Well, got the lights mounted and wired this weekend. I also did the passenger side wheel bearing and u-joint. All that's left is to clean and paint the bumper.

 

Looks good man! I went through your whole thread, and it looks like you and your Jeep have been through a lot.

I look forward to seeing it in person one of these days.

 

Thanks man. Hopefully you can make it out sometime!

 

Man, I haven't had an update in quite some time. This is basically because been about what's broke now, not what goodie did I buy or install.
First, I crossed an intersection one morning, heard a pop, and then I started having death wobble. Took me a while to trace it down. Replaced many things that were either bad or worn. The passenger side ball joints were bad again, so I had them warrantied out. That didn't fix it, but I did find that my Rugged Ridge heavy duty X-over steering conversion was bad. Both TRE's were shot in under 6 months, plus the tie rod itself was bent in more than one place. I was also having an issue where the passenger side TRE would come loose form the tie rod itself, no matter what I tried. I called Rugged Ridge and, to my surprise, they replaced the tie rod and ends at no charge. What I received had to be a design upgrade because now the drag link connects to the top of the passenger TRE, instead of the front like the previous one did. It's been a few months and it's holding up MUCH better. Now, that didn't take care of my death wobble either. So, there was a bunch of play on both axle u-joints, so I replaced those. Still had death wobble. I'm like wth? So, I had a friend come over and we put the front axle on jack stands and just started grabbing and moving things while we turn the steering back and forth. We found that the TRE for the trac bar had a SMALL amount of up/down movement in the joint. I called Rough Country and they sent me a new joint. Death wobble gone!
But that's not the end of my troubles. For the better part of the last 6-8 months my tranny was giving me fits. 1st, it stopped going into OD, wouldn't downshift back to 1st in D or 3, etc. After troubleshooting, I found that water had found it's way in down the harness, and into the TCU. It corroded everything. So, that's why I had went to the salvage yard to get the harness and TCU. Had to splice the harness in. The wheel/tire/skid plate was just a bonus. I got that all put in and that was running good again.
As the summer went on I start picking up noise and vibes in the front. After further inspection, I determined that the front pinion bearing was shot. There was a bunch of side to side, up and down, and in and out play. After finding out how much it was going to be to repair it ($350 or more) I decided to just pull the front shaft and take my chances until I had the money.

Then, as winter came in, the tranny lost OD again, then stopped downshifting, and finally was even having a hard time with manual shifting. This time it was the solenoids taking a crap. So, I ordered a set from http://www.oemsolenoids.com/solenoid-set-a340-aw4-new/ for $119 and crossed my fingers. They came in and I installed them using these instructions. http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f11/a...no-56k-717206/ Went smooth as silk. It's a VERY easy task. Filled it up, ran it through the gears, and took it for a drive. Shifted great, except for no OD. WTH? Came back, cleared the codes, and took for another drive. Yay! OD worked. Until the next time I drove it. It wasn't working again. Dammit. Well, the code was for the Range sensor. I took out the NSS (what a mother to pull out) cleaned it up, greased it, and put back together. Did I mention that 3 of the 6 NSS case screws snapped because they were seized? Drilled them out and used a larger screw. Well, after installing, adjusting, and everything. Still nothing. I need to replace mine. The contacts are so worn, from all the years and all my manual shifting when it was broke.
Back to the front pinion bearing. I needed to get this fixed, so I just decided to look on car-part.com and see what I could find as far as complete d30's locally. I managed to find one locally for $150 complete. Drove down with my buddy's trailer and we picked it up. This was in great shape! It still had all the steering components, rotors, etc. All the joints in the steering were good, so I gave it to a friend who had just bent his tie rod. Paying it forward. So, I got it home and decided to prep it before installing. New diff fluid and the axle side upper control arm bushings. I can't imagine having to replace those with the axle in the XJ. It was a bear. I had a ball joint press, but the metal on passenger side is thin and wanted flex. So, I wedged a tow hook underneath the bushing to keep the bottom from crushing and a pipe wrench up top to keep it from crushing. popped right out. The pumpkin side was even harder. There's much to work with, so I rigged up some steel I had laying around to even it up and was able to press it out to a point. After that, I had to use my 3lb and a big punch to get it out. Pressing in the new one was much easier (Thank you anti-seize). With the axle prepped, I took it down to my buddy's house where he has a lift in his barn. Sure does help! We still had the same issue with lining up the bolt holes for the control arms. We came up with a solution that worked great for us and would recommend to anyone swapping their axle or doing a lift. We used a VERY large pipe wrench. It was almost 3' long. That allowed us to torque the axle quite easily and the bolts went right in. After that, the rest was a breeze. The only thing we found out during this process that I didn't notice when I did the lift was that the drag link binds at full droop. I mean, at full droop, we couldn't install it. So, looks like I will be buying a drop pitman arm next. Lucky they're cheap enough. Took it for a test drive after the install and all my front end vibes are gone. I must have had more going on than I thought. I took all the metal to the scrap yard, but before I did, I stripped out the unit bearings, spindles, ball joints, and axle shafts as everything was in excellent shape and will make great spares.
That's pretty much it for now. Just feels good to have a good, smooth running rig again that I can wheel again. Sorry. No pics this time!

 

Hey i haven't followed, the build since i sold my jeep, but i have a tcase skid plate u can have if u want it. 352 398 3031

 

Thanks!

 

Tons of (quality) work on your rig, love it man. Keep 'doing it right the first time'..

 

Thanks! I appreciate that. I try my best.

 

Update. Finally some fun stuff. Got me a few hand-me-downs from one of my buddies. I got a set of BFG KM's 33x12.50-15's and a set of 100w off-road lights. My other buddy gave me a CB, and I picked up a used set of fender flares for $60. I will post up some pics as I get stuff installed. Definitely will change how the Grape Ape looks!

 

Got the tires installed and then installed the lights. Still have the flares and CB to do.

 

Well, i bit the bullet. Going to learn to weld and fab my own stuff since i realize it will be never before i can afford to buy everything i want on my budget. Wish me luck! lol

 

Well said. It's kind of a point of mine to NEVER take my Jeep to a shop, unless I need an alignment. I've had to do quite a bit of work to it, too.

Also, very nice Jeep. It's coming along nicely

 

Thanks!

 

Today I went to one of the local u-pullit yard and scored a few needed parts to fix the rig. Got left rear tail light, battery tray, fan shroud, and an NSS for $40. Not bad. Had some time so I was able to get some of it installed. Installing the fan shroud was a pita as all of my mounts are well worn, so I had to remove the fan. Ratchet wrench ftw.

 

The big brown truck left me a present. Thank you Jason @ Rough Country!