Hey everyone,
Just wanted to reach out and say hello! I've been a long time follower of the forum, previous XJ owner but always had eyes for TJ's. I recently sold my daily and picked up a 2002 X Apex (107k odo), I'll post some pics in the coming weeks when it's not snowy and bleak here, and every day has been something. I knew what I was getting into and even though my hands hurt from wrenching all weekend, I couldn't be happier. I probably won't pop into a ton of threads, a bunch of you guys give really great advice and all I could offer is "yeah, listen to that guy."
Here's some highlights from the last few weeks:
Day 2: Flat tire, no factory jack, a tire from the factory set on the carrier that will not hold air. Turns out the tires, which I thought were Goodyear eagles were some sort of chinese copies that are around $280 shipped per set. This just made me fast track new tires, originally slotted for fall, but I now have Cooper AT3's 31x10.5x15.
Day 8: Wrangler JK pulls up to me at the grocery store, window rolls down, little girl asks me, "Hey, do you have a duck for your Jeep!?" And because I did not, she said "well, here's a duck for your jeep". I had to google this immediately, but I now have a duck for my jeep. Is this duck thing here to stay? Any hot takes? haha.
Day 9: Check engine light, stopped to have it scanned, gone and no read.
THE FUN
Day 12: Clunking appears on right passenger side. I glance under the front end and see almost no rubber left on the sway bar links, track bar boot, and top of shocks.
Day 13: Rancho 5000's, moog links/bar/bushings. The passenger side shock gave me an issue, all bolts snaped immediately even with 24 hours of penetrating. The track bar would not come out of the upper for almost 2 hours... heat, force, liquid wrench... A friend showed up with a 3lb sledge, 2 taps on the pickle fork and it broke free. Celebration and defeat.
While I was under there, I realized that I had not been under the jeep on a dry day. Raining the two days I checked it out, snowing on and off... The components look good, rust is surface and not anything I can't take care of, none of the bushings looked like they needed immediate attention besides the rotted driver side bump stop. Day 13 was a dry 35 degrees, I finally got a real look at the suspension and also received a true learning moment for me. All 8 control arms need new bushings, rear links, rear track, rear shocks are OK but bad compared to the new fronts, coil springs seem to have aged unevenly but also not really familiar with front and back coils.
Day 14: More clunks, the front end clunks are much more "polite", and driving straight is a real pleasure thanks to those Rancho's.
Day 16 (today): Exhaust hanger is gone, luckily a habbit from my 99 XJ days is carrying a couple of 3" u-bolts because you or friend might just need one. Tonight after work the check engine light came back. Code is TPS, can maybe feel a little sag in the idle but the pedal was responsive. Stopped at NAPA, got the sensor, the TPS connector clip broke in my hands (a tomorrow problem), check engine light gone. I read a really good post from Chris about IAC cleaning, I'll probably do that first thing tomorrow.
My plan for the next few weeks is tackling the suspension piece by piece. I think control arms but would definitely love some advice about what to accomplish first. I'm not trying to sink thousands into it, leaning towards moog and other oem spec, maybe upgrade to poly here and there. I navigated the lifted parts "math" with the XJ and want to keep it simple, plus the factory stance of the TJ looks great.
Sorry for the long post, talk to you all soon!
Just wanted to reach out and say hello! I've been a long time follower of the forum, previous XJ owner but always had eyes for TJ's. I recently sold my daily and picked up a 2002 X Apex (107k odo), I'll post some pics in the coming weeks when it's not snowy and bleak here, and every day has been something. I knew what I was getting into and even though my hands hurt from wrenching all weekend, I couldn't be happier. I probably won't pop into a ton of threads, a bunch of you guys give really great advice and all I could offer is "yeah, listen to that guy."
Here's some highlights from the last few weeks:
Day 2: Flat tire, no factory jack, a tire from the factory set on the carrier that will not hold air. Turns out the tires, which I thought were Goodyear eagles were some sort of chinese copies that are around $280 shipped per set. This just made me fast track new tires, originally slotted for fall, but I now have Cooper AT3's 31x10.5x15.
Day 8: Wrangler JK pulls up to me at the grocery store, window rolls down, little girl asks me, "Hey, do you have a duck for your Jeep!?" And because I did not, she said "well, here's a duck for your jeep". I had to google this immediately, but I now have a duck for my jeep. Is this duck thing here to stay? Any hot takes? haha.
Day 9: Check engine light, stopped to have it scanned, gone and no read.
THE FUN
Day 12: Clunking appears on right passenger side. I glance under the front end and see almost no rubber left on the sway bar links, track bar boot, and top of shocks.
Day 13: Rancho 5000's, moog links/bar/bushings. The passenger side shock gave me an issue, all bolts snaped immediately even with 24 hours of penetrating. The track bar would not come out of the upper for almost 2 hours... heat, force, liquid wrench... A friend showed up with a 3lb sledge, 2 taps on the pickle fork and it broke free. Celebration and defeat.
While I was under there, I realized that I had not been under the jeep on a dry day. Raining the two days I checked it out, snowing on and off... The components look good, rust is surface and not anything I can't take care of, none of the bushings looked like they needed immediate attention besides the rotted driver side bump stop. Day 13 was a dry 35 degrees, I finally got a real look at the suspension and also received a true learning moment for me. All 8 control arms need new bushings, rear links, rear track, rear shocks are OK but bad compared to the new fronts, coil springs seem to have aged unevenly but also not really familiar with front and back coils.
Day 14: More clunks, the front end clunks are much more "polite", and driving straight is a real pleasure thanks to those Rancho's.
Day 16 (today): Exhaust hanger is gone, luckily a habbit from my 99 XJ days is carrying a couple of 3" u-bolts because you or friend might just need one. Tonight after work the check engine light came back. Code is TPS, can maybe feel a little sag in the idle but the pedal was responsive. Stopped at NAPA, got the sensor, the TPS connector clip broke in my hands (a tomorrow problem), check engine light gone. I read a really good post from Chris about IAC cleaning, I'll probably do that first thing tomorrow.
My plan for the next few weeks is tackling the suspension piece by piece. I think control arms but would definitely love some advice about what to accomplish first. I'm not trying to sink thousands into it, leaning towards moog and other oem spec, maybe upgrade to poly here and there. I navigated the lifted parts "math" with the XJ and want to keep it simple, plus the factory stance of the TJ looks great.
Sorry for the long post, talk to you all soon!
