Jessica My Little B...tch

[Jargon]

This is an awesome build thread! Thank you for taking the time to post all these pictures. Beautiful MJ too  :thumbsup: .

[JoeLAW]

This is an awesome build thread! Thank you for taking the time to post all these pictures. Beautiful MJ too  :thumbsup: .

 

Thanks Man! need to update it again, hopefully I have enough time today!

[JoeLAW]

I'd like to know more about that alt. relocation and tensioner setup..

Looks good.

 

Well the thing is that my engine came out of an 06 TJ, which all the TJ Wranglers have the alternator set up like that.. So I wouldn't know how to convert an XJ/MJ engine set up to this style.

[JoeLAW]

Empty Post

[jeep690]

Its good to see the Montana Franklin in your pics. I used to spend a lot of time there when I lived in El Paso. Great build and "Jessica" is looking good! keep it up!

[JoeLAW]

Thanks Man Working on it.. BTW guys, I still haven't been able to update all that I have donde to/with it up to today. And I don't think I'll be able to, before I leave Sunday. Which is What I Really wanted to talk about. I Will be Attending the Moab UT 50th Easter Jeep Safari!!! :banana:

 

So I wanted to see who is all going, and see if we can meet up to take a few pics and have a few brews at least man!  :cheers:   I will be leaving this Sunday the 20th, and staying in moab till next Sunday the 27th. 

Cheers!  . :MJ 1: .

[JoeLAW]

All right, so Moab is done, and yes it was AWESOME! But now back to reality, school and work are taking most of my time right now, but just found a little window too keep updating this thread! 

[JoeLAW]

Well anyways, after installing the gauges of course I took it for a test run, and everything seemed to be working fine, so after that I had to make a quick little road trip to see how the truck would handle. And I went Bike riding to Las Cruces NM about 35-40 miles Norths of El Paso.. This was the first longer trip thet I made with the truck since I've parked it. And everything went well as always some picks, because I was ecstatic that Zero problems evovled. 

 

 

 

After that we were gonna do a little get together at a friends house and do a bonfire, so I have a contact for wood, and he told me to get a $#!& ton of wood and so I did! haha

 

 

 

[JoeLAW]

Empty Post

[JoeLAW]

Empty Post

[JoeLAW]

Empty Post

[JoeLAW]

Empty Post

[JoeLAW]

After doing all those mods, I was pretty much ready for Moab, I started working on my sliders a couple of weeks before leaving, but just didn't have enough time to finish them before taking off, but one day I went on to help a buddy with his Jeep since he was finishing it in order to have it ready for Moab, and one of his roomates got a 50" curved light bar for his XJ and had just laying there since he didn't have the brackets for it, so I just mocked it up real quick and told my friend to snag some pictures.. 

 

 

 

Honestly.. yeah it looks kinda cool, but I really don't dig it that much, specially since pretty much everybody and their mother have a friking 50" light bar I've pretty much seen it on everything from Trophy Trucks, to a minivan! So I won't be going that route anytime soon...

 

Well the day after that, I was at work and all three seasons happened throughout the day! It started sunny, and then a light rain started coming down, and then snow, then the snow froze, and it ended up being Sunny, anyways here are the pics of my truck as all this was happening.. 

 

 

 

 

:yes:  I thought it was pretty funny that all this happened in an 8hr shift haha 

[JoeLAW]

So as usual, I don't give myself enough time to get on here often (sorry guys, almost a year!) but I am gonna make it a goal to get here at least once a week.

 

But anyways on to the updates.. As some of you know, I ended up going to Moab UT for the 50th EJS, and it was a blast! Yes the trails, hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and supermarkets were crowded, and everything was pretty crazy, but I definitely enjoyed every minute of it. It's one of those experiences you have to do at least once in your lifetime. But anyways before the trip I hadn't really tested Jessica all that much, so we did a small day-wheeling-trip to the Dona Ana mountains in Las Cruces NM to try it out and have some fun. And needless to say it went flawless :thumbsup:  anyways enough with the talk and on to the pics!

 

 

This is the "Eye of the Needle"

 

 

 

 

Here's a picture my friend took of me leading the group that day

[JoeLAW]

Empty Post

[JoeLAW]

Empty Post

[JoeLAW]

Wednesday before taking off to Moab, I was driving home, when I spotted this clean machine! so I had to chase it down the road, and when it finally stopped there was a younger girl driving it, so you can imagine how awkward the situation got lol but anyways she was cool enough to talk about it and told me that her and her dad had worked on it to make it road worthy, but it was pretty clean to be honest with ya guys pretty original looking manche there, sorry I didn't take anymore pics, but I got carried away talking to her, and I had to go to work.. here are the couple of pics I took

 

 

Chasing her down lol

 

 

There's the engine compartment, I mean this thing still had the plastic cover for the plugs for the OBD scanning, and the fuel pump relay, I still kick myself for not taking any more pics, hopefully one of these days I'll be able to spot her again and take some more pics

[JoeLAW]

Well, the time has come! Off to Moab it is! The adventure started early in the trip, because since it's a pretty long haul from my town up to Moab, we had planned to tow Jessica up there on my welder friend's truck and trailer, so we had planned to meet  Early Sunday Morning (and I mean Eaaaarly as in 4am Early) to load up the truck and stuff and get on the road to get to Moab with sunlight still. So we did all that, and got on the road, not 5 miles down the road, my friend's truck started miss-shifting, locking and unlocking from the overdrive, so I told him to turn around and minimize on the stuff we were taking to the utmost necessary and load it up in my truck and take the road in it. So we did, by the time we were ready to hit the road it was 7am, and we were both nervous, since it was the first time I had driven my truck for a long distance. The farthest I had ever driven it was Las Cruces NM, which is about 40 miles away from home, an 80 mile round trip. But there we go all loaded up, and with the "Moab or Bust!" mentality. 

 

 

Excited and nervous at the same time, this was our first stop of the trip, and I had to snap a pic of it since it was the farthest I had ever driven Jessica, this was about 170 miles from home

 

 

Where we're going, we don't need any roads! Sorry, but I am a big Back To The Future geek, and I just had to!

 

 

6hrs into the drive, we got to Shiprock NM, and if you havn't been there you absolutely need to check it out it is pretty impresive because it actually looks like a ship from far away. Unfortunately you can't really get up close to it since it's either on private, or indian reservation property, but still pretty cool to see, even from far away

 

 

After 8 or so hours of driving, we got to the Utah stateline! And of course I had to take a picture with the Welcome sign! A fellow Jeeper was there with a nicely built WJ, that drove all the way from New York! And made me the favor of snapping a pic of me at the sign, and of course I returned the favor!

 

Anyways long story short, we ended up driving into Moab at about 5:30pm that evening, and the scene was pretty crazy as we were rolling in, you could smell it in the air Jeeps of all kinds everywhere you'd look. From crazy Rockcrawling buggies, to stock flat fenders, and everything in between including mall crawlers and douchebags lol  :yes:  Me myself I was feeling uber super excited, I had just made the first Road Trip on Jessica and it was a success! And it was no other trip than to Moab! for the 50th EJS! And no issues what so ever! I even maxed it out on the highway to test it at high speeds and she was purring like a kitten! 96mph was the top speed and no shaking or weird feelings. It was just one of the best experiences I've lived through, from her being parked for 2 years to being able to drive it for about 10hrs and no problems at all.  :banana:  . :MJ 1: .  :thumbsup:

[Crash]

FWIW. Unless you are set on Long arms, especially since you already have adjustable arms, find a good deal on CAD brackets. 

I do not regret having mid-arm suspension on my XJ, but I got a great deal on my adjustable CA's and RE CAD brackets that I have on my MJ.

My XJ is about 4" lift and my MJ is about 3" max. I would say that they ride similar. Springs/shocks are different on both.

 

 

Also, what 4.0L do you have under the hood that the alt is up top and the AC compressor is on the driver side? WJ? 

[JoeLAW]

Well guys, it's been a while but I am back! Jessica still looks the same or very similar to the last pictures on here but it has gotten a whole lot of work done in the last 9 months. It has been back to Moab since it's maiden voyage there in 2016 for a total of 4 times 2 of those for the Comanche Takeover (2019 & 2021), the last one being trailered there. She has also been to Sand Hollow, only to fall on her face the day I was gonna go wheeling in her.... Lots of adventures, upgrades, repairs, stories and beers have happened since I last posted on here, so I will give you guys a quick run down, but I'm mostly gonna update this thread with modifications done, and planned for her. Hopefully I will be updating these more regularly since now I have some time to do so. Anyways, glad to be back and hope to help more people out the same way I have been helped thanks to this awesome community.

[neohic]

Welcome back!

[Pete M]

good to see ya! 

[JoeLAW]

Ok Guys, here's a very quick re-cap of the past 6 years I basically ended up going back up to Moab in fall 2016 for q quick trip with friends. I had lost my job at the time and had the time to go so I did. I loaded up Jessica with all my camping gear, spare parts and tools and headed out on the road again. Had an awesome time (As usual, Moab never fails!) and on the way back I had always wanted to pass through Monuments Valley, and this time I actually had the time to go through. I couldn't go in to the actual park because I was on a budget at the time, so I just cruised through and decided to camp over at Canyon de Chelly. But on the way there one of my friends had told me about Goosenecks State Park, that I had to go check it out and so I did, definitely worth the stop and little detour. Anyways I saw on the maps that there was a highway that would spit you over at Window Rock, AZ from Canyon de Chelly, AZ so I figured I'd be allright I had a 5gal gas jug with me just in case. That highway turned out to become a dirt road, so I decided to take on the adveture. I ended up seeing civilization again after about 2-3hrs of dirtroad driving, it was a beautiful road though the forest nice fresh air, although I was definitely nervous of running out of gas but thankfully I didnt. Anyways here's some pics from that trip. Hope you guys enjoy. This was September 2016

[buxmj]

Welcome back and thanks for sharing all the great pics! Sounds like an amazing trip!

 

Buck.

[JoeLAW]

Allright guys, I though I had time....  But turned out I didn't anyways here's update number 2 this is a bit more techy. These couple of upgrades and repairs both happened over the time of Summer in 2016. Which me and my welding buddy finished fabbing up my rocksliders, and welding my cracking muffler. And I also installed a spartan locker on the front Dana 30 front diff left the stock gears in it and changed the seals on the axle. I also changed the oil on the AW4 automatic transmission along with the solenoids, filter, and the "Kickdown Cable" since it had the original 1989 one and it differs a bit from the HO one. Hope this helps anyone that is doing or will be doing this type of jobs. 

Well first are the pics of the Rockslider and muffler repair. I decided to buy a 25'  1 x 2.5" 1/4" thick rectangular tubing and fab up the sliders from that. We just measured the part of the cab & bed I wanted protected and cut a pair of tubes that length. After that we cut the ends at a 45 degree angle. From there I had the idea of welding a 1x1" 1/4" thick angle to the bottom outside part of the slider to help with sliding on the rocks instead of dragging on the whole tube, along with having some sort of lip if I ever need it to lift the truck from the slider with  "Hi-Lift" jack or anything for that matter. I also wanted to bolt the sliders on to the truck with angles since I though it would distribute the load better than just side plates bolted to the unibody. I attached the sliders to it at 3 different locations making sure it wouldn't interfere with anything on the inside of the frame/unibody, and at the rearmost part I grabbed it from the leafspring hanger, and welded a tube to protect the bolt from getting hit with rocks. (Which I ended up tearing anyways and ended up welding a 1/4" piece of angle to make that stronger.) Anyways, hope y'all enjoy this update.