mjeff87

You can go with a Novac shifter or similar aftermarket solution, which are actually functionally better than the craptastick stock setup.....they don't tie the shift mechanism together between the body and the driveline in such stupid fashion. But they're not as cheap as the factory setup (so long as you have all the correct little pieces/parts.

I loathe shopping, especially on Black Friday. But, Home Depot has/had a 3/4 hp Genie belt drive garage door opener on sale for $98 (regular price $197 or something). I dragged my butt out of bed yesterday morning at 0430 so I could be there when they opened. Long story short, it took me, a manager and two floor guys to find the only 2 they had in the store but I walked out of there with one. It will be replacing the builder-grade, chain drive Wayne Dalton opener that came with the house when built in 2009. It still works fine, but is so loud that small animals fall out of trees nearby when operated. We have a bonus room above the garage which we use as a home office....if you're sitting there using the computer and someone opens the garage door you almost have a heart attack from the sudden noise, lol. The inlaws are leaving for home early tomorrow morning, so installation is my project-of-the-day Anybody else brave enough to venture out yesterday and grab a bargain?

The AX15 has very specific parts, unlike all the other trannies behind the 2.5/4.0. You our need the crossmember, which is divoted in the center. You also need the bracket that attaches to the trans/transfer case, along with the bracket that bolts to the trans tunnel. The swivel/heim in the bracket is offset towards the rear for the AX15, while all the others are centered. You also need the rod that connects the shifter linkage to the TC range bracket, it's a specific length. The Ax4/5, BA10/5 rod is too short, and the AW4 rod is too long.

^^^lol Frankenturkey (breast) is stuffed and in the oven. It should be done anywhere between 1:00 and Saturday. Alices Restaurant is cued up, ready to go at noon. I've already started drinking beer. Happy Thanksgiving CC

^^^nice Sounds like a food explosion, lol

^^^theres lots of options fir a cleaning chemical for the core (CLR, Prestone mystery fluid, and others). Since my KJ core is aluminum, and buried under my dash, I didn't want to take a chance of putting anything too caustic in it and chance any possible corrosion/leak. Vinegar is a mild acid that doesn't attack aluminum, although it does discolor it if left in contact for too long, so I took the safe route with it. The trick is to carefully blow out the core with air and then add the vinegar/water mix so it actually fills up the core. I let it sit like that for about 30 minutes, then flushed it all out. Blew the core out with air again, then filled the core with coolant mix, quickly reconnected the hoses and refilled the whole system. I've got 170 degree air out of my vents now, have to cut the heat back it runs so good, lol. Glad you have heat again

I've been considering a remote filter, just can't figure out a good spot to mount it.....I'd like it somewhere on the firewall, but just nowhere there available.

^^^this area is big on oysters too, Chesapeake Bay and all. I can eat them fried, not too keen otherwise, lol. Thats a cool tradition though

Yeah, I know. My father was a Nam vet (Korea too). I know the sentiment back then, and while I don't agree with it, as much as I hate to say it, it's a part of American history. Aside from that little part, you have to admit the song is funny as all h*ll.

LOL, green bean casserole. The official side dish of PA. Along with "Pittsburgh potatoes" (frozen cubed potatoes, cream of whatever soup, sour cream, melted butter and shredded cheddar cheese, all topped with crushed up corn flakes). Not for thanksgiving, but perfectly acceptable at almost any other holiday and/or family gathering. I just made green bean casserole last weekend to go with some baked half chickens and rice pilaf. Wife loves it, which is weird because she hates onions of any sort.

Holy crap...... And I'm worried about the little Fumoto valve I installed on my oil pan. LOL.

Yeah, but lookey where that alternator is......it's so easy to change I think even one of my cats could do it Now, getting the oil filter off, or changing the #6 plug or coil. Well, some engineer needs keel hauled for those.

I almost forgot, one non-food tradition my wife and I have....at noon we have to listen to Alice's Restaurant. There's a radio station in Pittsburgh (WDVE) that plays it every year. "who ever heard of a dump bein' closed on thanksgiving?"

Manche, if you're taking a wheeling vehicle, you can run Shoe Creek, either from the bottom up to Buttermilk Falls or start at the top and go down. It's not crazy wheeling....I ran it bottom up in my stock TJ on 31's doing a couple bypasses on more "technical" sections, but it's a few hours worth of fun. It starts off rt 29 just north of Lynchburg and runs up through Shenandoah. At the Falls area on top you can hit hardball and come out onto Skyline Drive.

Back to the heater core for a moment, I totally forgot. One of the tricks I used, that I think had the best result, was to gently modify an el cheapo hose end wand thingy that my dear old mom got for me many years ago. I bent the tube part carefully so it would insert the whole way into the core inlet/outlets, and it has a 1/4 turn valve on it. I used it to flush the core both ways with short, quick bursts of water. Putting the tube the whole way into the core allowed me to really get a good flush and push any air out

What are the specs on the "bed" size? That looks even less functional than an Avalanche. I know, the MJ didn't have a full sized bed either, but at least it was functional......more so the LB.. Some of us consumers look for a pickup to be able to do pickup truck kind of things. I R disappoint.

I'm here, the beers are cold, and yer always welcome Shes a keeper. Any chance she would be willing to spend a weekend, or several years, with my wife to teach her?

I'm sure you're wife brought many new dishes into your life Eagle. If you ever care to share some of them, I'm all ears. Yeah, as far as I can remember, nobody ever got sick or died from stuffing. I should correct my original post as I said "dressing", which technically is cooked in a pan outside of the bird. Blah. STUFFING is where it's at. MIL uses four (yes, four) loaves of bread and 2 dozen eggs to make her stuffing, and crams it into any and every part of the mutant breast she buys. Yes, it sits there and stews inside the cavity for way too many hours in the "food danger zone" while it all cooks, but it is damned good. Did I mention the cubed potatoes she mixes into the whole mess too? Yeah, good eats. Full disclosure, I'm a trained and certified chef through the American Culinary Federation, and plainly violate most of the rules of current cooking philosophy (and law, in a commercial setting, but I'm not active in the business now). Moms, their moms, and their moms moms know/knew how to cook. Well, except for my crescent-roll burning wife...she couldn't cook her way out of a wet paper bag. I still lover her though.

^^^mine did that too. I scraped off what I could, very carefully masked off everything around them, and spray painted them with some gloss black. I also had chrome window vent visors....I sprayed the same black to the insides of them so they didn't glare so much in the sunlight.

Nick....one year I got so fed up with both families fighting over what time each was going to serve the meal that I said screw it, we're not coming home to visit EITHER of ya. Wife and I stayed home and did exactly what you and yours are planning (except for the beach part). It was wonderful, but boy were both mothers pretty cheesed off at us both for a few months after that. 'Manche, are you coming up 460 through Suffolk or driving I64? If via 460, you'll literally be passing about 2 minutes from my house once you get to I95 (we're about 20 minutes/miles south of Richmond city). Stop by for a beer or 10 if ya want. I feel you on the great outdoors, we spent a week over at Smith Mountain Lake a couple months ago in a little cottage right on the water. It was incredible.

Nice. I could eat my body weight in those lamb chops that the New Zealand (IIRC) booth had at the Epcot food and wine festival. Who knew that ground up potato chips make the world's best topping on a grilled lamb chop. I sure didn't, but do now

Sadly, I have very few family members left (alive), only one brother and an aunt. We did the "alternating" family gatherings for Thanksgiving and Christmas for years and couldn't get either family to coordinate meal times for so long I just gave up. Thankfully, we don't have to do that dance anymore. I usually cube up a couple potatoes and make a small pot of mashed, and I bake off a sweet potato, just for me. Leftover turkey is never a problem....we usually have about 19.27 lbs of the original 20 lb breast to munch on for days afterward

Might be a couple days early for this, but WTH..... What does your family do as a tradition for Thanksgiving? I'm mostly talking about food here, curious about what different people do around the country (and world, for that matter). Turkey day for me is my favorite holiday (it's about the only holiday that isn't commercialized except for black Friday), bar none, and I'm a strict traditionalist when it comes to grub. I likes my roasted turkey (the whole damn bird, not just a breast.....), dressing, mashed and sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce (preferably homemade), buttered corn and gravy. Pumpkin pie with real dang whipped cream, too. Problem is that my wife and I alternate holidays with her parents....and this year they are coming here to VA but MIL is bringing most of the stuff. She buys the hugest turkey breast (fresh, she's picking it up on Wednesday morning on their way here) she can get. I'm serious, she gets like a 20 lb BREAST, for 4 people. She buys an extra thigh and leg and throws it in the roaster just for me, 'cause I'm the only one who likes dark meat. That never turns out well, because you need to cook them longer so they are tender......they always end up like rubber. But I just shut up and eat them, LOL. She cubes up raw potatoes and mixes them into the stuffing too (it's an Amish thing, I guess). Her stuffing is wonderful tasting, but because it has potatoes in it noone wants mashed potatoes on the side, and nobody eats sweet potatoes, except for guess who? Me. My wife is in charge of making crescent rolls (from the tube, not from scratch), and always ends up burning them in the toaster oven. That's a lovely addition as well. We just bought a new gas range with dual ovens earlier this year, and I doubt the Chernobyl sized monster turkey will fit in either oven in the garbage can sized roaster she always cooks it in, so that's another potential thing I'll need to deal with as well. I might just go in the garage with a beer and watch TV all morning. So.....what's everyone else do?

I vote for back, but I'll go along with whatever the majority likes best.

Kinda boring pics, but I spent the better part of Saturday tracking down Phillips bulbs (only Pep Boys carries them around me, and I loathe going into that store....). I found it much quicker and easier to just pull the grill and both headlight housings out to swap the bulbs, rather than trying to get to them from behind. I polished the headlamp lenses again, and also pulled the fogs and polished them (they were in need of a cleaning/polishing). I accidentally broke the tip off of one the OEM/old headlight bulbs pulling it out of the housing, so in the trash it went LOL. It still worked, but instantly fogged up with mystery smoke when I plugged it back in. Grill pulled and headlights out, headlights with polish on them (Crest toothpaste, then followed up with Meguire's scratch remover compound), fogs out, fogs polished, all put back together, and an obligatory shot of my engine bay Only 3 beers and one cut finger.