I didn't get a lot done on this for EJS 2015. I did get the Old Man Emu springs on the front, new Tom Woods driveline (this thing is awesome--VERY smooth ride now) and some CB radio and just general bolt tightening around the rig. I figured it would be good to go for EJS. No real gnarly trails other than Pritchett on big Sat. This rig is trail proven and I thought I'd be fine. I was proven VERY wrong. Fought the thing all week due to the extra lift the OME springs gave me. I had shackles reversing and they ultimately killed my passenger side main leaf. I had a hydro assist hose decide to wander up and smack my crank pulley on Elephant Hill. Killed the hose and I got to drive the air-down 38" tires out to the trailer from about the "squeeze" or whatever the narrow notch is. My shoulders and arms are still feeling that a week later. That seemed to loosen up my lower bolts on my steering box so I need to attend to that for sure. Got a new hose from our friends at EVCO for under $30. With the steering box looking like it was making an XJ unibody out of my frame, leaf springs being questionable (removed third leaf and thought I was golden but the springs just aren't strong enough for my rig without the leaf in there....they're not in a good way after Fins and Things and Elephant Hill...) and just all around tiredness from the EJS week, I bailed early for home on Thursday night. I didn't dare gun on Pritchett with my rig like it is.
It's likely time to get this thing updated a little. Eric and I wrote down a list on the garage wall when we got back. It's a bit daunting.
Here's the list:
1) Steering box
2) Front suspension
3) cross member bolts
4) seats (?)
5) motor (?)
6) hood (?)
7) paint (?)
8) shocks (rear are piles of Autozone stuff....)
9) winch fix
10) spare tire relocate (lower so I can see out the back window)
11) CB radio (I buy new radio crap every year and have craptastic results)
12) CJ Tailgate
13) D60 ring/pinion/bearings (LOTS of play there now)
14) front driveline
First things first. I need to address the front suspension (fix it forever), get the steering all figured out and repaired and address the loose pinion on the front 60.
I kept tripping over my JK stock springs in the other garage. I have a place for them now (I have a Jeep "shed") and I don't trip over them but I can't help but think those would be REALLY smooth and comfy on this dawg. I'm not sure if I want to go front only or link the front with a 3-link and then do a triangulated four link in the rear and just be done (the both sides is kind of winning----however, I'll do one side at a time so I don't "Greg" myself
). I have most of the stuff to do this if I use the JK springs and some Bilstein shocks I bought for a Blazer project that never got done. Just need some DOM tube for links (or should I buck up and give Summit Machine a call?). I even have an old draglink that I could likely use for a trackbar (.281 wall 1.25" dom?) but I'd need some heims and some time on a friends lathe to clean up one end of it.
Steering box fix should be pretty straightforward. Deal with the nutcert bullshit on the bolts that hold the steering box to the frame from below (thinking I'll just drill into the frame where the nutserts are and tack the nutsert to the frame to get the bolts out) and take a good long look at that steering box area on the frame. Fix anything wrong with the frame and bolt the box back on.
Pinion bearings in the D60 have never been "good". Possibly adequate but good would be stretching things. 10 years of trails....it's not in the best shape now. Still running stock GM 4.56 gears in the diffs. I wouldn't mind moving to 4.88 gears but don't know that I want to move to 5.13 or deeper with the 4:1 tcase. I think I'll buy some gears for both diffs, bearing kit for the front and maybe full bearing kit for the 14 bolt and just be totally done with both axles. I'll likely never touch them again if I do that?
As I put the rig on the trailer at Elephant Hill, I noticed the drivers side of my crossmember hanging low. One of my studs seems to have backed out (possibly stripped?) and I definitely need to get that taken care of. I've got the crossmember/skidplate dialed in over the years. I'm not thrilled with it, but it works decently and has been very reliable until now. Likely kill the nutcerts holding that stuff together and weld in a repair for that. Sounds like a pretty easy fix to me and should last long.
Other stuff on the list is just nuisance stuff a little. My $75 paint has lasted WAY longer than it should (at least 7-8 years) and I'm kind of ready for an updated look. I'll keep the MB grille and redo the hood a little better. We'll see how far I get with this.
My seats are DONE. Again, they have served well. I bought them second hand and I don't think they'd been through a whole lot before me, but they are kind of sagging to the inside of the rig. (I'm sure my svelteness is helping there) I'll look hard at some MasterCrafts or similar. The Bestops have held up quite well and have been an excellent value, I just would like something a little more supportive and comfy if I'm going to have them bolted to the cage like I do. I'd buy the Bestop seats again if I was still using the stock seat rails to allow access to the back seats.
