Third Time's the Charm LJ

Thanks TJ. We are on the same page. I was thinking of using Rustoleum spray on bedliner as well. It will match my rear bumper nicely.

Today's Jeeping:
Adjusted the rear pinion within 0.4* of the transfercase output. The driveshaft was well within its limits so I brought it for a test drive....It rides GREAT!

Looks like I can hold off on the SYE and rear DS until I do the belly skid. This was awesome news and I get to drive the Jeep to work tonight. Once the replacement rear end link comes in tomorrow, I will have a fully buttoned up Jeep. Then it's off for an alignment.

The replacement end link came in today....still wrong. One end is the wrong diameter bushing sleeve. Luckily between the two bad ones, I was able to make one good one.

So on a positive note, I have a rear sway bar again.

I took the Jeep to work last night (60 mile round trip) and it rode amazingly well. Not sure I even need an alignment. I will, however, have it checked for peace of mind. The Jeep drives as good, if not better, than stock. I am a happy camper. I will take it to work again tonight to see how it feels with a rear sway bar. It did have a little lean I the rear without it, as was to be expected.

I am going to call metalcloak and let them know they have a bad batch of end links.

LubeLockers are ordered. Tim @Northridge hooked me up.

Today's Jeeping:
-Getting measurement/planning for the exhaust replacement
-Pricing out a set of Corbeaus and matching rear seat cover

Got some light wheeling in today in NH. Brought my nieces along and they had a blast!

My nieces decided we are going off-roading again tomorrow. I took some time today and got my front and rear bump stops installed. I also got the swaybar disconnect mounts installed as well. We will get to see what this thing can really do tomorrow.

Got to test out the rig with the front sway bar disco'd. It rode even better offroad. It was super smooth and the articulation was impressive. I was able to stuff the tires without rubbing the fenders. The tires tuck perfectly. I think I might need another inch of bump stop up front though.


Not quite full stuff there was still a bit of room before the tire would hit the fender:



And the articulation. The springs work as advertised:



Next time out I will make sure to measure the shock lengths to see exactly where I'm at.

Panorama of the sand pits. This place was massive and crazy steep. I climbed one of the easier hills:



We also did some wheelin in the woods:



It was a great day and the girls had a blast. The jeep did excellent. I do want lockers and a winch though.

Looks great!

Thanks man. Still a few things left to do.

Finally brought the rig in for an alignment yesterday.

The caster was at 8.9*!! I had them get it down to 6ish driver/6.5ish passenger. The little bit of vibe I was getting at take off from the front driveshaft is now gone and it tracks better on road crown.

They also fixed the thrust angle which was a bit off. The toe is at 1* in.

I will have it all double checked before heading down to OBX in October.

Shaun Is it .1?

Yeah I'm thinking the printout isn't correct but I will bring it in next week to make sure. I have lifetime alignment so no biggie. I don't drive it often.

Edit-

Just went and did a quick measurement. Front of tires 51 3/16" Rear of tires 51 7/16"

It looks like the toe is about dead on at 1/8" in. I know the printout is wrong because the caster numbers are wrong on it as well. I was there with him when he set final caster and the sheet has a significantly different number.

That's a quarter inch, but i'll bet it's about 1/8 give or take,, like you said.
By the way what brand of coil springs are those, they look to be progressive rate, nice.

Whoops meant to say 1/4". One of those days I suppose.

They are metal cloak and are dual rate.

Started painting the rock rails. I used rustoleum self etching primer after cleaning with mineral spirits. The top coat is rustoleum bed liner.

Initially the bed liner didn't spray well. I put it in a bucket of warm water and realized it sprays better upside down. After that it went on very nicely. The back side will be painted with the l same primer and rustoleum flat black enamel.

They look great Shaun, are those from metal cloak?

Nice rocker guards Shaun!

Thanks. Yes they are MetalCloak. I finished the back side last night. I should have them on next weekend.

Today's Jeeping:

I noticed some buckling of the tub under the lower tailgate hinge. I am not sure if it was there prior to the larger spare tire but I didn't want to take any chances.

I pulled the spare tire, as I prefer the flat back look anyways.


There is some minor body work to be done as expected where the spare mount was attached.



And here is the buckling of the tub I mentioned.



I am going to look more seriously into spare tire mounting options. I am thinking I will just ratchet strap in down to the mounting points in the tub when off-roading. I highly doubt I will need it on the street I am never that far from home anyways. If I take a long trip the back seat would be out and the spare would come anyways. What do you all think?

Wow. That's much more drastic than I expected before the picture loaded....

That's why I think it was already there and I just never really noticed. The new spare honestly doesn't weight that much more than the stock wheel and heavy silent armor that was on there.

That's too bad Shaun,, if it's not something it's something else,, WHEW! Maybe someone backed into something and hit the spare at some point in time?

Most likely that is what happened. I'm not all that bothered by it. I don't mind little projects here and there. I will pull the tailgate off and fix the paint. The bent sheet metal doesn't bother me as long as it doesn't rust.

The Torx bolts that hold the tail gate on are usually frozen in place. I just replaced the tail gate on Carol's tj and had to drill the heads off the bolts that hold the gate to the body.
I tried an impact driver and it did not budge the bolts, and broke a few bits trying.
If this happens to you {and it probably will},start with a 1/4 in drill bit and drill the center of the bolts that hold it on the body and gradually work up to approximately 3/8 inch.

The bolt heads will pop right off, do the inward bolts with gate open, but be sure to keep gate closed while you do the outward bolts, otherwise it will fall off.
There are 2 plates that have threads in them.
One is inside the jeep ,and one is under, just pull down the plastic flap at the under side of the corner of the tub and the lower one is right there,, easy to do..
Obviously you will need new bolts.
As far as the bolts that hold the hinges to the gate, i would not drill them, leave them on!
Good luck!

Better yet I will mask everything off and do it on the a Jeep. I'm not dealing with broken bolts.

Just wanted to let you know what's up with the removal of the tail gate, I've been there already.