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reson46

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Everything posted by reson46

  1. reson46
    Remove the light bar. They always looked out of place even when they were in style. Now it looks even more out of date with the late model updates. What wheels are you going with? Willy
  2. reson46
    Sunday we were down to just two rigs. We decided to run Billy Goat Gulch and Lion Gulch while exploring some mines along the trail. This mine is a short walk from the trail. This guy was clinging to the wall at the end of the shaft. Another mine is just down the hill. This one usually has a foot of water this time of year. Loaded up for the trip home. More pics here. Willy
  3. reson46
    Spent a beautiful Father's Day weekend at Liberty. We started Saturday off on some trails west of highway 97. We pulled up on another group just as this happened. We finished the day on the Upper Naneum Trail. I'd seen this one on the map for years and finally got around to checking it out. I wish I hadn't waited so long. The views were amazing. We passed through several areas that were burned in the wildfires three years ago. Saturday night we ran up to Crystal Mountain Lookout for the sunset. Willy
  4. reson46
    After our Fortune Creek trip I was pretty disappointed with the Flex-a-Lite radiator and fan setup. The electric fans just don't pull enough CFM to keep things cool even in the mild terrain that we were in. At this point I was tired of screwing around with electric fans. It was time to go back to the mechanical fan. I used a heavy duty ZJ fan clutch. The Flex-a-Lite radiator does not have built in mounts for the fan shroud and auxiliary fan so I used some 1/8" aluminum to build this mount that bolts to the bottom of the radiator. The mount bolted in place. The shroud also required some trimming to clear the winch. After a trip to Liberty this past weekend it has so far worked much better than the Flex-a-Lite electric fans. There were several long climbs that would have pushed the temperature well past 230 degrees with the electric fans. The radiator will be tested even further in a couple of weeks at Trail Jamboree. Willy
  5. reson46
    Finally! I was wondering how this was going. More pics needed ;) Willy
  6. reson46
    Sunday we were down to two rigs. We checked out 4W305 that switch backs up Huckleberry and Hawkins Mountains. We put in some work last year filling a couple of wash outs. I wanted to see how they were holding up and also take a walk to the end of the road. The wash out we filled in last year was holding up pretty well but there is still a lot of work to do. This is what the road looks like beyond the wash out. We decided to take a walk to find out what was at the end of the road. Several spots along the trail had been cleared by motorcycle riders just wide enough for them to get through. Other sections of the road were in pretty good condition considering they probably haven't been used in decades. I was really surprised how much further the road continued. I've been exploring this area by Google Earth and checking out old maps for years. With the tree cover in this area I would have never guessed that it switch backed several more times, forked, and continued for over a mile from where we parked. It was a pretty steep hike, but when we made it to the end the views were more than worth it. You may even be able to see a red spec at the bottom where we parked. At the road's end we found evidence of what looked like several caved adits. I kept walking and found this. It is mostly filled in with rubble, but it was still great to find. After hiking back down to the Jeeps we took a short spur to another mine on Huckleberry Mountain. We had explored this one a couple of years ago. After reading more about it in one of my Discovering Washington's Historic Mines books, it mentioned another mine just a short distance back down the trail. Once I knew where to look it was easy to spot the tailings pile. We were again greeted with another amazing view. This one was tall enough to stand in. After a great day exploring it was time to head home. A lot more pics here. Willy
  7. reson46
    We camped at The Last Resort. If we had known the weather was going to be so nice we would have just camped on the trail. This was a weird year. Usually most of the trail would still be covered in snow at this point. We started Saturday on the Fortune Creek Trail, 4W301. When we stopped for lunch and to install a couple of sign posts I noticed something didn't look right with Dan's steering. The views were incredible. Mt. Rainier in the background. We took a short hike to the old stamp mill pond. After we ran the Fortune Creek Trail we checked out Hawkins Mountain, 4W304. Willy
  8. reson46
    Got to test out the upgrades this past weekend doing some trail maintenance in the Fortune Creek area. We had great weather as we installed sign posts and explored the mining history. We were running ahead of schedule Friday so we stopped in Roslyn on the way. It is a pretty interesting old mining town. We took a nice walk out to the cemetery. It was much larger than I expected for a town this size. Willy
  9. reson46
    Yesterday I was able to put it back together and drive it for the first time in months. Just in time to go wheeling this weekend. :banana: Willy
  10. reson46
    With the steering reservoir now taking the space of the old air box I knew I needed to come up with a new air filter set up. I picked up a 3" AFE cone filter, some 3" exhaust tubing, some fittings, and built a bracket to support everything. The 3" exhaust tubing fit perfectly in the filter and the swedged end was the right size to fit in the stock tubing. I welded on a bung for a place to mount the vent from the valve cover and the line coming from the charcoal canister. Willy
  11. reson46
    Empty Post
  12. reson46
    Then it was time for a few upgrades. I picked up the Flex-a-Lite aluminum radiator and triple fan set up last summer. The fan controller. I also replaced the cheesy, generic parts store coolant reservoir with a much nicer Napa universal reservoir. Willy
  13. reson46
    Then I pretty much dismantled the front clip. I took the opportunity to do a little maintenance by replacing the timing chain and gears, harmonic balancer, alternator, thermostat, TPS, and radiator hoses. Willy
  14. reson46
    The larger tires required some fender modifications. I opened up the tube fenders and took a sledge hammer to a few strategic areas on the inner fenders. Patched over the openings I created. Willy
  15. reson46
    I swapped out the front 3/4" coil spring spacers for 1 3/4" spacers to help level the truck. While working on the front suspension I noticed that pretty much all of the polyurethane bushings were sloppy. After a couple of frustrating circles with TNT I didn't get the exact replacement bushings I needed for the upper control arms, but I at least had some that were close enough that I could make work. I also found a crack in one of the upper control arms. I ground it out. And welded it back together. Then put the front suspension back together. Willy
  16. reson46
    It has been a while and the MJ has been through a lot of updates the past couple of months. First up was revising the front bump stops. After a year of wheeling the previous bump stops did their job, but were not left in very good shape. The studs had bent and one bump stop had completely separated from its molded in mounting bolt. I also needed to cycle the suspension with the new bump stops to make sure everything cleared the new tires. The old bump stops. My original plan was to go with something that offered a more progressive stop to the suspension. I picked up a set of rear bump stops intended for late model GM trucks. They were nice and soft like I was looking for, but only worked effectively when contacting a completely flat surface. With one tire at full bump and the other drooping the axle and contact pad on the bottom would then become angled in relation to the bump stop and they would completely deflect off to the side resulting, in metal on metal contact and way too much up travel. What I ended up with was a different style of Daystar bump stop on top and UMHW pucks on the bottom. Willy
  17. reson46
    Did you weld that bracket directly to the block? Willy
  18. reson46
    The next update may be in CRAWL magazine. :thumbsup: Willy
  19. reson46
    Our club run this month was a scenic trip through the back roads south of Mt. St. Helens. Most of the forest service roads were still closed for the winter, but we were still able to access some pretty nice areas. Only a couple of MJ pics. Merwin Park at the west end of Merwin Lake. Merwin Lake Swift Reservoir Descending into the Ape Cave in Mt. St. Helens National Monument. The longest lava tube in the contiguous 48 states. We ran into these guys from the Cascade Grotto club, a recreational spelunking group. They were there volunteering their time to remove graffiti and clean up trash. Even 3/4 of a mile into a lava tube you find remnants from previous morons. Moulton Falls along the East Fork Lewis River. Lucia Falls along the East Fork Lewis River. More pics here. Willy
  20. reson46
    Looking forward to this..... Willy
  21. reson46
    Unfortunately I don't have enough bed space as it is so I would like to keep the tank in the stock location. I've thought about doing a three link with a track bar so that I can avoid running an upper control arm on the driver side. Willy
  22. reson46
    I like the sound of this. I've been considering the same thing. Are you planning to keep the gas tank in the same location? Willy
  23. reson46
    What tires are those? Thanks, Willy
  24. reson46
    With all the missing letters and words, if my translation is correct, the answer would be $37. Willy
  25. reson46
    The previous owner installed an XJ gauge cluster, which covered the shift indicator. I picked this up off eBay. It was the closest I could find to the AW4s shift pattern since it has the odd single position for first and second. Picked up a couple of Euramtec LED interior lights. I didn't use the trim bezel that came with the lights since they fit nicely into the MJ opening. Willy
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