What have you done to your rig today?

Making brackets to stick some Amazon buckets in the XJ, and decided to patch the rust while I was at it. Big mistake. I’m in way over my head on this one.
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Un packed the truck, and did some post wheeling inspection. I attempted to fix my leaking hydro ram, after some broken tools, and a lot of cussing trying to to get the gland end of the ram off, I rage quit and just ordered a new ram. I go back at it when it arrives later this week. I knocked out some front fender dents and now my hood and pax door open all the way, so it wasn't a total loss today.
 
untchabl said:
Nah, it's fine. Patch it up enough to keep water out and it'll be good enough. Slap a bunch of seam sealer over your welds and put the carpet back down. My old 2door was much worse when I started.
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That is the plan, short of putting the carpet back in. I’ll leave it out for a while, at least until I’m convinced I don’t have major leaks.
 
Ordered an atlas 3.8 for the xj build.
 
Looked at it with a tear in my eye as I contemplated trading it for a good, used trike.
 
skyhighZJ said:
Not mine but the wife’s. New wheel hub assemblies. Rock auto was the best price and I’m trying out the Mevotech TTX. They are supposed to be a “heavy duty”. We shall see. I will say the finish is very nice and comes with a new axle nut and the 4 mounting bolts that were also coated. View attachment 415851View attachment 415852View attachment 415853
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So to follow up. I’m thoroughly impressed with these new hub assembly/wheel bearings (time will tell the truth). Now to the facts. I installed the hub assemblies because the noise/ vibration I heard was coming from the front and was tell tale hub assembly getting tired. Based on time and mileage since I had installed the last set I was certain of it. Well, new ones in and the truck produced a new noise. Very high pitched squeaking that was in time with the speed of the truck. Thinking I had fawked up, or that these new hub assmeblies weren’t all they were cracked up to be I had the truck part no less than 4 different times checking, rechecking, and checking again that I hadn’t done or missed something. Final straw was the wife was headed to town and sent me a video where it seems like the front end was coming out of the truck!!! Got home from work, got it on jackstands and turned the tires over and everything sounds like the front diff. FUCK!!! Dropped the tie rod down out the way and pulled the front diff cover. Sitting under the front looking at the gear set I reached over and was spinning the drivers tire with my right hand and it was perfect. No shavings, at 300k the pattern looked great. FUCK. Now what? As I’m spinning the tire to inspect the gears again my eye goes up over the diff housing to the front drive shaft and it’s flopping back and forth like a dem at voting time. Well shit!!! Pulled the front DS and noise is gone!!

Go to look up a rebuild kit as the ball and socket in the front DS was toast. Honestly I can’t complain cause with factory parts at 300k I’m amazed it hasn’t given an issue. Interweb says $275 for all parts to rebuild the DS. Look on rock auto and realize I can buy the whole front DS complete, bolt in for $300😳. New DS is on the way.

TLDR; Moral of this check your front DS when noises are present in the front end of your truck…..

What a pain in the ass.
 
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Hokie_YJ said:
Noticed the 4x4Grace sticker on the back, that was the crew I rode with many years ago. I recognize the rig I think. Did it belong to Justin Whitt?
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Honestly I don’t remember the guys name I bought it from. He did all the tube work and it was his girlfriend’s jeep to begin with. I pretty sure she forgave him enough to marry him later.
 
thebrotherinlaw said:
Honestly I don’t remember the guys name I bought it from. He did all the tube work and it was his girlfriend’s jeep to begin with. I pretty sure she forgave him enough to marry him later.
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If that's the rig I'm thinking of, and I'm pretty it is, they did get married. She actually passed away a few years ago from cancer and he lives in California now.
 
skyhighZJ said:
So to follow up. I’m thoroughly impressed with these new hub assembly/wheel bearings (time will tell the truth). Now to the facts. I installed the hub assemblies because the noise/ vibration I heard was coming from the front and was tell tale hub assembly getting tired. Based on time and mileage since I had installed the last set I was certain of it. Well, new ones in and the truck produced a new noise. Very high pitched squeaking that was in time with the speed of the truck. Thinking I had fawked up, or that these new hub assmeblies weren’t all they were cracked up to be I had the truck part no less than 4 different times checking, rechecking, and checking again that I hadn’t done or missed something. Final straw was the wife was headed to town and sent me a video where it seems like the front end was coming out of the truck!!! Got home from work, got it on jackstands and turned the tires over and everything sounds like the front diff. FUCK!!! Dropped the tie rod down out the way and pulled the front diff cover. Sitting under the front looking at the gear set I reached over and was spinning the drivers tire with my right hand and it was perfect. No shavings, at 300k the pattern looked great. FUCK. Now what? As I’m spinning the tire to inspect the gears again my eye goes up over the diff housing to the front drive shaft and it’s flopping back and forth like a dem at voting time. Well shit!!! Pulled the front DS and noise is gone!!

Go to look up a rebuild kit as the ball and socket in the front DS was toast. Honestly I can’t complain cause with factory parts at 300k I’m amazed it hasn’t given an issue. Interweb says $275 for all parts to rebuild the DS. Look on rock auto and realize I can buy the whole front DS complete, bolt in for $300😳. New DS is on the way.

TLDR; Moral of this check your front DS when noises are Preston in the front end of your truck…..

What a pain in the ass.
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What year is her truck? The 13s down are bad about the driveshaft going out and taking out the tcase and wiring and making a whole mess of the underside.

Duane
 
thebrotherinlaw said:
Honestly I don’t remember the guys name I bought it from. He did all the tube work and it was his girlfriend’s jeep to begin with. I pretty sure she forgave him enough to marry him later.
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Hokie_YJ said:
If that's the rig I'm thinking of, and I'm pretty it is, they did get married. She actually passed away a few years ago from cancer and he lives in California now.
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Yep, that’s Justin’s old jeep. He built much of it at my shop back in 2009-2010ish. It was originally his wife’s jeep and he commandeered it and modified it a little, haha. It was a well built rig and had Yota axles. They moved to California about 7-8 years ago, and like @Hokie_YJ said, his wife passed from cancer a few years ago.
Build thread is here:
nc4x4.com

Jeepota Cherocruiser thing...

Jeep XJ80 I don't have a full build thread here for the recent progress made to the jeep but here are a few specs and pics from the latest installment of cash sucking upgrades. 1999 Jeep XJ 4.0 AW4 D300 twin sticked with cable shifters 1991 Toyota FJ80 axles 3 Link front/leafs in rear...
nc4x4.com nc4x4.com
 
untchabl said:
Nah, it's fine. Patch it up enough to keep water out and it'll be good enough. Slap a bunch of seam sealer over your welds and put the carpet back down. My old 2door was much worse when I started.
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Can’t even tell I was in there, except for the slightly flatter trans tunnel

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