Comanche County

If you're going to wire up a stock or mid-range power deck than I'd use the stock wiring that exists in the MJ. There are a couple of open "ACC" plugs in the fuse box that you can tap into with a simple spade connector for the constant power line if needed. However, if you're planning on a decent aftermarket system with an amp, then disregard the existing radio wiring harness and get a deck/radio with 4 or 6 (depending on how many speakers you're running) RCA pre-outputs on the back and run good quality RCA speaker wires from the back of the Deck to your amp, then out to the speakers with standard auto speaker wires. Tap into the fuse block with one of the ACC openings for your constant power needs. I'm not certain, but the other day I was playing with mine (to run power for a couple of off road lights), most of those openings are constant power, that means they are not "keyed on" type openings. But its easy to find a "keyed on" power source if you have a DMM. There are several electrical gurus on the forum who will correct me if needed. Bottom line, its very easy to wire up an aftermarket system without using the existing speaker wires. A keyed power wire and a constant power wire should be all that's needed if you use RCA speaker wires to connect the deck to the amp, that is if you're using an amp. If not, and your powering the speakers off the deck, then the existing factory speaker wires should be satisfactory. Then just pull the door panels and the "B" panels and check the wire colors, they should be constant from the factory connector in the dash behind the radio.

Listening to the Ranger's night games on the original AM radio in my old 65' Mustang while catfishing at the lake was one of my favorite adolescent memories. A good radio announcer can't be beat.

Well deserved sir. As soon as you drive it out to Moab it will be nationally photo'd!

At first look they're not so bad. They could wear on me after time though, not sure yet, just never seen them on an MJ before. I think they look pretty good.

Yeah, American Pickers and American Restoration are good, Pawn Stars is one I'm tired of...

Yeah Rob, you listed exactly what I was talking about......I will admit the "Doomsday Preppers" show is interesting, but only in a passing sort of way like most of the others. Perhaps I'm hitting on the "hook" that the networks use, just some sort of flashing teaser that makes you turn to the channel....but then after a few minutes, they all disappoint, and if you watch the entire show, then you're left with the "I just got ripped off" feeling.

What are those wheels? I like em!

I recently read an article on the late Johnny Carson who remarked shortly before his death that he was glad he got out of the television business just as the "Reality" show genre was taking over television. I'd have to agree that he's right. It seems every network has gone the "Reality" route. I imagine its actually cost effective, no need for big sets or highly paid actors. All you need for a reality show is a strange or out of the ordinary topic, a pretty girl with a huge bust and a talented editor and background music editor, then bingo, there's a small screen hit. Every channel I turn to has some sort of highly annoying reality series on. "Real Housewives of Such and Such City", give me a break. Even my favorite Velocity channel with my beloved "Wheeler Dealer" show. They've also got a truly annoying show called "What's my car worth?" I swear, if I see another overweight Chevelle with a $10K paint job I'm gonna barf. Back to the celebrity thing,,,oh nevermind, I really don't care. Beside sporting events, the only shows in the last few years I've found actually worth dedicating my time to watch have been on the movie channels like HBO and Showtime, except for one show on a major channel...you may remember it, it was called "Lost", great freakin series. The other's have been "Rome", "Spartacus", "Boardwalk Empire", "Game of Thrones", and a few others. Nowadays, I just don't bother with 99% of things on television unless the above shows are on or the Texas Rangers are playing (my beloved Cowboys aren't worth watching anymore, call me a fair weather fan, I don't care)..... Am I alone in my annoyance?

Pull the bearing retainer off and yank the bearing and inspect it for play. That may be all you need.

Yep, if that's the original line, then its rubber section is fairly close to the #6 cylinder header tube and prone to heat damage. Check closely there against the firewall.

My 2 cents, FWIW: First, a disclaimer: I'm no metallurgist, professional axle builder, or even someone that thinks they're smart,,,,and I know people will disagree with me because of their experiences but here goes.... Contrary to the commonly accepted belief that 37"/38" or larger tires are the thresh hold for full floating axles, I believe 35's are the thresh hold for full floating 3/4-1 ton axles. Why run a tire that you know will break parts, because there's no such thing as easy wheeling. Its a simple physics issue. That much mass when spinning will break most stock sized axle shafts as they catch and lose traction, even replacement alloy axle shafts. I run a HP44 up front with 1.34" 4340 alloy axle shafts and although there's been no axle shaft or diff issues, I just had to replace unit bearings and 1330 ujoints. The rear is a stock 44 with stock shafts with 1310 joints that are also on the way out. The rear axle is holding up so far but the possibility for breakage is always in the back of my mind. I'd rather have built the MJ with full width HD full floating axles with the piece of mind that I'll make it home since I also wheel alone often. Not to mention the safety aspect. Here's why I say 35s are the thresh hold for bigger axles. Not all 33s or 35s are the same. Its easy to find similar sized tires with dissimilar mass. Larger tires have more leverage, heavier tires have more mass and thus more energy while in motion. For instance, my 35"/12.5"/15" Dick Cepek Fun Country IIs on 15" Steel D windows weigh 90 lbs each, while my 35"/12.5"/16" Maxxis Creepy Crawlers on 16" steel Soft 8s weigh 102 lbs each. That 12 lb difference translates into a big MPG disparity and a severe difference in rotational mass and energy. Compared to the weight of stock tires that difference is truly immense and kinda scary if you think about the possibility of your larger off road tire weighing somewhere around 100 lbs breaking off your stock axle and smashing through a mini-van full of 8 year old girls on their way to ballet lessons. Not a pretty thought is it? I wish I could compare the weights of these larger sizes accurately to stock size tires but I couldn't. I tried to weigh a set of 235/75/15s on aluminum Canyons but they wouldn't even trigger my cheapo electric bathroom scale. I figure they're in the 30-40 lb range. Someone here ought to be able to give us the weight of stock wheels/tires. If someone can do that, you'll see that 35s, even 33s, will weigh at least twice as much as stock tires. When you spin larger tires, you need more beef to keep them under the vehicle while not having parts and fly off taking the unit bearing or rear axle shaft with it. IMO, 35s have no place on a D30 or D35, 8.25 (27 or 29 spline), or even a stock D44 even though that's what I've got. They will eventually break those axle shafts, its just a matter of time. 33s may also, but 33s, due to their lower mass, gives you a much wider range of axles to choose from and longevity of parts. What I'm suggesting is a simple physics question that I'm too dumb to figure out myself but I'll try to illustrate my point as best I can. So here's what someone needs to figure out.....Here's the "The Premise": If 33"s or 35"s weigh at least 50% more than stock tires, shouldn't the rest of the axle and bearing assembly which controls that tire be at least 50% stronger or more, or whatever the difference in mass works out to be? For reference, check out Randy Lyman's book on Diffs. Its worth the buy if you don't have it. http://www.amazon.com/Differentials-Ide ... 156&sr=8-2 Section 6/2/2A-C (pages 279-292) addresses torque capacity of axle shafts and u-joints. There's a couple of great sections on the difference in strength of various u-joints and axle shaft strength with different metallurgy. However, even though you may have an axle shaft and u-joints that are strong enough to hold the rotational torque of 33s or 35s, if its not full floating, you're still risking losing a tire or breakage. And we haven't even touched on diff or axle tube strength. This is why my MJ will have HD full floating 1 tons as soon as I have the dough. Here's some pics of a couple of pages of Randy's book. I'm probably committing copyright infringement but I'll take the chance. The pages are glossy and had too much glare with the lights on, so I turned them off and my iphone took crappy pics....not only am I a mediocre soapboxer, I'm a crappy photographer. Objecting opinions are welcome. But don't bring anecdotal evidence like "I've run 35s for years with no breakage" because that will simply indicate that you're a bit dense upstairs. Look at the last picture and check out the approximate strength of your axle and tire size before you object. Then answer this question: how much torque is produced by various sized tires at various RPMs in order to accurately choose an axle shaft size/heat treatment to ensure adequate strength? I'd bet the guys at Randy's or over at Currie's have already figured it out. Imagine a 102 lb 35" tire spinning at 500 RPM, just how strong of an axle shaft would you need? Once a tire size is chosen, the next choice is weight of the tire, then once you know rotational torque of the tire, then choose axles that will handle them. Again, there's a reason why the manufacturers run 265/75/16s or similar size tires on 1 ton trucks with full floating axles. Perhaps they're being conservative on tire size for the purposes of axle longevity, probably so. No manufacturer will risk safety. Why should we? If you're running 35's or larger with stock Jeep axles and your rig is intended for that mythical land we all know as "the trail", okay cool, but you'll break something eventually, then you'll be stuck out there on "the trail". In the risk of proving Groucho Marx's quote true that "the cliche is the crutch of a crippled mind", I'll go ahead and state that "if its worth building, its worth over building", or the ever popular "go big or go home". My advice to the OP, go with 33s or smaller or go with full floating axles.

Have you tried the JC Whitney catalog? They have all sorts of Jeep stuff.

Just listening to pure Americana nowadays from Folk to Americana Country to the Blues and a little Bluegrass every now and then. In no particular order: Robert Johnson Woodie Guthrie Blind Willie Johnson Fred Eaglesmith Ryan Bingham Hayes Carll Lyle Lovett Lucinda Williams Cowboy Junkies Bob Dylan Nanci Griffith Robert Earl Keen Rodney Crowell Tom Russell Emmylou Harris (lord almighty what a beautiful artist!) And on the rock side,,,,I have been into Jeff Buckley's album "Grace". Its an absolute piece of majesty! Also, been listening to a bit of Eddie Vedder. His "Into the Wild" soundtrack is pretty darn good!

I don't know the situation, but loyalty was always something that I never overlooked in the Army or Civilian world. Not just personal friendship type, but mostly professional loyalty to the unit/company and its goals. Too many people overlook intangibles, but intangibles manifest into action when times get tough. Keep kicking butt, you'll be good.

Nice, but I was expecting a Walker Texas Ranger type theme. I'll need to see more pictures before I deem it a Chuck Norris quality build. Looks dang good for now though!

That stinks, in 08' I had to lay off a lot of employees, whenever you have to lay people off its like kicking them in the nuts and it just stinks all the way around. Different situation for you but looks like the same result. I wish you the best of luck. Hope something pops up for you soon!

Well I was thinking it was an automatic. There's no way you should have standard transmission fluid up under the console. What are you using for fluid in the transmission, is it a BA/10 or AX-15?

That's my old trailer, I put the SOA on it. I'd like to have it back but no dough right now. The bumper was in rough shape when I had it, but they could have put a new one on.

Just a guess, but this could have something do with the transmission fluid you're finding under the console. You might wanna think about taking it to a transmission shop, they could track down the leak for you for a minimal charge and do a test drive to check out the noise.

Not sure about the loss of engine power, but the other symptoms you listed sounds like the alternator is getting weak or the belt could be slipping. Do you have a voltmeter or idiot gauge? How's the battery condition?

See if you can find the axle's BOM number, then you'll know exactly what it needs with Eagle's info. You can find the BOM on the Dana site: http://www2.dana.com/expertforms/deabill.aspx or here: http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_li ... mbers.html

Go get some quick setting epoxy, not the 60 sec stuff in the squeeze tubes, get it in pint sized cans and mix it up yourself and wipe it on. Sand excess off until smooth, then spray bomb. 1,2,3 and you've got new flares.'

You may need to change the ZJ CV pinion coupling over to a U-Joint yoke. Those CVs can be buggers to get off btw. Remove the eight (I believe) 8mm bolts, then liberally apply PB or what ever, then curse some, then grab a BFH. If you yank the drive shaft too hard, the CV can come apart. Its also LP.

True sir.

~$300 bucks at an engine machine shop to do a valve job, mill the head surface true, and install new valve seals and valve guides. JY engines can run about $200-250 depending on the yard.