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 going to take more weight than we could fit on the rim to balance them so I’m just dealing with a high speed wobble until they get in next week. I rarely ever get this thing above 60 anyway so it’s almost never a problem, but this is a dual purpose Jeep so being able to drive normally on the street is just as important as being capable on the trail.

I figured out that the steering problem wasn’t a part that was missing in the kit, it was the fact the kit came with the wrong instructions so I never even looked at them. Instead of an adapter that raises the location of steering shaft anchor, you are supposed to remove the shaft itself from the column and extend it. I haven’t done this yet but from what I am reading, it rusts together over time and you have to basically use a whole can of WD-40 to get the thing free. Once it’s free and you get it extended out you just install it back in place in the factory position. I had the guy that put my tires on give it a try yesterday but in the limited time he had to work on it he couldn’t get it to extend so I am guessing I may have to just soak the thing in WD-40 over night or something and see if that works. I also believe I remember seeing some extended steering shafts from Flaming River a few years back in the after market so I may check that out too.

We still have to finish up the loose ends on the body lift. As you can see the gas filler has yet to be extended. I had to fill up this morning with it like this and I have to tell you, it was tricky at first. The gear shifter is still out of place at the moment as well. There are 2 ways to deal with this. You can use an extender provided in the body lift kit by cutting the shifter rod in half and then welding it back in the middle. This puts the shifter back in the stock location in the cab. Or you can heat it up with a torch and bend it forward so that it doesnt hit the back of the shifter hole in the console in 2nd and 4th gear. (and 6th if you have a 6 speed) I am going to use the extender just because the stock location is more comfortable to me.

As soon as I get all that finished up, it will be time to hit the trail. I’ll post up about the trial run, hopefully it wont fall in to the “Oops” category, but if it does, we’ll deal with it. One thing about buying another man’s vehicle. You inherit its problems. So far I have inherited a wiring problem that I still haven’t figured out, but I haven’t given up on it. I am still running emergency flashers after dark to keep the Po-Po’s away. Hopefully that will be the only problem I inherit, but I’m not gonna hold my breath. 😀