The PA inspection sticker expired for the Jeep in June, and I just got it inspected a few weeks ago. There were a couple things I didn’t really think about when it came to passing or failing.

This Jeep has quite a stance with the wide rims it has. It makes the tires extend past the fender flares a couple inches. It also has a couple LED bars on the front.



Wheels that extend past fender flares: illegal in Pennsylvania.
Uncovered auxiliary lights: illegal in Pennsylvania.

Whoops.

I took it to someone who I thought wouldn’t care about the lights and tires, but apparently I was wrong lol. I was told it failed “right off the bat” when I went to check on the inspection status. I pulled it out before I had to pay for a failed inspection because I forgot that somehow my passenger high beam stopped working

Furthermore, I was told that uncovered auxiliary lights, on TOP of being hot-wired into the factory high beams, was actually double, extra illegal.

The previous owner did a nice job wiring the 50” curved bar with the pod lights. They are set on a toggle switch as well. But, he wired the 32” light bar on the grille straight to the high beams. I decided it wasn’t worth it to try and rewire it.

I removed the light bar from the grille and set it on a shelf in the garage. I’ll probably just sell it.

Doing so, I somehow messed up the headlight circuit, so I had no passenger high beam. I gave up after searching and searching for the problem and took it to a shop. $100 later, turns out I had a broken wire somewhere in the harness.

So in order to get it to pass inspection, I swapped wheels with my buddy for a day, took off my 50” light bar for a day, and flipped my pods facing backward.

After that I got my new sticker.

That covers most of everything I wanted to include about the Jeep up until present day.

Here is what she looks like today, with a brand new Goliath Off-road Rocker winch bumper.

I probably should’ve just let it be, but I removed my seats and pulled up the carpet to check on the floor pans. The passenger side was a little rough looking, and I found it wasn’t as solid as I thought when I wailed right through a couple spots with a hammer.

Did some cutting, shaping, welding and sealing to fix that.

I cleaned the area and painted over it with some undercoating, then I laid some sound deadener tape.

I finally got around to removing the molding adhesive and painting my door bottoms and rockers with bedliner.

It turned out pretty nice.



Before


Removing adhesive


Sanding


Prep-work done


Primer drying


Paint drying


Finished product

New parts, ready to go on.


I decided to repaint my diff cover while it was off. This time I used Eastwood’s ceramic engine paint in universal red. Really good stuff.


Making progress, backing plate installed and brake line mocked up.


Finally finished after two days. Lookin good

I’ve been wanting to get this done for a while. I finally upgraded to rear disc brakes. In the winter, I got a pair of Grand Cherokee backing plates and calipers.

I went ahead and bought new calipers, rotors and pads. I also bought a set of parking brake cables for a Ford Explorer.

Ended up having to replace all my rear brake lines and learned how to flare brake lines on my own. Good skill to know I guess.



I couldn’t stand the stock drum brakes..


Of course this parking brake adjuster snapped in half when I cranked it loose.


Had to make a new bolt to replace it. I ground down a hex head bolt to a T shape, so it would fit.

Thanks! I appreciate it.

Quick update on the brakes, they work really, really well. I used the proportioning valve from the junkyard ZJ. I bled the prop-valve and all four brakes really well.

The pedal catches way up at the top now and stops very well, even considering the front rotors and pads need to be
replaced.

The only thing I have to complain about is that the passenger side parking brake was apparently supposed to be a direct swap, but it was a little too long. I tried to use washers and nuts as spacers to match the length with the driver’s side cable, but that totally failed.

I looked through some of the videos I took and saved on Snapchat from our adventure in the mud. I took some screenshots since I can’t post videos on here.



The ruts I made trying to get out were nearly knee-deep


Noah playing in the ruts we made

Lol I was tempted to. Maybe in the future Ill do all white bedliner if the paint ever gets ruined

I’ve wanted a CB ever since I got my Jeep. They make great communication on trails or when we’re traveling together with our jeeps.

I finally looked around for a CB radio and ended up finding a Cobra 19 Ultra III at a swap shop. They only wanted $25 for it and even threw in a magnetic base antenna along with it.

It took me forever to decide where I wanted to mount the CB and the mic. I finally settled for mounting the radio on the side of the center console and put the mic mount on the sun visor.

The CB didn’t come with a cigarette lighter adapter, just two stripped wires. I decided to go get some 14 gauge wire and extend the wires to my battery. Wasn’t too difficult. I tucked the wires inside the conduit I put in for my fan switch wiring.

Took about two hours to tuck everything thing up and I had a working CB! The only change I plan on making is getting rid of the magnetic antenna and getting an XJ taillight antenna mount with a 4’ Firestik antenna. I really like the look.

But for now, everything works fine.



I picked up all this for $25! Everything still brand new in the original packaging


How I ran my antenna wire to the roof


Mic mounted


CB mounted

The updates may slow down a bit, as I just started college. I’m studying engineering science and I have to commute to school 5 days a week. Also had to quit my summer job to attend school, so I won’t have any income being a full-time student .

Anyways, that doesn’t mean I’m giving up and neglecting my Jeep. I don’t use it to commute, as I mentioned when I started this thread. Currently using my dad’s car until I buy a commuter.

I’m actually considering a stock 2 door, 5spd Cherokee if I can find a cheaper one as a commuter.
Why not?

Maybe I can get lucky and even find one with the 2.5L for extra gas mileage? If the difference is even big enough from the 4.0 to the 2.5L, not sure.

Otherwise, the search continues for a commuter.

In other news, we went on another off-roading adventure. The Jeep did well, no complaints. We put our CBs to the test for the first time on this one. We had constant communication among 3 Jeeps the whole way up, while wheeling, and the whole way back home.

It came in handy in a few unexpected emergencies.

While I was searching for a CB, I told a few of my friends and family I was looking for one before I ended up finding one in the swap shop. After I got my new one installed, my aunt texted me and told me she just got one from her neighbor.

It’s an older one, not sure if it works or not. Not sure if it’s a good one or a crappy one. Can’t complain though. It was free. Here’s a pic of it.