StarboardMs 2020 JLUR StingYay Build Thread

[Starboard M]

This will be a long, boring, drawn out build thread as I ruin a perfectly good Jeep and turn it into something terrible. You have been warned.

This will be my fifth Jeep, two XJs, a WJ and a MJ, a couple motorcycles and a Toyota Tacoma thrown in rounds out my vehicle history. My first XJ in highschool and college ended up on 35s, D44s, boatsides and a full cage, so I really know how to fubar something up.


Ultimate goal: 4ds on tons and a V8.
Reality: Something much less than that.



This is my '20 JLUR that my wife and I purchased in March '20. Its a pretty well optioned 3.6 Rubicon in the best color possible, Stinggray. I dare say we got a good deal on it as it was purchased right as the state of Washington went into lockdown over Covid. Or perhaps I should say, we bought a can of hand sanitizer, and they threw in a Jeep.

At this time we only had street parking, and no real garage to speak of, so mods started off very basic. Actually, just a winch and taking the end caps off the stock steel bumper. Its a Smittybuilt 10k, on a JCR winch tray and a Warn fairlead.

Phase 1: First Lift and tires

Fast forward, and we were able to move out of the city, and into the 'burbs. I told myself I wouldnt modify the Jeep for awhile, but that itch struck and I did a 3" Synergy coil lift and some 37s. Nothing fancy, but it made me happy not being another generic JL on the road. Now its a generic lifted JL on the road.

Rear lifted:

Front and rear, stock wheels and tires.

Thankfully I was able to get five 37" Cooper SST Pros, I mounted them on the stock wheels, and added 1.75" Synergy wheel spacers.
The stance, IMO, was perfect. Just enough tire stickout without being terribly obnoxious.

And that really ended the first phase of my build. It was running stock control arms, stock trackbars, and a cheap set of Rock Krawler shocks. I was tossing the idea of converting back to stock, and trading in the Jeep for a F450 so we could tow my wifes horses around, but I made the right decision and kept the Jeep.

This is where the fun starts!

...Continued on the next post.

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[Starboard M]

It took me almost a year to start the next phase. This will quickly bring us up to current day.

I mentioned previously that I had a couple Jeep XJs in the first post, well my dad is still pretty active with the online NAXJA forum and I decided I would like to attend their '22 Sierrafest trail run. On the Rubicon....

I have done the trail a couple times in my old XJ, but that was built pretty well, and I knew it in and out.

So lets take my DD on the 'con! This starts the timeline and gives me a goal to hit, lets do it!

Phase 2: Random bits?
Two big items I want to tackle before my trip, suspension and armor.

While I loved the stock front steel bumper, the rear just never sat well with me. I ordered the Motobuilt Crusher rear bumper and installed it.

Stock rear bumper, way too square and I know I will mess it up in short order.

Motobuilt installed. At this time I did not add any lights in the bumper, and you can see my solution to the license plate mount.

You might also notice the spare not being mounted.

Turns out, my Mopar spare tire spacer that I used on the stock bumper would not space the spare high enough on the Motobuilt bumper. Their website said it would clear, so I was a little bummed to find that out.

I already have the Mopar hinge reinforcement, so I decided to go with the Rough Country relocation bracket. Its not the sexiest one out there, but it was cheap enough and let me get a spare back on the Jeep.

Next up, it was time to try and fix this blasted steering. After living with it, and my wife mentioning how much she hated driving my Jeep, I bought the Steer Smarts track bar and trackbar/steering selector brace.

Shes a conky girl

This helped a ton, my dead spot went from 10:30-2:30 to 11-1. Not perfect, but we are getting there.

 

[Starboard M]

Here is where we go off the rails, or at least a small tangent.

I had ordered the American Labs fender chop kit, they were backordered and I figured I would get them in a year. Well, I got them, and I also picked up some Artex inner fender liners. I only have them slightly bolted in for now, as I live in the PNW and water is never ending. I may swap these out at a later date.

Nothing like taking a grinder to your "new" Jeep!

Here is where things start to pick up as parts show up. In no real order here:

Fire extinguisher and mount

MetalCloak front sway bar disconects (yes, on a Rubicon, more on that later). These things were way too long for my application, so I cut and rethreaded them ~1.5" shorter.

Found some cherry trees and took a glam shot. Front bumper was removed for a project I am currently working on.

 

[Starboard M]

Next up is the Steer Smarts rear trackbar. I ordered the red, I wanted the black. Oh well. I also installed a Synergy frame side trackbar mount and some rear bump stop extensions I made out of some tube steel.

Driveway flexing, front swaybar is connected, and rear is at full bump.

This is stock swaybar end links which I would like to upgrade. I still have ~2" of shock travel left.

Sorry, this is a TERRIBLE picture, I was trying to show the bumpstop working.

Eagle eyed viewers might notice I also put the Oracle flush mount taillights on. The factory ones just didnt look good, and I know I would destroy them in short order.

The LED issue didnt bother me as the AAL fender chop on the front already required some Tazer modifications. My Jeep does have BSM, but it seems to work "fairly" well. I will admit, 95% of my driving is on backroads, and I hadnt really used the function much prior, so take that for what you will.

 

[Starboard M]

Next and final update until later this week, which brings us into current day.

For the last year or so I have been struggling with wheel selection, beadlocks or not, steel or aluminum, bolt pattern, and maybe the most critical choice, color.


Ultimately I went with Warn, who won me over with a print ad in one of the various offroad mags I get. I know, who reads magazines anymore?

I was also able to remove my wheel spacers, which I am happy about.

Two things to note, I was only able to buy four, so Im that guy with the spare not matching. And Warn does offer different center caps, which I would like to eventually swap for red.


Finally, I took my rear bumper off, fixed the rear backup sensors I broke on the initial install, and put in a set of Diode Dynmaics SS3 Sport flood lights in amber. I ordered these before I installed the Oracle lights, and I am not sure they are needed. I put them in anyway, why not, right?

One thing to note, I have the Borla Touring exhaust which removes that massive rear muffler. Since I dont tow with this Jeep, I moved the trailer tow plug up under the passenger framerail, and did a very ghetto wiring job using the 7 pin to get the SS3s to come on with the reverse lights. Gave me a ton of extra clearance back there too, and one less plastic item to break on the trail.

This weekend I have control arms to install, diff covers to install and a whole bunch of boxes to unpack, so I hope to have more updates soon.

For now, come along on the ride and see what else we can "improve!"

 

[Starboard M]

Last weekend was sort of productive, I utilized the little bit of non rainy weather to do a couple projects.

First off, rear diff cover.
It seems most people use dif sliders. I have always used covers, and usually a pretty solid rear with the front being ramped to slide over rocks.

Ruff Stuff has a pretty reasonably priced rear cover, so on it went. One thing to note which I think is pretty cool, the JL comes with a reusable gasket that is very similar to the aftermarket Lube Locker. SOOO much better than the RTV mess of yesteryear.

Stock cover, really exciting I know. At 8,5xx miles the fluid was basically what I would expect. No chucks or shavings in the fluid, so thats good to see.

Stock bolts are a 10mm, the Ruff Stuff Cover uses a 12 point 5/16", with the drain plug being a 1/2" ratchet.

You can see the difference in thickness (note the gasket is on the new cover here).

Gasket cleaned and moved over to the new cover.

Two quarts of Valvoline 75w-140 is just under the fill plug, I may end up getting another quart later. Factory cover requires something like 1.75 quarts, I didnt expect the aftermarket cover to require that much more than stock, but the new cover is much more square compared to the stock cover that hugs the internals so much closer.

New cover on:

Next, rear upper control arms
Metalcloak ran a EJS sale a couple weeks ago, so I decided to buy their upper control arms. They came super fast, so I was able to get them on. I am still rocking the stock lowers, hopefully that will change shortly.

Here is my monster HF crescent wrench. This is used for control arm jam nuts and the occasional pitman arm nut, and not much else.
Also used this time to check retorque the Synergy brace.

I grabbed some lunch and a beer and figured it was time to get the new steering box installed. Yes, I decided to buy the box and install it myself.

I have already installed a Steer Smarts brace, and I figured by the time I took that off so the dealer didnt fubar it up, I was basically halfway done with putting a new box on.

It took me about 1.5 hours to remove and replace, honestly way easier than what I was expecting.

If youre wondering if your box is aluminum, and you dont have a magnet, this is the old, aluminum box:

New box put back in.

While I did not weigh the boxes, they seemed to be around the same weight, so why Jeep went with an aluminum steering box for the JL makes no sense.

One interesting bit, the aluminum box uses two different length bolts, and here is a visual of that. The steel box uses four of the shorter bolts, and the holes are threaded instead of these inserts.

Steering is WAY better, if you have an aluminum box, swap it!


And that ends this weekends progress, hopefully this coming weekend I will get this on.

 

[Roky]

Last weekend was sort of productive, I utilized the little bit of non rainy weather to do a couple projects.

First off, rear diff cover.
It seems most people use dif sliders. I have always used covers, and usually a pretty solid rear with the front being ramped to slide over rocks.

Ruff Stuff has a pretty reasonably priced rear cover, so on it went. One thing to note which I think is pretty cool, the JL comes with a reusable gasket that is very similar to the aftermarket Lube Locker. SOOO much better than the RTV mess of yesteryear.

Stock cover, really exciting I know. At 8,5xx miles the fluid was basically what I would expect. No chucks or shavings in the fluid, so thats good to see.

Stock bolts are a 10mm, the Ruff Stuff Cover uses a 12 point 5/16", with the drain plug being a 1/2" ratchet.

You can see the difference in thickness (note the gasket is on the new cover here).

Gasket cleaned and moved over to the new cover.

Two quarts of Valvoline 75w-140 is just under the fill plug, I may end up getting another quart later. Factory cover requires something like 1.75 quarts, I didnt expect the aftermarket cover to require that much more than stock, but the new cover is much more square compared to the stock cover that hugs the internals so much closer.

New cover on:

Next, rear upper control arms
Metalcloak ran a EJS sale a couple weeks ago, so I decided to buy their upper control arms. They came super fast, so I was able to get them on. I am still rocking the stock lowers, hopefully that will change shortly.

Here is my monster HF crescent wrench. This is used for control arm jam nuts and the occasional pitman arm nut, and not much else.
Also used this time to check retorque the Synergy brace.

I grabbed some lunch and a beer and figured it was time to get the new steering box installed. Yes, I decided to buy the box and install it myself.

I have already installed a Steer Smarts brace, and I figured by the time I took that off so the dealer didnt fubar it up, I was basically halfway done with putting a new box on.

It took me about 1.5 hours to remove and replace, honestly way easier than what I was expecting.

If youre wondering if your box is aluminum, and you dont have a magnet, this is the old, aluminum box:

New box put back in.

While I did not weigh the boxes, they seemed to be around the same weight, so why Jeep went with an aluminum steering box for the JL makes no sense.

One interesting bit, the aluminum box uses two different length bolts, and here is a visual of that. The steel box uses four of the shorter bolts, and the holes are threaded instead of these inserts.

Steering is WAY better, if you have an aluminum box, swap it!


And that ends this weekends progress, hopefully this coming weekend I will get this on.

Looks good man, nice work……. I was wondering did you take it in for software update after switching boxes, or is that no longer necessary ?

 

[Starboard M]

Looks good man, nice work……. I was wondering did you take it in for software update after switching boxes, or is that no longer necessary ?

I have not had the chance to take it in and have the software updated. From my limited reading it seemed to be 50/50 on if it was really needed. With the current flash, the Jeep drives great and there doesnt seem to be any issues, but what do I know.

I still have my "free" oil changes so my next oil change I will have them update the system.

 

[Starboard M]

Didnt have much time this past weekend to do all that many projects, but I was able to get my RPM Steering 2.5 ton tie rod installed. Simple swap, but I did have to rethread the TREs as I forgot to add in the crush washer.

Shes a thick girl, hopefully I wont have to worry about steering anymore.

For now the steering stabilizer will stay off, I need to make a decision on what brackets I want to use.

I will also pat myself on my back, I did a hack alignment with a tape measure to get it on the road and into an alignment shop. I was 0.1* off, not too bad for a hack in his garage!

The drag link will be upgraded eventually, not sure if I want to go with steel or aluminum, and what brand. IMO the tie rod is the weak link due to rock damage, which is why I did that first.

The alignment shop printout showed a 3.7* caster angle, so this weekend I will try to get the front control arms installed.

 

[Starboard M]

More small updates over the last couple days.

The FCC lowered the GMRS fee from $75 to $35, so I got licensed and bought a Midland MXT275 kit and a pair of Grimm Offroad A pillar mounts to install the antenna.

I also finished up the rear control arms with a pair of Evo lower control arms.

You might notice the mud in the picture above, I actually took the Jeep offroad which is shocking, I know. Did some trail scouting for an upcoming backpack trip, and had some fun along the way.
Poser shots, hate the player not the game.

The UPS man delivered some Synergy rear sway bar end links and some Paramount rear fender liners, hopefully those will go on this weekend as those should be a pretty easy install.

Still need to get the front suspension dialed in with control arms, plus the RCV shafts, RCV FAD cover, ARB diff cover, and fluid flush.

 

[Starboard M]

Finally got a chance to install the rear sway bar end links, and decided I should also do the Evo lower shock mount relocation bracket at the same time.

Fairly simple install, got ~2" of clearance and possibly more droop out of the shocks.

Synergy sway bar end links

Evo relocation brackets

Bottom of the shock mount is ~6" below the bottom of the axle tube, I cut the mount flat at 4-1/4" below the tube, so ~ 2" of gain.

Shock mount cut off

Bracket and Synergy links installed. At some point I may end up welding these on, but for now the bolts should work just fine.

One sort of disappointing part was that the shock tabs were too far apart and the bushing had too much room.

Couple washers fix this for now, Im wondering if these were designed for a heim joint style shock or even a coilover.

For a couple hours work, should be a good improvement on clearance and suspension travel.

 

[Starboard M]

Its been a whirlwind of activity around here. Its now less than a month before I leave for my Rubicon trip, and, well, Im not at all ready. Should be fun!

Ive made some decent progress though.

First up was new front axle things, namely ARB diff cover, RCV shafts and an RCV FAD block off plate.

I did the install over a couple of days, and I made sure to remind myself that the front diff didnt have fluid in it.

The ARB cover has an interesting fill design and fluid checker, its the plug on the top left of the cover, and actually kind of a PITA to use. They also have you mark the level yourself using the stock cover as a guide (what Im doing in this photo). I suppose it works, just seems overly complicated compared to a more conventional cover.
Again, the factory LubeLocker style of gasket is amazing.

I did go with the one piece axle shaft which removes the FAD. I still need to tie the wiring up and out of the way, but I dont feel any extra vibrations or issues with the limited driving I have done thus far.

Next up was the front suspension. I have actually had these control arms since late last year, and have been putting this task off for longer than I care to really admit. For some reason I always struggle with front control arms, having done lifts on three XJs and an MJ. Turns out, this was easy.

Clayton lowers (freaking heavy SOBs!) and Evo uppers. Not going to lie, I was a little disappointed in the uppers, but the stock units are even smaller and obviously not as prone to rock damage as the lowers. They should work just fine. I went with 6* of caster and it seems to have helped improve the steering feel.

 

[Starboard M]

Last week I also got my front skid installed as well as the exhaust loop delete.

I decided to do the exhaust first so I had plenty of room.

This is the AFE version, its currently on sale for $139 (normally $172 which I stupidly paid)
https://afepower.com/afe-power-48-4...own-pipe-2-1-2-stainless-steel-exhaust-system

This is the clusterf&*k that we are removing, I get the point, but on these high horsepower minivan engines, Im not sure the equal length headers really do a whole lot?

For anyone interested, this is the header and cat, with the two O2 sensors. "Head bolts" are 10mm, 02s are 22mm.

Once removed, its basically a slip fit holding it on. I tried to scan the QR code on that heat shield, but my phone said I didnt have the right app for opening the code.

Here is a great side by side to show what we are doing. Instructions are very clear, and while I second guessed their cut suggestion, it ended up being perfect.

I just used a 4.5" grinder and a sawzall, made short work of the tube.

Once back on the Jeep I actually flipped the clamp around to get better access to the nut and get it out of the driveshaft.

No pictures of the EVO Protek skid install, but it was a pretty simple install. For now I decided to forgo the exhaust loop skid as I had obviously put on the delete above. I my end up buying and installing that later on, as I think it would tie the skids to the body a little better.

 

[Starboard M]

Last weekend I also installed some driveshafts.

Northridge had a 4th of July sale where Adams 1350 shafts "on sale," they were in my cart, and my dog decided the fireworks were too much and I took care of him. Turns out I forgot to hit submit and totally missed the sale.

As I have alluded to in the previous posts, I am going on a Rubicon (trail) run in a couple weeks, so I decided to purchase the shafts at the normal price (with the forum discount). As a drop ship from supplier item I honestly didnt think they would get here in time, but they arrived in less than a week.

These things are amazing, and I hope I dont candycane them too much. I did get the 1350 kit, that also comes with new tcase yokes and rear axle yoke. The 1310 vs 1350 choice was hard, only in a $$ sense. But knowing that I (hopefully) end up with some bigger tires and axles in the future, the initial outlay of money made sense.

I took way too many pictures comparing the stock shafts to the new ones, but here are two (of the same side of the f & r shafts.

I only play an engineer on the internet, and I didnt stay in a Holiday Inn, but those "shafts" seem better suited to a crossover SUV and not a Wrangler.

One of the other upsides is you gain a wee bit of clearance on the back yoke going to a more traditional ujoint.

The front was a simple install, just a simple R&R.
The rear involved taking off the axle yoke, which does have a preload. I ended up using the Frostbight youtube install video as a helpful tool, namely on the preload numbers. Stock I was at ~47 inch lbs for preload.


To sum up a pretty stupid post, it turns out Adams shipped me what I think was a JK 24 spline 1310 yoke. JLs (at least mine) is a 28 spline on the pinion.

To be honest, I think Im a bit salty as I missed the 4th of July sale, and it turns out Northridge did a sale the day these arrived. And I know mistakes happen, but man. Tech support did end up overnighting me a yoke, but the communication was a wee bit lacking (didnt know they shipped the yoke out or not, it just arrived).

Anyway, correct yoke was installed, and everything went well besides that minor issue.

These have been smooth up to 65ish, this coming weekend I will get out to a freeway with a little higher speed limit so I can make sure they are good past that.

 

[Starboard M]

(Yes, Im breaking todays update into several posts, I know post count padding +1)

Today is July 14th. In three days I leave for a week long "working vacation", come home for a week and then drive down to the Rubicon trail.

I have just four more items on my list before Im ready to go, should be a couple easy installs.....

1. Front bumper
2. Rock slidders
3. Sway bar disco mounts
4. Ruff Stuff HID lights (who even knew they made lights)

Simple, lets do this thing!

Front Bumper.... things.....
As you may have already seen, my Jeep has the factory steel bumper package, as well as the Rubicon electronic disconnected front sway bar. My Jeep I bought, specifically, because it had those two features. Well, Ive deleted both. Brilliant.

In my time offroading, I used to what I would call "driving by brail" meaning you drive until you hit something, back up, and try again. My previous Jeep that I had built pretty bombproof that was no big deal, but this is a much nicer Jeep and I want to try and keep it that way.

The front bumper, while nice, is not what I would consider strong with impacts to obstacles. Yes, yes, I know, its a very nice bumper, and you have had no issue with it. Well, I dont like it!

(f&*k, are you even reading this? And why? This idiot rambles more than..... look, a bird!)

We all know front approach angle is amazing. The stock front bumper and sway bar disco thing, is absolutely massive. I will admit, in stock, or semi stock form the designers did a very good job of making it all look and function well. Well, Ive got a welder, so lets make it better (maybe).

Quick side shot to see where we are coming from. The terrible wiring job is terrible, I know!

Step one was to buy a stock, non disco sway bar. That as well as some Metalcloak disconnects were actually installed a couple months ago, you can see the quick disco's in previous posts.

Next step was to look at everything that needed to be removed. On the JL, the sway bar, sway bar skid and front bumper brackets are all tied together in a very complicated manner, that makes a ton of sense in stock form. This is the drivers side inner frame rail behind the bumper.(note the electronic disconnect wiring eloquently zip tied out of harms way)

In a nutshell, I removed everything from that entire picture until I had a fairly simple sway bar mount. I added a small bit of angle iron and tied the swaybar back to the frame. Carnage:

Just kidding, I got scared and only cut a portion out. Here is the outer frame rail missing its bumper bracket, that was for me to gain access to measure that hole you see sort of middle picture. Basically what I am doing is sleeving the frame, and I could not get a solid measurement until I had that bracket looped off. I ended up ordering 1-1/8" OD tube which fit very well. Im sure its a metric sized hole, but this allowed a little wiggle room. In this photo you can also see the JCR winch plate plus EVO two hooks which I plan to use. Note, these photos may be older, so Im missing some newer upgrades here and there.

Getting excited for nothing up here. Honestly, I should have kept the winch tray and nothing else, it would have been a lot easier.

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