Well the shorter antenna didn't work out. Instead I made a better tether... it tucks away when not used and moves when the antenna moves.

 

Alright after some tweeks I have a tie down that is both safe to bystanders and safe to key up with an swr of 2.

The ghetto clip is to keep the antenna from bouncing around.

 

Didn't do too much today. I replaced the hardware on the CB bracket with grade 8 and bought some quick pins to replace the cotter pins for the discos.

 

Changed out the transfer case fluid. Came up with a way to fill without all the muss and fuss.

The tire pump pressurizes the bottle which pushes the atf out the hose.

 

Here is a pic

 

This I'm liking!! Really digging the whip. Had one on my YJ. Scored a free Firestick from a friend I still gotta mount on mine.

Coming along nicely, I love the fact your doing preventative maintenance while doing upgrades.

 

Thanks man Since money is getting tight I will probably be doing some more fab and homebrew.... if I can get my welder working again



I noticed that the load time for this thread was appalling... so I did some research and found the size of the photos was likely to blame.... so I re-sized about 50 pictures in this thread, I hope that improves load times.

 

just jumped in here, great thread, and great build. i like the whip, i was looking at one of those but because of money shortage im ganna stick with my 3' firestick. i love the idea of the bedliner floor, i wanted to do that with mine, (along with some serious metal repair to floor boards) but i was worried about noise, i did that to my roof and it was insanely loud, even with 3 coats. so thats when i did my custom wood roof. but i would like to know how it is on the floor if its any better because being how i love mud and dont have doors, bedliner would be much easier to clean. ill be sure to follow along on this one.

 

Not going to lie here...

Driving with no carpet or bed liner the noise was appalling... Even with standard floor mats the road noise 55mph+ is crazy loud. After the bed liner the noise is much better. Still get quite a bit of road noise though. A lot of drive line noise also. Also anything flinging off the rear tires hitting the fender well in the back sounds like pebbles hitting a window.

I'm going to cut a rubber mat for the cargo area pretty soon so I'll report my findings once I get it done. I should mention that every piece of jute, sound deadening packs and most of the firewall mat has been removed... even the jute glued behind the plastic panels is gone.

 

Well I've been working on mount combos that would give me a lower swr while tethered.... in my latest attempt I can't believe.... according to the meter it is about a 1.1 swr..... well ill run with that... heh

 

Okay what the heck.... I'm getting swr of 1 tethered and 2 untethered....

 

Awesome write up! I also found carnage on the bottom of the rear quarters when I removed my end caps.... I just hope my patch job comes out 1/2 as good as yours did!

 

Thanks man

When tearing into the interior I found a sound deadening pack in the rear 1/4... probably the source of the moisture that rotted it out... Another place I found was under the front inner fender on the toe board. It was starting to turn into metal shale so I scraped all the loose rust, wire brushed it then treated it before throwing on some paint. Hopefully the repair holds... If not I guess I will have to do some more metal work

 

Well I have been chasing my tail on the dang overhead console until I went out to seek some sources of information and do some exploratory surgery... Here are my findings that will hopefully save someone else the headache I went through...

Problem: No function of the odometer, MPG or DTE. Compass would not calibrate.


Troubleshooting steps....

• First run the overhead console's self diagnostics.
  • with ignition on the off position press and hold both buttons on the overhead console
  • turn ignition on, keep holding buttons
  • after the entire display lights up all segments release the buttons
  • if the console displays fail then you have a defective unit
  • if the console displays ccd then you have a communication error between the computer and the console.
    • Now the FSM says to hook up a special diagnostic tool that is probably expensive or not available anymore or something... Also says to use the correct "diagnostic procedure manual... yeah... right...
• Okay mine displayed ccd. Now comes the exploratory surgery to find out what makes this thing tick...

Here is the page out of the FSM for the odometer.



It shows the 2 wires I need to look for are violet with a tan stripe and white with a black stripe.

Pulling the overhead console down you can see the plug going to the unit has 4 black wires then the pair of wires we are looking for.



Just for fun I took the unit out to show all what it looked like...



You can see the compass is in the middle. While I was here I cleaned out the area of dust and any insects that where trapped in there...

Anywho... here is the rest of the console... the board in the middle is for the factory keyless entry system.



Here are the plugs in the headliner... First the keyless entry



Since I have an aftermarket unit I went ahead and left it disconnected.
Then the console computer



Now it's time to find the other end of the plugs. According to research there are 2 plugs on the console and 3 plugs under the kick panel on the passenger side. Here are all 3 in my lap...



First one is the one for the console computer itself. Location is behind the glovebox on the right side.


This one


Next is the plug that supplies much of the power to the lights and keyless entry. I am pointing at the fuse block where it is located. Top right side.



Finally is the 3 wires that are for the keyless entry. It is a loose plug located in a bundle of wires toward the floor.



Using a multimeter I checked for continuity of the white/black and violet/tan from the headliner to the kick panel using a multi-meter. In doing so I have found the harness is okay to the kick panel. Next is to check from the kick panel to the computer. The Gray connector on the computer contains the 2 ccd wires. Keep in mind Jeep decided it would be cool to change the violet/tan wire to violet/black...

I used a paperclip on the lead to attach to the pin without damaging anything...



I have continuity on the white/black but not the violet/tan to violet/black... Okay this is where the majority of the information comes in...

The ccd or Chrysler Collision Detection is the OBD2 bus network that is basically a computer communication bus between computer and sensors. The violet/tan and white/black wires can be found throughout most of the vehicle's wire harness. They are unique in that both wires are twisted with each other. From the PCM back here are the junctions...

this is where the violet/tan goes to violet/black....


Here is the white/black wire...


From there goes to the junction block inside the vehicle... Located above the driver's side kick panel. You would need a 10mm wrench or socket to separate the junction block.


It then crosses over to a second junction block on the driver's side right above the transmission tunnel. You also need a 10mm wrench to get that off... For some reason I didn't take a photo of that block...

From that block crosses over to the passenger side wire bundle...


Here is the pair in that bundle...


Here was my issue... a broken wire... it was taped in the bundle so I don't know.... maybe a factory defect? Oh well...


I reconnected the wire and assembled the Jeep enough to test. Sure enough everything works great! The compass calibrated, the DTE, ODO, and MPG works fine. Happiness

 

I was thinking the same thing on the little 'pillows' of sound deadening... what was Jeep thinking! I think part of the problem was someone wheeling in deep water and never pulling the drain plugs.