Blue MJ

It’s not as bad as it looked, but I did shift it further passenger side and angle it to whatever worked.

Clears great for me shifting.

In hindsight, mechanical shifters probably wouldn’t have been as hard as I had anticipated if I had made it outside the rig when the entire trans/tcase combo was sitting on the floor. Oh well, this works for now for the 300 shifting. I might even be able to get a mechanical link to the ecobox, but I’m not worried about it for this trip. I could reach over and shift it if I really wanted to run low low

IMG_6896.jpeg

IMG_6897.jpeg
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Just bolt a ~6" piece of flat bar to it.
Click to expand...
For the Ecobox? Yeah, I guess I could do that too. Honestly, it's probably best I don't actually go into low low right now, 1310 greasable driveshaft joints of unknown age, assuming stock 9" shafts, clapped out spring over leafs, what felt like way too much backlash in the front axle ...

IMG_6900.jpeg


The list of extra **** I thought I could get done before next weekend has shrunk drastically. At this point its now just critical items:
-Finish the front axle bolt in
-Drop the tie rod below the knuckle to get rid of that single sheer stack on the passenger knuckle
-Valve cover gasket / add oil
-Mount seats
-Pull 9" 3rd and seal it back up, hopefully nothings wrong with it other than leaking like a bitch
-Throttle return spring
-Grease ****
-Tune up fender trimming / sharp edges
-Drive it around the block for the first time
-Pack / pickup trailer / load trailer

If I have time for anything else, I'd like to make the hand lever parking brake I have work

Skipping for this trip:
-Ball joints
-Front axle seals
-Deaver swap
-Steering geometry and track bar geometry fix
-Leaky power steering
 
YotaAtieToo said:
If anything, just the ecobox low range is super useful in between obstacles.

Have to use low low at least once after all that work
Click to expand...
I thought I remember reading somewhere in internet advice land that low in the eco and high in the 300 is a recipe for cracking the 300? Not really sure how that works. At this point, with the backing plate and aluminum cover, it’s about all I can do… if it’s going to crack it’s going to crack :rockon:

You’re supposed to actually use these things?! I thought the point is bust ass working on them and then sell them off because something new a shiny comes along?
 
fl0w3n said:
I thought I remember reading somewhere in internet advice land that low in the eco and high in the 300 is a recipe for cracking the 300? Not really sure how that works. At this point, with the backing plate and aluminum cover, it’s about all I can do… if it’s going to crack it’s going to crack :rockon:
Click to expand...

If you're beating on it, sure. But just dropping single low to help your clutch out between obstacles it will be fine.


fl0w3n said:
You’re supposed to actually use these things?! I thought the point is bust ass working on them and then sell them off because something new a shiny comes along?
Click to expand...

True
 
I did a victory lap around the block last night at 9:30… my gaping trans holes are loud and smelly :laughing:

And of course finally checked my phone and now the trip this weekend might be out :emb4:
First buddy dropped when he couldn’t get his rear diff back together. Other buddy is now saying he doesn’t think he can wire up his new ARB compressor in time.

****ers, I figured I was most likely to drop out with how much **** I had to do.

If I were to go, couple things to finish:
  • tack cross member to frame
  • smaller shackles in rear
  • some trimming

If I don’t go, I can just keep chugging away on more extensive ****
  • reseal both axles
  • truss & skid the 9”
  • SUA deaver swap the rear
  • redo track bar and drag link
  • YJ box, RD res, PSC pump for the steering
  • seal the tunnel back up / carpet or rubber the floor
  • get rid of the fugly bumpers

IMG_6937.jpeg
 
Got one buddy back in, so we’re a go. I’ll pick him up along my way.

Originally me and the other guys were going to stay through Monday, but now the only guy I’m going with has to work Monday. I’m a pussy and don’t want to be solo so TBD if I just camp out at Loon Sunday night and head home Monday.

Going in and out Loon, depending on traffic will determine how far we get before we setup camp.

IMG_6946.jpeg
 
I'm back :lmao:

Was at the first bigger rock garden part of gate keeper and bashed the tie rod into a rock, knocked the weld bung out of the tie rod. I should have known, the welds looked like **** from the PO, zero penetration turns out. I felt like a huge douche since I was trail tamponing, there was like 30 rigs lined up at the spillway when I skirted past them so I knew they'd be there any minute.

Everyone was chill, but we worked quickly to ratchet strap it back together enough to pull it forward. Burned up something in the winch in the process.

Luckily like the 3rd or 4th guy passing had a Carnage Welder, so we busted it out and stuck it back together.

Got back going, only to realize one of the front hubs wasn't engaging. I think that was not a new thing from this trip, oh well I figured I'd be able to make it in 3wd.

Then barely past the beer tree, starts puking coolant. Open the hood and the pressure bottle had blown a hole. We looked for some JB Weld but at this point, I was beginning to think not a good idea to push on with so many other questionable things about this Jeep that I haven't had time to look over or address, so we limped it back to the spillway, swam in Loon for a little, then went home.

6AM ready to go this morning

IMG_6951.jpeg



POS
IMG_2149.jpeg

IMG_6953.jpeg



IMG_6952.jpeg

Decent enough, back together. But notice the puke on the ground.
IMG_6957.jpeg



Money shot.
IMG_6954.jpeg



Chilled out on the slabs for a while, the group of ~18 that passed us spun the tubes on a JK so we hung around while my **** cooled off. At least it's better than being in the garage.
IMG_6956.jpeg
 
Good news is everything that I actually touched worked great. I of course had to drop it in low low first chance I could justify, and I was surprised at how much more useful it was than I anticipated. I figured it would be a use it only on some gnarly obstacle type feature, but I think I might but it out more than that. All the shifting can get annoying, but the control felt great.


Here's me giving these rocks some good long humping :homer:

3wd was getting the better of me here though
 
Bummer trip got cut short.

I hate to say it, but the video is a perfect example of how a 200:1 can hurt you as much as it can help you. 2nd gear and fathering the throttle probably would have walked right up it.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Bummer trip got cut short.

I hate to say it, but the video is a perfect example of how a 200:1 can hurt you as much as it can help you. 2nd gear and fathering the throttle probably would have walked right up it.
Click to expand...
Probably, but I wanted to play around with it and see if it would just grab eventually. Only my buddy was behind me, so I wasn’t holding anyone else up by experimenting.

I think I scooted over another 2 ft and it walked it on that line.

I do like how the clutch becomes like switch, thing feels very tractor like to operate haha.
 
fl0w3n said:
Probably, but I wanted to play around with it and see if it would just grab eventually. Only my buddy was behind me, so I wasn’t holding anyone else up by experimenting.

I think I scooted over another 2 ft and it walked it on that line.

I do like how the clutch becomes like switch, thing feels very tractor like to operate haha.
Click to expand...

Ya, I get it. It's pretty satisfying when you can just walk a line crawling like that. Did that on soup bowl years ago when everyone was having to bang it. The 39 kr3 stickies just hooked. :smokin:
 
I used to love bombing around with my crawlbox engaged when I had yota duals.. You definitely need to know when to use it and which gear/TC combo/ clutch dumps to use..
Good Progress nonetheless!
 
RunningProblem said:
fl0w3n what PSI were you running? Maybe a lower pressure could have given you more grip.
Click to expand...
Yeah that’s the thing, this MJ must be way lighter than the XJ.

That’s about 13-15 psi, which doesn’t look like much. Those 40” pats it came with, same thing with not much deflection on the only other time I’ve taken it out.
 
fl0w3n said:
Yeah that’s the thing, this MJ must be way lighter than the XJ.

That’s about 13-15 psi, which doesn’t look like much. Those 40” pats it came with, same thing with not much deflection on the only other time I’ve taken it out.
Click to expand...

That's a good pressure if you want to kinda haul ass and bounce ofd rocks, if you want to crawl try like 7-8
 
YotaAtieToo said:
That's a good pressure if you want to kinda haul ass and bounce ofd rocks, if you want to crawl try like 7-8
Click to expand...
I didn't do anything special when I mounted these tires, and the rims are dented up and the front driver started leaking on the trail. I was worried about popping a bead but I guess with how they were not deflecting that probably would be a fine pressure.
 
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