BoldlyGoing
TJ Addict
Installed new gas struts on the rear glass of the hard top.
Took me longer to find a small blade screw driver than it did to swap them.
Took me longer to find a small blade screw driver than it did to swap them.
What did you do to your TJ today?
- Thread starter LJRubiconGuy
- Start date
Did exactly the same thing. Pretty sure my neighbor's children learned some new words that day
Got the new winch installed.... I gambled on the industrious Chinese workforce, and bought a Zeak 13k winch with synthetic rope, hawse fairlead & all that off Amazon for $297. Seems like for the most part most/many winches are made in China anyway, so why pay a premium for the same parts & labor? The answer is because getting stuck aint worth it, but if you wheel with your buddies, you have built in failover. I'll do a review on the thing after a while.
Anyway, discovered just how bad my battery cables were when I went to connect up the winch. Had to send my wife to get a new negative cable (that was an adventure) and then connected the new one....despite not having any suitable ring terminals for the engine block ground. Let's just say I made it work and not ask too many questions.
Then I bought a cheap (but cool) rear bumper off Amazon that got delivered yesterday. And of course, the spare tire doesn't fit now. I had some doubts about the strength of the bumper mounts anyway, so I think I'm just going to return it. Not sure what returning a big heavy bumper will entail, but I guess we will learn. And then I guess I'll save my pennies for a more heavy duty piece. Sometimes you can get away with being cheap, sometimes you can't. I forget what brand this one was, but I have an EAG bumper on the JK and it is quite beefy. Was hoping for similar here, but no dice.
Anyway, discovered just how bad my battery cables were when I went to connect up the winch. Had to send my wife to get a new negative cable (that was an adventure) and then connected the new one....despite not having any suitable ring terminals for the engine block ground. Let's just say I made it work and not ask too many questions.
Then I bought a cheap (but cool) rear bumper off Amazon that got delivered yesterday. And of course, the spare tire doesn't fit now. I had some doubts about the strength of the bumper mounts anyway, so I think I'm just going to return it. Not sure what returning a big heavy bumper will entail, but I guess we will learn. And then I guess I'll save my pennies for a more heavy duty piece. Sometimes you can get away with being cheap, sometimes you can't. I forget what brand this one was, but I have an EAG bumper on the JK and it is quite beefy. Was hoping for similar here, but no dice.
What brought on the need for new knuckles? It killed me to not clean & paint mine when I had them off earlier this week, seeing yours is not helping my attitude on the topic.
128k miles. Excessive wear on brake pad bottom mount due to lack of maintenance. Need to keep that area lubed. Driver side tie rod mount was worn to where I couldn't get a 35ft lb torque on the tie rod. Actually bottomed out the nut.
To add to this...Jeep is mostly back together, but something I’ve been meaning to do is hit the multifunction stalks and CC buttons with clear coat. Whenever I clean them I can see some of the paint smear, so I wanted to prevent the symbols from rubbing off. Got some SEM satin clear and went to work.
I thought I had messed up the CC buttons with the adhesion promoter because they had some sort of chemical reaction to it.
But after sending it with some clear they came out great.
On my way to 4.56s
Hopefully I’ll get these bolted back in this weekend.
Hopefully I’ll get these bolted back in this weekend.
abruzzi
Member
mostly finished my Yaesu FTM-400DR ham radio install, and I'm pretty happy how it turned out. It is a remote face plate radio, and the face plate runs unattached only--there is no way to run them physically joined like on some radios. This made the install more complicated. First I mounted the radio body to the back of the center console:
From that I had to run power to the battery (through the clutch block-off), coax to the antenna, the connection cable to the screen, and an extension cable to the mic. All of that runs under the center console to the dash where it then runs to its final location.
For the screen, I found someone making a 1 inch ram ball to screw into the back of the screen, so I mounted an AMPS plate in the tray at the top of the dash and a short RAM arm connects the two (yes, its a RHD jeep). The cable is pretty well hidden:
Attaching the mic directly to the radio itself would put it in an awkward position, so I got an extension cable to run to the front of the console (forward of the shifter). I cut a small notch in the console, so the mic cable could exit from underneath the console without straining or pinching the cable (not shown). Then I attached an AMPS RAM mount to the square piece next to the lower switches:
I used RAM instead of a simple (and cheap) surface mount mic hanger because the RAM arm gives me leeway to move the mic so the cable doesn't interfere with the shifter. The mic mount end was from JeepUniq. It was pretty overpriced for what it is, but I couldn't find a better option.
Finally, the antenna was mounted on the passenger side with a RuggedRadios antenna mount and a 3/8 to NMO adapter:
Initial test was this weekend, and it worked but the SWR ranged from 1.7 to 3.1 on the 2m band (1.7 at 144mhz, 3.1 at 148mhz, and in the middle at 146mhz it was 2.4.) These numbers meant the antenna was too long (better than too short since I can't make it longer.) Tuning was easy. at the antenna base is two set screws. Loosen them and remove the rod, cut a half centimeter off the bottom, grind off the powder coating of the bottom centimeter, reattach and check the SWR again. After about 6 adjustments, I now have an SWR of 1.1 at 146mhz, and of 1.5 at both 144mhz and and 148mhz. A quick test and I can light up a repeater that is 85 miles away.
I'm pretty happy. Aside form my radio and antenna (which I already owned) I'm about $150 in on the rest of the install, which is a bit high, but not bad.
One of the reasons I like this radio is it has built in APRS and GPS. My next plan is to connect this radio to a GPS to display APRS station locations.
From that I had to run power to the battery (through the clutch block-off), coax to the antenna, the connection cable to the screen, and an extension cable to the mic. All of that runs under the center console to the dash where it then runs to its final location.
For the screen, I found someone making a 1 inch ram ball to screw into the back of the screen, so I mounted an AMPS plate in the tray at the top of the dash and a short RAM arm connects the two (yes, its a RHD jeep). The cable is pretty well hidden:
Attaching the mic directly to the radio itself would put it in an awkward position, so I got an extension cable to run to the front of the console (forward of the shifter). I cut a small notch in the console, so the mic cable could exit from underneath the console without straining or pinching the cable (not shown). Then I attached an AMPS RAM mount to the square piece next to the lower switches:
I used RAM instead of a simple (and cheap) surface mount mic hanger because the RAM arm gives me leeway to move the mic so the cable doesn't interfere with the shifter. The mic mount end was from JeepUniq. It was pretty overpriced for what it is, but I couldn't find a better option.
Finally, the antenna was mounted on the passenger side with a RuggedRadios antenna mount and a 3/8 to NMO adapter:
Initial test was this weekend, and it worked but the SWR ranged from 1.7 to 3.1 on the 2m band (1.7 at 144mhz, 3.1 at 148mhz, and in the middle at 146mhz it was 2.4.) These numbers meant the antenna was too long (better than too short since I can't make it longer.) Tuning was easy. at the antenna base is two set screws. Loosen them and remove the rod, cut a half centimeter off the bottom, grind off the powder coating of the bottom centimeter, reattach and check the SWR again. After about 6 adjustments, I now have an SWR of 1.1 at 146mhz, and of 1.5 at both 144mhz and and 148mhz. A quick test and I can light up a repeater that is 85 miles away.
I'm pretty happy. Aside form my radio and antenna (which I already owned) I'm about $150 in on the rest of the install, which is a bit high, but not bad.
One of the reasons I like this radio is it has built in APRS and GPS. My next plan is to connect this radio to a GPS to display APRS station locations.
While at work installed a new Factor55 Splicer shackle using my new factor55 fast fid. Literally took me longer to cut the rope than to repair and loop
I like what you did, and how they turned out. Did you use anything other than soapy water to clean prior to painting?
Nope just soapy water, tack cloth, and canned air. If I used alcohol or anything like that it would have really eaten into and smeared the white paint. I learned that the hard way on my last Jeep.
They aren’t totally perfect. The turn signal stalk has some orange peel and there’s a little inconsistency with the CC buttons. I thought about wet sanding and buffing them but I don’t know if my OCD goes THAT far lol. Time will tell how I feel down the road but it’s nice knowing I don’t have to worry about the paint rubbing off when I clean them.
That's not orange peel, it's a non-slip surface 
TrishTJ
Member
Nothing. It's been at the shop for two weeks now and I'm going through withdrawal.
It's been at the shop for two weeks now and I'm going through withdrawal.
Installed my new Badlands winch and took Jade for a ride!
That’s a nice pattern. I’m currently doing my 60 and trying to get there - sneaking up on it though.
Thanks. The front was super easy, almost didn’t have to do any shim swapping.
The rear took forever, I had to have a buddy bring his extras in to get the right combination.
A 60 would be nice, what’s it going under?
The rear took forever, I had to have a buddy bring his extras in to get the right combination.
A 60 would be nice, what’s it going under?
Not sure if you had those mounted before or if your new to the rotopax thing, but well done and your gonna love the rotopax modular-ability!