The Oreo (T.J.'s YJ)

Well slight update: the u-joints apparently checked out so now I'm back to square one. I'm going to open the diff up either tomorrow or Sunday to make sure everything is still where it should be/is in one piece, and then I guess I'll proceed from there. A few years back I did have the transfer case slip on me when I was in 4-Hi on a downhill gravel road in New Hampshire. It made some terrible grinding noises for a few seconds until I stopped the Jeep (was only doing around 10 mph). It's never done that since. I'm hoping this is a similar situation.

Good luck and I hope you get it figured out and cheaply.

How do you know the drive shaft angle is wrong ? do you have a lift in the jeep? do you have a SYE or T Case drop ?
Removing the track bar did not ruin anything, but you need to correct rear drive shaft angle no matter what if it is incorrect or you will wipe out the u joints prematurely.

I have figured out what happened Thursday evening, and I am entirely to blame. It appears that I left a C-clip sitting in the diff that managed to get kicked up get caught in the ring gear. The axle shafts I purchased came with replacement C-clips in the kit, and one of them didn't clear the spiders so I reused one of the factory ones, and it seems like an idiot I must have put the one that didn't clear down in there instead of on the ground. I just popped the diff open (in the pouring rain) and found half of the C-clip sitting in the bottom of the diff and the other half completely flattened in between the ring gear and the carrier. I was able to easily remove it using a flat blade screwdriver and a little bit of pressure. Luckily the C-clip gave and not any of the gears or teeth; there is no damage to anything in the diff, not even any metal shards at the bottom from the C-clip being ground. Needless to say I am one lucky fellow.

In a little I'm heading to AutoZone to grab some more gear oil and a pump (lesson learned on that one) and some RTV for the cover. This means I will be joining the club on the run tomorrow as I cannot foresee any complications arising moving forward.

As far as the pinion angle goes, I can address that soon. I think some some low degree shims would help things out. I'm considering removing the 3/4" shackles and replacing them with 3/8" ones as well, which would certainly help alleviate things.

A 3/4 inch shackle lift is like not really having a lift,, especially with old leaf springs, hard top, and gear.
I would leave the shackles and have someone that knows what they are doing check pinion angle, i'm willing to bet it's same as it was from the factory and is ok.

Dodged a bullet on that one. See you tomorrow.

So, you all remember what I said about the Jeep having nine lives? Well I think I used life seven last night, as in an epicly terrifying situation, I blew the left front soft brake line AS WELL AS the left rear wheel cylinder in a panic stop down the road from my apartment. Some d-bag cut me off, I locked it up, got about two seconds of brake function, then completely lost them and had to ride the curb on the passenger side at about 25 miles an hour to avoid killing the dickhead that cut me off and myself. I still have no idea how I managed not to slam into said dickhead, but everything happened quick and I was heading straight for an intersection with no brakes, so I whipped the thing around the right turn at the intersection and got it pulled over. Just as miraculous is that there's no damage to anything on the right side other than some serious curb rash on my front right tire.

Not to toot my own horn, but I should be in a hospital and the Jeep should be a tin can if not for some serious action taken on my part.

AAA got me towed to the shop I have my work done at and they'll be changing the brake lines and wheel cylinders. Looks like I'll be doing my brake upgrades SOON.

WOW! are you lucky, minimal damage and no others involved is a good thing, not good that it happened though.
Seems that the brake hose was just waiting for the right time to pop.

Mark wrote:WOW! are you lucky, minimal damage and no others involved is a good thing, not good that it happened though.
Seems that the brake hose was just waiting for the right time to pop.

Agreed on all fronts. There was no noticeable fluid leaks leading up to yesterday, my guess is I flexed it on the run on Sunday and that's what finally did it in. Both lines are original to my knowledge so yeah it's definitely time, just wish I had found out in a less life-threatening way. In all seriousness as hair-raising as it was I'm much happier it happened at 25 mph on a town road than at 60 on the highway.

Wow, that's scary! Glad to hear you and the jeep are ok, that's what counts.

Wow TJ I'm glad to hear you're ok. Sometimes people suck. This is why I no longer ride motorcycles.

dongalonga wrote:Sometimes people suck. This is why I no longer ride motorcycles.

That they do. My girlfriend mentions every so often that she wants to get her motorcycle license, and I refuse to budge on my stance that it's a terrible idea. The thought of absolutely nothing around you, while I'm sure quite freeing, is unnerving to me. And no offense to her, but if the roles were reversed last night I'm pretty sure I'd be down a girlfriend today, and that's with four thousand pounds of vehicle to hopefully crumble and increase your chances. She gets spooked when I get too close to parked cars quite frankly.

It's risky enough driving around without a top and doors, not that I don't enjoy it mind you, but there's at least a fair amount of metal around you should the worst take place, you can't really say that on a bike. I'm sure I sound hypocritical to her but there's just no security in my mind on a bike whatsoever.

Dude, do you have any clean pairs of underwear after all that, ha ha? DAMN!

I shouldn't be laughing as hard as I am about the c-clip, but I am. Especially because there was no damage done. At least you got a good story out of it.

Brake lines, though, no laughing matter. Glad you're ok, man.

Yeah, that's how I wrecked my motorcycle. Some lady wasn't paying attention and pulled out in front of me without looking. Luckily I was paying full attention. Wasn't experienced enough to bring it to a controlled stop, and laid it down at about 45mph.

...I was warming it up for the f*cking *buyer*.

Thank goodness that despite just taking a cruise around the block, I was wearing full helmet, jacket, gloves, boots, and pants. Saved my kiester. Walked away with a totaled bike, but only a lightly broken rib. Ran a 5k the following weekend.

Dianna and I both want to get bikes again. Definitely risky, but you mitigate the risks you can. On a nice day with a long road and no traffic and a small nimble bike that feels like it responds more to your thoughts than to your movements...it's the closest thing I have ever experienced to that little kid dream of flying. It's pretty awesome.

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door"

It sounds ridiculous but I did more laughing in the end over the whole situation than cursing. Too busy trying to live than crap my pants, haha. I do wish the d-bag that caused the whole thing had turned down to give me a piece of his mind, because there would be one less d-bag in the world today.

Saddest part of the whole thing? When the AAA rep I was with on the phone didn't give me a reference number before saying good bye, I stopped her before she could hang up and asked her for it. I've talked to AAA so many times I know their job better than they do. She did nothing wrong, I just had a moment on the side of the road when I said to myself, "F*ck me I've been in this situation too many times."

Got two new front soft lines going in to the Jeep as I write this, no word yet on what let go in the rear but whatever it was will be replaced as well. Since the brakes were something I was planning on addressing soon anyway, I went ahead and ordered some Centric rotors and Black Magic pads after reading so many good reviews (particularly about the Black Magic pads) regarding the combo on JF and elsewhere. Everything for up front should arrive around Thursday. I'll probably end up just going with some quality parts store ceramic shoes in the rear (Wagner or the like). Ideally I'd like to do all this before GTD/MaBell but weather and time constraints are working against me. My old man's got all the tools him and I will need but lack of a garage means we're prisoners to Mother Nature.

Here's to finally being able to stop properly!

Survey says the main brake line from the master to the rear junction box rotted and let go under the pressure from the floor mash and that's what did in my rear brakes in last week. That certainly explains my inability to make V=d/t equal to zero when it counted, as well as the fluid all over the rear frame after the incident. That line was spliced and replaced accordingly, in addition to the two new soft lines up front that I mentioned yesterday. Fingers crossed for no more brake system issues going forward. Still hoping to put the new pads, rotors, and shoes on this weekend but previous commitments may not make that possible.

Got the new Black Magic Brakes front pads and Centric rotors installed last night. Shockingly, installation was a breeze and went extremely well. I just finished up the recommended bedding process before work this morning, which involved five successive "aggressive" 40 mph to almost-zero stops, followed by 15 minutes of cool down with no brake use, followed by another five aggressive 40 to almost-nothings, an overnight cool-down, and one last set of 40 to almost-nothings. The toughest part was finding an abandoned stretch long enough for me to get up to 40, as the Jeep isn't breaking any land-speed records anytime soon.

I have to say I'm definitely impressed with the combo so far, but part of that is that my old pads and rotors were a little beat. I'm able to go from 40 to nothing in no time once they're warmed up (without them really ever fully locking up to boot) and the Jeep tracks basically straight as an arrow in the process, which is not something I could say before the replacement, when hard stops from as low as 20 mph would cause me to fight the wheel. But the reason I bought this setup in the first place was for the reputation (especially the BMB pads) as having outstanding cold bite, so we'll see if it all lives up to the hype. First impressions are that the BMB/Centric combo is indeed doing that, but I'll reserve full judgment for further down the road. Once I get some new rear shoes on there in the next few weeks I should have no brake worries for quite awhile hopefully.

Per usual, a photo or it didn't happen (a little on the blurry side):




(Can you guys tell what front end parts are new and what's been there for awhile, or should I try and make it even more obvious?)

That shock looks shiny new   

dongalonga wrote:That shock looks shiny new   

Ha, they're actually one of the 'newer' items, I think a little under four years old now.

Had an awesome time yesterday in Monson at GTD and then afterwards when a few of us from the club hit MaBell a little early. Once again this year they gave out coupons for tons of cashola off of any Superwinch purchase, so I think this year I'm actually gonna pull the trigger and throw one on there. I was also able to see Andrew's in action yesterday at MaBell and it performed very well. She did a lot better on the RTI ramp than in years past, but she's still not perfect. I removed my extended bump stops in the rear and put the factory ones back on which I think helped, but now I think the front stops may be limiting things. Here's a shot of it on the ramp.



Since there was a smaller group of us at MaBell I decided I'd give it a go and see if the Jeep could handle it, and much to my pleasure she did quite well (this is becoming a pleasant trend). It was a great time with a good mix of mildly built rigs and slightly modified ones, so I didn't feel so bad taking some of the bypasses, which still offered their fair share of challenges. The Riddler diff covers and QV50 air compressor were definitely a worthwhile investment. Pictures below are just of me, I'll post ones of the others from yesterday when the photo thread is started on here.













And some damage shots:


(Dented on both top and bottom, but luckily I didn't break any hangers this year)


(One of these things is not like the others)

I'll replace the u-bolt before Rausch Creek in July, for now I'm just going to keep a close eye on it. The u-bolts are all only a year old so at least they aren't weakened from age.

Did a little more Jeeping this weekend, this time out near Amherst. This time around the main focus was on camping however, and the Jeep just played the part of pack mule to help the lot of us haul our gear up to our campsite. The roof basket made all the difference, as I was able to fit five people (myself and four others) in the Jeep along with sleeping bags, my tent, my air compressor, and some other small miscellaneous things, while the majority of the bulky items were stowed up top. Gas mileage wasn't all that affected by the basket (which remained mostly empty for 90 percent of the weekend), but hills were somehow even worse than usual.

Here's a few shots of the basket full up, and the Jeep in its natural habitat.





Also, plans have changed as far as my "next" Jeep goes. After more serious thought and discussion, I've decided to jointly invest in a project vehicle with my old man and make that our designated weekend warrior. My Jeep isn't going anywhere anytime soon as it's still a pretty reliable every day driver (knock on wood), so it will continue to do light to moderate trails and be my faithful steed during camping outings, which was really its intended purpose all along.

Ultimately the decision came down to me realizing that it just doesn't make sense to spend a boatload of cash on a newer, capable-from-the-factory rig (like a TJ Rubicon or Unlimited) that I intend to beat on but also rely on as a daily driver. I'd rather make a small initial investment and modify it to my specs, and not worry about having to get to work with it on Monday. So why not use the capable and reliable vehicle I have now as my daily driver for the foreseeable future and build the beast I've wanted it to be, especially with another investor involved? Seems like a no-brainer to me.

This second Jeep will be the one that gets all the goodies and will become the canvas for every grand plan I ever concocted for my current Jeep. We've decided it will be a later model YJ, and we've got a line on one right now that fits the bill (as long as the frame is in as good of shape as the seller says). If not there are plenty of fish in the sea, and most likely I will soon have two build threads to update on here.

So I decided to finally take the plunge and install the front TJ flares on my Jeep this past weekend. It wasn't as straightforward as the rears were, but it was definitely worth the effort for both looks and function. Not only do the fronts finally match the rears, but the wheel wells are opened up tremendously both at the top and the rear. It took a little while to get used to using the angle grinder, but it all worked out in the end. I still need to figure out what to do with flare extension; it doesn't quite line up right now but it's not something terribly noticeable. I've got a couple things in mind.

Here's a few shots of the process:







Before:


After:

Nice. Just did mine today as well.

Looks great TJ! I'd say just take the flare extensions off all together and it would look even better.

Andrew Miller wrote:Looks great TJ! I'd say just take the flare extensions off all together and it would look even better.

I would absolutely do that if underneath them wasn't rotted to shit. Not really much I can do other than keep the extensions on there.