Interesting... never seen that before. Carry on.

 

Well not much has been happening. I found a killer deal on some wheels with DIY beadlocks welded on. They are 15x10 rim with 4.5" BS. I'm not sure if they will clear the calipers or not. If not, I will sell them but if they do, I'll clean them up, paint them and run them. I will have to get new outer rings cut. The DIY kit looks like something that Speedway Motors sells. It's only got a .100" outer ring which won't last long.

I got the front aligned pretty well and put a new sleeve in the trackbar bushing so the slop is gone from there.

I also developed a wheel seal leak on the 60 rear. Saying it was bad is an understatement. I got that replaced yesterday and in the process of putting the wheel back on, I snapped a lug nut. At lunch today I pulled the wheel and removed the broken shank and put on a new one. I got lucky that it broke at the small side of the radius so that the wheel would still slide over it.

 

Awesome man, I hope they work out for you!

 

Nice Rig, I miss wheeling in the East.


Nitro

 

 

Check it out, Adam - you've got a stalker!

 

Haha except for the fact that we work together, wheel together, and wrench together.

 

Man that pic makes mine look small haha

 

Sorry wrong thread

 

Meh... close enough

 

That fact that yours is in the background and looks the same size as mine says somthing...

 

Well I'm back to working on the Jeep. Started the process of moving the rear axle forward an inch. When I stretched it, I went a little farther than I wanted. By moving it forward an inch I will clear the gas tank with the shocks and leave myself with plenty of room for the anti-wrap bar. I am also installing 4* shims to correct the pinion angle. I bought this axle with the perches already welded on and they were set for the PO's rig. I put my inverter to work when I needed to cut one of the centering pins off because it was quite rusted. Big thanks to Will for helping out at lunch today to get this work started. Hopefully I will have it finished up this evening.

In other news, I recently picked up a new wheeling buddy. Her name is Marley. We have already gone on one trip to URE but just rode with Will since my rig still isnt ready. She did great bouncing around in the back with the camping gear.

 

Finished moving the rear axle last night and did some flex testing during lunch today. I need to bump stop the rear and trim the front bumper some but other than that, I'm very happy with it.

 

Got the rear shock mounts welded on last night and the shocks mounted. I believe I bought too long of shocks. Right now there is about 3" of shock uptravel. I will go measure the angle and then calculate what the true uptravel is. After that, if the numbers look close to what I measured the other day, I'll probably run another flex test and see if the shocks bottom out. Hopefully I'll be able to just squeak by but if not, I'll have to order some new shocks. I also ground down some of the lower portion of the rear 60. Mainly just to get the diff cover to sit smoothly with the bottom so if it drags it doesn't rip it out.

 

Well I decided I didn't want to grind the calipers to make the 15" wheels fit so I put them up for sale. I got offered a trade of 6 7/8" hiem joints with all the small fixings to go with them and 16.5' of 1.75" .120 wall DOM. I took that trade seeing how I could really use the DOM to build my traction/anti-wrap bar. Plus, I only paid $20 and a six pack for the wheels so I definitely came out ahead haha.

After I made that trade I started working on the anti-wrap bar. I started by tacking the axle side brackets on and then working my way forward. I've built the frame side point off of the TC skid. It's not the best way of doing it but it works and will work even better once I add a mounting point to the other frame rail. Because I live in an apartment, I don't have all the tools and resources with me to do the job here so what I do is but and tack everything in the parking lot and then take the parts to work to finish weld. I'm also no professional welder but have some good experience.

On to the pics.