Well the weather wasn't too bad today so I installed my new gauges in my cluster , spliced into the parking light switch so they light up when the lights are on, there is a little switch that I can choose green or blue at night , as well as a built in dimmer.The needles were a little sticky at first , but I got them so they swing free now.

I also installed some LED lights in my dome lights (all 4) plus some in my front door lights.What a difference in brightness over stock.Of course i found you have to have the wiring placed in the proper way or no lights.It took me a minute to figure out why one light worked but the other didn't after I put them in.So I changed the way the wire went and voila , instant light:thumbsup:

Still have projects to do , but they are slowly getting there.Once my fog lights come in , possibly tomorrow , then I will install those , and the HID kits , making a couple less projects to do.I will try and get some pics later when it gets dark so everything is more noticeable.

Here are some pics of the suspension kit , sorry everything is still in the wrappers until I go to install it.The first pic is the new control arms , second pic is the ball joints and links and third pic is the track bar and tie rod ends.








This next pic is a present the UPS guy brought me an hour ago. I wasn't even expecting this yet as I was told the shipping date would be the 12th and it would take a few days from then.Total cost for these was 750 shipped , and that is after paying the 98 UPS fee and customs , so not bad considering when I looked on the Doug Thorley website lists them for 1000. I will have to make a EGR plate , I thought it came with one , but no big deal.




The next pics are what I did today , first is the door light on the passenger side to show how bright the LED is.Second pic is the gauges just as they are , third is with the lights on with green setting and fourth is lights on with blue setting.

It was a nice day out today so I took advantage of it and took off the exhaust manifolds , all the bolts came out nice and easy thanks to spraying pb blaster on them every time I was under the hood.I still have to take out the 4 studs in the center of the block , I think I might try some JB weld and a nut on there and hopefully that will let the studs walk out easy.Also with the manifolds off and the exhaust out of the way it gives me a lot of room to put in the control arms , so I might do that tomorrow if it is as nice as it was today.I also have to fab up a plate for the EGR tube on the headers as it did not come with a plate , only a gasket if you have EGR.I also installed my new fog light units and the HID for the fog lights , I will have to adjust them yet , but they look great.

Today didn't go so well out there.I made a plate for the EGR on the headers that was easy enough , then I went out and got started on the control arms.I thought it would go quick and I could get most of the suspension done today , but of course easy things never go easy <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" /> I got 3 of the control arms off and replaced , not torqued yet but on with the bolts through ready to be torqued.I got to the driver side , the back bolt came undone easy enough , but do you think I could get the front one?I broke a ratchet , not the socket the actual ratchet , a 3/8 drive while I was using it and a cheater bar for leverage.When I heard the snap and everything let go , I thought I had snapped the socket.I picked up the pieces and here the ratchet head had snapped off <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" /> I believe there is a lifetime warranty on it so I will take it in and see if they will replace it.I can turn the nut or the bolt side , but both turn at once , so using back up on the opposite side , I tried again , no luck.So , I thought I would be smart , take off the tire and use my 1/2" impact gun.I tried for over an hour , alternating banging on it with a hammer , impact gun , more pb blaster , impact gun , not a thing moved , even with back up.

My next thought was I will try the dealer and see if I can replace that bolt and nut as it has to do with alignment , the bolt has a flat spot on it , and a plate on one end , the other side the plate comes off , then a nut.I can't really see any other way of getting this thing off seeing it snapped a ratchet and an impact gun has no effect.I will be on the road all week working so everything is on hold until I get back and have some more time.

Today I went and picked up my $34 cam bolt from the dealer , a few rods for my welder , and replaced the ratchet that I broke trying to get that cam bolt out.Took a couple minutes with a grinder to cut that cam bolt out , put the new control arm and cam bolt in , but like the other control arms I have not torqued anything down just yet.I then welded the nuts onto the studs in the block , and with all the PB blaster I had sprayed on over the last weeks they came out pretty easy , no broken studs.

My harness for wiring in my LED so they turn on and off properly with the DRL came in so I wired that in as well as installed my HID kits on the headlights.I also adjusted my fog lights but until it is dark don't know if they are exactly where I want them to be.The project list is getting smaller and smaller now , everything is coming together very well.

I then started playing around with the headers , got the driver side and the flange loosely bolted up , just need to torque it all up on that side.The passenger side didn't go as well , because I didn't take out the oil filter , as everything came out fine with it on , I am 1/2" short for room to get the flange stuck down there.So , I guess tomorrow I am going to pick up a filter and some oil and will end up doing an oil change even though I don't need it.Once the filter is out the header should slide in there nicely.I noticed on the bolts that they gave me one shorter bolt for the flanges , and I am thinking the short one is used on the passenger side in that one corner.

Today I drained the oil , took the filter off , and guess what, it made no difference for room to get the passenger side header on.I ended up using my stock jack to push the trans over a little and soon as I did that it plopped right down into place.I have everything bolted together loosely right now , just need to torque it all in.I went and cut the stock pipe a little too much , now I will have to get a short piece of pipe too connect to the collector and the stock pipe going into the cat.Once all that is torqued in , it's just a matter of finishing up with the suspension , which comes down to the ball joints , tie rod ends , track bar and steering damper.Then will have an alignment done and we should be all good.

Got all the exhaust done and headers torqued in.After running it for 20 minutes I re torqued it but only one got a little bit re tightened , and of course I will check it again down the road.The only problem i found is where I had to fab up something when I cut the stock pipe too short , forgetting I had put the magnaflow cat in there so the dimensions were a little different.There is a small exhaust leak there , but I will just play around with it , try a couple different options out and I should be able to get it to be fine.The sound is a little different , but the idle is the same as stock.Until I finish the suspension I can't take it for a spin and see what the power difference is. Here are a couple pics of the engine bay , one of each side and one from the bottom.







I also left the spark plug heat shields off , one reason is they are a pita to get back on , and they look stupid in there with the headers.I think it should be fine without them, as my last truck I built with headers I did not have the plug heat shields and everything was great for a couple of years until I sold the truck.

Ran a little sea foam through the engine today , what a nice plume of smoke lol.The nice thing about it is the water is pushes through the exhaust was black , so I found 2 tiny little pin holes that you can't hear by ear.I will fix those up when it warms up a little and put some exhaust cement over it , then am all good.I did manage to get the LED lights working the way I want them too.I have it set so when the jeep is running the LED are on , I turn the jeep off they turn off in 7 seconds.If I turn on my headlights , the LED go off , turn off the lights they turn back on.All I can say is damn I am good lol. The wiring harness I got that was supposed to do this did not work , as soon as I plugged it onto the battery it had constant power , so it was defective , so it is going back.Just need some warm weather when the wind isn't howling and I can finish up my front end.

Went out today for a few , was too cold to stay out there to long and is about to snow.Anyway I took some pics of everything apart with the knuckles painted black with tremclad , put the ball joints in on both sides and put the steering knuckles back on.I tried to press them back on but they only went on so far with a gap on top and bottom , but more pronounced on the top side.I can't remember if there was a gap there when I took everything apart , so hopefully someone looking at the pics can verify this or not.Maybe when they are torqued down it might suck them in a little more?




This is the gap on the top ball joint where the knuckle sits.



Here is the bottom one , the next pic is a close up of the bottom , but is a little blurry but the gap is noticed a little more.





It is supposed to warm up for the weekend , so I will try and finish that up , finish putting the new steering links on , put everything back together and get it all torqued up then take it in for an alignment.

Got everything done and put back together today.It definitely needs an alignment , as before the jeep on the steering wheel was straight and the jeep would go straight.Now it is turned about 1/4 off , and it pulls a little. I knew it wasn't going to be perfect as I had the complete front end apart and replaced everything.I took some pictures , but the pictures don't show the way the wheels sit as well as when you look straight at the jeep.The pictures were taken with the steering wheel sitting perfect with the jeep symbol straight.The driver side tire is turned slightly to the right and the bottom sticks out a little , where the passenger side is turned just a little more to the right , and doesn't stick out.I did take it for a drive , and will drive it to get an alignment when I have the chance .