What did you do to your TJ today?

Fall means back to the hardtop. Also tinkering with stopping a slow leak on my washer fluid.
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Don't care for the exoskeleton type roof rack, but love the tent.

I have an almost exact setup on mine. Here is what I have learned over the past three years or so:

Every time I get into terrain that requires 4 low, the rack starts squeaking. The flex of off camber driving stretches the bolt holes. You can tighten them to make the squeaking go away, but it does not fix the problem. I am trying to find someone that can take it off and weld the three sides pieces into one solid tube. It would still be an easy removal when circumstances demand it.

You may not be as hefty as I am, so this may not be a problem for you. I was 260 pounds and climbing in and sleeping in the tent caused the thin crosstubes to sag. I have lost at least ten pounds since September, but I still want those tubes to be strengthened. I think the simplest solution would be to weld a piece of flat iron along the bottom after heating and straightening the tubes.

I also replaced the bolts that hold the crosstubes to the sides with eyebolts so we can hang items around camp. We once used them to hang my large tarp and we sat under it all day and enjoyed our fire as we tried to empty the beverage cooler.

One more thing to look out for is that the bolts on the lower rear will get pushed into your body corners as you flex that suspension like a yoga instructor I used to date. Maybe turn them around until you get the tubes welded.

I apologize for rambling. I just thought that you could learn from my experience. Not everybody tolerates body damage the way I do.
 
Discovered a leaking rear shock during my undercarriage rust remediation, so slapped on some new shocks. Unfortunately, all of my time has been moved from TJ rust work to '46 CJ2a complete engine overhaul. My CJ blew a head gasket so I removed the head and saw that cylinder #1 has severe cylinder wall damage due to a wrist pin scraping it all to heck. And #4 isn't much better. So the head has gone to the machine shop for crack repair and planing, and the motor is out and getting stripped. Then it's off to the machine shop where it will get some much-needed machine work. Good news is my local machine shop is two doors away and the machinist did a preliminary Magnaflux of the top of the block, and it isn't cracked on the top side.
 
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Not quite something to my tj, but for my metal cutting class at school we had to create a design and write the CNC code to engrave it onto a bottle opener. I choose to do a tj grille, here’s the result (I thought the design I found was wrong and those other circles at the bottom were jk turn signals, but I’m thinking they’re supposed to be fog lights)
 
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Not quite something to my tj, but for my metal cutting class at school we had to create a design and write the CNC code to engrave it onto a bottle opener. I choose to do a tj grille, here’s the result (I thought the design I found was wrong and those other circles at the bottom were jk turn signals, but I’m thinking they’re supposed to be fog lights)

Good to see your school promotes beer drinking.
 
Novak didn't ship my AX15 as promised on Monday... nothing showed up Wednesday as promised. Emailed them and Novak said, oops we're behind...and shipped it today. Another weekend of wheeling lost. What is it with transmission vendors screwing me?

On the flip side everyone in town was out of MT-90...so I Amazon'd some since I'm waiting anyways. Another $90 in transmission fluid...

-Mac
 
Got the engine mated back up to the transmission and bolted the motor mounts to the frame. If anyone wants to know the thread pitch for the 2.5l block it M12 x 1.75. I had read somewhere that the 4.0 had standard sizes 3/8 and 7/16 but all of mine were metric. Tomorrow I’ll hook it all back up and go over it all to make sure I’ve put all the nuts and bolts in the right places and plug all the harness back up and hopefully it will fire up 🤞🏻

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Got the engine mated back up to the transmission and bolted the motor mounts to the frame. If anyone wants to know the thread pitch for the 2.5l block it M12 x 1.25. I had read somewhere that the 4.0 had standard sizes 3/8 and 7/16 but all of mine were metric. Tomorrow I’ll hook it all back up and go over it all to make sure I’ve put all the nuts and bolts in the right places and plug all the harness back up and hopefully it will fire up 🤞🏻

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Fingers crossed for you. Hope it goes great !
 
Got the engine mated back up to the transmission and bolted the motor mounts to the frame. If anyone wants to know the thread pitch for the 2.5l block it M12 x 1.25. I had read somewhere that the 4.0 had standard sizes 3/8 and 7/16 but all of mine were metric. Tomorrow I’ll hook it all back up and go over it all to make sure I’ve put all the nuts and bolts in the right places and plug all the harness back up and hopefully it will fire up 🤞🏻

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Keeping it alive! Love it!
 
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Installed a full set of Bartact Tactical seat covers. Black on Black. Lumbar pillow and a full set of seat warmers.
Quality exceeds expectations. Installation was a breeze. the lumbar pillow is a game changer.

Warmers still need to be wired. I haven’t unbundled the harness yet, but there are two dead end connectors that I have no idea where they will go. Just a loop of wire connected to an end terminal with no pins or slots. Will do some research and post back if I can’t figure it out.
 
Keeping it alive! Love it!

I’m trying like hell lol after all the work I’ve put into it the last two years I can’t give up on it yet. If I can get it running again I’ll rebuild the old engine slowly over time and then I’ll have a backup for when this one shits the bed lol