Late to the party but... been very busy keeping myself occupied all this time.
1. New exhaust (easiest mod ever!)
Magnaflow rock crawler series. Sounded loud at first but wife approves so I guess it actually sounds pretty good. I
2. Brakes (again), back to solid rotors, (avoid drilled/slotted), lesson learned. New pads broken in and I can trigger ABS easily now when I stand on the brake. Stops very quickly (a light 2 door).
3. New steering! Metalcloak HD. My old tie rod had a few extra bends in it than when I bought it. Chromoly tie rod and nice adjustable drag link (not the corroded mess I had before).
4. Ball joints! This was a fun learning experience. You want the XL or "Large" ball joint press. Trust me. Teraflex HD greasable upper and lower.
For extra caution I went ahead and replaced the front hubs (106k). They were gross and beginning to rust, and after comparing old and new, I noticed one was likely beginning to fail!
Btw: I want to punch the person who decided the very difficult plactic clip for the ABS cable should be directly behind the shock tower and mere inches from the exhaust. If you have aftermarket inner fenders, well lucky you! Do it from underneath, but I hope you have long arms. I wish I had a lift.
5. New front axle shafts! Yep, I pulled them due to the diff issue (see below) and sure enough, the splines are a wee bit twisted. Not horribly but I know this means "REPLACE". Now I have a decent trail spare 27 spline front set. Replacements are RCV with outer axle seals as well.
Sidenote: Did you know you may likely have dirt or even MUD inside your axle tube? Oil seal on inside, nothing on outside Yeah, eww. Fixed that!
6. New front lower control arms. I'm now at 50% of a gamechanger.
7. Bumper. I liked the barricade I got from the BBQ. The price was right but I didn't feel confident. Also I accidentally changed the studs from SAE to Metric with my impact. They are welded in. Replacement: Metalcloak. Two words: WORTH IT.
8? Finally, the Jeep is back at Off-road Elements right now. I took a look at the front diff only to discover contact wear between the locker and pinion. Spec is for .5mm min clearance which seems scary tight to me. Apparently want enough. I might want to beef upy axle next year, was probably just a little flex that did it. Nothing destroyed, just some surface scrapes.
Offroad Elements is fully warrantying the repair work. They pulled it apart, resurfaced the pinion gear face according to the ARB bulletin and put it all back together for no charge.
Eric is an awesome guy and they are just as busy as always. Can't recommend this place enough, but for me it's just for the very sensitive stuff that can fail catastrophically. (Gears!)
Finally... there will be a winch in that new bumper. I am ready to graduate to big boy trails (F&F!), Just GREENS for now
I'm obviously very eager to get back out there and take my skills to the next level this year but new baby says otherwise (and I'm good with that). I'm thinking by mid-July I should be able to get away for a full day.
Keep on wrenching!
If anyone wants to come by Norwood to work on Jeep stuff, I have the space both inside and driveway to accommodate and I'd love to help with other's projects. I just can't travel too far right now. (Have tools, can't travel, lol)
