We really gotta clear some of these old trails back some…

So I tied up all the loose ends from the body lift, extended the gear shifter and installed the transfer case shifter linkage bracket, and it was time to hit the trail. Been trying to get all that done for 2 weeks and was finally ready Sunday.

David Trimble and I decided to take the trail from Newfound Rd over to Shady Grove that follows the creek. Wow is all I can say. The Mimosa trees and Privet hedges were unbearable. We ended up having to turn around after about the 3rd creek crossing and come back out. We decided that we are going to go back when it cools down and clear that trail back out. It is just too relaxing of a trail to let grow up like that.

When we came back out, we turned right and took the first trail on the left, which is the trail that comes in at the end of Long Bottom and goes up to Dupont Lake then around Opossum Pass and back over to the Trussel. However, not far in, there was a large rut that I am confident I wouldnt have had any real problems with had I been alone, but the kids were in the back seat of the Jeep so I decided it would be best to come back without them and make sure it was doable without scaring the beejesus out of them.

It was a short trip but it got the job done. Tested out all the new goodies, slung some mud, crawled some rocks, flexed a rut or 2, and most importantly, had fun. I was surprised at how well it acted in some spots I put it in. I took a rock or 2 and some ruts “the hard way” and she reacted much better than I expected. I can see that I am gonna have to gear her soon. Even in 4-low she didnt like those 33’s very much.

Sorry for the lack of pics but we spent the entire time dodging tree branches and briars. I promise to get some pics of the next ride. The next thing I think I am gonna work on is maybe the axles. I was really disappointed with the way she acted with those 33’s in low gear. Gotta find a rubicon 44 rear end and a high pinion cherokee 30 front. So if anyone has one or knows where one is, make sure to shoot me a message.

She ain’t Stock No More

Now that the tires are on there she is starting to look like a REAL Jeep. They are so far out of balance that we are having to order some beads to throw in there to balance them up. Was … Continue reading →

Tackling the Body Lift

So now I know why Off Road Connection charges so much to put on a body lift. Got to Joe Bob’s at 10:45 this morning and at 4:00 Joe had to stop what he was doing to help me get at least enough of it done to be able to get back home before the wife had to leave and just come back later and finish. It probably wouldn’t have been nearly as difficult had Performance Accessories actually put instructions for a Jeep Wrangler in the kit instead of a Toyota 4runner. But the way it was, Joe was telling me what I needed to do from memory while fixing an air conditioner on a 10 year old conversion van and I was learning as I went as well. And I am fairly sure it had been a while since he had put a body lift on a TJ. LOL

I can honestly say I had no idea that there were 2 body mounts hidden on a cross member on top of the axle that could only be seen and gotten to after removing the rear wheels. The only reason I found that was by using google. Add to that the fact that the kit didnt come with anything to correct the steering shaft problem. Joe ended up using a spacer to move the shaft anchor up until we can figure out what else to do. Plus there were a SHIT ton of parts left over… actually the more I think of it, maybe the wrangler label on the outside of the box was wrong and the 4runner instructions inside the box were the right ones for the kit afterall.

Regardless, my baby is sitting 3 inches taller right now and the rest will just have to get figured out later. I had meant to take lots of pictures to include in this post, but until around 1:00 I was working outside the garage in 110 degree heat with the heat index, and as soon as I got it moved into the garage it came a torrential downpour until moments before I finished and left. So unfortunately there are no pics as of yet but I will add a couple of the finished product so far tomorrow. It’s too dark to take any that will show anything at this point.

Quick Rundown of the Installation

Before you start jacking up the body, there are a few things you need to do. A few of which I did not know about until after I started.

1. Depending on which route you are going to go with the radiator, you either need to unbolt the radiator and shroud or use an air powered cutter to notch out the bottom of the fan shroud to allow for it to be sitting slightly higher than the fan. We just notched out the bottom of the shroud and will probably just add an electric fan later if it proves to cause cooling problems, which I don’t really expect honestly. If it’s needed, there is an obscene amount of space between the radiator and fan on my 4cyl so that shouldn’t be a problem at all.
2. Unbolt the steering shaft anchor directly under the brake master cylinder. There are 2 bolts that hold this in, one on top and one on the outside side of the bracket. There was nothing provided to reconnect this after lifting the body up so we are temporarily using a spacer on top with a longer bolt until we can find something to use permanently. I didnt have any problems driving home but I foresee problems once I get in the woods and get into a bind that will make turning the 33″ tires we are putting on it tomorrow more difficult. I will make sure to post when I figure this out.
3. Make sure no wires or brake lines are connected to both the body and frame.
4. Remove the recessed gas filler thingy (technical term) and then also where it attaches to the filler nozzle itself. 4 phillips head screws hold each of these things in place.
5. Remove all 11 of the body mount bolts. There are 1 on each of the back corners, 3 on each side right under the doors, 1 under the center of the grill, and 2 on a cross member above the rear axle. You will need to take both rear tires off to reach those. I recommend just jacking up the ass of the Jeep and throwing a couple jack stands under the axle and pulling the wheels for the rest of the install to give you more room to work.

Once all that is done, get under the Jeep and look all the way down both frame rails on each side and in the front and back to make sure there is nothing else connected to both the body and frame. Also look around where your transmission and transfer case is and make sure there is enough slack in those wires for the body to go up 3 inches. Your rear brakes shouldn’t be an issue since they are attached to the frame and not the body. In the front, however, the lines coming out of the master cylinder will be moving up with the body while they are still anchored to the frame. You shouldnt need to remove these, but while you are jacking up the body on that side, you should keep an eye on these and possibly have to help them bend the right way to keep pressure off your master cylinder. There is plenty of line there for this, it is just bent back and forth a few times which makes extending the lines unnecessary.

Jack her up on both sides, put some jack stands under the body on each side for safety, and throw your 3″ pucks in between the body bushings and the body itself. On each of the body mounts, there will be a bottom bushing that came off when you removed the bolts. You are going to reuse these, so slide your washers on the bolts and then put these back on the new bolts the same way they came off the old bolts. There are 2 different size bolts that come with your kit, the smaller bolts will go in the rear mounts, the mounts on the cross member above the rear axle, and the front mount under the grill. You will also notice the bottom bushings on these mounts are different than the others as well, so don’t get those mixed up. The larger bolts are used on the 3 mounts on each side under the doors.

This part is easier if you have someone to help you so you dont have to get up and down over and over working the jack, which I didn’t so by the time I was done, my legs were tired as Hell. Guide your bolts up through the mounts, through the bushings and pucks, and start them into the mount holes in the body but don’t tighten them. Once you get all of them except for the front one done, let your body down. You will need to make sure your body didnt shift to the left or right during the install, which mine did about a half inch. Use some sort of straight edge (I used a long pry bar) and hold it against the side of the font bumper on one side and see where it comes to on the front of the fender. Then go to the other side and compare. If it needs to go one way or another you will need to shift the body over appropriately. I just pushed like Hell a few times on it in the front, middle, and back and after a few tries I was back center. Now you can put the front puck in. You might have to use the jack again close to the front to get it in, but I didnt. The other pucks were holding it up enough that it just slid right in.

Now that you’re centered, tighten all the body mount bolts up. If you are lowering your radiator, there will be brackets included in your kit for that as well as a fuel filler hose extender and extenders for other hoses on the fuel tank. Your kit SHOULD also include a bracket of some sort to bolt your steering shaft anchor point back down, even though mine was obviously left out. We didn’t get to any of the fuel tank hoses so my filler nozzle is down just inside the body where the fuel filler thingy (technical term) that we removed earlier was. I will take care of this in the next couple days but it isn’t hurting anything besides its looks to be like this temporarily.

There is a gear shifter extender included if you have a manual transmission, as well as a bracket for the transfer case linkage. We didn’t get to these either but will in the next few days. For the gear shifter, you will remove it from the top of the transmission through the hole in the floor, cut it in half, and weld the extender in the middle. Some people opt to just heat up the shifter with a torch and bend it to allow it to not hit the back of the shifter console when in 2nd and 4th gear (and 6th if you have a 6 speed), but I want to extend mine up because it’s just more comfortable to have the shifter at the stock location inside the cab. The transfer case shifter bracket just goes in the linkage to bring the geometry back to where it was before the lift, other wise you can have trouble getting it to go in 4wheel low if you are in a bind.

After all was said and done, the Jeep is sitting 3″ higher, and my ass is sagging 3″ lower. I won’t lie. Fat guys just don’t take the heat as well as some others. Turns out the only thing I did all day that didn’t require me to go back and redo was deciding this morning before I left home to take a dry shirt to put on once I was done. You have NO idea how much better I felt just after putting that baby on. And the shower I took once I got home was even better.

I will take a few pics tomorrow morning of what it looks like currently. Then it’s time to throw the meat to her. Once the tires are on I will take a few more pics and then post them all that evening. Hopefully I will be able to get all the other stuff finished up this weekend so I can go back to driving her next week and maybe get a trail ride in soon. =D

The Maiden Voyage

(As a preface, this ride happened before I decided to make this blog so there is only 1 photo and it was actually from a short trip I made just down to the Trussel and back a few days before. I will make an effort to take more photos for future posts.)

I couldn’t stand it anymore, I had to go for a ride. I probably should have waited on the lift and tires but my need for instant gratification took over and I wanted to hit the trail for the first time in a few years. I was itching and this was the only way to scratch that itch. So when my buddy David called and said he and Felix were going for a ride out to the Trussel and the Rock Garden, I couldn’t resist, especially after he prodded me with promises of pulling me up anything I couldn’t get up myself since I was stock with maypop tires still.

So I loaded up the wife and both the kids and off we went. Getting down to the Trussel was pretty easy. Honestly, other than the slick entrance off the road, you could make it there with most 2wd pickups. But that was where the easy ended. Less than 50 yards from the creek I blew out my right front tire on a bush stump no bigger around than a quarter. We broke out the jack and threw on the spare, which had more tread than the actual tire that had just blown, so we decided to press on. Bad idea. about 10 minutes later, the spare went flat as well. After leaving Kris (wife) and the kids in the woods with David and the others, Felix and I threw the spare in the back of his Samurai and headed out to go find a new tire or maybe borrow one to get out of the woods.

We decided that the tire was fine and that it had just been sitting on the back of the Jeep for so long that it had lost its lock on the bead of the wheel. After putting 2 cans of fix a flat in it just in case, and throwing what felt like 100 lbs of air in it, we headed back in and got it back on the Jeep.

Since it was getting dark and I didn’t trust the spare very much, we decided to just turn around and come back out the way we came in and live to fight another day… AFTER we get the lift and tires installed. Luckily I already had the tires ordered so this ride only cost me the price of gas and our drinks.

My next post SHOULD be on installing one or both of the lifts and the tires. Then we can get back in the woods again have some real fun. 🙂

Plan of Action

So obviously, I have to have some direction I want to go in with this project, otherwise I will be just aimlessly throwing modifications at this thing with no real goal in sight. Which probably isn’t the best way to go about this. I have to find a happy medium between trail rig and street Jeep. Enough lift to fill my offroad needs without it becoming too gaudy or top heavy to drive regularly. To start off, getting enough lift to fit 33″ tires will be sufficient, but by no means do I want to stop there. I eventually want to fit 35’s. For this to be possible, a few things will have to happen.

1. I will need enough lift to allow 35’s to not only fit, but to also be able to flex a good bit. This will not only get me the tire size I want, but also the articulation I need to perform well on the rocks and other such obstacles on the trail.
2. The axles will need to be strengthened enough to handle the added resistance that larger tires present. Stock axles aren’t strong enough to pull 35’s through some of the tougher obstacles we will be finding on the trail without breaking axle shafts, universal joints, and other components. This upgrade can be accomplished by either beefing up the internals in our present axles, or replacing them completely with an axle assembly from a different vehicle, or both.
3. Lower gearing will be needed for this hamster powered 4 banger to twist that much rubber without putting it in a strain. It will also help keep my gas mileage to at least a manageable level. Another bonus of lower gearing is crawl ratio, which effects how slowly the Jeep moves when in 4wd low. The slower the better, to a certain extent, but we wont be getting too extreme in this area since this is going to be a street Jeep as well.

These are all things that I will be addressing down the road. For now, as I said earlier, I want to get this thing fitting 33’s so we can have some fun in the meantime while we slowly but surely upgrade our TJ piece by piece until she is ready for some big meat… Wow that sounded dirty. 😀

A 3″ body lift will be enough to get the 33’s under there, but I like to have a little space between my Jeep and its tires. For this, I am going with a cheap, temporary workaround and get some 2″ coil spring spacers.

The body lift is basically a bunch of blocks, that go between the frame and the body mounts to lift the body up, while keeping the stock suspension in place. This allows fitment of larger tires while keeping the comfortable, stock ride quality.

The coil spring spacers are what amount to hockey pucks with holes in the middle that go on top of the coil springs, giving the same lift effect of larger springs, but like the body lift, keeping the stock ride quality.

These 2 together will net me a total of 5″ of total lift without losing any comfort on the road. Later down the road, we will be doing away with the spacers and installing a long arm full suspension kit which, on top of our 3″ body lift, will get us clearance for our 35’s and also add a great deal of axle articulation.

I have already purchased the body and spacer lifts, as well as a set of front sway bar quick disconnects and plan on installing a them all in the next week or so. Late model Jeeps have whats called a sway bar that helps keep the Jeep standing straight up and down in sharp curves instead of leaning way over to the side which can result in rolling over at high speeds. This is GREAT on the pavement as it allows you to drive your Jeep at normal speeds without having to worry about ending up upside-down in a ditch. On the trail, however, it prevents axle articulation. Being able to quickly and easily disconnect and reconnect the sway bar will allow me to have the best of both worlds, which is exactly what we are going after with this project.

Now that we have all that we need to get our 33’s under there, there is one more thing we need… the actual tires themselves. For this I went with Super Swamper TSL Radials 33×12.50×15’s. The TSL’s have the aggressive mud lugs we want in the woods, and being a radial means that they will last a bit longer on the pavement. They came in Thursday and I gotta tell you, they look mean. (I forgot to take pics of the tires but I will have pics of them once they are on the Jeep.)

Other upgrades on the menu are a new front bumper with a winch plate to mount us a nice Ramsey 9000 winch that I got for free a few years back that needs the solenoids replaced, some lockers to get us more traction in the woods, and some lights so that we can see better on the trail for when the sun goes down. I will get more into these as we go along, as well as the other upgrades to be done later once we start working towards 35’s.

Getting Started With the Blog

So I was up until 2:30 this morning setting this blog up and posting it out onto facebook only to later realize, nobody was probably up to see it. LOL So this is another Facebook post to get the link out there for my friends to see and hopefully get them in here and subscribe.

Check out the “What’s this all about” page up above the title image to see what this blog is going to be about. If you are an offroad enthusiast, or maybe just like to laugh at me when I get stuck in the woods with a broken Jeep, it will probably be worth a subscription, since after all, its free. 🙂

To subscribe to the blog, as some of you already know, just sign up with your email address over here to the right and you will be notified with an email whenever I post something new. Don’t worry, you won’t get any spam mail from this, so you can subscribe without fear of getting 20 emails a day about viagra and penis enlargements. I will be doing a few of these posts occasionally to try and get readership up because I am gonna need feedback from y’all on a few topics when it comes down to particular decisions.

So tell anyone that you know that may be interested and help me get a few readers. The more we have, the more feedback I can get when I get really started on this thing, and the more discussion we will have.

Thanks for reading!

Buying the Right Vehicle For My Needs

When I started out on this project, I knew I wanted to build something that would be as comfortable on the road as it was capable on the trail. I have owned dedicated trail rigs in the past, and while they were a lot of fun, I decided that having a backup vehicle was important, plus having something to drive other than my regular car was a nice way to keep the miles low on it. Being comfortable was one of the most important factors in deciding on which vehicle I wanted. Creature comforts were important, as well as the ability to put baby seats in the back since I not only wanted to be able to lug kids around with me on the road, but also take them with me on the trail. The other most important factor was its offroad capability. It had to be something that was going to be pretty beastly on the trail without having to go nuts with modifications.

I decided on a Jeep Wrangler TJ because not only are Wranglers the most capable off road vehicles right out of the box, but starting with the TJ model, they are quite comfortable as well with a few more creature comforts than other vehicles as well as the Wrangler models before it. I originally wanted an automatic transmission but soon found that if I wanted to find something in my price range, which was between 6 and 7 grand, and had not been ragged out in the woods, then I was going to have to settle on a 5 speed. I also wanted working AC, decent stereo, carpet, comfortable seats, and if possible cruise control. The TJ had all of these things plus the get up and go to get it done in the woods as well.

Finding the right Jeep would prove to be rather frustrating, but at least it didn’t take very long. Day 1 of the search I drove to Cartersville, GA to look at a black 4 cylinder 97 automatic with a black hard top that I had twisted the salesman’s arm into trading in for a soft top. (LOL) After a 3 hour drive, the Jeep that the salesman had described as being in “great shape” with no major body imperfections and “very clean”, turned out to be anything but. It had around 8 or so places on the body that had received some nice rock rash and had body work to hide it that looked like my 6 year old could have done better on. My friend James kicked the frame and the dried mud and dirt from its last trip in the woods fell off exposing that the salesman hadn’t even washed it before throwing the rattle bomb to it to make it “look” clean. To avoid jail in another state, I left without speaking to anyone.

Day 2 of the search I drove to Huntsville, AL to look at a white 97 6 cylinder automatic with 3″ of lift and no top at all that looked beautiful in pictures, and even looked pretty damn nice when I got there, until I laid on my back. The entire underside of this Jeep was rusted from bumper to bumper. Wanting to at least give it a chance, I drove it up the road only to notice that the automatic transmission was slipping a great deal. I thanked the salesman and started the journey back home.

Day 3 I drove to Collinsville, AL to look at a red 99 6 cylinder automatic with a black soft top and very nice aluminum rims with 3″ of lift and 33’s. The driver side door looked like someone had hit it with a bowling ball, or maybe someone’s head, and there was a gouge in the hood about an inch and a half wide, half an inch deep, and 6 inches long, that had already started to rust quite badly. I asked him what that was, he said a scratch. I said “a scratch my ass, that’s a ditch!” I expressed my extreme displeasure with how I had been, yet again, deceived by a salesman, and got pretty ugly with the guy. I decided I better leave before I hit him. I was REALLY mad at this point.

On Thursday I opened up Craigslist for the 4th day in a row and started looking and came to the decision I mentioned earlier. There was no way I was going to find an automatic in the shape I wanted for the price I was willing to pay. And lo and behold, the first Jeep on the page was a exceptional looking 98 black 4 cylinder 5-speed with a tan soft top, bone stock with a nice set of aluminum rims in Prattville, AL. Another 2 hour drive to find another piece of shit just wasn’t sounding like my ideal evening. Plus thursday night is smoke night. A few friends and I get together every thursday night to sit outside, smoke cigars, drink scotch, bourbon, specialty beer, and just shoot the bull. I wasn’t about to ruin possibly the only night this week that might be enjoyable… Until that nagging feeling just wouldn’t go away and sure enough, at 6:00 I was south bound and down, headed to Prattville to meet this guy and look at what I was already expecting to be another lemon.

Boy was I surprised. This was the first Jeep I went to look at that wasn’t from a dealership so I didn’t have to deal with a sleazy salesman. Everything about this Jeep was just as the owner said. After inspecting inside the frame, on top of the transmission and transfer case as far as I could get my hands, and basically in every nook and cranny this Jeep had to offer, I couldn’t find the first sign of dirt or mud. It had fewer scratches than most 5 or 6 year old vehicles I have ever seen, and this Jeep was 13 years old. When I took it for a spin, it drove great, tight steering, nice shifting, smooth ride, AC was frigid, stereo sounded pristine, made no popping or grinding noises when I tested the 4wd out… I was in love. $6300 later, I was the proud owner of a brand new-to-me Jeep Wrangler TJ.

On the drive home it sucked more gas than anything I had ever driven before, and it was a freaking 4 cylinder for Christ’s sake. I can tell you, the 5 speed Jeeps don’t like the interstate. If you can keep them under 60mph, they do great. Anything over that and you might as well stand on the radiator and just pour gas straight into the manifold. Once I hit Fultondale (about 30 minutes from home) I decided to get off the interstate, take the door uppers off and roll up the back window and enjoy some open air cruising. Everything went great until I got to Warrior (10 mins from home) and my dash lights went out, taking my tail lights and running lights with them. I pulled over to try to get them to come back on only to inadvertently blow the fuse to my headlights. So at 10:30 on Saturday night, less than 50 yards from an Advanced Auto that had closed about an hour or so earlier, I had to park my brand new-to-me Wrangler over night in a CVS parking lot. A Warrior cop assured me he would keep an eye on my new toy that didn’t even have insurance on it yet, but it didn’t make me feel any better about the situation.

As soon as I woke up Sunday morning, my wife drove me to Warrior go get it and my 2 year old son instantly fell in love with it. It quickly went from being “Daddy’s Jeep” to “my Jeep” before the day was out, which tickled me to death because a large part of the reason for buying this thing was so I could take him out riding with me and get him interested in outdoors activities.

And that is where we stand so far. I still have a wiring problem of some kind, it works fine when you first crank it up, but once the lights have been on for a while driving down the road, something grounds somewhere and blows the fuse to the dash lights, tail lights, and running lights. If you try to put another fuse in it at this point, it blows it immediately when you turn the lights on, but if you let it cool back down, you can replace the fuse and it will work again until it gets down the road a ways and then does it again. I have bought a few upgrades for it but that is for another post.

And that is how my newest toy and I met.

Introduction

My name is Jason Aycock and this is going to be a blog about the buildup and life of my 1998 Jeep Wrangler TJ. This TJ is going to be not only a trail rig but also a semi-daily driver since I would like to keep miles off my Mazda RX-8 as much as I can stand. Therefore everything I do to it will be with both the trail and the pavement in mind. I will be updating as I get stuff done to it and also when I take it on trail rides and anytime there needs to be an update on how something is working, or not working. Anyways, hope you enjoy it and maybe even find something useful somewhere along the line.