Big Sandy YJ

still working on the roll cage. Added back seat and made plans for the rear harnesses. Added tabs for amazon chase light. Mounted shifter with goat built shifter mount which was nice. Got cup holders for my trail sodas too! working on a rear tool box holder thing. Need to get it mounted to the jeep next!
 

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Rewired with a painless chassis harness and reused the existing BP automotive LS harness. All is working. Switch pros still needs wired up for the accessories. Cage is painted and back in for the final time. Still have cage tie ins to do but the welderD stuff provided seems like it will work.
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Been driving my jeep a little bit since the rewire and welderD cage install. Waiting on a soft top to arrive so I can put that on. Then there's a bunch of other little issues that need addressed.

China chase light bar is kind of weird. Turn and brake lights won't work without amber lights being on. Rear facing amber lights are not legal to run on the road so that stinks. Turn signals only work when you are not hitting brakes. When hitting brakes turn signal doesn't flash. Probably no issue for a sxs but doesn't really work for a jeep. Might try a different brand of China chase light next and test it better before wiring it all up and mounting it in my jeep!

Also 4l60 is leaking from the vent hose. Need to route vent better and see if it's overfilled.

Front HP Dana 44 has had nice parts put in it but I've never been in the thing. Ball Joints are tight but one appears to have the camber set where the top of the tire leans out incorrectly. Or something is bent. Who knows.

Modified a barnes skid plate to cover my np241 T case. Made the skid plate extension too close to drain plug and it rattles (makes contact) when on a bumpy trail. Need to cut a relief into the tube frame of the extension to keep that from happening and busting the T case housing.

Kind of hate the electric fan noise. Might buy a stock engine driven fan at some point and see how big of chore it would be to put it in. Looks like some guys have investigated smaller diameter fans from other vehicles that work on the LS. Could be an option?



 
battlebuddy618 said:
Been driving my jeep a little bit since the rewire and welderD cage install. Waiting on a soft top to arrive so I can put that on. Then there's a bunch of other little issues that need addressed.

China chase light bar is kind of weird. Turn and brake lights won't work without amber lights being on. Rear facing amber lights are not legal to run on the road so that stinks. Turn signals only work when you are not hitting brakes. When hitting brakes turn signal doesn't flash. Probably no issue for a sxs but doesn't really work for a jeep. Might try a different brand of China chase light next and test it better before wiring it all up and mounting it in my jeep!

Also 4l60 is leaking from the vent hose. Need to route vent better and see if it's overfilled.

Front HP Dana 44 has had nice parts put in it but I've never been in the thing. Ball Joints are tight but one appears to have the camber set where the top of the tire leans out incorrectly. Or something is bent. Who knows.

Modified a barnes skid plate to cover my np241 T case. Made the skid plate extension too close to drain plug and it rattles (makes contact) when on a bumpy trail. Need to cut a relief into the tube frame of the extension to keep that from happening and busting the T case housing.

Kind of hate the electric fan noise. Might buy a stock engine driven fan at some point and see how big of chore it would be to put it in. Looks like some guys have investigated smaller diameter fans from other vehicles that work on the LS. Could be an option?



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Brushless fan would cut down on noise as well (not sure if that's what you're running).
 
Im interested in the brushless fans but they appear to be quite an investment. Maybe price will come down eventually. My who knows who did it engine tune seems to wait till 180 or so to turn fan on then won't turn it back off again. Bottom of radiator will be cool to the touch and still the fan runs. Maybe a bad coolant sensor? Who knows.
 
battlebuddy618 said:
Im interested in the brushless fans but they appear to be quite an investment. Maybe price will come down eventually. My who knows who did it engine tune seems to wait till 180 or so to turn fan on then won't turn it back off again. Bottom of radiator will be cool to the touch and still the fan runs. Maybe a bad coolant sensor? Who knows.
Click to expand...
Used JL fans are ~$200 on eBay. Controller another $50. Set it wherever you want.

HYDRODYNAMIC

Bible Thread 'Cooling Fan Tech'

Compiling all the cooling tech into one thread. Not limited to just fans.

Brushless:
Brushless fans are taking over the OEM and aftermarket and they are starting to show up on the newer ULTRA4 builds. The most common right now is the brushless Spal fans and they are easy to tell from the motor design. The ones shown below are the GEN 2 motors. The older Gen 1 motors and controllers are discontinued as they have a different electrical signal system and do not interchange with GEN 2. The motors also look different.
The brushless fans also have all the new tech in the shroud and blade...
  • Like

****loads of info there.
 
Engine tune was looking for 02 sensor heaters and throwing a code. BP automotive who supplied the harness said that is something they typically remove from a tune file. A local tuner removed them and no more check engine light! 02 sensors where I put them in the exhaust are working properly. Tune was plus like 3% fuel at idle which is good according to the tuner. I didn't put it on the dyno since the tune seems good other than these few small issues. Not interested in max power and driveability is very good with whatever tune it has.

While the tuner was in there I asked about the fan running all the time. Sure enough the fan was set to turn on at 180. Thermostat was stock which opens at 187. Not ideal. Set fan to turn on at 190. Fan runs way less and the engine gets up closer to 200.

Chasing a clunking sound but never ran heim joints in a 4 link at both ends. I always had johnny joints or bushings on the frame side in the past and I'm wondering if that's what I'm hearing. I've added / moved exhaust mounts, grinded on the T case Skid some more where the case was very close to the skid. I replaced some and re-torqued all bolts on front and rear suspension. Changed worn out front yoke at T case that was worn and had slop in it. Still the clunking noise persists. Even put a go pro under the car to look for **** about to fall off. Nothing was about to fall off! Must be heims I guess.

gopro.com

Searching for Clunks and Rattles

Shared using GoPro
gopro.com gopro.com
 
battlebuddy618 said:
Rewired with a painless chassis harness and reused the existing BP automotive LS harness. All is working. Switch pros still needs wired up for the accessories. Cage is painted and back in for the final time. Still have cage tie ins to do but the welderD stuff provided seems like it will work.
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How do you like the leg room with the cage bar beside the dash like that? I'm just curious. I know they make the roll cage tie in things that bolt in along the dash but that doesn't make a full cage like you have. I don't have a cage in my current YJ, and never got around to building one for my last one that honestly needed one. I never dug deep into how complicated it would be, but i often thought maybe if you cut out the dash speaker vents and creatively bent the tube there, you could tuck the cage a bit further forward.
 
It's 100% fine when driving but you do kind of squeeze your feet around the A pillar tube when exiting the vehicle. If I daily drove the jeep I would use the dash tie in's and not run a tube down to the floor. I didn't have a bender and cage kits are limited to this WelderD cage and one on Ebay. This one looked more complete and safer so I got it. I had considered using a Barnes dash tie in kit but my A pillar tube may not have been close enough to the dash to work and they were on back order.
 
Replaced old beadlock bolts with shiny new ones from raceline! Wheels are old but seem to be in OK shape. New bolts and proper torque fixed a leak issue I was having on two of the wheels.


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Got me some hankook tires on sale for my tow rig. 1200 bucks shipped plus 120 bucks to install. That compared to 2200 for 37" nittos that would hurt mileage and performance when towing. Definitely doing it grandpa style with these but I always want to try a big metric all season. They are 295 75 18 and measured 33.25". Should be good towing tires for my 24 hour each way drive to Moab coming up.
 
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Got some trans eagle 14 ply trailer tires and made mounts for my spare tires. These tires are crazy heavy and seem like they will do a great job! I had previously added an old truck tool box for spare parts storage by adding a box tube perimeter added on to the front trailer frame. Got one marker light to replace then the trailer is ready for Moab.

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Went to Moab with 2 other YJ's for EJS and had a hell of a time. We ran:
Behind the rocks (white knuckle was gnarly)
Hells revenge (missed hells gate by accident and bypassed escalator due to a jeep being broken in there)
Fins and things (cut out early due to time)
Golden spike (final waterfall after a rain was a challenge)
Pritchett canyon (dominated the trail except for the rock pile obstacle)
Behind the rocks backwards (no white knuckle)

All the jeeps did great. No issues for me at all. Found a few items to fix or change but nothing broke!

Winched 1 time on the trip. It was on an obstacle on pritchett. Didn't have the wheelbase for rock pile / son of rock pile and winched. Gave son of rock pile a few decent bumps but dug out all the rocks that were piled up essentially ruining my chance at climbing it.
 
Got a 78 Ford 60 front from hillbilly wizard. Will be a while before I swap it in but at least I have one here when I am ready. The HP44 with rcv axles will continue to be put to the test for a while longer.

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Replaced a worn out ball joint from the Moab trip to ejs and she's back on the road. Drove it up to some property we ride dirt bikes on yesterday. Got the jeep on a steep descent and had some blue smoke. Never messed with the pcv system on this motor. May need to take a look at that.

So far I got a grizzly locker for the front 60 I'm swapping in. That's all the budget has allowed for I still need gears, install kit, 35 spline outers, brakes, highsteer, etc. Going to be a while yet before I am able to buy all that stuff.
 
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