cheap taco

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Took it out a cut another sidewall a couple of weeks ago. On a positive note, the e-locker worked flawlessly.

While rotating the tires around so the one with a sidewall patch would be on the rear, I ran into the same brake caliper clearance issues I had when I first bought these rims. So I let it sit while I waited on some 1" wheel spacers for the front and 1.5" for the rear.

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It's got some stance now, but the tires were rubbing the fenders a bit when I turned. I fixed that, but they still touch the firewall a bit when turned and flexed. I'm gonna try the cut and hammer method to gain the clearance I need. I don't want to tub it yet, but if I do I'm going to tub it big enough for the inevitable tire size upgrade...

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Just save the tub job for when you go 35's. Planning on doing mine next year some time, all depends on what else I get done to mine.
 
I'm driving this thing to Harlan in less than 6 days, so it's time to clean up some thing on the rear suspension. Replaced the lift blocks with lift shackles, replaced the auto zone u-bolts with some beefy 5/8 diameter units, and replaced the trashed bumpstops. Don't laugh at my *****rigged bump stop brackets.

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Next up is to change the gear oil in everything, and the engine oil. The rear axle is draining now, I found these lovely gems on the drain plug (praise Jesus for magnetic drain plugs). I think they are remnants from when I was having e-locker problems a couple of months ago, because this gear oil is only about 6 months old....

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No real updates on the truck, which means that I have been busy using it instead of working on it. I did get to do a little snow wheeling (mostly just very, very poorly maintained dirt roads) yesterday up near Marion, VA. Had a lot of fun pulling jeeps around.

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I have collected a few parts, and have a few upgrades planned for the truck. Hopefully I can some work done before Harlan in April.
 
That wrangler up front looks familiar. I think I've seen it on Richland rd recently. Pretty nice ride if it's the one I'm thinking of.
 
That's my friend Terry. He is all over the place with that thing, and keeps it very clean. We were up at Richlands the 31st for sure.
 
Manual hub swap done the right way. Plus some spare parts. Hopefully can get started working on it some next week.

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So whatca doing with all the left over stuff? I could use a few cv axles and a spare front diff. Going 35-37s on my truck in the near future.
 
Chris_Keziah said:
So whatca doing with all the left over stuff? I could use a few cv axles and a spare front diff. Going 35-37s on my truck in the near future.
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Was planning on packing it all away for spares myself. At least until I determine if it is going to be a reliable setup or not.
 
StretchASU said:
First gen...cough...cough
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I know. I'm thinking this was either a terrible time to buy a house, or a terrible time to build a rock-crawler. I'm hoping I can hire @mrzack to put my engine and drivetrain in place this summer.
 
Might as well post this as while I'm at it. Hopefully the truck will be up on blocks within a few days. Got the hub-swap parts stripped down yesterday, but no pics.

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Someone build me a shop. Please.

I got started on the manual hub swap, finally. Got the passenger side stripped down, and bent a pry bar trying to pop the axle out on the drivers side. I was getting pretty frustrated with that and had to quit. So I started going back together with the passenger side. I am swapping the diff as well, so this is about as far as I can go tonight. I'll be out begging for tools early tomorrow so hopefully I can make some progress. I've got new inner and outer TRE's as well as boots for the rack, but I'm thinking about letting the alignment shop install those for me.

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The inner tie rods are somewhat a pain. I changed them on my buddies truck and use a poor wrench b/c I didn't have the correct wrench.
 
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Alright, not as much progress as I hoped for the weekend, but I did get the ADD diff swapped out for a locked non-ADD diff. I got the stock coils swapped out for the toytec coils, and I think I may have gotten a bit more than the advertised 3" of lift. Here is a pic at ride height, and a pic of the ball-joint maxed out at ride height. You may also notice that I got happy with a couple cans of rust-oleum over the last few weeks.

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hurt4x4 said:
Looks like some UniBall upper control are arms are in your future!
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I'll do an SAS before I spend another 600-700 on IFS.
 
I really think that something just hasn't settled into place properly. This strut/spring combo is not supposed to require aftermarket UCA's. I probably will replace the thicker than normal spring isolator with a factory unit and see how far off I am at that point.
 
Yes sir.
 
Pic #1, taken a month ago. Bilsteins set at 2.5" lift, factory springs, and .5" spring isolator.

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Pic #2, taken 5 minutes ago. Bilsteins set at 0" lift, toytec 3" coils, and .5" isolator.

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I'd take out the 1/2 in isolator. And see what it looks like.
that should drop it down 3/4 to 1 in.
 
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