What did you do to your TJ today?

Feralkid said:
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I also installed some knock off grabars. They are straight up dogshit word to your mother.

The handle rubber is squishy and low quality. The driver side seems relatively sturdy, but the passenger side bends easily at the mounting plate. The steel is much softer. Typical made in China.

It came with longer bolts, but they are soooooo fuckin made in china. I just went ahead and reused the factory bolts. I'm sorry, I meant to say torx head machine screws. They seem to fully engage the female threads so it should be good?View attachment 166063

Should have got the grabars.
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Those are the stamped ones. The cheap knockoffs come in 2 varieries: 1. Cheap stamped and 2. Welded like Grabars. I unfortunately got the cheap stamped ones unlike most on here got lucky and received the good "knockoffs." I didn't take a chance second time around and just went with the Grabars. I posted a thread about my issues and made a video.
https://wranglertjforum.com/members/taylormade73.14338/
 
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scottgraham said:
That's funny...you must live in the Hill Country.
When I had a house on the Guadalupe, my neighbor always left his sliding glass doors open. One afternoon he came out of the shower and there was a deer standing behind his wrap around bar in his family room! Funny thing was the deer didn't give a shit and kept sniffing around.
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Oh, yeah, we're on lake Travis so we've got deer. Many of them are so tame that you can scratch on 'em like a dog. We also give out deer munchies (horse, cattle, goat feed with molasses) so we're kinda popular. Right now's a great time of year 'cause all the new Bambis are being born...they're so cute.
 
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I hate u-joints.

Got everything done this weekend I set out to do.

Replaced all the ball joints. Ordered the Jeep ball joint tool kit (with the angled cup, etc.) and between it and my ball joint tools, I had exactly what I needed to get them done. Those went well, unlike the u-joints. I hate doing u-joints.

Also had new wheel bearing hubs waiting to be installed for a while. Figured I'd maybe do axle u-joints at the same time. As long as it would be apart. But like I've said.....

And they fought me. Almost ruined the passenger axle shaft. Got it saved and the new joint in....with a couple needles slipped. Sigh. Got it apart again and repositioned correctly. Had to go ask the wife to help. She comes out and basically stands there while it all goes together slick and quick. Arrgggg. Stupid u-joint. Feels feels good now. Driver side fought me. Imagine that. Went together ok, but the stub shaft was stiff. Couple taps on the inside of the saddles and it settled in nice. Hate em.

Good thing I went ahead and replaced them. Driver side was dry. Way dry. Red rust dust dry. Makes me feel better about suffering through their replacements.
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Threw on the Zone front spring retainer kit I've had laying around since putting the lift on.
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Welded up the brake pad divots on the driver side knuckle. Did the passenger side last summer.

Almost cross threaded the passenger side caliper bolt. Grrrrrr.

Now that the lift has been on it for a year or so, it should have settled enough to go back and double check axle alignment (track bars, pinion, etc.) And make sure everything is square, parallel, angled and greased and then have an alignment done.

It already feels a bit more stable on the highway and the heavy braking (when needed) isn't causing it to dart around like a twerking meth addict.

And then there was the struggle with the grease gun........
 
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taylormade73 said:
Those are the stamped ones. The cheap knockoffs come in 2 varieries: 1. Cheap stamped and 2. Welded like Grabars. I unfortunately got the cheap stamped ones unlike most on here got lucky and received the good "knockoffs." I didn't take a chance second time around and just went with the Grabars. I posted a thread about my issues and made a video.
https://wranglertjforum.com/members/taylormade73.14338/
Click to expand...
They're branded autosaver88.
 
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Well that was the most not fun super-pita project of my Jeep career. So many tiny bolts. As you can see, the old ones were trash, painted over poorly, chipping and faded underneath. Still not sure there was enough bang for the pain and suffering with the fresh ones. It's done though.

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Saturday I finished the 2" spring lift which netted me about 4" in front and 3 in back. I threw in some 3/4 spring spaces in front to level it out a bit too. It seems I had a "bit" of spring sag to start with. I am really happy with the results. The crazy nose dive under normal braking is gone, but I picked up a bit of driveline wobble, so I had to run to the hardware store and pick up some washers to drop the transfer case skid plate. 6 washers per side and I now have just a hint of wobble at take off on a hill. I will live with that for a bit and maybe pick up a nicer spacer kit down the road.

As a side note, I know OME gets a lot of love here, but I don't think whomever designed the OME rear trackbar relocation bracket has ever actually seen a Jeep. What a pain in the ass to install, and the instructions are useless because you can't physically put the bolts in like they describe. The bolts are also too short to use all of the included hardware. Makes me glad I went with the Porcomp springs instead of the OME. Who knows how OME would expect you to install them.

Anyway, I am really happy with how it turned out, now to get it off the pavement and break in the new parts.

Before:
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After:
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Parts list for anyone interested:
Procomp 2" lift rear coil springs (55298) $120.04
Procomp 2" lift front coil springs (55297) $120.04
Rancho RS5000X Shocks (RS55128 & RS55240) $219.96
JKS 1" to 3.5" adjustable track bar (OGS126) $228.70
JKS Swaybar Quciker Disconects (2000) $166.24
OME Track bar relocation bracket (FKWTJ02) $ 21.34
Daystar 0.75" lift kit (KJ09108BK) $ 40.78
Monroe SC2928 Magnum Steering Damper $ 29.45
Monroe SA1997 Shock boot for Steering Damper $ 5.74
Daystar bump stops (KU09037BK) $ 29.99
Qty 36, 1/2" grade 8 washers for TC drop $ 9.72

Total: $992 sneaking in just under my $1K budget.


Just wanted to say thank you to the people on this site who have posted their 2" lift projects in the past. I did a lot of research here to figure out what parts to order and how to install them. Supporting membership is well earned.
Thanks!
 
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Yesterday I threw on a 1.25in JKS body lift. Slowly getting ready to go off roading again with the 33's on😅 So far it seems to ride much smoother! Hardest part was installing the new grille bump stops on either side. I found removing the headlight on each side and pulling it up into place was the best way by far.

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Changed the transmission oil AGAIN - this time from Valvoline to RedLine MTL. I'm pretty sure there's an improvement, I drove the Jeep to Homeless Despot and back - a couple of miles or so. The rotating parts sound when in neutral and clutch out is definitely reduced considerably - although I consider said noise to be a normal part of a manual transmission. The occasional 1-2 subtle grind didn't happen this trip which is the real reason I changed the oil to start with - I'm cautiously optimistic!
 
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Westtown Willy said:
over the winter I finally pulled my wheels & painted them, they were beat to death from a few years of grinding on rocks. It was nice driving around looking good for a few months, until yesterday :LOL:, finally made it to the mountains after a long winter & a shut down in the spring. In one day I managed to grind off a good bit of paint, one wheel in particular.

Before the mud & rocks

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maybe an hour later

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I was trying to do a hill climb and there was an annoying pair of rocks I kept getting hung up on, it's one of those climbs which you cannot finesse, it's all about momentum. Anyway look at the perfect ring of aluminum.

By the way these shots are from after two rounds in the self-clean carwash

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a couple other tires

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this morning I wanted my clean looking TJ back so I got in there with some soap & water & gave everything a proper scrubbing

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got to use my new US Jack stands. These things are so much nicer than anything I've ever owned I think I'm going to order a second set.

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scrubbed the tires too

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few shots of Rustoleum & lemon Pledge & we're back to all black

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all done, took it down the highway to air dry everything. All clean again, except the inside, there's about 9lbs of mud from the dash board to the floors & everywhere in between, but I'm beat so that's just going to stay

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Lemon Pledge?
 
Swamp Yankee said:
I was wondering how you were making out with that Massachusetts cancer.
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Taking my time. Called SafeTCap with a question. Got 1 awesome answer along with 4 suggestions and some “we’ve seen that and here’s how we deal with it.” Customer service was A+ so props to the guy that answered the phone.
 
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