Just another WJ

[MrWilsonWJ]

Thanks, your WJ looks pretty good too. How is it running the 35's with only 4" of lift, seems like they'd rub a lot when you flex. We make it over towards Walla Walla a few times per year to camp and hit the trails. Where do you go around there?

 

[WJCampin]

Thanks man! It definitely rubs. I haven't done much trimming yet but that's coming soon. The 35s have been pretty much only in the snow so there isn't much flexing going on. But I'll be tackling that soon since I'm out of stuff to do on the Jeep after I get the winch on today hopefully. Still awaiting my Kratos tire carrier from HK. We go up Government Road a lot or in the foothills. And now that Jubilee is open we'll be hitting that up again. This summer I want to go do the Compressor trail up in Mullan ID.

 

[MrWilsonWJ]

Well, I attempted to get the suspension work done this weekend but once everything was out on the bench I noticed I got shorted one piece I had ordered from IRO. Gave them a call this morning, they were super nice about it and have one on it's way. So since I was already out at the shop at 7 AM on a Saturday I decided to find some other little projects to work on. Hopefully my part arrives in time to be able to work on it next weekend, snows melting in the hills and camping season is here.

Camp Lights!

I had a couple of extra rock lights so I cut their rubber mount at an angle and mounted them up to the rear hatch so they point down and slightly out for a little extra light while around camp. Mounted the toggle switch in the recessed handle area for closing the gate so it was protected from anything in the back switching them on while it's loaded with gear. Here is just enough room to reach the switch with the hatched closed if I ever wanted to use them while I was sleeping in the back.

Also while I was out there I finally got around to putting on my flat link and installing my fairlead license plate mount. No more zip ties!

 

[tjZ06]

Nice work!

-TJ

 

[MrWilsonWJ]

Finally got around to installing my new suspension parts. List of parts included 4.5" Clayton offroad coil springs, Bilstien shocks, Iron Rock Offroad adjustable rear control arm set, front bar pin eliminaters and longer JKS quick disconnects. Installation was pretty straightforward since I've had everything apart before. One surprise I found while taking things apart was I had crack the frame where one of the rear sway bar links attached. I had read that can happen if you have the HD addco rear bar and wheel it too much, didn't think I was going to wheel it enough for that to happen but I guess I did. So after I fixed up the frame I removed the rear sway bar to see how it handles with the new stiffer springs and better shocks. Another thing I did was build some bump stop extensions for the front. I cut some 2"x4" tubing the length of the bump stop (3"), drilled some holes and bolted them up. After I get a chance to test them on the trail to see if they're the right length I'll pull them off to box the tube and lengthen or shorten them as needed, but after test flexing the suspension they seem like they are going to work as is. In the picture below you can kind of see the bump stop extension between the shock and coil.

Initial thoughts on the new setup
-Gained a little more height than expected. 3" coil to 4.5" should have been 1.5" but got me 2 1/8 in the front and 1 3/4 in the rear but I'll check it after the first trip to see if it settles some.
-Read a lot that 4"+ lift on short arms rides like crap, but I think it rides pretty good, could be the shock and spring combo.
-Longer front coils are a plus so I don't have to run leveling spacers. In the picture above you can see the difference between the old and new, new one measured about 2 1/2" longer than the old one so I put it together without the spacer and I like the way it sits.
-Handles pretty good so far. First drive was 20 miles with a 20+ MPH side wind, it was definitely getting blown around but didn't seem unstable without the rear sway bar. Second drive was around 40 miles with a few hours of playing in the sand dunes in the middle. Rides good and handling is predictable. You can notice the rear sway bar is gone, doesn't feel as planted as before but also doesn't feel like you're going to tip over when a semi goes by you. I think the higher spring rate of the new coils and better shocks helped a lot with one road handling. Rode nice and plush out in the dunes, I wasn't doing anything high speed but it handled everything really well and flexed good when needed.

 

[MrWilsonWJ]

After the last round of suspension work I'm pretty happy with the overall look and performance, I still need to get it on some trail to really test it out but that'll happen this weekend. Looking through my phone I found some old pictures and thought I would post up some progress pics at it's different stages of life so far.

2" BB, 265/75R16 and no fender trimming

3" lift, 265/70R17 (32's) and "baja" trimmed front bumper with minor trimming to the rear

3" lift, 265/70R17 (32's), Tube front bumper, full trim to front fenders, minor trim to the rear.

3" lift, 3/4" leveling spacer, 33's, Tube front bumper, full trim to front and rear fenders.

4.5" lift, 33's, Tube front bumper, full trim to front and rear fenders.

 

[MrWilsonWJ]

Got the Grand up in the woods over the weekend and am happy to say the new suspension worked great! We had about 2 hours of highway drive to get where we were camping and it handled pretty good. The added spring rate really helped with how much the rear squatted when full loaded and it seemed to drive better at highway speeds. It still wanders a bit when its fully loaded but I think I'm going to try adjusting a little more caster into the front axle and maybe look for an '04 front sway bar, which is the solid one apposed to the hallow one that is currently on it. On the trails the ride was probably better than the old spring and shock combo, I really didn't notice any added harshness from being at 4.5" of lift on short arms. Not that I went on any challenging trails this trip but I could feel it flexing better without the rear sway bar installed and I think it made the ride better because the rear suspension was able to work without the sway bar trying to fight it. All in all I think the upgrades were a success, now I just need to get it on some harder trails to see how it really does.

Another upgrade that got put to the test this weekend was the cooling system work I did last year. It wasn't an extreme situation type test but it was definitely taxed and performed good. Went up a trail that climbed 1700' in about 3 miles at 10 MPH with an outside temp of about 85 degrees. Temp would climb just above the 210 mark before the electric fan would kick on, it would continue to climb to the first mark past 210 before starting to drop but would always come right back down to 210. So for a long steady slow speed climb the was relatively steep I think it did a good job of holding temp.

 

[JimBill]

Glad the suspension and cooling mod worked well.
We are headed to Bishop/eastern Sierras tomorrow night for a long weekend. Weather is coming in so we may get screwed out of high elevation trails (Coyote Flats, etc). I'll get some indication of the 2 row radiator performance but expect no extremes as the weather will be anywhere from cool to snow weather. But I will have a max loadout, elevation, and lots of slow climbs.
I tweaked the spring on my fan clutch, it now starts to engage at about 200 deg so it is optimized per my thinking. The electric fan was coming on too early and messing with the clutch fan, so I adjusted it to come on a little higher so the mechanical has a chance to work first. We will see how it goes.
Sway bars will be the hollow front and stock rear, with the front disconnected off road as it should be. It will be the first time with full load and stock rear bar, so we will see how it does on road. I will have a little more weight on the roof than usual so I'd say I will be near extreme conditions for top heavy. Will make for a very fair test.
Pre trip checks showed the front end solid but my rear wishbone bushings pretty shredded. Explains the occasional weeble wobble under power from the back end. So I am getting closer to "needing" to mod it for the planned 3" lift.....

 

[tjZ06]

The WJ is looking great, and those views are spectacular.

-TJ

 

[MrWilsonWJ]

Glad the suspension and cooling mod worked well.
We are headed to Bishop/eastern Sierras tomorrow night for a long weekend. Weather is coming in so we may get screwed out of high elevation trails (Coyote Flats, etc). I'll get some indication of the 2 row radiator performance but expect no extremes as the weather will be anywhere from cool to snow weather. But I will have a max loadout, elevation, and lots of slow climbs.
I tweaked the spring on my fan clutch, it now starts to engage at about 200 deg so it is optimized per my thinking. The electric fan was coming on too early and messing with the clutch fan, so I adjusted it to come on a little higher so the mechanical has a chance to work first. We will see how it goes.
Sway bars will be the hollow front and stock rear, with the front disconnected off road as it should be. It will be the first time with full load and stock rear bar, so we will see how it does on road. I will have a little more weight on the roof than usual so I'd say I will be near extreme conditions for top heavy. Will make for a very fair test.
Pre trip checks showed the front end solid but my rear wishbone bushings pretty shredded. Explains the occasional weeble wobble under power from the back end. So I am getting closer to "needing" to mod it for the planned 3" lift.....

Bad bushings could be causing some wobble. I think the most unstable mine felt was when I first lifted it, had the factory sway bars and crappy bushings in all of the control arms. This last trip it felt pretty good for only having the front factory bar on (or I'm getting used to it wobbling all over the road) I even had 2 large Husky storage boxes, my chainsaw, a couple of camp chairs and some firewood on the roof. If you ever switch to front adjustable control arms they will help a bit with it feeling twitchy at highway speeds, being able to adjust the caster back into spec seemed to make mine drive better.

 

[MrWilsonWJ]

The WJ is looking great, and those views are spectacular.

-TJ

Thanks, it's starting to take shape. Pictures were taken in central Washington on the eastern foothills of the Cascades just south of Ellensburg.

Have you been able to get yours out on the trail of your last round of work? I'm sure you've been itching to head out with that trailer.

 

[tjZ06]

Thanks, it's starting to take shape. Pictures were taken in central Washington on the eastern foothills of the Cascades just south of Ellensburg.

Have you been able to get yours out on the trail of your last round of work? I'm sure you've been itching to head out with that trailer.

I haven't, and it's killing me. I didn't post much about it, but the whole issue of needing to cut and rotate the Cs added a lot more time. Then, I've had 2 or 3 trips planned that ended up falling apart because of others not being able to go, or my work. I don't really want to head out 100% solo to test it out. So, it's looking like I have a trip finally planned that shouldn't fall apart for Memorial Day weekend in the Shasta National Forest, then my big trip in the Payette National Forest of Idaho in June.

-TJ

 

[MrWilsonWJ]

I haven't updated here in a while, but really hasn't been much getting done. A couple months back I was changing the oil in the rear end and noticed there was some little chunks missing out of the spider gears and the oil was a little more sparkly than I like to see. So I started tearing the rear end down looking for a problem and never really found anything wrong other than the spider gears. Since it was apart I went back together with all new bearings and seals but reused the ring and pinion since it looked to be in good shape. The one upgrade I made though was to throw the spider gears in the trash and fill the carrier with a locker. I used a Spartan and so far I'm happy with it, it's a little noisy and it would be nice to have a selectable locker but I couldn't see spending the money on an ARB for an axle I want to eventually swap out.

 

[MrWilsonWJ]

I've now made it out on 3 trips with the locker and new suspension and the Grand performs pretty damn good. None of the trails have been hardcore rock crawling or anything real extreme but I've made it up, over and through everything I've attempted to this point. I've failed to take pictures of my trips yet again here is some from other people I was out with on a couple of the trips.

 

[tjZ06]

I've now made it out on 3 trips with the locker and new suspension and the Grand performs pretty damn good. None of the trails have been hardcore rock crawling or anything real extreme but I've made it up, over and through everything I've attempted to this point. I've failed to take pictures of my trips yet again here is some from other people I was out with on a couple of the trips.
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A well-built Grand like yours is so capable. A lot of folks really underestimate them, but as you're proving they're great rigs. Looks like great trails too.

-TJ

 

[MrWilsonWJ]

So no real work has been done to the WJ other then minor maintenance since my last post but after the last trip I had a check engine light come on and have a minor coolant leak, hopefully both are easy fixes. I also noticed that a few of the boots on my ball joints are starting to tear a little so that might mean time to upgrade the steering system to an OTK setup with HD heim joint ends. Things are working fine how they are right now, but if I'm going to take it all apart to change ball joints I might as well upgrade while its apart. And now the fun part, here's some pics from the last couple trips.

 

[OTH Overland]

@MrWilsonWJ, Dustin, rig is looking good, and some great trip photos. Keep seeing more and more WJ's getting built, would be good to find a common location to do a WJ trip one of these days. We are building out a JKU currently, but have no plans on getting rid of the old WJ as we both love it so much. Hoping to get it in the garage for a rebuild this winter, would like to do some beefing up the axles, and the engine/trans/transfer could use some love. Just not ready to cut the fenders yet, with the 4" IRO lift we could only go up one size from stock without rubbing on the bumper, may have to lose that for a custom one.

 

[MrWilsonWJ]

@MrWilsonWJ, Dustin, rig is looking good, and some great trip photos. Keep seeing more and more WJ's getting built, would be good to find a common location to do a WJ trip one of these days. We are building out a JKU currently, but have no plans on getting rid of the old WJ as we both love it so much. Hoping to get it in the garage for a rebuild this winter, would like to do some beefing up the axles, and the engine/trans/transfer could use some love. Just not ready to cut the fenders yet, with the 4" IRO lift we could only go up one size from stock without rubbing on the bumper, may have to lose that for a custom one.

Your right, it seems like ever time I'm out camping or on the trails I see more WJ's. People are starting to catch on to how good they are and that you can still pick them up for a reasonable price. I would be up for a WJ meet up/ trail run somewhere, sounds like a good time. At one time I think there was a NW Grand Cherokee group but I haven't seem anything on them for a while now. As for cutting fenders I knew it was something that would happen eventually to mine since long term goal is 6" long arm and 35's. So I decided to do it early on to fit the biggest tires with the smallest lift, I was able to run 33's with a 3" short arm and only rubbed while flexed hard with the wheels turned. For custom bumpers I've been really happy with the Trail Forged one I put on. You have to cut out a fair amount of metal for it, but it helps keep everything in close and looks good.

 

[OTH Overland]

Your right, it seems like ever time I'm out camping or on the trails I see more WJ's. People are starting to catch on to how good they are and that you can still pick them up for a reasonable price. I would be up for a WJ meet up/ trail run somewhere, sounds like a good time. At one time I think there was a NW Grand Cherokee group but I haven't seem anything on them for a while now. As for cutting fenders I knew it was something that would happen eventually to mine since long term goal is 6" long arm and 35's. So I decided to do it early on to fit the biggest tires with the smallest lift, I was able to run 33's with a 3" short arm and only rubbed while flexed hard with the wheels turned. For custom bumpers I've been really happy with the Trail Forged one I put on. You have to cut out a fair amount of metal for it, but it helps keep everything in close and looks good.

I already have the IRO long arm kit installed, so going to longer springs is always an option, but would probably invoke a mod to the axle C's to prevent vibration. Thinking about fabing my own front bumper / recessed winch mount as we want to maintain the ability to use a tow bar. thinking then I can get 33 without any rubbing. Best thing we have done to that rig so far is repainting it with raptor liner, really holds up well to the overgrown trails around here and was easy to color match to factory.

 

[tjZ06]

So no real work has been done to the WJ other then minor maintenance since my last post but after the last trip I had a check engine light come on and have a minor coolant leak, hopefully both are easy fixes. I also noticed that a few of the boots on my ball joints are starting to tear a little so that might mean time to upgrade the steering system to an OTK setup with HD heim joint ends. Things are working fine how they are right now, but if I'm going to take it all apart to change ball joints I might as well upgrade while its apart. And now the fun part, here's some pics from the last couple trips.
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I had Kevin's OTK setup before I did the axle swap and all of that, was a great steering setup.

-TJ