Basslicks

So about 4 or 5 months after getting the behemoth Yukon, my wife finally realized that when she has a vehicle that gets 10 mpg, she can't really go very many places... plus she was pregnant with our little girl, and she had to lift up our (at the time) 3 year old that weighed about 50 lbs (solid) into the truck anytime she went anywhere. So she got tired of it very quickly and asked me to get her something else...

BAM!


'00 WJ fully loaded w/ leather, sunroof, and the 4.7l v8... just no more 4wd for her. Did have a pretty decent LSD D44a in the rear though. Traded the guy straight up for the Yukon which was in pretty bad shape and in need of mechanical repairs as well as a lot of interior and body work. Guy said it had an exhaust leak which seemed plausible at the time...



Turned out, the noise that was supposedly an "exhaust leak" was the valve seats. The 4.7's from 99 through 2002 were notorious for dropping valves if the engine was overheated. The heads are aluminum and the seats are steel.... YEAH! Not sure which engineer decided that was a good idea, but seeing as how every quote for a head swap was 2500 bucks - I was pissed.

So we traded the WJ in on a minivan after 8 months of driving it around like that.

Basslicks

So I was driving along one night on my lunch break and I'm hearing this slapping sound and there's a little bit of steam coming up from the hood. Alright, what's this all about?

Turns out that the radiator overflow hose had come loose from its clips and fell into the fan -yay.



Pulled the hose back from the bung on the filler neck and tore a hole in the side of the hose.



Pulled the hose back to the bung, made light work of the hole with some rescue tape that I had in the console, and routed it through the hood catch to keep it from falling into the path of the fan again. I really need to get a fan shroud.



Rescue tape is still holding without a leak, btw. Been over a year.

Basslicks

Might lose some "fans" over this one, but oh well...

Put on a license tag ring that I've had since my first vehicle (1987 Montero 2door) and a couple of stickers since my other ones were faded.










bring a little color to the back of the jeep... and shows two of my other passions - my faith and music - oh and my interest in guns

Basslicks

So around July of last year, we hooked up with a former co-worker of mine that was looking to do a rent-to-own of her house and we were sick of our current "property (mis)managers" so we moved.... again... I threw the spare up on the roof to make room. Decided I kinda like it up there. Think I might look for some factory crossbars to get it off the sheet metal but not so high as being on top of the Yakima bars.





Still haven't done it, but it's on the list... well - one of the options anyway.

Basslicks

So it finally happened...

my door had been sagging because the factory welds were not strong enough for the hinge. I didn't discover the factory recall fix kit for this until it was too late so I knew I was going to need to get it welded.

Too late... came out one day and the top hinge emancipated itself from the body. HA! Awesome. Okay time to take of the door and have the hinge welded back on.

The 2 torx sockets that I had on hand weren't the right size so I picked up a set from Autozone. They looked real durable... cast construction, flat black anodized. Yeah, not so much -



They need to change the name from "Duralast" to "Everfail"



Had to use a magnet to get the remaining piece of the tool out of the head of the bolt

Seriously - dont buy these



So I returned those and due to the limited funds I had at the time, I took my money to HF and got a set of theirs.... they've actually held up quite well. I was surprised! They're a 2-piece design instead of the 1-piece cast or forged (whatever they were)

Point is, I got the door off and got it down to the welder next to my work. No labor charge and a $20 dollar tip later, the hinge was back on...



Sanded...






TADA!



Welders like jeeps -





I DEFININTELY get going doorless. It was nice riding around without it on... though it would have been nice to have the rest of the doors off - got a few funny looks for that. I didn't care though - it felt great! Can't wait to modify the hinges and harnesses and get it all done.

Took a look at the welds when I got home... Not the prettiest, but considering I left the fender on and he was having a hard time getting a good ground - they look great... and strong! He also re-inforced the bottom hinges while he was at it. Welds have held up great for more than a year now.









Painted them up and put the door back on.

Basslicks

Played around a little bit with a wheel/tire simulator:

What I had at the time (minus 31's):



What I'd like to have:



17" XD Hoss - in the pic is 33's but I'm going to eventually go 35's

Basslicks

In the meantime - scored a set of Pacer 15x8 D-Windows from a guy at work for 100 bucks. Great shape, just need to be cleaned up.

Basslicks

End of October rolled around - Night before Jeeptoberfest... finally decided to take the front swaybar off and see how it goes.







Bought these at the show from jeeper's den... 60 bucks for the set - uncluded brackets, hardware, and hooks. Put them on in the parking lot so I could run the course.



Had a blast on the course. Wasn't anything difficult - a couple of spots were a little challenging due to the lack of 4wd - but it was still fun.

Here's a video of the stock course at Jeeptoberfest. Go easy on me - it's my first time editing video... stupid AVS watermark comes up in the middle of the video a couple of times too.

Came home and decided to do a little driveway flex... like a nerd

Basslicks

Dang... starting to think my thread sucks... 355 views and only 4 replies except for mine

Gotta get some better content in here quick.

Basslicks

So this story is not without its horrors. I got tired of my jeep sitting lopsided and I got a set of lift/lower shackles for the leafs. I removed the driver's side bolt no problem but when I moved to the passenger side, I wound up breaking welds that holds the nut to the frame on the inside... yeah "%$^^)*(^&*%^$%$&%( is right. So I peeled back the carpet to cut a hole for access as suggested by several on this forum and this is what I found:









AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH RUST!

More on that later. I saw the rust and got discouraged so the factory shackle remained on the passenger side and the driver side had the extended shackle - yup, ghetto-fied I know, but it finally sat level. I put the carpet back hoping that if I ignored it, the problem wasn't real. (denial)

Basslicks

SIDENOTE:

This shot won me a free decal on the "IHateItWhenITakeTheDoorsOffMyXJAndTheUnibodyFolds InHalf" facebook page that says "Tailgating defense mechanism"

Basslicks

Wasn't paying attention one day when I was backing the trailer into a weird spot in my driveway (around my wife's WJ, btw) and the culvert pipe decided to take a bite out of my sidewall. Oh yes - instant flat tire.

The Carnage:


Had to deploy the spare - hey I didn't know the painted part on the spokes were green! Must've come off an Orvis ZJ

Basslicks

Picked up a NP242 Transfer Case for my 4wd swap - yup, progress.

Sorry for the crappy pics - drove 2 hours to Jacksonville to pick it up and it was about 1130 when I got back. $85 bucks from a guy on craigslist.






Many of you, I'm sure, are asking why I chose a 242 over a 231 when I live in Florida and it never snows. Well, I just really like the versatility of it and it rains here A LOT during the summer. So even though I have plenty of experience driving in those conditions, it's nice to be able to kick it into 4wd full time and have that little bit of extra control on the slick pavement.

Only thing that really sucks is that I'll be limited to a HnT style SYE when it comes that time, but.... oh well. If it really comes to be an issue later on, I'll swap it out for something else.

Basslicks

Joined Ocala Jeep club. If you live anywhere near Ocala/Marion county, consider joining. They help out a lot of local charities. We raised a TON of money at the last Jeeptoberfest for charities around here. Of course there's also a lot of wheeling and camping trips too.




Meanwhile in me-land, I scored a pair of Goodyear Wrangler AT's off of craigslist for 120 bucks - barely used. Just about the right time too because I was getting tired of driving around with the odd wheel and tire. Decided it was a good time to go ahead and swap the black steelies in too. Love the way it looks.



The fronts are my old Wrangler RT/S radials and already were clean and had some armor-all on them - hadn't cleaned up the rears yet. Put the AT's on the back for obvious traction reasons (I wouldn't think anyone would have to ask why, but hey)




Posted the aluminum bajas on Craigslist to recoupe the cost of the tires and install... well, I got the tires covered anyway. Sold them to a fellow XJ'er out of Orlando area for 120 bucks.

Basslicks

DUKIE DISCOS!!!! If you need a set of disconnects and don't feel like paying an arm and a leg for a set, swing by Dukie's build thread and check 'em out... he makes a few sets every now and then. If you ask him nicely, he may put you in on the next order