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Thanks, it still needs a few things, ARB front bumper, 17 " rims to finish the big brake conversion, updated lighting, and a blower for the stroker.
Should be able to do 16s with the big brake conversion. The majority of WJs came from the factory with 16" wheels. Some have even gotten away with 15" wheels (mostly steel) or just did some minor grinding to the anterior surface of the caliper to clear the wheels.
Noticed the rear driver's side caliper making a "grinding" noise one day when I drove it to the store... it was pretty bad too (I tell the wife all the time she listens to music way too loud when driving). I had done the front brake pads when I bought the car but hadn't done anything to the rear because, at the time, they still had plenty of meat on them. So, I knew what the grinding was and knew it was time for pads and, because of the grinding sound, rotors.
Now, I'm a "upgrade when replacing" kind of guy, so I decided to get ceramic pads and vented rotors. Took me hours of sitting in front of the computer to decide whether or not I really wanted to drain the budget so much as to do all four corners or just the rear. Well, the wife helped me decide on just the rears for now. I feel a little goofy not having them in the front, but I ordered Powerstop's Extreme Performance drilled and slotted rotors and Powerstop Z16 Evolution ceramic pads. Install went well, and I definitely can tell a difference. I'll wait until after the first of the year and do the fronts next.
Been driving the M to work for the past week because the Jeep's been torn down in my garage.
This morning, I noticed a MOPAR behind me with some telling HID headlights with LED rings. He was using me as a rabbit. Caught a traffic light and I shifted into the next lane so I could see what it was as they pulled up next to me. Yup.... Challenger Hellcat in inferno red. We play cat n mouse a little bit... but obviously he was just humoring me. The M's motor's full on sprint was a jog to the Hellcat Hemi.
We toyed around a little until about 19th avenue road where a Mini Cooper S and a Honda Civic SI started acting like little punks.... I'm sure if there were any officers sitting on 27th ave, they were probably stunned at the sight of a Hellcat leaving the pack, followed by a Civic SI, a Mini Cooper, and a 300m slowly gaining on the other two imports.
Car started overheating on me wednesday morning on the way back from dropping my sons off. Figured there was a small leak in one of the hoses and would get to it when I could. So I topped the fluid off and bled the system again to make sure.
Drove it to work last night, everything was fine. Then I drove it around for a bit at lunch... everything still seemed fine. Came out to the car this morning and there was a river of coolant trailing from the front of the car.
Grabbed the water hose nearby and filled the tank with as much water as I could and started home. Made it to within 5 minutes away and it started overheating again. Pulled over and shut it off, raised the hood... steam wasn't coming from the overflow this time... it was coming from the fins on the radiator. Had about a dozen bottles of water in the trunk. Poured it in the res after the engine cooled back down and made it the rest of the way home.
Picked up a like-new radiator from the junkyard the next day. Installed it, aux trans cooler broke in the process. Been driving it around the past 4 months without any issue. Still planning on replacing that aux trans cooler though. Definitely gets hot here.
Most recently though, the passenger side window quit working. Been that way for a while. THEN, the driver's door handle linkage broke (common on these), so I had to pull the door panel to fix that. Had to jerry rig the linkage to the interior handle with bailing wire. I don't forsee having a problem with it coming off again.. unless the handle breaks. That was about a month ago.
The other day, I was taking my sons to school and plugged my phone into the tape adapter to listen to some music on the way to school. Right channel on the stupid thing was dead. No amount of wiggling fixed the issue. "Screw it" I said. I had my old Kenwood head unit from the Jeep just sitting on a shelf in the garage collecting dust. Already had a Metra harness and installation bezel sitting aside and decided to go ahead and pull the trigger.
Came out great.
After that, I pulled the door panel on the passenger side front door to see why the window wasn't working. Sure enough, the harness fell off the switch. No doubt from the boys SLAMMING the door when getting in and out of the car :flaming: Working good now.
Now the issue that stands out the most is the shifter. Feels stiff for some reason. I tried pulling the bezel off and spraying some WD down the cable shroud, but it didn't seem to want to go in and, consequently, didn't fix the issue.
Well, the shift cable got so bad that we could no longer put it in park. Then it got so bad we could no longer get it out of gear (within a span of 2 days, mind you). Then the shift lever snapped off because I was trying to get it out of gear so I could shut the car off.... yeah I'd love to punch the engineer that put that STUPID rubber sleeve on the shift cable.
Got a shift cable that operated smoothly from the junkyard and a new shift lever as well. Well... new to me. Cut the rubber sleeve off the shift cable and discovered that the cable housing had already cracked and wore off. Peeled all of the bad parts of the housing off and coated the snot out of it with red RTV, waited for it to dry and installed it along with the new shift lever. Car is back up and running...
Speaking of back up. Had a mishap in the garage. Set the parking brake, but didn't realize that I had released the brake when I was pulling the dash apart. Let the car down off the jack stands and as soon as the front wheels touched the pavement, the car started rolling backwards out of the garage and into my Jeep. In hindsight, I'm glad the Jeep was there, because it would've rolled across the street into the woods if not... but it dented up my trunk lid pretty bad. All of this was before I got the cable in, mind you. Moral of the story there is, chock your wheels even if the parking brake is set
That sucks! I HATE when I do, even minor, damage to my own car. I forgot to set the parking brake on my speed after doing some work on it, and I guess there is a slight slope in my garage and over night it rolled into the garage door, so the next morning when I opened it up, it scratched up my bumper. Doh...
That sucks! I HATE when I do, even minor, damage to my own car. I forgot to set the parking brake on my speed after doing some work on it, and I guess there is a slight slope in my garage and over night it rolled into the garage door, so the next morning when I opened it up, it scratched up my bumper. Doh...
Haha... yeah a friend of mine reminded me that there is an ever-so-slight grade to garage floors to assist in drainage. Didn't even occur to me, though I thought I had the brake set anyway. Wheels get chocked regardless now.
Kenwood makes a good head unit. I have one in the Jeep and used to have in my work van. I got a new van a few months ago, haven’t put the kenwood back into it yet. Bluetooth play back is flawless. I really love the function after shutting my car off while playing Spotify, running into a store, and having the kenwood automatically resume BT play back after it powers up.
I would eventually like to get some decent kenwood speakers for the jeep.
Kenwood makes a good head unit. I have one in the Jeep and used to have in my work van. I got a new van a few months ago, haven’t put the kenwood back into it yet. Bluetooth play back is flawless. I really love the function after shutting my car off while playing Spotify, running into a store, and having the kenwood automatically resume BT play back after it powers up.
I would eventually like to get some decent kenwood speakers for the jeep.
Yeah I've never had any issues with the Kenwood, I just like the power output and EQ of the Sony.... although, I'm considering changing it out for another KW again. The only reason I pulled this one is because it was really basic. Just CD player w/ MP3 playback, an aux port on the front, and AM/FM bands. Really wanted bluetooth and USB and all the other goodies and liked the reviews of the Sony that's in the Jeep.
Man... been a while in this thread. Lots to update on.
1) Swapped the center console out for NON broken pieces lol. The new* console also has a 12v port that I still need to splice in. Thinking about making that one a full-time power unit that doesn't shut off with the ignition switch. That way if I need to charge my battery or something, there will always be power to it.
2) Tried another junk yard dash clock. Even tested it in the junk yard. Nope. Was garbage by the time I got it home. Tested it on a 12v battery again just to make sure and it failed that test. I think I'm going to just pull that stupid clock and put in another gauge there.
3) Bought a trunk lid* and spoiler* to replace my dented one. The rivnuts pulled out of the spoiler, so I have some glassing to do and will have to buy a rivnut gun and rivnuts.
4) Got new* courtesy light lenses to replace the ones that had fallen off - which were basically all of them lol.
5) Got a new* arm rest brace for the driver's side door. PO removed it for some reason and didn't think it was important enough to put it back in.
6) New* mirror switch
7) New pads and drilled-n-slotted rotors on the front. Thing stops on a dime now.
8) Replaced the inner TRE bushings. Finally have tight steering again.
9) Replaced 2 tires on the back of the car (with used tires). No more plugs - YAY!!!
*Junk yard "new"
Ended up pulling the radio out of her to put in the Tahoe. So the factory HU is back in it now. Not really a big deal. I'll get another good one eventually.
Still need to get new headlight lenses. The ones in it are in need of serious help.
Also hoping for a set of 18 or 20" wheels and tires for it.... seeing as how I'm going to be hanging onto it for a while now.
10-19-2016, 02:20 PM
