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reson46

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Everything posted by reson46

  1. reson46
    Yes, I used Rubicon TJ D44 inners with GM/Jeep outers. I used the Front Axle Truss - Ford HP Dana 44 (radius arm style). Willy
  2. reson46
    It is a T&T Customs truss. Make sure you do your research before narrowing the tubes. If you narrow a Ford HP44 to use Wagoneer inner shafts it won't leave you enough room for a coil bucket on the driver side. Willy
  3. reson46
    Thanks for the pics. I'm an idiot. For some reason I thought you had a long bed, which would have required cutting into the X crossmember. Thanks, Willy
  4. reson46
    Rock slider details. I see them in your recent pics but didn't see any details of how you built them. Do you have any pics or information of how you reinforced the "frame" after the bob? It looks like you chopped out the section where the rear of the X crossmember rejoins the "framerails". Thanks, Willy
  5. reson46
    Do you have an aftermarket three core or stock style radiator? I was having cooling issues climbing steady hills at speed, like at 55 or 60 MPH. I flushed the system, changed the water pump, etc. I knew it wasn't an airflow issue since it was occurring at highway speeds, but just slowly crawling down the trail was fine. I started talking with a couple of XJ friends and we all had similar issues and had tried several remedies. We all had aftermarket, all metal, three core radiators in common. With XJs/MJs there really isn't enough room to get a thick enough radiator that allows for three cores to efficiently cool. I swapped back to the crappy plastic/metal stock style and haven't had any issues since. I'd eventually like to see if I can find an all metal single core radiator if this one starts leaking. Willy
  6. reson46
    Spent the holiday completing a few projects on this MJ. At some point the post on the passenger side sway bar link broke off. I picked up these sway bar links off a ZJ in the junk yard this past summer. Apparently the previous owner wasn't much for maintenance or fixing weird noises. It looks like the bolt and mis-alignment spacers went missing and they decided to replace it with some random, mis-sized bolt. I had to pick up some new spacers and re-tap the wallowed out threads. Replaced the valve cover. New fuel injectors. Got rid of these stupid vent windows. Added intermittent wipers and attempted to add cruise control. Replacing this lever was a major PITA that took me much longer than I expected. Afterwards I now have intermittent wipers, which will be great around here, but the cruise control is not working. I had already installed the throttle control motor thing under the hood. Now I've got to figure out how to diagnose what is wrong with it. Added this cool old CB I picked up somewhere along the way at a garage or estate sale. I still need to pick up an antenna cable and install the antenna. Willy
  7. reson46
    It really isn't too bad. The worst part is twisting and wiggling the blower motor assembly in and out. I had to take a break a couple of times just to calm down. Here are the steps from the FSM. HEATER CORE R & I REMOVAL & INSTALLATION (CHEROKEE & COMANCHE) 1) Disconnect battery ground. Drain cooling system. Disconnect heater hoses at heater core inlet and outlet tubes. Disconnect blower motor wires and vent tube. Remove console (if equipped). Remove lower instrument panel. 2) Disconnect electrical connectors from blower motor resistors. Disconnect vacuum hose at vacuum motor. Cut plastic retaining strap holding blower housing to heater core housing. 3) Disconnect and remove heater control cable. Detach clip at rear of blower housing flange and remove retaining screws. Remove housing mounting nuts from studs on engine compartment side of dash panel. Remove right kick panel. 4) Remove instrument panel support bolt. Gently pull on right side of dash, then rotate housing downward and toward rear of vehicle to disengage housing studs from dash panel. Remove blower housing. Detach retaining screws and remove heater core by pulling it straight out of housing. 5) To install, reverse removal procedure. Ensure seal is cemented in place to prevent movement when blower assembly is installed. Connect heater hoses and fill cooling system. Willy
  8. reson46
    No desire to replace it? It can be frustrating removing the blower motor assembly, but really isn't that difficult. Willy
  9. reson46
    Interesting. Your old radiator appears to be for a HO with the open system, and it has the bung for the temperature sensor. I don't think I've seen that before. Willy
  10. reson46
    What knuckle do you have on the driver side - RHD WJ? Thanks, Willy
  11. reson46
    This too. The deck makes a nice place to congregate when the MJ is unloaded. For a long time I've had on my list to add some type of canopy to cover the deck. Especially when it is raining it would be nice to have a place to kick off your boots before tracking a bunch of mud into the camper. Willy
  12. reson46
    Been there, done that. Loading and unloading the camper is a pain in the @$$. I can unhook the gooseneck and be on my way within minutes. Yes, the MJ is street legal, but the Dodge is much nicer to drive for any extended road mileage. Willy
  13. reson46
    Yes, I figured out how to install them.......and already forgot how I did it. I just looked back through my pictures. The new locks did not require removal of the c-clip. They already came with the bracket installed. All I had to do was pop off the actuator rod and attach it to the new lock. I do remember that the new lock comes with a much thicker gasket. This required substantial compression in order to get the retainer clip to slide on. I ended up using a 2x4 and clamp to compress the gasket. Willy
  14. reson46
    That looks like a HO radiator. Only the Renix radiators include the temperature sensor mount. But, the Renix radiators also come as the old closed system. It looks like you are converting to the later open system. Willy
  15. reson46
    No, it will be at least a couple more years before it will be open to the public. There is a bridge that needs to be built along the forest service road leading to the trail. There are also at least two more bridges that need to be built on the trail itself. Willy
  16. reson46
    Saturday started off partly cloudy. Everybody else decided to head home, so two of us decided to clear a few trees further up the trail and do some exploring. We turned back at this point. The old bridge has washed out and the hillside has deteriorated. A new bridge and some dirt work is needed. Luckily there were some mining artifacts to explore. A collapsed mine entrance. We found a way around the collapse. Looking back at the entrance. The stamp mill remnants in Copper City. After leaving Copper City we took a side trip to Granite Lake on the way back. Loaded and on the way home Sunday. More pics can be found here. Willy
  17. reson46
    We actually finished everything the forest service wanted to accomplish on Thursday, but there was still plenty of work to do. Friday was a lot of hauling rocks for the bridge approaches. Adding rub rails to the downhill sides. Building a retainer for the rock approach. More rocks. Willy
  18. reson46
    Took a couple of days off last week and joined a work party rebuilding several of the old bridges on the Copper City trail. The weather held out pretty well until Saturday. It is a beautiful area full of cool old mining history. At Chinook Pass Wednesday evening. We stayed at the Bumping Lake Campground. I was really surprised how nice it was for being in the middle of nowhere. The sites are quite large, you're surrounded by trees, and the lake is just a short walk away. On the way to the trail Thursday morning. We were working with the forest service, so we got to bypass the road closed sign. :banana: One of the washouts the forest service needs to repair before opening Deep Creek Road (NF-1808) to the public. The turn off for the Copper City trail from Deep Creek Road. The old hotel. They built this bridge Wednesday. We hauled in rocks for the approach. These are the sills for the bridge we built Thursday. The forest service had already set them in place. The stringers waiting to be placed on the sills. Placing the first stringer. Placing the second stringer. Two in place and swapping ends on the third. Stringers in place. Starting the planks. Setting the last few planks. Now lots of hammering. All planks nailed down. Building the approach. End of the day turning back for camp. Stopped off at a beautiful waterfall along Deep Creek on the way back. Willy
  19. reson46
    Additional gearing options. Instead of just low range reduction - 2.72 - with both transfer cases in low it provides a double low range of 7.4 (2.72 * 2.72). It also allows for low range rear wheel drive. Willy
  20. reson46
    Ron's Fordyce pics. Water crossing #1. Looking up winch hill #1. Coming up winch hill #1. Water crossing #2. This was the only traffic we encountered our first day on Fordyce. Our camp site for Thursday night. Water crossing #3. Winch hill #3. Winch hill #5. Willy
  21. reson46
    Some of Ron's Rubicon pics. He got a much better shot of the bear print. They also visited Ed's Jeep. Ed's overnight guest. Apparently my first pose was not adequate. Willy
  22. reson46
    Spent Sunday at Evan's Creek. It was just two of us so we were able to cover quite a bit of ground. I was broken before I left the trailer. I'm betting this occurred while we were in CA and I just noticed it. There was off and on fog and Mt. Rainier was in and out of the clouds. I was solo so I didn't get a lot of MJ shots. The rest of the pics are here. Willy
  23. reson46
    Spent this past weekend in Spokane attending our annual WOHVA meeting. On Friday a few of us checked out the Seven Mile ORV Park. It is not extreme wheeling, but it is nice they have a park right outside of town. Playing on the lone rock pile. More Seven Mile pics here. Sunday we explored some of the forest service roads of the Colville National Forest. Views from the top of South Baldy. The South Baldy fire lookout. More trail ride pics here. Unfortunately the SPAL controller I installed for the electric fans started giving me problems Sunday. It worked on and off long enough to get me back to the trailer. I think it is going to get ripped out this weekend. Willy
  24. reson46
    Wednesday we left South Lake Tahoe and made our way to the Cisco Grove Campground. We ended up with two rigs skipping Fordyce Creek, so it was just down to Ron and us. Our camp site at Cisco Grove. We had some spare time so we explored the remains of the old Cisco Grove town site just outside the campground. A lot of cool old rock foundations could be found walking through the trees in this area. Thursday we moved on to Fordyce Creek. We stopped for lunch just after the first water crossing. It wasn't too high. It didn't quite cover the top of the tires. Ron and I spent quite a bit of time exploring the old Carlisle mine site. I probably could have spent the entire day here. We found a lot of old equipment, hundreds - maybe even a thousand - old barrels, tailings piles, cables, road beds, foundations, and a lot of other cool artifacts. One of the flooded and collapsed shafts. These two had also collapsed. Winch hill #1. We set up camp for the night just after the second water crossing. This time we slept great - no bears! Winch hill #3. I did end up breaking out the winch line for this one. Winch hill #4. Winch hill #5. Fordyce Creek was a great trail. It was some of the best wheeling I've done in years since visiting Las Cruces, NM. The Rubicon was great, but Fordyce was even better. The variety was very nice - scenery, rocks, trees, water crossings, mining. It's hard to ask for anything more. Loaded up and starting home. We made our way home over Labor Day weekend stopping by Lassen Volcanic National Park and Crater Lake National Park. More pics here. Willy
  25. reson46
    Our camp site was beautiful right next to Ellis Creek. We picked a good time because we had the trail to ourselves. We set up camp around 6 PM and not one vehicle had passed down the trail when we packed up the next morning around 8:30. But, we didn't get much sleep. Apparently the bears knew we were the only ones on the trail too. Since we were the only vehicle with a hard top all the coolers went in our cab. They attempted to break into our buddy's trailer several times and even climbed up on the roof of the MJ. It was a mother and her two cubs. I think I may have got 2 hours of sleep. The rest was spent chasing the bears away. Our friends also ended up with a visitor. They had a mouse find its way into the tent and were unable to chase it out the entire night. It finally ended up chewing a hole in their air mattress. Apparently they got less sleep than we did. It's hard to see in the pic, but there was a very distinct bear print on our back window. After a long, restless night we were back on the trail. Shortly after Little Sluice we had trailer flop #1. Just some minor damage. Without realizing it we ended up taking the Old Sluice Box while everybody else bypassed on the Indian Trail. I thought it was just a short section of trail that split and came back together almost immediately. It was a little stressful being solo, but I'm glad we did it. I had not wheeled anything like that in years and Deb had a great time. Apparently the trailer flopped a second time while we were on the Old Sluice Box. Shortly after this we caught up with them and had lunch at Buck Island Lake. The third time was a little more than a flop. Things didn't go so well for me coming down the Big Sluice Box. I eventually made it. The bridge over the Rubicon River. Shortly after Rubicon Springs the trailer flopped a fourth time. No pics of that one. Cadillac Hill Shortly after this we caught up to a couple of Unimogs and a Samurai pulling a trailer. Turns out the guy in the Samurai was Tim Hardy who some may have read about in the annual Ultimate Adventure. More pics here. Willy
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