What did you do to your jeep today?

[mercdudecbr600]

I fabricated door panel mounts to replace the broken plastic reinforcement that goes around the armrest bolt. Without that bolt securing the door panels to the door frame, the plastic starting busting up around the door handle mount... just a downhill slide.

To do it, I soldered some washers and bent 16ga sheet metal together to replace the molded plastic. Then plastic welded that in place and secured it with a couple mechanical fasteners screwed into the door panels plastic.

I also am chasing down a somewhat nasty lifter noise at startup - might have to invest into new rockers and lifters soon.
4.10 regear planned soon.

 

[burntkat]

So IMPORTANT NOTE — Makita does NOT make these adapters and would NOT approve of them….NOT that I want or need their approval to use their batteries with my other tools!!!

In short (no pun intended but DO read on), battery adapters are a GREAT tool accessory simply because t

-snippity-

They work great
I now have a Dyson vacuum cleaner that runs off of Ryobi batteries, while also having rhe quick-change feature that Dyson was frankly a moron not to include originally...

I bought the vac 'broken/for parts' on Ebay and with the adapter I'm $60 into having a functional $400 vac, that works better than the original. Granted, I have a dozen Ryobi batteries already, but it works well for me.

 

[burntkat]

I also am chasing down a somewhat nasty lifter noise at startup - might have to invest into new rockers and lifters soon.
4.10 regear planned soon.

Prepare for sticker shock on the front R&P

 

[mercdudecbr600]

Oh, I've already had it out and installed a TT (shoulda gone 4.10 then!). I won't pay someone to pull the diff, it's not a difficult job to R/R in the garage.

 

[CheddarGau]

Prepare for sticker shock on the front R&P

Worth it

 

[burntkat]

Worth it

I'd appreciate it if you made a standalone thread on it. I've been considering the same

 

[CheddarGau]

I'd appreciate it if you made a standalone thread on it. I've been considering the same

I did a few months back, I think another person did one since that time. The hardest part is finding the front ring and pinion set. Part numbers were listed in the last persons thread. The rear diff ring and pinion is super common and cheap. The front is much harder to find because the front diff was only used in the Liberty.

 

[allengerdes]

These are my OME springs with Belstein shocks/struts.

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[CheddarGau]

These are my OME springs with Belstein shocks/struts.

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Get some Monroe load adjust rear shocks (for dodge dakota) if you find your front end is too high. I got the HD front and rear springs and the rear are not as strong as the fronts even when factoring the engine weight. It stopped the sag when full of camping stuff, wood and boat.

 

[mercdudecbr600]

My experience is that even light rears are taller than HD fronts. I have to add a clevis spacer to level the front/rear out.

 

[seafish]

There's no reason you shouldn't be able to solder to that surface, assuming it's not plastic (in which case it wouldn't conduct electricity).

A much cheaper and cleaner solution might be to use a laptop power supply. Most (pre USB-C plug days) put out about 19 volts. As long as the voltage is about the same and the amperage required doesn't exceed what the PSU is capable of supplying, it would be child's play to wire up an adapter with a male and a female barrel of appropriate size.

Seriously. 'glue it together' is NEVER the right move with electricity

You might be correct about all of that, but with the amount of XLT batteries I have on hand, it was a no brainer for me to use them as opposed to a plug in power supply.

More importantly, and in terms of safety, please know that I established a TIGHT physical connection between each wire and each pole of the plug BEFORE I epoxied everything into place.
The positive center prong of the barrel stabbed right up the middle of the 12awg strands without even cutting back the insulation…I could see the insulation bulge as it penetrated 1/2" right up the center of the stranded wires as I worked the wire into the barrel. With the negative pigtail, I stripped back 2", then split the strand bundle and wound each half around the outside of the barrel from each direction and then twisted them together tightly with needle nose pliers until it was wrapped tightly and completely around the barrel several times … it was ONLY then that I added a small coating of epoxy and electrical tape to hold everything in place.

In short (pun intended this time) both the epoxy and tape serve simply as a strain relief, and NOT an electrical connection.

 

[CheddarGau]

My experience is that even light rears are taller than HD fronts. I have to add a clevis spacer to level the front/rear out.

Thats before and after the load leveling shocks. HD front and rear springs are always in and the rear sat lower than the fronts. When you hit a speed bump with the HD front you know about it. They dont like to compress at all. If I were to do it again I would have gone HD rear and medium front, since I don't have a winch or arb bumper.

 

[joooooooooop]

Got a spare tire at a junkyard. Same size as the rest but a Goodyear instead of Toyos like the other 4. It came on the same rim as I have but sprayed black. Not sure if I should try to fix the mold on the other 4 or spray them black as well. I still have the original spare that’s still silver but it’s corroded too.

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[seafish]

Not sure if I should try to fix the mold on the other 4 or spray them black as well.

I think that flat black wheels would look REALLY good on your Patriot Blue rig.

 

[burntkat]

Get some Monroe load adjust rear shocks (for dodge dakota) if you find your front end is too high. I got the HD front and rear springs and the rear are not as strong as the fronts even when factoring the engine weight. It stopped the sag when full of camping stuff, wood and boat.

My preferred solution is the Air Lift rear coil helpers. They work exceptionally well, and make the rear end a progressive rate spring.

 

[burntkat]

On the XJ -
wrapped up the hood pin install (and factory latch/related bits deletion) by installing hood struts ($45 diy kit) and a hood pop-up spring for a TJ. Worked out exceptionally well. Also installed the new upper radiator hose with a thermostatic switch bung installed in it (for an upcoming standalone fan control circuit I'll soon be posting about, to address vapor lock in the fuel rail).
I'm going to be doing similar on my KJ, to have the option for active, standalone cooling when the vehicle isn't running. Convective flow and all that. It worked exceptionally well in the project truck where I stuffed a V8 where a V6 used to live.

Pics of the hood pins (I'll take some more of how they work soon)