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Love this build. You have given me a ton of ideas. I do have a question involving the color of you MJ. Do you know of the name or code of this paint? It looks like the Intense blue that came on some of the Wranglers. Been looking for ideas on what to paint mine. Ive always love this color on the TJs and just found your MJ with what looks like the same color and it looks great!

 

Sorry, we bought it this color. It has been painted at some point but I don't know what color they used. It was originally maroon.

 

Willy

 

No problem, thanks anyway. Keep up the good work!

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Finishing up a few things before our trip to CA next week.

 

After the third attempt I was finally sent the correct u-bolts. :roll:

 

 

I finally got around to some changes I've wanted to make for quite a while.

 

Replaced the fuel injectors.

 

Old

 

 

New

 

 

Late model valve cover that's been sitting on the shelf for years. :D Hopefully this will help with the blow by.

 

 

"Corrected" the oil filter.

 

Found the correct lock cylinders. For those with a '90 or earlier XJ/MJ you are going to want to purchase Omix-Ada part #11813.02. O'Reilly, Napa, Autozone, Rock Auto all list the wrong lock cylinder.

 

Also picked up another passenger side mirror.

 

Willy

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  • 3 weeks later...

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip to CA to do the Rubicon Trail and Fordyce Creek. We had a great time...in spite of the fact that the state is populated by morons. I can't see how most of them manage not to perish from self neglect. Idiocracy is not the future, it is now, in CA. We had issues with campground employees, forest rangers, wait staff, etc. At least we had beautiful weather and we were able to dodge the wildfires. On to the fun stuff....

 

Our plan was to start the Rubicon Monday morning from Wentworth Springs Road instead of Loon Lake. We stopped by both the ranger station in South Lake Tahoe and Crystal Basin to get a camp stove permit and discuss any retarded laws that are present in CA that normal, logical people would not be aware of. It turns out we actually knew more about their own laws and restrictions than they did. :doh: We even laid out the maps with the rangers and discussed the route we planned to take. Apparently absolutely none of them are aware of the fact that Wentworth Springs Road is closed due to bridge construction. Stupid idiots. Apparently it is a small bridge that is easy to miss. :wall:

 

After a detour we back tracked to Loon Lake and finally made it to the Rubicon mid-afternoon.

 

 

Our plan was to camp at Buck Island Lake. Thanks to the time wasted with misinformation we knew that wasn't going to happen. Ellis Creek made a nice place to camp for the night with restrooms.

 

When I get a chance more stories of mice, bears, and the rest of the Rubicon trail to come. :thumbsup:

 

Willy

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Our camp site was beautiful right next to Ellis Creek. We picked a good time because we had the trail to ourselves. We set up camp around 6 PM and not one vehicle had passed down the trail when we packed up the next morning around 8:30.

 

But, we didn't get much sleep. Apparently the bears knew we were the only ones on the trail too. Since we were the only vehicle with a hard top all the coolers went in our cab. They attempted to break into our buddy's trailer several times and even climbed up on the roof of the MJ. It was a mother and her two cubs. I think I may have got 2 hours of sleep. The rest was spent chasing the bears away.

 

Our friends also ended up with a visitor. They had a mouse find its way into the tent and were unable to chase it out the entire night. It finally ended up chewing a hole in their air mattress. Apparently they got less sleep than we did.

 

It's hard to see in the pic, but there was a very distinct bear print on our back window.

 

After a long, restless night we were back on the trail.

 

 

 

 

Shortly after Little Sluice we had trailer flop #1.

 

 

Just some minor damage.

 

Without realizing it we ended up taking the Old Sluice Box while everybody else bypassed on the Indian Trail. I thought it was just a short section of trail that split and came back together almost immediately. It was a little stressful being solo, but I'm glad we did it. I had not wheeled anything like that in years and Deb had a great time.

 

 

 

 

Apparently the trailer flopped a second time while we were on the Old Sluice Box. Shortly after this we caught up with them and had lunch at Buck Island Lake.

 

 

The third time was a little more than a flop.

 

Things didn't go so well for me coming down the Big Sluice Box.

 

 

I eventually made it.

 

The bridge over the Rubicon River.

 

 

Shortly after Rubicon Springs the trailer flopped a fourth time. No pics of that one.

 

Cadillac Hill

 

 

Shortly after this we caught up to a couple of Unimogs and a Samurai pulling a trailer. Turns out the guy in the Samurai was Tim Hardy who some may have read about in the annual Ultimate Adventure.

 

More pics here.

 

Willy

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Wednesday we left South Lake Tahoe and made our way to the Cisco Grove Campground. We ended up with two rigs skipping Fordyce Creek, so it was just down to Ron and us.

 

Our camp site at Cisco Grove.

 

We had some spare time so we explored the remains of the old Cisco Grove town site just outside the campground. A lot of cool old rock foundations could be found walking through the trees in this area.

 

Thursday we moved on to Fordyce Creek. We stopped for lunch just after the first water crossing. It wasn't too high. It didn't quite cover the top of the tires.

 

 

 

Ron and I spent quite a bit of time exploring the old Carlisle mine site. I probably could have spent the entire day here. We found a lot of old equipment, hundreds - maybe even a thousand - old barrels, tailings piles, cables, road beds, foundations, and a lot of other cool artifacts.

 

 

One of the flooded and collapsed shafts.

 

These two had also collapsed.

 

 

Winch hill #1.

 

 

 

 

 

We set up camp for the night just after the second water crossing. This time we slept great - no bears!

 

 

 

 

Winch hill #3. I did end up breaking out the winch line for this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winch hill #4.

 

 

 

 

Winch hill #5.

 

 

 

Fordyce Creek was a great trail. It was some of the best wheeling I've done in years since visiting Las Cruces, NM. The Rubicon was great, but Fordyce was even better. The variety was very nice - scenery, rocks, trees, water crossings, mining. It's hard to ask for anything more.

 

Loaded up and starting home.

 

We made our way home over Labor Day weekend stopping by Lassen Volcanic National Park and Crater Lake National Park.

 

More pics here.

 

Willy

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:drool: .......... :drool: SO jealous. Hopefully next time you make this run my truck will be ready. id love to go with you guys if i could. :) Of course only if invited. By this time next year my truck should be pretty well dialed. D44 for the rear is home, working on the rest now. Getting gears is in motion. :)

Fordyce sounds AWESOME. :thumbsup:

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Spent this past weekend in Spokane attending our annual WOHVA meeting. On Friday a few of us checked out the Seven Mile ORV Park. It is not extreme wheeling, but it is nice they have a park right outside of town.

 

Playing on the lone rock pile.

 

 

More Seven Mile pics here.

 

Sunday we explored some of the forest service roads of the Colville National Forest.

 

Views from the top of South Baldy.

 

 

 

The South Baldy fire lookout.

 

More trail ride pics here.

 

Unfortunately the SPAL controller I installed for the electric fans started giving me problems Sunday. It worked on and off long enough to get me back to the trailer. I think it is going to get ripped out this weekend.

 

Willy

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Spent Sunday at Evan's Creek. It was just two of us so we were able to cover quite a bit of ground.

 

I was broken before I left the trailer. I'm betting this occurred while we were in CA and I just noticed it.

 

There was off and on fog and Mt. Rainier was in and out of the clouds.

 

 

 

I was solo so I didn't get a lot of MJ shots. The rest of the pics are here.

 

Willy

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ron's Fordyce pics.

 

 

 

 

 

Water crossing #1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking up winch hill #1.

 

Coming up winch hill #1.

 

 

 

 

 

Water crossing #2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the only traffic we encountered our first day on Fordyce.

 

Our camp site for Thursday night.

 

 

 

Water crossing #3.

 

 

 

Winch hill #3.

 

 

 

Winch hill #5.

 

 

Willy

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Found some pics of the MJ's doubler going together.

 

Rear transfer case on the left, doubler case on the right, adapter ring in the middle.

 

Adapter ring on the rear case.

 

Second adapter between the two cases.

 

Second adapter mounted to the rear case.

 

The shift rail needs to be mounted to the adapter next.

 

Here are the two cases together. You can also see the beginning of the extra mount I built to support the extra weight and torque of the second case. More details on that to come.

 

Test fitting everything. You can see where the floor was in the way. A sledgehammer worked well to gain the necessary clearance. biggrin.png

 

A shot from the front.

 

A couple of pics of both cases together with the finished mount.

 

 

This shows everything in the jeep after I cleaned up the area I clearanced and painted.

 

Willy

What is this "doubler" thing all about? I don't understand.
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What is this "doubler" thing all about? I don't understand.

 

Additional gearing options. Instead of just low range reduction - 2.72 - with both transfer cases in low it provides a double low range of 7.4 (2.72 * 2.72). It also allows for low range rear wheel drive.

 

Willy

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  • 2 weeks later...

Took a couple of days off last week and joined a work party rebuilding several of the old bridges on the Copper City trail. The weather held out pretty well until Saturday. It is a beautiful area full of cool old mining history.

 

At Chinook Pass Wednesday evening.

 

We stayed at the Bumping Lake Campground. I was really surprised how nice it was for being in the middle of nowhere. The sites are quite large, you're surrounded by trees, and the lake is just a short walk away.

 

 

On the way to the trail Thursday morning. We were working with the forest service, so we got to bypass the road closed sign. :banana:

 

One of the washouts the forest service needs to repair before opening Deep Creek Road (NF-1808) to the public.

 

The turn off for the Copper City trail from Deep Creek Road.

 

The old hotel.

 

 

They built this bridge Wednesday. We hauled in rocks for the approach.

 

These are the sills for the bridge we built Thursday. The forest service had already set them in place.

 

 

The stringers waiting to be placed on the sills.

 

Placing the first stringer.

 

Placing the second stringer.

 

Two in place and swapping ends on the third.

 

 

Stringers in place.

 

Starting the planks.

 

Setting the last few planks.

 

Now lots of hammering.

 

All planks nailed down.

 

Building the approach.

 

End of the day turning back for camp.

 

 

Stopped off at a beautiful waterfall along Deep Creek on the way back.

 

 

 

 

Willy

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We actually finished everything the forest service wanted to accomplish on Thursday, but there was still plenty of work to do.

 

Friday was a lot of hauling rocks for the bridge approaches.

 

Adding rub rails to the downhill sides.

 

 

Building a retainer for the rock approach.

 

More rocks.

 

 

 

 

 

Willy

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Saturday started off partly cloudy.

 

 

Everybody else decided to head home, so two of us decided to clear a few trees further up the trail and do some exploring.

 

 

 

 

 

We turned back at this point. The old bridge has washed out and the hillside has deteriorated. A new bridge and some dirt work is needed.

 

 

 

Luckily there were some mining artifacts to explore.

 

 

A collapsed mine entrance.

 

We found a way around the collapse. Looking back at the entrance.

 

The stamp mill remnants in Copper City.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After leaving Copper City we took a side trip to Granite Lake on the way back.

 

 

Loaded and on the way home Sunday.

 

More pics can be found here.

 

Willy

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