Louie4's YJ by Louie4

10 minute(s) of a 411 minute read

Did a little work on the jeep yesterday. I went to Napa and got a new unit hub bearing and put it on. No more wobbly wheel. I think this may have been a contributor of the leaky axle seal.

Here's the parts new and old. The old hub had a lot of play and felt rough when I spun it.

My workspace and helper.

Here's the bad hub.

I had to use my jack handle to get the top bolt out. The threads were fine but it was tough to turn. I put anti-seize all over the new hub where it goes into the knuckle and the threads on the hub.

I know the scissor jack is unsafe but I was never directly under the jeep. I need to dig out my jack stands from storage so I may avoid this in the future.

All done. Georgia is guarding the home front.

Dummy.

9-30-2012

No jeep updates as of now. School, work, and the upcoming wedding have taken priority.

However I did receive a jar of hot salsa from Skerr on the forum. Awesome guy. Be sure to check out him and Clay's awesome jeep.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f8/clays-build-thread-1061897/index289.html

10-22-2012

Great news!

My birthday was yesterday and my wonderful wife did some research on a present. Very good research actually. Since she wants me to be safe and have a long, happy marriage she bought me the beginnings of an OR Fab bolt in roll cage! She went this route because we live in an apartment complex and I don't have access to a shop or welder right now. She got the front hoops and bar for the top and (2) streamer bars. I call them spreader bars that span the middle of the front bar to the middle of the main rear bar.

I plan on getting the other pieces to tie it into the frame and add more support to the rear.

Here's a pic from the web.

10-25-2012

I think I may get this steering box bracket to move my box up 1". My shorty pitman arm has reduced my turning radius and I'm not digging it.

Anybody got a spare stock pitman arm lying around?

10-27-2012

I may contact the guy and see if he'll ship it.

Well I went ahead and took the plunge and bought the bracket. I need it regardless.

I also installed the LED tail lights I won in YJOTM back in July. My buddy picked me up an electronic flasher and let me borrow his hole saw so it was a sweet deal. Once again I threw a 50' drop cord down off the deck. Classy.

The process.

Here is my drivers side tail light. I hit a root on my last wheeling trip before that I smashed the other on a tree. These flush mounted lights should cut down on that.

If anyone needs some stock replacements send me a PM and I'll ship them to you. Just pay the shipping.

11-1-2012

Got the bracket today. It's huge and beefy.

11-5-2012

I ordered a pair of these gems today.

I got them from SuperbriteLED's at an awesome price. They will fit into the holes on my PS fenders.

The holes near the bottom outside corners of the head lights on both fenders. I didn't need to show this but I felt compelled.

11-6-2012

Thanks guys. I'm tapping into the wires from the stock side markers. I will report back once I get them.

I also got my stock TJ pitman arm in the mail from a fellow JF member.

11-7-2012

Got my LED's today for the PS fenders. I can't beat them for the price.

11-11-2012

Alrighty, the weather was awesome in Knoxville today so I had to take advantage. I got my OR Fab cage in, my smal LED markers wired in, and I started on my steering.

Here's some pics of the cage. I had to modify the frame and brackets for the Softopper. Nothing too serious just took some extra time.

The LED markers only come on when the turn signals are on which I was told earlier in the thread. Though I tested them out and they came on with the lights and blinked before I actually wired them in. Not sure what happened but I may just add another 12V feed to the LED's when the head lights are on.

Well I started on the bracket to move the steering box forward but I ran into a problem. I cannot get the bottom 1/2" bolt out that bolts the bracket to the underside of the frame. It's loose and it spins freely but it will just not come out. I think there is some slag or something on the end of the bolt keeping it from coming out.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point. I don't want to cut into the frame as I do not have a welder to repair it (but if necessary I will). I considered drilling through the 1/2" bolt and see if it will knock off anything that is on the bolt. I thought about drilling a 1/2" hole on the side of the frame so I could see what the deal was and if I could fix it from the hole.

Anyone have any good ideas? I'll try to take a pic tomorrow. It got dark on me.

11-13-2012

Here's the problem I'm having when the steering box bracket. The bolt on the front near the screw driver will not come out though the bolt is not engaged to the threads. I may fool with it later but I have a math test tomorrow.

I really should mention this about the OR Fab cage. Even the instructions have a disclaimer about it. It says the cage is just for appearance. I read this after I got the kit out and started installing plus my wife got it for me and she had no idea.

What I will say is this, it's an upgrade over the stock setup I have been running forever. I live in an apartment complex, don't have a welder (yet), and my time is consumed a lot by working and school full-time so it's a weekend job, plus I didn't pay for it.

So for me it's a good addition. Not the ideal addition but it depends on your situation.

Just putting the information out there so no one is mislead if they are thinking about the OR Fab cage addition.

11-18-2012

I will try to make one before the end of the year hopefully. They are great resources if you need help and you can make some good friends.

Well I got the steering box relocation bracket on yesterday. Of course I found out the captive nut in the frame had broke loose.

I don't have a welder so I am going to hit that part with some paint for now. I have a small piece of 1/4" plate I can use as a patch when I get access to a welder. One of my buddies has a small Lincoln waiting on me but it's in Georgia. Of course I still need to tack a new nut in there. For now I have a silicon bronze nut with a couple of flat washers in the frame. I replaced those two bottom bolts with grade 8's as they were quite gross.

I also replaced the bolts in the roll bar that attached the front spreader bar to the windshield with grade 8 bolts.

During the Thanksgiving break I'm going to put the new pitman arm on.

Oh yeah, pics of the bracket.