JL JOURNAL : BADASS BUDGET BUMPER & How to Flip the Sway Bar Disconnect

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
I need to figure out how to clock the motor on the JK . And get a skid plate to protect it . What are folks running?

There are several out there for the JK. I think I bought the one from Ace. For $20 you get a bolt & washer. The end thread on the bolt was damaged and I had to chase it with a file to work. I really felt I got ripped - it's about $2 in hardware you can diy if you take the time to measure.

What rubiDave said ^^^

Clocking the motor is done in the exact same way as you see in this video. If you still have the lower chin on your JK, that'll help to protect the motor.

Looks pretty good.... and should hold you over until a 1/4 pounder arrives... ;)

LOL - pretty much the same thing really except maybe with sides to it. :crazyeyes:

As a fan of utilitarianism and minimalism, I love it!:thumb:

Awesome :)
 

benatc1

Hooked
Looks great! And framiliar lol... I will add, if you have the plastic front bumper you dont have the 2 threaded lower bolt holes for the L brackets. So you just have to get creative with bolts and the empty holes that are there. Need to kinda redo mine with bigger bolts, so that it is stouter. But its works just fine! Thanks for sharing this!

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wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Looks great! And framiliar lol... I will add, if you have the plastic front bumper you dont have the 2 threaded lower bolt holes for the L brackets. So you just have to get creative with bolts and the empty holes that are there. Need to kinda redo mine with bigger bolts, so that it is stouter. But its works just fine! Thanks for sharing this!

I did not know that - thanks for posting this up. Glad to know there are still holes there to work with.

Did you ever figure out a "guard" for the sway bar motor? Or has it even been an issue?

Bolting up some angle iron would be easy enough and I think there's a company that already offers something like it. So far, I've only really wheeled it in Moab with this setup and it would never be an issue in a place like that. Maybe more on something like the Rubicon where there are lots of loose big boulders.
 

danford.lau

Caught the Bug
What rubiDave said ^^^

Clocking the motor is done in the exact same way as you see in this video. If you still have the lower chin on your JK, that'll help to protect the motor.



LOL - pretty much the same thing really except maybe with sides to it. :crazyeyes:



Awesome :)

Sounds like it’s a 10M -1.5 x 100 bolt . Will go grab one this weekend and see if it’s a fast swap . I still have the lower chin but want to find a plate to bolt underneath for peace of mind


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benatc1

Hooked
I did not know that - thanks for posting this up. Glad to know there are still holes there to work with.



Bolting up some angle iron would be easy enough and I think there's a company that already offers something like it. So far, I've only really wheeled it in Moab with this setup and it would never be an issue in a place like that. Maybe more on something like the Rubicon where there are lots of loose big boulders.
With the plastic bumper comes a metal (thin) cross member in this area, not sure if it's with the steal bumper or not. Might try to get that back on, even though it now needs modifications. Can get a pic later, but might by me some time, or create a taco to push into the motor lol

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Capt_Zoom

New member
With the plastic bumper comes a metal (thin) cross member in this area, not sure if it's with the steal bumper or not. Might try to get that back on, even though it now needs modifications. Can get a pic later, but might by me some time, or create a taco to push into the motor lol

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So any ideas on how to retain the stock for lights or would one have to go top mount like the TJ?
 

benatc1

Hooked
So any ideas on how to retain the stock for lights or would one have to go top mount like the TJ?
If I understand what your asking, there is no way that I've found to keep stock fog lights. I plan to mount something on top of frame rails. Are you referring to how the TJ fog lights were on the Rubicons?

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longarmwj

New member
So any ideas on how to retain the stock for lights or would one have to go top mount like the TJ?

You mean fog lights??

Personally if i ran a bumper like this I would just get a couple of amber LEDs from Rigid or Baja Designs and mount them atop the bumper, wiring them into the factory fog light switch.

You’d probably get better light output then the factory anyway, especially in poor weather.


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benatc1

Hooked
I will say I don't miss my fog lights at all. And the led fogs on the JL are awesome. But the headlights are amazing and haven't thought once that I need more light. Longarmwj makes a good point about adding the amber light

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longarmwj

New member
I will say I don't miss my fog lights at all. And the led fogs on the JL are awesome. But the headlights are amazing and haven't thought once that I need more light. Longarmwj makes a good point about adding the amber light

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I miss mine sometimes. I had the JW Speaker fogs and they were serious. I plan on getting two Rigid amber pods and mounting them on a light bar/pod capable fairlead when I get a winch


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wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
I will say I don't miss my fog lights at all. And the led fogs on the JL are awesome. But the headlights are amazing and haven't thought once that I need more light. Longarmwj makes a good point about adding the amber light

This right here ^^^^
 

Green machine

New member
New bumper

Maybe it's because Cindy and I came from humble beginnings and pretty much every modification we made on our first Jeep either came from the Pennysaver or was something I had to make but when it comes to things like bumpers, we still prefer to keep things simple. I think it's for this reason that we were so inspired by the "Jeep King" JK Wrangler concept that was revealed way back at the 2007 SEMA show and it's why much of Moby and Rubicat were built up the way they were. Needless to say, now that we have JET Li, our 2018 Jeep JL Wrangler, we decided to move more in that direction as well - first by removing his rear bumper and now, by minimizing things up front as well. In other words, we wanted to give him a no frills - no thrills, badass, basic front bumper that could be had on a budget. Now, to do this, we installed a WARN winch plate that we had originally bought for our factory steel front bumper and just left the bumper part off. To secure it in place, we recycled D-ring mounts that we still had from a previous JK bumper and just bolted everything to the frame rails. That's it - just the essentials and nothing else. In this short video, you'll get to see what we did and just how easy it is to install. As an added bonus, we'll also show you how to flip or clock a Rubicon electronic sway bar disconnect motor and for cheap. While we weren't able to keep this setup with our new WARN winch plate, it is something that we do hope to make work out with some day. Of course, depending on your front bumper setup, it may still be something you can benefit from.


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What You'll Need to Make Your Own Badass Budget Bumper
WARN Winch Plate: https://amzn.to/2OsCn29
EVO D-Ring Mounts : https://amzn.to/2unK14i
D-Rings: https://amzn.to/2DBOntR


:cool:

I think it looks sick. Love the ruggedness of it.
 

danford.lau

Caught the Bug
3F034D49-FC89-48AF-B149-AF9C28CDE497.jpg

Thanks for the inspiration Eddie . Picked up an M10x 1.5 - 95mm bolt and washer from Home Depot and did the sway bar motor flip today .. not sure I need the skid anymore — seems nicely nucked away . B4 and after


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wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks for the inspiration Eddie . Picked up an M10x 1.5 - 95mm bolt and washer from Home Depot and did the sway bar motor flip today .. not sure I need the skid anymore — seems nicely nucked away . B4 and after

Nicely done :thumb:
 

jwalt

Member
I went ahead with this set up on my Rubicon that was factory plastic bumper. I really wanted the EVO 1/4 pounder bumper and like the minimal look. With the cost of that bumper and similar I thought it would be better to put the money into my own garage welder and build one later. I purchased the Warn mount because it was the only one rated at 12,000 lbs that I could currently find. The winch I have coming is a 12,000 lb winch because when I get stuck, its always better to have more power. I had to add some hardware for the winch plate because the skid plate mounts different with the plastic bumper. When I removed the bumper I found the narrow metal pan that sits in front of the sway bar disconnect. I decided to tweak this plate a bit to remount it underneath the winch mount for a little more protection. It is thin metal, but better to hit it instead of the SBD. Here are a few pictures of it installed without the winch installed.
IMG_1365.jpg IMG_1366.jpg IMG_1364.jpg
 
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