What did you do to your TJ today?

Wired my 3rd brake light to a swing-away tire carrier.. Tapped into the original wire coming right out of the swing away tailgate. (black is hot +12V, white is ground). Stripped wire, crimped with heat shrink butt connectors, added heat, wire loomed with black electrical tape. The wire loom falls nicely. I mignt zip tie...we'll see.

Not my idea: thanks to www.stu-offroad.com

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Wired my 3rd brake light to a swing-away tire carrier.. Tapped into the original wire coming right out of the swing away tailgate. (black is hot +12V, white is ground). Stripped wire, crimped with heat shrink butt connectors, added heat, wire loomed with black electrical tape. The wire loom falls nicely. I mignt zip tie...we'll see.

Not my idea: thanks to www.stu-offroad.com



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Nice. I always cut the wires at different spots (stagger the cuts) so that the butt connectors are spaced apart, and not on top of each other. Makes the harness less bulky and easier to fit inside a loom. Looks like you had lots of room in the loom so it didn’t really matter here, but just thought I’d throw it out there as it’s a useful thing to remember when wiring.
 
Removed the seats and nasty carpet, then used Eastwood rust converter rubberized spray to treat it.

Should got a close up of the nasty front passenger door pan...

Looks great now, the spray stays somewhat soft so I need to cover it. Maybe the bedrug since I have not found just a simple think rubber mat like a work truck to replace the carpet.

I expect a quiet ride too.

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Removed the seats and nasty carpet, then used Eastwood rust converter rubberized spray to treat it.

Should got a close up of the nasty front passenger door pan...

Looks great now, the spray stays somewhat soft so I need to cover it. Maybe the bedrug since I have not found just a simple think rubber mat like a work truck to replace the carpet.

I expect a quiet ride too.

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Did you paint not under the center console ?
 
Did you paint not under the center console ?
No I didn't, I had it out not to long ago to move it back so not to interfere with shifting after the lift kit.

It was in good shape under and I didn't feel like taking it out again, etc. But I certainly can if I get the ambition later.

I have also been doing the same under the tub and on the frame to get it from both sides

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Nice. I always cut the wires at different spots (stagger the cuts) so that the butt connectors are spaced apart, and not on top of each other. Makes the harness less bulky and easier to fit inside a loom. Looks like you had lots of room in the loom so it didn’t really matter here, but just thought I’d throw it out there as it’s a useful thing to remember when wiring.

That's a great idea. You are correct, the loom from Rugged Ridge was a little bigger so I did have some room. Thanks for the input...next time I'll stagger cuts.
 
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Isn't it not recommended to store a hard top in that way?

I have been using this rack for about 3 years so far no problems. I am assuming that they have designed it to support the top properly. I take my HT off usually around the first of May and put it back on around the first part of Nov. and again no issues
 
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I made some fill panels to go in the lower rear tub corners behind the rear wheels because the stock ones didn’t fit very well. Hopefully they’re better at keeping mud out. View attachment 98296View attachment 98297


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YOOOO this is something I need to do. One of the panels at that same corner you pictured is warped or something and does not fit snuggly, kinda hangs down.

What did you use do to that and how exactly did you fasten it?
 
I rebuilt the np231 transfer case today, and it went pretty well.

Here it is as removed:
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First thing I did was pressure wash it. And then I used a slightly-too-small hex head socket in the drain plug and stripped it out. It's the same exact thing I did to the fill plug a few months ago, so I took the same tact and ground the threads off of a big-ass bolt so that it fit into the stripped out hole and welded it in. Now I have a matching 19mm headed fill and drain plugs, and I'll never need to buy the right sized hex head.

I popped off the yoke. I don't remember using this much silicone when I installed the slip yoke eliminator. I tried using a little less during this rebuild.
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I pulled off the tail housing after fighting against the silicone for a long time. I just wasn't hitting it hard enough with the rubber hammer to separate the tail from the main housing. Once it broke loose I popped out the seal and bearing and was happy to feel a little bit of grindy-ness when spinning it in my hand. Hopefully replacing this bearing gets rid of the squealing that I've been hearing. I ordered it directly from Teraflex because I assumed it would be a different bearing than the original tail housing. It's a #6207 bearing. I bought two from Teraflex, along with two seals, just in case it's a special kind of bearing and I can't source it down in Baja. Well now I know that you get a 6207 bearing in the standard np231 rebuild kit, so I have two spares.
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Again it looks like I used too much silicone when sealing the case and it clogged up the filter quite a bit.
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Here's my weird looking finger showing you where the oil passage needs to line up. The mounting stud with the nut on it came out when I was separating the transfer case from the transmission. I put some red locktite on it and tightened it back into the transfer case with some vise grips.
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The chain and everything looked in pretty good shape. It didn't seem like it was stretched out but I replaced it all anyway.
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I replaced the plastic pads on the top shift fork. The lower fork doesn't seem to have pads that are replaceable.
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I've got a nice pile of parts going. I kind of like knowing that I get to do all of that degreasing, just slowly and methodically. But I also get weird stress when my only vehicle is in pieces so I kind of have a love-hate relationship with all of those little tasks that just eat up time but need to be done to feel like you did the job right.
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This job was the first time I've seen this kind of snap ring - it just has a little groove for a screwdriver to pop it out of it's nook, and then you get to try to grab it with some other little implement to pry it the whole way out.
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I pulled out the planetary gear to get to the final bearings. The snap ring that keeps in the planetaries is comically large and I wish I'd taken a photo of it.
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This bearing was the hardest part - I don't have any bearing pullers and I'm not sure what kind you'd need, so I just went about chiseling it down and out. It wasn't pretty and I scored the bearing surface a little bit, but not enough to hurt it I pray.
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Old and slightly busted, new and complete:
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Here it is all rebuilt with the new "extended" drain/fill plugs. I debated painting the whole thing but I think I'd rather be able to drive somewhere tomorrow. I put a coat of paint on the cross-member, taking it from orange back to satin black, and I also painted the transmission mount because it was pretty crusty.
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The rebuild kit came with a bunch of spare parts - or at least I hope so :D
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Just did this a couple days ago - bit fiddly but well within the DIY scope of most. Bought this tool : It’s a pilot bearing puller - worked well although I had to get creative when I ran outta threads pulling that stupid bearing outta the case.

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Ended up with spare parts in the quadratech kit as well [emoji41]

Edit: Oh and the 4.0 comes with a transfer case balancer which needs a tool to reinstall [emoji849] or patience and a brass drift



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Installed LED’s on the TJ

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Parking light mod: changed from Amber turn signal to red US spec.
.......3rd edit:
Had to modify LED Brake light assembly to turn on at half brightness with rheostat (324 Ohms) for ‘parking lights’ ; the LED brake light becomes brake (Full bright) + park light (1/2 brightness). This frees up the LED assembly’s original ‘park’ light circuit for use as a turn signal.

Still need to install a relay in each independant brake light circuit to switch off the Brake light if turning and braking tho as the full bright brake light overpowers the turn signal....[emoji849] [emoji848]

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