natander2ksometime
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Everything posted by natander2ksometime
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I did some solo wheeling on my birthday... And some wheeling with my best friend and his family.
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I took it on a few longer highway trips. Aside from the horribly cracked Gibson header and horribly bent rear bumper, it was perfect!
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Well, like always, it's been a while. After all the engine work, the truck was finally running like it was new again! I tried to drive it every chance I got to break the engine in. In doing that, I got rear ended on the way to work one April morning. I don't think I've ever been so pissed. Carbon mountain bike, brand new bike rack, and it got my tailgate... Unfortunately I was never able to find someone who was willing to work on it. This was the day I decided not to drive the MJ to work across Denver any more.
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Hey guys, I'll try to do my best to update this thread as things get planned out. I am the one planning the event this year. I plan on doing trail run planning and having a sign up place for that. I'm also trying to get shirts made for those who would like to purchase them. I am horrible about checking CC, but I will try to be better!
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There absolutely is! PM me for details. Don't want to muddy up this amazing build thread.
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You should bring it out to Moab in September for the MJ Takeover! I'm planning it this year.
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I'd be down! Even if it's something scenic. It doesn't always have to be hardcore.
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To the fullest!! Unfortunately haha
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So, after strong recommendations from my girlfriend and some friends, I decided to order a new head for the engine. Of course, this would be the best time for an upgrade, right? I ordered it on the first of October, and received it right before Christmas. I was pretty pissed while waiting, but I should consider myself lucky that I could get it at all. This past weekend, I went to a friends house with a heated garage to swap it out. The help was greatly appreciated! Here are the cylinder walls. I was worried that the bottom end would be shot from running with a misfire. I guess I lucked out. With the help of some friends, we also discovered that the #1 injector was stuck open. After taking the injectors apart, we believe that it had literally been cooked. It was a significantly different color than the other 5. I'm super disappointed in Clearwater Cylinder Heads. That head only had 8k miles put on it, and its complete trash. It was $200 more expensive than a parts store head. So much for trying to buy the best stuff! It's crazy that the Jeep only had 6k miles put on it last year. It sat for most of the year. Honestly there were plenty of times when I just wanted to sell it. However, it's running better than ever, so I've fallen back in love. And one more thing. Last summer, I sold the Dana 44 / Ford 9 Inch because I realized I didn't want to use them. I figured they would be too much for what I wanted to do. I did find a key part for the future axle swap at the beginning of the year however. This is a stock JK Rubicon 44. I think this will be exactly what I need...
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Carnage report: -Somehow the windshield ended up getting a huge crack -Slightly dented rear driveshaft -Roasted the drag link, swapped with spare for the drive home -Stripped some teeth off the gearbox -Loosened the steering shaft -Tail light scratch (and exposure of bondo??). On this obstacle on The Pickle, 3+ people broke MJ tail lights. I'm thankful for 3/16" steel! The Washington boys using an oscilloscope to ensure my injectors weren't the cause of the misfire. Thanks again guys! Tim drove back with us to make sure everyone made it home. 20210919_155624.mp4 I ended up averaging 15.6 mpgs on 5 cylinders, which is insane!
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On the last wheeling day, we volunteered to lead a group up Fins and Things. We ended up bailing early because Robert in the big MJ broke his steering mount off the knuckle! We ended up using the stock tie rod location on the Dana 60 to get him back to town. Our old friend Jeremy in his shlong bed. He had done a lot of upgrades in the last year! Robert's MJ on SD axles Laine and his son, who drove out from Kansas!
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Hey! I'm pretty sure I've seen you around too! I'm around the Wadsworth and Belleview area. Next time you see me, wave me down!
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Later that night, we did the hardest trail I've ever done, The Pickle. Honestly, I was terrified the entire time. It's a different animal when you have a super clean Jeep and have to drive 350 miles home. Despite my worries, the Jeep nailed every obstacle! My good friend Andy's monster MJ Another good friend Joe came out and brought friends to get wild We had major carnage on the first obstacle. This guy drove his XJ out from Washington, and blew up his rear driveshaft and tie rod. Luckily I had a spare tie rod assembly to give him! We all worked together to get him off the trail, and ultimately, he was able to drive it back to Washington! Poor Slamche broke a radiator halfway through the trail. Ultimately, he had to yeet his way through the rest of it while constantly filling it up with water. He made it back to the trailhead, and on to Cody's trailer for a ride back to town. Photo credits: Ruben C., Cody T., Jessika
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On the next day, a small group of us ran Top of the World. I'll be honest, I don't need to run that trail again. It's super long, really far away from town, and it was pretty rough on everyone. We had a couple flats, among a few other issues. I will say, it's defintely worth doing once. My buddy Ruben got some amazing pictures for me on this run though!
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We ended up making it just fine. My girlfriend followed with her car in case of emergency, and to carry stuff because we pulled the topper off for the trip. On the first day, we ran Poison Spider. Definitely an amazing trail! We got to meet a lot of great people for the first time, including my fender flare brother Tim! Photo credits: Me, Ruben C., Tim H.
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And then things started to go south with the new motor... It developed a misfire in cylinder 1. Took it back to the shop, and they determined that the valves had a carbon build up on them. We tried a couple things, but ultimately couldn't really fix it. Like always, it started to fall apart right before the 2021 Moab MJ Takeover... We decided to go for it anyways. Here's me test driving it up in Frisco to make sure we could make it to Moab and back.
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On 4th of July weekend, my girlfriend and I met up with some friends to do Red Cone Pass, which is one of my favorite Colorado trails. The views and reasonable difficulty are unmatched by any other trail near Denver.
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Well, I guess it's time for my once-a-year build thread update? So, at the beginning of 2021, I got the rebuilt engine back from the shop. I got it installed by myself, and everything was working super well! We took it on a few camping trips, and tried to drive it as much as possible to break the engine in.
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Thanks for that info. I'm sure whatever part had a recall doesn't even exist anymore!
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Thanks Pete! It's a good old truck, that's for sure.
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When we got back from Moab, the Jeep sat for about a week. When I drove it the next time, it had a misfire in cylinder 6 (disappointing considering the work we had just completed). A compression test showed that cylinder 6 had about half the compression of the rest of the cylinders. I broke down and took it to a shop, which is where it currently sits as of December. It didn't get driven from September on. Huge disappointment, but hopefully it gets fixed proper this time. Here's a side bar. Because every vehicle I own had a major issue at one point this year, I had to pull my 1976 Dodge Power Wagon out of storage to daily drive. At the beginning of 2020, I had done a one ton swap on it, along with floor pans (which is something I hope I never have to do again). So here's Bessie. It was my first vehicle, cost $500 back in 2010-ish, and has been the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. Over the last two months, I've been daily driving this across Denver every day, even with a non-existent clutch. 1976 Dodge W100 318ci , NP435 manual, NP203 full time 4x4 Kingpin Dana 60, 14 Bolt, 4.10 gears, open/open for now 315/70/17 BFG KO2's
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It's definitely the best time I've ever had wheeling. There's enough rigs that you don't have to do the difficult trails, and there's enough wheeling and wrenching experience that you don't really have to worry about much. Thank you for the compliment!
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On the last wheeling day of Moab, a small group of us decided to run Poison Spider. I was a little worried about the difficulty of it, but my Jeep killed it! Honestly, peak performance. Photo credits to Ruben Campos.
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The next day was the classic Hells Revenge run. Always a good time with all of the MJ's. Photo credits to Ruben Campos and Robyn Livermore.
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On the first full day of Moab this year, we met up with the mild half of the group to run Gemini Bridges again (the big guys were doing Pritchett Canyon). There were a lot more attendee's this year, which is awesome! Photo credits to Ruben Campos.
