[OTownDaddy]

So, I'm finally getting around to creating a build thread.

I'll start retroactively adding the work I've done, as soon as I can collect all the photos my thoughts behind it!

First, though, the name.

Probably not the most original, but the wife named it, so the smart man goes with it. She gave it that name because she thinks it'll be a money pit. I disagree, but time will tell I guess. (So far, the most expensive things we've popped on are the tires)

Hope you find enlightenment (or at least a laugh or two) in the posts to come.

[willman611]

Looking foward to it!

[billzcat1]

Subscribed!

Oh, you might want to have a mod move this over to the General Grand Cherokee Discussion section so it doesn't get buried in Wranglers.

[OTownDaddy]

Alright!

I'll try to take it from the top, but I'm sure in the slur of my memory I'll get some of this out of order, but here goes!

Brought the old girl home in early February, she wasn't in the best of sorts, but something about this Jeep was calling to me.

I had previously been driving a 2006 Cadillac DTS that I owned from almost new. Positively a great car! I've never been much for small cars, and the Caddy was a big enough boat for me to feel comfortable in. And amazingly, that boat moved out when I needed it too.

Anyway, we have had 2 car payments for as long as I can remember, and that was progressively driving me nuts. I secretly began looking for a 'fun' vehicle and decided that I would fulfill my long standing want for a Jeep. I had been secretly lurking around this forum and decided that the WJ was the Jeep for me - I can't say why, but I love the look of this model. I also decided that I wanted a V8 and liked the idea of the NV242 being able to be in 2WD, and go into $WD (not a typo) when I wanted or needed it.

She's an 02 GC Laredo with (at the time) 136,718 miles on her.

Being in Florida, it's a little harder to find 4WD drive Jeeps that aren't Wranglers (they're just too small for me) and I found this one 45 minutes away in Melbourne. She was rough looking for sure. The tires we shot, the PS pump whined, and the brakes needed some work. The stereo doesn't give much sound from the right side speakers, the spare is a 17" rim with the ones on the ground being 16", and I was positive the fluids hadn't been changed in an age. Oh, and of course, the panels around the shifters that cover up the holes were all out of whack.

So, I figured, how bad can this be? But, a few $K later, and a tear shed from saying so long to the Caddy, I was a Jeeper! The wife thought, and probably still does, that I'm nuts. I make video games, I'm not a mechanic. But, honestly, I've always wanted to know more about it, and this was probably the best way short of enrolling in UTI. Plus, since the world will end later this year (thank Snooky and the Mayans for that), I figure'd I'd need an end of the world capable vehicle able to traverse terrain that resembles what you see on Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy. (credit to Bill and Ted) Just for the record, I don't think it will end, but the smart man plays the low odds sometimes

She pulled terrible to the right, and had tires that made my head look hairy (I'm bald, by choice of course). So, thanks to tirerack.com, on went some new General AT2 Grabbers and a lifetime alignment deal from Firestone - turns out I'll be using that a lot.

More on my tire adventures to come.

So, there she sits in my driveway with new rubber. #1 #2

Immediately, she starts to idle funky, so my first foray into the unknown was fixing this thing called a TPS.

Thankfully, $30 later and 60 in/lbs. of torque and she was running like a champ again. After that (I got a lot a of help from the forum diagnosing it) I decided that $20 for the membership was worth it. Still think that today.

That's all for now, time for bed, but I'll add an entry here in the coming days. Less text, more pictures!

Thanks for taking the time to read my wall of letters!

[castorriver]

Nice start to the build. What does Moog TB AS in your tag mean?

[billzcat1]

Moog Trail Boss (steering stabilizer)

[OTownDaddy]

What billzcat1 said

What I found odd was how closely the moog looked to the OEM replacement...Tenneco I think. The moog is actually smaller. Odd. But $20 more I think. So I went with the Moog to reinforce the wife's belief in the pit theory.

You have to take pleasure in the little things in life...like proving the wife right from time to time.

[billzcat1]

Sorry if I stole your thunder!

[OTownDaddy]

Oh no worries man, I have plenty 'o thunder to go around!

[billzcat1]

As long as you don't have Days of it.

Surprised that the Trail Boss is smaller than stock. The Super Trail Boss is about the diameter of a soda can.

[OTownDaddy]

Honestly I was too. We had them both out on the table and thought they got mixed up. Had to check the numbers on them to make sure. The TB also had about 1.5" less linear travel as well. Weird.

[OTownDaddy]

So, fluids.

Like I said, I was pretty sure that the fluids in the Jeep hadn't been changed in a while, and willing to bet that some of them had never been changed.

Like the Transmission.

I had read all about the 'if it hasn't been changed in X number of miles, just don't do it' threads, but that seemed to be, like everything else, 50% accepted and 50% thought of as bunk. So, I did it. Or rather let a shop do it. It turned out OK for me, 3000 miles later and no issues.

Next was the transfer case. Followed the simple steps and out came black fluid. Crap. Filled it back up with ATF+4.



2 for 2! Diffs are up next.

So, after posting a number of extremely noobish and more than slightly embarrassing questions about how to lift and support the WJ, I rolled out to get some of the tools I would need:

• Floor Jack
• Jack Stands
• Wire brushes
• Torque wrenches
• diff fluid

That last one was a fiasco. More embarrassing posts about what limited slip modifier I'd need? What diff oil? Where to lift it at if you needed to put jack stands at the lift points you needed to lift it at? What axle did I have? What what what, how how how. I was pretty sure this forum was going to boot me just on the annoying nature of my questions.

Finally, Billzcat1 took pity on me and gave me (and continues to) info on how to do things without destroying me or the Jeep. He had to show me where and how to lift and support. Sounds like a cross-your-heart bra commercial. Trust me, just as embarrassing.

Turns out, I don't have a LSD. He pointed me to find the build sheet for the Jeep to know for sure what I actually have. Here's the link, or I'm told, if you go to a dealership and ask nicely, they'll print one out for you.

http://www.jeep.com/wccsapp/universa...ull&category=U

Just ask for the build sheet.

So now, armed with info, the right fluid, a torque wrench and some RTV I took a run at the front diff.

Fail.

Drain plug was misshaped and cross-threaded. Time for a new cover.



So, with the Billz's experience yet again, got a new, more beefy cover and decided to go with the LubeLocker gasket.



Finally got that off the list.

The rear diff was a total PITA as the top bolts are obscured by the gas tank and the rear sway bar. Fought through it though.

One more fluid off the list.

Changed the oil, and the brake fluid. No pictures, you've probably seen it before

Driving around after fluid changes to make sure that nothing was leaking, I was noticing that when I braked over 40mph, the Jeep would sometimes pull hard to the right. Dammit. Looks like more forum scouring.

This now handed me my next task: Dump the Teves calipers for for AKEs.

[OTownDaddy]

So, again, reading the thread posted by Billzcat1 The Ultimate WJ Grand Cherokee Buyer's Guide, I discovered that I had some work cut out for me.

My Teves had a seized piston. Also, reading all the other horror stories about warped rotors, I decided to change them out for the Akebonos. Everyone had really great things to say about Kolak, so I ordered the AKE kit from him (no signs of warped rotors, so like a noob, thought I could get away with just the calipers even though Billzcat1 suggested the rotors too). But, it would take a while for them to get to me, so, on to the next issue.

I had been reading a lot of Billzcat1 posts, seems like he knew quite a bit about Jeeps and automotive stuff in general, and found the 2" lift thread: The Comprehensive BDS/FatBob's 2" Lift Thread

So now I have to lift this thing. I. Have. To.

This was about the time my wife started in with The Pit name.

So, not too long ago, Kolak was offering a pretty good deal on Bilstein 5100s for a 3" lift, along with a good deal on the spring isolators. Mine are virtually not there. No joke. Out of the 8 that should be there, I can only verify that 4 of them are semi-intact. The others are so gone that they might be 30% still there. Maybe.

So, Nick/Kolak got a bit of business from me, which I'm happy to give him. He's really nice and has great prices, I get stuff that I know will fit on The Pit, plus I get to support a JeepForum vendor in the process.

But, I will have to practice patience, as it will take a bit to get here and I still need to get the rest of the IRO 3" lift. Food for another post.

Up next, the ant, the radiator, the gurgling, and the goop it in it.

[OTownDaddy]

OK.

Feeling pretty good about myself given my relative success in filling the Pit, I dove right into flushing the radiator.

Why? Glad you asked.

I had just come back from Firestone to have them re-balance and rotate the tires. I had this funky shake and thought that the tires might be out of balance. Or maybe, in my noobness, thought that I had rotor issues that would cause the shake. Promise, I'll get to this fiasco in short order.

When I pulled into the parking garage at work, I heard a really strange sound. It was a gurgling from under the hood. Freaking out, I popped it and, using my extreme powers of deduction, noticed that the coolant reservoir was vibrating. Odd. Even more odd, it was virtually empty. Crap. When the tire monkeys were re-balancing the tires, they must have checked the radiator, I thought. Maybe they put the cap on funky. Turns out, they did check it, but the cap was on fine. I'd soon learn that, exactly as Billz said, "I need to get some better monkeys."

So odd, that I ran in to my office and posted a frantic thread about it. Got some helpful replies, then did some googling to understand how the coolant system works. I originally thought that the coolant was trying to get back into the reservoir. Found out that as the engine cools, it actually draws coolant back into the radiator, and that gurgling was probably it sucking the non-existent coolant in, like when you try to get that last bit of drink through a straw.

So, now I get to mess with this. Isn't the list of stuff to do supposed to get smaller? Not for me.

Get the Jeep home that night and get into it. Got my HOAT coolant, a bucket for it to drain into, hoses for the radiator drain, the whole 9. I go to open up the drain and so little came out that I thought I had the wrong drain. Again, I go to Billcat1 for advice. I tell him that when I checked the cap myself, there was a lot of grime all around the cap. Almost grey clay looking grime. I just knew that all that grime had clogged the drain.

For once, I was right. Took a thick zip tie and worked it in and out of the radiator drain hoping it would break the clog. Fail again. Billz suggested unclamping the lower hose to drain it. God I didn't want to do that, cause with my luck, I'd get it in the face. One last ditch with the zip tie actually unclogged it and out it came. In it's totally brown goopy glory. It wasn't even trying to be green.

15 minutes later running a water hose through the thing finally got the water clear.

Then, while pondering the next step (filling the top hose part of the system) I noticed the ant.



This MFer was 3/4 of an inch long, and he was blocking the hole that leads to the reservoir from the top of the radiator (where the cap screws on). How in the holiest of holies did he get in there? I'll never know cause he wasn't very chatty. So, out with the ant, in with the coolant.

Never a dull moment.

Up next: Enter the Kolak, pt. 2

[OTownDaddy]

Almost forgot!

Right around that time, a few people on the forum were wondering why they had a funky idle. They had researched it far enough to conclude they needed a new TPS.

Man, I jumped on that like that hot chick from the Island Party my fraternity threw back in '90. Holy crap what a party. Went the whole weekend, 35 kegs, over 400 cases of beer (all of which was driven at one time in my little Nissan truck to the fraternity house - sure I mushed the springs on that one) and hundreds of gallons of hunch punch. Niiiccccceeeee!

Anyway, back to the TPS.

I was so eager to give a little back to the forum, cause it was giving me a ton, I did a quick write up of how I fixed mine with pics.

Got 2 thumbs up. I was so stoked that I actually helped someone that I posted it on Facebook.

Yeah, I know, I'm a nerd. But hey, I'm good with that.