Big_Mark

I sent my steering box off to https://www.westtexasoffroad.com/ they did a great job and I had them port my box for a hydraulic assist, in case I need/want to go there. My box was in really bad shape before I sent it down and now it works great! I think there are a number of places that can rebuild these things, you just need to decide which one fits the bill for you.. BTW what is "the cure" steering?

Don't forget to add the Dana 60's to handle that power! Welcome to the next level, installing a V8 is the level where you find out about the next levels you didn't know you needed until you have a V8. Enjoy the ride brother!

Last album from this great Seattle supergroup. Good to the last drop The lead singer died in 2019, Shawn Smith, he was a great guy, I met him a few times over the years, I even traded some of his music back to him. When he died it was a shock cause we're the same age-ish. When he passed I knew I had passed some kind of lifetime watermark I didn't know existed. Enjoy the grunge, maybe you'll discover a new gem today!

tail lights, bed etc.at any rate no need to prove it I believe ya!

Wish I was your neighbor, there's lots of "good" left on that MJ!

On June 21st I went to Liberty, WA ORV park for a weekend of wheeling and standing around the “fire” telling lies with my friends of over 35 years. It was a great time. The trails at Liberty are mostly made up of old mining roads built around the late 1800s, they wind around the draws and over the ridge lines of the mountains, this is where you get the views and where you get a feeling for how high and steep the mountains are. In the winter the red and grey clay dust turns to thick, poopy mud requiring vehicles with horsepower, tire speed, proper mud tires and a working winch to make it up the trails. In the Summertime the roads are mostly bone dry, with great traction so for my rig this was the right time to go. I was able to make it around fine in low range 1st and 2nd gear running around 500-800 rpms, lugging over rocks to keep the bouncing down and the traction on the ground. This tripped my friends out since my last wheeler and driving style was described above in the “winter requirements” section for Liberty, the funny thing is I never made it to Liberty with the CJ8 so it was all new to me! These roads are steep, with no turn arounds, once you are in it you gotta get it to get though! Here's my effort to provide a reference photo of the steepness of these roads. My buddies TJ on the mild side of the road Both my buddies lined up to go up the steep side (spoiler, they made it lol) On The first day we went up to the Crystal Mountain Lookout to see where Tom and Nick drove off the cliff. Because of that event, there is a sign stating, “CLIFF AHEAD DANGER” and logs have been placed across the road near the ridge of the cliff as well as this sign to hopefully keep it from happening again. Here’s where the fellers drove off the cliff. This is where we initially parked at the lookout, I think it's a good reference photo of how steep it is out there. Naturally we had to get a line up photo, hers the MJ forward pic. Here’s the sunset. We drove down in the dark, I ended up going down something this rig would not be able to go up, thank god for 6” lifts and gravity, lol (no pics we were moving) The next day we went to the West side of HWY 97 to try out the trails over there. This path takes you through the old town of Liberty, which is basically a one block living museum, we passed through and didn’t stop. The town would be fun for a family but we were just a bunch of hillbillies trying to get to the trail so we kept on. Once past the town we drove through a herd of sheep, I guess they are free range sheep or something, the herders didn’t seem concerned when we drove (slowly) through, and a couple of well timed, short “Beep-Beeps” got them to move out of the way. After that we went up forest service road 324, came down FS326 324 was really steep with 2-3 extra steep spots with either/and horizontal root undercut on one side or another of the "road", rocks with "CJ spinout" spaced holes that took some finagling to get past. The worst part for me was having to back off 2 of these spots, the start in 1st or 2nd on grade covered in clay powder. Somehow, I managed to get moving with my worn out BGF AT/KO tires (era 2005), the lugging worked well here once I was able to bump the front over the obstacle. In the rain without a winch, and or lockers and or mud tires forget it. Again, no pics I was moving, and this was not a place or time for photos. At the top of this trail my buddy got some go pro video of all of us but I’m not holding my breath to see them. If he gets them off the go pro and onto a PC I’ll share them here. I’m told my front end behaves like it has a soft locker or something. I know it doesn’t I think it’s just my mad wheeling skills lol. Here are some shots from the top of 324 Here's a shot where you can see my gauges. This is on the way back down (up, in this photo) 326. 326 is mostly doable with open diffs, no lockers or winch, even in the winter. There is just one mudhole thing where speed, assistance or any and all of the listed items would make it easier when wet/full I took this just after the mudhole, that was mostly dry. It shows the mudline where my headlight dipped into the water hole. Aside from that 326 is mostly just fun, not fraught. Even when it’s dry it’s possible to get stuck. Here’s my buddy Rob stuck on his t-case cause he didn’t have enough “go” in his “MO-mentum” ha ha look at the TJ stuck on dry dirt! Finally, back at camp there is a note to all the campers and meth heads too! If you want to check for yourself, you just have to unlock the door. We were lucky this weekend, weather was great (high 70s low 80s, sunny) we pretty much had the whole park to ourselves, nobody came through the campground to see if the spot was open, the trails were dry, we didn’t run into anyone on the trails, all and all it was a great time! Check it out if you've never been, if your rig is mild go in the Summer, bring a friend (or 3) if your rig is "extreme" go whenever you'll find a challenge.

roger roger!

Correction... We are going to LIBERTY not Elbe, hence the hill climb descriptions. I only went to Elbe once and I totally walked through Busy Wild in my Scrambler with 33" BFG All Terrains....25 years ago LOL Pretty sure time and travel have not been kind to that route. I have never been to Liberty so I look forward to seeing if it lives up to the hype

Yeah I'll take it there, Elbe is one of the places I respect the most (along with Pucker ridge) in WA, with the super steep/long hill climbs you have to be mindful of your rigs capabilities. It's dry right now so traction should be good. BD isn't a big concern, my MJ came pre-damaged However my front end still has a "noise" coming out of the front in 4wd only so it's entirely possible that I just ride along with my friends and give bad advice (I still have dana 60 eyes when looking at lines) that they usually ignore. Regarding the cam lobes, no, I am not going to go that far into the engine without pulling it. Pulling a cam in the horizontal orientation and expecting to get it out and in without damaging the bearings is asking for trouble. If the new rockers don't fix the ticks then I'll be pulling the whole block for a proper rebuild after the Summer is over Anyways I'll post up some pics after the weekend!

I'm trying to meet up with my wheeling buddies at Elbe next weekend. If my new rockers/pushrods fix the 4.0 valvetrain noises, I should be g2g!

Isn't that what the Nachese is for?

The rod length maters

Glad you got it sorted! NEVER LET THE COMPUTER WIN!!! Here’s a decent article describing how to change the desktop environment I only use the shell to configure Linux systems, usually some kind of service with a web interface, so I don’t use any desktop environment. For a daily driver I find linux frustrating so I stick with “the devil I know “…Windows. glad we were able to get you back up and running! Happy tinkering!

After pulling the valve cover, I’ve determined by observing the valve position and stroke based on the position of the distributor all is correct. if anything is 180 off, its the cam pin/sprocket . To rotate that would require switching the set pin to the other hole. That sounds like a recipe for disaster so I’m just going to run it as is. Afterall it works fine. Maybe it was margarita Monday when my engine was assembled? I definitely overthought this whole process

Thanks @Ωhm Since I know there is a deficiency I am going to correct it otherwise it will eat at me. To make sure I'm on the correct stroke at TDC I am going to pull of the valve cover so I can make sure #1 is compressing by visually inspecting the valve/rocker positions. Oh the joys of being a Shadetree mechanic!.

My timing gearset needs changing so I started working on it and discovered some weirdness, want to fix it but need to make sure I understand what is wrong and how to fix it. I would appreciate the input of the forum to back check me before I try to "fix" anything. Before starting this project, aside from the clacking from the stretched timing chain, my engine has been running great. Mileage is normal and power is great. I have replaced a few timing chains in my day, and my procedure has always been to “pop” off the timing cover (because it just pops right off easy, right?), turn the crankshaft until the timing gear dots align next to each other, pull gear and chain, replace them making sure the dots align. The weird thing is, on my Jeep when I align the timing gear dots, my dizzy is off 180° (rotor sits at #6 position) In this alignment, looking at the position of the Crankshaft from below, the #1 cylinder (front of Jeep) it appears to be Top Dead Center (TDC). Since it runs fine in this condition, I am trying to decide if I want to fix, or just run it. I am leaning toward "fixing" as this has caused confusion in the past. When I swapped out my distributor and started indexing it last year, I discovered I had to rotate the distributor 180° to get the engine running but didn’t exactly know why and since it ran fine, I just shrugged my shoulders and ran with it. Here is how it is currently timed Turning the crank so the distributor is in the #1 position, the #1 cylinder is at Bottom Dead Center (BDC) and the crank timing gear dot is on the opposite side of the gear, but in alignment (180° off) Dizzy Position Crank Position From what I can surmise, I think I have two things 180° out of rotation. 1. Crank Shaft 2. Distributor (to compensate for the Crank being out of timing) Mystery questions: How did/does my engine even run with the existing timing condition? Is it firing in reverse order? Does it matter? I think the double 180° reversals are like a double negative, they cancel each other out and get it into correct timing. But it makes my head spin trying to figure it out. DISCLAIMER: This is how I got the Jeep. There was one bolt missing from the timing cover, so I suspect somebody in the past screwed this thing up when they replaced the timing ger set (?). Since this is still all pulled apart, I’d like to fix it, BUT it is working, so I am trying to decide if I want to risk making matter worse or get it straightened out while its accessible, so here is where I need your help. I am pretty sure I can fix this by: From it's current condition, rotate the crank, so the dots align (to get the cam gear in correct position) this will put the crankshaft into BDC. Next step would be removing the timing gearset, rotate the crank so it sits at TDC, replace the timing gearset, ensuring the dots align next to each other. At this point the distributor should still be at #6 position so I will need to pull it out, rotate it 180° then make sure it is indexed properly. (I still have my cut cap from when I did this before). Does this seem like the correct sequence to y’all? Before I try to “fix” anything I ask the forum to back check my understanding of timing. Please confirm that if these conditions are met that my timing should be sound (or at least set to zero) 1. Both timing gear dots are next to each other 2. Distributor is in #1 rotation/position 3. #1 (front) cylinder is set at TDC Final question: Does it matter if TDC is in the compression stroke, or exhaust stroke when I set the timing? I think it doesn't matter since anytime the dots align, the distributor will be at #1 index. Since one stroke of each cylinder is firing (compression) and the other is exhaust (non compressing) the ignition should sort this out on it’s own but I want to be sure before proceeding. I know it’s early in the day and there are lots of 180°s here, so I appreciate your help. I do want to make this right before I button it up because hate leaving issues unresolved, especially since I can easily fix this now while I have it all apart! Thanks in advance I look forward to your answers!

Well sheeit! I seem to remember having a problem like this in the 90’s but is was an old azz Mac running Yellow Dog Linux. I have a guru I could call on but he’d need the laptop in hand to un flawk it. considering the age of that thing it’s probably time to get something newer. if $ is an issue look locally for pc recycling places, you might find a cheap upgrade (new to you) and be able to recycle that old thang. sorry I couldn’t be more helpful!

Just to be clear holding down or repeatedly tapping the F8 key during boot up give no other boot options? You gotta tap the key immediately after powering the laptop on. I did find some mention of GRUB being added as the primary boot loader in BIOS but if you reset that, that shouldn't be happening now. Also the instructions I found to fix this were for UEFI native laptops, not BIOS native, (like what you have presumably) friggin Linux is a b*@ch! I use linux server for services, and run WSL on my WIn 10/11 workstations to SSH into them to do updates, configure them etc, but it's NOT MY DAILY DRIVER I'm am nerd but not That much of a nerd, lolz

Yowzer, that machine is old! Does it ever boot into Linux? If so, can you access the shell there? If you pull the drive you can use this to connect it to another PC. (do you have another PC?) Amazon.com: Unitek USB 3.0 to IDE and SATA Converter External Hard Drive Adapter Kit for Universal 2.5/3.5 HDD/SSD Hard Drive Disk, One Touch Backup Function, Included 12V/2A Power Adapter : Electronics I know you said the laptop doesn't boot off a DVD or USB drive with the primary hard rive installed, you could pull that drive out, then load Windows or Ubuntu or whatever on a USB drive then boot off of that. If GRUB still loads after the primary hard drive is disconnected, then that's a new one to me. Last thing, try resetting the BIOS to factory defaults, that might give you the ability to boot off another drive/USB device PREBOOT (before Grub loads and takes over) On Dell PCs tapping the F12 key during boot up allows me to choose what to boot off, some other PCs use the F8 key to do this as well. (EDIT) on Asus it appears to be the F8 key How to Access Asus Boot Menu to Make Asus Boot from USB? (partitionwizard.com) Let us know how it goes, it sucks when this kind of thing happens.

How do I automount usb drives in Linux (Debian)? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange If you can't do that you will just need to let Linux know where the devices reside, and mount them. See above for "an answer". Whenever I run into a problem with LInux after upgrading (usually a service, not so much the system) Google, then test, then refine the Goolging get me close enough to figure it out. plus you gotta us the shell (command line) for this kind of thing, but don't sweat it. It's already broken so what do you have to lose?

How old is the laptop? What Model? Can you pull the drive, format it, then put it back in and try again? Any setting is stored on the disk, not the BIOS if you wipe the disk you should be able to do whatever you need to do. Alternately, do you have another drive you can swap into the laptop to see if the laptop behaves? Bottom line, you are fighting a setting stored on Disk, removing, wiping or replacing the disk should get you back in action.

I'm "familiar" with Linux as in I administrate 7 Linux servers (Ubuntu). What is it you are trying to do? Just unf**k the system so you can reload Linux? Or do you need to fix it so you can get your services back up and running? If you just want to wipe and reload, that should be easy since DVD, USB are firmware (hardware) devices and should be accessible via the BIOS. PM me if you want to get all nerdy offline and sh*t

Wow you scored on that one!