I got one of my new short arms installed tonight, the 2nd one has that dang bolt stuck in the sleeve, so I'll have to cut it out tomorrow. I also got some bilstein 5125s. I can't wait to get this all in and take it for a test drive. Hopefully it rides better than my white body rough country shocks and stock control arms....

 

Well I got my other short arm in tonight, and got my bilsteins installed. Man, what a difference! It has a little wobble at 55, but wow, it's smooth!

And as I expected, my rough country shocks were smoked. I pulled them out, and the rod fell straight down into the shock, with no rebound whatsoever. And I ended up having to cut out my control arm bolt.

Now to recharge the AC again, and I should be good to go! (hopefully).

 

So my wife and little man and I attended the Crawl for the Cure over the weekend, and man what a blast! We went up there with some friends, and had one of the greatest times I've ever had. My friend Brent from Iron Rock Offroad Xj's crawler had a few issues that took some time to get sorted, but wow, that thing is a beast!

I got stuck once on the first day, in a giant hole that wasn't there last year. They also got like 6" of rain, which made some of the lower areas pretty sloppy. Joe from Iron Rock Offroad hooked me up to his JK and had me out in no time.

My Xj took minimal damage, including a tree that I kissed with the rf fender, and I lost a rear bumper cap. I also tried to bend my brake lines to get some room out of them, and ended up snapping them. My friend Brent from IRO brought me some stainless lines, so after my wife took a trip to the parts store to get some brake line, we had my extended lines installed, bled, and ready to rock! It went off without a hitch from there on out. No overheating, no issues, and even had ice cold AC the whole time!

My wife and little man absolutely had a blast! My wife told me my goal is to build my Jeep and make it capable enough to tackle "the stairs" (as seen with Brent's xj in the video), money permitting lol. I'll be looking into bumpers, frame stiffeners, and maybe some quick disconnects in the near future.

All I can say is, what an incredible weekend! I'm still on a high, and I can't wait until the next event! We're hooked!!

On to the pictures!

 

My next step, other than pressure washing it once a day for the next few weeks, is going to be possibly cutting and folding the rear fenders, and either welding some reinforcement on the frame where it is rotted, or getting frame stiffeners and welding them in.

I also need to add some r134 refrigerant with some UV dye, so i can track down my AC leak and finally repair that. Im tired of adding refrigerant every few weeks

Oh and my exhaust seems to have sprung a leak... So i may be replacing that coming up soon as well.




And it kind of makes me sad, that no matter how many times i wash it, it will probably never be that clean again lol

 

I got my new (to me) quick disconnects today. I traded them for 200 rounds of .22..... Not too bad of a deal.

Now i need to get home and get my stud for the old links out, and get some new hardware and clips for these, and ill be in business.

 

The one thing I'm worried about is that I need the pin clip deals. I will probably stop at harbor freight or tractor supply tomorrow and a couple other places if need be, and try to find some cotter pins or something that will work.

I'm hoping to have them in, and to diagnose my AC leak this weekend.

 

Well here goes nothing lol. It only took me an hour to get this far. I've got a ways to go, but so far it's not horrible. I got stuck at the point where I needed the AC line disconnect tool deal. I'll have to pick one up in the next day or so.

 

Ok, so I agree with everyone else. This job blows lol.

I got everything out, and found my AC leak! I also found my heater core was pretty much rusted shut, so that may explain my low heat issue.

 

Well it's getting there. I'm glad I'm not in a hurry lol. The dash is in place, and the AC is charged and holding. Now I just need to figure out why my air bag light is on, my voltage and oil pressure gauges don't work, and my shift indicator and 4x4 lever lights won't shut off........

Then I can button it up and get those quick disconnects in.

 

It's starting to look like a Jeep again! And I'm a moron.... My ground issue with my tach not working and everything, ends up that you need the dash bolted in so that it's grounded.... Long story short, everything works as designed now lol.

A few more hours of putting it back together, and I can move on to getting my quick disconnects in.

 

I took a break from the dashboard to get my sway bar back in today. I got my QD's in, but there's an issue.

On both sides, if I tighten up the top nut (above the sway bar link, the link sits at an angle. It makes it so that if I pull the pin, the bottom of the link shoots off the slide that it mounts to, and I can't get it to connect again without loosening the top nut again. What am I doing wrong??

 

On a brighter note, my freon is holding strong! Its been sitting since Wednesday, and has been started a few times and ran up to temp here and there. It hasnt lost any pressure yet!

I set the arrow right on the needle on Wed. I know its not the most advanced test, but its the best ive got lol

 

Well it's all back together and back on the road finally! The AC is working great, and I think I have almost got all of the mud from the crawl off the outside, and cleaned out the inside. Now I just need to figure out my low speed wobble.... I may need to look into new tires.

And I finally relocated my switch for my light bar. I think it will work alright there.

 

I'm definitely chalking it up to the tires being my vibration.

I just rotated them, and replaced my bacon shaped front rotors, and the vibration/wobble moved to the seat/rear cargo area. It's weird because it does it when I'm braking, but it also does it when I let off the gas, so I don't think it's the rear drums....

Knock on wood..... But I think it's about ready for deer season!

 

Well I took the ol girl for a 30 mile trip tonight, with the AC ice cold the whole time. When I got home, I saw it was leaking water, no big deal, but a half hour later it was still leaking..... Coming from up by the shroud. This is my first venture with working AC, and ive found that this much condensation is pretty much normal.

I'm sure it was water, as I pooled it up in my hand to make sure.

Also, it really rides nice since I rotated the tires and replaced the rotors. I'm happy with where it's at.