JD's LJR

[Weasellee]

Seems like I’ll just need 14 of the 2.5” standard rebuild kits for the arms.

Don’t quote me but I’m pretty sure this is wrong. I believe the lower arms are all 2” or the smaller of the sizes. None of the arms are the narrow but the track bar may be. Check first and Summit seems to package rockjock items in the best shipping price for me. Good luck with this rig. It’s awesome.

 

[JDS123]

Don’t quote me but I’m pretty sure this is wrong. I believe the lower arms are all 2” or the smaller of the sizes. None of the arms are the narrow but the track bar may be. Check first and Summit seems to package rockjock items in the best shipping price for me. Good luck with this rig. It’s awesome.

Yeah, I just decided that I truly have no clue. I'm just going to wait until the Jeep is back and I'll measure the joints. I think they're all 2.5", but I've been wrong more times than I've been right.

Hopefully the Jeep is good to go soon. I've been on Nantucket for the last two weeks so I haven't really checked in on progress at the shop. I've ordered a bunch of parts that I'll install myself, but nothing game changing is going to be altered on the Jeep. Some modernization here and there, but no extreme changes. My 2001 felt like a never ending project that really had no end goal; it is very odd to have a Jeep where I can truly visualize the end of the build (although, I wouldn't call what I'm doing with this Jeep a 'build'. I'm just tossing some finishing touches on an already built Jeep).

 

[1904-06LJR]

They are all 2 1/2" Johnny Joints. The lowers have a 1 1/4 shaft and the uppers have a 1" shaft. Each arm has 1 RH thread and 1 LH thread. Here are the part numbers:

Uppers: CE-9113-14 and CE-9113L-14 (left hand thread). 14 pitch thread
https://www.polyperformance.com//20867-rockjock-2-12-forged-johnny-joint-w-1-thread

Lowers: CE-9114-12 and CE-9114L-12 (left hand thread). 12 pitch thread
https://www.polyperformance.com//20882-rockjock-2-12-forged-johnny-joint

For whatever reason, Poly Performance does not show the 9114L-12 so you may have to source that one direct from RJ. Poly has a 365 10% discount using POLY10.

I'll defer to @mrblaine in case any of that info has changed.

 

[JDS123]

They are all 2 1/2" Johnny Joints. The lowers have a 1 1/4 shaft and the uppers have a 1" shaft. Each arm has 1 RH thread and 1 LH thread. Here are the part numbers:

Uppers: CE-9113-14 and CE-9113L-14 (left hand thread). 14 pitch thread
https://www.polyperformance.com//20867-rockjock-2-12-forged-johnny-joint-w-1-thread

Lowers: CE-9114-12 and CE-9114L-12 (left hand thread). 12 pitch thread
https://www.polyperformance.com//20882-rockjock-2-12-forged-johnny-joint

For whatever reason, Poly Performance does not show the 9114L-12 so you may have to source that one direct from RJ. Poly has a 365 10% discount using POLY10.

I'll defer to @mrblaine in case any of that info has changed.

Thank you very much sir.

I'm going to wait to check the Jeep out some more before I decide whether I want to totally replace the joints or just get the rebuild kits. The BaT photos show that the housings have a decent amount of rust. I'm fairly nit-picky when it comes to my Jeeps, so that rust will bother me. Obviously it doesn't matter for performance, but I'm leaning towards total replacement with CV2 grease before final install.

On a similar note, I'll be replacing a lot of wear items on the Jeep. Every single grease zerk on this Jeep was pretty dry, so I’m not confident much of it was maintained.

Funnily, I'm using the BaT photos to figure things out on the Jeep. I've technically owned it for 46 days, but I've only seen it for 4. I've seen so little of this Jeep, I've almost forgotten I own it!

 

[JDS123]

Don’t call it a comeback

 

[jjvw]

Don’t call it a comeback

View attachment 642722

Baha'i!

 

[JDS123]

I'll try to update this thread once every couple months from now on. I don't really have anything revolutionary going on here so no need to create clutter.

I have about 50 or 60 miles on it with it's new engine so far. I was hoping everything else would stay together for the 500 mile break in and then I could tackle a bunch of issues this winter, but that unfortunately doesn't seem to be the case. It has a speed dependent 'whirring' noise that is getting worse pretty fast. I'm almost certain its another u-joint going out, so I'm going to pull the front driveline and rebuild the rear one in my apartment. At least that way I can drive around in 2WD. The turn signals also stopped working and the airbag light suddenly came on, so I guess I have to look at that too. In other news I got the power locks going again. I will probably never use these, but at least I can flex on people with them.

These little recovery points are pretty cool.

I think Home Depot Orange is a more appropriate name than Impact.

I have this thing just sitting around my apartment now. I think its going to end up on a buddies XJ if it can be made to work. Otherwise it will go up for sale. It needs a little work.

 

[JDS123]

Anyone care to hazard a guess on this noise? Yanked the rear driveline which didn’t help, T Case and trans are full of good looking fluid. Speed dependent in any gear, picks up around 30 mph and seems worse when coasting. I’m guessing I’m losing the front diff?

Illinois finally sent me title and plates. Turn signals are going again. Slow but sure progress on fixing this thing up.

 

[JDS123]

Took the skids down and I can’t find a single thing wrong. I will say everything is very nicely packaged and it’s very clean under here. No leaks and barely any dirt. Seems like this thing never got wheeled, not a single scratch on any of the armor.

Going to either limp it or AAA flat bed it to a shop get it thrown up on a rack. Would only take a few minutes to figure it out if it was up in the air.

 

[JDS123]

Tossed this thing back on a flatbed yesterday. I’m not very happy that I’m not able to work on it myself, but my building mentioned they weren’t pleased with me for wrenching on it in my spot… Downsides of living downtown I guess.

 

[JDS123]

This thread has had a negative start, but this will be the last negative post. Anything after this will be about new parts or trips I’m taking with the Jeep.

The noise above is due to both the T-Case and rear diff. The transfer case is getting rebuilt currently and both diffs will be getting rebuilt sometime soon (probably with Eaton's and new Revolution 5.38's). Fortunately, the transfer case is easy to rebuild and I planned on replacing the stock Rubicon lockers anyway, so it could be worse.

In my first 400 miles with this Jeep it’s needed the following just to be drivable:

Engine replacement
Supercharger removal
A transfer case rebuild
A rear driveshaft rebuild
A rear differential rebuild

It’s obviously a bit confusing how so much could be wrong with this Jeep, but I do have a clue. When I first picked this Jeep up in Boise, it had an absolutely egregious driveline vibration due to a bad rear driveshaft u-joint (I had a new u-joint installed in Twin Falls, Idaho before the engine failed later that day). It seems the previous owner drove it around with this vibration long enough to shake some engine bolts loose, damage the 91k mile transfer case, and damage the 15k mile diffs. BringATrailer took care of me the best they could given that the previous owner went totally dark communication wise. The saying goes that when buying a car sight unseen across the country, you're really buying the previous owner. Oh well.

Anyways, I have all sorts of parts sitting around that I'm going to be installing over the winter. My initial plan was to update this thread once every few months and I'm going to get back to that schedule now that the initial issues appear to be over.

 

[rasband]

https://media1.tenor.com/m/IqPotHAztSYAAAAC/memes.gif

 

[JDS123]

Alrighty, I'm supposed to go pick this thing up this week which I'm pretty excited about. It has a two new diffs with Revolution REM finished 5.38's, Eaton E-lockers, and new bearings in the transfer case. I picked this Jeep up 97 days ago and its been at the shop for 86 of those days. I referenced the bill of sale and the odometer before I sent it back to the shop in September and I've driven a grand total of 352 miles (300 the day I picked it up and 52 since). The only drivetrain component that hasn't been opened up or replaced is the transmission (knock on wood I guess...).

Here is a quick explanation for those curious. I noticed 3 hours after I bought this Jeep that it hadn't seen any grease in quite some time. Even the greaseable MORryde tailgate hinges were groaning. This Jeep had greaseable u-joints and unfortunately the lack of grease meant that one had failed. I had that u-joint replaced 3 hours after my purchase and that totally fixed the large vibration this Jeep had. Obviously this u-joint and the vibration from it had just been ignored for a long long time. It had been ignored long enough to damage the transfer case and the rear diff sadly.

Below is a photo of the missing supercharger bolt that fell into the intake of my old engine. It is a very sad way to lose a factory 91k mile 4.0L. My assessment is that the driveline vibration helped work these bolts loose. Other supercharged Jeeps have not had the same problem and the only obvious difference between my Jeep and others is a lot of driveline vibration.

I'm very happy that this happened right as I was pulling into a hotel in town and not in the middle of Wyoming. My initial plan was to camp with this Jeep but I called that off after I found too many issues to be comfortable taking it off-pavement. I could have been stranded in a much worse place...

BringATrailer is usually a very seller friendly website but even they were shocked by the condition of this Jeep as compared to how it was described in the listing. They were nice enough to send me my auction fees back and also let me know that they will not be putting any vehicles from the previous owner of this Jeep on their website in the future. BaT obviously has a reputation to protect and this sort of craziness does not reflect well on their website. Despite my experience with this Jeep, I would have no problem buying another vehicle on BringATrailer (and I'm sure I probably will in the future).



Anyways, enough of that. I've always tried to give good deals to forum members on parts I have lying around. I've sent people bumpers, control arms, snatch blocks, etc... for shipping in years past. Given this Jeep has new lockers, I no longer need my Rubicon locker pumps. It seems these are somewhat hard to find in good condition, so if you have a TJR with broken pumps, shoot me a message. I'll send you my old ones for the cost of shipping. I haven't tested them yet, but I will before I send them out.

UPDATE: Pumps are claimed.

 

[JDS123]

Don’t call it a comeback… Wait, didn’t I say that last time?

 

[1904-06LJR]

Glad you've been patient. She sure us a gem and no doubt found her true owner!