makin me want a tj

 

Thanks brother! Took me a couple days to get used to the black rims, but I've come to like 'em

 

Yeah, it took me a little while to. But I love the way they look on the Jeep now.

 

Been awhile since anything got done to 'ol WASP, but that just means money was able to be saved up. So, that money got spent...all at once.
The first item was a new lift kit...long arms to be a little more specific. Rusty's has really up'd their game and is using full johnny joints now, so their radius arm kit got purchased. And since I was going to have everything discconnected anyway, MOOG upper and lower ball joints got added to the list as well.

 

Since TJ's are coil sprung all-around, and have a much shorter wheelbase, the stock exhaust can't be used when long arms are installed. So, the original muffler and tailpipe went to the recycling yard and a new Magnaflow "skinny" muffler and custm 2.5" tailpipe went in their place.

 

Since I was doing all this work to the 'ol girl, I figured some other things could happen as well. The first of these "others" was the 784 "Neon" injector upgrade. I'm really glad I did this since 4 of the 6 stock injectors had cracks in the plastic bodies. I've been a big proponet of doing the swap for years, not for any miniscule mpg gains (which are only due to running clean injectors), but just for the better atomization. It makes life a little easier on the engine and with 265K on this one, any easement is a good thing.

 

The second "other" was to ditch the Currie steering. I know a lot of people say that Currie's set up is the best to use if you don't want to drill your knuckles, but let's be honest: Currie focuses more on racing that it does offroading. Proof is that thtey chose to retain the terrible "y-link" design for their steering. Add to this the fact that they made the draglink-to-knuckle TRE portion of their set up one piece, so if that TRE goes bad, you have to buy the whole drag link. It's a total money maker for them and you're better off running a v8 ZJ set up if you plan to retain the y-link design.
As for me, I wanted crossover steering. It's stronger, more responsive, and an overall better design. So an order was made to CavFab and in their high-clearance set up went after drilling the knuckles and pitman arm to 5/8". After driving it for a week, I have to say, I love it.

 

Third "other" invloved taking WASP one step cloder to being an expedition style vehicle. This step was fuel storage. The TJ gets about 240 miles to the tank (filling it at about 1/8 remaining). Having another 5 gallons pushes me to around 320, and in an expedition setting, that is a huge difference. So, after buying a little 90 amp HF welder, a jerry can mount got made. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with this little welder considering what it is.
Unfortuantely, my tire carrier is a center design, so there's no good spot to mount the jerry can. That meant it had to go on the inside of the tailgate. I'm not worried about it being there since I keep the back half open 8 months out of the year. Plus, it's only stored in the Jeep when I'm on a trip anyway, so again, having it there isn't a big deal to me.

 

Speaking of tire carriers, the factory rear bumper also got replaced (I told you some serious saving was done over the past many months). I found a local guy parting out his TJ nad he just so happened to have on of AtoZ Fab's bumper and carrier set ups. A few bones later and a call to Zach for hardware and frame tie ins allowed me to ditch the flimsy stock set up and have an absolute beast of a bumper/hitch/carrier set up.

 

And it was after doing all of this that the fourth "other" came along. After doing some wheeling at a local event, along with a few other littel excursions since getting the 35's, I have to say I'm not tht thrilled with them. Everything is just too easy. I try to challenge myself with wheeling, but WASP is my daily, so i don't go crazy or anything. Besides, I'm getting older and I'm more prone to just enjoy the slow crawl of 4LO and 1st gear and scenery that trying to crawl over a rock and thrash my Jeep. Don't get me wrong, I still love wheeling and flexing her out, but I'm not going to be doing some the harder trails at Crozet or Rausch. I'm moving more towards an expedition build and style of wheeling, thus, the Jeep reflects that. As such, the 35's got traded for a set of brand new 33" BFG A/T's on LJ rims. Eventually the rims will get swapped out for something with better backspacing, but for now, these work (barely due to the new steering set up).

 

Wow, Matt! You'be been saving a while! lol.... good upgrades man. Always glad to see that you're still around. Jeeps' lookin good!

 

Yeah, this was a busy year for me. The wife had our third kid, we moved into a new house (finally have a garage!), and school was pretty intense. That all meant that working on the TJ got put on the backburner and boxes of parts just piled up until I actually had time to do the install work.

Thankfully I only have one more year of school and this degree will be done. I still plan to do a PhD, but I'm going to wait a couple years before starting it. I need the mental break and time with my family.

But yes, it's always good to get back on here and play catch up. Which, I love that your avatar now actually helps people understand your username. I think most people tend to go towards a bass fish that licks rather than jamming on a bass. The questions people ask on it have always made me laugh.

Anyway, thanks for the compliments. Slowly but surely the TJ will get where I want it. I plan on doing new rims, a bowless top, wilderness rack, and roof top tent in the next year. Your's is looking really good BTW. The new tires definitely look good on there. Did you figure out why it was wearing that one tire so unevenly? I can't imagine that it was just due to the ujoints. Also, If you plan to do your own tires again, JEGS has a really good bead breaker for about $45. You can get their narrow and wide spoons as well for another $60.

 

I definitely understand how busy life can get. I have 3 of my own and work all the time. "The juggle is a struggle!" lol... That's good that you're able to do all that though. I wish I would have been more decisive with what I wanted to do when I graduated high school. Although, looking back, the only thing I ever really wanted to do was be a mechanic... I let my dad talk me out of it though. Flash foward about 10 years and my dad and I are sitting on the couch at my grandparents house and he says, "You're pretty good with the whole wrenching thing, have you ever thought about being a mechanic?" I could have died!

Yeah I had to do SOMETHING with my username. There was an entire thread created because someone was curious about MY username, and instead of just PMing me, he thought he'd just ask everyone about their name lol. Between that and the questions I get on it all the time, I knew I had to figure something out .

Thanks for the compliments man. Ya know, I never did figure it out, TBH, but the one I threw on that side in place of it is wearing just fine. The pulling even stopped when I did that (until I put the new one on anyway). Honestly, those tires are just junk. They don't balance right, they right like crap, and traction isn't even that great with them. I can't wait to get new tires. Thanks for the tip on the tire tools, I never thought to check Jegs or Summit for them. The Harbor Freight dealies I have aren't quite strong enough. They'd be fine for lawn mower tires, I'm sure, but they definitely bent when I tried them on my XJ tires.