Had some time to play around.

[The_Dealer]

I haven't posted here I a while, so I figured I'd post some pics up. I haven't had a chance to wheel my jeep since most of my mods, after our 6 month old was born I've been busy. Saturday my son's classmate was having a birthday party down by the river. Mostly just a picnic area, playground and boat ramp. After the party he said he wanted to drive down the dirt road. Well, he said he wanted to drive in the mud, but daddy don't do mud lol. Wasn't much but a field right by the river. I looked and there was a bunch of huge rocks right in the middle. Not really classified as offroading, but looked fun. I looked around and figured nobody would mind. I didn't want to get too wild and get high entered. Mostly I wanted to flex the rear and check clearances. I didn't disco the front, because I already know the track bar is a limiting factor(Metalcloak soon)

Since the grass is so tall, this rock looks smaller then it is. It is knee high where the front driver tire went up. Rear stuffed nicely at full bump. Tire is about 1/2" from touching metal.


Rear droop. Shocks limit about 1/2" before the shaft binds



So I figured I would drive up on the rock.




Drove up a little more.

Getting up on it was a little difficult, the side the drivers tire went up was an undercut ledge. Had to spin a little and work the wheel. I'm still mad at myself for this next part. After contemplating , my son and wife said I should try to go all the way over. I knew my shovel would get hung up, my worry was would I at least be able to work the jeep over a bit. I pulled out my strap and hi-lift, and it was indeed able to reach the tree, so I figured why not. Decently challenging, and I really wanted to actually wheel something, not just flexing. Usually I'd have my wife taking pictures, but she is still learning how to spot. I wanted her full attention on what was going on. Once she realized I couldn't see her over the hood, and she came to the front drivers side where I could see her, I was glad she wasn't on picture duty.  It took a minute for her to realize what I needed(she was worried about the shovel, which I knew would hit). She ended up taking me too far to the drivers side(by about 6"). Landed on the skid, forward progress stopped. Tried reverse, it bought me enough to bump that back tire up and work back to the passenger side. I guess from watching the tires when I was working the wheel, she saw where there was grip. With my improved spotter I was up and off. Once my son figured out that last bump wasn't Mama, we were all good. He loved it, she was proud of her understanding of what a spotter does, and I finally got to test out my setup...and nothing broke. Kinda bummed I didn't have an action pic, but thankful she didn't make us flop lol. Sorry for the long post, just wanted to post on here since its been awhile. While it may not be the best setup, I have very little money in the mods, and I've been doing good sticking to my build goals(although after our 2nd child, parts take a little longer to save for.) Hopefully after I get a few more things, I'll be joining in on a gatr run.

[tcdawg]

cool story, hope you can make a ride soon!

[The_Dealer]

I definitely plan to in the near future. My mml will be here Thursday, so I can ditch the tc drop. It will help ease my mind on the trail. Ordered the mc front track bar today. Those were the last parts I wanted to have done before I take it out. The wife and kids have been nagging me to go too. My son asked if next time we could go over more then one rock, so I promised him we would.
I have been filling in at work on wierd shifts, and that's soon to be over. Once I get a normal work schedule, I'm going to start planning a trip

[clark123456]

Which MML did you order?

[The_Dealer]

Rc. I didn't see paying $25 more for a red one with jks on it. I've installed a few, and they went on with no problems. I put my neighbors in for him about a year ago. His motor hasn't fell out yet. I was going to go with the brown dog, but my stock mounts were replaced when the 4.7 was dropped in. Im hoping the mml with get rid of the vibes and the tc drop, but if not i need it when i tt anyways. For some reason i had to drop the case 1.5" with 3" rear coils. I changed my pretty soft/old trans mount, and new rear shaft ujoints since then. I also figured it would be a good idea to grease the slip yoke.

Today  i changed the badly leaking $1.07 shift shaft seal in my 32rh. Wow, what fun that was. I spent about 2 minutes getting the old seal out. I used a piece of external thread 3/4" conduit. I clamped  f and threaded the conduit into the seal. Pulled up with channel locks and it came out. Greased new seal, tried a 3/4" hole washer. The only ones i had were at least 2.5" diameter. Wouldn't sit flat because of a curve in trams. Spent the next 2 hours trying to find the perfect socket/pipe/washer combo. Noticed that my conduit piece i used for a puller, had a bigger end with a flat flange. It fit perfect, stuck a socket on top to clear the shaft. Spent about 30 minutes trying to hammer it in straight. Barely any room, and the cooler lines were in the way. Got fed up and resulted to an 8" c-clamp. Driveshaft interfered with the c-clamp doing right, so I used a bigger one. It went over the shaft, lines, cables. Put a board between the clamp and the trans pan. Put the top of the clamp on my conduit+socket. Almost didn't have enough room to work the handle. Had to dig away a little. Finally got it. Having never done it before, most of my time was spent making sure I was using the right  size to press the seal in. Lmao, here's the said clamp, beside my size 13 boot. At about 20lbs, it was kinda aggravating.

Gonna put the shift arms and skid back on tomorrowwithout the drop, and hope the seal doesn't leak. If I have vibe still since I i did the  trans mount and joints, I'll pull the shaft and go FWD til the mml arrives

[clark123456]

Ah, the 4.7 would be nice to have!  I went with brown dog for the 1" MML.   I didn't follow their guidance of removing the mount from the engine first, but that is because I have an early version of the TJ without the interference of the AC.

Tonight I made another adjustment to the rear pinion angle and a majority of my vibrations are gone again.  They were added in when I did the tummy tuck this weekend.  I'll know the final status on the vibrations once I get to the highway tomorrow.  It is soooooo nice to be not have vibrations all of the time.  The last one was bad because I had vibrations on acceleration and deceleration.  A SYE with adjustable control arms is damn awesome.  I splurged and got the double adjustable control arms, so making changes is relatively easy and takes very little time. 

Good luck on your activities.  MML should be easy though.  One thing I did have to do to mine was use a ratchet strap to move the motor around (forward) to align the bolts; it worked like a champ.

[The_Dealer]

I have an overhead electric hoist on a beam(with rollers). I never personally done one with a/c(like mine) but from helping drink beer while they installed it, I know the engine bracket has to be removed, or the crossbolt cut. I could cut it in no time, but then the new bolt would enter the same way, so I guess ill remove it to make it easier later if the motor has to come out. Funny story on the 4.7(well not at the time). I had my heep for a couple of months and the 0331 head cracked. It was close to the holidays, and I had more money then time. Took it to my mechanic, and he confirmed. He said he would get me a price up for a rebuilt motor, with labor, and new hoses and motor mounts. He called the next day and said he could get a stock replacement installed for 3700 from a local rebuilder. But it would take at least a week. Then he gave me the "or", he could get me an atk 4.7 stroker motor with install for a little over $3200. That also included new water pump, hoses, mounts, and vacuum hoses. Summit just happened to have one in stock. Given that earlier that day I was looking at that exact motor, you know what my answer was. Summit listed the motor for $2900. So I knew I was getting a good deal. Just to make sure he wasn't feeding me some bs and cleaning up a junkyard jewel, I asked if I could go with him to get it. I was kinda bummed it didn't come in an actual crate like gm and ford, but I was ok with it shrinkerapped on skids. All of this happened right before I was supposed to go on a 750 mile round trip for thanksgiving. So it was a pick it up from the mechanic, then leave a couple days later.(while praying there weren't any bugs pop up

[clark123456]

Nice deal on the v8!  If my 4.0 dies I'll be looking for a v8, probably an LS.

[94xjsport94]

The 4.0 does not die easily lol. Cash for clunkers took a ton of 4.0's away from the world and were a bitch to kill. 4.7 stroker would be the tits, not that hard to build either.

[The_Dealer]

Nice deal on the v8!  If my 4.0 dies I'll be looking for a v8, probably an LS.

Mine is a 4.0 stroked to 4.7

For the first few hundred(500 or so) I could tell it had more power, but really didn't feel like it was big gain. What I did notice was the torque, and how instant it comes on. I followed ATK's break in procedure to the t. I drove it relatively responsible but after around 3k miles I decided it should be safe to really get on it. Even with 3.07's and 33's it still feels stronger then stock 245's and the 4.0
There isn't much past about 4200-4500 rpm. If I manual shift at 4200 it doesn't skip a beat. Towing my atv is alot more enjoyable. Gas mileage is slightly better. All in all, I'm happy with it. If you need a fresh motor, its definatelyworth it. I don't know if I would pull a perfectly good motor for it. Just depends on what u want. I can't wait until I regear. It has a pretty sweet sounding  lope at idle. Not to choppy, but you can definitely tell its not stock. Now if banks will go ahead and finish their turbo kit for the early tj... //letseat//

[clark123456]

Ok, I didn't know the meaning of a stroker and I had looked it up in the internet to no avail a while back.  Now I think I get it...a bored out engine with higher displacement, due to the boring.

[The_Dealer]

Also has a larger crank stroke. Hence the name. There's many different ways to build one
Of course of I had more time I would have done the 4.7 v8. My uncle has one with around 50k that was rear ended. Would have been good setup.

Btw, when setting up your pinion angle how are u doing it? Throw the angle finder away if you are using one. Alot of guys focus tooo much on the numbers. I used to be one of those guys. I'd have the angles perfect and sometimes would still get vibes. I always eyeball it and get the pinion barely visibly lower. Drive it, then see what adjustments need to be made. If it's bad, I'll start off extending the uppers 2-3 turns at a time. Which would be stupid easy with double adjustable. One you feel the vibesare starting to be barely noticable,do one turn adjustments until they stop.  I always adjust a little more past where the vibes stop, just to make sure. When your angle is too high you will know , then drop it back down. You can always stop once the vibes are gone. When you are adjusted and vibe free, take your pinion angles, record them. That way if you cnage anything or you think something got tweaked you have a good starting point. Mr Blaine reccomended that to me and I've been doing it like that since.