Apparently my timeline is way off, as I thought this was one of the first things I did when I got it, lol. Refer to the beginning posts of this thread. Waaaaay off. This experience was also where Blaine and JJVW schooled me on clamping force regarding my OCD with the bolt size, but I ignored them and spent way more time tracking down the "right" size bolt that would do little more than the readily available one. That lesson took way longer to sink in.
Got the Currie rear trac bar today and installed tonight. Took 2 phone calls to Currie and 2 trips to the hardware dept. Still not satisfied with Currie's answers or job. Will take back apart and redo this weekend. Needed to get it together to drive for now. Not my daily but wife might say move that heap at any given moment lol.
Found out from digging a little deeper that the Currie rear trac bar I have takes a 12mm bolt, not the 1/2" or 7/16" I was told by Currie. 7/16" too small and 1/2" too big. They do have a trac bar that takes 1/2" but it's for the rock jock rear end. Got 12mm 10.9's today from Fastenal and they fit great! Glad I did my own research.
Stumbled across set of sahara/Rubi flares for $50. No cracks or chips. A little prep and paint and I can get rid of these flat bushwackers. I really prefer the oem flare look.
At this point, I don't have any direction or goal. I'm just researching, learning, and upgrading with no purpose other than to upgrade. I feel a bit like @toximus describes early on in his build before Blaine told him he should just start over from scratch. Definitely learning the hard way that undoing previous "shit work" and redoing it correctly is much more costly and time consuming.
Removed TC skid drop today. Had to improvise since I couldn't find right size and thread shorter bolts. Used the drop spacers and fender washers with the longer bolts till I can get bolts Monday. Anyway, looks way better and gained my 1.5" of ground clearance back from the PO lol. I think it's starting to look like someone put some thought into the mods.
EDIT: 1.5" of clearance meant little to me then. I was just throwing around the buzz word. I knew additional belly clearance was good, but hadn't put my rig through the paces to even see if it was necessary at the time. I was also in such a hurry to get this clearance that I had to install the spacers with the longer bolts because I couldn't find the right size bolts.
Got the right bolts put on the transfer case skid plate today. So the removal of the transfer case drop is almost complete. Just need to install my Savvy front upper adjustable control arms set front and rear pinion angle.
Leaky steering stabilizer replaced today. PO installed bracket on Currie Correctlink without checking clearance it appears from the groove in the old dampener. New one on and clearance is good after I rotated the bracket.
Removed front drive shaft after noticing slight harmonic vibration following recent removal of tc drop and installation of 8 Savvy DA CA's. Got pinion angle dead on on front and with 0.1 on rear and still had slight vibe at 67+mph. Felt minor lateral play in front shaft (2 month old Tom Woods) so I removed it. Vibe mostly subsided. Put shaft back in and it was back. While wiggling the DS I noticed the play is coming from front UV joint on DS. The joint is moving (in and out directionally) inside the bearing cup. Will call TW tomorrow. Also have slight lateral play in front output yoke on tc. Not sure what to do with that.
Installed (butchered console) 8" shallow mount Rockford Fosgate sub and Kicker 400 amp, both 150 watts at 4 ohms, Kicker 6.5" in bar, and Kicker 4" in dash corners (kept tweeters). Jad to do a little trimming but everything fits pretty good. I must say the one 8" sub is more bass than anticipated or needed, lol. The bump takes me back 25 years. Oh well, I'll just keep the gain at half and enjoy the massaging seats. @liquidfluidity
Removed 1.5 Din Seicane radio and installed 2 Din Alpine with 2 Din bezel from Crutchfield. Also installed Alpine power pack amp with 4x50w on rear of Alpine head unit to power my dash 4's and bar 6.5's. That with the 8" sub makes my system sound flipping amazing. It's so loud and clear even at highway speeds with top off. All amps and speakers matched up resistance and wattage wise. Plus the power pack mounts on the rear of the head unit in the dash.
Also found a crack in one of my Pintlers after noticing gradual loss of air. F@$#! So I took them off and put my old wheels back on. F@$#! Waste of money. Where am I going to find 1 or 2 (still looking for a spare) Argent Pintlers. Smh. Should've just bit the bullet and bought new ones. Silver lining is I only paid $350 for the set. Although a totally useless $350 now, lol. None of the repair shops want to mess with cracks on the face either.
