Finally, the freaking lift kit!!!!

Up until September I hadn't done anything to her.  I was gone for the summer doing more training crap.  As soon as I got back I ordered the Rusty's 3.5" suspension lift, a Kevin's Offroad adjustable trackbar kit and Daystar Poly Bushings.  That trackbar is crazy beefy and worth the money in my opinion.

I wanted to save a little more before I bought the kit, but I had horrible, horrible death wobble.  We would hit a small pot hole and the whole car would shimmy and shake so bad my friends thought we were going to die.  I literally had to pull over and stop the car to make it stop shaking.  It got to the point that I couldn't drive anywhere because the roads here suck so bad.  So, here it is, all the pictures of the install:

 All this crap came off.  Took a big can-o-man thanks to the rust.  Again, never buy a car the previous owner says was a beach car...

The trackbar was rusted on so bad I had to sawzall it at the axle side.  Not to mention, it didn't have the original nut on the back with the tab.

I also had to take a cutting wheel to get the trackbar off of the original bracket so I can send the core back to Kevin's Offroad.

 

Boom, a day and a half later, front end is fully installed.  

 

 

While driving to work one early, dark and rainy morning, Bandit died.  Right in the middle of the road.  With about five cars behind her.  Just died. 

So I turned the key, she started up and I was able to drive her to a parking lot and leave her until I could get back to her later.  Luckily work is just a short walk away.

Later that day I started her up and she was running great.  I started driving and she died again.  I was puzzled, but I knew it had to be electrical.  Battery and fuel are good because she starts, and I just recently replaced the fuel filter.

I popped her hood, started her up and started jiggling around wires.  I moved some around and she died again.  I kept doing it until I pin-pointed the problem.

See the bare wires below in the red box?  They are part of the distributor switch plate.  The bare wires were shorting out on my engine block.

Instead of spending the forty-odd bucks for the replacement I decided to make my own fix.

I separated all the wires all the way up to the base and covered them in Ultra Black.  After it dried I wrapped it in electrical tape and zip-tied it to itself.

Its been about a year and I haven't had any problems with it since. 

Shortly after the last repairs were complete I went on a long hiatus.  Partly because I had to leave to go elsewhere for a few months for training.  Partly because I couldn't get pictures from my iPhone to my computer without e-mailing them all, which was a pain.  No more iPhone pics from here on out.  Also, I was just lazy and faced with the task of organizing all the pictures I simply didn't want to do it, until now.

I'll start off by going way back in time.

When I returned from training I ordered new wheel hubs and also got a ball joint kit from Synergy, MFG.  Compared to the original ball joints, those things are beefy and come with sweet dust covers.  I love Bandit, but I will never buy a car from someone who says "it was a beach car" ever again.  Upon the ball joints breaking free from the knuckle, shards of rust shot out everywhere.  It wasn't a fun job and took two whole days at the auto shop to complete.

This is the old hub:

Old hub and new hub comparison:

Steering knuckles weren't too bad, but I cleaned up all the mating surfaces and gave them a thin coat of grease

Here is a side-by-side of the old ball joints with the new.  As you can see, one of them simply just fell apart.  Probably factory ball joints.

For some reason my XJ has CV joint axles.  This is the base model, with no cruise control, so I don't know why these are even on here.  Regardless, the boots are torn on both sides.  I will not replace the boots, but will replace the axles in the future with the stronger, more reliable, u-joint axles.

Finished install before I greased them all up