KjWildman's XJ Build "The DEERSLAYER" ;-D

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:05 pm

I hear ya. I worry about hitting a mule deer and I’m absolutely terrified that I’ll hit an elk. :shock:

Have you done anything else new with the Jeep?

Xodius · **Posted:** Thu Nov 29, 2012 3:49 pm

Looking good. Still waiting on that KJ build...*cough* lol.
I am looking for a similar XJ for a friend of mine but he bounces from that to a old 60-70 dodge power wagon to a XJ again.

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KJ_WHEELER_2010 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 22, 2012 6:45 pm

Looks good!!! I ended up selling my XJ back this summer. It was a stocker, nicknamed "El Turd". lol thing was a trooper and ran no matter what :JEEPIN:

This would be a rig I'd hang on to if I was you :2cents:

KJWildman · **Posted:** Sat Jan 12, 2013 6:43 pm

New shoes for it today. I'll post pics Monday after installation.
33x12.50/15 Wild Country MTX

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TheBlueKJ · **Posted:** Sun Jan 13, 2013 11:46 am

Nice XJ! Coming along nicely! I'm almost tempted to sell my KJ and get an XJ instead :lol:

KJWildman · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 5:48 pm

Finally got the Warn fog lights I bought from Xodius mounted on the front bumper the other day. I wired those to the factory fog wiring harness. Today I ordered the A-pillar light mounts from Detours, he said they would be shipped out tomorrow. I will use the Warn wireless remote switch harness and put my long range lights up there. Also bought a new led lighted license plate frame to move the license plate out to the spare tire mount so I can get my spare out of the back and mounted where it should be.

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KJWildman · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2013 5:25 pm

Been noticing a new "clunck" coming from the front of the XJ, so yesterday I stopped by Tommudd's and we looked around for a while trying to find where it was coming from. Finally got a prybar and started poking around figured out where the movement was
Looks like it's time for upper and lower ball joints! Might as well do the axle end u-joints while its apart too.

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KJWildman · **Posted:** Sat Mar 09, 2013 7:42 pm

So guess I'll update just a bit. When I hit the 3rd deer, bush, fence and tree ..... :roll:

..... one of the pieces that broke was the right front turn signal.

Not a big deal so it wasn't on the priority list. Welllllll, while at work a lady came up to me (a fellow Jeeper, she's got an '05 Grand and Hubby's got a YJ with lift, cage, rims and tires etc. ) and asked me if I wanted a set of turn lenses that her husband was getting rid of. I asked how much and she told me not to worry about it, they just needed to clear some shelf space. A couple days later she came in bringing one of those plastic grocery bags with something in it and handed it to me. When I looked inside, there were both turn lenses. They were the clear euro look with LED bulbs! She told me "just take them!" Ok! Finally got them put on the other day.

Then today I went out and finally mounted the spare on the swing out carrier. I have been putting it off because it would block the license plate. I bought a new lighted license plate frame and wired that in, and just kinda ziptied it to the spare for now. I think I'll move it down, drill and tap some holes in the bumper and mount it there so I don't have to mess with it every time I want to get in the back.

Xodius · **Posted:** Sat Mar 09, 2013 11:21 pm

Just a word of advice...stop hitting stuff! Lol. At least you're ok. How do you like the fogs? Work good for your application?

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KJWildman · **Posted:** Sun Jul 28, 2013 1:46 am

Finally got around to doing something to the XJ tonight at 11PM after I got home from work. Drove the 1/2 mile up the road to Tommudd's and installed my new LED headlights. They are not FOR an XJ but being who I am I installed them anyway! :SOMBRERO:

They are actually a 4x6 low/hi beam combination light, but our XJ's take a 5x7 light so I had to get/make an adapter plate to make them stay put where they re supposed to be.
So nothing happens without pics so here they are.
first one is a shot of the front end and the second one is a closer shot of the headlight.

Now for a pic of what it looked like from the driver's seat in the past with just the low beams on

and with the high beams on

Not really very bright at all for some one who drives 40 miles on back county roads in farm country at midnight every night on the way home from work. And people wonder how I hit deer!! :shock:

I NEVER SAW 'EM COMING!! :roll:

Now here is what I see now with just the low beams!!

And with the high beams now

As you can see ... these are TREMENDOUSLY better than what I had. Maybe now I can see 'em coming!!!!!!!! :BANANA:

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Sun Jul 28, 2013 8:52 am

Nicely done! I really need to upgrade to LED lights also. I just don't have the cash flow at the moment to upgrade. But I know what you mean, the OE headlights are poor quality.

TheBlueKJ · **Posted:** Sun Jul 28, 2013 12:26 pm

Wow those look good! Nice and bright too

KJWildman · **Posted:** Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:37 am

Finally looked it up and the LED headlights are made by Oracle. Bought them through automotivelightstore.com Ya, they were expensive, but I think my safety driving at night is worth it!!
From the website: Product Overview
The ORACLE™ 4" x 6" Sealed Beam Headlamp is an LED Replacement Headlamp for any vehicle application requiring
a 4" x 6" Headlamp. It features 15 high output, high intensity 3 Watt CREE LEDS (Made in the U.S.A.)totaling 45Ws
per headlamp. Waterproof, and extremely durable, these headlamps are perfect for replacing simple halogens with
more effective LEDs. This product has a 2 Year Manufacturer's Warranty as well as
a plug and play design ~ Factory H4 Plug ~ and a highbeam/lowbeam function. Along with a projected 50,000 hour life.

KJWildman · **Posted:** Mon Aug 05, 2013 10:57 pm

So I stopped by Tom's AGAIN! This post is a little late, it was a week ago! :roll:

I wanted to put a jack under it and make sure something wasn't going to fall apart! ........ I've been hearing noises! :shock:

.......and the Jeep didn't sound good either!!! :ROTFL:

Anyway when I grabbed the tire at the top and bottom it moved about 1/4"!!!!! So that's where my growling was coming from! "We" decided that "I" should fix it. Ran down to NAPA and picked up new RF hub Assembly and went back to R&R the old one. When "We" pulled the calipers off the brake pads fell out in pieces!! Back to NAPA!! Replaced the RF Hub and pads on both sides. There was still daylight left, so I decided to use the 6" Metabo with a cut-off wheel !! :twisted:

Cut out what was left of the rusted sheet metal rockers on both sides to make room for the 3x4 sq. tubing that will be my new rockers!!
So that was a week ago, stopped by today and used his driveway again along with a drill and a couple wrenches. Yes, I drilled more holes! Finally mounted up the A-Pillar light brackets that I bought from Detours 6 months ago!!

Next on the list is installing the parts I have on the way now, '98 ZJ rear disc setup for the D35, Gila Monster rear corner guards and frame stiffener brackets for the steering box part of the frame. :BANANA:

KJWildman · **Posted:** Thu Aug 08, 2013 6:33 pm

Well, I'm already having problems with my front Iron Rock Off Road springs. They have both settled, but it's the amount they have settled that bothers me. My RF is definitely worse. We all know and expect springs to settle slightly, no matter the manufacturer or brand. However ..... my RF spring has dropped 1-1/4" !!!!!! :furious:

Tom and I looked at them the other day and discovered that my RF is actually bowing in the middle! the rear part of the middle two coils is almost touching the bumpstop in the middle of the spring and the front of it is only 3/8" from the sway bar links. Here is a couple pics of what we saw while sitting on the wheels at ride height.

So I whipped off an email on Sunday night to IRO explaining everything and Monday afternoon I received a reply from Zach at IRO wanting to know if we had checked to see if they were seated correctly or it had moved around! I still have the spring retainer clips on the bottom so that hasn't moved and the top is pretty much held in place with the spacer and bumpstop. I emailed him back explaining we checked everything twice! It only has 3500 miles on the lift total and actually only about 4 hours in the dirt!

I finally got another email from IRO today and it looks like they are going to take care of it ........ BUT!!!!!!

I have to take my springs off and ship them back and wait for replacements, :furious:

or BUY ANOTHER SET OF SPRINGS!! and wait for them, install those and return the old ones! :banghead:

Then if they think it's due to abuse or improper installation they won't reimburse me?
Here is the last email:
Larry,

Its sounds like you have all of the bases covered, we can go about replacing the springs in 2 ways. Either way we want to get the springs back to check them out and see if we can figure out what might have happened with them. 1) you can ship the springs back to us so we can inspect them, once we find them to be sagging, bowed, etc we would ship you a new set. 2) you can purchase a new set, we will ship you the new set and once we get the set in question back, get them inspected we would refund you for the newly purchased set. The benefit to the second option would be no down time.
Let me know how you would like to proceed.

Thank You,
Zack Lieberman
Iron Rock Off Road
http://www.ironrockoffroad.com

I guess I DO have the old 4" springs I took off still so I could maybe use those. I think they are a higher load rating so maybe they would be better anyway? I just have a feeling that IRO is already setting themselves up to reject my refund or replacement!

KJWildman · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2013 10:15 am

I fixed the dimmer switch that's been giving me grief lately. Got the switch at NAPA and found it at the base of the steering column. Pulled the bottom half of the dash away and replaced the switch. Also, while I had the bottom portion of the dash off I decided that it would be an easy time to add the wiring for my a-pillar lights that have just been for show up till now. Ran the wiring and added the Warn remote control relay I got from Xodius with the Warn fogs, then reinstalled all the dash. The fogs are hooked in to the factory driving light switch, so I used the remote for the A-pillar lights. Then I went ahead and hooked up a HF utility light under the bumper and hooked it to the b/u lights. I also added/changed the license plate light to an led light. I also tried to figure out how to get th trim pieces back on the a-pillars since the bolts for the a-pillar light mounts stick through and won't allow the trim to go back on. ....... I fixed it!! I welded them suckers!!! Just a short 1/2" bead top and bottom to let me cut them back off if needed, but allows me to remove the bolts and put the interior trim back together.

KJWildman · **Posted:** Wed Sep 04, 2013 4:11 am

OK, so the dimmer switch WASN'T the problem with my headlights going out while driving down the road at 3AM!!! :banghead:

Happened twice again tonight! :furious:

Anyone know off the top of their head where the relay is? Is it in the fuse block under the dash or in the one under the hood?

MoD · **Joined:** Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:53 am **Posts:** 1343

you need to upgrade those a-pillar lights...let me know if you want a deal on some hella 500s. I happened on a few a while back

lfhoward · **Posted:** Wed Sep 04, 2013 7:52 pm

The Deerslayer rocks. I love finding new posts on this thread. I used to own an XJ too, and I remember fixing all sorts of things that broke, but unfortunately the headlight switch wasn't one of them. Good luck with that. Probably somebody over at http://www.cherokeeforum.com has the answer.

KJWildman · **Posted:** Thu Sep 05, 2013 4:15 am

OK ......... it happened again 3 different times tonight on the way home when I left work at 3AM! :furious:

First time, I played with the dimmer switch by flicking the hi/lo beams on and off 5-6 times and they came back on. Second time about 12 miles later I reached down and just BARELY touched the headlight switch on the dash and they came back on! :!:

Hmmmmmmmmm ........ Third time another 10 - 12 miles later, I did the same thing, just BARELY touched the headlight switch without flicking the hi/lo beams and they came right back on! :BINGO:

Guess I'm pulling the bottom part of the dash back off this weekend and replacing the dash switch!! :roll:

KjWildman's XJ Build "The DEERSLAYER" ;-D

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