WJ: Hammertone's Build Thread - '05 4.7HO Overland

[Grippy]

Oh haha, with the BBQ gas on board you'll have no room. What's the feel like with it up on the roof?

Sent from under my Grand Cherokee

[Hammertone]

I don't notice, unless I drive into an undercover carpark. Then I know it's there!

[Hammertone]

Well overdue on a few updates. Over the winter I got a poison spider bombshell diff cover for the front. Had some blue paint lying around which matched the Dobinson's springs so I guess I have a blue highlight theme going now. Not that itll ever need seen.

[Hammertone]

Last year I replaced 2 radiators in as many months, the second one went after crunching the crappy tinfoil strut that runs along the bottom on a rock. A full bullbar is still a little way off so I knocked up a temp bash plate using the mounts for the factory nudge bar. The plate is just a sheet of 4mm that I had folded in a couple of places so its very strong and I was able to integrate new recovery points which are a huge improvement over the factory ones. The factory points could only take a 2T shackle, but I can now use a 3.2T in each. I've also gained a better approach angle over what the nudge bar offered. Lost my light mounting point, but im going to stick lights on the roof rack instead

[Hammertone]

For a long time I've been trying to work out how to get the cargo basket to sit better. I hated how high it sat when mounted to the cross rails and the cross rails themselves are very weak. When loaded up for camping, there was noticeable flex in the rails and it was only a matter of time before I lost the lot off the side of the road. I ended up finding M8 t-bolts that sat in the side rails and bolted directly through the basket. With 8 bolts its very secure and can now take as much weight as I care to put up there. It also sits 30mm lower and overall looks much better in my opinion.



Here's a before pic. Ill post some afters... After

[Hammertone]

I've had a hell of a time with handling issues since lifting the car to 3" about 18 months ago. In that time I've gone through 3 sets of bushings. I finally decided that the cause was poor geometry so I went ahead and dumped 3 grand on iron rock long arms front and back, along with an addco rear sway bar, extended front discos and to be really safe, a transfer case drop.



All of this is in the name of safety as the thing was a pig to drive down the freeway, but obviously im going to get some good capability out of it as well. To run the long arms I need minimum 4" lift, so to my 3" springs, im adding 1" spacers which I cut down from 2" that I had from a previous lift. After I've added front and rear bars at a later date ill get rid of the spacers and put in appropriately sized springs.



To install the rear long arms I need to get rid of the existing muffler as it'll clash. I found a used edelbrock muffler for $30 that's half the size and will need to re-plumb the exhaust once the arms are in. A proper exhaust upgrade will come in time and im hoping this will get me by until then.



Lastly, my front diff is nearly shot. Being varilok, I've had rebuild quotes from 2-5 grand. I called jeep part and they shipped me an identical centre and housing with 100,000 ks and 3 months warranty for $380. This'll. Leave me with a spare diff that I can teach myself to rebuild, which will make regearing a whole lot more affordable when the time comes.



So I've got 5 days off over the Melbourne cup weekend to get this all done. Don't see any real problems apart from the routing of the exhaust. Ill get a few pics of the process as there's very little info on the rear long arm install, so others might find it useful