derf

The Black Bear switchbacks, looking from Imogene trail.

I forgot a couple of things: Both places have plenty of restaurants in town. Typically, the groups I run with will do a trail during the day and go out for dinner when they get home. The Ouray area has a lot of trails that take you to another town. It's possible to run a morning trail to another town, stop for lunch, and then run another trail back. I've run Black Bear from Silverton to Telluride, stopped for lunch, then run Imogene trail back to Ouray. Black Bear Pass is one way (Ouray to Telluride). It's not overly technical. Stock Jeeps can do it and I've even followed a Suburban down it. But the switchbacks are pucker inducing. Plenty of 3, 5, 7, and even 9 point turns depending on your wheelbase (*cough* Gladiator). If people in the group are afraid of heights, it's not the trail to run.

Ouray/Silverton/Telluride is very scenic. Lots of trails lead to old mining camps that can be cool to explore. Most trails are not especially difficult. The MJ on 31's will do fine on 90% of the trails. The bigger Jeeps won't be challenged as much. But still it's a great area to go. Moab has a much wider variety of trails to challenge all levels of Jeeps. The MJ on 31's can push it up to maybe a 7 or 8 rated trail. You may need to be tugged over an obstacle or two. Lockers make a big difference as you get up to the harder trails. Hell's Revenge and Fins 'n' Things are two trails that a Jeep on 31's can handle and are the "go to" trails for Moab trips. Moab in the summer gets pretty hot. You're in the desert in the summer. It can get over 100 degrees. It is a dry heat so it's not terrible. Just be sure to have plenty of water along. There can be some summer storms blowing in that can drop the temperature substantially depending on when you're there. Ouray is a lot higher elevation and doesn't get nearly as warm. In fact, when weather blows in it can be downright cold. It's not impossible to get snow even in the summer. I've been at the top of Imogene pass a number of times. One year it was sunny and warm. I was in shorts and a t-shirt. Another year it was in the 30's with a sustained wind over 20 mph and I was glad I brought my winter coat. In both cases, the best way to do it is to get a hotel or rental house in town. Camping options are open if you like to do that. Pack a lunch (and food for dinner for just-in-case of a break down) and strike out for a day trip to a trail each morning. There's usually enough traffic on all of the trails that if you get in trouble, you can get some help. It's a good idea to have radios (CB or GMRS usually, Ham if you're inclined to do that). There's plenty of places to get information on the trails. Cell phone service is spotty so if you look online, be sure to have everything downloaded before the trip. You can get GPS files that you can load up and it gives you a nice route to follow. If you like paper books, there's one book series that's really good. Colorado (south of I-70): https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Colorado-Backroads-4-Wheel-Drive-Trails/dp/1934838268/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=charles+wells&qid=1612193726&sr=8-2 Colorado (north of I-70): https://www.amazon.com/Northern-Colorado-Backroads-4-Wheel-Drive-Guidebooks/dp/1934838276/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=charles+wells&qid=1612193726&sr=8-3 Moab: https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Moab-Backroads-4-Wheel-Drive-Trails/dp/193483825X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=charles+wells&qid=1612193726&sr=8-1

NFC Best chase scene: Ronin, Bullitt, other?

So did later full size Jeeps. Around the same time as the YJ. Front leaf springs work fine by themselves but they don't corner as well as a good independent suspension or properly designed coil suspension with a straight axle. A panhard bar helps with that.

It's actually warm enough to open up the house today. So most of the snow is gone. We'll get more by the end of the week though.

If you can take the axle out yourself at the junkyard it's usually $100-150 around here. Buying one already taken out it's going to be more.

At least.

You maybe could cut it in half and use the pieces separately.

First coat done all the way around. Now it's time for the sanding to begin.

Yeah, there's people who are good at drywall. Then there's guys like me who are good at sanding.

One wall at a time...

Getting a solid dusting of snow today.

I do the same with Italian dressing.

I'm too scared to post one.

I'm having a "get off my lawn" moment. I have socks older than some of you guys. Tires, in an of themselves, do not cause death wobble. Being out of balance or out of round will cause a shimmy or vibration. But if the rest of your suspension is in good shape, you won't get death wobble. Just a noticeable vibration. If your suspension is marginal, the worn out tires can contribute to death wobble. They can cause it to onset faster or at a lower speed. But the suspension has to be worn or loose for death wobble to happen regardless of the state of the tires. A steering stabilizer does not fix death wobble. Replacing and balancing the tires doesn't fix death wobble. Those two things may mask it and reduce how frequently it happens. But they don't fix the underlying problem. All of the steering and suspension joints contribute to death wobble. This includes: Ball joints. 2 at either end of the axle. Get the Jeep up off the ground and try to move the tire around. See if the knuckle moves side to side or up and down. Rotating (i.e. steering) is fine but if it moves around, the ball joints are bad and need to be replaced. Tie rod and drag link ends. Similar to ball joints, they should rotate but if they move side to side and/or up and down, they're worn and need to be replaced. Link joints. These are harder to test. And there's 10 total to check, 4 control arms and 1 track bar. Though they should all be in similar condition to each other so if you find one that's bad, chances are they're all close to the end of their life. These you check by grabbing the arm and twisting it around. It shouldn't move much at all. The track bar is more of a ball joint type but try moving it around. If there is excessive play in any of them, you'll get death wobble. Also check every single fastener with a torque wrench. I like to do this before I check a specific joint. A loose bolt will cause excessive play (leading to death wobble all by itself) and you should check the joint when when the bolt/nut is tight. The ball joints that use cotter pins shouldn't need to be checked if the pin is still there doing its job. Finally, don't trust the monkeys they hire at the alignment shop. By in large they couldn't identify a bad joint if you crammed it up their nose. There are some who can but how do you know?

Almost anything is better than Krappy Frickin Chicken. Camaro or Firebird/Trans Am?

Bruce Lee Acoustic or electric guitar?

One step at a time...

So far...

Not major progress but I did button up enough for it to move under it's own power. I shuffled it to the back to make room for the work I need to do on the XJ. That will go for a couple months and then I can get back to this project.

That's what I'm leaning towards.

The 4.0 in this rig has a rod knocking. So I'm starting the rebuild of a donor engine. Both my XJ and the donor engine have the 0331 head that tends to crack. I found an 0331 TUPY head and it showed up today. Time to start the teardown and evaluation of the donor. I haven't decided if I'm going to stroke it while it's apart but I will soon.

Ice cream. Shake or malt?