seer1

I'm almost ashamed to admit I bought a Kilby EV Canister Kit. After seeing the mods already done, all I can do is hang my head in shame. Other than a small welder and drill press, I don't really have much in the way of metal working tools.

Now my short rant: I used to think instruction writers hated the not so bright mechanics like myself. Now I'm thinking they have way too much familiarity with the product to tell a dumbass such as myself what to do with it. So here we go with a kit that should take maybe an hour to install, but instead it took me more than twice that because I had to keep stopping to figure out what the hell this guy was talking about. I hope this write up saves you some time.

As far as all these pictures go please don't allow the lack of a muffler to disorient you. It's now in a far, far better place...

When you open the kit you'll notice some nice sturdy heat treated metal plates and a bag of fasteners. You'll also notice a one page instruction manual with seven microscopic pictures.

The first thing to do is install the e-brake drop bracket. It'll go almost right above the rear axle and will look something like this:
before:[IMG][/IMG] and after:[IMG][/IMG]

After you have that up, then you need to disconnect the two hoses and one electrical plug from the EV Canister. The plug has a black tab sticking out from one side. Push that in and the plug should pull right out. The hose going to the gas tank has a funny clip on it. If you push on both sides of it, it will do one of two things. It will either hang up which means you're pushing on the wrong two sides, or it will come off rather easily. The hose going over to the driver's side is a little more difficult. It will eventually need to come all the way off from the canister, but you know how fragile that plastic is. I finally unclipped it in the middle. There is a little tab on the top of that plug that you have to pull over in order to disconnect. The screwdriver in the picture is pointing to it.[IMG][/IMG] If you can do it, just CAREFULLY pull that plug out of the short rubber hose coming out of the canister. I tried, but started hearing some slight cracking noises so I figured I'd be better off dealing with it once I was out from under the Jeep.

Once you have those hoses and wires off, take out the three bolts holding the plate with the canister attached out. That will allow that assembly to fall right on your face. Get out from underneath, take a drink, stretch out your back and look at the assembly from the metal plate side. There are three plastic tabs sticking through the metal and if you look carefully, you'll see there is a metal tab bent down to prevent the can from coming off. Bend that metal tab up, and gently hammersmack (I made that word up) the metal plate while holding onto the canister. The two should separate nicely.

There is a decent picture of this next step on the instructions so I won't post one. Place the canister on the big plate called the Main Plate just like the picture in the instructions show. Tighten the bolt going through the strap in the rear of the plate. I'll use the term front to refer to the part of the canister that has the hoses and such coming out of it. But just push the bolt through the front hole and very loosely put the nut and washer on it so you can find it later.

Here's the next WTF from the instructions and I quote, "Install backing plate with welded nuts," [IMG][/IMG] "into frame cross member from the passenger side." [IMG][/IMG] It's tough but doable. For the life of me I could only do it with the nuts facing downward. Those welds look pretty sturdy. And I found I needed to snake it in going around the rear side of the body bolt while pushing down on it a little from the hole in the top of the cross member about 6 or so inches in. Once you've go it in place, it'll look like this: [IMG][/IMG]

Get that short rubber hose off of the canister. I finally had to cut mine off.

Then slip the main plate, canister side up, up from behind the rear axle. If you look at the plate, you'll see one end has two holes drilled that match up with that plate you slipped into the cross member. The plug and hose side of the cannister will also be facing the driver's side. Being careful of cables, hoses and such, wiggle it around so the canister is almost touching the bottom pan of the body. I like to use a little LockTite when I'm cookin' so a drop or two then bolt that plate in place. (Don't use the long bolt for that.) This is a view from the rear of the Jeep. If you've got rear lockers, run the cable or wires into that long notch on the plate. [IMG][/IMG] Now cut those little tie downs holding the wires and plug in place and re-route it so you can plug it back in. I went ahead and zip tied the wire to the E-brake bracket.

Then take that rubber hose and cut it into three sections, one being 5" long, one 7" and the other remaining section should be about 12". Now take the hose coming from the gas tank and measure up 10" from the plug that was attached to the cannister. Cut it at that point and reconnect the cut part to the cannister. Take the 7" section and put the plastic elbow that came with the kit in one end. Route it over the filler tube and slip the other end over the cut hose coming out of the gas tank. Connect the 5" section to the other end of the elbow and slip the open end of the hose over the cut hose coming out of the cannister. I went ahead and zip tied all this to the frame as far from the tailpipe as possible. [IMG][/IMG] There is just no way to take a decent picture of this, but hopefully you can see the elbow being pointed out by that piece of metal I found sticking in my butt. Take the remaining hose and plug one end onto the nipple you removed the short rubber hose from earlier and the other end onto the hose running toward the driver's side.

Now take that bent piece of metal and bolt one end onto that loose bolt on the Main Plate and the other, using that long bolt onto the cross member running right in front of the axle.
Yep, you guessed it. Time for a test drive then a drink. Do make sure no weird lights come on on your dashboard. If they do you've probably got the plug in wrong or maybe the hoses in backward.

Enjoy and, "Look Ma, no plastic!"

dougr5150

Nice write up, your directions and pictures make more sense then the Kilby pdf. I am sure that this will be something that I buy, I am sure that I could fab something up myself but it would either be half ass or wind up costing me just as much so I might as well get the kit and do it right the first time.

dougolupski

Yeah I'm with you on that. I have most everything I need to do something like this but for 130.00 for a kit that has everything and coated metal. It's just not worth my time. Great write up.

Phishjeep

That looks so complicated, I couldn't even read the entire thing. Great write up (I'm sure of it), and thanks for dissuading me from thinking about it further. Now I can save the money for something else.

Mini-me

Like you, I found Kilby's instructions ......"lacking clarity" for a politically correct term. Of course I did not have a chance to read your writeup before I accomplished mine. The "backing plate" did not want to go in on my installation. I removed the drivers side body mount bolt. It then slide in easily into the cross member.

I would like to say that the kit is well designed and built to last in my opinion.

seer1

Thanks,
I left a reply elsewhere saying for some strange reason that body bolt would only come out so far and then it would just spin and come no further. Maybe it was hung up on a lip, or burr. I didn't want to break anything so I didn't try to force it. That's why I didn't mention it in the writeup.

I really agree with you as to the quality of the kit.

The service was great as well. I ordered it Tuesday and it was at my door Friday morning.

seer1

There's lots-o-words there Phish, but just take it step by step and you'll find it's a fairly easy install. Plus you won't have your know-it-all Jeep neighbor telling you what a beefy drive line your Jeep has, stopping in the middle of his sentence and saying, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT PLASTIC THING DOING THERE?"

JKJoe

Nice write up seer1. I did this install today. The install is quite simple like seer1 says. I did the hoses different from what Kilby suggests. I made sure to keep all the factory hose connections. By doing this, I was alble to skip the elbow install, and only used two pieces of the hose from Kilby.

seer1

Cool, I'd love to see how you did it.

BTW, you'll love that bumper!

JKJoe

I will take some pics this weekend, I also installed the Kilby muffler skid. Very well built. I am pleased with the build quality of both