Basslicks

New steering!!!!

V8 ZJ tie rod, and new drag link and TREs.... no more death wobble.




...that's all folks!

cleenrob

Dig the red!

Basslicks

Thanks man

Kinda stands out a little more than I had planned on, but I've gotten nothing but compliments on it so apparently it's not a bad thing.

dukie564

you guys have seen the light...reflecting off my red steering

Basslicks

lol... yeah with the red steering and dukie discos up front, this does kinda look like a bite of your Jeep. But what can I say, the red looks really good with the black and white.

cleenrob

Lol ive got dukie discos too!

Ive got wj steering tho...

Basslicks

NICE!

Yeah, I need to press out the swaybar link studs so I can get the quick release pins in for my discos. They're still quicker to disconnect than the factory links, but not as "instant" as pulling a pin.

I think my next big upgrade will be the WJ steering with the WJ knuckles and dual-piston brake calipers. My current brakes are feeling all 32" of these tires every time I stop.

Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure my back brakes aren't working at all. I don't think they have the entire time I've owned this thing. My reason for thinking that is if the tire is lifted, you have to put your foot almost to the floor for it to stop spinning. I want to upgrade to discs in the rear, but an upgrade is not in the budget any time soon....

...but wait, there's good news! My current axle has the 9" drums on it.

"Why's that good?", you ask. Well, it's not. And the spare Jeep I have also had the 9" drums on it.
Had.
A guy came by and bought my rear axle, offering me $150 for it. I counter-offered him $100 and his broken axle (which just needs a ring and pinion but is otherwise fine) because I still needed something to be able to roll the jeep around on... I was expecting less than 100 bucks for the turdy-5 anyway so I was perfectly happy with this deal.

I said all that to say - THAT axle has 10" drums.... well mostly anyway. It's missing some of the hardware, but as old as they are, I'd have replaced all that anyway. The important part is the backing plate and the drums are useable. I've already looked up all the parts I'd need at RockAuto and it would be about 60 bucks IF I can reuse the brake drums that are on it. If not, it would be another 50... but that's still about a hundred less than the disc swap.

cleenrob

Do discs i noticed a pretty big difference with rear discs alone

Basslicks

What kind of operating condition were your rear drums in before you did the swap?

cleenrob

They were fine On my origional axle, the new one had a non funtioning drum

Basslicks

I don't know man. See, I've heard a lot about how discs are the way to go - and I agree, I want to go that route eventually... but not on a dana35. I'd rather wait and try to find an 8.25 from a liberty that already has them on it, to be honest with you.

But I've also heard a lot of people say that if you have a properly functioning set of drum brakes, there's not that much difference with discs.... due to the amount of braking the rear actually does.

That's why I'm more inclined to just get what I need to make the 10 inchers work... rather than spending about the same amount to fix the 9 inchers -or- spend about 200 bucks on upgrading a toss-away axle to disc.

cleenrob

I mean you could always pull the discs back off an throw them on an 8.25 when you find one, or just swap to an 8.8. The come in plenty flavors of gears

Basslicks

Yeah, I have considered that. It's more the budget thing though. I need to get some rear braking power quickly because I have none right now and the front brakes are being overworked. So for the extra I will spend for gaining a little more braking power in the rear, it's just not worth it right now.

Basslicks

***IGNORE THIS POST***

This is for personal reference for misc part numbers as I find them.

Poly bushings for LCAs:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/en...DzhxoCOtbw_wcB

Johnny Joint inserts for LCAs:

http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/off-r...t-ce-9112.html

Basslicks

Saturday, I traded the roof off the parts Jeep for a Hi-Lift Extreme





Went wheelin' with some friends on Sunday





































Ended up having to cut the ride short because it started raining and my wipers quit working. The cheapy plastic bushing caps that hold the wiper transmission together finally gave up the ghost.

Monday, I took the doors, hood, and some other parts off the parts Jeep. Cut some more metal off of it, loaded up the junked engine block, the huge tub of junk metal, and the sheet metal I cut off - along with some driveshafts I can't use and some other odds and ends and took it to the scrap yard. 380 lbs worth of metal... and got raped at the checkout. $10. Yippie... now I can buy that house I always wanted.

Then, on Tuesday, I cut the factory bumper into a stubby for it...









And I pulled the wiper motor and transmission from the parts Jeep and threw it in. It's like this thing was never used before. No slop or play in it at all. Wipers work better than they ever did! Hopefully they'll be good to go for another 20 years now!

Also moved the tow hooks back a hole to keep 'em from getting snagged on stuff. Probably won't make a humongous difference, but they really didn't need to be out that far anyway. They were kinda putting a little too much leverage on the bracket anway with how far out they were.