What did you do to your TJ today?

Doggo doesn't get many car rides these days, so lifted her in and took her for a ride which she enjoyed. Other good news is I can still front squat a ~130# live load from the negative position while wearing Jesus cleats.


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only thing I could come up with was a slightly roaring fairly new oem clutch release bearing during my transmission removal and inspection process today.

no one had a good bearing locally... so Im trying my luck with the china Masterpro from oreilys... which im likely gonna regret.

took it for a test drive and nothing unusual noted. did happen to observe with the jeep in gear engine off and rocking it a metallic twang and clink is gone now which was occurring before 🤷‍♂️

damn thing took me 9 hours not including the hours parts run.. and im sore now :ROFLMAO: I remember when I could pull my FWD fords transmission and have it back on the road in 3 hours. amazing what 12 years can do.
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Got the U-joints out of the driveshaft. I had to use my ball joint press, and a 30 inch breaker bar. This was on the first "side" of the first U-joint I tackled. The 2nd "side" as well as the other U-joint could have been done with the hammer/socket technique - but that first one was NFW.

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As it was, I had to work it back and forth a couple of times, plus slather it with penetrating fluid, to be able to get it to come out at all.

When I got the 2nd "side" pulled, I found my "smoking gun":
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Looks like the needle bearings got so hot they fused together... (??)

Guess which cap was "the one":
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Sprayed some flat black paint at the driveshaft, hope to get it reassembled tomorrow.

Old U-joints seem to be the same as the new ones.
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This twisted, coated wire was done to test a theory
on wind noise- sure enough, it works-they do this on some tower wires for that reason.

I use these on my truck ladder racks to lash loads down, going to get 4 black for the rack.

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I’m happy with this 2004. It’s tight, quiet and drives excellent. Going to be a fun one. It should see some kayak trips this summer.

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Windshield looks a little on the dirty side for your standards :LOL:
 
Got the U-joints out of the driveshaft. I had to use my ball joint press, and a 30 inch breaker bar. This was on the first "side" of the first U-joint I tackled. The 2nd "side" as well as the other U-joint could have been done with the hammer/socket technique - but that first one was NFW.

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As it was, I had to work it back and forth a couple of times, plus slather it with penetrating fluid, to be able to get it to come out at all.

When I got the 2nd "side" pulled, I found my "smoking gun":
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Looks like the needle bearings got so hot they fused together... (??)

Guess which cap was "the one":
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Sprayed some flat black paint at the driveshaft, hope to get it reassembled tomorrow.

Old U-joints seem to be the same as the new ones.
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I forget, why were you checking/changing them? Vibration or noise? Or both?
 
Since I'm waiting on hockey pucks for the front suspension I did a couple other things today.

I put in the seat risers from Buchanan. They went in perfectly. Then I installed the diver down seat covers. No issues there.

Then I replaced the rear tailgate hinges. I picked up a set at a used jeep parts place. I scuffed them up and painted them black. Still have the hinge covers on mine so they didn't need to be great. My biggest surprise there was I was expecting the "dreaded torx screws" in there. Was greeted with 6 sided 13mm bolts!! Nice !! Came off and went back on "easy"...

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I was very happy with the APDTY half door seals I installed in November, so I installed their upper windshield header this afternoon. Not quite as impressed as I was with the half doors. Adhesive was completely dried out on the pass corner,
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I Put down a bead of E40 adhesive and we’ll see how it looks in the morning

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Middle section looked better.
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I replaced the battery with an Interstate from Costco. I really need to clean up some of my wiring. I think I will start with some new upgraded cables from JEEPCABLES.COM A little pricey but isn’t everything nowadays? Has anyone here used them?
Thanks,

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You can by very close to the exact length of our cables from American battery cables I believe it was. I bought 6g and military grade terminal connectors from Amazon and did the whole set up for about $50. They come with eyelet connectors So it is just a matter of connecting the terminals which are installed with included nut and they allow room for accessory connections. I got the lengths of everything from someone’s post on here about Jeepcables.com. I have ithe links to both somewhere if you want them
 
After a really great with day @Hog ..visualizing success as usual 🤣..... We got his rock bars on and I got my 2004 dialed in- Some brake noise and new plugs. Spark plugs are funny- You’re sure you don’t need some until you put a set in, then wow.

After that my wife and I went to the Alabama Jubilee balloon festival- It was really one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen- Right until they took the Tweety Bird balloon down. Boy It was sooo over then.

Next year I’m going to bring a 22 caliber rifle with rat shot.
Those look great for target practice.

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I have said this before and still mean it- get to know a forum member. Becoming friends with @Hog has been a bright spot in my life these past few years.

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Here is the finale of the flipping of the rock rails.. they were on the other sides.. with the bars downward..
 
Was finally able to do something other than post replumb house put back together. I had painted my driveshafts yesterday, and as I expected, they still weren't really dry. So I hung them in my HVAC closet which really helps dry paint good and hard:
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Then I figured that since its going to be at least 2 days before I can get back to the U-joints, I might as well paint them too:

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The green paint has been kicking around since about 1996, figured I might as well use it...