Tracker

A local alignment shop advertised a deluxe alignment for $59.95, plus any parts that might be needed. When he went to give me the bad news that my ball joints were shot and I would need new ones, I reached into my pocket and pulled out four new ones from the Napa across the street. :rant: The ad is now re-worded.

The Palmdale location is just what it appears to be- part of the State Water Project. It is the nerve center for one of only three ways that water gets to southern California. (It doesn't fall from the sky here) You bet it's secure, as it should be. One person, bent on causing a problem, could cause major problems without needing "Mission Impossible" tactics. The Sylmar / San Fernando place is nearly the same except the property is owned by LA City. This several hundred acres is where all of the electricity and water for the city of LA is distributed, and has been for nearly 100 years. Recently, the LAPD adopted a lot of the unused acreage and are using it for training and equipment storage. The mysterious containers are retired sea-going cargo boxes which are cheap and plentiful in a port city. They are used for a lot of the emergency response equipment- for 25 thousand responders. The police cars that "continuously patrol the area" are trainees doing any of several different things that trainees need to learn to do under realistic conditions. They have their own city-sized "Hogan's Alley" there. It's irresponsible for writers to offer theories based on ignorance and to not even admit that there may be perfectly simple explanations for their observations. They are not excercising their right to free speech, they are engaging in what history books used to call "Yellow Journalism"; a coward's way of raising general distrust, hate, and discontent while hiding behind a constitutionaly protected right. :evil: I'm having an evil impulse: I know of a place in the area where a GPS will not work. It's right next to an unmarked building with high barbed wire fencing around it. Should I tell someone about it?

I couldn't resist looking at a couple sites just to see for myself what the theories were. >Yes, martial law is a real and let's hope that it doesn't come to that. >Yes, I'm sure there are people who are paid to examine worst case scenarios and write possible emergency plans. >> Ah, but then one very well written site started talking about a couple of these "facilities": :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: This place and the others mentioned are not only by my house but places I go to while working. I know for a fact what they do in these places as I have keys and access to them. The part that bothers me is when I think of how many people will read this crap and believe it. The conspiracy theorists must think that the internet is a gift from god. The whole thing kind'a reminds me of a poem my dad taught me: "People who write on sh!thouse walls roll their $#!& in little balls. People who read these lines of wit eat these little balls of $#!&".

That's the second BA MJ from my area this week. Both guys are dreaming about their prices though.

Maybe I'm dating myself, but it seems like I never hear of anyone cutting axles to the width they want like they used to do. Maybe it was something that happened in SoCal in the 70's but not anymore. :dunno:

Those brackets in the photo look like a good factory upgrade. They would work on either bed length as there is a big hump stamped in the part that would go over the shackle bolts if need be. Makes sense. I forgot that I had to egg-out my holes a little too. Looks like the factory ones are already done.

I'm no expert but I did learn a thing or two in a rear bumper project. There is a difference in the long and short bed mounts. If you want to put a LB mount on a SB truck you will have to cut a notch for the rear shackle bolt and another notch where part of it can slide into the frame an inch or so. Total mod time is about 5 minutes with an angle grinder and a cutting wheel. Another odd thing: On this truck the thread bosses were welded inside the frame but they weren't tapped.

The relays you want are called DPDT, (dual pole, dual throw). I guess in effect you could call them two position relays. They will have two windings in them and up to 8 pins with a ground post. You would need 2.

I've stuffed a few SBC's in small vehicles and run into the same problems. When you use the side motor mounts, there's not much room for exhaust. Looking at your intake I'd say you have your heart set on headers too. One-tube-at-a-time ultra custom or old school Tri-Y if no one makes something for that swap. Try going to a informal hot rod show or Friday Drive-in night. Those old guys like to tell you how they solved their problems. Headers for a '62 - '65 Nova with a small block are tucked real tight at the back 2 cylinders. The oil pan for that vehicle might solve some problems too.

Sportrailer.... hmm. I like it. It would go with my cut and glue tailgate badge, "0.0 Liter". :laughin:

I don't know what it weighs but it's almost too light on the front. Even with the Uni-Strut, luggage rack, Handy-Man jack, and ammo can on the front it will wheelie if I sit on the tailgate. There is a full sized spare tire in a steel fold-down rack in the normal spare spot. That adds a little tail weight. It rolls easy though. I removed the brakes and ring gear from the D35.

I rattle-canned the frame. The new industrial grade Rust-oleum is surprisingly tough. After putting the box on and painting it I put some of that 3M traction tape on the front of the frame. Most of that was covered when I cut an old receiver-type luggage rack and added it to the front. All of the front stuff mounts on a rectangle made of "Uni-Strut". It's like C channel steel, sometimes doubled like shown, made for mostly industrial uses. It has all sorts of attachments and goodies if you were to buy it. Mine came from an illegal trash dump in the desert. It's neat stuff. It's not real style-ish but it solves a lot of engineering and attachment problems. My son gets credit for the badge on the front. I wanted to do something with the J E E P letters but his ideas kind of brought it together. I probably didn't need two 1/2" bolts to hold it on but hey, that's how Uni-Strut works. These came home with us on a trip to a junkyard a while ago. They seem to work. The bedliner came out of the replacement MJ. Its stock retaining system was a bit skewed so we took it out and saved it for the trailer. It would have greatly complicated the rollbar installation in that truck too. Since I was making a tie rack for the box perimeter I made it out of 2 X 2" angle which holds the liner in nice. To attach the rack behind the liner I had to weld blind nuts on backing plates under the bed rails. I'd say this is OEM? :banana: Still working on the tank mounting system. It will be where the stock fuel tank was. The 20lb CO2 tank should air up a tire or two. That's my wife's new car in front of the MJ. For some reason she won't let me tow the trailer behind it. And I even painted the trailer to match. :dunno: That's all for now. If anyone has any questions about specifics just ask.

Here's how it all started. A 3/4 ton Dodge pulling a 16' flatbed trailer decided at the last instant that he couldn't stop after all- just after my son committed to his left turn. :mad: It doesn't look bad here but believe me- This thing was bent hard. The front sub-frame punctured the oil filter and the passenger side bucket was at about a 30 degree angle. We had pulled the motor and radiator (no damage) at this point. Luckily, there was no damage to the new tires, rims, and lift parts that just went on 2 weeks before. We snagged the new stuff and put it in a replacement MJ pronto. Hey- I ain't waking up early and driving him to school. Since I couldn't sell it, then I couldn't give it away, I said "Let the games begin". I let Comanche Club words of wisdom be my guide: "Sawzall solves all" and "I'm going to keep cutting stuff off 'till I'm happy" seemed to ring true. I stopped at this point for a day or two then thought, "Naw. Don't do it". As soon as the shop put a new armature in my brother's sawzall I went back to it. My son snagged the front axle and made a teaching aid for extra credit in his auto mechanics class. Future Jeep owners attending Quartz Hill High will have a disc brake to look at. Once most of the excess was removed the basic idea seemed easy: Cut a slice out of what used to be like a frame and pull the two halves together. I took the extra time to establish reference points to square things up before welding the nose together. The piece of angle iron across the front didn't stay- It was just tacked in perfectly parallel to the rear axle until the front was welded. Here's a close-up of the cut. The outer skin was flexible enough that I didn't have to cut it. Just a pie slice out of the other surfaces and bend it in. Here's what the joint looks like after adding 3/16 plate on the inside and bottom surfaces. Obviously, there's also Bondo, primer, and it's upside down. One of the trickiest parts was actually attaching the two sides together. I pondered a lot of factors before I did anything. One of the problems is that we're only talking about a sheet metal sandwich. It's, 4 layers thick right here but they want to separate when you start cutting. I may have had a little spring action from the accident going on too. The bolts you see are original MJ stuff. I think they were good to keep in place because the threads are factory welded to the innermost layer of sheet metal and with a bolt tightened in them, they add a lot of strength. What I added is the wide "I" shaped piece in the middle. :popcorn: Doh! The Unit is coming on. I'll finish later.

Naw, I wouldn't have wasted a 44 on a dead MJ when there's still a live one in the family. Say- Maybe I've found a good use for the D35?:rotf:

I did my first road, er ah, trail test today and everything went great. I've been meaning to start a thread on this thing since the chopping began but just never got around to it until today. It's been a fun project but I'm glad that the last details are coming together. I'll get my pics together and try to put them in some kind of order over the next day or so.

Ah, don't give up on it until you have changed the fluid and put the additive in. My Dodge work truck is at 150K and it's LS goes open every 30 - 40 K. As soon as I change the juice and the additive, (or a couple times, just put in the additive), bingo- Posi!

With whatever method you use these's probably going to be some Bondo involved. One bit of advice: Never use a 1/4 sheet electric sander. Either rent / borrow a long narrow linear action sander or make a sanding block out of a 10" piece of 2x4.

Thanx all. I got the tank for free so I guess I'm ahead no matter what. The tank is stamped '93 (then letters) and under that is 98 (and different letters) and nothing else except CCM on the bottom and "Carbo Mix" on the shoulder. Heck, it seems to be full already. I might not need anything for a while. What kinds of places are good for CO2 refills? Restaurant supply or welding? This is a 20 pounder.

This may be different in the different areas, but in general, what's the rules on having tanks tested as far as time and whatever? I just heard that California made it illegal to refill tanks that have been painted too. :mad: Figures. I just painted mine when I painted the rest of my parts. It came out nice too.

This pic was from Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation area. It is a nice place to wheel or ride, and it's only about 45 minutes from the house. We like to park at the 4WD obstacle course and watch. If you read 4WD magazines I can guarantee you've seen tests done on this course. We're about 3 hours from Death Valley. You can't do much in the park except eat bean sprouts but there is a lot to do around the area in general.

You would have to grind out part of the SOA brackets to fit the larger tubes of the 44. You might call them and ask if they could do one for you. The tech assist guy 's name is Jared. That's his white MJ in the ad. My son drove his RR equipped MJ to take us riding today. After we loaded up to go home we couldn't resist razzing the extreme CJ stuck in the rocks. This hill is a lot steeper than it looks in the photo. The bolt-on SOA kit we have sees DD and pretty regular trail (but not extreme) action, usually with a couple motorcycles in the back. We re-torqued the bolts one time when it was new and it hasn't needed it since.

As an owner of one of these kits I'll say the advice offered is pretty good. I'll add that I experienced very good customer service though. It all depends on what you want to do and what the long term plans for your truck are. At 5" inches the control arms must be addressed and it's a matter of several hundred more dollars, whether you get them in the box with the rest of your new goodies or you put them on later when your wallet has recovered. We did an overhaul on most of the steering parts, had a good alignment done, and had no scary things happening with the stock CA's. Not every one turns out this way though. In looking at your planned use, a RR kit plus control arms might work real well for you. If I do another MJ for the same mild trail use and DD duty I would buy another RR kit.

I do that- When I'm not going to drive off the jack as part of the recovery. In my work (Game Warden) truck I use the high lift often. The only thing worse that getting stuck is having to get on the radio and let the whole world know about it. I use the jack to winch myself out as much as jack up. The older models have chain hooks that make them a bit more useful. I agree about the stock mechanical bottle jacks. I keep a Harbor Freight hydraulic and a couple boards under the seat too.

Look at any older Schwinn bike made in the US, especially the main joint where the headstock is joined to the top tube and the down tube. Those nice looking joints are brazing that's been ground smooth and polished. Along those same lines, it's used for smoothing welded joints or surfaces where the surface must be all metal, as powdercoating doesn't stick to Bondo. It can also be used for some dis-similar metal joining if a lot of strength isn't required. It's all in the flux if you're not working with a copper based alloy. I've even got it to stick to "Hondalloy", that gray mystery metal that motorcycles used to have a lot of.

JC Whitney has 'em.