Don't be my friend. I was greatly concerned about durability myself. But I hadn't considered the "bumphuck Egypt replacement " aspect to be honest. That being a valid concern. After driving this thing and knowing how this guy uses it I considered the increase in caster being an asset but then again it's also not the end of the world decreasing notchy higher speed driving either. Not exactly your statement but I'm with you it'd be better to account for reliability verses mildly better drive ability. I'll just stick with stock and be done with it. If he wants to go with different control arms at a later date then good on him, we'll work something out.

Thanks again for your wise and honest opinion.

 

[zmotorsports]

Don't be my friend. I was greatly concerned about durability myself. But I hadn't considered the "bumphuck Egypt replacement " aspect to be honest. That being a valid concern. After driving this thing and knowing how this guy uses it I considered the increase in caster being an asset but then again it's also not the end of the world decreasing notchy higher speed driving either. Not exactly your statement but I'm with you it'd be better to account for reliability verses mildly better drive ability. I'll just stick with stock and be done with it. If he wants to go with different control arms at a later date then good on him, we'll work something out.



Thanks again for your wise and honest opinion.

You’re very welcome Cam. It’s always nice to bounce ideas and thoughts around.


Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

 

[zmotorsports]

I didn’t get as much done today as I had hoped. I’ve been fighting off a cold or something for damn near three weeks now and feel like ****. Every joint in my body aches today.

My son and I had hoped to get the front suspension completed under his WJ today but I could barely put one foot in front of the other most if the day.

We started off by building the lower links and fabricated the plates for the upper part of the Y-links.


All four cut and finished to the same size.




Mocked together with spacers.




Welded up the lower links.






Ready to bolt into position.


Passenger side bolted in and ready to cut the material for the upper part of the Y-link.


Driver’s side.


Next up was fabricating the track bar. Machined the tube adapter and welded it into the 1.5” x .250” wall DOM tubing. Root pass.


Cover (weave) pass.


My son machined an aluminum slug to use for mock-up so we didn’t have to press the bushing in and back out multiple times. Here it is ready to bolt in.


Track bar in position.


I wish I felt better and could have gotten more accomplished today.

 

[Boosted1]

That's more than alot of people get accomplished on a good day.
Get some rest.
That's going to be a nice jeep when you are done.

 

[Scuderia-F1]

Looks like you did pretty good Mike, now get well soon so that you’ll be fit for fight to produce some of them nice lengthy YouTube videos.

With best regards,
Anders

 

[zmotorsports]

That's more than alot of people get accomplished on a good day.
Get some rest.
That's going to be a nice jeep when you are done.

Thanks for the comments.

I think I’ll take today off and try to shake this ****.

 

[zmotorsports]

Looks like you did pretty good Mike, now get well soon so that you’ll be fit for fight to produce some of them nice lengthy YouTube videos.

With best regards,
Anders

Thanks Anders, I appreciate the comments and support.

It’s nice to see someone enjoys my videos.

If all goes as planned there should be a fairly good series coming up in the future surrounding a particular project.

Stay tuned.....


Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

 

[Scuderia-F1]

Thanks Anders, I appreciate the comments and support.

It’s nice to see someone enjoys my videos.

If all goes as planned there should be a fairly good series coming up in the future surrounding a particular project.

Stay tuned.....


Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

Can’t wait, good thing my Snap-on rep just gifted me with a big coffee tumbler.
Will come handy to that series.

 

[shortykorte]

Shake your bug, we wanna see the box. Hope you get to feeling better.


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the comments. I tried to get a few things done today but just too weak to do much. Wife thinks I need to relax and get feeling better but that’s hard to do.


Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

 

[zmotorsports]

I didn’t feel up to it today but thought I better service the wife’s car and rotate her tires. I couldn’t wait to get the lift free so I had to service it off of jack stands. Sure makes a person miss his lift, although it probably wouldn’t have been quite as bad had I had a bit more energy.

I never thought I’d say this but I’m nearly out of room in the shop. With three vehicles in the shop and all of the parts scattered around for my son’s WJ project and my next project it looks like a bomb went off in the shop today.

 

[fnieto]

Nah, your not out of room Mike, your just in the middle of a major project.
Feel better brother.

Paco

 

[LXCam]

That's the way to get better. Just a little R&R servicing the wife's car.


Sounds like a great idear

 

[Finallygotit]

I never thought I’d say this but I’m nearly out of room in the shop. With three vehicles in the shop and all of the parts scattered around for my son’s WJ project and my next project it looks like a bomb went off in the shop today.

What are you talking about? I can still see the floor.

 

[C_F]

That's the way to get better. Just a little R&R servicing the wife's car.


Sounds like a great idear

Yep, that's what I was thinking too.

 

[4 FN 27]

I never thought I’d say this but I’m nearly out of room in the shop.

LOL...at times I think the same thing...

Take care of yourself Mike!!!

1 Bowl Chicken Noodle Soup, 1 Shot of Nyquil and 1 Brandy. Find your favorite chair within 5 minutes. Repeat as necessary...

 

[dchance]

At least the bomb left new parts.

Good work.

Dwight

 

[Wanna Ride]

It's nice to see him use the skillset that he has acquired. He helped his girlfriend's mother on her riding lawnmower the other night. He grabbed his VOM out of his truck to diagnose a weak battery, then went and picked one up and put it in for her. She was so appreciative. My son's girlfriend's father had passed away about 7 years ago and I have gathered that the two brothers are not very mechanically inclined so my son has been a breathe of fresh air to their family helping with little things around the house and yard. It is great to see what a considerate and helpful young man he has turned in to and I am proud that he at least got the basic skillset from me.

You’ve applied your proper and precise way of craftsmanship to creating quality things more than just mechanical. You should be proud of the things you’ve created... son included.

I’ve said it before... I enjoy your pictures and stories and this one’s no different. I love my daughter, but I have to admit, I’m a little envious for not having a son and the quality/shop time of teaching someone the skills I’ve acquired, myself. I never wanted to force it on her and she never really had an interest.

Again, thanks for sharing all the pics and stories.

 

[lilscorpion]

Passenger side bolted in and ready to cut the material for the upper part of the Y-link.

Cool seeing someone use the term YLink. As luck would have it, exactly tonight (October 23rd) in 2004 just before 11pm at night, necessity became the mother of invention and the Y-Link was invented. The bend in the link was necessary to fit a radius arm up inside the Jeep Cherokee (XJ) and bent out of 1 3/4 x .250 DOM. By noon the next day, we had designed the first YLink kit which included a heavy duty crossmember and the first customer drive our prototype home.



This exact same arm has since been a key component in suspension kits for just about every model of Jeep you can imagine (and adapted to a couple which don’t wear the Jeep brand but don’t tell anyone).



Sorry for the hijack, I just happened to see the pics of you building yours almost to the minute 14 years later...took me back.

Happy Birthday YLink.

 

[yaidunno]

This exact same arm has since been a key component in suspension kits for just about every model of Jeep you can imagine (and adapted to a couple which don’t wear the Jeep brand but don’t tell anyone).

The brake line on the green one looks to be doubling as a limiter strap

Nice progress on the WJ, Mike! Hopefully you've kicked the cold.

 

[zmotorsports]

Nah, your not out of room Mike, your just in the middle of a major project.
Feel better brother.

Paco

That's the way to get better. Just a little R&R servicing the wife's car.


Sounds like a great idear

What are you talking about? I can still see the floor.

Yep, that's what I was thinking too.

LOL...at times I think the same thing...

Take care of yourself Mike!!!

1 Bowl Chicken Noodle Soup, 1 Shot of Nyquil and 1 Brandy. Find your favorite chair within 5 minutes. Repeat as necessary...

At least the bomb left new parts.

Good work.

Dwight

Thanks for all of the comments guys. I'm feeling a bit better but turns out I had a damn sinus infection. No wonder I felt like **** and couldn't shake it.

I hope to be able to get back after the WJ soon and make some serious progress.

Thanks again for the comments and for following along, even in my absence.

 

[zmotorsports]

You’ve applied your proper and precise way of craftsmanship to creating quality things more than just mechanical. You should be proud of the things you’ve created... son included.

I’ve said it before... I enjoy your pictures and stories and this one’s no different. I love my daughter, but I have to admit, I’m a little envious for not having a son and the quality/shop time of teaching someone the skills I’ve acquired, myself. I never wanted to force it on her and she never really had an interest.

Again, thanks for sharing all the pics and stories.

Thank you very much for the comments, I am very flattered. I'm glad someone likes all of my pictures and commentary.

 

[zmotorsports]

Cool seeing someone use the term YLink. As luck would have it, exactly tonight (October 23rd) in 2004 just before 11pm at night, necessity became the mother of invention and the Y-Link was invented. The bend in the link was necessary to fit a radius arm up inside the Jeep Cherokee (XJ) and bent out of 1 3/4 x .250 DOM. By noon the next day, we had designed the first YLink kit which included a heavy duty crossmember and the first customer drive our prototype home.

This exact same arm has since been a key component in suspension kits for just about every model of Jeep you can imagine (and adapted to a couple which don’t wear the Jeep brand but don’t tell anyone).

That's awesome. Thanks for sharing, no way are you hi-jacking.

My first experience with the Y-link was on my son's 2004 LJ that he built in college. It worked well and had very good street manners as well as off-road.

When he was talking about building a WJ I don't even think he considered anything else other than the Y-link mainly due to clearance and fitment concerns.

Thanks for following along on my projects.

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice progress on the WJ, Mike! Hopefully you've kicked the cold.

Thanks. I think I'm on the mend. Ready to get back after it and make some progress.

 

[LXCam]

Thanks for all of the comments guys. I'm feeling a bit better but turns out I had a damn sinus infection. No wonder I felt like **** and couldn't shake it.:

I got into a discussion with a couple guys one evening many moons ago. One of them decided he didn't like my take on the subject and put my nose on the other side of my face with a 2x4. The busted nose was minor compared to the 3 month long sinus infection that kicked my ***. Even though it's been close to 40yrs since that I can still remember how miserable I felt.

Get better brother, we're all waiting to see what's in the dang box.

 

[4 FN 27]

I'm feeling a bit better but turns out I had a damn sinus infection. No wonder I felt like **** and couldn't shake it.

Dang Mike...I lost one of my best friends to a Sinus Infection. He was traveling just before Thanksgiving 2005 recruiting people for his Business. Happened to be in Bozeman MT. Had a doc look at him. Told him it was a cold.

He called his Wife and told her to take his Girls to Charlotte to his sisters and he would catch up to them on Saturday using Thursday and Friday to recover.

They were remodeling their Basement at the time. Construction workers went there on Friday morning and found his car halfway through the Garage Wall. Upon entering the house they found him stumbling around and figured he tied one on while his wife was gone.

About an hour later they heard glass break and went to check and he was out cold on the floor. Medical was called and they hauled him to the Emergency and transferred him right into ICU...10 days later he was gone. The infection had spread to his brain.

I got to say good by to one of the best mentors I had in life...and I have his '56 Chevy he bought when he was 14 in 1968. Left behind an 8 and 10 year old...still see them and his widow and they are all doing great.

His Snap-On and Car Collection is a whole other story...

Next time Mike...go to the doc a little earlier...just say'in...I appreciate stopping by daily and reading your latest "stuff".

 

[iajonesy]

Note to all. NEVER let a sinus or tooth infection go, as it can and will migrate to your brain in very short order. As 4fn27 knows, the results can be devastating.

mike

 

[C_F]

Damn, this is the first I've heard of a sinus infection killing someone. Good to know, I guess!

 

[zmotorsports]

WOW guys. I had no idea a sinus infection could be lethal.

I had one about five years ago and it was the worst headache I had ever experienced. Upon going to the doctor I was told that because I was taking so much over the counter medicine to get over my cold it wasn't allowing my system to drain and expel the mucus and congestion. It was actually holding everything in and causing the secondary infection. He told me that I would be more susceptible to sinus infections in the future and to be aware of overusing OTC remedies.

Over the past five years I have avoided any OTC medicines for the several colds I had gotten. Well about a month ago I got a cold while I was on vacation wheeling in South Dakota and needed to take something to allow me to continue on vacation, had I been home I would have called in sick but hey, I was on vacation and wanted to enjoy it.

My wife finally talked me into going to the doctor on Saturday morning because my head was killing me and I could barely function. Sure enough, the doctor informed me I had another sinus infection. He subscribed a Z-pack antibiotic treatment. I finally started feeling a bit better on Monday and feel pretty decent today but my energy level is stiff sub-par.

I had never heard of a sinus infection being lethal however. I'm definitely going to watch it closer and again, avoid OTC treatments.

 

[clutchee]

Mike great thread!

On the sinus infection route.... I’m having surgery tomorrow due to this very thing. ENT doctor about month ago saw me and was amazed at 40 I was functioning. I’ve lived with 2-4 infections per year....
A 3D MRI revealed my sinuses are compacted and not draining.

Surgery tomorrow to clean them out and also enlarge my nasal passages to help breathing.

Trust me, I hate surgery but after seeing him and seeing the MRI I’m amazed.

Good luck and get well, see you on the trails sometime.

 

[zmotorsports]

On a more positive note, I got my second wind after work today and between my son and I we killed it in the shop.

I had machined the upper tubes for the front suspension to accept the tube adapters last week before I lost my drive and surrendered to feeling like ****. Tonight I pressed the adapters into the tubes for welding.


Mocked into position to tack weld.


Ready for final welding.






Gussets welded on.




Tube adapters second (weave) pass over root weld.


Upper links done.


Test fit.


While I was welding my son knocked out a couple of gussets for the Y-Link brackets.


Gussets welded in place.


Links all removed from the Jeep and ready to go off for powder coating.

 

[zmotorsports]

I then decided to machine the components for the upper bumpstops.

I machined four 2” diameter tubes/spacers from DOM. I also machined four threaded bungs measuring .5” thick and pressed them in 1/4”. These are threaded to 7/16”-14 to accept a standard TJ bucket.


Threaded bungs welded into the spacers.








Bumpstop standoffs welded in place on the Jeep. My overhead welding needs more practice.


While I was welding my son cleaned the NP231 transfer case in preparation for bearing replacement and final assembly.

 

[Balor]

Nice Mike

rngr1

 

[NASTYZEN]

Glad to see your illness has not hampered your welding skills Mike!
Looking great all around.
It is a great thing to be able to spend some time in the shop with your kids.
Both of mine have moved out but my eldest worked with me on weekends while going through university and now my youngest is doing the same going to multimedia school. Growing up in the shop not only gives them skills and confidence, but work ethics and morals. Not to mention the bonding.


There is a bug going around here as well. My youngest brought it up to me personally from the city this past weekend. I now feel like I have a clamp on my head..

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike great thread!

On the sinus infection route.... I’m having surgery tomorrow due to this very thing. ENT doctor about month ago saw me and was amazed at 40 I was functioning. I’ve lived with 2-4 infections per year....
A 3D MRI revealed my sinuses are compacted and not draining.

Surgery tomorrow to clean them out and also enlarge my nasal passages to help breathing.

Trust me, I hate surgery but after seeing him and seeing the MRI I’m amazed.

Good luck and get well, see you on the trails sometime.

Thanks for stopping by my projects thread. Best of luck with the surgery, hope all goes well.

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice Mike

rngr1

Thank you.

 

[zmotorsports]

Glad to see your illness has not hampered your welding skills Mike!
Looking great all around.
It is a great thing to be able to spend some time in the shop with your kids.
Both of mine have moved out but my eldest worked with me on weekends while going through university and now my youngest is doing the same going to multimedia school. Growing up in the shop not only gives them skills and confidence, but work ethics and morals. Not to mention the bonding.


There is a bug going around here as well. My youngest brought it up to me personally from the city this past weekend. I now feel like I have a clamp on my head..

Thanks for stopping by Claude and thanks for the comments.

I'm enjoying all the time I can with my son in the shop as I think next year will look very different from the past 27 years of him being in the shop with me. All of a sudden I'm not his favorite person to hang out with.

Luckily I think he still plans on coming by the shop to work even after he's married so I hope that plan stays in place. He mentioned last night that they are talking about houses and would like to stay in the area so that made me happy. He also informed me last night that he has been looking at rings and he and his girlfriend have been talking quite seriously about their future. He's a planner and has to have all of his "T's" crossed and "I's" dotted so I don't see them moving too quickly until the plan is in place and approved by both parties.

 

[jeepinerdeep]

Great looking parts coming out of your shop man.

 

[zmotorsports]

Great looking parts coming out of your shop man.

Thank you, I appreciate that.

 

[zmotorsports]

I just dropped his suspension links off at the powder coater.


Next up is the transfer case reassembly then move on to axle gear sets. We’re still waiting on limiting straps, which were back ordered, then we can get the mounts machined for them and he can paint the frame rails/undercarriage with POR15 and then final assembly and lastly order driveshafts.