What did you do to your TJ today?

OH ! I had to go back and read that three times ... wondering why you were repeating the same thing ! Shame on you macleanflood for messing with my head like that !

Why does everyone assume that Mac is a Redneck???

🤔

Oh wait, nevermind….

😀

(Just kidding Mac!)
 
View attachment 5319 Currently my front drive shaft is out due to the dc joint failing. While doing the alignment today I had 6* left and 6.5* right caster. Reading a lot recommending 5-5.5 for a 4"+ lift. Jeep is still a little squirrelly. I think I need to get my rear steer ahead dead set. It was .14* so didn't mess with it. I set toe slightly toe in. Also my rear axle is about 3/8" off center and the front is almost 1/2". I guess I should really get the axles perfectly centered then worry about the alignment. Any recommendations on alignment? Any of you guys use an alignment rack?

i’d definitely get axles centered and then do the diy alignment. there’s a write up on it i believe in the resources section. save your $ and do it yourself.
 
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Squared away Babies new shoes for when the lift parts list is complete.
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I’ve been steadily changing the fluids (and cleaning the hell out of) my new-to-me 2003 TJ Sport. This weekend I’ve completed two fluid exchanges — the Dana 30 front differential and the 231 transfer case.

I went with a LubeLocker gasket and Valvoline full synthetic 75w140 for the Dana 30 (same as my Dana 44 in the rear) and Redline C+ ATF for the transfer case.

Here’s the Dana 30:
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And here is the 231:

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The one specialty tool I would highly recommend for the transfer case fluid exchange is that green colored “form-a-funnel”. It is malleable and allows a mess free draining of the 231 without needing to remove the factory skid plate. It’s available on Amazon.
 
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The one specialty tool I would highly recommend for the transfer case fluid exchange is that green colored “form-a-funnel”. It is malleable and allows a mess free draining of the 231. It’s available on Amazon.
Wish I had known these existed about 2 months ago haha, I did it the lazy mans way and made a nice mess.
 
Pulled my block off the stand to clean up all the grease and debris that get trapped between an engine and a transmission in 26 years. Also got the new camshaft plug and rear expansion plug installed. I gave it a couple quick coats of engine enamel and then put it back on the stand to dry. I wanted to get my crankshaft / main bearings installed today but ran out of daylight when my daughter wanted to go for a bike ride around the block. Bike rides with my daughter always trumps working on projects since she’s getting too cool to even leave the house with me anymore lol

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Loose the boots and it look’s like it will clear fine. All they do is trap dirt and moisture inside.

I was think the same. I ditched them on the front. They were attacked in the rear. Thanks for confirming. Goal is to not do something stupid. Big Thanks!
 
I’ve been steadily changing the fluids (and cleaning the hell out of) my new-to-me 2003 TJ Sport. This weekend I’ve completed two fluid exchanges — the Dana 30 front differential and the 231 transfer case.

I went with a LubeLocker gasket and Valvoline full synthetic 75w140 for the Dana 30 (same as my Dana 44 in the rear) and Redline C+ ATF for the transfer case.

Here’s the Dana 30:
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View attachment 399752

And here is the 231:

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The one specialty tool I would highly recommend for the transfer case fluid exchange is that green colored “form-a-funnel”. It is malleable and allows a mess free draining of the 231 without needing to remove the factory skid plate. It’s available on Amazon.

Damn you southern Californians and your rust free Jeeps! That thing looks minty underneath!
- a jealous northeasterner
 
Damn you southern Californians and your rust free Jeeps! That thing looks minty underneath!
- a jealous northeasterner

You noticed…

I have been cleaning by hand — simple green and many, many hand towels — the undercarriage of this Jeep for the past few weeks. It’s tedious and honestly I feel like there is still so much more to do but the results so far have been pretty cool.

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Used my (hopefully) last two weeks of being unemployed to work on a project I've had in my brain for a while, which is to document & video steps to test all the sensors on our jeeps. That quickly turned into "well why not just grab the connector & pinout diagrams from the FSM?" And then as I was writing up the processes referencing things like "cavity 1" I paused to consider "what if the pinouts are different across years?" I also spend a good deal of time working on a pair of XJs, so I probably will need to make a copy of it and go find those pinouts as well. No good deed goes unpunished.

Turns out they are different across years (well, across 1997 & 2002 anyway). And wire colors are different as well. So now my testing process document has tables of the pinouts for each year for each sensor connector. Or it will, anyway. I never had a reason to download all the FSMs before, but now I do. So I changed all my instructions to refer to the function of the cavity (i.e. "sensor signal" vs "cavity 3"). It'll make it slightly harder to follow along because you'll have to map the functions to your year's pinout, but it will greatly simplify writing the instructions. If you've ever looked at the crankshaft position connector pinouts across the years, it's enough to drive you mad. Case in point, the +5V supply is on pin 1 in 97, then moves to pin 3 for 98-02. It stays on pin 3 in 03 & 04, but only if you have a manual transmission. For automatics it moves back to pin 1. Then in 05 & 06 it's on pin 1 regardless.

With any luck this $33 arduino-based oscilloscope isn't a piece of crap and will help with diagnosing crank & cam position sensor issues. I'll know tomorrow.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SZPY9R9/?tag=wranglerorg-20

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So much for our Summer in the north Island we had flooding two weeks ago and now a cyclone blowing through wind and rain with an average speed of 80 mph… They reckon it could get up over the 100 mph…
So went down to one of the beaches to see how bad it was…. what you can’t see is the wind was so strong but I could barely stand up taking his photos. 😂
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So are you waiting on that one giant perfect wave, you know like in the movie "Point Break" ?????

Haha no. Although I did want to go to the other side of the city on the West Coast which is where the Surf beaches are. These waves are just little ones.
But I ran out of time. ☹️
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