2008 JKU "Argenta" Build Thread

[pc1p]

Making some more progress in the afternoons... I got the flares pulled off to give me more access and to start cleaning the body/frame up. I will need to push the Jeep out of the garage once the motor is pulled to give it a thorough power wash, so I'll need my brakes working (see steep driveway post above!).

You can see above that the hoses on the OEM calipers comes from the rear. The 14B however comes from the front, so I need to think about how I need to route them...

Just thinking about overall fitment and protection, the above seems like it would be the best option.

This was my first inclination, but I think the control arms are going to be problematic in the long term, and the hose would need to be filed down a bit since the block at the end of the hose is about 1/32" too long and the bolt won't sit centered.

This is less obvious but does take out some length of these Metalcloak hoses and lets me route it around the springs a little better. However, I think the lower control arm would end up hitting at full droop.

In my attempt to "cross one thing off the list per day", I was able to get the axle shafts cleaned, painted, and installed before calling it a day. Unfortunately, I forgot the can of Rustoleum Flat Black wasn't actually flat black, so it's got more shine than I like, but I'll hit it with some steel wool once it's fully cured to knock the shine down a bit.

 

[pc1p]

Doing some cleaning while the sun was shinning and the days are sunny and in the 70's. I had some mud and salt deposits around seat brackets in the Mrs. Grand Cherokee, so I dragged the Bissell outside. While I was there, I went over Charlotte's Islander seats. Every time I do it, it serves as a good reminder that cloth seats are f*%$@#* disgusting!!!

While cleaning, I installed the Drake Billet Aluminum shift knobs in the Islander too. The t-case shift knob kept popping off and the guy I bought the Bushwhacker flares from had these for $40, so I grabbed them on a whim (I'm not one to go for stuff like this, but these served a functional purpose so I gave them a whirl). They look nice but more importantly, they don't pop off against my knee and fall on the floorboard anymore!

I starting working on the Islander axles since the weather is already cooling and winter will be here soon.

I dragged the D30 and D44 back into the garage and started stripping them down. I can't imagine why the e-brake didn't work too well:

I got lucky with another FB Marketplace score:

Got a brand new TrueTrac shipped to my door for $240 - hard to beat that! To sweeten my week even more, I found a guy on my way to Virginia that was selling a Revolution D30/44 regear kit with 5.13's and MIKs for $500... I love me some deals!

I'm going to order some small parts this week - crush sleeve eliminators, new Spicer u-joints, new Spicer rear bearings and retainers, etc. I may take a vacation day next week to get these rebuilt. With any luck, I'll throw these axles under the Islander in 2-3 weeks, before Charlotte comes home for Fall Break and needs to drive her Jeep around for a few days.

I was originally going to go with 4.56 gears and leave the 285/70's but with finding these 5.13's, and adding up all the costs of OEM replacement parts to refresh the suspension (e.g. new control arms, track bars, shocks, Teraflex 1" springs, etc.), I've decided that I'm just going to install my 2.5" MetalCloak Game Changer (the one I took off my JKU) and then buy a set of 35"s. It won't be too tall for her but will look nice and proportional. With the new gears and suspension, it's going to be like a totally different Jeep for her when she gets back into it...

While I've been messing with the Islander, I'm still making progress on my JKU too (I mean, this is my build thread after all lol). I reworked the rear-passenger brake line. The line has a plastic coating on it that makes getting in clean and smooth for a flare kind of a pain, but with a few quick passes of a MAPP torch, I was able to soften and scrape the plastic off. The SSTubes kit should arrive this week, so with any luck, I'll be able to get the brakes completely hooked up this weekend and bled. If all goes to plan, I will start pulling the 3.8L once Charlotte's axles are done and swapped out....

 

[tJKrider]

I found a guy on my way to Virginia that was selling a Revolution D30/44 regear kit with 5.13's

Having the knowledge and experience to do this yourself is huge! I've had regears done in several vehicles but never attempted it myself.

 

[pc1p]

Having the knowledge and experience to do this yourself is huge! I've had regears done in several vehicles but never attempted it myself.

Doing gears yourself is like buying a new welder - you get to make all sorts of new friends on your block or in your Jeepin' group

Seriously though it's not bad. People - the most famous of all being "Jerry" (yeah, that one) - like to pretend that it's basically rocket science and that one small nanometer out of spec and the thing will grenade apart. It's simply not true and getting a proper pattern is reasonably easy, albeit time consuming at times (especially for new builders). I've seen dudes pull carriers and gears out of junkyard axles, throw them in their housing, torque stuff down and go to town - reusing old crush sleeves even.

If anyone has ever had the chance to watch someone set up some gears, the mystery disappears rather quickly. I've shown a handful of people the process and at least two of them have successfully rebuilt their own stuff (not sure if any of the others have tried).

 

[pc1p]

Trying to find a good spot to mount these rear brake hoses to. There's no good place that I could find that was obvious, so hopefully this one will work. I moved the control arms up and it appears to hit but it takes quite a bit of movement to get there. I suspect I'll be fully on the bump stop by then, but I'll certainly check once I get some tires and space to do so. Worst case, I will just relocate these to inside the frame rails somewhere. For now, a quick drill, a 1/4-20 tap, and a small stainless screw made short work of securing them to the frame...

While I'm back here moving control arms around, I took a few minutes to trim up the upper control arm bolts. They're 4.00" long and are about 0.35" too long and hit the backing plate bracket on the 14B:

I got the Islander D44 completely stripped and torn down. I'll start prepping the gearset and carrier this weekend. With any luck, I'll get a pattern and at least be in a good spot to fully assemble next week.

I won't be able to bolt it all back together as I found more corrosion on the backing plates than I originally realized, so I have a pair of these on order...

My daughter is coming back home for the weekend, so I won't have much time to work on her Islander (she'll be driving around seeing her friends I'm sure), but I did manage to pull the Rubi Rails off of mine and get those installed onto hers. I have been thinking about getting those 1.5" Teraflex springs for hers, but I'm really liking the stance as it sits. I think maybe I'll just install some 3/4" coil spacers and some good road-oriented shocks (Bilsteins) and call it a day. The 5.13's will be a little deep for the 285's on it, but certainly won't hurt anything, and maybe I'll grab a true set of 33"s the next time she needs a set of tires.

 

[pc1p]

Making some progress on the Islander and even got a little lucky. I ordered 1x new backing plate and 1x "like new" backing plate off of Amazon. Luckily, the "like new" backing plate was actually a pack of two. I messaged Amazon and they told me to keep the second one, so I get to send the new one back. The best part is that the "used" one (actually two!) was only $68 vs. $138 of the new one.

I'm prepping the carrier and gear set and am reminded at just how nice the Revo gears are. I have, for all intents and purposes, given up regearing with Yukon kits. They no longer polish the shaft on the pinions (where the bearing sits) and the fit and finish of the teeth themselves are less than "quality inspiring". By contrast, every Revolution set I've used since ~2021 has been flawless, well marked, and well matched.

Although I noted that the Eaton D44 TrueTrac was dual drilled, I didn't pay close enough attention to the sizes. The JK44 rear ring gear bolts are 1/2", but the D44 carrier is drilled for 3/8" and 7/16". Thankfully, the JK gearset is also drilled for 7/16". The Eaton instructions call for drilling the carrier out to 1/2" size, but I saw a handful of times that many people simply run 7/16" ring gear bolts, nothing that they're plenty strong for nearly all JK uses, and that the D44 Rubicon front gear set also takes 7/16" ring gear bolts.

 

[pc1p]

We had a busy weekend with my daughter in town, but still snuck out to pick up some goodies...

A guy about an hour away had a set of five, low-mile 40" Patagonia M/Ts on a set of 17" Ram 2500 aluminum wheels (one of them came on an H2 wheel). I've seen these on Marketplace for a few months now and have eyed them up for a while. He kept marking the price down and down, and for $900, I couldn't resist. These won't be my long-term option, but they serve a dual short-term purpose. First, my 18" rollers on the stock Ram 2500 steel wheels are too thin in the mounting flange and the lug nuts are bottoming out before the wheel gets snug to the hub, causing the rear wheels to "wobble" against the hubs (not good!). So while these wheels have way too much backspacing (~6.2") to be useful with big tires, a cheap set of 31-32" rollers would be perfect for my needs.

The second, and main reason for these tires, is to confirm that the Jeep will still fit in the garage on a set of 40"s (or anything under 40" really). Fortunately, by the metaphorical skin of my teeth, with only ~3/4" to spare (at 30 psig):

These things are big. I've run 38.5" bias-ply tires many, many, MANY moons ago and I swear these seem 10" bigger.

I mocked up the rear Bushwhacker flare (my humble attempt to somewhat try to pass PA inspection laws) to check the coverage and they are surprisingly decent. Again though, these wheels are not the correct backspacing. I will need 3.5" BS to run 38-40" tires, so these will stick out about 3" more on each side, but should (fingers crossed!) keep most eyes away as I'm going down the road.

On Monday, I drew the short straw and got to spend 5 hours driving my daughter back to school. Always seeing the silver lining in things, I scoured the Marketplace listings near her school and found this for a killer deal:

A Mopar Rubicon 10th Anniversary Off Road Rear Bumper and AEV Tire Carrier. The bumper offers better looks and clearance than the OEM plastic nonsense, but is also compatible with the OEM trailer hitch. It also supports the AEV tire carrier, which itself is exactly what I am looking for in a carrier: one handed operation that works with the OEM tailgate latch, and something that handles up to a 40" tire. The only thing I'll need to work on is how best to adapt this to a 8 x 6.5" pattern. The seller was also kind enough to throw in the Rugged Ridge spare tire delete panel.

Admittedly, I'm at a bit of a decision point. On the 40"s (since they're all the same size and actually snug up to the hubs), it's clear that the Jeep has a very distinct rake, rear to front. I have a few options to address this. First, I can order a set of 4.5" Metalcloak springs for the front. My concern with this option is that it may cause some clearance issues into the garage (at least on 40"s).

Alternatively, I can install the set of 2.5" springs (that I already have) in the rear. The concern with the second option (using shorter rear springs) is that I think I'm going to lose a decent amount of up travel with the 40"s and will be mainly riding on the bump stops, even with HEAVY clearancing. I may already have an issue with up-travel in the rear. I'd really need to install a set of 4.5" springs out back and 5.5" springs up front.

Unfortunately, my front bumper is already ~26" high. PA limits front bumper height to 22". Just like the risk with uncovered tires, I will use a set of small "rollers" for annual inspections, but this issue does often catch the glances of State Troopers, so something for me to also be mindful of. The more and more I map this out, the more it becomes clear that I'm better off dropping my rear down on 2.5" springs and running a set of 37-38"s... decisions decisions decisions.