Louie4's YJ by Louie4

6 minute(s) of a 411 minute read

So I'm still waiting on my Brown Dog mounts and I forgot to mention I went ahead and ordered a spring bushing kit for (1) leaf spring. It will hopefully be here Thursday. So I should have the jeep completely back together then unless the Brown Dog mounts come in. Until then I will not do too much to the jeep. I want to ride it and enjoy the weather. Unfortunately, I probably won't get good riding in until after I am completely moved to Raleigh. The wife and I are going to buy a house so things are starting to get real.

However...I found a M8274 locally for a solid price. I really want to sell my M8000 I rebuilt and put an M8274 on it. My winch works fine but there is something about the 8274 that makes me want to have it. They are just as easy to rebuild and very fast. I will see if I can swing getting an 8274 then selling my M8000 and hopefully come out somewhat even. I wouldn't mind rebuilding the 8274 either. We shall see!

For any history buffs, here is the history of the M8274: Click here

Even better, the history of the Warn Belleview: Click Here

3-24-2014

Well I went ahead and put my M8000 on craigslist. It will be a lot easier to get this past the wife if she knows I'm selling something in return. The seller does still have the winch. He's asking $500 but price is negotiable. No remote but he is throwing in the mounting plate. What do you guys think?

3-26-2014

I finally got the jeep out of the garage and drove it around some today. I ordered a RE spring bushing kit for (1) spring and replaced the bushings. I found the sleeve in the spring bushing was stuck to the bolt. I find that usually happens on the frame side spring hangers more.

So I had this:

Luckily I had my handy portable vise (thanks Steven) and it took care of it. I plan on getting a real vise when I get into the new house.

Before I took the jeep out I took the front bumper and M8000 off. I'm selling the M8000 and I want to start looking at putting the M8274 on there.

Here's old reliable:

Naked.

Finally, here is what most have been waiting for.

Short of not having a remote, the control box cover is broken but that is relatively minor.

The winch looks to be in good shape and I think I did pretty good on getting it.

I even got the original leather cover. If I do put that on I'll need new elastic bands on the bottom.

So here is where i'm trying to decide what to do. Should I chop the old mount up and put it on my existing bumper or buy a prefabbed winch place for the M8274 and weld to my bumper? I don't want to chop it up but it would be cheaper and it could work. No matter what I do, I'll still need to cut the fairlead plate off my current bumper.

3-27-2014

Here are some pics of the mount on my bumper. I may be able to make it work, at least for the time being.

So here is what I'm coming up with. Nothing fancy, nothing crazy. Just a simple matter of cleaning the metal up and drilling (4) holes.