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Well with  WINTER STORM NEMO bearing down on me, I decided I probably should get around to reinstalling the winch and maybe put the snow tires on. As such, I tore the front bumper off the MJ on Tuesday evening, spent most of Wednesday evening using up a spectacular number of cutoff wheels and inhaling the dust, scattering weld spatter all over my basement, then cleaned it up for paint. Preheated it today, painted it up, stuck it in front of a spaceheater going full blast to dry... then spent this evening installing the bumper, cutting out much of the stock front frame crossmember to clear the winch, installing the winch, and repairing the winch's electrical system, which hadn't been a fan of sitting on the porch for several months. The solenoid/contactor pack was badly corroded inside, I think it's repairable but in the interest of getting the project done, I simply swapped in the contactor pack from my $50 broken parts/spares only winch I bought from a friend.It's great to have a winch again, I'm no longer really afraid of getting stuck. And I only reduced my ground clearance by about 5/8", and only in two little spots on the bottom center of the bumper. Things I've learned: Hammerite paint is available in the US! At least at my tiny local hardware store 3 blocks away. It's awesome stuff, goes on like peanut butter with a brush, and seems pretty drat tough after curing for a while. Don't leave a winch sitting outside for 6 months. The winch can handle it (no surprise there), the solenoid pack can't. gently caress that bumper is heavy as poo poo. gently caress, that winch is heavy too. 2 gauge electrical wire with heavy insulation is about as easy to bend as concrete rebar when it's 20 degrees out. Took it for a test drive through some local abandoned dirt roads, and drat have I ever missed driving this POS. The second one had a gradually sloped section at the end that was completely covered in black ice on the left side, which meant I had to get a hundred feet worth of running start to make it up the hill without putting it in 4x4, so I'm most definitely taking my snow tires down to the local shop tomorrow to get them studded before I bolt them on. With an 8000 pound winch, front differential locker, and studded snow tires, I should be drat near unstoppable in this thing  Pictures tomorrow. It was way too drat dark to take any good ones when I got back from test driving it. kastein fucked around with this message at 07:00 on Feb 8, 2013 |
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Feb 8, 2013 06:54
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Jeep Trail indeed. (not all jeeps pictured) I'd say this is a significant improvement, both in function and form. Looks a lot better painted.  I need to push the boots over the winch motor terminals and build a skid plate for it sometime, but it will work for now.  Had to grind about 3/16" to 1/4" off the freespool knob, slightly clearance the elbow in the lever, and flapwheel the steering box a bit to get full range of motion here, but it was worth it. Most people clock the freespool lever all the way down or all the way up when mounting a winch behind a bumper - all the way up and I wouldn't be able to get to it, all the way down and it would definitely be risking rock damage given my driving style. So I clocked it a bit back from straight down and clearanced everything that got in the way. Totally worth it because now it doesn't even come close to hanging below the steering box, frame, bumper, and winch gearbox when it's engaged, and I won't be driving around with it in freespool mode.  The garage was way too busy to stud my tires today, so they're just chilling in the back until Monday or Tuesday. Guess I'll be on baldterrains until then. Even so, it only took a little throttle to get out of my driveway in 2wd with an inch of snow on the ground, so I'm not all that worried.
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Feb 8, 2013 17:57
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... and then our rat bastard governor banned all vehicle traffic after 4PM by executive order, making the whole reason I busted rear end to get this done moot. GOVERNMENT I WANT TO GO HAVE FUN IN THE SNOW drat IT
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Feb 8, 2013 19:42
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But that's only on the roads right? So just stay offroad 
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Feb 9, 2013 10:18
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Really, they can just ban road use like that?
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Feb 9, 2013 12:58
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What're you in for? I drove during a snow storm.
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Feb 9, 2013 14:31
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InitialDave posted:Really, they can just ban road use like that? Drove the 5 tonner, let them try to stop you.
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Feb 9, 2013 14:50
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The 5 ton's tires are terrifyingly bad in the snow. Even if it was fully repaired, had batteries, and was registered and insured there is no way in hell I'd take it out at the moment. I ended up calling/facebooking everyone I knew last night and finally found a neighbor who had to get to work a few towns over for a plowing company. So he hopped in and we took the most convoluted route possible and hit every unplowed dirt road within 5-10 miles. God drat that was totally worth it. I just found out via another goon that the state police have been instructed to not ticket people for violating the ban, so it's high time I went and did some more incredibly stupid things. One of the roads we took last night is a development, it claims to be a dead end but the road legally goes way back into the woods and comes out in another town, just not paved. When we got to the end of the pavement last night the plow trucks had piled snow into the dirt road, it was between 4 and 5 feet deep... so I gunned it and went right through in one shot. Had to stop because there was so much snow piled on the windshield the wipers stalled. I wonder how much is piled up there right now?
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Feb 9, 2013 18:09
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Just get some red tape and put a red cross on one of the doors. I'M A VOLUNTEER, OFFICER. NEED A TOW?
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Feb 9, 2013 18:32
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kastein posted:I just found out via another goon that the state police have been instructed to not ticket people for violating the ban
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Feb 9, 2013 18:45
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InitialDave posted:I can just imagine someone with AWD and snow tyres hooning through 18" deep drifts past a couple of cops who turn, look at their Crown Vic, look at each other, and decide they should stop and debate the merits of "policing by public consent" over another cup of coffee before making any hasty decisions. I was doing donuts in a HUGE parking lot with my XJ and a cop drove by slowly and just gave me a thumbs-up. It's about 1.5 feet on the ground here in West Michigan, so there was no way he was even getting in the lot if he wanted to.
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Feb 9, 2013 19:23
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Just got back in from "plowing" my road with the MJ. The city doesn't plow the section my driveway is on because it's one of those roads that's on the map, but technically no one has a real street address on it, and it's a narrow dirt road so they just don't bother. It was so deep and slick I had to do loops going downhill to pack the snow down, tried going uphill and there was no way that was going to happen. Ace and I are probably going to go hit a few of the local dirt roads and see how bad we can get this thing stuck in a bit. amenenema posted:I was doing donuts in a HUGE parking lot with my XJ and a cop drove by slowly and just gave me a thumbs-up. It's about 1.5 feet on the ground here in West Michigan, so there was no way he was even getting in the lot if he wanted to. his thoughts were probably "he's doing that in an empty parking lot where he can't run into anything instead of where I have to deal with him, gently caress yes! He probably knows how to drive in snow and won't cause problems on the roads afterwards either" I guess the 5.9 MJ project is on ice until spring, then...  No big deal. It'll be fine.  I guess my camera isn't smart enough to auto rotate. kastein fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Feb 9, 2013 |
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Feb 9, 2013 19:48
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Not to cross-pollinate your threads, but it appears your house repairs have passed the snow-load test.
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Feb 9, 2013 20:24
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Ace needs to bring the video camera for some more ace and ken show commentary. Or at least take some pictures.
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Feb 9, 2013 20:40
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Bucephalus posted:Not to cross-pollinate your threads, but it appears your house repairs have passed the snow-load test. funny story. I put that roof on two winters ago - you know, during that last massive blizzard season January/February we had. It had 2-3 feet on it at one point, on bare plywood (I put roofers felt down, but it ended up in the next county about two days later), and not only did it hold up to it, it was more waterproof than the original roof. Just got back, we broke trail through a road I ran last night without any real problems and it was brutal. Had to do 4-6 runs on the longest hills because I simply ran out of momentum, but did finally make it through without any winching. Either my front diff locker, upper control arm bushings, or transfer case are extremely displeased with me right now. I'm hoping it's the UCA bushings but afraid it is the locker... hopefully it just needs more lube. I was afraid I spit out a ujoint cap or tore off an axleshaft ear, but checked those on my way home and they look fine.
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Feb 9, 2013 22:44
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Disregard extremely goony commentary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVM3TuK-lGA Didn't actually end up needing the winch, just shoveling the pile of snow out from in front of my bumper to get at the winch did the trick. Funny thing is I wouldn't have gotten stuck if I hadn't slammed on the brakes to give the wipers a chance to catch up so I didn't drive into a tree. Return trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jatTzIDmsMk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm8oN9uht7c I really, really need to build a proper camera mount for this thing, the "passenger holds a cellphone while bouncing around in the woods" method doesn't work too well and a suction cup mount tends to shake a lot. This is one of the two roads I ran with my neighbor last night at around midnight. There was only around a foot to a foot and a half on the ground at that point, I'm not sure how deep it was today but it was about to the top of my bumper, which isn't all that low. I'll have to measure sometime if I remember to. We didn't run the other road because the 5 foot snow pile I blasted through last night was several feet taller than that by today, and a lot thicker, and I was pretty sure I'd end up badly stuck if I tried. kastein fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Feb 10, 2013 |
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Feb 10, 2013 02:55
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After that last run in the snow, something was definitely a bit squirrely in the drivetrain. Every mile or so on the way home (on packed snow covered roads) in 4x4 part time*, it would sorta pop and hop/skip to one side. At first I wasn't sure it was actually happening, but by the time I dropped Ace off at his place, it was doing it every quarter mile or so. By the time I got home (maybe 2-3 miles) it was doing it every few hundred feet. Not good, something was clearly wrong. So I set about checking the drivetrain. Pinion bearing on my front differential is completely hosed, there's something like 2mm of side to side play in it, and the former slow seeping of diff lube from the seal has turned to a torrent. Also, I checked the transfer case and apparently at some point the slow leak in that became a fast leak... there was almost no fluid left and the chain was noticeably stretched. Fortunately, I have spares, and good friends in the local XJ/MJ community, so I ended up buying a pair of dana 30 alloy axleshafts (two inners, two stubs) with good alloyUSA ujoints preinstalled for $120 and the same guy gave me a 3.55 geared dana 30 with much better gears/bearings in it for... free. So I'm gusseting the brackets and inner knuckles on that**, swapping my aussie locker into it, bolting on the ruffstuff diff cover and lubelocker from my old dana 30, installing new upper control arm bushings, stuffing the alloys in it, and sliding it under the jeep tomorrow (hopefully.) Today I focused on the transfer case issue. Got the transfer case out, only to find that the new seals I bought for it (you have to destroy one to get at a circlip so you can split the case, and I figured I'd do the other while I had it out) were completely wrong. Thanks, Consumer Auto Parts! Therefore this has turned into a slapdash last minute patch-up job that will start at 8AM when I bum rush the local NAPA and buy the proper seal. Business as usual! * "part time" is sadly a quite accurate description. When you engage it, it will soon be time to buy parts. ** between the previous owner (of my current front axle housing) and me, this dana 30 has not been treated very well. It had 3 degrees of camber on one side and 5 degrees on the other when I bought it, a combination of bent inner knuckle forgings and bent axle tubes. I got it for a song, so I didn't really care, and just bent the inner knuckle forgings back into shape with a 4 pound blacksmiths hammer until it was a more respectable ~2 degrees of camber on each side. Since then I've had too much fun driving offroad as quickly as possible, and it appears that the inner knuckles are bent nearly as badly as they were when I got it. Between the housing being bent and the diff bearings being trashed, it's simply not worth screwing around with it, swapping in a good junkyard/takeout unit from someone else is a far faster, easier, cheaper option. kastein fucked around with this message at 05:47 on Feb 16, 2013 |
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Feb 16, 2013 05:43
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Well, I got balls deep into the transfer case only to find that the chain is... very mildly stretched. Nowhere near as bad as I thought it was. That's not a good thing, because I had a spare and it would have fixed it right then... Then I spotted an odd bit of blue material in the bottom of the case that looked like RTV or a fel-pro gasket. That's odd, I could swear the case was put together with black RTV...  Oh dear, that is not a good sign. That's 2/3rds of a shift fork pad. Checked the 4x4/2x4 shift fork and... (click for big, zoom in on the upper end of the shift fork)  First of all, there are supposed to be 3 pads on that shift fork, and there are none. Second, it looks like it's real close to the shift collar, and there appears to be a burr covered sharp edge there. That's not good at all. So I guess I'm not getting it back together today, nor going wheeling tomorrow, because this means I need to source a new shift fork (that hasn't had 1/16" ground off of one face) and a set of shift fork pads at minimum, and may need to also get a new high-range/low-range shift fork and pads for that one as well. The annoying part? I gave the shift forks and pads out of my spare-parts NP231 (the one I was going to take the chain out of) to... the dude who sold me the alloy shafts! Oh well, poo poo happens. kastein fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Feb 16, 2013 |
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Feb 16, 2013 19:13
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Ouch! Luckily those bits are pretty cheap to replace.
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Feb 16, 2013 20:15
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The fork's all done too as far as I can tell, unless I can build it back up with AlumaWeld and file it down. It's not worth my time to screw around with it, I guess I'll see if I can pull that stuff at the JY Monday if we hit Sams on the way back from getting your new front axle.
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Feb 16, 2013 20:31
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kastein posted:The fork's all done too as far as I can tell, unless I can build it back up with AlumaWeld and file it down. It's not worth my time to screw around with it, I guess I'll see if I can pull that stuff at the JY Monday if we hit Sams on the way back from getting your new front axle. Sounds like a plan. I wanted to see what sams has for 16in wheels anyhow.
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Feb 16, 2013 22:31
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I've you wander into the VW area, see if there's any Orlando 14" 7 Spoke alloys. I have 3 good(ish) ones and a rather hosed one that I want to replace. They'd be on a 3rd gen (like 94-98) Jetta/Golf/Cabrio.
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Feb 17, 2013 07:31
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They don't actually leave alloys in the yard - those get pulled and put in either a recycling bin or their rim warehouse. I'll try to remember to check for one.
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Feb 17, 2013 07:34
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 The quest for 3.55 gearing continues. A junkyard lead turned into a wild goosechase but now I have cool rims. Tires tomorrow. WEEEE Also, Kastein made a thing with wires. We'll find out tomorrow if it works.
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Feb 19, 2013 05:58
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PSA for junkyard employees: if you list a differential as having 3.55:1 gears, it might be nice to loving verify that it has them before doing so! No, we won't buy a 3.07:1 or a 4.10:1 diff, the whole point is to avoid regearing... That was a wasted trip to Walpole.
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Feb 19, 2013 17:11
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Isn't 3.55 a rare ratio in factory Jeeps?
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Feb 19, 2013 18:59
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EightBit posted:Isn't 3.55 a rare ratio in factory Jeeps? No, its standard for the 4.0l/auto combo. Now factory 4.10's.. those are a bit rare.
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Feb 19, 2013 21:01
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Close. It's standard for 4.0/AW4 combo in XJs/MJs and 4.0/auto combo in ZJs. Also standard for 2.5/4 speed manual combo in XJs/MJs from the 80s. 4.0/auto or 4.2/auto in YJs? 3 speed chryco auto. So to make them not tach out on the highway in 3rd they put 3.07s in them. There's massive misinformation all over the internet about what YJs came with 3.55s. Some say tow packages, some say all autos (WRONG), some say other nonsensical things. Basically after hunting around on the internet for too long and checking car-part it looks like I am learning to do diff gears and we're putting $120 worth of bearings and setup kits plus a takeout set of XJ 3.55 gears into Sandbagger's front 30 and calling it a day. The axle we found that supposedly had 3.55s already in it was listed for $150 so we figured the extra $30 was well worth the spare shafts and such it would come with just to not have to deal with regearing. kastein fucked around with this message at 04:58 on Jun 15, 2014 |
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Feb 19, 2013 21:56
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Does the BJXJ have a 3.55 front? its a 95 4.0 aw4 231 8.25 It's fair game once we pull the plow and motor sometime this year?
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Feb 19, 2013 22:45
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Slow is Fast posted:Does the BJXJ have a 3.55 front? its a 95 4.0 aw4 231 8.25
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Feb 20, 2013 01:04
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 new tire day is one of the best days.  Ace hard parked before we went to get lunch.  then we pulled a trailer covered in snow.  New tires were installed on the rims I got yesterday. We balanced them and put them on in the rain. It kinda sucked but they look pretty cool.
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Feb 20, 2013 11:07
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Yep... problem is, YJs are spring-under and fairly narrow leaf spring perch spacing. The only leaf spring perches I can find premade for spring-under are the RuffStuff ones (and a few others of the same design) for a 3" or 3.25" axle tube. Problem is, the dana 30 is a 2.5" axle tube, so there'd be a lot of booger welding in there to make up the difference. Also, the driver side perch would end up something like 1/8" from the center cast housing for the differential and there's absolutely no way I can get a MIG gun in there to stick it on properly, so I'd have to 1. weld to the cast iron (I'm not a good enough welder for that) or 2. cut back the cast iron flange a bit and weld to the steel tube (weakens the differential housing.) There are specially made perches that have an offset vertical web on one side designed to solve this problem, but they're the long style spring-over-axle setup that would severely reduce suspension flexibility and ride quality if used in a spring-under application. Basically, putting an entire XJ dana 30 under a YJ is a pain in the dick unless you're doing a hillbilly lift and spring-over-axle, is what I'm saying. I've got a free set of 3.55s lined up from a friend on NAXJA that I'm hoping to pick up on my way through town later this week since I'll be up there welding a patch into my dad's Ranger's frame:  Looks like this will involve Cardboard Aided Design, some cutting, and a lot of welding. Sam, we checked the rim warehouse @ sams pull a part and no dice on the wheels. At least nothing I saw. they only had about two warehouse racks worth of rims, it seems most of the alloys they pull are either hosed and end up in the aluminum recycling bin out back, or good, and end up on eBay/car-part.
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Feb 20, 2013 11:08
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commissargribb posted:
TreadWright tires right? I love em on my XJ.
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Feb 20, 2013 12:42
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I was going to say, where the gently caress did you find brand new Old School Wrangler MT/R's?
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Feb 20, 2013 13:47
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Veeb0rg posted:TreadWright tires right? I've been considering a set of tall skinnies for my Rover now that I've lifted it a bit. I don't know anyone personally who's used them, but they seem to be well reviewed on a lot of offroading sites. This is what I was looking at: https://www.treadwright.com/p-27-235-85r16-axiom-a-t-e.aspx What ones do you have and how long have you had them/how many miles?
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Feb 20, 2013 17:06
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Veeb0rg posted:TreadWright tires right? I love em on my XJ. Ferremit posted:I was going to say, where the gently caress did you find brand new Old School Wrangler MT/R's? Yeah, I got a set of 265/70/16R "Guard Dogs" which are similar to a Goodyear MT/R. They were $110 a piece "new" and look loving amazing. Given what I've seen and heard of Kastein doing to his, I assumed they were a quality product and worth the money.
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Feb 20, 2013 17:14
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Ferremit posted:I was going to say, where the gently caress did you find brand new Old School Wrangler MT/R's? Yep, treadwrights. MT/R tread pattern... on Dueler AT carcasses Confusing to look at, but it already has gone through some things in RWD that would have required a lot of throttle and 4x4 before. The only time I've wrecked a treadwright AT was when I accidentally backed up into a 4.0L block and tore a 3" gash in the sidewall. I think that's somewhat excusable on the part of the tire, definitely not my finest moment though. Pulling that trailer up the hill out of the yard right before that video with the old tires required low range and (due to the open diffs) modulating the clutch with my left foot, the brake with my right foot, and the throttle with my right hand, while steering with my left. I didn't think it was going to make it, got stuck the second I tried to move the trailer but after shoveling a little more snow from in front of the tires and rocking it a bit while 3-pedal braking, managed to get it moving. Oh, and all the stalling is due to the fact that it still has 3.07s in the front and 3.55s in the rear. Unless the surface is VERY slippery, that's an "emergency only" time to use 4x4, and I had to back up and shift out/in of 4x4 every couple feet to keep it from binding up and stalling or stretching the chain. As you can see, I wasn't completely successful...
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Feb 20, 2013 18:45
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Further - for anyone looking for a cheap source of 16" rims for jeeps with a 5x4.5 lug pattern, Fords are a great donor. Rangers, Explorers, Expeditions (I think), Crown Vics... all 5x4.5 and all came with 16s in some models. My winterforces I'll be putting on sometime this decade are on crown vic steelies, the rims on Sandbagger are alloys off an Explorer. They do require a very slight bit of filing or die grinder usage on the centerbore to fit onto Jeep axle hubs, but it's fine (at least on the alloys) because the part that gets removed is just a small ridge that comes off pretty quickly. It's even on the inboard edge so it shouldn't affect tire balancing machines if you're careful with the grinder, just grind the ridge down flat and it'll fit over a d30/8.25/d35 center hub. My steelies are never getting balanced again so I wasn't worried, I threw airsoft BBs in them for autobalancing. Oh, the best part? 16x7" 5x4.5" alloys, 5 for $200 in decent condition. That required some haggling, their list price was $100 each but the guy realized we weren't looking to match a factory rim on anything, weren't going to pay that, and he had so many in stock that he just wanted to clear some space out so he was willing to negotiate.
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Feb 20, 2013 19:24
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Hah, an advantage of the WJ is that the wheels don't really have much of a market, so I've got three sets of 16" Limited alloys that cost me about £15 a wheel. They peel and flake like a bastard, but clean up alright with some elbow grease.
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Feb 20, 2013 19:33
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Motronic posted:I've been considering a set of tall skinnies for my Rover now that I've lifted it a bit. I don't know anyone personally who's used them, but they seem to be well reviewed on a lot of offroading sites. I have 31's in the Gaurd Dog's. I've had em a little over a year and drive on em every day. Never had a single issue from em. They still look brand new. Mine came on Firestone Destination a/t's carcasses. 
Veeb0rg fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Feb 20, 2013 |
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Feb 20, 2013 20:36
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