A time to break down, and a time to build (the LJ) up

Adjusting the toe-in didn't really return the steering wheel to center. I was about to adjust the draglink when I realized I never installed the JKS front track bar. There was a nondescript adjustable trackbar that came with the Jeep, and I figured it was close. But since I lost ~0.5" of suspension lift with the new shocks and springs, I thought that the track bar might be too long which would push the drag link to the right along with the axle.

I decided I'd better see if the axle was centered.... it wasn't.

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So off came the old bar and on went the new.

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The frame rail bolt hole had been reamed out about 1/8" more than the JKS bolt diameter. I got some reassurance from the forum experts that this is not a problem; achieving proper torque was the only essential.

I then adjusted the draglink which was way too long. 2 full turns of the sleeve brought the steering wheel to center.

Having an assistant gently turn the steering wheel to get the track bar lined up with the axle bracket was super easy.

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The Hella driving lights came in today. Install was pretty easy, and I'm looking forward to trying them out tomorrow night.

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The only minor issue is that they do not work with the high beams on, only low beams, since the wiring is intended for fog lights. I wonder if there is a wire I can move in the steering column plug... something else to research.
 
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The Hella driving lights came in today. Install was pretty easy, and I'm looking forward to trying them out tomorrow night.

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The only minor issue is that they do not work with the high beams on, only low beams, since the wiring is intended for fog lights. I wonder if there is a wire I can move in the steering column plug... something else to research.
It's a fairly simple mod to get the fog lights to work with the high beams.
https://wranglertjforum.com/threads...-lights-to-stay-on-with-the-headlights.42208/
 
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It's been a busy summer, so not much time to work on the Jeep or even drive it, but I wanted to revive the thread. Thanks to @rasband , I scored Mopar LJ rock rails which he graciously helped me install in July. I got a tutorial in nutserts to boot!.

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I got to try them out on some easy trails; my kids and I appreciate the step to climb in and they're so much better than the nerf bars it came with.

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I've been hoping to find half-doors for that highway/trail compromise, but they're so expensive and hard to find. I just happened across a pair from a salvage yard in Idaho; they should arrive next week and we'll see what condition they're in. More to come on that...
 
I got the pair of half-doors from the salvage yard but to my surprise they did not have inner trim panels; that drama is documented here.

I'm finally ready to start rehabbing the shells. I put the doors on the Jeep and they were sitting a bit low so the seal made it difficult to close and the latch was a little off hitting the striker. I figured I would have to adjust the hinges, but had read all about how easy it is to strip the heads of the hinge bolts.

A fair bit of heat and a breaker bar worked fine; all of them snapped free with a hard jolt, but no damage to the T40 head or threads.

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The lower crimped edge of the door was dented in a couple places, not bad but I wanted to try and straighten them if possible. I used scrap wood and a C-clamp to bend them back in line. As my dad used to say (re: himself) "It's good enough for who it's for!"

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The paint is not in great shape. With the rust in a few places and plenty of other chips and scratches, I think I need to sand them down and repaint. With the peeling paint around the hinge, it seems they might have already been painted once already. They are 24 years old, after all.

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I ordered various parts to get the half doors in service. first up were the door seals. I'd read plenty about how the track system was used in 1997 when they made these doors, but later years have all the plastic spikes, so people have removed the plastic track and drilled holes for the spikes.

I ordered Fairchild seals from RockAuto mostly for the low price, and noted that they seemed to fit into the track around the edge of the door.

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I removed the unneeded plastic spikes and worked the seal into the track, and it fits great!

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Have you painted your doors yet? Wondering if you were going to paint them with the hinges removed or if you were going to do what I see suggested everywhere else and attach/adjust them prior to paint? Mostly wondering if there is a downside to painting the door with the hinge off of it so there is no risk of an unpainted surface showing if the hinges need to be adjusted in the future.
 
Have you painted your doors yet? Wondering if you were going to paint them with the hinges removed or if you were going to do what I see suggested everywhere else and attach/adjust them prior to paint? Mostly wondering if there is a downside to painting the door with the hinge off of it so there is no risk of an unpainted surface showing if the hinges need to be adjusted in the future.
I haven’t painted them yet because the paint shop can’t get aerosol cans. But I’ve already removed the hinges and will paint the doors and the hinges separately before assembly. I don’t want any unpainted surfaces out there. At a minimum, both surfaces will have primer.
 
Cool - I'm sending my to my paint guy next week and couldn't find anyone else out there who had theirs painted with hinges removed...but it seems to make the most sense to me. Wanted to see if there was something I was missing...
 
I suppose I might scratch the clear coat as I’m fitting the hinges; if so, it can be buffed out by hand.
 
I finally got around to prepping the doors for painting. I wet-sanded the right side door with 220grit on a sanding block in the yard to get rid of most of the old clear coat and level out all the scratches. The doors were re-painted in the past and some of that top layer is peeling and needs to go.

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The driver door was in worse shape; some rust around the edges. I skipped the tedious wet-sanding and went with an abrasive pad. Much more efficient!

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All the bare metal was then covered with a basic auto primer. I do have the basecoat and clear, so as soon as it warms up I can put them on.

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Life sure gets busy! With all the kids' activities there's been virtually no time to work on the Jeep. I did make time to replace all 4 O2 sensors last week, I had noticed a drop in power and fuel economy; I used to get about 15mpg but it dropped to 12. Not good. Based on forum research, the O2 sensors seemed like a good bet.

They all loosened up easily with an adjustable wrench and Rock Auto had the original NTK sensors for about $25 each. The power and mpg have improved nicely back to baseline!
 
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Painting the first half door left red mist dusted over nearly everything in my garage. Not fun to clean up. So for the second door I enclosed my power rack with drapes to contain the spray.

I don't have time to clear coat tonight, so I'll let the base coat dry, do a bit of wet sanding, then clear another day.

Slowly they're coming together!

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Slow going on Jeep projects, but I wanted to post the Morryde tailgate kit install. I’d been running my 33x12.5 on the stock carrier with snubbers adjusted as well as I knew how, and started hearing a rattling from back there.

I saw that the exterior sheet metal of the tailgate was flexing and snapping over the lower two bolt holes. There’s a chance I could have addressed it by adjusting the snubbers a bit and tightening the bolts, but I decided it was just time to install the Morryde kit since it comes highly rated and I really didn't want to damage the tailgate.

I was impressed with the entire kit. Very solid and well-made IMO. The instructions were a little unclear but it wasn’t hard to figure it out.

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