Well, looks like no lift for me now. Jeep appears that it will be written off. Have to grab my stuff out of it, and rip out my stereo and radios today. Will have to do the roofrack and wiring probably saturday. Not a good day =( watch out for people who shouldn't be ever given a license.

 

Man, that sucks. Hopefully things go through for you with that WJ.

 

I know. Have to get my *** out of bed now and go grab my stuff out of it, and pull the amps and radios, and the subs and rear sound bar w/speakers that have the new ones I put in. Going to call my insurance company and give them the info on what's what with everything, and that I'll have to go back tomorrow if it's not too bad weather wise or next week to pull my antennas and wiring for the radios and the roof rack. Just hope I get a fair settlement so I can get the WJ, enough for taxes and new brakes/tires. Will have to redo all the lighting again. ARGH!

 

Was your ZJ a Niner? I know you said you had the Niner trim but did you just get most of the trim pieces? I might be interested in buying some of them off you if you want to pull some.

 

No, it was a I6 Laredo with a lot of upgrades to begin with. I just took it to the next level. Got my stuff out of the jeep, pulled the amps and subs out. Will probably take the new memphis speakers if I can and my hella horns. The rack and cb antenna they already know I'm going to pull which is fine. Other than that not sure what I'm allowed to keep or take. Have to wait until it's looked at by the. A it stands right now, the one louvre is toast, and the grill has damage. I do however have a second set of the shifters still though. I should know more by tuesday, but we'll see. Hate the waiting game. I need at minimum $5k to get the wj, new duratracs and parts to start to retrofit the lights. I really want $6k at least with all I have into. We shall see. Had a talk with the guy at my insurance company. Just said I'm not trying to get more than I deserve or trying to be greedy, I just want whats fair, and want to be able to replace it with something comparable to what I had. We shall see. The WJ is a 2000, with 169000km on the odometer, new rad, fan, engine and tranny. Nees some tires and TLC. Not sure how I'll be able to put my head unit and scanner in. Can't remember if it can take a double din or not.

 

I'm pretty sure a WJ uses a 1 1/2 din, like the ZJ. That was a size that Chrysler and GM thought was incredible for some reason.

 

Well, doesn't that just blow. I want to permenently mount the scanner but where is the question. On the ZJ it was easy. Move the HVAC down, remove the information useless crap and done. Guess will just have to see. Need to find out how to run the stereo wiring as well to get that setup. ***** is the weather is damn cold last while. Might have to see my stereo place I go to and what they'd charge to wire it up for me possibly. Will see. Depends on how much I get from the insurance as well. I just hope it goes well and don't get screwed.

 

Good luck. I hope it all pans out for you.

 

Well, replaced rear door speakers, and dash speakers with component tweeters. It's a start. Still have to put the memphis in the front doors but will hold off for now. Once I get the double din kit will get everything wired up and installed. Have everything else needed, although antenna mounts will be custom done. Not about to drill through the roof to mount at all.

Got the new retrofit lights almost done. Just have to seal them up, then do the wiring and put them in. Can't wait! Went with quad FX-R 1.1's. Look really good! Just don't like the look of only one done is why. Doesn't look finished to me. Once it warms up can put the lift in. Need to save up for new tires though. Hopefully this summer can get. Going Duratracs again of course!

How's things with your rig?

 

Other than my draglink and trackbar hitting each other, and needing new tires, and needing to swap my 242 in that's been sitting in my garage for a month now, fine. Lol.

 

I know what ya mean. Always something that needs doing! Track bar end on drivers side I need to replace in the very near future as it's worn. Need to do it before the 2" lift goes in as it'll put more strain on it, and then get it aligned. Need tires this summer as well. Will definitely be going duratracs again, but trying to find a good price. That's a whole other ballgame. Can't wait to get the entire radios/stereo setup up in though. Just waiting for the double din kit and can get it done. I'm missing my bass!!

 

Is there a double sheer trackbar conversion for WJs? I'd recommend it if there is. Mine is awesome. It gets rid of the TRE style end and allows for more articulation.

 

Don't know. not sure what's all available for the WJ's, but I'm slowly learning as I go.

 

All I really know about them is the 4.0s supposedly have a better intake manifold than the ZJs, they have a more refined suspension, better ride, lower gas tanks, a triangulated rear axle (no rear track bar), and an optional 242HD. For serious off road use, WJs have better unibodies that don't need to be reinforced. For ZJs, you'd need to reinforce the unibody for very serious off road use.

 

WJ trackbar has a bushing on either end and true cross over steering. The rear upper a-arm isn't a true triangulation and whether a good design or not, jeeps excecusion of the design, is a little flimsey. Aftermarket replacements are finally available though.

 

Haha. There you have it. I didn't claim to be a WJ expert by any means. I should have known that it wasn't a true triangulated rear axle; I know what the upper A arm looks like. I'm definitely 100% familiar with ZJ short arm suspensions and somewhat familiar with their steering setups. I haven't really changed my steering other than my steering stabilizer. I've wondered how the OTK steering would benefit my ZJ from time to time when I see someone talking about it or come across a kit for sale.

 

Always good info to know!
WJ is in the shop. Tranny was acting up and showing no fliud. Put some in and was showing 1/4 on the stick. Added a bit more and it started puking out the bell housing. My mechanic said bring it in right away (of course way late for work today). So they started droppong the driveshafts and removed the t-case which once started to seperate started puking again. Never saw rtv used on ti-ase to tranny before. Now I know why. So rear seal needs to be changed. Tomorrow morning the tranny will get dropped and inspected for the cause of the leak. More than likely though rear and front seals are toast. Great. At least the tranny never trigged the overtemp to come on nor has any noticeable issues. Hopefully easy fix. We shall see.

 

Not picking on anybody, just pitching in. And I see I can't spell, must not have had my coffee.

That's why a Wj knuckle swap is economical. May not be full high steer, but higher than ZJ with the added bonus of eliminating the "T" steer. Plus the benefite of better brakes.

I put rtv between the t-case and tranny to keep them from fuzing together from oxidation. There is a weep hole between the two that shouldn't be plugged. It's to let you know when a seal is bad before things get out of hand.

 

I knew you weren't calling me out on my lack of WJ knowledge. I'd like to learn more about the different models so that way I can help people out more when they have questions regarding models I'm not totally familiar with. I know a little here and there about a lot of different models, but I know I don't know everything there is to know. I do what I can to read and try to figure out who knows their stuff and who doesn't and who I can believe as a reliable source and who I cannot. Even with all the good information out there, it's hard because for every good piece of advice/knowledge, there's 100 bad ones.

 

Black wheels? Sure...

 

I don't have any pictures of the work I did today, but I figured I'd let you all know that I did the 703 injector swap. It went pretty smoothly and the idle is now the best it's ever been. I'll comment after a couple tanks of gas about the mileage differences.

 

I got my Niner grille, painted and cleared it yesterday, then I installed it today.

Since it's dark, that's all I got. I'll see if I can get a better pic tomorrow.

 

That looks really sharp!

 

Thanks man!

Next is my 242 swap, then finally wheels and tires. I have the 242 sitting in my garage waiting to go in. I'm not doing wheels and tires until then. The 249 has the tendency to wear the front tires pretty quickly; I don't want uneven wear on new tires.

 

Better pics, as promised. I almost ran out of daylight again but I was able to get outside and get these pics.

I thought it looked like it needed a little more clear coat this morning, but it actually looks pretty decent as is, considering my painting skills.