04’ JMT’s Twin Teenagers Build

Before (Day 1) and After (Day 100)
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I would kill for a little marine layer right about now
103° right now

109* here right now which is 6* lower than yesterday. It got down to about 83* last night here but could of fooled me since it never seems to cool down inside my house. Wishing I'd gotten A/C installed right now.

Great work on the twins Jeep and it's looking great. They'll be stylin with the ladies around you real soon.
 
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Things did NOT go as planned. After pulling the coils, shocks and painting the frame and perches, one of them said. “Well how long would it take us to do the rear?” So we got into it. Mind you, this is 9:30pm. They released the rear sway bar, loosened both lower control arms (I made them read the procedure). We put the Rancho 5000X 55241 shocks in and cycled the suspension. The shocks were the limiter. We needed 1.5” bumpstop, so we cut down a 2” bumpstop from a RC kit and cut 1/4” off the longer bolt. We were ready to install the rear coils. They’re starting to understand how the suspension works.

At this point we had to decide how much, if any spacer to add in the rear. Everyone who knows OME HD 933/942 springs knows the unpredictable ride height. This rig is purposely kept super light. Everything is stock, minus the fact we cut the front bumper down and removed the milk jugs and replaced with Mopar stubby end caps, so it’s lighter than stock, a necessary addendum to a light teenage wallet, but admirable all the same. We decided to use the 10mm OME spacer that sits in the lower perch. Rear coils installed.

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The rear OME spacers don’t go on top? I was thinking they did.

I bought some with my kit but waited to see if things settled before I installed them. I never did put them in.
 
The rear OME spacers don’t go on top? I was thinking they did.

I bought some with my kit but waited to see if things settled before I installed them. I never did put them in.
The rear OME spacers go in the lower perch. The front OME spacers go up top. But the rears will work up top too.
 
Damn if something didn’t go wrong with the cooling system. Wife took it to Chic-fil-a to get some nuggies and it overheated. I noticed a month ago the thermostat was only reading about 165. I ordered a Stant 195 thermostat. Then the boys said it was running 210, so I put it off. We went up tonight to install thermostat and the boys fixed it, but didn’t tighten the bolts enough. It was spewing coolant everywhere. I was pissed. I tightened the lower bolt, and damn if I didn’t crack the AL housing. Back to the parts store tomorrow. 🙄 I’ll fix this and see where we are. Plenty of coolant. Could be water pump.
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This reminds me of the young kid push mowing the lawn the first time and missing a few strips of grass.

Dad (shouting from the lawn chair): "Great job!, don't worry about those strips, you'll get them when you go back over it"

It happens! Close to home and civilization.
 
Damn if something didn’t go wrong with the cooling system. Wife took it to Chic-fil-a to get some nuggies and it overheated. I noticed a month ago the thermostat was only reading about 165. I ordered a Stant 195 thermostat. Then the boys said it was running 210, so I put it off. We went up tonight to install thermostat and the boys fixed it, but didn’t tighten the bolts enough. It was spewing coolant everywhere. I was pissed. I tightened the lower bolt, and damn if I didn’t crack the AL housing. Back to the parts store tomorrow. 🙄 I’ll fix this and see where we are. Plenty of coolant. Could be water pump.View attachment 262592View attachment 262590View attachment 262591
That sucks, but good OJT for them.
 
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That’s a tough thing to win. So many more builds that are much more detailed and better than mine.

Thank you. No regrets with serving in the Air Force.
 
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Mom was driving the Jeep when it overheated in the scorching 110*. With some help from forum members and some research by the twins, we decided to replace the water pump, fan clutch, thermostat housing, and thermostat. It took an exhausting amount of time to get the thermostat housing to seal. We gave up on gaskets ( we ruined four, two Fel-Pro and two off-brand). One of the mating surfaces must not be flat. The housing was aftermarket. I suspect it was slightly deformed. We finally said, that's it, and went and bought The Right Stuff 1 Minute gasket maker. Love that stuff. In 5 minutes we were leak free. Started everything up and ran the system to get any air out, when it hit 210* the coolant started to flow in the radiator and the temp stayed at 210*, so we are back in business.
 
Measured the twins suspension lift and shock travel after the lift. The coils are 2" OME with a 3/4" spacer up front and the 10mm spacer in the rear. The shocks are Rancho 5000X 55239/55241

Front
SL = 2 5/8", Up = 4 5/8", Dn = 4 3/4" (pretty much perfect)

Rear
SL = 2 1/4", Up = 5 1/4", Dn = 2 3/4" (too long, may need to drop down to the Rancho's for 0-2" lift, but I'll check out the JSPEC specs first that @bobthetj03 gave them and try those)

Ride is not so great, I suspect because the rears are too long.

This confirms that the right shock is very important for ride quality. If you can get a 50:50 bias, you will do the best you can on those shocks.
 
Virgin run. Trying things out. They were amazed at what they could do. I may be in trouble. This might not have been a good idea after all!
 
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