To conclude the brake issue from last week- I had a bad soft line on the front (not sure which side, replaced both) and then a caliper started leaking while on our trip this past weekend (luckily I had a spare so I swapped it, bled it and keept trucking).
NYE run was this jeeps first true test for hard core rock crawling and it did awesome (I posted pics in the Gen4x4 trip pics thread)! The jeep was doing level 4 trails at RMR with ease and with some work was doing some 5's as well. However, I realized that the D44 were too light and I dont have faith in them. I didn't break any axles, but I did shear all the studs on a wheel spacer, and I burned up my winch. After shearing the studs off the spacer I had paranoia the rest of the trip. I also noticed that my cheap high steer had a ton of play in it and the single ended ram with stock pump were struggling to push the tires into the rocks... Basically, I realized that the jeep is great for medium level rock crawling and would probably do someone really good if that was as hard as they want to do... But... I was only able to do about half of Tackett creek and I want to do the second half and know I can do it without breaking!
Last night I ordered a Warn Zeon 12s so I will never have to worry about winch problems again!
Today I am going to pickup my Dana 70 disc brake axle.
Tomorrow I am ordering a shit ton of parts-
Yukon 4340 axles for the front, 35 spline axles
Yukon Dana 70 7.17 gears
Dana 70 Detroit locker 35 spline
Ruff Stuff D70 diff cover
PSC 2.5x8 ram w/ rod ends, clamp and tie rod kit,
PSC CJ high flow pump,
Trail gear double ended ram D60 mount,
35 spline drive flanges for D60,
Barnes 4wd D70 truss,
The only thing I will need after this is the new wheels, but I am not going to order them until I get all the guts built in my axles.