weekwender Wrangler Part 2 - stock Exhaust - Photo 37007986

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The stock crossover pipe runs in front of the T-case and barely clears the factory front driveshaft at full droop. Adding additional downtravel causes the stock driveshaft to hit the exhaust, which will burn and tear the boot causing premature driveshaft failure.

Stock, our Sahara traveled a measly 34 inches up a 30-degree ramp for an RTI score of 293. After our modifications it nearly doubled the distance traveled to 67 inches, for a score of 578.

The stock crossover pipe runs in front of the T-case and barely clears the factory front driveshaft at full droop. Adding additional downtravel causes the stock driveshaft to hit the exhaust, which will burn and tear the boot causing premature driveshaft failure.

The Y-pipe developed by aFe is 2x2-inch into 1x2 1/2-inch stainless steel mandrel-bent tubing with OE flanges and 100-percent hand-TIG-welded construction. A true merged collector is used to increase and balance flow while reducing backpressure to diminish exhaust noise. It is designed to keep the equal-length characteristic of the stock exhaust.

Here you can see the routing of the aFe Y-pipe, which opens up much needed space for the front driveshaft to operate.

JKS’ sector shaft brace kit includes this bracket that beefs up the frame where the steering box attaches, as well as the track bar bracket.

Note the JKS billet aluminum pillow block that supports the bottom of the sector shaft with an additional support bearing. This ensures the sector shaft remains concentric within the steering box, preventing the leverage from larger wheels and tires from damaging it and extending steering box life.

From the pillow block and bracket, JKS uses a bar that braces the entire assembly against the opposite framerail, converting the stock single-shear arrangement to a robust double-shear setup.

Moving to the rear axle, we replaced the stock open diff and 3.21 gears with a 4.88 Nitro ring and pinion set, 35-spline axleshafts, and an ARB Air Locker.

We replaced the stock driveshaft with one from Tom Wood’s Custom Driveshafts that utilizes 1350 U-joints. This required us to replace the factory flanges with ones supplied by Tom Wood’s.

Here you can see the factory front lower control arms and the EVO MFG replacement arms. They are made from 2-inch x 0.281-wall DOM with rebuildable Currie Johnny Joints on both ends. Thanks to the EVO1 adjusters, the EVO arms are fully adjustable without having to remove them from the vehicle.

After hanging the arms, we prepped the JT’s Parts and Accessories-built Dana 44. As we mentioned last month, this axle started as a Rubicon housing, but was sleeved and gusseted before being stuffed with Nitro 4.88 gears and an ARB Air Locker.

The end of the JT’s axle sleeve can be seen here and measures 0.220-inch in wall thickness. This thickness adds strength to the axletubes, while allowing enough room for 35-spline axleshafts.

We matched our Enforcer kit with a set of Bilstein 5160 reservoir shocks. These monotube shocks have a 46mm piston, digressive valving, increased oil capacity, and a dividing piston in the reservoir for more travel and a short body. The 5160s use Bilstein’s exclusive Triple-C Technology finish to provide easy care and lasting good looks.

Another change we made was to swap out the stock ball joints, which can be problematic with larger tires, to Dynatrac’s heavy-duty ProSteer ball joints. The ProSteer joints provide higher strength, longer life, are serviceable, and once installed can be rebuilt without any special tools.

The ProSteer ball joints can be seen here, along with the Nitro “C” gussets, the RCV axleshafts, and Reid Racing steering knuckles. The direct-replacement Reid knuckles, in the signature orange powdercoat, raise the tie rod an inch higher, to put your steering closer to the axle centerline, increasing ground clearance. The 35-spline RCV CVs (about the strength of a 35-spline Dana 60 shaft) allow the four-wheel drive system to operate at extreme steering angles without binding.

EVO’s draglink flip kit bracket is designed to be a bolt-on addition, but we chose to weld ours on for additional strength.

If you use a draglink flip kit in conjunction with the JKS sector shaft brace, the stock track bar will hit the pillow block at extreme compression. Because of this, JKS developed a replacement adjustable track bar with a shallower bend that allows it to be compatible with the draglink flip kit and sector shaft brace kit.

To make the most of our suspension setup and to increase articulation, we removed the stock Sahara sway bar and replaced it with the electronically disconnecting SmartBar from a Rubicon. Our only change was to remove the motor and replace it with the EVO MFG No Limits manual actuator. This is great for those who want to run the Rubicon bar on a non-Rubicon JK or for those Rubicon owners who want to replace the problematic motor.

Those balancing good caster with an acceptable pinion angle can go with one of Tom Wood’s multiple double-cardan front shafts, which has a double-cardan on both the T-case and axle-side of the shaft. This unique arrangement allows for a shallower pinion angle without causing excessive vibration on the highway.

Here is the completed frontend at full droop. Expect about 9 inches of total travel with the Enforcer kit and 37s. Those who go with the 35-inch option will get an additional inch of uptravel.

The rear suspension consists of new shocks, coils, sway bar endlink extensions (the stock ones are moved to the front sway bar), and a roll center correction bracket, which repositions the track bar (arrow). The factory rear arms are retained with the Enforcer kit.

Once the suspension was finished, we turned our attention to the front bumper. The ’12 Wranglers have an auxiliary vacuum pump mounted on the driver’s side framerail. Jeep engineers designed it with enough slack in the lines so that it could be easily moved, but its factory bracket does need to be cut off. EVO MFG offers a new bracket, which safely repositions the pump to the location you see here.

After moving the vacuum pump, we installed the Expedition One Trail Series full-width front bumper and loaded it with the factory fog lights. It includes a durable powdercoat finish, integrated winch mount, and 1-inch-thick shackle mounts that will accept a 3/4-inch shackle.

Our recovery tool of choice for this build was a Warn 9.5cti thermometric winch with wire rope and a roller fairlead, an insurance policy we would never leave home without.

The last piece to the installation puzzle was the Expedition One Trail Series bumper with the Smooth Motion STC system. The STC system allows the carrier to swing with your gate in one smooth motion, with no latches or pins to undo. Like the front bumper, it offers one-inch-thick shackle mounts and easily handles our 37-inch BFGoodrich KM2 mounted on a 17x8.5 AEV Savegre wheel. As a bonus, it offers quiet, rattle-free operation.