Glad that worked out for you. I had a small pipe wrench and I grounded off a bit on both sides of the jaws. Enough to fit in. Lol
I have like 10 pipe wrenches of all sizes so I didn't mind treating one as disposable anyway

 

Ran home at lunch today, threw on the snow pants and got after it. I took the bolts out, used a jack to lower the TC, installed 4 fender washers which are about 1/8" thick each in between and bolted it back up. After I aired up the tires I ran it up to the gas station because the light was on and it SEEMED that the vibrations were much better. Still there to a degree, but I don't get that vibration/drone around 25-30 where the whole Jeep resonates. I will try another couple of washers tonight after work and then try to get it up to highway speed and see how she handles.

I'm not even terribly convinced that some of the vibes are coming from the terribad tires that I have on there. Not sure when I will be able to pick up the new ones though. Our daughter turns 1 on Friday and we're having a party on Saturday and I'm booked up for getting the house ready and fixing our HTPC in the morning or else I would run up there in the AM. Hmmm, maybe I could work on the PC Friday evening....

 

Excellent thread!!!! Keep up the good work!

 

Thanks! Had some more success tonight. Popped 2 more spacers in and took it for another drive. Vibrations are almost gone, I might do another washer, I might just wait until the new tires are on. I also took it up to highway speed and it actually felt better than it did when I was driving it a couple months back.

The exhaust is LOUD. lol Wasn't too bad on the highway, but there's a bit of a drone. I'm guessing the wife isn't going to like it too much.

I'm going to try to take it to work tomorrow. Wish me luck. lol

 

Lol. Good luck!

 

Any new updated or freshly painted parts? Lol

 

Been meaning to post for a while, just haven't gotten around to it lately.

Been driving the Jeep off and on for a couple weeks now. I didn't drive it when it was 15 below, but it's been below zero here for a while and it's started fine the past few days. The new tires are awesome in the snow, and not very loud on the highway, not that I could hear it over the exhaust anyway. It does drive like a shopping cart though in the cold. I didn't notice it as bad before it got so darn cold, but in the bitter cold I think the shocks just don't move like they should so the Jeep lets me know every bump that it hits. I'm hoping that it improves as it gets warmer, but I'm not exactly expecting it to ride like a Lexus anyway.

I REALLY need to get the rear wiper fixed as it was just about opaque yesterday from the salt around here. I can't seem to find the new wiper that I bought, so I will probably have to buy another one come pay day. I still need to get a new resistor thing for the climate control fan, but it hasn't been too bad just having Off and High.

I'm having a slight scraping/grinding noise from the rear which sounds like one of the rear brakes is hanging up, but I haven't bothered to look at it. It might just be ice/gunk from the roads too as it hasn't been above freezing around here in forever. Once it warms up I will try to get some more stuff done, but it's been driving good so I'm happy about that. I need to fix a tensioner pulley in my van too so that's probably more of a priority than any little Jeep stuff that doesn't necessarily need work at the moment. Provided something else doesn't break.

 

Jeep meet sometime...

 

Got a new rear wiper today! Small success! So far I've been driving it around with no wiper, so it's the little things in life that are nice

Also working on ideas for my old Android phone. Thinking about building it into the dash to run things like nav/torque and more probably, giving me a more accurate speedometer.

The current battery in the years-old phone doesn't last too long but I'm fabricating in my head a relay thingamajig to keep it charging all the time, but only turning on when the key is on. In my head it will work, but we'll see how I make out in real life.

 

I'm about ready to clean my intake... How did u end up cleaning it? Lots of brake cleaner? What about inside the runner tubes? Did u scrub insides too?

 

Sorry, I kinda spaced on the reply. Did you already clean your intake? The one that I got was pretty clean, but I used some carb cleaner to clean it before paint and in the runners. I didn't do a ton of cleaning inside of it because it wasn't too bad. There was some gunk towards where it mounts on the head and I goobered that stuff up with cleaner and then used a screwdriver to scrape stuff loose and a brush to remove the stuff when it was loose.

 

Yeah I cleaned yours with gasoline before shipping

I just cleaned mine by pouring scalding water with lots of dawn soap. Used nylon brushes to clean entire insides of the runners and all. Thanks!

Any pictures of the engine bay with all new parts with the paint job on it?

 

I might have a picture at home on my computer or I could run out and take one, but of course it's snowing here AGAIN. Grrrr.

I think I need to work on my exhaust a bit, probably by ordering a stock front pipe because the hangars that I tried to rig up aren't working after driving for a couple months. My exhaust pipe is resting on the crossmember again and rattles and makes noise that bugs me so I suppose I'll bite the bullet and get a new pipe with the hangars welded on already. I think they're around $60-$70 which is probably about what a local shop would charge me to fab up some hangars anyway.

I think the next mod that I'm going to dive into is incorporating my old Android phone into the dash somehow. I have a few ideas floating around in my head. A dangerous place for sure. I've been wasting time lately with a portable speaker project that I just finished up. I could snap a picture of that if you're interested.

 

Anythig that u do is interesting haha

 

Here's a crummy cell phone picture of it.

Quick rundown on it. Took some old JBL bookshelf speakers I had in my basement and took the guts out of them and recreated a single enclosure with the same cubic feet for each speaker. There's a digital amp (supposedly 20W per channel) in a middle section along with a 12V UPS battery that I had that I wasn't using. I picked up a $20 Black and Decker smart battery charger, ripped that apart and mounted everything in the enclosure. As it stands now I've listened to it for about 4 hours on battery alone and didn't notice a degradation in sound. I put a plug on the back like on the back of a computer and I can plug it in and it will charge the battery and it seems that I can even leave it plugged in while it's running.

I just finished up yesterday though, so time will tell. It does sound pretty darn good to me. I think I have less than $100 into it and it sounds better than a lot of the portable speakers I've seen. Sure it's big and bulky, but I made it myself.