WJCO's Build Thread, 1999 WJ

WJCO said:
New lower arms came in today. Company even put a personal note in the box apologizing for delayed shipping along with a 10% off code. I never even complained nor did I find the shipping time to be unreasonable, so that was a nice surprise.
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Sweet! Doesn't hurt that they look cool too :cool:
 
JeepFan said:
Now that is what I call great customer service! [emoji106]
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CastleRockJeep said:
Wow, great customer service!


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
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Agreed. Rare in today's world.

wayoflife said:
Sweet! Doesn't hurt that they look cool too :cool:
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Oh yeah. I love the way they look too. Just slapped the stickers on and set an initial adjustment. Not only is the bushing on the old one shot, but I've noticed since the axle swap, steering is flightly. Stock WJ caster is 9 degrees and the bracket kit for the new axle says to set the caster at 5-6 for the jk axle. I'm right at 5 now. So I'm hoping with the lower arms, if I can get around 7, it will improve my steering a little.

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New lights look great. Funny how much of a difference little tweaks make.

Curious on those brake rotors: Is that finish supposed to stay on or does it wear off? I've seen the different colors & always wondered...
 
Ddays said:
New lights look great. Funny how much of a difference little tweaks make.
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Thanks. Agreed.

Ddays said:
Curious on those brake rotors: Is that finish supposed to stay on or does it wear off? I've seen the different colors & always wondered...
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Suppose to be an anticorrosive coating that wears off where the pads contact the rotor. Never used something like them before.
 
Arms are on, but caster is too high. I'll deal with that tomorrow. Here's a pic of the old zone arms with the shot bushing too. The right one is the bad one.

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Looking good. Also, what kind of caster are you seeing and are you feeling any drive line vibrations? Doesn't look too bad from the pic you posted.
 
wayoflife said:
Looking good. Also, what kind of caster are you seeing and are you feeling any drive line vibrations? Doesn't look too bad from the pic you posted.
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Thanks. I'm at 9.5 right now. Stock WJ is 9, HOWEVER the bracket manufacturer recommends 5-6 for the jk axle. I was at 5 already with flightly steering. At 9.5 now, steering is great, but yes I have a drive line noise I can change with accel and decel, wasn't there prior to changing arms. So tomorrow, I'm going to try 6 or 7 and go from there.
 
WJCO said:
Thanks. I'm at 9.5 right now. Stock WJ is 9, HOWEVER the bracket manufacturer recommends 5-6 for the jk axle. I was at 5 already with flightly steering. At 9.5 now, steering is great, but yes I have a drive line noise I can change with accel and decel, wasn't there prior to changing arms. So tomorrow, I'm going to try 6 or 7 and go from there.
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Ah, got it. Definitely want to get rid of those vibes.
 
Well, got caster down to 6.5 and steering is good, so happy there. But the driveline noise is still there, but much less. It comes and goes now instead of being constant. Visually, it looks near straight. My pinion angle is at 1. So I don't think there is much more I can do. I think I'm just going to drive it for a little bit and see if it gets worse or improves. After my lift kit, I had a drive line noise that eventually went away.

In other news, I finally got my inverter installed. It was a cheaper one but still got good reviews. I wired it up to my rear power source, so I leave that circuit off most of the time with an underhood circuit breaker.

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WJCO said:
Well, got caster down to 6.5 and steering is good, so happy there. But the driveline noise is still there, but much less. It comes and goes now instead of being constant. Visually, it looks near straight. My pinion angle is at 1. So I don't think there is much more I can do. I think I'm just going to drive it for a little bit and see if it gets worse or improves. After my lift kit, I had a drive line noise that eventually went away.

In other news, I finally got my inverter installed. It was a cheaper one but still got good reviews. I wired it up to my rear power source, so I leave that circuit off most of the time with an underhood circuit breaker.
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Any chance your drive shaft just needs to be re-balanced?

Nice job on the inverter :thumb:
 
wayoflife said:
Nice job on the inverter :thumb:
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Thank you.

wayoflife said:
Any chance your drive shaft just needs to be re-balanced?
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It just was. I had to have it shortened 1.5 inches for the new axle. Has brand new Spicer ujoints, new centering ball, re-balanced, full rebuild. First time I used this shop, but he had great reviews and has been there for a couple of decades. This problem didn't start until I added the lower adjustable control arms though. It was worse at 9 caster and better at 6.5 but is still there. At 5 caster, it wasn't there at all. I have less than 200 miles on the rebuilt shaft. Maybe the centering ball has to adjust or something? I called the guy this morning. He said with a DC shaft, there shouldn't be any noise. He said if it were an angle problem, you would feel it rather than hear it. I don't feel any vibrations, just the noise. I checked for play, no play anywhere. I checked all the bolts this morning again, I added a bit more torque on the front ones, but everything was tight anyways. Noise feels like it's right under the driver's seat and tone changes with accel/decel. Here's some pics of the angles, not steep at all.

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