Jeep Strokers

Is there anything I can do with Axle geometry to deal with this? I only need a very small amount, or at least it seems that way. I've already got a 1" transfercase drop. I could go to 2"? It's only there until I can get a SYE. Now it seems that If I do get the SYE, the drop will have to stay.

What about adjusting the track bar or drag-link? I'm getting outside of my area of expertise / understanding.

I am pretty confident that If I don't Adjust it somehow it will grind a hole in the down pipe.

Mine did \ does this with my 2.5" Madrel bent front pipe. Its pretty typical at stock heights.. and is the reason its got a dent in there from the factory. Are you still at stock height?

Muad'Dib wrote:Mine did \ does this with my 2.5" Madrel bent front pipe. Its pretty typical at stock heights.. and is the reason its got a dent in there from the factory. Are you still at stock height?

Absolutely NOT the reason the "crush" is there. Per my buddy at Jeeptech, they had trouble meeting EPA standards on the driving test. Reason was, the catalytic converter didn't start working early enough. Hence the "crush" in the downpipe disguised as if it's for clearance, and the D shaped pipe going over top of the crossmember.......

cruiser54 wrote:

Muad'Dib wrote:Mine did \ does this with my 2.5" Madrel bent front pipe. Its pretty typical at stock heights.. and is the reason its got a dent in there from the factory. Are you still at stock height?

Absolutely NOT the reason the "crush" is there. Per my buddy at Jeeptech, they had trouble meeting EPA standards on the driving test. Reason was, the catalytic converter didn't start working early enough. Hence the "crush" in the downpipe disguised as if it's for clearance, and the D shaped pipe going over top of the crossmember.......

Although I cant argue that they may or may not have done this for EPA reasons.. or what the real reason is, there is definitely no way to accommodate the front pipe without it at stock height without changing where the collector output is. The driveshaft will keep hitting that thing when in Full or Part time. Speaking from an XJ perspective.. cant speak to other Jeep Models that may have this.

I have a stock height Comanche with stock sized exhaust. Renix. My muffler guy made me a new headpipe that swooped back at basically two 45* angles and it clears just fine. Just need to get it away from the spinning u-joints. We've done the same to my wife's XJ with 3" lift and an HO exhaust manifold.

Now if you go bigger pipe, all bets are off.

Muad'Dib wrote:... Are you still at stock height?

I should have mentioned I'm at a 2" lift. Which should get me out of the woods. But since I copied Dr. Dino's Exhaust for Stroker idea, and cut the ~2" collector off the header and welded a 3" on, It's right back to being a problem. I was very mindful of this problem when Fabing the exhuast, and used a 45 degree clear. Looks like I goofed it.

Is it the TJ's that run the exhust in front and under the oil pan? that might be how I fix it. Well honestly I'm much more likely to just put a "Dent" in it... you know for emissions. That pretty crazy to hear a lot of the insight about the History of why we are stuck with the crap we have on the XJ's. I'll believe the "emission story" way sooner than clearance issues BS, looking incompetent to your customers in order to appease the Feds is a hard pill to swallow.

So I started by doing this.



Then I jacked the front end up so I could spin the drive shaft. Then I used coil compressors to bring it into contact.

Here's the result.


There's a tiny amount of clearance now.

The next problem is I've got it up on stands so I pretty much have to change that ball joint. That'll take another week at my half hour (or less) per night allotment of jeep time.

WOW! a half hour per night? You're lucky! How do you get so much Jeep time?

What do you have for bump stops?

dwg86 wrote:WOW! a half hour per night? You're lucky! How do you get so much Jeep time?

I wait till the kids are asleep, and instead of doing homework I go to the garage. There also has to be something on TV that my wife wants to watch.

SilverXJ wrote:What do you have for bump stops?

My bump stops are the Daystar Extended cut down to match my 2" lift. It was a time getting those on there too because they are made for the 97-01.

The motor mounts are factory. It occurs to me that I may have to swap those for Poly giving the clearance between that drive shaft. This week is finals because my school is an 8 week semester program, and next week is a travel week for work, so I'll be doing ball joints in two weeks.

Last night I found that the back right drum was locked. That explains why I couldn't get up the driveway in the ice. Low traction, open diff, It just spun the left rear until I put it in 4x4. That makes more sense. I'm hoping I can adjust it, cause nothing seems out of the ordinary otherwise. Are the drum adjusters on these known to work well? I also have a GMT400 Suburban and all I hear about those is they never work right. You have to (*should*) take the drums off and adjust every time you change the oil.

Self adjusters means to me that I need to adjust them MY self.

The knuckle is STUCK on the Ball joints, The hand sledge wasn't used too much because of sleeping kids. I'll get that off with heat and hammer when the time comes.

I discovered that my drivers side axle U-joint is seized in one direction. This is slowly becoming a complete axle rebuild. I haven't even taken the passenger side apart. I'm almost afraid to; at the rate this is going I'm going to have to replace the housing. I keep telling my self it is in the name... beater.

Probably the worst part of it all is, I want to do a Dana60 / 14bolt swap when the time comes. This is a step backwards.

After a week of PLC training in Ohio I'm back. I continued on the drivers side Ball joints. They are done now.





By the way the the crap is this thing on the bottom of the Knuckle? The haynes manual gave a measurement that I blindly followed, but IDK what its doing.




All the parts under here are old and close to the end of life. I'm having a hard time throwing those parts back on there. This is slowly become a complete rebuild of the Dana Turdy. Particularly axle seals, U-Joints, Unit bearings and Brakes are in a sad state. So I'm at an impasse.

Do I keep the Central Axle disconnect? Is there any benefit to keeping it? Not that MPG will matter on this jeep.

Do I Lock the Disconnect in the 4wd Position? I've heard Jeep didn't balance the passenger side axle shaft from the factory so it could introduce vibrations.

Do I swap for newer one piece axles and get a block off plate? And new seals I wanted to get anyway. This forces me to remove the carrier, Which I'm not excited about doing.

Anyone care to opine?

Lock it over and don't look back. Here's how. If it takes you more than 30 minutes, you're a weenie.

http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/free-d ... 1-a-38629/