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YJ unlimited build

Figured I'd swing by and let everyone know what I've been up to lately. I ended up having to replace my slave cylinder as it was leaking. So the last couple days I spent dropping the transmission and replacing that. I hate dropping the Tcase and transmission because I don't have a lot or real estate to work with under the jeep. First I have to separate the Tcase and trans and do some gymnastic tricks to get the tcase out because of my rear 4 link crossmember. It BARELY fits by twisting it all kinds of ways around everything. Then to drop the transmission I have to remove the entire exhaust then wrestle that big boy down. When trying to reinstall it I ended up spilling almost all of the fluid out onto my garage floor because I'm an idiot. Either way, after spending a few hours over the course of 3 or so days I got the slave replaced and everything mounted up again.

In other news last week I ordered an aluminum tie rod from Wide Open Designs and got it delivered a few days ago. I've bent numerous 1.5x.250 DOM tie rods so I stepped up to 2x.250 last year. Well I went on 2 wheeling trips and that too is bent. Sooo I decided to try a 2" aluminum tie rod. I am once again an idiot though and messed up my measurement that I sent them. I accidentally ordered it 1" too long. So I called them up and asked if I need to send it back to get it shortened or what? They said I can just do it myself and save on the shipping, so I cut 1/2" off each side. I ended up using my brand new Rigid miter saw with the supplied blade that it came with. It cut threw the aluminum like butter. I was extremely surprised at how well it went.


Brand new 2" aluminum tie rod

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cut off 1/2" on each side on the wood cutting miter saw

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new proper length

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Ran a tap through each side to clean the threads out

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Then I applied a crap ton of anti-seize and mounted it up

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Here is my old 2x.250 tie rod. You can see how much its bent. The level is flush on both ends.

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So I've been trying to get all the bugs worked out of the Jeep. I have a tendency to ride her dirty and put her away wet. Today I adjusted my shift linkage and took her for a test drive again. After my street test drive was satisfactory, I wanted to take her in the woods real quick and see if I find anything wrong.


Found a little spot to play in about 100 yards from my house.

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It rains about 5 days a week here so the mud was pretty nasty here. No big deal, I'll switch on the front ARB and pull myself out of....... wait. Why is my ARB pump just running but my locker isn't kicking on? Hmmm. Oh well I can still get out, I have a huge one ton built rig on 41.5" tall tires. I got this....


Well that lead to me just spinning tires in this slop

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There is NO WAY I'm walking home and telling the wife I got stuck in the woods. So I winched myself out. While winching myself I had barely any voltage, no matter how much I revved the engine. Looks like I will be investigating the ARB issue and also getting my alternator checked and probably replaced. Better to have found both issues at my house vs. 5 hrs away on the trail


After a quick wash now the Jeep is getting the battery charged back up

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I got the ARB figured out. The compression fitting that goes into the bulkhead fitting loosened up a bit and caused the copper air line to fall back inside the axle. I was able to catch it fortunately before the ring gear chewed it up. I reattached everything and so far it seems to be hold air and engaging the locker.

Also got the voltage issue figured out. Both of my Alternator fuses popped. They were 40A and are supposed to be 50A.
 
Keeping on the theme of fixing up a bunch of neglected items on the rig I decided to start attacking my body mounts. A few of them have seen better days.


Here is the body mount that I going to use as my guinea pig. It needed some attention as its folding up like cardboard and the welds have started to crack and tear.

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Started by cutting it off with a sawzall.

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I don't see a problem :laugh:

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I'm going to use this 3x4 1/4" tubing that I have. This is the same tube that I used for the frame stretch.

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Measured it to size and threw it on the bandsaw.

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Then I tossed it on the drill press and cut out the 1.5" hole for the body mount.

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And now a quick test fit before I go any further.

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Shaped it up and compared it to the old.

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And finally welded it in place.

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I'll start working my way around the Jeep and replacing the others. I think the 1/4" should take a lot more abuse then the thin factory mounts.
 
I've been tinkering around the house a whole lot since this COVID thing. Lots of little projects to stay busy.


Built a chicken coop for our 5 new chicks. I am not a master of wood but I think it turned out pretty good.

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Today I picked up my new project. A 22' 10k Crawler Hauler. I snagged this for a song and have been looking for a new trailer lately as my current one is a little overloaded with the Jeep on it. I need to do some things on the deck for the Jeep to sit right and I need to reseal the edges all around it. Also needs a REALLY good bath but I didn't want to do that until I seal it good.


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Today I made 2 drive over fender/ platforms to park the front end on. If my front end was pushed a couple inches further forward I could get the tires in front of the fender but as is my bumper touches the camper if I try to get it passed the fender. Also the width between the fenders is 83" and my front end is 88". Anyone see a problem with this setup? I plan to snag 2 of these so I can hook up to the stake pocket right at the end of the camper. http://www.macscustomtiedowns.com/pr...on/Accessories

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I screwed a couple pieces of 2x4 here so that I can ensure I land in the same spot every time.

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I haven't run with anyone in the backseat in a long time so I decided to pull it and build a little storage rack. Doing this I was able to move the tools from above my fuel cell to inside the cargo area and I was also able to finally remount my 3 gallon air tank for my OBA. After the stretch I had to remove it because I didn't have anywhere for it to go with the rear seat and all other cargo area taken. It also didn't fit anywhere underneath the Jeep. This 3 gallon tank makes a big difference vs running straight off the compressor. Originally I was going to pick up another hitch basket to cannibalize but I couldn't find any near me and then I also found a piece of expanded metal that I forgot I had. So with the being said I whipped up this little rack/basket for free in just a quick afternoon session in the garage.


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Been doing a few things with the trailer. I was able to swap everything over from the tool box on my old trailer to the new trailer then I sold the old trailer off locally. I also swapped out the window AC with one that I already had that works a little better. The old one was didn't blow very cold air and the one I threw in blows ice cold air.


Ordered 4 brand new load range E tires

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Got those mounted and swapped out on the trailer then I was able to load the Jeep up and take it for a test drive. I took it on about an hr long drive down small back roads and on the highway. I didn't get any weird sway or ill effects. Seems to have handled the weight distribution fine. I think the weight in the tool box up front helped as well I swapped my hitch out for one that sits a little lower and it seems to sit more level now and not so low in the back.

I used the new chain extenders for the front and strapped down in the rear to the D rings.

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That brings me to today. Right now I'd just waiting for the DOD travel ban to lift so that I can travel a little bit to go wheeling.
 
Well its been a interesting week with the Jeep. It all started with an invite to go wheeling last weekend. I've been itching to get out on the trail and spend some time in the woods so I jumped on the invite. the day before I left I swapped out the small LED cubes on from from bumper for a small LED bar. Simple and quick swap.


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Then I loaded up the camper and threw the Jeep on the trailer.

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The next morning I hit the road. I made it about 30 minutes from my house when the trailer swayed real hard in the middle of a curve on the freeway. I knew something was wrong so I pulled over to check. Turns out I lost my wheel/tire and all 6 wheel studs snapped on my passenger rear hub of the trailer.


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I limped 0.5 mile off the freeway into what turned out to be a VERY SHADY part of Memphis. I called my wife and she ran all over town looking for new wheel studs to replace them with. Finally she found some and brought them to me. I pulled out the spare tire/wheel and started replacing wheel studs on the side of the road.

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I eventually got it put back together and in total I spent 4 hours sitting on a side street right off the freeway. After I got everything fixed I went back to find my tire/wheel as its a brand new tire. I knew exactly where it happened and pulled the truck over on the freeway and started walking the bank. I found the tire and could even see the tire track all the way down the hill. I'm so glad I found it though.

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Then I got back in the truck and finished my drive. I got to the destination, turned on the AC in the camper and had a nice relaxing evening.

The following morning we hit the trails. About 5 minutes in the person that invited me broke a 44 Ujoint and it took out both inner and outer shaft ears as well. We went back to his camper to find a spare but he accidentally left them in his shop. So with that he decided to just ride with me. We spent the next few hours riding with the group that he met out there. The Jeep did great and hit many hard trails. I did end up flopping it on one trail though. I actually laid it over twice at the same place, once on the passenger side then again on the driver's side. I was able to reverse out of both and continue on. Here's a grainy picture I have of one of them. I have some video but don't know how to upload it from Imgur.

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<a href="https://imgur.com/dnOWqpa"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/dnOWqpa.mp4" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>


I was the only one that tried the trail and after 2 flops I gave in and we went elsewhere. Throughout the day I did notice that my transfer case has started to make some really nasty noises and it kept getting worse. I told the group that I think this trip might finally do her in. Sure enough while on a small trail/service road between trails my Tcase finally gave up. She made a hard grinding noise and locked up. I got it into neutral but after that could not get it into 4l, 4h or 2h at all so I ended up being towed back to camp. I finished out the night at the park just relaxing around camp and loaded up and headed home on Sunday.

Sitting where she got towed to, in defeat.

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I had to winch it onto the trailer the following morning

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On Monday I decided to pull the case and see what I was working with.

All this gooey, sparkly metal shaving nastiness is supposed to be there right?


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This is all of the metal pieces that were in the bottom of the tray I drained the oil into.

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It appears I have destroyed the Teralow planetaries I believe. None on the main gears have any issues at all with them. I still have my stock front half of my case so I began to clean all the parts up and swap everything back over to the stock case. The only part that I didn't feel comfortable reusing was the range fork. The nylon pads were gone and there was some marring of the fork itself. A quick call to Quadratec and I had a new range fork and new front output seal on the way.


The new parts came in today and I threw the Tcase back together. I started to reinstall the case but got extremely frustrated trying to finagle the case into place. Because of my rear 4link crossmember its a very difficult task. I have to spin and flip and turn the Tcase about 6 different ways to snake it into place. I finally got fed up today though and decided I'm going to make my crossmember removable. With that being said I stopped trying to install the case and completely changed course.


To cut out the crossmember I had to remove my rear lower links. After wrestling them out I could finally get a real good look at what the last couple years of wheeling has done to them.

They are extremely bent and I don't think I should reuse them. Good thing I still have like 10 feet of 2x.250 DOM in my shed. I'm going to order up some new threaded inserts and make new lower links. I would love to spring for some aluminum links but that's not in the budget right now. I should be able to build some new links for about $50 and hopefully get a couple more yeas of wheeling before I need to spring for aluminum.


Heres what my links look like. They used to be straight, and the same length...

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My drivers link is the worst. Its bent 2 ways.

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After that I cut out my crossmember.


before/after

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I'm going to make some tabs to make the crossmember bolt in.

Something like these tabs

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Thats as far as I got today. I'll continue tomorrow and update this whenever I get some progress.
 
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