'92 Vegas YJ
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 25, 2020
- Member Number
- 1389
- Messages
- 147
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
cut off 1/2" on each side on the wood cutting miter saw
new proper length
Ran a tap through each side to clean the threads out
Then I applied a crap ton of anti-seize and mounted it up
Here is my old 2x.250 tie rod. You can see how much its bent. The level is flush on both ends.
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
cut off 1/2" on each side on the wood cutting miter saw
new proper length
Ran a tap through each side to clean the threads out
Then I applied a crap ton of anti-seize and mounted it up
Here is my old 2x.250 tie rod. You can see how much its bent. The level is flush on both ends.