My Jeep story

[wibbelern]

I may as well keep track of what I'm doing somewhere.

I started with a 1990 Wrangler with a 2.5 that the previous owner had done his best to kill.
Plenty of simple initial problems, the air filter hadn't been changed in years, the fluids were beyond bad, there was no muffler, bald tires, melted wiring, ect.

Replaced/ changed all the basic things. (Fluids, filters, ect.)
Re-piped the exhaust ending in a new cat and a flowmaster high performance muffler. A bit too loud for me, considering changing it out.
Purchaced a new set of BFG A/T 33X12.50s.
Re-wired just about everything, but still plenty to finish under the hood.
Undercoated the interior, planning on rhinolining this summer.
Built a custom diamond plate dash. (I know I should work on performance before looks but the old dash fell apart.)
The winch had some melted wiring so I Re-wired it into the dash to control it from both inside and out of the jeep.

More to list soon.
Pictures to come.

[wibbelern]

Heard a leak from the exhaust manifold so I pulled it off and found it to be cracked in several places. Ordered a new one, should be here in 3 days. Considered headers but I think I'll wait.

[Mickey]

Damn... Ur going to fit perfect in this group... Lol

[wibbelern]

Haha, thanks.

[wibbelern]

Cracked exhaust manifold. Didn't expect it to be as bad as it was.

[wibbelern]

Used and abused. I feel bad for her.

[wibbelern]

The jeep I'm doing this to.

[TheBigDogg]

[quote="wibbelern"]Used and abused. I feel bad for her.[/quote]
replace the freeze plugs while everything is out of the way

[wibbelern]

[wibbelern]

[quote="TheBigDogg"][quote="wibbelern"]Used and abused. I feel bad for her.[/quote]
replace the freeze plugs while everything is out of the way [/quote]

I will do that! Thanks for reminding me, would have forgotten.

[TheBigDogg]

[quote="wibbelern"]Is this a pneumatic locker? I have no idea what it is, how to check if it works, or how to use it. Didn't even notice it was there untill I started degreasing. It's on the passengers side of the front axle. Would anybody mind enlightening me?[/quote]
your passenger side axle is a 2 peice, and when you put it into 4 wheel drive, it puts the front diff into 4 wheel drive, it isn't a locker, you can buy a cable that replaces all those vacume lines, it is kinda like a choke cable in older cars, or you can get a solid axle shaft but you will need a inner seal (i think). anyone else care to give some input?

[wibbelern]

I take it without that working my 4 wheel drive won't be working properly?

[REDxj5150]

You will be 4wdless if that doesn't engage. If the cherokee axles are the same length you can grab a one piece out of the junkyard for a reasonable price and ditch all of that. Of course I'm not sure about the seal thing either. It's a very weak link as they tend to break easy.

[wibbelern]

Thanks for the info, I'll look into the cable or possibly a new axle.

Today I installed two new motor mounts, removed the valve cover to replace the gasket and check the rockers. Supprised and happy to find a nearly new top end in great condition under the old cover. Also installed a new distributor cap and rotor.

[Lake_v2]

I did the front axle disconnect elimination on my yj and richard(g&g) has done a bazillion.

What i found is that for sealing the differential there is two seals, one of which will work depending on your axle. The early year yj's didn't have a machined/cut surface on the differential side of the axle tube and the later year ones do.

The swap is super simple and is a strenght upgrade due to large u-joints on the replacement shafts.

When i bought my yj, i had the exact same cracks on manifold, but on the 4.2L, I tried welding them first and that only held up for a short time, eventually replaced the manifold with a factory header when i changed the cylinder head over to a 4.0

[chuckanut105]

[quote="wibbelern"]Cracked exhaust manifold. Didn't expect it to be as bad as it was.[/quote]

JB weld can fix that.

[Desert Dog]

All Jeep manifolds crack, from CJ to JK. Ive already replaced 2 on my driver's side in my JK.

[wibbelern]

[quote="chuckanut105"][quote="wibbelern"]Cracked exhaust manifold. Didn't expect it to be as bad as it was.[/quote]

JB weld can fix that. [/quote]


Lol, I'll jb it and bring it along on a run... quick trail repair if my new one cracks.

[wibbelern]

Today I fixed the posi lock. I tried to hunt down the vacuum system diagrams and got confused. Ended up making a manual lock by copying what somebody else had done. A locking throttle cable, drill press, tap kit, and cable locks and I was done. It works great and now I can engage/ disengage it whenever I want without worrying about a vacuum line cracking.

[chuckanut105]

Sweet thats a cool set up.

[wibbelern]

Thanks. The new exhaust manifold showed up this morning, I'll try to get it all back together before work.

[wibbelern]

Everything is back together, but I need to take it to the shop and have the exhaust pipe bent a bit so it will line up with the new manifold. I would do it myself but I know somebody who will get it in one try vs. my 5.

[Mickey]

Yea... Much easier to let them do it.. lol

[wibbelern]

Spent four hours with my echaust man bullshiting and 15 minutes fixing my exhaust. Everything is done and she runs great again! Now I need to go make some mud in the vineyard and play.