My 03 work log

so roughly a month ago i picked up my jeep out in Denver and drove it home to michigan. This thing is in just such nice shape i have to keep it as stock as feasibly/reasonably possible.




Id just like to share and keep everyone updated on my care of this thing. though i haven't taken many photos, ill add what i can. I am also keeping a receipt logbook of all my repairs and mileage if there comes a day when i sadly need to sell it (unlikely).

My first repair was a replacement multifunction switch from the dealer which resolved my fog lights staying on issue, i tossed around the idea of a repair but figured just replace the damn thing. about this time i changed the engine oil, filter and a near ready to fail lower heater core hose. i have a receipt from a shop back around denver stating all the fluids were changed on this diffs, transfer, trans.. yada yada.

second on my list was getting the hard top off! i ordered a bestop supertop NX in the twill option which looks really nice and have had many comments. ive had 2 problems with the bestop though both minor, 1st issue was the bow that they provide that fits from the door surrounds over the drivers head, this thing rattled like a mofo on the highway and i grew tired of holding it with my hand to get it to stop and pulled it from the jeep like many others have said they have done.. i dont see a reason for it to be there. and my second issue was the pin that holds the soft top frame for the sunrider option wasnt tightly installed from bestop and spun loose and fell out along some road around here. i emailed bestop for a replacement but got a message back stating they are backlogged in customer service and it may take 2 weeks to hear back from them. photo of all that was left of the bestop sunrider pin assembly, the backing nut


on to the stereo, the P/O installed a budget sony stereo.. this is fine, its a jeep.. i'm not too concerned about audio in it but the speakers sounded horrible. i pulled the covers and inspected and found 1 oem front speaker, 1 pioneer front speaker and 2 rear kenwood speakers.. ahha, various ohm, watt ratings and manufacturers. i pulled them all and installed some low end 5.25 kickers and micro kenwood amplifier (motorcycle size 4 channel amp). they definitely sound better than what i had and i am content with them now.

I had a throttle position sensor code and found a seller on ebay listing the oem mopar part. ordered, shipped and installed. had a hiccup during removal, snapped a screw but was able to work it out with vice grips working it back and forth slowly. after the replacement i cleared the code and have yet to see it back.

then onto the suspension. at 140k miles i figured that the springs were shot, it was sagging on the rear pass side. i ordered moog front and rear springs (luckily the box stated they were made in the US, im not a big fan of moog as i have not been satisfied with them on my prior vehicles for ball joints, tie rod ends). and picked up a set of rancho rs5000x shocks + steering damper. didn't notice much of a difference on bumps but i know everything is new now.

as we all know the headlights are pretty well terrible in the dark, i think my phones camera flash diode is brighter than these old 7" round lights. i have the 5x7 truck lites on my pickup and they made a huge difference but after a year or 2 i have miosture in the lenses. but when thinking about going that route on the jeep i figured it would look too bug eyed so i found some jw speaker 8700 j2's and they look and perform much better than the truck lites.

onto the suspension again, my order from the dealer arrived full of mopar goodies. full set upper and lower control arms, front upper axle control arm bushings and a new front track bar. everything was installed and it seems to drive a bit tighter now, the original bushings were dry rotted and beyond due for replacement. during my torquing the bolts back in place stage of the install the rear pass side upper bolt snapped, i stuffed in a similar size/grade bolt i had on hand to get me by for a bit. i then found out this bolt is N/A anymore from the dealer.. was gonna pick one up from a local bolt/screw manufacturer but found daveys jeep had them reasonably priced and the correct ones. placed my order with daveys and had them 2 days later. Davey, if your browsing through.. Thanks again. i really appreciate your services! i left you a positive google review.






during my prior throttle position sensor install i ripped a dryrotted rubber hose/boot on the crank vent tube to manifold. my local dealer had one in stock so i paid the big bucks for about 10 cents of plastic/rubber. no more vac leak and its oem.. if that makes me feel better.





so onto the near future of repairs. i have a vent tube, pcv valve, valve cover grommets, breather element, rear track bar, rear main seal, tie rod ends and a center link all ordered from the dealer on the way in the mail right now as well as spicer ball joints and 4 ntk O2 sensors coming from rock auto.

in the distant future i need to pickup a front bumper at a minimum as it is tweaked, front jugs are removed currently because it made it much more obvious, i see them on market place often fairly reasonably priced in good shape used. also need to come up with some fender flares as mine have the typical fade. eventually i will get around to it but at this point im kinda tapped out on funding until i pay some bills down... luckily im averaging about 14-20 hours overtime a paycheck so hopefully sooner than later but my primary focus has been drivability for now.

Jackman said:

You mentioned needing new fender flares. I may have some in my garage and I also live in Genesee county. I'll check around for you if you still need them .

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id be up for a full set of flares if they are nearly new looking without greasing them up to blacken them. its gonna be a while though before id be interested in buying as my focus right now is paying down bills related to steering/suspension component replacement expense. mine are in pretty good shape overall just getting a bit of the faded look.

well, I managed to replace everything i ordered, very happy now. drives like a new vehicle even though before it was pretty good. valve cover grommets no longer seep oil vapors, rear main seal turned into a day project but i also spent time cleaning and pressure washing the underside of the jeep. rear main seal was super easy but man my hair was a mess from laying in dripping oil, crank bearings looked excellent and i got to see the inside bottom end of the motor and everything was super clean oil pump pickup screen was spotless. kinda regret not doing the oil pump when i was in there but funds were running low.

looked in the catalytic converters and they looked nice and clean, dropped my skid plate and found some surface rust ill need to address but it wasnt bad at all.

did my rear sway links and front/rear sway bushings trying to address a rattle at low speed but friday night i think i pin pointed it to be a bushing/bearing on the lower steering rod. i can grab the rod and lift it up and down and make a clunk noise by doing so.

saturday morning i left at 4:30am and drove to drummond island to obtain my jeep badge of honor in the far eastern portion of the upper peninsula of michigan and made it there around 9am'ish. definitely well worth the trip, wish i would have had more time to explore but i just made it a day trip, left around 5pm and got home around 9pm. the ferry was great, the captain/driver of the ferry maneuvers the ferry with surgical precision i was waiting for a bump when docking at both sides but he feathers the thing to the ramp so well you wouldnt even know you had stopped if you had your eyes closed. Lake Huron was like glass in the morning and just ever so slightly faintly choppy in the afternoon. i didnt take many photos as im not much into photographing but i do have a few of scenery



the ferry operators, business owners and residents of the island plus the fellow off roaders were very nice here. i questioned why i was getting waived at so often a multiple times by non jeepers even the seniors driving around the island were waiving from their buicks.



alot of the trails out there were very dry and dusty. we did find some muddy ruts on the way back from marblehead but shortly after this photo above another visitor was coming at us in his truck and said he wasnt comfortable proceeding much further on this particular trail alone as the top his hood went under water. im not exactly sure where abouts the trail is but it is almost due south of marblehead and im certain its one that is generally recommended against by the locals for stock vehicles.



I walked down the steps at marble head towards the lake for a little walk and came to the cliff edge, at the edge of the stone there's a pretty good drop off. dad was walking along side of me then abruptly stopped and walked backwards once he noticed it was a drop off, he wasn't a fan of the mackinaw bridge crossing either.
i likely could have done the steps if i had more time to spare on the island by stacking rocks and taking the easier side but i just didn't have the time and i'm still in the protection mode of newly purchased jeep ownership anyways. there was another tj out there, the owner was pleasant questioned if ive done the steps myself but sounded like both of us didnt want to attempt it being it was both our first time out there. once you go down them you have to come back up them as there's no way around them.. but the trail doesnt go much further past them, just enough space to turn around to drive back up




In the 2 photos above prior to getting to the ferry we stopped at the De Tour roadside park for a pit stop.. there was 1 other vehicle in the lot with a guy waiting for his girlfriend in the restroom. i knocked on the mens restroom door and heard a females voice respond with occupied. i walked back to the car and the guy apologized that he didnt know she was in the mens and that the the womens was probably pretty bad but also said she had been in there for a while. i wandered down into the woods and found a nice spot to pee on in the brush then snapped some photos of what i was able to see from my spot. after business was taken care of i walked back up to the car and the girl was just getting into her car and leaving.



Back to the island again these 3 birds were patiently waiting in the roadway on the way to fossil ledges im not too sure what they were as i didnt recognize them as i have never seen these before. dad had no idea either. they almost looked like chukar partridge but thats after a assumption of looking at google images but if so im pretty sure they arent native here in michigan. dad doesnt think they are partridge as he said when he was a kid he managed to hunt about 6 of them and eat (which evidently are really good eatin).



once we got out to the ledges is was pretty neat flipping the little stones and examining the entombed fossils. no one was there when we arrived but shortly after 2 other tj's showed up to the parking lot area. there were a few freighters off in the distance. we looked around a bit then took off.

There are 2 easy "steps" you have to climb and descend on the way to marblehead but they are really nothing, just a bit of a neat surprise coming around a corner and questioning whether or not you want to proceed or not being that you have never come to something like it in the past. basically they are the photo op spot if you want to park and take a picture to look badass if your too wimpy to do the real steps.
overall the island is very capable to get to the main areas (marblehead and fossil ledges) in a stock jeep, hell i would be surprised if that jeep wannabe fiat renegade didnt make it out there, of course its very dry right now and im not sure what their capability is fording water if there was standing water in the puddly areas.
id say the worst part of the trip is nearing marblehead. holy bumpy rock.. id say the majority of the time getting to marblehead was literally idling in 1st gear, feathering the clutch and in areas shifting to 4 low just to slow down some more and still want to go slower over the rock. i spent about a hour idling in first gear driving to marblehead slow to make the bumps less severe. i saw a couple times when dad went flying in the passenger seat when we hit a good bump.

wrapping up, it was a fun trip on our lone adventure wheeling in the woods. weather was in the mid 70's, sun was out enough to give me a red forehead by the time i got home. traffic on the trails was light. id say there was about 15 utv's and 8 jeeps out on the trails that day most of the time we were alone and didnt see anyone for a good 45 minutes or so but totally not what i had expected for traffic on the trails for such a nice day. almost felt like we had the place to ourselves.

shipped yesterday and arrived today

Its a really nice island and worth the sights. easy weekend adventure as you already know and the island is from what it seems trailwise, easily capable for fully stock jeeps so nothing too demanding or crazy.

personal ferry services dont operate from mackinaw city to st ignace but i wouldnt be surprised if you were able to drive yourself over the bridge and have her hop on a ferry to mackinaw island from mackinaw city & transfer to another ferry to take to st ignace from the island, eliminating her worry of taking the bridge herself.
this of course would add some additional time to the trip if possible but that would be a easy way around the bridge for her.

Ive been to mounds several times over the years, its about 10 minutes north of me but each time i go im less and less impressed with it. its really quite a small area to wheel around and pretty well overrun with quads and utv's on weekends. alot of the muddy areas have been deeply trenched by the big tractor tire bogger crowd and theres just a few loops to drive circles on.

I dont go to mounds now and dont have much interest in it anymore. realistically i prefer going north of west branch if i want to go off roading, theres much more to see and do when you head north and much more relaxed trailing in the woods. ive not been trailing much but the occasional weekend kayak trip id troll around on the local trails near the family's cabin.

if i were to go to mounds again i think it would probably be the thanksgiving day party just to watch the boggers in the mud pit.. but thats about it.

I guess a upside to mounds is that if you get stuck, your more likely to see someone to give you a pull fairly quickly.. just dont go on a weekday, you wont see anyone with anything big enough to pull you out.

if your ever around the houghton lake area, the mason tract has a chapel in the woods alot of locals get married at called the mason chapel just off the 2 track fairly deep into the woods sitting right on the au sable river. really nice scenery and good place to stop and wade in the water to cool off on a hot day.