Sir Sam

It’s a wrangler. Who cares. that being said, similar or better at stock, same front 4 link suspension as the MJ and xj, and the rear is a 4 link, and with coils all around it’s a pretty easy setup. just don’t lift it $#!&ty and expect good ride.

The way I did it hiking up from 550 was a great way to do it. A little bit of uphill and then all downhill, was a really nice hike. You could do it shorter by just going from 550 to the turntable, its a very gentle grade that way.

Even though the outer parts are the same between them they are both an upgrade over the XJ/MJ/TJ D30. Sure maybe not the same as the old school D44s with selectable hubs. But the JK axles seem to do well enough. For the cost of a new elocker, you can buy a used JK rubicon axle with Elocker and 4.10s. So if that fits the bill for you its a cost effective option.

Exactly. A JK d44 front would be fine in a TJ, albeit having to switch to a different lug. Pattern. If I wanted to build a TJ with strong axles I would go for a pair of JK rubicon axles.

Honesty the premium for the rubicon only the TJs isn’t worth it. The front axle is stil basically a D30. Rear is fine. those TJ D44 fronts aren’t surprisingly expensive, when they aren’t much better than a dime a dozen D30.

LJ is an Unofficial name. It still has the same chassis code of TJ. jeep never made an LJ. They did make a TJ unlimited.

My biggest beef with them is that people call them an LJ when its a TJ. Sort of like if all the JK Unlimited owners called theirs a LK. Not a personal dig at you, just my tilting at windmills.

Ok I found all the hood parts I needed and got the hood on and the panels gapped. Oh and installed a new hood to cowl seal. Dat Gap: Then I removed the side stripe: I figured out a good place to mount the carbon canister. I'll need to run some hose to it from the tank and the engine evap solenoid, but now I'll be able to keep the CEL off and not worry about passing emissions since its legit 100% factory emissions equipment. So I placed it, marked 3 holes, drilled and tapped them, then used some factory M6 bolts to screw it in. Then I took a spare engine bay metal line, that was shaped nothing like the U I now have, and then straightened it and bent it into a U. Turned out nice. Got the underhood light mounted! Horn works. Cruise control lights up when turned on, but havent tested yet. Tomorrow I'm going to try and grab some exhaust pipe from a local place and then get the cat installed, and then I can get it over for the complete exhaust. I ordered a bunch of rando **** today, some usb power stuff so I can put a charging port in the center console, some heat wrap. Still lots to do, but its getting damm close to being able to drive. Now I sort of dread the things that are going to pop up once I start driving it. I just want it to be done and working, but I know I'm going to have the debugging/shakedown phase to get through as well.

Then I flew the drone up and around to get some pictures from up high: And then back to the scenery while we had some lunch: Jetboil up some chicken Jalapeno dogs: Then time to go home:

Then I went and just tried to take some cool pictures of the Land Rover on the last day before we had to drive home. Its hard to take a bad photo in these here parts:

Then we took a hike to a hotspring.....which wasn't very hot right now. But comfortable. My dad got a quick scrub in the water: You can see the highway a ways below us: This was our campsite, nicely tucked away. There was a fair bit of flat ground so we were able to park level for sleeping. No fires allowed otherwise we would have had great fires there. And.....while walking back from a dump I found someones trash dump, from last year I think. Fukkin nasty man, they went to the trouble to bag this crap up and then tossed it just far enough away to be out of sight. People suck man, and they get the places that I want to be closed down by trashing them. So we bagged it up and left the site better than we found it:

For anyone wondering about the "sign" I believe its supposed to be a passive repeater, though likely long defunct: https://www.valmontstructures.com/products-solutions/communications-structures/passive-repeaters Then I did another hike I was curious about to a mine I had already been to, and it turned out to be a loop with a cool surprise at the end. Very neat to discover this hiking out in the woods with no idea it was there. We started off of 550 a little above the Ironton townsite. And followed an old road: Found an old boarding house: This is old water pipe, its made similar to how old barrel were made, wood fittied together and wrapped in wire! Found an outhouse: Found a boiler a little below the American Girl mine: Then went up to the American Girl Mine, uphill a little further, and then started following a different trail back down that was supposed to cut back to where we started. It started off like a road but quickly turned into this: You can see the old ties still in place. Around these mines you will see lots of ties still around but the ore car track removed since it was useful and could be reused. So we were following a path with lots of old ties, narrow, and headed downhill to unknown destination. And then at the end we found.......it was the old rail road line we had been following.....I had no idea since it seemed like it was too narrow even for narrow guage. And then what is left of the turn table. I made a video about the hike and some different views.....which is kinda long, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=curPpO1TYAQ And the first part of the hike: https://youtu.be/_88f-EovVUU

Then I did a hike I have wanted to do for a long time.....to the "sign" structure on the top of McMillian peak.

Took a very short hike to the Ouray Hydroelectric dam, I had never seen it before and only recently found it on google earth. Then I went down to the bridge over the creek below the dam:

I took a few 360 panoramas while I was out: https://360.io/xy22CL https://360.io/mNt2JE https://360.io/MFEQGr https://360.io/hHXcfD

Chatted with this guy in the RRC for a few minutes, he had a imported 90 at home. Just some trees at my campsite: Hard to see the forest through the trees: Oh there it is: Went on a hike I had never done before that connected some different Jeep roads I had been on before on both ends. Dogs got hot and were taking any tiny bit of shade they could find:

I'm planning something similar in my Defender, but instead of replacing the window I'm going to replace the panel with the window, this way I still have my sliding window, but then I can also have a flip up or down window. I'm not sure which I would prefer right now, the flip down could make a table, but the flip up would make it easier to get into the back. Thats also a similar color scheme to what I am planning, though maybe a little darker on the main paint.

Sorry to hear that. Despite all the precautions we take(which do help!) it still happens. I also recently got COVID, luckily for me it was pretty minor, but I don't want to downplay the seriousness of it, different people react different ways, and it could have been much much worse. Take it as a reminder to everyone that its still a real issue, and we have a duty to everyone(read social contract) to do our own part to reduce the spread as much as possible. My grand mother turned 90 this year, she has been in super lockdown since the Rona started, if in some small way me making personal sacrifices saves the life of one person like her then its worth it.

Ok, so you might not be able to tell, but I washed it, especially the doors, they had years of dirt built up on them for sitting outside for about a decade. I had to really scrub some parts to get the ingrained dirt off, and found out that the drivers window has weld splatter on the outside, WTF? so now I sort of want to replace that glass. I might have one. Then I had to cut this much off of the raised sway bar end links. They were cutting into the tires near full lock! I still need to drill a hole for the end link, but........ My quick disconnects are way too fukking long! They are fort a lifted jeep but I forgot the quick disconnect is for connecting to a stock sway bar bracket.....doh! So now I need to modify the end links. Finished getting the dash together. I replaced the backlight for the shifter gates with LEDs, I think they are too damm bright! And......4wd indicator works correct for the harness I had to build! I also found the hood hinges, and the latches. So tomorrow I will be working on getting the hood installed and adjusted. Plus.....rear bump stops, evap canister........and other stuff. And, I bit the bullit today, ordered a double din touchscreen fancy head unit, the double din radio bezel, new speakers, and a backup camera! I got this HU, which had me with the power button! These rear speakers: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_20646CC464/Kicker-46CSC464.html?omnews=11718430 These front speakers: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_206DSC504/Kicker-43DSC504.html?omnews=11718430 This backup camera: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_249CUB15/Crux-CUB-15.html?omnews=11718430 And this double din bezel: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120956554B/Metra-95-6554B-Dash-Kit.html?omnews=11718430 Gonna be sweet when its in! Should be here tuesday so I can get on it.

Ok so not a lot of MJ work has happened in the past 6ish weeks. I've been traveling quite a bit during this time so I wasn't home to work on it. So now I'm back into it. I finally found the headlight buckets I robbed off of my patio decor YJ grill. Last night I installed new adjusters the buckets, and the LED headlights that I robbed off of my VW. Now I am very close to being able to install the hood, which then will allow me to adjust the fenders to get the gaps between the hood, fenders and header panel right. But....I got no ****ing idea where I have hood hinges. I saw one around somewhere but I haven't seen two. So that might be yet another junkyard part I have to grab if I cannot find it. And, I'm not sure what happened to the hood latches/springs that go in the corners in the MJ. So thats something else I need to dig up. So I'm really close to having the whole thing finalized on the front, but I gotta find some misc little BS parts before I can do that.....argh. And....its already time to start trimming: Finished getting the drivers seat belt install figured out. These are the newer seat belts and you have to trim the mounting bracket, and flip the pivot point and bucket so the retractor can be flipped to clear the B pillar trim. I'm going to be leaving trim off since I need to get my headliner figured out and that needs to be installed before the rest of the interior trim. But the seat belt is functional now. I actually even drove it up and down the street, I used the parking lot of the elementary school to adjust my headlights a little bit and then drove it back over. might have only been 1000 yards or something but I actually drove the damm thing! I got my plates for it, but haven't gotten insurance setup, and my cat is still held in place with bailing wire. I'm going to get a section of exhaust pipe and push it behind the cab, then mount that and drive to the exhaust shop.

Looks sharp. What all is left for you?

Ya you can see from other threads about where people have ended up putting it, and we have to all put it in the same location. But since we all have to hang our doors and get them adjust prior to latching the final location this is a good method to get you really close. It would suck to drill holes to mount it, and then discover you don’t have enough adjustment in your holes to get the door to close correctly.

It’s not detonator yellow. It’s originally gold. That 100% certain. Some googling shows the gold color was also pyb paint code. build sheet shows it pretty stripped, which sounds right. the build date is good info, and lines up with the few stamped dates I’ve seen on metal.

My MJ I've had since 2008. Bought at auction as a donation. Driver door tag long since lost. 2wd, LWB, 2.5, AX5.

Ok mocking up the steering: Bars ready for weld: How much I removed from one: Brakes done and bled: Sway bar links welded thanks to freerider: Evaporative cooler is nice in the summer: Axle painted: Its alive! Driving stopping steering etc: My helper after a long day: Steering setup, will look at making a new track bar mount in the future: Marking for the newer style door latch: What I did was use some wax from a babybel cheese, and pressed it onto the back of the latch, then I put the latch on the door and then closed the door, Then I opened the door from the handle leaving the latch in place. This also aligns with where I saw other people having to put their latch. And then....doors! A pillar trims on and starting to assemble interior. Got one fender on, I thought I had two red fenders, turns out I have 3 red fenders, but they are all drivers side fenders, and I also have 2 green fenders, both drivers side.......dammit. And I passed up the chance to pull an aftermarket red fender, or a stock green fender at the junkyard last week.....dammit dammit. Hopefully one of those fenders is still at the junkyard.