derf

It's warm in the garage this weekend so I have been making progress. Still fixing the DSPO (Dip "Stick" Previous Owner) problems. They apparently rewired the tail at some point. They ran wires in a stretch of garden hose to push them through from one side to the other. Then they attached them with wire nuts. I'm running the Painless kit that is a direct bolt in for a CJ. So I am gutting everything and running new replacement wiring. So it will be nice again and run properly. To that end, I need to drop the gas tank to run the wires properly. I'm going to go ahead and replace the skid plate with aftermarket. May as well while it's out. The tank hangs low so more protection is never a bad thing. Also, I mostly finished setting up the engine wiring. The CJ harness is pretty universal on that end from Painless. So I had to integrate the Duraspark ignition and tie it in with the Howell TBI kit. And I went ahead and did the heavy power cable for all the aux wiring I'm doing. All tied in to the dual battery switches. Oh, and I needed two relays. One for the TBI and one for the manifold heater circuit (needed for emissions in Denver). It's a little over engineered but it's better than random butt splices all over. And the plugs let me service it in the future. The oil pressure sending unit is sitting there waiting for me to crawl under and put it in. I need to finish wiring up the radios (CB and GMRS) and a few other things. Should be ready for spring.

Full knuckle, hub, and rotor. I'm not going to assemble it all until the axle goes together. Brake parts are on the way. It'll take me a bit for the budget to be ready for the gears, lockers and shafts. Got the relay box wired up and ready for installation. Set up for the lights, lockers, and compressor I'm going to install. This is the box I used. You can get it prewired but I wanted to customize it a little. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07MR64XK1?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title&th=1

Really, torque is force. Power is force over time.

I agree. While my analog collection is pretty slim, I prefer to have a physical copy of my music. Digital is so easy to deal with and that's what I ended up standardizing on. Sure, it's not as warm as analog but I'm not enough of an audiophile to sweat the difference. I started collecting CDs in the 80s. I've been filling out my collection ever since. I'm up to almost 800 albums on 850 discs. I have a few LPs that were never offered on CD. And a few LPs where the CD release changed the songs. It would be a pain to re-rip all that music. But I have it in my possession and could do it if my storage and backup fails. And, BTW, if you store CDs yourself, DiscSox are your friend. They let you fit it all on fewer shelves.

My CJ isn't ready for a 12 hour drive just yet. Maybe next year.

The first few parts are filtering in. Got the knuckles and caliper brackets in. The spindles and hub/rotors are here too but no.pictures.

So I'm not quite full analog. But I am working on recording some mix tapes for the Alpine cassette deck in the CJ. Starting with my version of Queen's Greatest Hits. It'll fit on 2 cassettes. A 90 minute and a 60 minute.

If you didn't notice it, I picked up a short bed 1987 MJ a couple of months back. Turns out it is a factory Comanche Chief. My CJ project is getting close to done and I'll have room in the garage for my next project. I want to do this one before I get back to my truggy. Plans for this one are straightforward. Renix 4.0 from my parts truck AX15 from an unknown donor Atlas II - 4.3:1 low range Axles from a 70s F150. ~5" long arm lift front with SOA in the rear 35" tires on 15" wheels I'm in the parts accumulation mode right now. First up will be the axles. I currently have the axles. The front high pinion Dana 44 is a drum brake axle. I'm starting with Reid high steer knuckles that will let me build up stock disc brakes. The rear 9" housing and brakes will stay mostly stock. But I'm going to do 35 spline shafts as long as I'm doing the regear and locker. Both will get 4.56 gears and ARB air lockers. I have a truss for the front brackets and some anti-wrap spring perches for the rear. I already have some bushwhacker flares to help make room for the tires and provide some coverage for the wider axles. I also have a die on order for my tubing bender. The biggest my bender can handle is 2-1/2" tube but I'm going to use it to make a roll bar that almost looks stock. I'm thinking it'll get an ARB bull bar for the front and some kind of heavy duty rear bumper. I'll make some rock sliders and custom skid plates. I have two short beds, both with various damage. Between them I'll be able to build one whole bed. The paint on the base truck is beyond shot and the rest of the parts won't match so it'll get a full strip and paint. I'm leaning towards a dark blue paint job with cordovan interior. Best part is that I can get the chief stickers. Most likely they'll be light grey. It's likely going to take a while to get all the parts (budget constraints and all) and get the work done. But it should be pretty cool when it's done.

That alone may be worth it. Funny story. I was at a dealership and there was a new TJ on the lot that had some dealer installed upgrades on it. I was looking at the sticker and it listed an 8,000 pound wench. I asked the salesman if they were worried about exceeding the GVWR with a heavy woman like that. He just stared at me with a confused look on his face until I explained the difference between wench and winch.

Wouldn't be surprised if the seller doesn't really understand the difference between a Cherokee and a Grand Cherokee.

I had an ARB on my 2001 XJ. It's been 20 years since I installed it and my memory isn't the best but those brackets don't look right to me.

It does tend to run a little warm. But, as you say, it's very durable if maintained. Get a good aux cooler and it'll give you a long life of reliable service.

This thread made me think of this...

The new 8 speed ZF transmissions are great. I have on ein my JL and it really does well. I wouldn't try to swap one on to an older engine. When it comes to newer engines and transmissions, the electronics make swaps inconvenient at best. If I were doing a full engine/trans/tcase swap and keeping everything together, that would be different.

Could be a leak that only shows itself at operating temperature. Could be a head gasket leaking into a cylinder. What does the oil look like? If it has the look of a milkshake, that's where the coolant is going.

Auto parts store will have tubes of thread sealant. Usually next to the RTV and threadlocker.

Shouldn't be. They're just bolted to a bracket. Sometimes the bolt is a reverse thread. You do need a special tool to pull the pulley off the power steering pump. But the others are just regular bolts.

Could be an idler pulley bearing. Those do go bad eventually.

The fans are in the way so I'd pull them. A couple of things to do while you are in there: 1. Replace the thermostat. The coolant is drained and you have everything out of the way so now is the time for that. 2. Replace the rest of the hoses if you haven't already. If one was bad, it's likely others need to be replaced as well. 3. Check the belt and replace as needed. 4. Check the idler pulley and fan pulley. Replace if they're not spinning smoothly.

So not as firm on the price as he wanted to be. If you can talk him down a little more, the price becomes a lot more reasonable.

Not $85K. Or even $50K. But more than $20K. It's just too bad it's an ugly color.