January 10'-11' Build off 1996 Grand Cherokee

[BulletsRain]

Christmas Spirit

Dang, I still haven't got that ARB Bumper yet. Luckily the guy is being very nice and still holding it for me. I haven't been able to sell my dirt bike yet, but hopefully this buyer will buy in the next week or so. I'm so anxious to get the ARB.

Meanwhile I haven't done much to the Jeep, but I did add a nice little Holiday touch today.


ARB bumper i got

Sorry it took so long to take pics of the bumper.. I started working on it today. I have it propped up on the saw horses. I'll try to get better pics when i work on it with my jeep out of the garage.
Still needs more sanding... but we got the dents mostly out. At least to the point that the areas look straight. :thumbsup: I'm debating just sanding the whole thing back to bare metal. But who knows :rolleyes:





Minor snow wheeling

Well went wheeling today at SMORR. It was fun. Turned out we only had 2 vehicles, but it was still a blast. We were the only two vehicles in the park the whole day. It was pretty muddy and sloppy, definitely in the valleys. There was still some snow covered trails though and the iced over creek which broke my bumper. Just more motivation for me to finish prepping and painting my ARB bumper!

I will post the video after I upload it on youtube!

Cool little part we had to go through.


Getting ready to face the dreaded creek.


Buddy got stuck in the creek, had to winch himself out. The Ice was about 6 inches thick, and he fell through and his rear axle got hung up.



I wish I would have taken more pictures! The scenery was pretty awesome! :thumbsup:

[BulletsRain]

Video of me not getting stuck

Video is up! It was a crazy day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xbaRK1cBzY

Had some fun climbing snow mounds Yesterday. Climbed some more today as well.



Got the radio in Tuesday evening. Only took a little over two hours. I was surprised to find the people that installed my first one hooked up the speakers wrong. That's probably why it stopped working. Anyways, I took some pics of the install.

Oh... and I got a few more little misc. things... but I think I might be getting a new horn... :teehee::teehee:




Bracket is on the wrong way in the picture... whooooops! :teehee:


Yea I've thought about just spraying it, but it's been so cold here and I want the paint to dry good. If I can get it powdered coated for a decent price I will. IF it's too pricey I'll just paint it myself.

The Strobes turned out really nice IMO. They are cheap ones, which I really could care less. I really couldn't justify spending $80 for a single strobe light. That's why I cheaped out and got them for less than $20. Sure, they are cheaply made... But I can open these ones up and actually change every thing in them quite easily if one goes out.

I mounted them on the crossbar, evenly spaced. They have 3 different strobe modes and are actually pretty bright considering their size. I will get some pics from further away soon. My camera doesn't record the strobe pattern well, but here are a few pictures. The rear strobes haven't came in the mail yet, but they will be mounted inside the Jeep.

I'll get a video of them too. I had one, but they were just taped on for mock up and testing purposes. Now that they are mounted and aimed right it will be better.

Oh, and I need to get black zip ties!!!!

On the white before transition to the amber


Timed it just right.


Got a few pics. It's been a crazy week. We have had 4 snow days, and I've been driving around trying to help people out.

Tonight I pulled a Yukon out of a pretty deep ditch. Then I directed traffic around another truck pulling a car out of a ditch. The strobes help so much in this kind of weather, which is exactly why I put them on.

The Jeep looking good while directing some traffic.



But then somewhere after that, the bumpy, icy roads broke my rear left shock mount. The mount was broken when the shop that put my lift on replaced the shock. So they welded it back on then, but they must of done a really bad job welding because it broke again!




So now I gotta take the shock off until I can get it welded tomorrow or Sunday.

[BulletsRain]

Originally Posted by PurpleZJ

my buddies with tjs both have XRC-8's. they are good winches just a little slow sometimes. but the XRC-10/12 would work great on our zjs IMO. and yeah my dad had recently just bought an air sander before i got the bumper so i used that and went to town haha i think i was using 100 grit IIRC. harsh enough to take down the surface but not leave scuffs and digs everywhere. once i was satisfied with the sanding i sprayed it down and wiped it dry and then started spraying.

I wish they would of went into production with the XRC 10HD. I'm kind of decided that the XRC 10 would work just fine. Winchdepot.com has them for $399 with free shipping and a free cover. :thumbsup:

I mean if I got the XRC 12, I'd be paying just $100 more for 2000 lbs more... but, the 10,000 lb is already more than double the weight of the ZJ, so I'd think it will do just fine.

Oh and my parking job at work yesterday. The rear sway bars are definitely hitting the coil springs when flexing. My previous clunk it back, and It only occurs when starting from a stop. So I am assuming it is the sway bars hitting the coil springs again...

Pics of Parking Job




The sway bars when flat on the ground... they seem close. Do they look right? After finding the front sway bars on wrong, it wouldn't surprise me if these got put on wrong as well.



MY JEEP NEEDS A BATH!

Snow Pic of the Day



After this I rammed two snowmen over.

In my defense, they were built too close to the road.

Well, changed the diff fluid out, painted the cover, and got it all back together today. It looks pretty good, I'll just have to get around the painting the axle when it warms up.

Although it didn't solve the problem. I checked the transmission fluid, and it needs to be changed but it isn't low by any means. I didn't check it while it was Hot and in neutral though...

How do you tell if motor mounts or transmission mounts are bad?

Also how many transmission mounts are there? I got under the jeep and tried to shake everything down there.. and nothing moved or had any play. All the control arms felt solid, although the bushings will need to be replaced soon.

When I test drove it after we changed the fluid there was still the clunking noise. I drove it around for a little bit too to let the fluid lube the gears... it was still clunking. I started noticing it is clunking when shifting into 2nd as well.

My Dad is calling up the transmission shop tomorrow and going to see if we can't take it by them and have them look it over and try to pin point it.
It's driving me crazy though.

Anyways... here are the pics from today





Yes the left wheel is off the ground. Shadows make it look it wasn't... but it was.

When video starts the Jeep is just idling in Drive.

When I say it wasn't moving... I gave it a little gas.

[BulletsRain]

FOR UPDATES START AT Post #77 and go from there.

I'll try to keep this thing updated more.

[Bananabrain]

Can't wait too see that front bumper on. Also my truck has the same clunking noise when down shifting from 3rd to second, thats the only time it ever does it. Already checked my U-joints and they are fine, transmission fluid is ok same with the rear (wouldn't hurt too drain them & put some fresh fluid in) if you find anything out about the clunking let me know, mine could be having the same problem.

I like it when your buddy says your bumpers gone & your like its ok I have a new one. lol

[texan_idiot25]

Originally Posted by BulletsRain

How do you tell if motor mounts or transmission mounts are bad?

Also how many transmission mounts are there? I got under the jeep and tried to shake everything down there.. and nothing moved or had any play. All the control arms felt solid, although the bushings will need to be replaced soon.

There's one trans mount, a transfer case mount (I think it's just one), and 2 motor mounts. You're not going to be able to check it with your bare hands. Power brake it with the hood up, and watch the motor. This is what a busted mount looks like:

YouTube Video

Not only does it jump up several inches, but you'll feel it land back down on the mount's bottom. It's more of an annoyance than anything else, it can't break out of the mount like oldschool motors (Old school Chevy V8s and their mounts were notorious for this, which brought on the common practice of chaining the engine to the frame just in case). It will eventually tear up the trans mounts though from flexing them around.

I wouldn't be surprised if your TC is making the clunking noise. Mine does if you jab the throttle hard while rolling at higher speeds. Said to be a loose chain. It seems like every time I do something, the suspension creaks more and more, but everything is still tight underneath, guess it needs a good greasing.

Also, you know what's ****ed up? Compact spares. Innocent little twig went into my sidewall. Then it became a mad dash to get back to the street and to a gas station so I could air it up and get hom.



This motorcycle tire is useless offroad.

[BulletsRain]

I have a full size spare. My jeep came with it when I bought it, and then I bought five 31x10.5's so I still have a full size spare.

The motor mounts were inspected by a shop and they said they are fine. I might go do that test though just to see.

I don't want it to be that chain in the Transfer case.... but it could be.

The transmission shop said my tranny and transfer case were all in great shape though... who knows...