• Off Your Rocker rocker panel protection
• Superwinch X9000
• Bestop Supertop & Bikini top
• K&N Air Filter
• Currie Greasable Shackles
• M.O.R.E. 1" Body Lift
• Currie 1" motor mounts
• Parts Mike Crossover steering arms
• Homebrewed onboard air using the factory a/c compressor.
• Homebrewed raised gas tank skid plate.
• TJ fender flares
• Tomken rear bumper & tire carrier, which I don't recommend

My gas tank article appeared on jeepwire! Check it out.

March 2002: Finally started the long-awaited (for me, anyway) 4.0 head project! I've begun disassembling the old junk, and at this point have removed most of the emissions crap & belt-driven accessories. I'd love to say I'm making daily progress, but thats not true. I still need to acquire an HO 4.0 wiring harness, and will probably just buy one from Hesco, as scavenging one from a junkyard rig is a real PITA (Pain In The @$$). I'd put pics of my progress up, but 1) am running out of space at my ISP and 2) don't have a lot of progress to show, other than a very dirty motor. Now contemplating how to clean the thing in the garage, since its now in a non-running state. Stay Tuned...

Jan 2002: Turns out the steering issue is a little worse than I thought (see below). Basically, The tie-rod is too close to the springs. The 'fat' part of the tie rod - where the drag link attaches, can catch on the passenger side front leaf spring, completely stopping all attempts to actually steer the vehicle. This explains some of the extreme difficulties I've had on certain obstacles - I just couldn't turn when I had to! The problem seems to occur when the right front is under compression. It looks like there are a couple causes. 1) The tapered holes for the tie rod ends in my high-steering system are too big. Not sure if this is my fault for not telling him what I was using, or 'Parts Mike' screwing up. My arms are also a little thinner than on older version (also from Parts Mike). Between the reduced arm thickness & the larger hole, the tie rod ends up a lot closer to the springs than it should. The current plan is to fill the tapered holes with weld, and re-bore them to the proper size. If this is not enough, I will add a spacer between the arms and the outer knuckles. In other news, not much has happened on the 4.0 head project. I have just about everything but the wiring harness.

Sept 2001: Had a blast at the Dakota Territory Challenge. An awesome event, I recommend it to anyone interested in challenging wheeling. Maintenance-wise, I was able to fix a couple things before going. 1) did the wiring changes mentioned below. 2) rotated the tie- rod and drag-link enough to reduce/eliminate interference with the spring pack. Its still to close, but didn't cause me any problems at DTC. And 3) I spent a lot of time debugging a fuel problem. I'll skip all the frustrations of diagnosis and trying different solutions and just say that the final fix was to remove the 'sock' prefilter in the tank. Its a rectangular screen that fits on the end of the pickup in the tank. Apparently it was quite clogged from debris and severely restricting flow. In the interim, I replaced a fuel pump, rebuilt the carb, replaced plugs, distributor cap & rotor and a fuel filter. Now I have two fuel filters, first a clear one upstream of the pump that has shown a lot of debris, then the stocker between the pump and the carb. Finally, its time to get serious about the 4.0 head / MPI project. I have a head from a buddy that holed his 4.0 and just need to find a wiring harness & some sensors. I hope to do this in the next month or so.

Aug 2001: Since the big springover & more project, I've had a chance to wheel a bit and begin to debug the whole system. Overall, its worked very well. A couple things have surfaced that need addressing, and a couple problems have cropped up as well. First of all, the crawl ratio still isn't where it needs to be for real rock-crawling. I did ok in Moab, including Upper Helldorado, but would really like to go slower on the rocks. Also, my cross-over steering isn't working at 100%. The drag-link to tie-rod connection is rubbing my passenger side spring plate. Its not clear if 1) my knuckles are rotated too far or 2) my spring perch is too high. Essentially, there's not enough clearance between the spring pack and tie rod, so the tie rod catches on the spring pack under compression where the tie rod is enlarged for the drag-link attachment. The short term solution I'll try is to add some washers underneath the steering arm on the knuckle. the long term solution is to either grind down the spring perch or remove it entirely and replace with a shorter one. I've also got some winch and ARB electrical problems. Essentially, the way they're wired, they do not work when the starter is engaged. This was a real problem on the exit from Upper Helldorado. The only way out is to winch up a near-vertical waterfall; its so steep that the carburetor couldn't keep the engine running. While using the starter to give some power to the tires, I couldn't use the winch at the same time. I ended up taking a dead pull from a buddy - he winched me while I helped with the starter. A rare occurance, to be sure, but it made for a nervous extraction. Another whoopsee occurred mid-summer. After a Memorial weekend run, I was on my way home from a buddy's house when my rear axle locked up. And I don't mean locked up like it went to spool mode. It just plain locked up and wouldn't turn at all. Like a fool, I forced it down the highway to the next exit in front wheel drive low range. Later we picked it up and trailered it back to his place. We found that the pinion nut had come loose, allowing the pinion to get sucked into the differential, where it chewed the hell out of the Detroit case. We drained the diff, cleaned it as well as possible and buttoned it up again. Its seen several hundred road miles since then and a couple trail days, with no problems. Those Detroits are tough! And a friendly reminder: use plenty of Loctite on those pinion nuts!

Jan/Feb 2001: The springover project is done! There are still minor things to do, like hook up the front ARB and install the TJ flares, but the drivetrain is complete. The project included the unanticipated expense of an Atlas transfer case, but I got a pretty good deal on a rebuilt Atlas I from AA. I had planned to just put a CV yoke on my old Rubicon Express SYE kit, but they wanted to sell me a whole new kit. When the Atlas deal came along, I jumped at it: gear driven, steel case, better low range. A detailed project writeup is being done for Jeepwire. Watch for it in the March issue.

December 2000: I raised the gas tank into the space provided by the body lift. While this won't be as necessary with the clearance provided by the springover, I feel like it was worthwhile and time well spent. Check out the writeup.

Winter 2000/2001: The big project is in the works. A buddy of mine has become a spring-over guru over the past couple years. We're installing a pair of Dana 44s under the springs in my Jeep. The rear axle came out of a Grand Wagoneer, the front is a high-pinion 44 from an F250. I'll keep the current spring packs, minus a leaf or two at each corner. Locking duties will come from a Detroit in the rear and ARB in the front, with 4.56 gears, spinning 35" Swampers. Watch Jeepwire for a writeup. Soon I'd also like to raise the motor & flatten the skid plate, if I have the time. The deadline is the Moab EJS in April.

October 2000: Got the winch installed, thanks to a spare mount from a guy in our club. Not much else has been happening maintenance-wise, though I'm finally starting to collect parts for the front and rear Dana 44 upgrade.

July 2000: After taking a year off from Jeeping (see my AT hike page), I returned to Minnesota and the Jeep this summer. The rear springs had sagged quite a bit, leaving me with a tail-low Jeep, and some serious departure angle issues. A buddy had left some 4" CJ springs around, so I used a couple leaves out of there to rebuild my rear spring packs. The grinder cut through the u-bolts and spring clamps easily. I swapped out a very fat short leaf and somewhat bent mid-length leaf to add two mid length leafs from the 4" pack. An easy job, and the Jeep's a bit more level. I still have the main leaves for a 3/4 project, though I'm not sure how I'll raise the front yet. In the next month or two I expect to swap in front and rear 44s from a Grand Wagoneer and possibly a 4.0 to replace the tired, 133K mile 258. I've also acquired a used winch, but need a mounting plate before the install. Stay tuned!

March 99: Panic mode preparations for Moab. Finished front axle swap on Mon 3/22, finished rear axle swap on Thurs 3/25. Left for Moab on Fri 3/26. Around that same time I finally finished the onboard air project and installed the tomken bumper & tire carrier on the rear. I had always thought Tomken had a good reputation, but I've changed my opinion. You pay over $400 for the bumper & tire carrier, and the damn holes aren't drilled for the thing. So you spend another $20-30 on drill bits and have to drill them perfectly or the thing doesn't swing properly. So then you spend another $15+ on bits that'll round out the holes a little so everything fits properly. Then they send a hitch pin that doesn't fit the holes in the tire carrier or the bracket on the bumper so you have to enlarge those. Buy another brand, if you're in the market for a tire carrier. Better yet, build one yourself. Including the cost of materials AND a welder, you'll come out ahead.

February 99: Bought YJ axles from a club member with 4.10 gears. Installed a Detroit EZ locker in said axles. These will be under the Jeep by the Moab Easter Jeep Safari, which takes place in late March/early April this year. Yee Ha! The EZ was easy to install - I was paranoid of doing something wrong, so went slow and it still only took 2 hours. Of course, this was with the axle out of the Jeep, which admittedly simplifies things a little. Still though, I was psyched. I also took the time to chop off the shock mounts and trackbar mount from the rear axle. I'll use spare front spring plates to attach the shocks (to the swaybar studs). I've been running without a trackbar for about 6 months already, and don't notice it. Also, by swapping in stock axles, my current gear becomes my spare set - full set of axle shafts, hubs, brakes, etc. In other news, the tires still rub, even with the body lift. Looks like I'll have to take the circular saw to the rear fenders to make a hair more room.

November 98: Finally installed body lift. Shockingly, none of the body bolts were stuck. At the same time, I put the Currie shackles on the rear springs. With the body an inch off the frame access to the frame bushing & bolt is much better. Getting those bolts out without punching them through the gas tank is a little tricky, but doable. Some people have had to drop the tank, but I did not. The worst part of the project was getting the sleeve and bushing out of one of the springs. In the end, I just took a propane torch to it and burned & melted it away. Around the same time, I 'bobbed' the front bumper and repainted part of the grill.

May 98: Rebuilt a large part of the front end, including the passenger side outer axle seal, both axleshaft u-joints, installation of rebuilt calipers, new rotors, steering stabliizer (rs 5k) both tie rod ends and both drag link ends. The steering had been getting quite sloppy; you could turn the wheel a couple inches before getting resistance - which contributed quite a bit to wandering on the road. With the new ends, things are nice & tight again. The bad axleshaft u-joints may also have contributed to other steering weirdness, but all seems well now. I won't get into why I had to replace the rotors, just let me tell you that its embarrassing as hell. I put in the rebuilt calipers because the bleeders were all boogered up, and there was sediment in one of the piston holes. I figured with the 110,000 miles, it was as good a time as any to just start fresh.

Another cool project (for me) was rebuilding my carburetor. The Jeep was running terribly for quite a while, until Nutter offerred to help me / show me how to rebuild my carb. That was really cool, 'cause carbs have such a terrible reputation for being real touchy and tough to do; well, with proper instruction and doing things in a methodical fashion, it really wasn't that hard. My Jeep is now running better than it has, ever, since I've had it; I bought it in the summer of '93, by the way.

• Needs a paint job (front floor is rusting, plus lots of spots on grill, fenders and windshield)
• At some point, my motor will get tired. When it does, I'd like to rebuild it, and install a MOPAR Fuel Injection kit. And maybe consider a swap to the 4.0 head. (Also see the Hesco install instructions and Hesco's Home page. At this point (9/01), I've found a 4.0 head (& MPI) and am scavenging the rest of the parts to do a cheap FI upgrade. Watch for updates!

Of course, Jeeping isn't the only way I enjoy the outdoors. I'm a huge fan of camping and, particularly, backpacking. Some people just don't get it though, that I can enjoy both. Maybe I'll save the whole discussion for another time, but suffice it to say that human-powered activities and an environmantal ethic are not totally antithetical to pursuing motorized recreation. For a very entertaining explanation, check out this article on the dichotomy.