mjeff87

Use Rain-x on the glass....

Sometimes you can jam a screwdriver/chisel/punch between the flat on the nut and the inside part of that "box" to keep the nut from spinning. Doesn't always work, but it's worth a shot. Otherwise use an offset box end wrench as suggested.

Federal jury duty Anyone ever have to serve on a Federal court jury (petit, not grand)? I got fingered out and selected. Have to call a number after 6:00 PM tonight and get my reporting instructions. I've been reading up on it, and it looks like the service term is up to 2-3 months. From what I gather, you call and are told you either have to report at such-and-such a time, or not. If you don't have to report, you have to keep calling the number back (every day?) to find out for the next day, and so on. If that's the case, that just plain sucks. I'd rather be selected for a jury pool right off the bat and get it over with than have to play the call-in game every night for the next 60-90 days. The wife and I had plans to travel out of state next week to visit aging (like, in their mid-80's) relatives.....can't really do that now, either way. I don't mind my civic obligation one little bit, but there's got to be a better system than what I'm hoping this doesn't turn out to be. Anyone been there/done that who can offer any insight/advice? Thanks, Jeff edit: and coincidentally, I just got a selection letter in the mail from my county, to be a juror. How conveniently they list that "having served on a Federal jury is not an excuse from county jury duty". It'd be really funny for me to be selected by BOTH systems at once.....I want to see how that one plays out.

^^^^ or that, yeah. Little older, with a 300 CID and a 5 speed. My buddy saw one of those on C-list last year local-ish to me for $1500. By the time he texted me and I called about it, it was sold.

Me and 'lectrical stuff do not get along, at all. I have a healthy respect for voltage (and amperage). I bribed an electrician buddy of mine to run spare outlets for me in my garage for just this purpose. You'd be surprised what a case of beer and a couple pounds of lunchmeat will get ya, from the right person. LOL.

re: Dakota.....I know they have weaknesses (ball joints anyone?) but I just like their styling. 2000-era DC electronics be damned (I DD an '02 KJ, I know of what I speak). My brother had a 2nd gen (2003-4 maybe), 4.7L 5-speed crew cab. I got it up to 105 mph the first time he let me drive it, and I still had 5th gear to go yet. I just lifted the pedal and coasted back down to the speed limit. Didn't tow anything with it, but hauled a crap-ton of stuff just fine. Was a beast in the winter/snow too, with the right tires. He traded it on a Silverado eventually. I just like the styling of the 2nd/3rd generations. Heck, I worked with a guy a lifetime ago that drove a 1st gen (87 IIRC). Plain Jane, cargo mat/bench seat. I'd even take one of them to bang around in as a utility vehicle. Plus, it was what killed off the MJ line. Never shoulda happened IMHO.

Ironically enough......Dakota. Specifically second generation.

OP, whereabouts are you in "Virginia"? I'm in the Richmond area.....I can give you some good input if you're local. There's a few great junkyards around here that you can source parts from for this project.

No longer have mine, but when I did it served faithfully as a DD for me in stock configuration (2WD, 2.5L). Then I started modding it a bit, converted to 4X and wheeled it mildly. Swapped in a 4.0, eventually went to 35's/locked. Had a bunch of fun with it in the woods but it became wholly impractical for even occasional DD use. It had an amazing ability to turn power into heat and noise without the pesky side effects of speed and became a garage toy. Eventually sold it to a country boy who I could tell by looking at him was gonna flog the crap out of it for the way I eventually built it for but never really did. I miss it almost every day.

Thanks guys, Jerry was a super cool guy and Jeep (especially electrical stuff) guru. Had the patience of a monk. Among other things in his private life, he was a pediatric nurse. It was he and his wife Terry's dream to retire and move to the Keys, which they did a couple years ago. Way too sad for them to only enjoy it for such a short time. His wishes were for cremation, which the family is arranging for now. Terry is planning to move back here to Richmond permanently and will have some sort of service for him here once she does. It doesn't make any kind of sense to me.....at all. Jerry was one of the "good guys" in this world, both personally and professionally. He shouldn't have passed away so young. It gives me pause, my Karma bank account is nowhere near as full as his was.

Very sorry to hear Pete. Just consider she's in a MUCH better place now. Jeff

Probably not most remember him, but Jerry (tjbliley) sadly passed away earlier today. He did have covid, but was already hospitalized with both rectal and liver cancer. RIP Jerry

There's a Whataburger right next to one of the main junkyards I frequent.....my usual is a double-double with fries and a large sweet tea.

The rod that connects the bottom of the transfer case shifter to the mode selector on the TC is different between the different transmissions. You didn't mention what your old transmission was bolted to the 2.5 you took out....the shortest of those connecting rods is for the AX4/5, middle sized is for the AX15, and the longest of them all fits the AW4. If you had an AX trans and reused your original shift rod and connected it to an AW4 (I don't even think it's long enough to even get close to fitting) I'd bet your TC is not in the correct mode. Another thought, if you did in fact have an AW4 bolted to your 2.5 (a rarity, but they do/did exist), it takes a different torque converter than an AW4 bolted to a 4.0L.

Made "clam chowder" gnocchi over the weekend. Awesome.

You show me a way to pull a set of KJ hooks off in a couple of minutes (using a sawzall doesn't count....) and I'll GIVE you $50

We've been having blood red sunrises way over here too.

Well, yours is the right color for military insignia. I say go for it. I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon showing mine some love. The paint on it is in good shape (no rust anywhere) but it really needs to be clay-barred and refinished. I like doing that about as much as going shoe shopping with my wife, which means I've never done anything to it except wash it. I pulled it in the garage and waxed the whole thing while watching football and drinking beer. 4 hours later, it looks alot better, but I need to take it someplace and have someone detail it.

NHC has designated that wave as tropical storm Wilfred (side note, the next system that forms will be named using the Greek alphabet....they're running out of names this season LOL). I'm not drawing any early conclusions, but here's why I might be concerned. At this point, it is almost a carbon copy of hurricane Isabel, which absolutely wrecked this area back in 2003. It has formed just a hair (about 2 degrees) south of where Isabel was born, and is projected to take the same initial track. I'll be quietly watching this one. Wilfred current track, and the historical track of Isabel. Eerily similar.

LOL, I got hosed on my MOS as well. My friend and I joined under the "buddy" system, were supposed to go through BCT/AIT together. Yeah, none of that happened. We both wanted to be mechanics, but they signed him in as 63B and me as 63J. Neither of us had any idea there was any difference. We both did BCT at Ft. Jackson, but he was a month ahead of me. He went to Fort Lost in the Woods (Lenord Wood) for AIT, I ended up at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. We ended up just shy of 5 inches of rain in my gauge last night. I kept out outside/stray cat inside the garage overnight, lest she ended up floating away She did NOT want to go out this morning....

Small problem. Anyone else here use an iPad to login here? The site won't let me respond to any posts with mine now. I can hit the reply link just fine, but there's no text box available for me to type into. The same thing happened with the last site upgrade trying to use IE to post. That's not a problem for me anymore, I just quit using IE completely (like most everyone else). Works fine with Chrome, but I only have Safari installed on my apple device. Must be a browser compatibility issue, I guess (???) I use my iPad at home 99% of the time. Or, well....I used to anyway

Back in High School, my buddy and I decided to join the Army. If I'd have realized back then that the Air Force flew the HH's I probably would have considered going AF instead. Oh well.....they probably wouldn't have let me fly anyway, I wear glasses. (but only when I want to see something)

^^^That's just ugly. We're approaching 2 inches now, according to our local NWS office storm total radar, with no end in sight. I'll be home in about an hour and I'll check my rain gauge to see what we actually have so far. Scattered reports of localized low level flooding are starting to come in around the area. Probably shoulda drove the KJ to work today, I might be floating home in the Focus

LOL....a tropical wave (atmospheric). Pardon my horrible drawing skills, but it's the orange "X" in the picture off the African Coast. It has potential to end up somewhere in the Caribbean. From there, depending on the atmosphere at that time, it could end up going almost anywhere, but would definitely hit land somewhere. Watch Teddy too, that thing is going to EXPLODE. Has all the makings of a stong Cat 4 or even 5 storm. It more resembles a deep Pacific typhoon than an Atlantic hurricane. Hopefully it doesn't hit Bermuda (which just got nailed by Paulette). It needs to find a break in the (high pressure) atmosphere to it's north to send it eastward, away from CONUS/Maritimes. Yeah, I'm a weather geek. If I had to do it all over again, I would be a cloud physicist. I'd give certain body parts to be able to do a ride-along in a Hurricane Hunter aircraft. edit: and don't count old Sally completely out. It's dissolving into a low pressure/remnant area over land, but some models actually have it moving back off the east coast, curving southward and regenerating into a "new" storm. It's happened before.....

If you can believe it, we're getting remnants of it here in southern VA. Supposed to get 3-4 inches by tonight in my back yard. Yay. I'm a little bit concerned about Teddy out there in the Atlantic. Depending on how the atmosphere sets up north and west of it, the track *could* take it somewhere into the US East coast (although doubtful as far south to affect things around here). I hesitate to mention the dreaded "S" hurricane name....our friends up in the New England area don't really need anything tracking that way. What concerns me more is the wave that moved off the African coast a couple days ago....it is a "low rider" that has good potential to track the whole way across into the Caribbean. That would mean big trouble for the SE US coast, anywhere from Florida north. Not good.