What did you do to your TJ today?

Flying out to the USA tonight for 2 weeks…so one last drive and breakfast before I head off

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I continued chasing down a rattle that has been making me crazy for a year now. My main suspect was the cat, but after I got the muffler loose the internals of the cat that I could see looked completely intact with no rattle. As it turns out the muffler heat shield started to separate from the body and was the issue. I was very happy to not have to spend $500 on a new magnaflow cat system.
It's nice to be lucky sometime.
 
Replacement tranny installed, new clutch slave cylinder and master cylinder, and new through out bearing. Currently only has about 1 quart of oil in the tranny so I quickly ran through the gears and it sounds fine and seems to shift super smooth.

This is the tranny I got took a gamble and I think it is going to pay off.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2854255928...d=link&campid=5337789113&toolid=20001&mkevt=1

Sorry not the best pics
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Started at 3:30pm and didn't stop until 9pm.
I had to take the tranny down twice as I blew up the old slave cylinder getting a little impatient and thinking that the through out bearing was getting stuck.
In the end it I just think it was the original slave cylinder and just broke from all the moving around. My arms are done.
 
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It feels like it took 3 hours for the first drum brake and then less than an hour for the second one.

That's about the way that works. I hadn't fooled with drum brakes in 30 years when I did mine on the TJ. The first one took about 3 hours work time, a day and a half elapsed time - the 2nd took 45 minutes.
 
After replacing the rear drum brakes yesterday, I got the tires on and took it out for a test drive. The parking brake works, but it is weak. When it is in gear, I can pull up on the parking brake and the Jeep won't move, but if I give it gas, it'll move.

Any suggestions on how to make the parking brake stronger?
 
After replacing the rear drum brakes yesterday, I got the tires on and took it out for a test drive. The parking brake works, but it is weak. When it is in gear, I can pull up on the parking brake and the Jeep won't move, but if I give it gas, it'll move.

Any suggestions on how to make the parking brake stronger?

first thing is making sure you have the rear shoes adjusted correctly- video to reference.

After that is adjusting any slack out in the emergency brake cable. Which is in the assembly that looks something like this


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If one side needs it, the other one does also… Replace them as a pair and also replace the swaybar bushings that attach the sway bar to the axle… low cost high gain maintenance…

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000C57YQQ/?tag=wranglerorg-20

I just saw this. Only the passenger side needed the new end link bushings. This is because of my passenger rear shock seized up and wouldn't extended. This ended up putting a lot of strain on everything in the suspension on that side. I'm guessing that the strain from a locked up shock just ended up eating through the bushings. The shock was so locked up that it ended up bending the bar pin at the top of the shock, destroyed the 2 upper shock mount bolts, and became completely detached at the top. It was a mess, but I am fixing it.

I did order 2 sets of bushings, one set for each side, so I will very likely replace the drivers side as well although they look fine currently.
 
It is supposed to move when you press the gas. It is supposed to not move when the car is stationary and the parking brake is on. It especially helps when parked on an incline. It is supposed to move when you press the gas. Mine did when I got it from the factory. Ever heard the saying, "driving with the parking brake on?" It is not a good idea, but it happens. The reason being that you can wear out your rear brakes. If you try to make it too strong, you could probably damage your axle. If you notice that your Jeep seems to be dragging, check to make sure that your parking brake isn't on.
 
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