4x4 North

Man your fb post on this was a show. 45 people answering stuff you didn’t ask, 4 telling you what you already knew. Not sure of much came from that one

That went about as well as I expected. I enjoyed the people who were adamant that I had the components in the wrong places and linked pictures of it being assembled the exact same way as I was trying to.

Replacement tie rod showed up, and yup, they put the wrong ball/stud in it:
Last time it will be like this: Got the rear out: I broke one upper shock bolt and another went round. Otherwise it all came out reasonably okay. Also the exhaust fell apart, so I ordered some Walker replacement.

Front out:
New steering box to go in, the old one leaked like a sieve:
Committed to this now :
Lots more to do as far as cutting off and cleaning up the brackets and frame. I think I'm going to weld the new control arm brackets on because the frame honestly could use some more substantive reinforcement due to rust damage. I will have to evaluate that more when I get that far.

As usual, super slow progress.

So I am going to have to do some frame repairs. Thought I took pics, apparently not, but I will when I get it cleaned up to see for sure what I need to do.

I pulled the tcase for access (has to come out anyway) and found this: That said, I think the tranny is massively overfilled, it's blowing oil out of the shift tower too. Not sure if I have to take the tail housing off to change that seal. Will look into it more. Might just pull the whole trans because whatever at this point. I know the PO "had the clutch done" but it seems to hang up, so maybe I should just accept that I'm only a handful of bolts away from that anyway.

So much for a quick install.

I did change that seal in the tranny from the back. Hopefully didn't cut the lip on it.

New exhaust bushing for the tranny mount: Dealer wanted $120 for it.

Picture of the frame rust: It rusted from the outside where the belly pan bolts on. I don't understand really. Guess it had stuff trapped in there and it was never apart. The frame has holes through it on the other side, this side is paper thin.

This is where I'm at and what I plan.

I cut out the inserts for the belly pan and the parts that were paper thin: And I mean the stuff was paper thin: Welded nuts to the inside of the RC long arm brackets, since the original inserts in the frame are now gone: Before I did this I test fit the brackets and marked where they will go. My plan is to just weld them fully to the frame and replace the metal that I removed. I will clean the hole up a bit more, and I might do some wire wheeling inside the frame, maybe not. I suspect this repair will be fine and will outlast the rest of the frame and body. If anyone things otherwise or has a better idea, let me know, but I'm pretty committed to this now.

Also, a bunch of people on the interweb hate on the RC powdercoat. What they used on that frame bracket is an absolute to remove. I might have to drag out the sand blast cabinet.

One tip I found if you have to remove stubborn powder coat is to heat it with a torch, stick a rag to it and peel it off. Then sand blast it. If it’s good powder coat it’ll be hard to sand blast off on its own

I debated just throwing them in my barbecue and letting it all burn off. That's probably a less terrible way to do it though.

Scott Cee AKA 2drx4 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2024 8:58 am I debated just throwing them in my barbecue and letting it all burn off. That's probably a less terrible way to do it though.

BBQ is way less work though....

Got the passenger side all welded up.
Gave 'er the ol' slap and exclaimed "that's not going anywhere!" I think it will be fine.

Might do a little more rust cleanup before I hose some paint on. Or not. I'm not doing a restoration here. I like this jeep, but I do not love it. Those are two very different things.

Got a few minutes to work on this and manged to weld the other side on.

Belly pan is back on, tcase back in, and I painted all of that stuff, but I failed to take a picture.

Walker exhaust new vs old: It didn't seem to fit with the trailer hitch, so I wound up lopping the end off: I wound up installing it all and I have no idea if it is actually fitting right. So no picture. What I screwed up, and caused me to spend so much time on it, is the rear track bar apparently goes OVER the exhaust. I spent a ton of time trying to move it all far enough back for it to go under. I realized my error and stuck it where it's probably supposed to go. When I get the axle in and make sure everything clears, I will get a picture. Maybe.

Went to put the bumpstop extensions on in the rear, and the one bolt took all the threads out with it. So I drilled it over and tapped it to 1/2 UNC: It's all the stupid little things that kill you. I put new brake hoses on too (no pictures) and realized I installed the rear one, when there's already one on the axle.

Anyway, got some new Cooper 33s through Snowracer and got them mounted and balanced: They took a ton of weight. So either the tire guy did it wrong, or I'm betting the cheap Ceico wheels aren't that great. Time will tell. As long as it's smoother than it was with the rotting 31s, I'll be happy.

The rear axle is mostly in there, but eh, again I didn't really take pictures.

Now, this forking adjustable track bar from RC... It didn't fit well. I had to trim and sledgehammer the (rusted) gas tank skid plate so it would clear it. And then the axle side end didn't fit in the Ruffstuff bracket. I can't blame them for making it so it didn't fit an aftermarket bracket, and the Ruffstuff bracket is poorly designed. Anyway, I ground the end of it down and got it to fit. The whole thing was just a bunch of taking it in and out and swearing about it because of this.
I also broke an upper shock mount bolt on installation, so I'm going to try to drill that one out tonight. Then hopefully get weight on the rear and all of that, so I can tighten things.