DirtyComanche

I was going to go for a long drive in the woods today. Unfortunately it got cut rather short. 80km in or so, the clutch slave blew up. Full on waterfall of brake fluid coming out of the bellhousing and no pedal at all. Then one of the rear shocks broke the eye off coming out. Which isn't terribly surprising because they were the absolute cheapest Monroe shocks that you could buy and they've seen a lot of washboard. So now to decide if I'm going to throw another internal slave in the clutch, or convert it. One of my YJ friends went through 4 or 5 internal slaves before he gave up and converted, I assumed he was the issue, but there was no reason for mine to fail that soon. At the very least I won't buy anther Luk internal slave.

There's a few, to say the least, especially relative to the number of towns and population. I just switched employers; these guys have 60 or so helicopters, and they're pretty much exclusively used north of 60 during the summer months. And there is a bunch of other operators up here besides them. With current environmental rules everyone is trying to be low impact on the tundra, so running track drills and dragging camps in the summer is out of the question, meaning there's a heavy reliance on rotary aircraft to move things. Plus there's lots of bush planes for longer hauls. The logistics of operating here are rather tricky, fuel is few and far between, and the weather is more than willing to fall apart without warning.

There's like 10km of road here in total. I bet in winter they only plow half of it. Speed limit is like 40km/h at most, and that's on the long stretch to the airport. Everyone here has the worst tires imaginable. It just doesn't matter. I should get a picture of the tires on the ZJ we're borrowing... Also, near as I can tell maybe half the vehicles have plates and insurance. It appears the RCMP do not enforce such rules here.

No ice roads here for some reason, we were asking about that. I guess it's possible to make it, but the government doesn't build ice roads? NWT has lots of them.

So would I. Ummm ... where the heck is Nunavut? Above the tree line in the arctic. Nunavut used to be part of the North West Territory before the split it in half for whatever political reasons. So it's tundra and rock all around here. Everything that comes here did so at a great expense, so nothing ever leaves, if it dies it's just abandoned in place or scavenged for parts.

I'd buy it if it was for sale and I could get it home...

This is Baker Lake, Nunavut. Population is roughly 2000 I believe. No road access, most people just own quads, but there's a few trucks and obviously some heavy equipment. I'm not sure how long this SporTruck has been here, but it's been a while. There's some other cool old stuff around, unfortunately the internet sucks here so I won't be uploading many photos.

I'm in Nunavut. Pretty certain it didn't do anything here. I'm okay with it.

Just tell them no and quit if there isn't any way around it. I work random hours/days and honestly am at the point where I've fairly much decided it has ruined my life. Rotating days and days/nights would be basically the same but with a little more notice, but absolutely wouldn't be worth it without substantially more pay than with the same job on a set schedule.

Impact. Or a good breaker bar (3/4" drive or larger) with the proper 36mm socket. Smaller stuff gives too much and takes the shock out of cranking on it. Or a slugging wrench and sledgehammer.

The Cherokee has a renix 4.0l inline 6 It might be worth throwing bearings at/refreshing if you want more power than the 4cyl. Then you could throw the whole Cherokee driveline into the MJ.

:waving: Post up some pics, make a build thread, and don't be afraid to ask questions. Also there is a pile of info on here if you can figure out how to make the search work. Honestly, google searching the site works better than using the built in search, but sometimes neither gets the job done. What engine is in the Cherokee?

That bushing is destroyed. New ones won't make it ride smoother, but they will tighten everything up so the rear axle tracks better and the truck drives better in general. I'd buy new shackles and change out the bushings in the springs. But I've got a press, so it isn't terribly hard for me to do.

Thanks, I'll have to throw those in my notes.

I need to recover all the photos off my old phone, then I will fix my build thread. I already long ago deleted my photobucket, and I suspect any efforts to workaround their third party hosting rules will likely only work for a period of time.

Where did you get the rollover valves and grommets? I reused mine, and they were less than ideal. It would be something to have if I ever drop the tank again.

Those seats look like they're really good bang for the buck.

I'd wondered what happened to you. Seems like an interesting story you have to tell sometime...

The problem with those Chebby flares is they aren't really a flare, they're more like a trim piece, given how narrow they are. Personally, I don't think they look right either. If you like it, go for it. I like the Napiers. I don't mind the new Bushwhackers. Unfortunately neither of them properly fits the MJ, or a wheel opening that's been cut to the limit.

No, but they're basically the same diameter. 14mm = 0.551" 9/16" = 0.562" (on a normal bolt) Typically the holes will be slightly oversized and the 9/16" bolt will go in snugly. If you're in a situation where there is a captive nut (there isn't on a MJ), you would need to use the correct M14xwhatever bolt. This is the case on the XJ with the infamous front leaf pockets that have a captive nut inside the frame rail.

But they aren't 9/16" bolts -- they're 14mm. True. 9/16" is very close and works fine though. That said, the dealer still sells the bolts, or at least the XJ versions, if you want to keep things original. Or a decent hardware supplier will have M14xwhatever in a 10.8, but it will be $$$.

Picture? :hmm:

People reuse the existing bolts all the time. They're a metric 10.8 or 12.9. A 12.9 is superior to a grade 8 and is more or less on par with bling-blang F911 hardware. That said, if they're rusty and the threads are all beat up, I would throw a grade 8 in without hesitation. Please buy good locking nuts and hardened washers. I prefer stovers, but nylocks are okay since they will not be exposed to enough heat to matter. Yes, you will probably tear the bolt through the bracket before the bolt fails IF it's a single massive overload. Fatigue cycles will kill the bolt before the bracket though, and some coarse thread grade 5 crap will probably fail before the bracket in either situation. FWIW, generally inspections will fail any suspension component with a grade 5 or lower bolt. Don't (never) reuse your u-bolts if you're going to take them off.

It's funny, because the guys doing high end stuff basically have their lips sewed shut for the actual electrical components and function, save for throwing out some buzz words. Then there's DIY guys that are straight up just bolting an electric motor to whatever trans is in there and going... I remember reading a build thread on an electric XJ (might even have been a MJ actually) years back that was straight up DIY using a large amount of the factory components.