Back in about 2006 or so I got into offroading and built a '86 toyota turbo Hilux...solid axle swap, Detroits, dual transfer cases, 35s...and we wheeled the hell out of until our son was born in 2010, then it had to go away.
About 3 months ago I decided to get back into it and started looking for a TJ since the toyota stuff as all getting pretty old and harder to find. I ended up buying this thing from a friend of friend...who hadn't built it, but had taken it on trade from someone who owed him money several years earlier. It looked like it had a bunch of good stuff on it, and the price seemed good, so I bought it.
One reason I chose a TJ is because I've known Blaine for a lot of years now and figured he'd have answers to all my questions...which he has. I'm a mechanic by trade, and do lots of machining/fab work on the side, but I wasn't familiar with TJ specific stuff.
So, After I got it home I called Blaine and told him all about my new toy and what parts were on it...some of which he told me was garbage and needed to be changed...
It's a 97 Sahara 5spd w/ hardtop and full doors
Rock Hard bolt in cage
Tuffy box and glove box door
Dana 44 axles F&R, 4.88 gears, ARB lockers, and a warn small hub kit in the front.
Ramsey Patriot 9500 winch
Cheap aftermarket lo pro bumpers
Warn Sliders, with some sort of added tube/step things i think (they're useful, so I'll keep them until they piss me off).
CTM joints in the front axles
OMF beadlocks w/ good Goodyear Wrangler MTR kevlars
Hurst Shifter
Fox 2.0 shocks
RE long arm kit
Teraflex disconnectable front sway bar
SYE
Stacked plate style PS cooler
Included, but not bolted to the jeep was a tow bar, Roof Rack, Poison Spyder high line aluminum fenders, Poison spyder rear tub armor, some off brand soft top, and Currie Correctlync steering he'd just removed to "upgrade" to the 1 ton bullshit. Also included a hi-lift jack,,,lol, so now I have 3 to put in the shed.
The PO had just had it in a shop and had new ball joints installed, along with having the steering "upgraded" using the Ruff Stuff 1 ton setup. Blaine told me that shit had to go, along with the drop pitman arm and the drop trac bar bracket. So I bought a currie track bar and ordered a replacement TRE for the currie steering that was loose as shit, and a Rancho steering stabilizer along with the currie bracket. Of course I had to "borrow" a set of knuckles from Blaine since the ones on the rig had the tapers bored out for the 1 ton garbage. During the process of changing the knuckles, I pulled out the short size axle, and noticed that it was not for the Rubicon Dana 44 that I had, but was originally too long, so someone chopped it short enough, which didn't leave enough splines to fit it all the way into the side gear, so then they threw it on a lathe and undercut the area where splines would normally be...leaving about 3/8" or so of spline engagement. Off to 4WP for a new short side axle on a Sunday.
While going back together, I noticed that there wasn't really anything to hold the outers in the spindles, so another call to Blaine was made. Evidently there's supposed to be a splined washer and snap ring on each side....nope, not present...and while fiddle fucking with things I noticed the spindle lock nut could be unscrewed by hand. Someone had torqued the inner nut, that sets bearing preload...to about 100+ lb.ft, and left the outer nut finger tight (kinda backwards), so that got torn down to reveal some very special colors on the bearings.
Ordered up washers, snap rings, bearings, and seals...installed the new shaft and got the front end all put together the next week, along with new O-rings to seal the locking hubs...that were missing. The last thing to go on was the steering damper, who's bracket came with the currie correctlync instructions, which I decided to read, focusing on the part where they talk about overgreasing the joints and pushing the caps into a dome shape resulting in a floppy loose joint. I grabbed the old TRE that I'd just thrown in the trash and sure enough...dome shaped, so I put it on the press and smashed the cap back flat again...nice and snug now...just like that new one I just spent $80 on. Dammit, oh well, throw it in the spares pile.
I had some mild death wobble which I solved by rebuilding the beadlocks...adding two layers of shim so the rings don't cone like crazy, and getting the beads positioned properly so that they're actually round...and removing the balance beads and having them properly balanced. Cool...drives very nicely now after an alignment to finish things off.
Blaine stressed adjusting the upper arms so they weren't fighting each other and during that process I found the passenger side bushing to be easily removable from the axle bracket by hand...so I machined up a sleeve out of an old Datsun strut tube I had laying around, welded that in and pressed in a new bushing...we're good...drives even better.
The turn signals wouldn't self cancel so I replaced the multifunction switch...now that works nicely.
You'd about bang your hand on the dash and console when shifting and the shifter was all floppy, so I ordered up a shifter bushing kit, and a new shift boot and retainer since it was torn. Pulled the Tuffy box all out and noticed the bolts holding the shifter handle to the stem were all loose. Tightened those up and the shifter is nice and firm now. Of course, the other 2 boots were torn so I had to order those and wait.
While I was waiting, I tore about about 500 feet of wiring, along with crappy HID conversion and an AHHH-OOOO-GA horn, replaced the K&N intake with a stock one, and went on to figure out the dual battery fuckery that was in this thing....
This was quite special. One battery was wired as it should have been...but the other battery had the positive cable running through an isolator solenoid, who's exciter wire was snaked under the fuse box lid and stuffed in the signal terminal under the starter relay. I'd wondered why it cranked slow...
....only one battery was connected when the engine was running...and that was the only battery that was charging. The other battery would only get tied in when the key was turned to START, no charging for that battery. So, it was at about 6 volts, only getting any sort of charge recovery as it pulled power away from the other battery during cranking, which drew down the voltage on the "main" battery during cranking so that it would barely start. Unreal. All that shit went in the trash and I put a single battery back in and made new cables, correctly. Now it starts good
Changed the oil
There were all kinds of bangs and rattles from the back...the liftgate seal retainer didn't seem broken, but didn't seem right...the only thing holding it closed was about an 8" section in the middle that actually hung down far enough to catch the tailgate. So I ordered up one of those and a new seal...that was fun to get off. One rattle gone, 30 to go. I keep forgetting to unbolt the stupid hi-lift from the tire carrier...but I'll do that tomorrow, it's making a much of noise.
The flares that were on it were all chopped up and broken, so I ordered a set of EAG "flat fender" flares on ebay and installed those...I couldn't bring myself to spend $400 on Bushwackers....and these look pretty good.
It shifted like shit so I decided to change the gear oil and dump in some GL4... I was too impatient to order redline so I found some AMSOIL locally, pulled down the skid plate and got that done...while the skid plate was down I figured I should address this exhaust rattle that I though was from the bend over the axle banging against the bottom of the tub. So I readjusted things until that didn't happen, and rotated the cat so it wasn't hitting the longarm bracket, and it still sounded like a can of rocks when you smacked it. Let's take a look inside the cat...yep, all broken apart. It passed smog fine after I bought it...so this was a bit surprising.
I head out and pick up a new CAT, which of course is shorter than the old one, is missing the post cat O2 sensor bung, and doesn't have the right pipe size since I guess I've got an aftermarket header on this POS. I cut the old O2 bung out of the old cat, put it in the lathe to clean it up, turned a little shoulder on it coinciding with one of the steps on a step drill I had, welded that into the new cat. Chopped the ends off of the old cat and welded those onto the new cat, then dug around in the bin and found a chunk of 2.25" stainless that was about 1/2" to short for what I needed (of course)....so rolled a short piece of pipe out of a piece of sheet to make up the difference and welded all that shit together. Now, I dislike welding underneath a vehicle. I really fucking hate welding exhaust systems underneath a vehicle, especially when clearance is kind of an issue. Everything probably came apart and got put back together 20 times trying to get things in just the right place so it didn't hit anything and then pull it back outta the hangers so I could access the top to weld. That took a day or so, between beers.
Trans shifts nicer now, exhaust doesn't rattle now, Jeep goes in a straight line now, turn signals work, flares look good, splines on drivers side inner front shaft won't strip, bearings won't grenade, battery and electrical system works as it should and the tires are mostly round. Its actually pretty nice to drive now.
Hopefully I'll get it on the trail soon.
And one of these days I might repaint the hood and the doors, but I don't care right now.
Too be continued....
About 3 months ago I decided to get back into it and started looking for a TJ since the toyota stuff as all getting pretty old and harder to find. I ended up buying this thing from a friend of friend...who hadn't built it, but had taken it on trade from someone who owed him money several years earlier. It looked like it had a bunch of good stuff on it, and the price seemed good, so I bought it.
One reason I chose a TJ is because I've known Blaine for a lot of years now and figured he'd have answers to all my questions...which he has. I'm a mechanic by trade, and do lots of machining/fab work on the side, but I wasn't familiar with TJ specific stuff.
So, After I got it home I called Blaine and told him all about my new toy and what parts were on it...some of which he told me was garbage and needed to be changed...
It's a 97 Sahara 5spd w/ hardtop and full doors
Rock Hard bolt in cage
Tuffy box and glove box door
Dana 44 axles F&R, 4.88 gears, ARB lockers, and a warn small hub kit in the front.
Ramsey Patriot 9500 winch
Cheap aftermarket lo pro bumpers
Warn Sliders, with some sort of added tube/step things i think (they're useful, so I'll keep them until they piss me off).
CTM joints in the front axles
OMF beadlocks w/ good Goodyear Wrangler MTR kevlars
Hurst Shifter
Fox 2.0 shocks
RE long arm kit
Teraflex disconnectable front sway bar
SYE
Stacked plate style PS cooler
Included, but not bolted to the jeep was a tow bar, Roof Rack, Poison Spyder high line aluminum fenders, Poison spyder rear tub armor, some off brand soft top, and Currie Correctlync steering he'd just removed to "upgrade" to the 1 ton bullshit. Also included a hi-lift jack,,,lol, so now I have 3 to put in the shed.
The PO had just had it in a shop and had new ball joints installed, along with having the steering "upgraded" using the Ruff Stuff 1 ton setup. Blaine told me that shit had to go, along with the drop pitman arm and the drop trac bar bracket. So I bought a currie track bar and ordered a replacement TRE for the currie steering that was loose as shit, and a Rancho steering stabilizer along with the currie bracket. Of course I had to "borrow" a set of knuckles from Blaine since the ones on the rig had the tapers bored out for the 1 ton garbage. During the process of changing the knuckles, I pulled out the short size axle, and noticed that it was not for the Rubicon Dana 44 that I had, but was originally too long, so someone chopped it short enough, which didn't leave enough splines to fit it all the way into the side gear, so then they threw it on a lathe and undercut the area where splines would normally be...leaving about 3/8" or so of spline engagement. Off to 4WP for a new short side axle on a Sunday.
While going back together, I noticed that there wasn't really anything to hold the outers in the spindles, so another call to Blaine was made. Evidently there's supposed to be a splined washer and snap ring on each side....nope, not present...and while fiddle fucking with things I noticed the spindle lock nut could be unscrewed by hand. Someone had torqued the inner nut, that sets bearing preload...to about 100+ lb.ft, and left the outer nut finger tight (kinda backwards), so that got torn down to reveal some very special colors on the bearings.
Ordered up washers, snap rings, bearings, and seals...installed the new shaft and got the front end all put together the next week, along with new O-rings to seal the locking hubs...that were missing. The last thing to go on was the steering damper, who's bracket came with the currie correctlync instructions, which I decided to read, focusing on the part where they talk about overgreasing the joints and pushing the caps into a dome shape resulting in a floppy loose joint. I grabbed the old TRE that I'd just thrown in the trash and sure enough...dome shaped, so I put it on the press and smashed the cap back flat again...nice and snug now...just like that new one I just spent $80 on. Dammit, oh well, throw it in the spares pile.
I had some mild death wobble which I solved by rebuilding the beadlocks...adding two layers of shim so the rings don't cone like crazy, and getting the beads positioned properly so that they're actually round...and removing the balance beads and having them properly balanced. Cool...drives very nicely now after an alignment to finish things off.
Blaine stressed adjusting the upper arms so they weren't fighting each other and during that process I found the passenger side bushing to be easily removable from the axle bracket by hand...so I machined up a sleeve out of an old Datsun strut tube I had laying around, welded that in and pressed in a new bushing...we're good...drives even better.
The turn signals wouldn't self cancel so I replaced the multifunction switch...now that works nicely.
You'd about bang your hand on the dash and console when shifting and the shifter was all floppy, so I ordered up a shifter bushing kit, and a new shift boot and retainer since it was torn. Pulled the Tuffy box all out and noticed the bolts holding the shifter handle to the stem were all loose. Tightened those up and the shifter is nice and firm now. Of course, the other 2 boots were torn so I had to order those and wait.
While I was waiting, I tore about about 500 feet of wiring, along with crappy HID conversion and an AHHH-OOOO-GA horn, replaced the K&N intake with a stock one, and went on to figure out the dual battery fuckery that was in this thing....
This was quite special. One battery was wired as it should have been...but the other battery had the positive cable running through an isolator solenoid, who's exciter wire was snaked under the fuse box lid and stuffed in the signal terminal under the starter relay. I'd wondered why it cranked slow...
....only one battery was connected when the engine was running...and that was the only battery that was charging. The other battery would only get tied in when the key was turned to START, no charging for that battery. So, it was at about 6 volts, only getting any sort of charge recovery as it pulled power away from the other battery during cranking, which drew down the voltage on the "main" battery during cranking so that it would barely start. Unreal. All that shit went in the trash and I put a single battery back in and made new cables, correctly. Now it starts good
Changed the oil
There were all kinds of bangs and rattles from the back...the liftgate seal retainer didn't seem broken, but didn't seem right...the only thing holding it closed was about an 8" section in the middle that actually hung down far enough to catch the tailgate. So I ordered up one of those and a new seal...that was fun to get off. One rattle gone, 30 to go. I keep forgetting to unbolt the stupid hi-lift from the tire carrier...but I'll do that tomorrow, it's making a much of noise.
The flares that were on it were all chopped up and broken, so I ordered a set of EAG "flat fender" flares on ebay and installed those...I couldn't bring myself to spend $400 on Bushwackers....and these look pretty good.
It shifted like shit so I decided to change the gear oil and dump in some GL4... I was too impatient to order redline so I found some AMSOIL locally, pulled down the skid plate and got that done...while the skid plate was down I figured I should address this exhaust rattle that I though was from the bend over the axle banging against the bottom of the tub. So I readjusted things until that didn't happen, and rotated the cat so it wasn't hitting the longarm bracket, and it still sounded like a can of rocks when you smacked it. Let's take a look inside the cat...yep, all broken apart. It passed smog fine after I bought it...so this was a bit surprising.
I head out and pick up a new CAT, which of course is shorter than the old one, is missing the post cat O2 sensor bung, and doesn't have the right pipe size since I guess I've got an aftermarket header on this POS. I cut the old O2 bung out of the old cat, put it in the lathe to clean it up, turned a little shoulder on it coinciding with one of the steps on a step drill I had, welded that into the new cat. Chopped the ends off of the old cat and welded those onto the new cat, then dug around in the bin and found a chunk of 2.25" stainless that was about 1/2" to short for what I needed (of course)....so rolled a short piece of pipe out of a piece of sheet to make up the difference and welded all that shit together. Now, I dislike welding underneath a vehicle. I really fucking hate welding exhaust systems underneath a vehicle, especially when clearance is kind of an issue. Everything probably came apart and got put back together 20 times trying to get things in just the right place so it didn't hit anything and then pull it back outta the hangers so I could access the top to weld. That took a day or so, between beers.
Trans shifts nicer now, exhaust doesn't rattle now, Jeep goes in a straight line now, turn signals work, flares look good, splines on drivers side inner front shaft won't strip, bearings won't grenade, battery and electrical system works as it should and the tires are mostly round. Its actually pretty nice to drive now.
Hopefully I'll get it on the trail soon.
And one of these days I might repaint the hood and the doors, but I don't care right now.
Too be continued....
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