The adventures of a Jeep and its driver.
Well, I finally decided to bury my dead stock steering stabilizer. It’s rotting corpse has been attached to my tie rod for far too long.
Bought a Teraflex heavy duty SS on Black Friday.
I also flipped it with a Dominion Off Road flip bracket I picked up from a fellow Jeeper.
Getting ready to prep the front LCA skids, front and rear track bar brackets and front truss pieces. This stuff is beefy. Most of this is 1/4″ steel. The Artec rear LCA brackets/skids should be here tomorrow and will get added to the pile. Need to clean them up with a scotchbrite and make sure all the tabs fit into the holes and then paint it all with weldable primer.
Felt motivated to get the front track bar bracket off.
Seeing what it will look like once the Barnes 4WD truss is in place.
Another few cutoff wheels and at least one flap disc and the driver’s side is done. As soon as the Artec brackets get here this week, I’ll know where I need to remove the rest of the paint.
Well, I decided to go all out and replace the rear lower control arm brackets. Ordered a set of Artec from River City Offload yesterday (thanks Marcus!)
Spent the better part of 3.5 hours, 6 cutting wheels, and at least one flap disc, but I went from this:
To this:
On to the driver’s side!
Order the axle truss, front LCA skids and both track bar brackets from Barnes 4WD this morning, taking advantage of their 15% off code. I’ll now be able to get to bare metal on the housing where these will attach.
I should be ordering the Artec rear LCA brackets this week as well. The only thing I don’t like about this brackets is they keep the shock mount in the stock location. I kind of like the fact my EVO Rock Star skids give me an extra 1.5″ of clearance.
Possibly a slight change of plans. Instead of an Artec truss, I think I am looking at one from Barnes 4wd. Looks to be a little beefier than the Artec.
I’ve also decided to cut off the old EVO raised track bar brackets. The way the front one is designed, it gets in the way of the truss. The rear would be in the way as I try to get rid of some of this rust.
Some progress on the rear:
Before:
After:
It’s likely I will be cutting off the stock bracket as well, after I take a bunch of measurements, photos and diagrams. The Barnes bracket looks to be a replacement, rather than a bolt over.
Haven’t done much with the front. That’s coming soon. I am, however, thinking I might need new seals. The shafts have been sitting in the housing for quite a while, with no outer support of a bearing. I would have to think those seals are deformed by now with that weight sitting on them. It would be a lot easier to replace them now than after the axle is installed. I’ve never done anything like that. It looks easy enough, keeping the parts of the diff in the right order and configuration, seems to be the hardest part. At which point I would leave the shafts out until install day. Not sure what I am going to do with that.
Here are the items I hope to be getting soon for this project. I still have at least a few weeks before they can go to Ringer’s.
* Artec Front Axle Truss
* Artec Front LCA Skids
* Artec Front Track Bar Bracket
It may be that the rear LCAs are going to be OK. I’m going to take some measurements tonight. If not:
* Artec Rear LCA Mounts w/Skids
* Artec Rear Track Bar Bracket (if needed)
Once all the welding is complete, I’ll be adding these:
* Ten Factory Rear Axle Shafts (complete)
* Synergy HD Ball Joints
* Synergy HD Tie Rod
I’ve considered adding the Synergy drag link, but I’m going to stick with the EVO flip that I already have on this axle. I will eventually replace it as well as their sector shaft brace.
If I see an awesome Black Friday deal on the shafts and/or Synergy items, I’ll get them at the same time. If not, they can wait until early January.
I’m hoping my front drive shaft will be OK. I have to remove the flange adapter and have it re-balanced, plus pick up some U-Bolts to attach it to the front yoke. Adams Driveshaft is asking for some post-install pictures and they will tell me if the shaft will be long enough. If not, it’s $125 plus shipping to have it sized.
I want to avoid needing a new rear shaft – why fix it if it ain’t broke. Ideally, I need to find a stock rear flange and replace the yoke that’s on there now. Then I’ll be able to use my stock drive shaft on the rear. It’ll get replaced, just not now.
I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do for a rust preventative. I’ve been leaning toward Rust Bullet. But I will likely have to wait until I all of the welding is done. Apparently Rust Bullet has to be sanded in order to top coat it if it has been more than 6 hours. I’ve also looked at Miracle Paint and POR-15. Both are good products, but Rust Bullet is UV safe.
I’m hoping that by early February, or sooner, this will all be ready to go on the Jeep. Can’t wait!
No real update on the axles. But I made these two carts on 4″ wheels so I could move them around a lot easier.
This will also make it easier for me to roll them on the back of a trailer, should I find one to borrow. Ideally, I’d like to get one of those Harbor Freight fold up trailers. I don’t have a lot of space, and no room to store a trailer. That fold up deal will store nicely behind my shed.
A couple of quick updates.
First, seat warmers! Well, first AND second … I’ll explain as you keep reading.
I bought a set of seat warmers off Amazon a few weeks ago. While the weather was still warm, I figured I’d put them in. I chose to remove the seats to make it easier. The first step is to pull back the upholstery. The back is fairly easy, once you get this full length slip separated from the back of the seat. This was a little tricky, but using some trim tools, I was able to get it loose and pull the upholstery up.
As you can see, each side and the middle, is a strip of velcro to which the upholstery attaches. You’ll notice that there are a couple small slits in the heat pad to allow the velcro to attach. It’s important, DON’T CUT THROUGH THE CARBON FIBER MESH. You’ll ruin it. That’s why this is the second update. Whoops. I had cut through so much of the mesh, that it hardly generated any heat. Oddly, I convinced the seller to send me out a whole new set of pads since there was nothing in the instruction that indicated just how much of the mesh can be cut. Disaster averted.
The seat is a little more complicated. As I pulled back the upholstery, it exposed these plastic rods in the fabric attached to pieces in the foam with metal rings.
I cut these with some decent wire cutters. Then used some pliers to pull the pieces out of the foam. It’s OK to cut the pad where there is no mesh, so I made sure to remove only the area where I could get away with it.
Back to those hog rings. I didn’t feel like spending too much on an upholstery specific set of pliers, Ringer gave me a tip and I picked these up at Home Depot. They are sold for using hog rings on fencing. I also bought a pack of clips. They’re probably twice the gauge of upholstery rings, but they’ll do.
These things are pretty neat. You set the clip in the pliers and when you squeeze them, they close nicely
Once the clip was in the pliers, I put one end into and around the upholstery rod and dug it into the foam to get it around the anchor in the foam.
I ran the wires under the seat. I didn’t take any pictures of how I ran the wire, but the switches were mounted in the dash and I ran power from the 12v outlet.
They take a little time to heat up (10 minutes or so) but they do a nice job of keeping important parts warm.
While I had the seats out of the Jeep, I put back on my neoprene seat covers – these have done a really good job of keeping my cloth seats clean.
I also picked up a used pair of Smittybilt G.E.A.R. seat covers from a Jeep forum and put those on as well.
They match the tail gate organizer I picked up a while back.
