Comanche County Posted May 15, 2012 Author Share Posted May 15, 2012 I opened it up to air it out, then it started to rain so I set up the rainfly....here's a couple of pics with the rainfly on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drahcir495 Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 I got a roof top tent! Its a Bedouin model from a S. African Company. Very nice :thumbsup: . I like how well it fits on the bed with the tool box. Sweet flag pole set up too - I cannot tell you the last time I heard of someone setting up a new flagpole. :popcorn: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backdraft Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 Jay, that tent is coolness. Very nice! I'm envious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 I got my old trailer back. I'm going to slowly turn it into an expedition rig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted September 11, 2012 Author Share Posted September 11, 2012 Decided it was time for a bit of overdue TLC. I took the carpet out and down to the local truck stop and used their high pressure washer to clean the carpet. Also removed the tool box to make room for a factory roll bar. My ARB compressor was in the tool box so that'll have to go under the hood. I also removed the interior cage, tired of banging my head and knee on it. I also found a NOS factory radio at a Goodwill, paid about 10 bucks for it and now I've got it wired up with an Aux input to run an Ipod. Its all going back in now, here's a bunch of pics. What spawned the whole operation,,,,I finally got tired of looking at this crack on the dash! The passenger side floor pan was factory perfect, no rust at all. The drivers side had a bit of surface rust due to a leaky windshield gasket. That'll get replaced soon. Spent my birthday out in the rain at the JY pulling a nice dash, which I promptly stained with my greasy butt scratchers. I was completely soaked all dang day long. Also picked up a new drivers side mirror, a new power steering pump as well as some extra renix sensors. Painted the roll bar. My old cage is out, free to anyone who comes and picks it up. Not actually sure if its NOS, but it looks brand new, no dust on the inside at all. Could have just bought an aftermarket radio but I wanted to tinker with this and do it for my self. Plus, I wanted a radio that says "Jeep" on it. The two pins to add the aux input to. I used a 1/4" inch stereo jack (radio shack p/n 274-0246) and some pin connectors off a D-Sub connector (p/n 26-1429). The positives for left and right go to the pins and the negative is shared and can go to the ground tab on the back of the radio. I set it up in the house and tested it with my amp and subs (installed a line convertor also) and made sure everything was working. The stereo jack is just a switch, two of the "closed" pins aren't needed. When the jack is inserted, the radio will pick up the signal automatically. I used these pin connectors, they slid snugly on top of the radio pins. TP371 and TP471. Putting everything back in.... I also removed my buckets and the console and mounted an MJ bench so I can haul both kiddos around. I actually like the bench a lot better, at 6'2" it gives me some much needed leg room. The MJ is actually comfortable now. Some shots of the roll bar mounted and tool box off, I like it a lot better. New Tailgate "Jeep" stickers and a "4 Wheel Drive" homage to Old Man Willys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 Why is it that the factory roll bar wasn't standard equipment? Yours looks right at home. Awesome to the max! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drcomanche Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Is that a Ranger I see in the background there? :cheers: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reson46 Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 What do you think of the Creepy Crawlers? Willy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted September 13, 2012 Author Share Posted September 13, 2012 Why is it that the factory roll bar wasn't standard equipment? Yours looks right at home. Awesome to the max! I agree! Is that a Ranger I see in the background there? :cheers: Why yes, yes it is sir. What do you think of the Creepy Crawlers? Willy I love em but, only for off road. For highway driving I'd prefer radials. They have 7 plys on the tread and 4 ply sidewalls and super huge sidewall lugs. They're fairly stiff, I can run them with 0 psi. Usually when I wheel, I run 5-8 psi and they barely bulge. These are 35x12.5x16s, I think the same tire on 15" wheels would be better for a Jeep. They're freaking heavy too, each tire and wheel weighs 112 lbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted September 13, 2012 Author Share Posted September 13, 2012 I need a grey bench seat though, one like Dadinator has in his truck with the cutout for the small console. http://comancheclub.com/topic/26085-the-family-truck-lots-of-new-pics-on-page-4/page__st__40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rymanrph Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Where did you get your rock sliders? I'd really like a pair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted September 15, 2012 Author Share Posted September 15, 2012 Got em from JCR, front and rear bumpers too. Not sure if they still offer them. I believe they were MJ specific. I know they don't offer rear bumpers anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted September 28, 2012 Author Share Posted September 28, 2012 Took the MJ to a Jeep show, only about 40 Jeeps there. Met some nice people,,,and I had the only MJ there. They didn't have a Dirtiest Jeep award but I would have won it. Pics aren't so good but here they are. and some sticker close ups.... Thanks for tuning in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 Picked up a 5.9L from a wrecked 98' 5.9 Limited Grand Cherokee. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. But I can't help but to drool over the idea of it going in the MJ. Also got all the dash components, radio, 5.9 180 watt amp, front and rear leather seats, the leather door panels, and the silver star wheels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted October 27, 2012 Author Share Posted October 27, 2012 I saw this mod on either MiliJeepers or NAGCA and thought I'd try it. Can't find that link but, this is really simple. I'm still working on the brakes so I haven't had a chance to test it out yet but I know it'll be a vast improvement for on road handling. Lots of pictures... Proof it fits even with the skid plate. Some trimming of the skid plate is required. The difference in thickness is substantial. The stock MJ bar was .95" and the WJ bar is 1.25" My MJ is about 5K lbs and the stock bar was only marginally effective. It was bending so bad into the frame you can see how it was rubbing the bolts on my bumper tie-in brackets. Its like this on both sides. And yes, I know I have washers stacked, and no I don't know why I did that? :hmm: You can see the new bar has about 3" of clearance from the unibody. Okay, the sway bar brackets will bolt right in (almost). I used the front holes only and drilled a new hole into the unibody frame for the front holes and tapped it for a new bolt. This moves the sway bar forward. The metal is thin there so I also tacked the front of the sway bar bracket to the frame for a bit of piece of mind. There's a gap between the frame rail and the front of the bracket. But it will pull up tight to the frame rail. I tried to bend the back of the bracket to match the curve in the frame rail but gave up, banged it with a hammer a few times and just threw it up there. No front bolt, with the slight bend I put in the bracket, it cinches up to the frame rail. View from the front: I'd recommend mounting it like this in stock form, but if you've got a skid plate, you'll need to turn it over (upside down) where the front dip in the bar is faced upward. It would be best to drill a hole in the frame rail for the front bolt and attach a nut on the inside of the frame rail by accessing it through the front. With the sway bar moved forward, you could easily fish a nut onto the bolt, its only about 2-3" deep inside the frame. Okay, that's just mounting it. Easy stuff. Now the links. I already have JKS discos, which are old and need replacing btw, but it made it very easy for me. The stock sway bar studs on MJs and XJs are notorious for bending, breaking, or just rust welding to the nut. Later swivel type ZJ and TJ links would be an improvement, but I like the strength of the WJ design. Its single shear but still much better than the MJ/XJ style studded links. I could've used the JKS link bushings but the bolts are too small IMO for a heavy jeep and a single shear type install. So I pressed the bushings out of the stock WJ end links and put them in the JKS discos. OD was close enough and the ID allowed for a much larger bolt. I used the stock WJ bolts to secure the top of the JKS links to the sway bar. Some pics for comparison. The JKS links with the stud bracket which attaches to a stock sway bar. The one on the left has the smaller bushing, on the right you can see the stock WJ end link bushing in the JKS link. The bolt on the right is a 12mm (thickness that is), 18mm head and nut. The rubber on the stock WJ bushing is practically melted, I just shaved it down with my trusty benchmade. Now I thought the skid plate would go right in but that dip was in the way, so I just flipped the bar, its laterally symmetrical. When flipped it did raise up the ends of it slightly, but its no big deal. It even cleared my steering gear box brace, not by much, they're pretty close. Anyway, once I get it rolling again, I'll provide some feedback on improvements in handling. :MJ 1: :cheers: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 Neato! Always something cool happening here. Looks great, dude! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted October 28, 2012 Author Share Posted October 28, 2012 Thanks Ben, I do get embarrassed at close up pictures of my ugly truck though. One of these days I'll invest in a can of spray paint. :yes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backdraft Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 You show us this AFTER I get a V8 ZJ swaybar? Thanks! Seriously though Jay, it looks great. Nice innovation! :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted October 28, 2012 Author Share Posted October 28, 2012 Thanks Mike. I wish I could find the thread that gave me the idea. Essentially they're bigger than Addco's bars and about 100 bucks cheaper. I know the truck is way heavier than a V8 ZJ with all the add-ons so it should handle a lot better. This has been one of those mission creep things, a bad heim joint on my track bar turned into new ball joints, WJ brakes and the sway bar. I also put that headliner in temporarily. Came out of a blue interior truck, Its dirty and I need to recover it in grey as well as my visors. Its looking pretty shabby up there, like my bank account currently. I'm about to blow more dough on the proper unit bearings for the WJ brakes, after that I'll tidy the headliner up. I also lost one of my B pillar lights, dang it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted October 29, 2012 Author Share Posted October 29, 2012 In case someone is wondering about WJ brakes on the MJ.... Its almost PnP, there are some differences in the WJ D30 and MJ/XJ D30. The WJ D30 is wider, 5' x 5" bolt pattern, stub shaft length is shorter. So to get the larger brakes and retain a 5"x4.5" bolt pattern a few things need to be addressed. It also opens up a can of worms with steering linkages. Best to gather all the parts and make a good plan before tearing into it. Parts needed: WJ knuckles 2000+ XJ/TJ unit bearings Redrilled WJ rotors to 5"x4.5" or purchase Ford Sport-Trac rotors. They are 5"x4.5" and 12" rotors like the WJ rotors. Longer than stock brake lines appropriate for your lift/suspension configuration. The WJ brake line attaches at the bottom of the caliper. Upper XJ/MJ ball joints, lower WJ ball joints. WJ lowers are 1.5"/ft taper, XJ lowers are 2"/ft taper. 02'-04' WJ Akebeno calipers, they have slimmer and longer brake pads that alleviate the rotor warping issue that early WJs experienced with the Teeves calipers. Teeves will work fine though, that's what I pulled at the yard. There were no newer WJs available. 16" wheels, the calipers are bigger. Some 15" wheels will clear but its tight, some will clear with minor grinding on the caliper Steering --- WJ knuckles allow for cross-over steering, best to take advantage of it and ditch the inverted Y set up. The WJ knuckle uses a larger unit bearing, the inner "circle" of the knuckle is larger than the unit bearing. This space can be filled with a spacer like on this link: http://www.4x4wire.c...ckles/index.htm Without filling this space you're risking breaking the unit bearing hub at the three threaded ears where the 12pt bolts attach. The weight of the vehicle will be on those bolts, with heavy offroad use, breakage could happen. Another option to address the space is to weld a 1/4" spacer to the knuckle that has an ID which fits the OD of the unit bearing. JKS sells the spacer, or you could make your own. With this spacer welded to the knuckle, the unit bearing is supported by the knuckle, the knuckle then bears the weight of the vehicle. http://www.4wd.com/J...&t_pn=JKSOGS930 1/4" spacer welded to the knuckle: (pic stolen from the interwebby) Some forgo the welding though and just sandwich the spacer and have no problems. I think welding is the way to go. The stub shaft on the WJ D30 is shorter, if you tried to use the WJ unit bearing the back of the bearing would bottom out against the longer MJ/XJ stub shaft. What needs to happen in order to retain proper axle u-joint, ball joint and brake caliper alignment is to use unit bearings from a 2000+ XJ or TJ with the 1/4" spacer. I have Timken unit bearings on mine that are correct for the my MJ and with the 1/4 spacer, they align the axle u-joints and ball joints, but they do not allow the rotor to line up correctly with the caliper. If you run a parts search on XJ/MJ/ZJ/TJ unit bearings for various years, you'll see there's several different part numbers. The reason you use 2000+ XJ/TJ bearings is because of a difference in brake rotor length of the rotor "hat" (and thickness) in certain years, they're "shorter" and will align the rotors and calipers. This was to compensate for cast rotors. Right now, I've got about a 1/4' space between my caliper bracket and the knuckle. Here's a pic of mine with the older unit bearing. I could use washers or a spacer but I think it would be hokey. I'll get the 2000+ unit bearings and get it lined up correctly. Also, the ID of the WJ rotor needs to be trimmed by a couple of mils. There's a very slight ridge on the unit bearing hub on the WMS side that the rotor will not fit over. The lug nuts would essentially press the rotor on but that would make removal more difficult. btw, the rotors are rusty in my pic, just haven't had them resurfaced yet. There's a ton of info on this swap on the web, also a lot of misinformation. So if I've mistated something someone please correct me. Also, keep in mind I've got a hybrid D44/D30 axle with inverted T hi-steering, its a frankenstein monster that I love/hate. The steering is good and it functions great, and the tie rod is well protected, its really high!!!! But if I had to do this over again, I'd go with a OTK cross-over set up like this: http://www.frontrang...ckle-swap-build Links: http://www.4x4wire.c...ckles/index.htm http://www.virtualje...ckle-conversion http://www.naxja.org...d.php?t=1004721 http://mallcrawlin.c...sion-parts-list http://www.frontrang...ckle-swap-build http://www.jeepsrus....=Tech_WJhubs001 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reson46 Posted October 29, 2012 Share Posted October 29, 2012 What knuckle do you have on the driver side - RHD WJ? Thanks, Willy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted October 29, 2012 Author Share Posted October 29, 2012 Exactly, an export RWD WJ knuckle. It allows a higher, high steer, but you're limited to an inverted T if you use both upper arms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted October 30, 2012 Author Share Posted October 30, 2012 Got the new bearings, note how its "shorter" which allows the WJ calipers to align with the knuckle. Then put the brakes on and took the MJ for a little ride. It still doesn't lock up the 35s but stopping distance was much better. The WJ MC booster, brakes and sway bar is probably the best things I've done to the truck. Its much more stable and much safer to drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted December 1, 2012 Author Share Posted December 1, 2012 Got a new CB! It also has 240 Ham and all CB channels and is MARScap capable. 100 outgoing watts. :brows: I got commo fever and bought it. But then after researching this radio, I found a couple of forums where lots of trucker CB snobs don't like it, saying a modded Cobra LTD29 can be better. But when I got it, the shop tech did a side by side test with several radios and this was much clearer than a couple of peaked and tuned Cobras. Especially the bluetooth Cobra 29 I was running. Anyway, its all part of my "prepping" plan. Its a lot better than what I had. Eventually I'll turn the truck into a complete commo platform capable of communicating with law enforcement, with UHF, VHF and ready for anything the zombie apocalypse throws at me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted December 1, 2012 Author Share Posted December 1, 2012 Also, my rear D44 has a loose tube. Its leaking gear oil slowly out of the diff plug welds. Not a major leak or breakage but its time for a truss. I should have trussed it long ago. Just got in a T&T rear D44 truss. Its going on this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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