Project Pavement Pounder (2001 XJ Limited)

[96sport]

Originally Posted by Doobie

what about the D30 gears in 4.88 sucks? Just.... something with the carrier or what?

The pinion gear is to small!!

2000XJ, it must suck living back east where they salt all your roads, rust your floor boards, and seize anything that has a thread and nut Did you get your lugs off yet?

[2000XJ]

4.88's in a Dana 30 means that the pinion gear is just too small, so it's easier to break. 4.56's gives me a little more size, and a bit more contact with the ring gear, so it's a bit safer.

Yea it does suck living out here. I take good care of my rigs though, both have minimal rust on them. Frequent car washes in the winter helps. I also antiseize anything that I reinstall on the truck, so taking the burgundy rig apart is a joke now becuase nothing seizes anymore. The blue XJ will get the same treatment as things get replaced on it.

As for the lugs, no, I haven't gotten them off yet. I literally haven't had the time. I'm helping my buddy build his TJ on 60's, with pretty much custom everything, so I've had no time for my own rig. We have 10 weeks to get his rig done, about 2 days a week on average. Oh, and I don't have a ton of money right now to dump into my XJ because of work issues, so alot has been put on the back burner.

[Doobie]

whats the down side to 4.56's?

I am sorry that you have to deal with salted roads, it must really suck when trying to keep a vehicle in mint condition

[2000XJ]

Well after 6 months of owning this XJ, and like 5 months of having the parts for the BB sitting around my garage and shed I finally found the free time and motivation to put the BB on it!

Soon to come, a set of Moab's with 245/70R16 All-Terrains

[01blackxj]

well congrats dave, now just post up some pics

[CT99XJ]

pics!!!

[2000XJ]

Pics to come soon, I gotta get the camera from the girlfriend

[2000XJ]

Moabs and 245/75R16 all-terrains are on... the Moabs are a little beat, but from a distance the XJ looks sexy

[Doobie]

so what else has been going on with the DD? I would like to know how you did the BB.

[2000XJ]

Not much, the DD has just been getting driven daily

No other big plans for it aside from a CB Radio (Cobra 75 WXST) that I want to get in by mid December. Eventually I want to put a hitch and tow hooks on it, but that probably won't be until the spring. I'll also probably put on the factory tcase skid because I have a lead on a free one. Other than that it's going to stay pretty much stock.

[2000XJ]

For those of you who are curious about how I did the Budget Boost here is my mini write-up:

All basic tools were used: ratchets, sockets, wrenches, 1 Floor Jack, 1 Bottle Jack (having a second jack made it a bit easier), angle grinder

The parts that I needed were: Second set of XJ Leaf Springs, new set of 5/16" center pins, new set of u-bolts and nuts, coil spacers, leaf pack clamps

It took me, from start to finish about 8 hours, including breaks for lunch, and a couple errands I had to run.

In the front I kept it pretty simple - I just used coil spacers from Teraflex.

In the rear I made bastard packs. I used the original leafs from the original leaf packs that came on the XJ, and then I had another set of XJ leaf packs available that I used the main leaf (obviously I cut off the eyes for the bushings) and the second leaf. This setup gave me exactly 2.5" of lift in the rear.

I did the rear packs without taking the leaf packs off of the XJ. I took them apart and assembled them with the main leaf still bolted to the XJ.

If you're not going to wheel the rig, then you'll be OK with using the original brakelines all around. I have some slack left for some flex, but I wouldn't wheel with the lines the way they are.

The shocks are OK for the time being. They're a bit on the short side, and again I wouldn't wheel with them. I will eventually be swapping over to either Bilsteins or maybe JK Shocks - I've read that they work well on the XJ's too, and are the right length for a budget boost.

As for how the leaf packs feel: They are a bit stiffer than the stock packs, but they're actually not as stiff as when I used to have the Rubicon Express Full-Length AAL BB on my trail rig a few years ago.

The front feels the same because all I did was put in a spacer and keep the factory coils.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

[flawlesslydisturbed]

How hard is it to add the leaf with the main pack still connected?

I've been wanting to do this just for added support, not for lift, but haven't had the time to pull the main pack.

[2000XJ]

It's a breeze. The best way to do it, is to lift the rear of the XJ as high as possible (make sure the front tires are chucked/blocked).

Set the jackstands under the frame rails just ahead of the leaf springs, and let the jack down so that the rear tires are still hanging off of the ground. Remove the tires so you have full access to the packs. Once this is done, support the pumpkin with the jack, making sure that it's ONLY supported and not actually lifting the XJ off of the jackstands. Unbolt the swaybar at the leaf pack, remove the u-bolts from the axle and leaf packs.

At this point you can lower your axle, and it will lower itself from the leaf packs. Make sure that when you lower the axle, you do not over-extend the brakeline - there should be enough slack in the line to give you plenty of space to work - there was for me.

At this point you'll need a couple of decent sized C-Clamps. Use them to clamp the leafs of the pack so that you can move onto the next steps. Eventually, they will be the only things holding your packs together.

At this point, you'll want to use an angle grinder with a cut-off wheel to cut off the leaf spring clamps that are already wrapped around the packs. Once you cut one of the sides off, you can use a screw driver or pry bar to pry the clamp open and slide it off of the leaf pack.

Once those clamps are off, you can move onto the centering pin. At this point you MUST make sure that your C-Clamps are clamped tight, as they will be the only thing holding the pack together in a few moments. You can try to unbolt the centering pin, but chances are that it'll just snap off and break (this is OK). If you get it to fully unbolt than great. You can also just cut the pin off. BE VERY CAREFUL - this center pin is under alot of pressure and if it snaps, or you cut it off, it will most likely pop and can fly and hit you in the face - wear proper eye protection. Once you've cut it, broken it, or removed the nut you can use a hammer and a dowel or screwdriver to punch it out from the bottom. NOW the C-Clamps are the only thing holding the pack together.

Start to slowly loosen the C-Clamps. The leafs are actually not under as much tension as you may think. But for safety's sake loosen the c-clamps slowly. It'll get to a point, and you'll be able to feel it, that the leafs tension will be minimal and you can undo the clamps the rest of the way so that you take the leaf apart.

Now just reassemble the leaf pack with whatever leafs you desire. Clamp the leaf pack back together and insider the center pin and bolt that down. You want this center pin to be pretty tight. Once the center pin is on, keep the leaf pack clamped. Install a new set of leaf spring clamps. These clamps aren't actually what holds the pack together, their main job is to keep the leafs from spinning out and cutting your tire.

Once the clamps are on, you can remove the c-clamps and jack the axle back up so that you can reinstall the u-bolts. Make sure you tighten these down well, and then check them again within 250 miles to make sure they stayed tight.

You will have to use NEW center pins, and NEW u-bolts, with NEW nuts. The reason is that all of this hardware is designed to stretch some, and so you cannot reuse the old ones.

[2000XJ]

Wow, so it's been a couple months since I got the Budget Boost done on the Daily Driver, but between starting a new job, along with a ton of other things that have been keeping me super occupied, I finally got around to snapping some pics with the BB and 245/75R16 tires (31" tires roughly).

[01blackxj]

looking good dave