Ownership Verified: BCS repeatedly breaks, fixes, and re-breaks his Jeep

So, as usual for these sorts of things, I set out to do one thing and ended up doing a half-dozen others.

First things first, I had some suspicions about whether the front long arm alignment was correct - They came directly off a friend's running/driving Jeep so I had just assumed they were equal length. Some futzing about with a tape measure and various reference locations determined the passenger side arm needed to be pulled in a bit, so off I went. The jam nut required a snipe to get off, and the flex joint threads were a but crusty (y u no use anti-seize?) so I figured I had better clean out the threads in the arm. Fortunately, I standardized my LCA joints when building my rears so I happened to have the correct 1-1/4" tap on hand. I'm a goddamn genius. Also, if you don't have a tap wrench big enough, a spline-drive ratcheting wrench is a godsend.

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Not pictured: using a ratchet strap as a one-man wheelbase-adjustment tool.

I also caught the "well, while I'm already in there" bug and deleted the surplus front upper control mounts from the chassis, by way of an angle grinder. I was fairly confident I would get to the sway bar eventually.


The newly-modified sway bar was nice and shiny for the only time in its life. It's all downhill from here.

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New vs. old. Note that Jeep rotated the sway link mounting plane 90 degrees for the WJ, which is nice because the XJ/TJ/ZJ design was really fucking stupid and snapped sway links all the goddamn time.

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My sway bar disconnects use an adapter piece for ZJs that I just removed for the WJ bar. However, the alignment wasn't totally perfect, so I employed the big vise and the big hammer to create some "custom" offset links.

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All bolted up and good to go.

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Also took the time to install the little bracket that holds the bar out of the way when disconnected. Very slick.

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And that's pretty much all she wrote for the suspension. This leaves me in the unusual position of having my vehicle essentially ready for the big Finalgear Offroad Jamboree... months in advance of the actual date. So I have time on my hands. Maybe I'll rebuilt my spare transmission in the meantime. Oh, that reminds me, I planned to install a bigger trans cooler too.... and rock sliders....

Oh, still waiting on two more wheels from Amazon - they claim they'll be here by February 6th but haven't shipped them yet. They'll need to get them out this week if they want to hit that date. Would be nice to get the new rubber on.
 
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The number of times I have used the winch for utility purposes continues to marginally exceed its use for vehicle recoveries. Man, is it ever handy to have around.

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Also, since my father is picking some stuff up from the border later this month, I took the opportunity to order some more Jeep parts. Trying to find a decent price locally on steel 2x6 tube as well.
 
Me: "Sure is nice to feel like I've got things finished."

Also me: "MAIL DAY!"


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Pictured: IRO belly skid, Teraflex front diff cover, Detriot TruTrac for the front diff.

Not pictured: Supplies to redo the main battery harness and grounds with fresh 4AWG wire, Lubelocker gasket new carrier bearings and shim package from Yukon.
 
The rest of the wheels finally arrived!
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The years have not been kind to my battery terminals, so today I to drastic measures and yeeted the old harness from the engine bay, never to return.
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New harness is mostly built, just waiting for a 150A fuse for the alternator feed wire to arrive so I can get everything hooked back up.
 
No pics today, just working away and checking things off the list for the trip.

- New wheels and tires mounted! Still fit in the garage, albeit barely. If I went to 35s I'd probably need to toss the lightbar.
- Battery harness finished and installed, love the military-style terminals that make it so easy to add all my accessories.
- Trimmed some minor bodywork to fit the 33s better at full lock. Need to get sledge-y on the front pinch seams a bit more.
- Rejiggered the sway bar links, again. Steering arm was hitting the link mount at full lock so I flipped the link around and adjusted the bends. Clears fine now.
- Fixed a couple of electrical connections on the light bar.
- Tried to fix up the weak passenger door lock actuator, failed (motor is kaput), ordered a new one.
 
Progress continues in unusually steady fashion.

- P/S front door lock actuator replaced, works perfectly now
- 7-pin trailer hitch plug replaced and mounted instead of living crammed beside the taillight
- Hub-centric rings installed on wheels
- Front pinch seams adjusted (read: sledgehammered) and re-painted
- Gas tank skid adjusted (read: attacked with an angle grinder) to better clear trackbar bracket under bump
- Diff cover sandblasted and primered for paint
- Made a set of carrier setup bearings for locker install


Needs a clean. Needs more armour.

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Thanks! Stock rear bumper will have to suffice for now, I figure I'll replace it if I damage it. Bloody expensive things.

Not sure I will have time to get the tube rockers in, but will try. They require cutting the old rockers out anyway so I'm not too terribly concerned about damage if I don't get them on in time.
 
Another big shop day today. Was supposed to have been a full weekend but a buddy's Escape lost its 2-4 trans band so I spent yesterday fixing that instead.


Got to work installing the Dr. Emmet Brown Anti-Gravity Drive. "Where we're going, we don't need roads!"

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Yanked the open carrier out after checking backlash and pattern, mucked about with shims and setup bearings on the TruTrac until I got the lash and pattern matched up. Had to shift a bit of shim stack around but nailed it in the end.

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With the shims set, I went for the tried and true Canadian method of final carrier bearing installation. Chuck the carrier (in a bag) in a snowbank, and hit the bearings with the heat gun.

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Works an absolute treat. You don't even need to hammer the bearings on, they literally just fall into place.

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Back in and buttoned up with the new iron diff cover and LubeLocker gasket. Job done. +1 to traction!

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I'll keep a close eye on it. I mean, the best part of going out to the wild is social distancing.
 
Jeep work has been less urgent with the trip postponed, but it continues nevertheless.

Not Pictured: Replaced the factory tow-package transmission cooler with a Hayden 679 with twice the cooling capacity.

Pictured: Transfer case skid plate

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Pictured: Excessively large hardware kit. Dog-bone shaped fasteners get fished into the framerail for the side brackets, which was less awful than you might imagine.

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Pictured: Skid plate, in situ. Had to relocate the muffler aft and changed the exit routing to an axle-dump but it's better protected than the side dump that was in risk of being squashed on rocks.

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Still have a bit of a to-do list, but unfortunately I'll be dealing with fixing other things we own for a bit here.

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Holy hell - you weren't kidding about the hail. :(

But that hardware kit though... oooh fresh hardware...
 
Wow, that's impressive, and shitty. We have Storm Chasers as they're called here. They come around neighborhoods asking homeowners and extorting money out of insurance companies stating whatever major storm we had recently damaged siding and roofing on houses. For my entire adult life so far, I have never seen a hail storm bad enough to cause damage like this here, yet that's what these storm chasing people do as a profession. Crazy to see the effects for real instead of some made up story.
 
Wow, that's impressive, and shitty. We have Storm Chasers as they're called here. They come around neighborhoods asking homeowners and extorting money out of insurance companies stating whatever major storm we had recently damaged siding and roofing on houses. For my entire adult life so far, I have never seen a hail storm bad enough to cause damage like this here, yet that's what these storm chasing people do as a profession. Crazy to see the effects for real instead of some made up story.

Yeah I've never heard of that here - we get hail around the province on a fairly regular basis so I guess our roof/siding guys have enough work they don't need to scam it out of people, haha.

The last time we got hit (2016 but not quite this bad) I asked my insurance company if they were offering incentives to upgrade to hail-resistant roof or siding since it's a known thing here. They offered me a one-time payment of $100 on what would be a $10-20K upgrade. I declined, and here they are, likely to be writing me a ~$50K cheque for the repairs and property damage. Maybe they'll play ball on the upgrades this time.
 
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