Clayton Overland+ Install Completed!

This past Saturday, I finally had the weather required and decided to get together (following all social distancing protocols) with my friend and fellow "Jeeper", Chris. We typically have a well tuned system where he does the mechanical while I read the directions, fetch tools and do a lot of pointing. Conversely, I do the electrical work while Chris finds the connectors and runs the wiring. This is our process for all of our Jeeps (he has three!).

With COVID-19 and our sheltering in place, this has proved very difficult. Chris installed his front inner fender liners, front and rear fenders, roof rack and fashioned his own kayak basket all while forced to find his own tools and get up and down too many times. I painted my new mirrors, installed my front links and my front lower control arms and spent way too much time planning out my hammock mount and what I will be doing next to @RetroRubicon!

Well as we all needed some "face-time", we decided to setup four Adirondack chairs 15 feet apart (for safety), we all brought our own food and drinks, and spent the morning working on the Jeeps in masks and gloves while staying six feet apart and then with our spouses, enjoyed a distant lunch together. This was the first time any of us have "gotten together" since this all started and added some much needed sanity to our day. I am not proposing everyone run out and get together in anyway, but if you know someone who has been sequestered as long as you and there is a way to safely sit in the same yard, it really helped with my mental state.

Now, onto the install...

The first step is to read all the instructions and, thankfully, Clayton does a great job of keeping them short and to the point. Basically these are the high level steps:

• Do one arm at a time and work in an order so you don't miss anything. I started with the lower fronts, then moved to upper fronts, then lower rears and then upper rears one arm at a time.
• Disconnect any cables or brackets attached to the control arm
• Use a jack to keep the axle from moving or rotating
• Remove the old control arms
• Position the axle where you need it to be and measure from the center hole in the front mount to the center hole in the rear mount and write down the length
• Adjust you new control arms (both sides) to this length
• Install your new control arm in place with the adjustable end towards the frame and torque everything down to spec
• Tighten the lock nut down to secure
• Reconnect any and all cables and brackets that you disconnected in the first step
• Repeat all steps on the other side

Since I had done my front lowers, last week, we started with the front uppers. This is the only area where some details were missing from the directions but they were not a big deal. I will just give you some guidance on what we did...

On the front upper control arms, there is a grommet with some cables connected. There is not a replacement position in the new Clayton control arms and I did not want to drill a hole into the new arm so I just used a zip-tie to reconnect the cables.

The next item we found that needed some adjustment was this module on the transmission. I needed to loosen it and shift it slightly so I could remove the bolt for the upper control arm on the passenger side. Once you switch out the arms, you can go ahead and just tighten this back up in place.

 Once we had the front uppers swapped out and in place, we shifted to the rear and started with the lowers again doing one at a time starting with drivers side. Nothing hard on this side or on the passenger side lowers. Just follow the directions as is.

On the uppers, it is still an easy install but space is more limited on the passenger side as the gas tank really limits where your hands can fit as do this bracket...

Again, it is not an issue but makes it a bit tight to work. On the passenger side, you will really need a second set of hands helping line up the control arm in the front with the hole, nut tab and bolt as there is zero space to fit your fingers in. This is not hard but just took a few tries to figure it out.

Once you get that done, you are ready to ride or "flex" as the case may be...

The Journey is what counts, Adventure Awaits!

#jeeplife #rubicon #jl #jlur #wrangler #gladiator #jeep #jeepporn #retrorubicon #claytonoffroad

Clayton Front Lower Control Arm Install!

It is a very interesting time with COVID-19 curtailing so much of our daily activities. We are doing our part by staying home and away from others, and know it's the right thing to do to, ultimately, beat this pandemic and move onto to healing sooner.

Now, that does not make things easy when it comes to working on your Jeep. Many jobs require and extra set of hands or someone to bounce ideas off of and, let's face it. it's way more fun with someone else to laugh at you when you bang you shin or hit your knuckles!

I have learned a few things during this time...

1. I do not have all the tools I need (my friend and I have a complete set when you put them together, but alone, I do not).
2. Sometimes I just need someone to tell me that I am not thinking clearly about what I am doing,(more on that in a bit)
3. It sucks crawling out from under the Jeep to grab a beer! Someone needs to be standing by to hand you one. (Same goes for tools or that part you just dropped and it rolled away)
4. Jeep projects are just much more fun with a good friend to share them with

Anyway, now onto the install...

I had a whole half-day to install my Clayton Overland+ Control Arms and this was my goal. The work is relatively straight forward BUT removing the factory torqued bolts proved quite a challenge... this is why I only was able to get the Front lower control arms swapped out. This is where lesson #2 came into play, I was using my Lowe's "24-Volt Max 1/2-in Impact Wrench providing premium performance for installing and removing high-torque nuts, bolts, and fasteners. It’s brushless motor delivers 650-ft-lbs of breakaway torque" according to the company, and I could not get them to budge at all. After a struggle, I was able to remove one bolt from the passenger side on the rear of the front control arm.

Here are the general steps I followed (the website directions are great) for each side individually starting with the front lower passenger side. Rattle-can paint as desired before you start...

• Remove the old control arm bolts
• Disconnect the brake line bracket from the control arm
• Remove the old control arm
• Remove the lower shock mount bolt (MAKE SURE you keep the shock from extending or you will fight with it to get it back in place)
• Install the new lower shock mount bolt provided by the good folks at Clayton Off Road
• Position the axle where you need it to be and measure from the center hole in the front mount to the center hole in the rear mount and write down the length
• Adjust you new control arms (both sides) to this length
• Tighten the lock nut down to secure length
• Install your new control arm in place with the adjustable end towards the frame and torque everything down to spec
• Reconnect the brake line mount using the new screw provided by Clayton Off Road
• Repeat all steps on the drivers side

Here's a view of the de-install...

Here are some "helpful" hints...

• I had to use a 24mm ratchet with a breaker bar on one side and the 21mm wrench on the other side to break the big control arms bolts free! The 1/2 inch impact wrench just could not do it.
• Put a flat head screw driver under the shock before you remove the old and have the new one ready to go. Use the screw driver to keep the shock from extending and as a lever to position it so you can slip in the new bolt.

And now for the new Control Arms...

Next week, with a bit more time and planning, I intend to install the remaining arms and until then...-

The Journey is what counts, Adventure Awaits!

#jeeplife #rubicon #jl #wrangler #jeep #jeepporn #retrorubicon #claytonoffroad

Installing my Clayton Adjustable Front Sway Bar End Links 2018+, JL/JT

Finally had a really nice weekend weather wise and I took full advantage of my COVID-19 "shut-in" status. First, I had my favorite graphics shop upgrade my "door-less" look a bit. I had my retro graphics done last year but realized that when I took my doors off, it basically "broke" the look. I decided to go back to the drawing board and came up with hits...

Door On

Doors Off - BEFORE

Doors Off - NOW!

So back to the install... in total, this was a very easy project. The instructions are a really well written and it takes under an hour to complete it. My purpose in replacing my old links was that they were moved from the rear of my JL when I did the lift. They did not fit as they should, were not adjustable, and I honestly did not like they way they looked.

I wanted to upgrade to an adjustable link that was durable and I think I found exactly what I wanted with these Clayton links. The first step is to remove your old links. This is an easy task but I found that if you remove both bottom bolts first, you can push down the sway bar and easily remove both top bolts.

Once these are out, the next step is to align you sway bar about 5 degrees up and I used a carpenters angle finder to accomplish this. It worked really well if you know your vehicle is on level ground.

Once you have the correct alignment, you need to measure the center to center distance from the top and bottom mounts. With that know distance, there are a couple different ways to do the math to figure out what you need to cutoff each side of the new threaded rod. Key step is to put on both lock nuts all the way so that when you make the cuts, you can fix the threads by unwinding the nuts once the cuts are made.

This is the only part I struggled with a bit so what worked for me was to line up the old link and the new ones next to each other and determine the proper places to make the cuts. My handy Hitachi Grinder with Diablo blade made a nice clean quick cut. From here, it becomes an easy task to assemble the ends and mount the newly fitted links. On the Drivers side, you will be using both ends (top and bottom) with the ends that have the studs on them. On the passenger side, you will use the end with the stud on the top and the non-studded end on the bottom with the two aluminum spacers on each side. Both arms get installed with the studs facing inward and as I said in the beginning, start with both tops and mount them first with the sway bar positioned all the way down so it is east to tighten everything down (torqued to 60 ft-pd). Then raise the sway bar back up and mount the lower stud on the drivers side. I used the OEM provided bolt and nut on the passenger side and everything worked great. The only thing I did not need to do, that was part of the instructions, was to "Drill hole in sway bar to 1/2" diameter". Everything fit well without doing this step.

 Overall, I am very happy with the quality of the parts and the ease of the install. Next, I will be installing the Clayton Overland+ Control Arms when the Sun returns to NJ hopefully this weekend!

The Journey is what counts, Adventure Awaits!

Clayton Off Road Overland + Control Arms... Where's the Sun???

As I mentioned, I ordered the Overland + control arm kit from Clayton Off Road last week. They are a company out of Connecticut and I had plans to go up and see the factory when I picked up my control arm kit. As is the case for everyone else, these plans were made prior to COVID-19 and the requirements to "shelter in place" and avoid meeting people in groups.

Because of this, they shipped my order down to me and I received them a two days from when I ordered and the shipping was free. They were packaged very well and I had no issues with any damage.

I also purchased front sway bar links to replace the factory ones. My current lift replaced my rear sway bar links with new ones but moved the rears to the front to lengthen what was there. I am not a fan of the angle for the sway bar, it is within the range you would want but still a little off for my liking. These new Clayton links can be cut and adjusted to the precise length while still allowing further adjust-ability to fine tune once mounted.

Now I just need to find some time to install them. I found some great videos online that goes through the process so I plan to tackle once the weather gets better and I have some spare time.

Until then...

The Journey is what counts, Adventure Awaits!