Automan2164

This winter, I spent some money on the fun stuff. I finally stopped messing around and hum-hoing the lift, and pulled the trigger. JKS adjustable upper and lower short arms JKS quicker disconnects JKS adjustable track bar OME 4" TJ coils (Dirk at DPG offroad assured me it would get me close to where I need to be) OME front shocks RE drop brackets DPG extended bump stops DPG disco cables Life got in the way again, and this sat from early January, until this weekend. SUNLIGHT! Don't mind the Diesel and the 'Nest chilling in the background. Long time coming here... Out with the old. In with the new... :brows: So that is about where it currently sits. the 4.5" Hell Creek SUA real leaf packs have been ordered, the GF and I went to the yard today and I picked up a ZJ steering setup, and I just power washed off the track bar bracket, motor mount horns, ZJ linkage, and the 28MM sway bar I have for this thing. It's been sitting too long, and it's time to light some fires up. While it may seem like all of this recent stuff happened quick, it is the collection of quite some time to get it to this point. No more excuses. This thing needs to happen. Seeing all that front stuff go on this weekend is really a motivator. Big thanks to Neohic for updating the thread. I have to do my part to keep it going. Stay tuned. Rob

A few weeks later, back into the daylight for jamb spraying of color. Hit the hinges with some primer. Ground down the welds from the striker fix and primered. Test fitting some panels. Back off and my super in action putting some color on it for the first time! There is that crisp, cool white I was after. He had jamb sprayed the fenders and the doors for me, so I put them on again, so I wouldn't damage them kicking around... And back into hibernation.

While on hiatus, I spent some time on Rock Auto getting essentials... Brakes, seals, gaskets... After not doing anything about it when I POR'ed the axles, I took care of the dimples in the knuckles from the brake pads grinding around... Also hit the strikers where the plates were tearing out. Oh yeah... While on that ordering spree, I picked up a ton of hardware, fasteners, and body hardware to prevent the "Can't do this until I get one of these" problems and hold ups. www.bodysupplyco.com has some great assortments at great prices.

When I had the hood soda blasted, I brought by the D30/D44 4.10's to be sand blasted. Came out great. POR and SHAZAAM! After that, I took another hiatus.

When I had the truck blasted, I left the bed behind. Not wanting it to look weird when looking at that nice black frame and a crusty unfinished bed, I made some moves. I picked up a HF sand blaster and was completely impressed with how well it worked. It made short work of it. Then the bed got tossed back on and put back for a couple weeks. Ah the joys of having a 2 car garage and no work space. A few weeks later, truck out, bed in, and standing at attention for detail. More POR! This underhood light I got from the Matco guy at work kicks some serious arse. One of the best purchases I've made, seeing as I am always working outside, or in the (used to be) dimly lit garage.

While all of this was going on, some primer was put on the doors and fenders. My supervisor was still in on all of this, and still is. I have MJ parts strewn about his garage still. These are the pics from that. Supervisor doing his thing: Me getting in on the action. The hood ended up being a little weird. There were multiple layers of paint and weirdness, so this was the extent of what we did to it. We needed to strip it clean to make sure that the new paint wouldn't be affected by the old paint, so I had it soda blasted and he prepped it on his own. Pics of that to come. I also had them blast some axles at the same time.

In my last post, I talked about a classification change. What I was after is that after some thought... A white longbed is quite a bit well... Long. And white. And long. Something needs to be done to sort of break up the white. I saw some white MJ Chiefs that really spoke to me. Now, we all know that those were SWB only. But who's going to know but us MJ guys? Right? So I went about scouring all my old parts manuals, and putting the phone to use. After some emails, I tracked down some of the last remaining pieces of Chief decals. This was all I could come up with, other stuff is not available, or not in the network list of dealers. The way I look at it, with the header panel stripe, the left hood stripe, and a piece of the lower fender stripe, I should be able to get some new stuff made. I can mirror the hood stripe for the other side, re-create the header panel one, and have a decal guy make a roll of the lower body striping. I can't find anything on the window black frame strips, or the lower doors. A fellow MJ clubber came through huge on that one though. He had listed a factory NOS rear bumper, and some chief parts. We nailed down a price on the bumper, and I asked about the door and how attached he was. He wasn't, and they already had some rust. For a little extra dough, he lopped off the lower section of the door so I could make stencils and have those redone. Super. He even included a little something extra. Rob

Well. Well. Well. How was this for dramatic suspense!? I have been working on this thing here and there... But haven't been posting much. After FB changed all the picture addresses a couple years ago, it felt like a lost cause. Any progress would be overshadowed by the complete lack of photos up to the current point. All seemed lost. I've been continually posting pics up on FB, just doing some things here and there. I took a pretty big leap this weekend, and Neohic noticed the pics. While we were texting, he asked about if I was going to bring this puppy back from the dead. I said probably not. This was not satisfactory for Ben. I finished what I was doing, and called it a night. Late, late last night, I got a message. It was Ben. He created a Photo Bucket account in my name. Then he took all the photos from my Farmer album, transferred them to PB... Once that was done, he went through the entire thread using his editing moderator powers and fixed all the pictures to date. So that brings me here... Without excuses. I have to really, really thank Ben for doing this. And without further adieu... Time to play some catch up. Let's kick it off with the next post. Rob :cheers:

I say send it to Cruiser... He's the RENIX expert. I don't know of anyone else who would use it more. Rob

I had a love/hate with my ZJ. I had a '98 4.0L Limited with a D30/35. I bought it off one of those shady used car lots because I liked the way it looked, and I beat the pants off it before buying... Didn't miss a step. The ride was fantastic, the mileage was good, and it was big enough to feel comfortable in. It had all options... Sunroof, steering wheel radio controls, climate control... Everything was great. I drive like an old man, and usually averaged about 20 MPG. The trans was constantly on my mind. It never did anything in the 50K that I had it (100-150). Heated seats never worked, the A/C evaporator had a hole in it and would lose charge into the interior. NP249 viscous coupler was junk. I replaced the expensive DC front drive shaft and returned it once I started having problems. I pulled the front shaft and sold it that way years later. Axles were the biggest problem. The front blew the pinion seal on a 2-3 hour road trip. I decided I would rebuild the axles myself. I had a supervisor help me out, and just replaced the bearings and seals. All shims were left where they were. The axles overheated, and I ended up doing a full JY swap from D30/D35 3.55 to D30/D44HD 3.73. The rear axle had a bearing howl, so I enlisted the help of a friend on CC who did that for a living. After taking the cover off, it looked like it has spun the races in the aluminum diff. Out that came for another JY sourced D35. It looked like all D44HD's in the JY had spun races. I lifted it while doing all this axle swapping with spacers. Never did the front lower arms, so it didn't have enough caster to hold itself straight... It would wander and follow the road imperfections.

One of the cops at work said he was going to give it a shot. I have no expertise on this, so I'll just regurgitate what he told me... Best way to start a giant pumpkin is with a giant pumpkin. He picked a couple up after they were at a show, and just tossed them into his yard where he wanted to start growing. The rotting pumpkin starts the seeds and fertilizes it at the same time. Rob

Doesn't this truck have a frame repair?

Makita 18V Lith Ion. I have the drill, impact driver, grinder, sawzall, LED flashlight, and 1/2 impact. Battery life is great, tools are strong and take a beating. Great for the yard and around the garage. We have pretty much the same setup at work. We had some money left in the budget at the beginning of summer and had to replace some aging DeWalt and a Snap on 1/2 impact. They have been in a fleet garage as mainline tools for 7 months and have not missed a beat. The 1/4 impact driver actually had enough balls to take off the 22MM lug nuts on our 3/4 ton Duramax in the shop. I have had comments from the other departments about how they prefer the power and tool than the Milwaukee/DeWalt/whatever brand they might have. I did end up cooking a battery at home, but that is because I left it on the charger for a long period of time (months) and at some point, the cooling fan had succumbed to dust and the battery was toast. Rob

I was just a member of the group when I saw that. When I noticed it, it was posted for 2 hours. I checked the member database, and an admin approved his membership 2 hours before... Verifying my guess that he just joined the group to troll. I flagged it, posted on the group asking for some admins to PM me. Another CC member was on there and tagged both of the admins. Little while later, an admin contacted me and removed him from the group. I was offered a slot, and I am now an admin over there. https://www.facebook.com/groups/279185167172/ Rob

Was it a demo truck? Some guy got accepted to one of the facebook MJ groups and was basically rubbing it in to a bunch of enthusiasts that he destroyed the truck. Real piece of work. Neither of the admins caught it, so I posted asking for an admin to contact me... They removed him, and granted me admin status. Rob

Emailed Tom, and I'm glad I did. This was his response to my questioning ride/spring rates.

Bo, how long have you had those leaves in? Many miles on them? Did you happen to measure the actual gain of lift? Any pictures of it out in the wild before/after? ggcnash, did you run any other shocks besides the bilsteins? Any pictures of the truck before/after? Thanks, Rob

That space was for a short lived option from '84-'85 in high end XJ Wagoneers. Rob

Be sure you are clicking the "Enable HTML" under the signature edit box. Rob

Finally, after many many months of inactivity and neglect, my '87 Metric Ton "Farmer" project is getting some love. I've been waiting to pull the trigger on some lift stuff for the old man in the garage and it's time. The only thing I was sure of was that I wanted an OME lift. I had it narrowed down to a 3" or 4.5" ordered from DPG offroad. After a conversation with Neohic, he made the decision that it should be 4.5", since the truck will already be rolling on a D30/D44 with 4.10's and AX15. That, and IIRC "Those longbeds are just so... Long. Might as well make it 4.5" and 33's to make it noticeable." I am eager to have it rolling on its build axles that have been prepped and sitting next to it for the longest time. After hum-hoing the LA/SA thing, I decided that LA isn't the way to go for me, this truck will most likely be a weekend warrior anyway, SA will do. I am a proponent of spending good money where you need to, and this is also the case. I placed the order with Dirk at DPG a couple days ago, and now am at a crossroad. Parts ordered: OME coils (I told him I didn't think OME made these in a 4.5" flavor, he reassured me he had something) OME Shocks JKS Adjustable UCA's JKS Adjustable LCA's JKS Adjustable trackbar JKS Quicker Disconnects DPG offroad Disco Cables DPG offroad bumpstops RE CA drop brackets So... Now for the rear. The D44 I have is an MJ specific one, and is set up for SOA/SUA with perches still on both sides. I sent an email off to Tom over at Hell Creek for prices and availability on springs. He said the lead time on springs is about 3 weeks, and the factory will be closed until the 10th. I have some time to mull this over. Dirk said we will wait until the rear springs are in until we order rear shocks, since we have some options depending on height. My next decision is what to do. This is where I wanted to spit ball with the guys who I trust. I want to keep the truck useable without making it ride like a dump truck. I haven't talked to Tom about spring rates yet, but have been tossing a few things around. A: Order 4.5" Lift springs for the back, keep it SUA, and hope it doesn't ride like a gravel truck. Maybe someone who has the HC 4.5" springs can chime in about the ride or just some insight. B: Order 3" Lift springs for the back, keep it SUA, and use Chevy drop shackles to get the extra height. This may be a good option just in case the front lift comes out a little shy of 4.5". The movement of the shackle might help tune the height to match, as well as using a less aggressive lift spring may help the ride. I don't want to have negative effects from the shackle affecting pinion angle either though. C: Go SOA with 2WD leaf packs. Use the other perches on the axle to go SOA, and use 2WD packs to keep the SOA to a minimum. I know this may possibly put me up closer to 6". I could use XJ shackles to bring it down some, but even then, it may not be enough. Of the options, this is the one I want to stay away from if possible... Unless someone sways me. So what say you? Rob

Hunting rigs, I thought, have been pretty much just beaters. I know you are probably excited about it, but why couldn't you just find a Cherokee with a 4.0L, AW4, 231, manual everything, vinyl floor, and a 8.25? The axles could handle 31's, 33's with a light foot, and fit under a 3" lift with some beating/trimming. Put some rocker guards on it so it can belly drag and have a couple good high lift points... Maybe some bumpers if he's feeling spritely... But a hitch at the least for a recovery point. Other than that, the occasional rock bump or tree scrape on the body will be a moot point, and the XJ can easily be replaced in the event of something major without a ton of time into it. Rob :dunno:

I was planning on keeping a running count on how much money I had into The Farmer, but tracking the nickles and dimes over the 4 year period it has been sitting in the garage would be asinine. I gave up a couple grand in. Rob

Mechanix Impact gloves, a hand boiler for my desk at work, air chuck, a digital tach pickup for playing with the diesel MJ... and my personal favorite, an extended life Makita battery, and work light. I love this Makita light. LED, bright as day. Stands by itself, or has a METAL hook to hang it by. So glad the hook isn't some cheap plastic junk I would break in ten minutes. This is the light in a completely dark garage: Rob

I keep some Power Service Diesel Fuel additive and Marvel Mystery oil in the tool box for fill ups. I used to do it all the time when I had my '97 Dodge 12 Valve Cummins and it was a carry over habit. Good to hear you are on your way. Rob