Htchevyii

I've got Zone ones. They've been on there for 3 or 4 years without any issues.

I'm glad that they worked for you. I replaced my 30+ year old stockers with Anchor Engine mounts and their transmission mount. They were so soft that on bumpy roads the transmission would pop out of gear from the shifter hitting the tunnel. Luckily MOPAR mounts were still available at the time, I swapped them out to OEM and fixed the problem. Before the OEM mounts, I tried M.O.R.E. mounts that use a Clevite rubber control arm bushing. They practically rattled my teeth out.

I went through 2 Interstates in just as many years. I think the vibration off-road I was killing them. We've got a few years ton the replacement O'Reilly AGM and it's still working well.

I've got an Amazon one although it's probably not needed after swapping to the newer valve cover with a drastically improved oil separator system. Even after Cruiser 54's mods, it would use a half quart of oil every 1000 miles and the air intake tube would be oily inside. No noticable oil use now and a very small amount in the catch can.

No, they have been in there and most of my other old vehicles for years with no issues. They all have been changed to electronic flashers, but I usually run those regardless.

I used these adapters with my factory cables. Barnes also sells some cheaper, but I haven't used them. https://www.theflopshopoffroad.com/products/ford-8-8-swap-e-brake-cable-adapters https://barnes4wd.com/products/parking-brake-cable-adapter?srsltid=AfmBOoqzjiDekT2DmC0vnHk8EUWQNp2NOMBCiznUMtLt65Mkup9Tmzig

Next up, a new Spartan Helical limited slip in the front, a Ford Performance LSD with carbon clutches for the 8.8 and 4.56 gears to replace the 3.73's. I've just spent 2 days setting up the new front gears in the XJ, so I'm not super excited to jump into this. 😬 The Spartan "lunchbox locker" that's currently in the MJ was terrifying on icy roads at higher speeds. There wasn't enough friction for the locker to disengage, so when you turned it just slid.

I hit mine with the paint buffer and put in some "Plasma LED's". I've put them in most of my old cars to try and be more visible. I did not have a good experience with the Sylvania parts store bulbs when I tried them. LED bulb in the top, standard in the bottom.

The "frame" was getting a few cracks in the steering box mounting area. That was the reason that I'd installed the brace a few years ago and it seems to have done its job of keeping it from getting worse. It was time for a proper repair though the best solution that I found was the T&M Metal Fab inner brace that wraps around and has a built in spacer. I had to remove the radiator to weld it in, after the cracks had been welded. It also comes with a passenger side brace, but that will have to wait until the engine is out, someday. I also bought a frame plate kit for the full front, but got lazy and only used the outer steering box piece for now. Sometime when I have to pull the frontend apart I'll do the rest. https://www.t-mfab.com/store-3/?model_number=4761900

I bought this one for my XJ. All in all, it fit pretty good, the very edge where it meets the grill header panel seemed a little off. I've by pretty disappointed with most Crown parts, they usually seem like low quality parts at a premium price. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B076CHYMKC?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

It sounds like you've got it covered, but Amazon has them. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7BFMD92?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2

I saw a post in a Facebook forum once where someone was claiming that this style would work. I don't remember if it was ever proven though.

You're probably tired of seeing mine. 😂 This was on our 2900 mile Nevada adventure last September.

Thanks!

The Mojave Road is one of my all time favorites. We've done it twice in the MJ, but there are some cool side trips that we missed and also the East Mojave route that we haven't done. Not particularly difficult, but an epic variety of scenery and cabins and homesteads if you do your research. We haven't made it to Utah yet, in the Jeep at least. Lippencott pass and Titus Canyon in Death Valley were pretty neat too. High Rock Canyon NV is another favorite. We don't usually do particularly difficult trails and we're normally thousands of miles from home and by ourselves. Even though the MJ is no showpiece, it's been in the family for well over 30 years and I don't plan on that ending any time soon. Mojave: Mojave National Preserve: High rock Canyon and Sheldon National Wildlife Preserve: High Rock Canyon, Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, NW Nevada playlist:

I've got the "kit" somewhere, I just bought it for the CPS. It also has a pin to connect directly to the ECM I believe.

https://www.quickperformance.com/Dana-30-Standard-Rotation-Ring-Pinion-Gear-Set-_p_23188.html?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20752793421&gbraid=0AAAAADsQU7l49V0aWCeDPyzfBT1-nMBbc&gclid=Cj0KCQiAhtvMBhDBARIsAL26pjFTULYCL5HEYP0Du2ho--pPgtl1vJwBZ8U5dTG8UL75Ji3H78RaHSQaAjXYEALw_wcB

The Jeep was back together and running again and the windshield frame rust was finally repaired. I also installed the AC heater box along with a new heater core and evaporator. I still haven't tackled the under hood part of the conversion, (the parts XJ is so rusty that most parts under the hood are unusable). The previous owner lived on the beach! We took it on a few test trips and then headed to Nevada to the Black Rock desert. We had just completed a pretty rough section of the trail when the internal slave cylinder gave out. It was a LUK unit with about 10k on it. This left us 500 miles from home without a functional clutch. We found a route home with minimal stops and drove home by starting it in gear and rev matching the shifts. Once we got home, I decided that I wasn't going to do that again! We put in a brand new AX15 from Advance Adapters with their external slave conversion kit. I rebuilt the transfer case while I was at it. I'll post video links to the drive home and the conversion if anyone is interested.

Finally we were home! The inside was already turning in a terrarium, so I removed it all then ran a dehumidifier inside the cab for several days. Every electrical plug that I could access was disconnected and cleaned with electronics cleaner as were relays. Surprisingly, the ECM survived after drying as did my REM. All of the fluids were changed and the fuel tank drained. Apparently the water smoked the fuel pump, so it was replaced as was the starter. I figured that the interior being removed was the perfect time to go ahead and remove the windshield to fix windshield frame rust and have a rubber moulding installed. I bought a rusty parts XJ to swap in an A/C heater box while the dash was out. Oh course, I had to do a few donuts in the XJ first.😁 AQNAdU99IMdfiPH-aRHSFwVqilXraRzDDG6uf8LWeEAnKM79jf8Brixbm-I6IxRR1NAtRsKLNtVnS4GjqoGKsMw.mp4

The tow truck driver called and woke up his parents to give us a ride to the motel. Something was wrong with their car, so we had to ride back to their house and change vehicles. The next day my parents arrived in their Wrangler. We will just grab a U haul and trailer and head 800 miles home, right. Well, unfortunately there were no car trailers or dollies available in the Boise area. We had to rent the U haul and drive 120 miles or so to another town to get the dolly. Then we couldn't get the tow company to answer the phone to find out where the MJ was. Heather and my mom were just hanging out at a park waiting for us and they saw another tow truck drive by from the same company. They followed him home and found out the MJ and tow truck were still at that gas station out of town. Finally, he went and transferred the MJ from one truck to another and brought it to us. Half a day later, are were on our way home.

Sorry, this is a long one! Then came the worst trip of our life! Looking back now, it's just a blip on the radar. Nobody got hurt or killed and the MJ lived to continue to take us on adventures. For a few days though it seemed like everything that could go wrong did. We were on a very loose rocky trail next to Lake Owyhee in eastern OR. The trail disappeared so we turned around and started heading back. It turns out that the "road" shown on our map only exists at low lake levels. The trail collapsed sending the rear of the truck sliding sideways. I turned the front tires downhill and gassed it for a second to keep from rolling and then tried to correct our course. I couldn't do it quickly enough and we were in the lake before we were pointing the right direction again. In hindsight, I probably should have been barely crawling, (or not there at all), but we had no problem on the way there. The truck was dead, and almost all of our electronics ruined and we were miles from the nearest town, Boise Idaho. Luckily, Heather had managed to save our Garmin Inreach from the lake. We messaged my parents to try to get us a tow, in the meantime, we talked a fisherman into pulling us out of the lake. I forced the steering so hard that I stripped out the steering shaft during the tow, now it only sorta steered. AAA told my parents that because of COVID, the tow truck would not give us a ride, so they jumped in their Jeep and started on the 12 hour drive to rescue us. Luckily the driver did give us a ride, but we were about to have more problems. The driver's dog took off, finally after yelling and looking, he came back. Then we made it about 15 minutes down the road before steam started coming out from under the hood of the tow truck. A plastic hose fitting had broken. The driver wasn't about the call for help, and tried to Jerry rig it, we even stole some clamps off the MJ. A short time later, I smelled coolant and asked the driver how the temp was? He said that it spiked, but was now OK. I told him I smelled coolant and suggested that we check, but he refused. As we continued, I could tell the truck was getting hotter and hotter. We made it to the pavement and it was in limp mode and barely crawling. He still didn't want to stop. We finally coasted into a gas station and it froze up... More problems were to come, still ... This trip was the first one that Heather had decided to video for YouTube. More recent videos are much better. I still can barely watch this one. 😬

We took several successful trips, with a little refining between each one. Driveline vibes seemed a little excessive, so we added an Advance Adapters SYE, a new rear driveshaft from Adam's Driveshaft and threw a new chain in while we were at it. The rear axle was shimmed to give the correct driveshaft angle for the CV. You can see the spare tire inside of the bed as well as the fuel cans in the early photo. This took up valuable space and the fuel was difficult the access. As much as I hate to buy "trendy" gear, the Rotopax fuel jugs can easily be accessed even with a full bed that is covered with a canvas tarp. I bought blems from the Rotopax website at a significant discount. My saved search on eBay finally paid off when a NOS Spectre cowl intake showed up. Heather was off work for a few months during COVID. She usually doesn't get bored enough to spend much time in the shop.

We've had a few in Death Valley. One that stands out in my mind is when we were parked on our a ridge at a viewpoint and the fighters came ripping by at a very low altitude. They were going so fast that there wasn't time to grab a camera from when we heard them to when they were there.we were in the MJ of course.

We were short on space on long trips, so the spare tire was moved to the rear. The tire mount was from Body Armor 4x4 and sold for a Tacoma. It's mounted to a home made heavy duty bumper that was on the a Jeep when my dad bought it way back in 1992. I wouldn't recommend the carrier, some of the welds had zero penetration and cracked. The company wasn't easy to deal with so I rewelded it myself. For almost $500, I would expect better. Interior is mostly factory with an XJ console, Nickintime clock mounted REM and an organizer attached to the back of the cab. It's amazing how much stuff that we can pack in there for a multi week trip.

The control arm drop brackets from Rocky Road Outfitters drastically improved the ride. Springs are Rubicon Express 4.5" with a 1" spacer, though they have probably sagged over the years. The upper control arms and track bar are from Core 4x4. Shocks are Fox Adventure 2.0's. the rear has a spring over Ford 8.8 swap with a few extra leaves. I do need to replace the springs eventually. It works so well that I have no intention of going long arm at this time. The steering box brace is from Amazon. I wanted the Boostwerks one, but he was offline. I'll probably upgrade someday, but besides being a little fiddly to be install, this one is working fine. I'll post a video link for it's not install. I don't really like the angle of the front sway bar after the required drop brackets, shorter end links might be the cure. Removing the bar isn't an option since my wife drives it and we take trips in the he thousands of miles that require high speed driving.