Just ran out and picked up a new battery for the Jeep. Popped it in and she cranked right up like a champ. It even idled better than it did before and I've had the trickle charger on the old battery for about 2 weeks. Guess that puppy was really shot.

 

Had a little battle with Sears recently. The people at the Brookfield Sears I think are a gaggle of morons. Called another Sears and the tires are on their way to them from Missouri. After about 10-15 phone calls with them rarely returning my call I spent an hour on the phone with corporate and I think got everything straightened out and should have my new tires around the holidays.

 

That's great. About time!

 

Tell me about it. -8 degrees tonight and hasn't been much warmer recently. I hate not having a garage, I can't get anything done. I want to get under it and see if I can lower the TC a bit and reduce/eliminate the vibrations, but Mother Nature isn't cooperating. I suppose I could take it to my folks and use their garage, or take it to work after hours and use the warehouse. The problem with both of those is that you know you're going to forget 2 of the tools that you need to do the work.

 

I carry a set of mechanics tools in a toolbox in my jeep at all time

 

Having a garage when it's this cold doesn't help much. It's still annoyingly cold, and it really sucks.

 

At least I'd be out of the wind and not have to lay in a snow drift.

 

Yeah so, my luck, go out tonight and all I wanted to do was loosen my transfer case support and got the wrench on the first bolt and it snapped off so I didn't bother trying the others. My MAP torch was too cold to fire up so I brought it inside and just put the rear bumper back on and called it a night. I assume I'll have to drill out that bolt and tap it, which I'm not exactly looking forward to. Oh well. I'm hoping the torch will loosen the other ones enough to turn.

 

Wow that suck. :/. You could try some kroil. It never fail me. Ever

 

Ran out at lunch and picked up a 10mmx1.5 tap and some hardened 50mm bolts for when I get everything out *fingers crossed*

I also picked up a 12mmx1.75 bolt in case I need to drill the broken one out larger. I have the correct tap at work for that, I'll just need to pick up the right drill bit.

I also bought some screw extractors because they were only a few bucks, but I'm not holding out hope that they'll work, but I figured if I have to drill the broken bolt out anyway, might as well try to back it out while I've got a hole in it.

 

A small degree of success! After dulling most of the drill bits that I have I was able to get the broken bolt drilled out and tapped. I finally got ticked off and just Conan'd the drill into it and chips started flying and boom! Through! I put the torch on the other 3 and got them loose too. I wasn't able to get the studs out though with heat and the two-nut method. (No pun intended)

I will maybe pick up some bolt extractors tomorrow and give it another run. I also tried to loosen my track-bar and it was all I could do to even get it to turn. I was getting tired and cold from laying on the snow/driveway for an hour working on other stuff so I PB Blasted the heck out of it and called it a night.

I THINK here's all I have left to do to start driving it.

1. Track-bar relocation (may or may not be a nightmare)
2. Lower transfer case (if I can get the studs out it'll be cake from there)
3. Get the new tires on the new rims
4. Have it aligned

*fingers crossed*

 

I used a monkey wrench to remove the studs, it was faster than putting two nuts on it lol

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, before I spend more money on a set of extractors maybe just heat up the stud and try to muscle it out. I don't care if I wreck it since I won't be using it again. I thought I read somewhere about grinding a couple flats on the stud to get a better grip. I don't have a pipe-wrench, but hey're probably cheaper than a set of extractors anyway. Maybe heat and a vice grips would work.

 

Sears called to tell me that my tires are there! Sweet! Not sure when I'll be able to get out there to have them mounted though. Since I switched stores the one they're at is an hour away. I have some vacation time around the holidays so maybe after Christmas I will trek out there.

Kinda jazzed to get home tonight and work on the getting those studs out. After that tweaking the TC height should be pretty easy and hopefully I can get rid of those vibrations. Not sure about the track bar issue right now. Guess I will see what sort of muscling I need to do on it.

 

Got the studs out tonight! Woot! I bought a $10 pipe wrench at Home Depot but I couldn't get it to bite to loosen the studs with the limited space I had. I heated them up with the torch and got the vice grip on them and wiggled back and forth until they broke free and I got them both backed out. It was really cold and windy out there and I didn't put my snow pants and boots on so I called it a successful night. Supposed to have snow and freezing rain tomorrow, so who knows what I will accomplish, but I have a week or so off around the holidays, so I'm guessing I should have it all buttoned up sooner or later.