Primitive Skid Plates

[Brucey]

I got around to it today, and I broke the rear two bolts for the jack up plate clean in half. I blame 8 years of salt.

Looks like I'm going to have to go to a shop, cause I dont have a tap and die set and any way of getting to those bolts now. I also dont have a jack up plate either now, but I dont think its part of the integrity of the engine cradle, but I dont want to risk it and am gonna drive the cherokee until tommorow.

[The Yeti]

Will this fit over a borla header?

[rockhopjohn]

Originally posted by The Don
Will this fit over a borla header?

No, this will not clear Borla Headers without modification. Scooby modified his to fit over Borla Headers, if you dig around you should be able to find the pictures.

Originally posted by Brucey
I got around to it today, and I broke the rear two bolts for the jack up plate clean in half. I blame 8 years of salt.

Looks like I'm going to have to go to a shop, cause I dont have a tap and die set and any way of getting to those bolts now. I also dont have a jack up plate either now, but I dont think its part of the integrity of the engine cradle, but I dont want to risk it and am gonna drive the cherokee until tommorow.

**** dude that sucks. I don't think I have one of those jacking plates, and I am not really sure what I am supposed to used the one the was included with the skid plate for.

I have been having trouble getting the rear plate on due to both issues. The mounting point on the rear crossmember at the back of the differential uses studs that go into the diff housing, and when I try to loosen up the nuts it starts backing the studs out. So I have been trying to get the nuts unlocked from the studs, but it is has been slow going process, using lots of Blaster.

[Brucey]

I probably shouldnt have changed the jack up plate, the stock one i had is fine, but theres no going back now. The newer one is obviously better.

But yeah, all the problems I have seems to be from years of being the bottom of a car, nothing really to do with primitives engineering.

[rockhopjohn]

OK, finally got the rear plate installed. My big problem was with these rear mounting bolts:



These are actually studs that go through rubber bushing in the rear crossmember, and into the differential housing. When I tried to back off the nuts, I ended up backing out the studs instead. I spent a couple of days trying to get the nuts unfrozen without removing the studs, and I ended up just removing the studs one at a time, freeing up the nut on the stud, while the other stud was still in place. This is very easy to do, and the differential housing, even with weight on the rear wheels is very mobile, so getting the studs back in is not a problem.

The front mounting points were tight, but very easy to remove with some force. Here is a pic:



Here is the front mounting point of the rear skid plate, with the plate mounted.



Here is a view of the rear mounting points with the plate mounted.



A little wider view of the rear skid plate



All in all the rear install was not too bad, once I figured out how to deal with the nuts locked up on the studs. If the nuts had come right off, it would have been less than a 10 minute job.

[ETC]

i looked at the primitve site, i see that they list the 3/16 rear cover in the "fits outback" column but not which front fits.

emailed paul to find out more info.

ordered the tires, ready to romp this thing and see if it falls apart ;]

[ETC]

got back to me right away, +1 for customer service ;]

well i was under there looking today, trying to figure out what i want to do.

i have a better idea for mounting a skid plate and i'm going to have to see if i can incorporate primitives design into it.

basically what i'm thinking is; there is no recovery points on the front that won't thrash the front plastic. there is however two bolted on transportation tiedown points off to the sides . plan is to remove them, use them as templates for 1/4" steel plates that come down just below the front plastic with holes for hooks. in between them i want to weld a square steel tube to attach the skid to, this should make a more solid attachment point as well as give lateral strength to the recovery plates.

i'll let you know how that works out.

btw, has anyone addressed the naked trans pan just waiting for a rock to "hole" it ? other than using the trans pan bolts or glueing a piece of diamond plate over it, i havn't figured that one out yet.

[Brucey]

My idea was to weld some stout metal to the crossmember for the transmission itself. Not sure how well that would work out though. But there really isnt anything to mount it to in the back short of sharing some bolts or making your own.

[ETC]

if you figure something out, let me know.

i was just looking to see what was vulnerable under there, trans pan is the most worrysome as it could easily leave you stranded. exhaust as usual is just waiting to be ripped off but you could still drive it.

unlike a truck, the drive shaft is very well protected.

so far the easiest solution is to bend a square of 1/8" diamond plate to conform somewhat to the trans pan and glue it on with high temp rtv. this won't help much if you really bang it hard as the pan will still deform but it will stop the occasoinal sharp rock from puncturing it.

[ETC]

skiip plates finally arrived today ....

rear skid packing slip says 1 skidplate, 2 spiralock nuts ...... got the skid plate ....... no spiralock nuts .

they did give me the bolts for the front, guess that's something.

what is a spiralock nut ? does it have "teeth" cut into it ?

guess it's whatever i've got and threadlocker.