Curses. I took some pictures with my phone but they turned out for crap, so I'll have to see what they look like with one of my real cameras at home.

I got the new u-joints pressed in and I think they're seated right. I initially found them to be pretty stiff but with some hammer persuasion they both flop on each axis now, so I'm considering it a success. I cleaned and painted the yokes to prevent the rust from getting as bad as it did and I'm finding myself just painting most parts red because I had a couple cans of red rattle can around.

The hubs got cleaned up and painted too, even though I know you can't see them once everything in together, but it'll give me some piece of mind that it might help down the road with some rust.

I know that at least one of my axle seals is leaking on the pumpkin and I really want to just slap the parts back on it so I can drive it, but I think I'm going to rip the pumpkin apart and put new seals in it. Might as well while I have it all apart.

Was taking the grill and stuff off today to clean it and see if it's fixable (there's some cracked plastic) I noticed that it appears the radiator might be nice and shot too. I'll have to do some more poking around to check.

But as a daily bonus, I did get to spray another wasp next tucked in under the bumper!

Someone was selling a full copper 2 core on here not too long ago. Good price, too.

Mine was rotted, huge sections of fins were completely missing. But as long as it wasn't really hot it stayed cool pretty well.

I was just talking to the guy who gave me the Jeep (he works for me) and he said that he never had a cooling issue with it so I think at this point I'm just going to let it go until I have issues with it. I might invest in another temp gauge that is more accurate so that it will give me some piece of mind.

I ordered some new axle seals online because with shipping I found 2 for $10 instead of the $12 each that the parts stores around me wanted. I took the differential apart and the gears look great, at least to my knowledge they do. I think when I get the cover cleaned up I will just RTV it, but I'd like to get a Lubelocker for it, just don't want to pay the $25 for it.

Not much work done on the Jeep this weekend, and probably not a heck of a lot of progress this week until I get the new seals and can get the front end back together. I could work on the rear brakes, but I will freely admit that they scare me. LOL

Like I said before, if you ever want a hand with anything just let me know!

I RTV'd my rear cover, it was fine. Lobe lockers are nice, someday I'll buy a couple
But my Jeep isn't perfect as is.

So I'm hoping that some day I will find something that DOESN'T need replacing on this thing.

Last night I pounded my axle seals out of the differential. It was way harder than I thought it would be. I couldn't pry them out of the inside like I had seen online so what I did was put the biggest socket I had that would fit into the axle tube and used a piece of pipe to pound the seal in. Seemed to get the job done, but I couldn't get the new seals tapped in because I didn't have a helper to either use the hammer or do hold the socket for me on the new seal.

No biggie I thought, I'll just move on to start taking the rear brakes apart. Well, I don't have a brake tool so with some ingenuity and the completely wrong tools I was able to get them apart. I take the rubber boots off of the wheel cylinders and of course they're leaking. *Sigh* There's another $20 that I get to spend. What are the odds that I'm going to be able to get all of the rusted bolts and brake lines off? I'm guessing not good.

I should have just swapped rear discs in. If I only had extra funds...

I keep thinking about what the guy who gave me the Jeep said... "All it needs is a rear brake line and front u-joints and it should be good to go..."

I'm quickly realizing what it means to own a Jeep.

At this point now I'm thinking about just dropping both axles, cleaning them up, bedlining everything that needs protection from more rust and building a bastard pack for the back and maybe Grand Cherokee springs up front. Might as well replace the shocks while I'm at it.

Money, money, money money. If I could just sell the saltwater aquarium stuff I have laying around I could put some cash at the Jeep. Oh well....

I wasn't going to do a damn thing last night besides veg on the couch and play with the kids, but of course I had to go turn some wrench on the Jeep. I was very surprised that I was able to crack the wheel cylinder bolts free, but of course the brake line was rusted so bad that I wasn't able to break the flare free from the line with PB and coaxing, so add a new 18" length of brake line to the parts I need to replace. I still haven't even looked at the passenger side yet, I should probably be using Blaster on those lines/bolts to maybe give me the leg up if need be.

I'm starting to lose my wife on this build. She was giving me the, "What happens when you spend $1000 getting this running to have the engine go?"

I used to manage a pet store for part time work. I specialized in saltwater.

And, for a helper, see quote above.

Oh I'll hit you up when I need my rockers/floor welded

Ran out at lunch and grabbed a 20" piece of brake line and a new wheel cylinder for the driver's side. Found a little Bumper-To-Bumper a few blocks from work that I assumed would be super expensive but what actually cheaper than the big-box places, go figure.

I only needed 18" of line so I will have to find a way to stash 2" somewhere. (Insert joke here)

PROGRESS!!!

Dove into the rear brakes and they weren't as bad as I thought they would be once I got in there and figured out what was wrong. The PO also had some stuff messed up and there was a couple missing parts that necessitated a trip to O'reilly, but now (as far as I know) the rears are done.

When the front end gets back together I need to bleed everything real good and that chapter of the Jeep saga should be done. Not sure what I'm going to get done today as both the kids are sick so we might just lay low today. Or not.

I also started putting the front end back together, but only had time and ambition to do the driver's side. Still have to torque the bolts on the hubs and the ones in the differential since my torque wrench was in my wife's car that she had at work. I might try to get the passenger side done while the baby takes a nap today, or I might sit on my butt watching football. Decisions, decisions...


(Sorry for the red crush in the photo, not the best camera)

Nobody tell my wife that I just washed my differential cover in the kitchen sink.....

LMAO

Haha good stuff.

You guys will never guess what I drove around the block today!

Here's what I learned from that drive:

1. When I start it up, the whole thing shakes like a bronco (they horsie, not the Ford) until the engine starts, then it calms down. I'm guessing motor mount at this point, but I will investigate.

2. The brakes work, but the pedal is still a bit mushy. I will bleed it again at some point.

D. The exhaust leak from the manifold or whatever up front is borderline unbearable. It's going to cost me $150 to title and license this thing which probably won't happen for a while unless I have some good luck selling some stuff on Craigslist, so I have time to research.

7. At lock, the tires rub on something, but I knew that already. I'm going to try to go with the budget 3" lift when I can dig up some parts.

6. I still need to torque the axle nut now that I have it off jack stands. I couldn't hold the hub and apply 175 foot pounds of torque to it since I didn't have a bar long enough to hold it. I popped the center caps off of the wheels before I put them on though so I can do it on the ground.

Pictures to follow! Too lazy at this point to get them off the camera. There's DVR'd football to watch and beer to drink...