1984 Jeep CJ-7 Progress 2012 03 26

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I have started to complete a number of small tasks that need to be completed before the Jeep can be driven down the road.  First up is to install longer flexible brake lines needed because of the height.  This leaves the rear one to be completed.  That looks to be changing as the lines are rusted.  I may have to replace some of the steel line.

Next up is putting the sway bar back in. The links needed to be lengthened also because of the lift.
	The previous owner had purchased polyurethane bushings for the sway bar. I am not a fan of polyurethane, and the red is a little much but they came with the jeep and they are “free” so I will install them
	A little sand blasting to clean everything up.
A little cutting and welding and the sway bar links are now 3 1/2 inches longer. I used that measurement because that is how much I need to drop the pitman arm to get the tie rods parallel.
	Through the magic of powder coat they look like new
	Looks pretty good on the Jeep. You can see the pitman arm in this shot, the new drop pitman arm should arrive tomorrow.
	So I want to get the drag link and tie rod even to get rid of bump steer. One of the problems with the drop pitman arms available is they are shorter than the stock pitman arm and there for the turning radius is not as good. The second problem is shortest drop pitman arm I can find is 3 inches and that puts the tie rod about 1/2 inch below the drag link. If any thing I would want it above the drag link for ground clearance.
	What to do? Well this question cam up on the JeepForum and a tie rod swap was suggested. After putting the the stock pitman arm back on and popping the other end of the drag link off and setting it in place on top of the spindle, it appeared that that would almost put the tie rod and drag link parallel to each other. There are several kits out there to do this but I purchased Rock Equipment’s Tie-Rod Flip Kit which included the Reamer (a Snap-On tool, the good stuff)
This will be kind of a repeat of the instructions included with the kit. The first step is to remove the drag link and insert the reamer from the bottom of the knuckle. Mark the depth that the reamer enters the hole with some tape, remove the reamer and move the tape up slightly up towards the small end of the reamer. If you remove to much material the spindle is unusable. By taking this percaution you insure you will not remove to much material
Now you insert the reamer from the top side and gently turn the reamer clockwise to remove the material from the top side. As you get close to the tape mark in depth remove the reamer and try inserting the insert on the top side. The insert should protrude approximately 1/64 inch for proper depth. Remove the insert and install the insert into the bottom side of the knuckle. the insert should sit flush with the knuckle surface. To get mine to be flush the insert had to be slightly below the surface from the top side. These knuckles are a case piece so this will be different for everyone. I am glad that this is a hand tool as the amount of material that you remove is not all that much. Also as the reamer goes in it is not completely smooth so I was able to concentrate on the high spots in the cone as the reamer went in and ended up with a completely round smooth cone.
	So now I have the insert almost even with the bottom of the knuckle. It takes very little material to make a difference at this point, go slow.
	Here is the tie rod installed. The drag link is just slightly higher at the pitman arm, but that is perfect as the springs will settle.I am not at this point gooing to flip the tie rod as I have been reading of problems with clearances between the tie rod and pitman arm when flipping both the tie rod and pitman arm. I’m very happy with the kit at this point.
Now here is a task I have been putting off, but have now finally gotten around to. We have all heard the stories about the dim head lights on these CJ’s caused by the lite gauge wiring used and the poor grounds. I install three relays, one for the low beams, one for the high beams and one for future driving lights. The relays are all 40 amp rated, all the wiring is in 12 gauge wire, fused at 30 amps. The ground and the power are direct feeds from the battery. What a difference in the brightness of the head lights, and these are not even halogen!The driving lights will have a switch somewhere on the dash board. The trigger for the driving lights will only work whe the high beams are on, by that I mean if the high beams are on and the switch is on the driving lights will come on. If you dim the head lights to low beam it will automatically turn the driving lights off. These will be driving lights not fog lights.
	This is before the relays have been added
	This is after
Note that the wires for the driving lights are at the bumper mounts and that there is both a hot and ground. When I picked the Jeep up one of the chrome rims around the head ligh was not mounted and now they both are mounted. Progress! I now need to complete the wiring on the dash for the driving lights. Well I got to mount the driving lights today. There were three logical positions to mount them as there were already holes to mount them in from the factory. True to form I elected to pick a fourth position and drill new holes. This position is clear of the turn signals and away from the tires so that mud will not get slug on them, (the forward measurement is from the front of the bumper, and the side measurement is from the outside of the frame rail).
Now that the holes are drilled it is time to clean up these 20 ? year old parts, and replace the original headlights (I know some restorer out there is going to hate me but I throw out the old headlights) with some halogen headlights. I buffed out the headlight rings, and the driving light buckets on a buffing wheel. They came out really nice. I painted up all the hardware with Eastwoods detail gray.
So….. this is what they look like mounted up
	I used weather pack connectors and all the wirering is now routed through existing holes in the frame
	The 12 gauge wires and dedicated grounds were worth the trouble!