OldBuzzard's 2005 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited

[OldBuzzard]

Trails and Trail Damage

We spent a week in Ouray, Colorado for our summer vacation (as we do most years). We took some familiar trails, and some new ones. They were still bulldozing out the snow in mid July.

A new trail for us was Sound Democrat Mine and Mill, where @NJW took his March 2023 ROTM photo. That was pretty cool. It still had snow in July, so we visited it again in the fall. Two months changes the colors dramatically.

One familiar trail, into Silver Basin, refused us admission this time. Last year, on 31" tires, with no lockers, we had no trouble on the trail. This year, on 33" tires, with new gears and a front locker, we couldn't get up the far side of a stream crossing. It's about a 3 foot vertical wet dirt wall coming up out of the stream. With heavy runoff and vehicles digging it in, it was chewed deep, and was too much for our Jeep this time. It's a narrow trail, with a dropoff/waterfall off the edge, so there isn't much room to maneuver. The front went up easy enough, but that buried the rear bumper/trailer hitch in the rocky stream bed. Too much vertical wet dirt, and bumper drag, and it just wouldn't go up. A guy in a JK with 37s went up just fine. We'll try again another year.

We took a wee bit of trail "damage".

Well, we were on a trail, and the door strap broke. That counts, doesn't it?

There are dozens of cheap Chinese brands on Amazon. I picked this one (a pair):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PN351VM/?tag=wranglerorg-20
It seems to be plenty strong, a little thinner than the OEM strap but also wider.

 

[BDP]

Shock Absorber Problem

A year ago, I installed a set of Skyjacker Black MAX shocks. I like the ride. But these shocks have a problem.

When I installed them, the bottom of the rear shocks would not tighten up correctly. The FSM calls for 74 ft. lb. but it would not tighten to more than about 50 ft. lb. I could keep tightening, and the mounting flange wings would squeeze tighter against the rubber, but it would never go above 50 ft. lb. It felt soft as I tightened it, never really getting firm. So I left it there.

I recently disconnected the bottom of the rear shocks to let down the axle for some other work. And I discovered why those bolts would not tighten. Skyjacker uses a split steel bushing inside the rubber. When you tighten the bolt, the flange is supposed to squeeze against the bushing and pinch it very tight. But in this case, the bushing just deforms and collapses. Shame on Skyjacker for using a cheap bushing here.

The bushings were very badly deformed, crushed on the inside, with jagged ends cutting into the rubber.

View attachment 370409

I bought a couple of Hillman 1/2-in I.D. x 5/8-in O.D. x 1-1/2-in Length Seamless Steel Spacers p/n 880421 at Lowes for $2.34 each. They look a wee bit better than the junk Skyjacker uses.

View attachment 370410

They're a little too long, so I cut off 1/8" to match the OEM spec of 1-3/8" for these bushings.

I had to rig a tool from sockets and a piece of all-thread to press out the damaged bushings.

View attachment 370411

The new seamless bushings slid into the rubber by hand. I had to use a crowbar and big ChannelLock pliers to spread the wings of the mounting flange a little.

View attachment 370412

I put the bottom of the shock back into place and torqued the bolt to 50 ft. lbs. It tightened up solidly with only a couple of cranks of the torque wrench, without any squish-down feeling like it previously had. I went on up to 74 ft. lbs. with a couple more cranks, and it still felt very solid. No crush with these seamless sleeves.

Are you still happy with the Black MAX shocks?

 

[OldBuzzard]

Yes, I still like the Black MAX shocks. But I don't really have anything to compare them to except worn out OEM shocks. I just read a bunch of reviews and comparisons, and decided to try these first.

 

[BDP]

Yes, I still like the Black MAX shocks. But I don't really have anything to compare them to except worn out OEM shocks. I just read a bunch of reviews and comparisons, and decided to try these first.

Yeah, I read some good reviews also and also noticed that you had them for a while. Good to hear you're still like them and they're holding up. I'm going to give them a try.

 

[aidanm]

Motor Mount Lift

Along with the body lift, I installed a Savvy 1" motor mount lift. That puts the fan back up inside the shroud, so no shroud mods are needed. And it will allow a tranny lift with a partial tummy tuck.

Getting the factory motor mounts out went well, even with the air conditioner pump blocking the bolt on the driver side. I don't know why people cut off that bolt. I just loosened the three bolts on the engine bracket, which then tilted enough for the big bolt to come right out.

First problem: The Savvy bolt extenders won't go into the Savvy lift blocks. The holes are 0.001" smaller than the extenders. After asking around on the forum, I re-drilled the big holes to 5/8", and filed them a little to get the extenders to slide in easily.

View attachment 380981

Second problem: After installing the motor mount lift on the passenger side, I couldn't get to the nut with a wrench. I had to remove the bottom bolt in the engine bracket, torque down the motor mount nut, then replace the engine bracket bolt.

View attachment 380982

Third problem: I hear more engine noise than I used to, and there is a rattle-clunk over every bump in the road. I wired the gas tank filler over to the side to keep it from bumping around. I checked the exhaust since it moved a bit, but it didn't seem to be bumping anywhere. @Woodrow showed the problem here, along with the solution: https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/woodrows-97-green-tj-moderate-build.51602/post-1126424
The passenger side lift block is sitting against the rear engine bracket bolt (photo above). Engine noise is transmitted directly into the frame, and whenever the engine moves a little, it pulls away and clunks back against that bolt. I removed the lift block, and trimmed the end in a couple of places. I also ground away some metal on the engine bracket and the frame where it was close enough to knock together.

View attachment 380983

View attachment 380984

View attachment 380985

View attachment 380986

Fourth problem: Can't shift into 2nd, 4th, 6th, or reverse. Tilting the engine up, without bringing the tranny up with it, left the shifter leaning back far enough to hit the bezel for the leather shifter boot. I popped out the bezel, and will leave it loose so I can drive it until I get the partial tummy tuck, which will bring the tranny up to level, or a little higher.

Body lift and motor mount lift completed.

You could also do a b&m short shifter which would make it to where your shifts aren’t as drawn out and there isn’t as much throw between shifts, leading to that issue not being quite as bad because that’s my current issue with the 5 speed, the shifter is hitting the bezel and binding on the accordion style shifter boot, but the short throw should fix that

 

[OldBuzzard]

More Crack Hiding

With the body sitting 1.25" above the frame, the silver tub is visible above the rear frame arch, and looks kind of silly.

I masked off the frame with newspaper and tape, and sprayed the tub through the crack with flat black paint.

Great. Now my eye isn't drawn to that "silver eyebrow" every time I look at the rear tires.

 

[OldBuzzard]

ZJ Tie Rod Conversion

A year ago, I did a ZJ tie rod conversion. The joints were fine, no slop, but with 100K miles I wanted to replace them all while I was at it. I ordered MOOG tie rod, drag link, adjusting sleeves, and tie rod ends. And a Monroe steering damper. Cleaned, primed and painted them.

Installation was straightforward. I greased it, adjusted the toe-in, and centered the steering wheel. It drove well, and felt about the same as it had before.

I had noticed that the tie rod end studs sink deep into the knuckles, so the dust seal looks too flat and the cotter pin hole sits near the top of the castle nut. And that's before torquing the nut, just snugging it up to draw the taper into place and squash the dust boot.

OEM tie rod end:

MOOG tie rod end:

There has been a lot of discussion about this problem (like this one). Some folks think we're over-torquing the castle nut, but the problem appears before torquing. I don't think every TJ owner is pulling that tapered stud too deep into the knuckle, as has been suggested. I don't think we could if we tried, without going to a LOT higher torque. And people have tried new knuckles and still had the problem.

I suspect the real problem is that MOOG and Crown and pretty much every other manufacturer is building these TREs to a bad spec. Look at pictures of other brands after installation, and many of them have the cotter pin too high and the dust boot mashed too flat.

I used a washer under the castle nut to lift it a little so the cotter pin will fit right. That doesn't help the dust boot problem.

MOOG Drag Link Problem

Three months later, I noticed a split dust boot on the lower end of the drag link.

I removed it and found this sharp ridge right where the split occurred:

I covered the joint to keep out metal filings, and filed it smooth:

MOOG does not sell the dust covers separately, or send them out to fix their own screw-ups. I couldn't find an exact match, but I found that these will fit fairly well: Prothane 19-1714-BL Black Tie Rod End Boot (a pair)

I installed the Prothane dust boot, and I'm keeping my eye on it. A year later, it's still in good shape.

Note: That's the drag link end on the passenger side, not the tie rod end on the driver side with the cotter pin/smashed boot problem. The dust covers are different.

 

[OldBuzzard]

OPDA

My OEM OPDA was working fine, no noise, no error codes, no rough running. But since the infamous OPDA is known for dying two different ways, at least one of which will destroy an engine, I decided, at 105K miles, it was time to replace it. The two problems with the Mopar OPDA are (1) a soft gear which wears against the camshaft gear and destroys both, and (2) a seal blocking oil from the upper bearing. Mopar discovered the soft gear problem and replaced most of those OPDAs with an identical unit but with a different gear. Mine may have been replaced with the modified one, but it's still a Mopar "LDI" unit. But Mopar never redesigned the shaft/bearing/seal to fix that second problem. The Crown OPDA was a re-design of the Mopar OPDA, with the upper seal moved up above the upper bearing, and a spiral groove cut in the shaft to carry oil up to that upper bearing.

I took several photos of the position of the OPDA for reference. Then I removed the OPDA cap, put the Jeep in 3rd gear, and bump-pushed the Jeep forward a wee bit at a time, watching the reluctor, until the alignment holes lined up perfectly. I dropped a long #10-24 screw in the hole to keep it aligned (fits perfectly in the top hole, a little loose in the larger lower hole).

I removed the cam position sensor, and the hold-down clamp. I lifted the OPDA, twisting counter-clockwise, and pulled the thin metal gasket from the block (almost invisible in situ).

The OPDA and camshaft gears looked fine, somewhat worn as expected, but not deeply. The sides of the camshaft gear are surprisingly rough, but not where the OPDA gear touches it.

With the plastic pin in the new Crown OPDA, and the gear lubed, and the gasket in place, I inserted the shaft into the hole. Starting with the sensor hole snug against the block, I turned the entire OPDA clockwise slightly to find where the gears would mesh (away from the block a little). After lowering the OPDA, rotating clockwise, it appears to be turned clockwise a little farther than the OEM one was. That's not a problem, since the OPDA reluctor is pinned to the body. I laid the finger clamp in place, and started the bolt with a grabby tool.

After tightening the bolt, and replacing the OEM cam sensor, and pulling the plastic pin, and replacing the OPDA cap, I took it for a drive. It started and ran fine, no error codes. I ran it up to 4000 RPM, and it was fine, no limp mode. And it's been fine for several thousand miles since.

I had expected to have to tune it, either fractionally by eye, or by finding someone with a DRBIII. But fortunately, it's been fine. Eventually I'll probably get a tool to check it, just for fun.

 

[TimV]

Good work indeed and excellent write up(s).
Appreciate your efforts.

Tim

 

[Irun]

Yes, I still like the Black MAX shocks. But I don't really have anything to compare them to except worn out OEM shocks. I just read a bunch of reviews and comparisons, and decided to try these first.

Having been through multiple shocks, BM is by far my favorite shock that won't make you feel like you've overpaid. A very reliable, balanced, and respectable ride for the money!

 

[OldBuzzard]

Having been through multiple shocks, BM is by far my favorite shock that won't make you feel like you've overpaid. A very reliable, balanced, and respectable ride for the money!

Agree. I had Bilstein 5100s on my old, light Tacoma, so I have some notion of what they would be like on the TJ. Never had any experience with Ranchos.

It was your "A lesson learned" build, @Irun, where I learned about the BMs. Your detailed descriptions and comparisons really helped me to choose. And thanks for both of your build threads — I've learned a lot, and picked up many of ideas from them.

 

[OldBuzzard]

Locker Flasher

My front locker switch has a light in it, but it's down low, not bright, and I have to duck my head to even see it. So I made a two-LED flasher, back and forth (like a railroad crossing), and placed it in a small metal candy can on the dash. It's up in my field of vision, bright enough to see in daylight but not too bright, not distracting. Now I can remember to turn off the locker before I pull onto pavement.

 

[OldBuzzard]

Tom Wood's Front Driveshaft

I bought a low mileage used front Tom Wood's driveshaft from a forum member. I knew it was a bit shorter than mine, but I thought it was close enough. It wasn't. I sent it to Tom Wood's, they lengthened it by 2", and re-balanced, cleaned, painted, greased, and returned it, for about $100 including shipping. Service and turnaround speed were spectacular, as always.

Tom Wood's documentation says an open spline length of 3-1/4" is perfect (to the center of the weld), plus or minus 1/2". This one came to 3-3/16" installed.

 

[OldBuzzard]

Stahlbus oil drain valve

I got tired of the huge mess when changing oil with the engine skid in place, and tired of removing the engine skid. So I installed a Stahlbus oil drain valve. I followed the big warning card in the package "Max Torque 18 ft. lbs." and it didn't even break off like some people say.

It clears the engine skid by about 1". And I don't play in the rocks much, so hopefully there will be no skid-vs-valve conflicts.

We took a week-long wheeling trip in the San Juan mountains of Colorado. Back home, I noticed that the dust cap has escaped. A replacement costs $20. I tried to check the thread size and pitch. It's very close to a 1/2"-20 pipe thread, but a cap of that size won't go on at all, and the next size up, 5/8", is too big. Must be metric, perhaps 12-1.5. But I can't find those on this continent. I ordered the Stahlbus steel replacement cap with retainer chain for $22 (instead of the original aluminum no-retainer one). The Stahlbus website has it for $14.30 plus VAT plus shipping costs to US, which would probably come out similar to the Amazon price.

 

[OldBuzzard]

Dirtworx Rear Bumper

I've been using the OEM rear bumper with a Draw-Tite hitch receiver below it. It pulls my trailer, but it also hangs up on things. The LJ is kind of a butt-dragger, and that receiver makes it worse.

So I ordered a Dirtworx bumper with an integrated hitch receiver. Standard length is 57", but you can ask for a different length. I ordered a 60-incher, the width of the tub, to better protect the corners. It's heavy, at 46 pounds, but that's only 3 pounds more than the OEM bumper and Draw-Tite receiver combined.

I dressed a few sharp edges, and cleaned it, primed it, and painted it. Then left it to dry for about a week. Installed it (10 bolts).

In this photo, it looks wider than the tub, but it's not.

This photo shows how it matches the tub width.

Since I'll pull a heavy trailer, I added some RuffStuff tie-ins.

After dressing some sharp edges and grinding some welds flat, I painted and baked them.

Installation requires buying longer bolts than provided. Why do manufacturers provide a nice set of grade 8 bolts which are too short to fit? These tie-ins are well made and fit correctly.

I bought a new Curt 8" drop hitch since the receiver is now 4" higher. When I tried to insert the pin, it wouldn't go through the receiver and the drop hitch (it worked fine with my old hitch). I found that the tolerances on both the bumper and the drop hitch contributed to the problem. The holes in the receiver were slightly misaligned in one direction, and the holes in the drop hitch were slightly misaligned in the opposite direction. I filed out the hole on one side of the drop hitch to make it work.

The new Dirtworx bumper gave me an extra 4" of clearance at the bumper. Now I can more easily bang up the raised Savvy gas tank skid

 

[OldBuzzard]

Re-lube Savvy rear upper control arm Johnny Joints

My Savvy rear upper control arms have been grumbling and groaning for a while. They made it about a year on the factory lube before starting to complain.

I watched the John Currie video on rebuilding JJs and several others using alternate tools. On a limited budget, I decided to use my Harbor Freight 12-ton press instead of buying the expensive JJ tools. I bought a jar of Red Line CV-2 lube, and a $6 2" to 1-1/2" Black Iron Reducing Coupling plumbing fitting. It works well for the 2" JJs, and I think the other end will work for the 2.5" JJs, if I ever get any. I used these sockets: 13/16", 1-1/16", 36mm:

I had a small set of snap ring pliers, but I ordered a bigger set. It arrived half way through the job, and the pins were too fat to fit the snap ring holes:

I returned it and ordered a slightly smaller set. It arrived after this job was done, so I had to use my too-small set. It got the job done, just barely, with dozens of retries to pinch the snap rings. The correct snap ring pliers are KNIPEX Internal 90 Angled Snap Ring Pliers-Forged Tips with 1.8mm pins (Amazon stupidly calls it 0.18 cm cutting width):

Disassembly of the JJs was easy on the press with the variety of sockets (except for the too-small snap ring pliers, of course):

They had essentially no grease left, just some dusty dry black crud which may have been grease in ancient history:

I cleaned everything up, and scraped off some hard deposits, and polished the steel ball very lightly with fine sandpaper to finish off the crusty spots:

I lubed it with Red Line CV-2, not a lot but somewhat more than John uses in his video:

I reassembled it with the thinner gold washer down, and the long arm of the ball up, and the thicker silver washer on top, and the sharp edges outward (washers and snap ring):

Notice that pressing it squeezed the original dark grease back out of the zerk. Does that imply that they initially greased it via the zerk? Maybe that's why there was hardly any grease inside:

Now the JJs are quiet again. We'll see how long they last this time.

 

[OldBuzzard]

Cabin Air Filter

I got tired of blasting a bucket of dust out of the vents when I turn on the fan after every wheeling trip.

After reviewing the options for adding a cabin air filter, I decided to make my own filter holder, instead of buying a 3D printed one on eBay. I ordered this pair of Wrangler JK filters (5.99" x 2.92" x 0.79") for $10.

I removed the cowl, and the plastic duct:

I placed a piece of cardboard over the hole and pressed it onto the metal lip to make a pattern. After cutting around the pattern, I used it as a template to mark some scrap 22 gauge (0.035") steel, adding some tabs to keep it in place:

I cut it out with sheet metal scissors (not a very fun job). With the tabs bent down, I tried it in place and had to trim it some more to get it just right:

I placed a filter on the steel and traced around it:

Marking lines for the pocket and cutting the interior out was even less fun:

Bending the pocket sides without ruining the top plate was quite a job:

The filter sits in the pocket, on the lip, squeezed in slightly to hold it snug. It sticks up through the plate a little so no ends were needed for the pocket. I bent the middle tabs up at an angle to hold against the bottom of the plastic duct:

The filter holder doesn't sit quite flat, so I added some "Camper Seal" foam tape to the bottom to seal it. That foam also seals the ends of the filter a little bit:

The plastic duct holds it in place:

I was concerned that the filter would restrict air flow, and I considered trying to place two filters farther out in the duct. But the blower still seems to blow pretty strong, perhaps a little less than before, but still plenty.

 

[DETOUR]

Cabin Air Filter

I got tired of blasting a bucket of dust out of the vents when I turn on the fan after every wheeling trip.

After reviewing the options for adding a cabin air filter, I decided to make my own filter holder, instead of buying a 3D printed one on eBay. I ordered this pair of Wrangler JK filters (5.99" x 2.92" x 0.79") for $10.

I removed the cowl, and the plastic duct:

View attachment 555649

I placed a piece of cardboard over the hole and pressed it onto the metal lip to make a pattern. After cutting around the pattern, I used it as a template to mark some scrap 22 gauge (0.035") steel, adding some tabs to keep it in place:

View attachment 555650

View attachment 555651

I cut it out with sheet metal scissors (not a very fun job). With the tabs bent down, I tried it in place and had to trim it some more to get it just right:

View attachment 555652

I placed a filter on the steel and traced around it:

View attachment 555653

Marking lines for the pocket and cutting the interior out was even less fun:

View attachment 555654

Bending the pocket sides without ruining the top plate was quite a job:

View attachment 555656

The filter sits in the pocket, on the lip, squeezed in slightly to hold it snug. It sticks up through the plate a little so no ends were needed for the pocket. I bent the middle tabs up at an angle to hold against the bottom of the plastic duct:

View attachment 555657

The filter holder doesn't sit quite flat, so I added some "Camper Seal" foam tape to the bottom to seal it. That foam also seals the ends of the filter a little bit:

View attachment 555658

The plastic duct holds it in place:

View attachment 555659

I was concerned that the filter would restrict air flow, and I considered trying to place two filters farther out in the duct. But the blower still seems to blow pretty strong, perhaps a little less than before, but still plenty.

Old Buzzard

Do you deliver this mod in person or ….
• congrats , that’s ingenious

DETOUR

Cabin Air Filter

I got tired of blasting a bucket of dust out of the vents when I turn on the fan after every wheeling trip.

After reviewing the options for adding a cabin air filter, I decided to make my own filter holder, instead of buying a 3D printed one on eBay. I ordered this pair of Wrangler JK filters (5.99" x 2.92" x 0.79") for $10.

I removed the cowl, and the plastic duct:

View attachment 555649

I placed a piece of cardboard over the hole and pressed it onto the metal lip to make a pattern. After cutting around the pattern, I used it as a template to mark some scrap 22 gauge (0.035") steel, adding some tabs to keep it in place:

View attachment 555650

View attachment 555651

I cut it out with sheet metal scissors (not a very fun job). With the tabs bent down, I tried it in place and had to trim it some more to get it just right:

View attachment 555652

I placed a filter on the steel and traced around it:

View attachment 555653

Marking lines for the pocket and cutting the interior out was even less fun:

View attachment 555654

Bending the pocket sides without ruining the top plate was quite a job:

View attachment 555656

The filter sits in the pocket, on the lip, squeezed in slightly to hold it snug. It sticks up through the plate a little so no ends were needed for the pocket. I bent the middle tabs up at an angle to hold against the bottom of the plastic duct:

View attachment 555657

The filter holder doesn't sit quite flat, so I added some "Camper Seal" foam tape to the bottom to seal it. That foam also seals the ends of the filter a little bit:

View attachment 555658

The plastic duct holds it in place:

View attachment 555659

I was concerned that the filter would restrict air flow, and I considered trying to place two filters farther out in the duct. But the blower still seems to blow pretty strong, perhaps a little less than before, but still plenty.

 

[bobthetj03]

Awesome work! I'll be following to see how it performs, and what intervals you need to change it.