A little background first. I've been wheeling for 10 years and working on jeeps just as long. I traded my old 98 wrangler project on 1 tons and 42s for a littler and more practical 98 wrangler with a LCG build and some other cool stuff. In the trade I got to keep my Atlas and some other parts. I also have lots of old parts and new parts from the years of jeeping and working on jeeps. The Good: Well thought out and executed LCG suspension Mildly built axles HP D30 and Ford 8.8 Some more good stuff if you search Project College FUNd to see the rest.
My plans include the following:
3.8 Atlas II which now includes new skid and tranny mount and likely some cv drive shafts DONE
Get it back street legal ebrake, gas tank back underneath, tail pipe and front turn signals.DONE
Build front bumper DONE
Build in front rollcage
OLD Stock wheels (Canyons) and 35x12.5 R15 MTR/k tires. On and tested and they work great! DONE
Detroit Locker in the rear. DONE
New heims and TREs all around old ones are getting sloppy. In Progress
RE 3.5" Springs to take the load of all the extra weight this thing has. Done
Take 1" drop down out of skid plate mounts. New front seats.Done
Seat belts/harnesses all around.Done
Rework the tube fenders to ditch all the bondo. In Progress.
I have a confession to make, my gun hobby has been using all my time and I've been ignoring the jeep. Maybe ill get me priorities straight once my 9mm AR pistol is finished...
Finally a good update. The Canyon wheels are finally going on tomorrow. I finally found a set of 2.5" spacers and I'm getting the final 2 tires mounted in the morning. In other news I am attending the first of hopefully many local crawler club meetings tomorrow and I'm taking our RTI ramp over to play on.
I recently acquired a new wheeling toy for the harder stuff so I won't be beating the crap out of my jeep trying to keep up with my brother and other larger jeeps. Welcome the Hopeless Wonder buggy!!! It needs a new name but ill leave it alone for now. It has a 2.0l 4 banger 37" tires and uses a transaxle for the main drives. It's a unique little thing but it only weighs 1800-2000# I helped build it back about 7 years ago and the builder/creator/owner wanted it gone because it sat for years unused.
So since my last post I picked up a good low mile engine to swap in, installed my new seatbelts, and got my buggy more trail ready(just needs 2 u joints in the rear driveshaft).
After a day and a half of wrenching a new sensor or 2, switching a few sensors around, help from a good friend for the whole project and several intermittent helpers. MY NEW 40,000 mile motor is in! Still a few odd and ends like with any other project but we got it in, wired and fueled. We test ran it for 3 seconds with out the acc or Radiator hooked up just to verify we didn't miss anything. It fired right up no turning over and over not even a sputter. It sounds very strong. Then we killed it and went back to putting it back together.
Motor is in jeep is back together minus power steering waiting on parts from PSC. New motor came with PSC pump and I had the PSC box already. Waiting in tank and hoses.
Also I updated the top post with new build goals and info.
In buggy news I had a very strange thing happen the other day. I take it out and annoy my neighbors periodically to get it warmed up and percolating. The other day I got on the skinny pedal a bit and it actually moves pretty quick for being a 28 year old 4 cylinder. While driving it the motor all of a sudden shut off...or so I thought. I stop stick it in neutral and rev the gas and it revs but almost no noise from the tail pipe. Something broke loose and blocked the exhaust. I killed it, waited a second, then fired it back up and it ran normal. Needless to say it's getting a straight flow thru muffler soon and some new rear I joints in the driveshaft and it'll be ready to wheel .
New u joints and exhaust "fixed" on the buggy. Just got back from great wheeling trip in Las Cruces, NM. Before I left I wrapped up the motor swap, PSC Steering install, other odds and ends I've been needing to get done. I was going to post pics but I have to resize them first.
We ran Hopping Jalapeño, Big Jim, and Amitista Ledges. Fairly mild stuff but it was nice just driving without worrying about breaking stuff.
If you are a lurker and still following this post please post a smiley or a word or even a period.
Tonight I measured and drew out the spare tire carrier upper mounting brackets. I'm hoping to actually get the tube bent next week on my lunch break. I'm hauling my bender to work so I can use my lunch break for more than eating. I've recently bent a stinger for a friend and made a jeep grill on the plasma for end of it. I don't have any good pictures of it but I a crappy one. He mounted it all I just did the cut out and bending. I still owe him a couple of tubes for his front fenders. He's doing a no fender narrowed front end looking set of fenders.
figure out slight front end wobble(track bar I think is loose or bushing is failing).
get inside of jeep nicer!(it just feels junky right now).
get winch wired up and figure out why I have to hold the plug just right for it to work(it's done this before and I had to replace the copper connection plates.
So attack of the death wobble has come! The bushings are shot in the track bar. The spherical end is toast and and the rubber end isn't exactly sturdy. I'm glad JKS sells replacement parts.
After a 300 mile work day in my thoughts I remembered that I had a brand new small flex joint from about 8 years ago. I dug it up pulled it apart and it's the same size bushings as my grenades track bar.
It was too dark for pictures but rebuilding the spherical joint made all the difference. I adjusted it out a little because I never adjusted it after switching or the RC 2.5" springs for the RE 3.5" springs. I netted almost 3" of difference when I installed the new springs so it was definitely in need of adjusting.
In other jeep news I washed my jeep for the first time ever since I've owned it. I don't know if that's a badge of honor or being lazy but the rain always did a pretty good job.
I really enjoyed my last trip out to LC.
The next few things I wasn't really expecting to do and aren't quite necessary are 10 new heim joints and spacers. There's a pretty clunk from worn out heims in the rear suspension. The lowers are all new already so it's got to be the uppers.
I got in a new Ruff Stuff Dana30 3/8" diff cover and another set of 4 heims for the rear upper control arms. My awesome wife got me a new radio for Christmas and I got that installed the other day so now I have tunes again. I'm going wheeling again this month at Twin Buttes near San Angelo, TX.
In non jeep news I recently finished a 9mm AR 15 and changed a few things on my standard 5.56 AR 15. Sometimes guns get in the way of wheeling and vice versa.
I am very impressed with the Ruff Stuff diff cover. This thing is beefy! 1/2" ring machine flat for sealing and press formed 3/8" face. It looks awesome. Time to shoot it semigloss black put it on!
Changed a lot since it was a MO Jeep. Just curious, why did you lift it so much?
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