Project: Mitch's Dumb Jeep

Here are some pictures of the MJ's new home for a little while and a few before shots I guess.

The Shop:

The MJ: (Before)

And me:

First project: Steering

So we threw her up on jack stands (me and my brother-in-law), and started to remove the linkages. I needed to do this because I can't go faster than 50mph without tons of shaking and breaking feels funny too. So I jacked up the front end so the wheels were off the ground and tried to turn the wheels left and right, and noticed that these areas were really sloppy looking:

So, to work we went!

And finally got it off...

I don't have a replacement so it sits now, however, there was some breakage to report... I own very cheap tools, I am going to replace them with good ones after I break them all, lol...

2 broken box end wrenches, and 1 broken ratchet....

My brother-in-law holding the now crap wrench:

So, with two broken wrenches and one broke ratchet; we still had a few more nuts to remove, but no wrenches to do it.....

NO WORRIES!!! we lucked out as the stock tire iron fits these nuts perfectly and is way stronger than anything else we had 8)

Brother-in-law finally using the right tool for the job:

Will post more later as we work on this.

While I am at it, I will throw a pic of some future mods here too:

New breaklight and full gauge cluster:

Trying to keep it one project at a time, so I don't have parts everywhere and no idea where to go next, so it may take a while.

:cheers:

that tail light and gauge cluster looks familiar...

They should! Thanks again for hooking me up with them!

the trackbar does play a very large job in tight steering. if there is any side to side play in it, most likely it is the primary culpret in your sloopy steering. The balljoints in the linkages you pulled are all greasable, the trackbar's isn't (atleast this is the case on my '87 and '89). The greasable joints have a much likelier chance in having a long life.

While working on my '89 the front track bar literally fell out from the frame side while I was removing the steering stabilizer. It had zero grease in it and the joint was covered in rust.

I'm digging the 6-pack of miller lite mod. I out to do one of those to my MJ. :cheers:

I looked at the track bar, and it doesnt appear to have any give when I muscle the steering wheel back and forth, but I did see those ball joints you described moving all over the place when I jacked up the front and wiggled the tires right and left. It was really sloppy looking.

That said, I can't, and will not work on the MJ without putting the 6pk of miller light mod on each time!

:cheers:

Shouldn't you be wearing your suit of armor while working on trucks?

Right tools for the job? I do see at least one required tool..The six pack of Miller Lite. :cheers:

Nice, I'll be watching your progress. Looks like you got your share of the east coast cancer, be a good truck to bring back. I dig the pin stripe's :cheers:

What all are your plan's for it?

Can I take a guess as to where those explosives stickers are going? lmao :cheers:

Nice, I'll be watching your progress. Looks like you got your share of the east coast cancer, be a good truck to bring back. I dig the pin stripe's :cheers:

 

What all are your plan's for it?

I don't know how fast all this will happen, but hopefully I can wheel it by August this year...

Anyway my plans right now are lifting it 4 to 6.5 inches, toss the D35 and replace it with something better 8.* or D44... my neigbor may have an "extra" set of unknown axles coming in on a project he is working on, he said I could have em if I wanted them, its possible they could be 60's so I am keeping my fingers crossed. Then I plan on running some 34x10x15 Swamper LTB's. Would like to end up running 36's some day. Lots of cutting, LOTS! and I am just going to remove what evers left of those rockers and weld some square tube in there, and call it a day. The pin striping is going, I am not a fan of it - however it is freehand and someone put some effort into it, just not my style. It will get flat green, or black, possibly a flat camo paint job depending on how ambitious I feel. Keeping the bed on it, as I need it as an "around the house" truck to take things to the recycling center.

Thats it for now, lets see if these plans hold true for a week, lol!

Can I take a guess as to where those explosives stickers are going? lmao :cheers:

Well I am not willing to pay the fine for having one on the MJ, so you'd be wrong if you were guessing that. I could stick them to my wife.... j/k baby, if your reading this I love you! ;) They will probably go on a fridge or something, nothing too exciting.

Picked up some ZJ linkage, should be putting this in on Monday or Tuesday... unless this storm sucks as bad as they say.

Can I take a guess as to where those explosives stickers are going? lmao :cheers:

 

Well I am not willing to pay the fine for having one on the MJ, so you'd be wrong if you were guessing that. I could stick them to my wife.... j/k baby, if your reading this I love you! ;) They will probably go on a fridge or something, nothing too exciting.

it would be cool for about the first week til you got caught lol

Well, I worked all day and got the ZJ steering linkage on... its a little bigger than the stock MJ linkage, and so far seems to be in much better condition. I still need to align the wheels and straighten my steering wheel, hopefully next weekend.

Today I also gave it a full tune up and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! from almost stalling out at idle, to running like a champ! All the old plugs were set between .045 and .050... when the factory calls for .035. Then the distributer and guts were all corroded looking. Shes purring nicely now!

THEN I ran into problems, I started doing the front breaks and got the passenger side finished with no problems... then I went to the drivers side and found a stripped bolt. They are 1/2 inch and I tried banging a 7/16 over it, I guess I was too tired to think of a metric as I just now thought of it. The 7/16 was a no go, I have encluded a pic....

What should I do if the metric don't get it?

Enjoy!

VVVV - My stripped problem! - VVVV

And me all dirty after the job.

if you have to try these they do work

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product. ... Cookie=Yes

or at least it worked for me

...? can't you get the rotors off without touchign that bolt?

iirc all i did was take those two booted bolts out of the caliper, and slide it off the rotor, then pull out pads/rattleclips/rotor...

am i :chillin: or are you doing somethin else?

that bolt is holding the hub assembly on...it has nothing to do with your brakes...the two allen head bolts are the ones that hold the caliper on and once those are loose everything just pops off...

I have never done the breaks on the MJ before... I am used to pulling the caliper off to do the breaks.. thats what I did on the passanger side, I took me a while to figure out there were two more bolts to undo.. I think you guys are right, so when I get a chance I am going to pop back in the barn and look at this with your eyes.

Thanks!

By the way I think all the nuts and bolts are metric. At least my mj is the only standard bolts are the after market parts that I've installed. Guys correct me if I'm wrong.

if your booted bolts are allen head, its a 7mm allen which can be bought by itself at any auto part store it actually says on the package comanche brake's allen (i've got a 3/8" drive one)

On mine, the passenger side had been changed out to 10mm bolts :dunno:

On mine, the passenger side had been changed out to 10mm bolts :dunno:

Was the thread the same as the normal ones?

They apparently have a pretty bad rap for stripping out.

On mine, the passenger side had been changed out to 10mm bolts :dunno:

 

 

Was the thread the same as the normal ones?

 

 

They apparently have a pretty bad rap for stripping out.

That's just how it was on the axle I got from the JY. I replaced them with the equipment that was on my old axle (new brakes).