XJ Mods VSB 14

[alexbrown64]

Found a bit of time this morning to put the transfer case together.
While i was in the garage, i thought i would do a bit of baking.

Decided to cook my calipers at 200c for 1 hour. This cured the 1000c engine clear coat. Looks good and should protect the calipers for years to come. Still waiting on the pistons from Rock Auto for these..



OK, i had to get my head around the Tcase again as its been a while. I took the laptop out to the shed and got everything ready.. I identified which new seal went to each location.
Fitted a new oil pump seal, front output shaft seal and front input seal. The original input seal is a single lip. I went for a double lip seal. I read that you should put some grease in between the two lips so that the outer lip doesn't burn out.







After the seals were fitted, i just followed the video.. RTV here, torque bolts there.. etc.. I followed Marcus from GoJeep's advice and let the RTV cure after i fitted the parts up for about 1/2 hour, then torqued them.



Finally, i fitted the new Borg Warner chain and put the covers back together.
The whole thing can cure overnight and perhaps tomorrow i will put it back in the Jeep..



Cheers,

[alexbrown64]

Well, i have run out of time again. Have a few courses to do for work, then go back on the job for a few weeks.

I cleaned up the transfer case, reinstalled the yokes, topped it up with 1.5L of Dex 3 and reinstalled it back on the Jeep.
There are only 6 14mm nuts to secure it. I made sure everything was ready to go, then shimmied under the Jeep with the Tcase on my belly. I made sure it was in gear and as i lifted onto the 6 studs, i had to turn the back yoke a bit to engage the input shaft onto the AW4 transmission. Went really easy. I used my 14mm stumpy ratchet to do up all 6 nuts. Then connected a few plugs and a breather, rechecked the fluid and called it a day.



I compared my old transmission mount and the new one i have had stashed away and was amazed at the difference. I thought the old one was OK, as the rubber still looked good. But it has slowly collapsed. This may of been contributing to vibes and noise. When i restart the project, i will refit the new mount with the crossbrace, then do some work on the drive shafts and mount them up. Hopefully the old girl will feel a lot better with all the work completed...



Cheers,

[alexbrown64]

Lost my mojo there for a while and found it hard to get back into the project. I think it was because i had done a lot of work and there was still a heap to do, and then i had to get the old girl running and make sure all that work was OK.

Anyway, i got stuck in this morning... I had to crawl back under the beast and start bolting in the new transmission rubber mount, cross brace, selector rods and a few other bits and pieces that i hadn't finished off since i refitted the Tcase. Finally i was happy that everything was ready to go.. So i kicked her in the guts and she started straight up.

Everything was a lot quieter that before. Whether it was the new alternator, or the new a/c compressor bearing..the belt and pulleys were rolling silently. I turned on the a/c and checked the clutch was engaging... All good. The a/c compressor bearing change out worked well.

I checked all the fluids and had to do a few top ups to the fresh engine and transmission oil that i had changed out. Probably due to changing out filters at the same time.

OK, a bit of oil here, tighten the belt a bit there, and check the car over everywhere.. All Good!! I was going to call it a night and grab a beer....but the mojo had taken over and i grabbed my drive shafts instead.
I had the parts, i had the knowledge and now i had the will. I pressed ahead and fitted the new Spicer center balls and new Moog uni joints.



If you go back a few pages, i have had troubles with my new Olivers heavy duty drive shafts. Great shafts, but i had problems with vibration. I finally tracked it down to the aftermarket centre balls being used in the cardan section. They are bigger than the Spicer one, and impede articulation. I rebuilt the shafts tonight and fitted them to the Jeep.

OK, time to kill two birds with one stone. I headed out to the bottle shop on a test drive. Got her up to 80 kph. The T Case is very quiet and all its previous noise is gone. The engine is very quiet. The transmission behaved perfectly. Overall, a good test run. New alt was producing good voltage and no dash lights. Car started, run and changed gear perfectly.

But!! i still have some vibes.. it may be the Brown Dog motor mounts?? I am not sure.. but i stopped in the shop, grabbed a bottle of wine and headed home as it was getting dark..

During the day, i also squeezed in the caliper rebuild. I had the seals.. i had the newly painted calipers.. i had the new phenolic pistons..



I lubed everything up with dot 4 brake fluid.. fitted the new seals and then tried fitting the pistons. Those fukcers would not go down. Now, i know you can use a G clamp and force them.. but i didn't want to go down that road yet. I grabbed a coffee and checked Google. Heaps of folk in the know recommending Red Rubber. I rang SuperCheap and they had a tube for $10. Its a brake assembly grease that is brake fluid compatible. 20 minutes later i was back in the shed and slapping it all together.

The Red Rubber really helped get it all back together!! I could push the pistons back in by hand. I fitted the seals, pistons, dust boots and then the pins and rubber boots etc....

I gathered all my disc rear brake upgrade stuff and prepared it for tomorrow.
Its going to be another big day and another great project.

Getting close now to when it goes in to the workshop to get regeared back to 4.56 and letting the shop check it all over ready for daily driver duties...

Cheers,

[alexbrown64]

Had a major sleep in this morning, so i didn't really get the early start i wanted.
I started off by jacking up the back of the Jeep, removing the wheels and having everything supported.
Then i drained the diff oil, removed the cover and removed the C-clips so that i could get the axles out.



Once i pulled the axles, i had exposed all the old backing plates, drum brakes, ABS sensors and hand brake cables..



The ABS cables are connected back under the rear seat on the 1995 XJ. Just lift the seat, disconnect the colour coded cables and poke them down through the hole in the floor. You have to chase the cables along the diff and disconnect all the rubber holding clips.



You also have to disconnect the rear brake cables up under the Jeep where they join near the hand brake lever. There are some clips you have to squeeze to remove them. The abs cables and hand brake cables were left connected to the backing plates as non of it will be used again.



Once you have everything disconnected, you can undo the brake lines at the backing plate, undo the 4 nuts holding the plates on, and then remove the whole assembly. I wont be using any of this again.



At this stage, i had access to my rear suspension. I spent a few hours modifying my leaf springs and finishing off some other work. Time was marching on but i managed to do a trial fit of the new disc brake backing plates.
They just went straight on and fit perfectly. Thats the beauty of fitting 35c Grand Cherokee disc brakes to 35c XJ Cherokee diffs.

There is a small notch i have to make in the axle housing to allow access for the ABS sensor. Besides that, i am hoping it will be a relatively simple job.
I will carry on the with the job tomorrow.... its beer o'clock now!!

Hopefully all the aftermarket ABS sensors and hand brake cable will fit straight on. Will find out in the morning, as i hope to button the job up by late afternoon..

Cheers,

[alexbrown64]

Had a big battle with the Jeep today. Lost lots of time fluffing around, but i believe i have it all in order now. Its just going to take a bit more time than i thought.. but i guess these projects always do.

Below is a pic of the notch you have to put in the brake plate mounting plate. The plate and studs are only there to mount the brake backing plate. All the weight of the vehicle is taken on the axle and its stub bolts that attach to the wheels. This notch is to allow the ABS sensor to come in and bolt through from the back. I had to notch it enough to allow the new sensor to slide back and forth on its bracket which will give you the air gap adjustment you need.



When i had notched out both sides, i fitted the backing plates and the sensors.. then i trial fitted the axles.. WTF.. i kept rubbing my eyes.. There was a big gap of about 15mm between the sensor and tone ring. I checked everything over and realized i had made a big mistake. I got confused about tone ring (reluctor ring) sizes and blew $100 on ordering another set of XJ rings. The correct rings are:

"USA STANDARD GEAR USA33221 Rear; 4WD; RWD; Model 35 & Dana 44 Rear; ABS Tone Ring; 3.5 in.; 54 Tooth; Installs onto Rear Axle"

The diameter comes in at almost 90mm. Its the tone ring that is installed on the GC for that year. Same 54 tooth count, but larger diameter. I ordered the correct set from Rock Auto. Anyone need a set of new XJ rear tone rings cheap? Pic below showing the new sensor fitted through the backing plate and the large air gap (should be approx 1mm).



OK, mistakes happen, so i took that one on the chin and moved on. Time to fit the handbrake cables and hydraulic brake lines. This is what took me ages. I was trying to figure out the best way to mount the lines and design and fabricate brackets. I went with the design in the pic below. I put a 90* bend in the original GC rubber hose brackets to accept my fabricated mounting brackets. These brackets accept the XJ brake hard line. The rubber hose bolts directly to the caliper via a banjo bolt. I fabricated a bracket that i could mount the rubber hose bracket too and also bolt to the XJ. I used 50mm x 5mm Galv flat bar and drilled, cut and ground them into the desirable shape. These have been taken off again and are in the shed with a thick layer of black chem resistant paint drying on them.



The new handbrake cables also fitted up well as they are designed to fit this application. (RT31-039). Once i have everything up and running, i will provide a list of all the parts in case anyone else wants to attempt this mod.

So, tomorrow will be a case of running the ABS cables up and into the car, fitting up and adjusting the handbrake cables and mounting up the hard lines and brackets. Then fitting the axles, fitting the brake pads and bleeding the system. I will have to wait a few weeks to replace the tone rings and getting the car running again. It can stay on stands for a while....

Cheers,

[awg]

great work..ur on the home straight

pretty sure GoJeep has an excellent write up for this job on his homepage, saves u having to re-invent the wheel, so to speak

[alexbrown64]

Thanks AWG, i do refer to GoJeep and Marcus's work all the time. Unfortunately his write up for the rear disc brake conversion does not include provision for ABS. I really wanted my project to keep the ABS system, due to all the engineering and trouble i have been through with defect notices etc.

Anyway.. i am on cyclone stand down from work, so i still have some time up my sleeve. I pottered along today and actually enjoyed the project. All the hard work had been done, so it was just tweaking it all into place.

First off, i had to remove the ABS tone rings so that i can fit the new larger ones when they arrive. This was easy. The rings are an interference fit. A little bit of heat with a propane torch and they prized off easily with a few tyre levers. When you put the new ones on.. just put them in the oven at 200c for half an hour and they will drop right into position. No need for presses and all the stuff.

Next up, if fitted the brake backing plates then inserted the axles and bolted it all up with some new diff oil. Then i could attach the ABS sensors, hydraulic lines and handbrake cables. I adjusted the handbrake which went well, then plugged the sensors in through the back seat. Lastly was the bleeding of the system.
I had already done GoJeeps proportioning valve mod, so i just got all the air out of the system.

A final degrease of everything, a few pics, then i put the wheels on an took her for a quick 100 meter test before parking her back up.

Initial feel was good. Everything worked, looked and sounded OK. I think the brakes need another good bleed but i am happy. I will leave the Jeep until i can pop the new tone rings on, then check it all over for leaks etc.. and do some final tweaks..

Below is a pic of the completed project. 1995 pre-update XJ Limited Cherokee with ABS and 4 wheel disc brakes...



Pic below of everything connected up. The ABS sensors (after market ZJ) fitted well and plugged straight in under the seat of the XJ. The hard line brackets work well and everything plumbed up nicely. I fitted new banjo bolt copper washers. The hand brake cables fitted perfectly and adjusted up well.



The handbrake cables for the pre-update XJ are the same for both sides. They are brand new aftermarket and are designed to go on the ZJ backing plates and XJ center mount handbrake bracket.



Pic below with a view from the top. Everything is neat and tidy and sort of a factory fit and finish. If you are doing this conversion yourself, just go to a wreckers and get the backing plates, calipers, hoses, tone rings, rotors etc.. from a 1995-1998 ZJ Grand Cherokee. I used a combination of new and used parts. The GC had a Dana35c diff like the XJ, so it all just swaps straight over. The parts you will need though are the aftermarket handbrake cables.



Overall, i think the upgrade will be well worth it if your planning on keeping your old XJ. I don't know why they didn't have this feature from the beginning. Pic below showing the finished product. You can also see i have the airbag suspension which is good upgrade when towing and i also have the stronger Superior axles and 125 liter long range tank. All these small upgrades should make this old XJ a great daily driver when i get all the small stuff sorted.


Test drive of the new system to come once i get the new tone rings fitted.
Next up is fitting the Engine Watchdog, CB radio and Vacuum gauge....

Cheers,