Father and Son beater jeep

[warrpath4x4]

Saturday I worked on the XJ a bit, was able to do some welding before the wind started to pick up in the afternoon. welded up all the cracks i could find (and it was a lot), right now the cross member is only tack welded in place but already adds more stability, without the cross member I was able to push the front back and forth.

The center line is dimple died (my kid loves running the shop press lol) the 2 offset holes are for the radiator lower mounts.

 

[warrpath4x4]

Saturday I put a new water pump, coolant pipe, thermostat, and thermostat housing on

I also removed the heater valve and replaced it with heater hoses from a 2006 TJ

Than pulled the front axle so I can get it into the shop and rebuild it (sleeve the tubes, gears, locker, ball joints, hubs, DOM/Heim joint steering )

when I unbolted the steering from the pitman arm, I have never had this happen before.... the tie rod end just fell out of the pitman arm, I have always had to beat on it or use a pickle fork lol.

 

[warrpath4x4]

I'm not going to post a step by step of rebuilding an axle, I'm sure most of us have seen that before. But... here was my issue yesterday an getting the ball joints out, 3 of them were not that hard, add some pressure from the ball joint press, tap the axle C with a hammer a couple times and the ball joint pops loose and can be ratcheted out. This one on the other hand, I couldn't get enough pressure on it because the leverage of the breaker bar just kept trying to knock the jack stands over so I used a small chain hoist to leverage against the other side of the housing, added a little pressure, couple hits of the hammer and popped right out.

could I have used an impact on it... sure, but I don't like to use impacts on press tools like this, it usually just ends up messing the tool up and this is my tool not a rental lol.


and yes I know its a mess, I have 20 pounds of shop sh!t in a 5 pound bag.

 

[warrpath4x4]

Have not done anything on this in a few weeks, had to order some bearings, brakes, and u-joints. Had a death in the family and funeral Friday, also Rodeo's for my son the last 2 weekends. All the parts are in now and nothing planned for this weekend so hopefully I can get something done.

 

[warrpath4x4]

ordered some more parts to add to my "pile of motivation" adjustable control arms from Cavfab and some control arm drop brackets

 

[fourwheelerjeff]

couple of pics of one of mine for motivation. sadly I no longer use it and should kick it to the curb.

 

[warrpath4x4]

not jeep related but kid related. He was at rodeo bible camp mon-thur last week riding steers all week, Saturday we go to the Lake Chelan Jr rodeo and he does this

Broke his arm, So he is out for the rest of the rodeo season

 

[Truckman4life]

not jeep related but kid related. He was at rodeo bible camp mon-thur last week riding steers all week, Saturday we go to the Lake Chelan Jr rodeo and he does this

Broke his arm, So he is out for the rest of the rodeo season

That sucks! My kid rode mini-bulls for a little bit til he had a bad fall. I like the XJ/ZJ jeeps. They are not as cheap as they used to be but I've had a few and they can go all over down atv trails and anything you want them to.

 

[warrpath4x4]

Finally got my Cavfab adjustable control arms after 2 months, apparently they cant get 10MM hardware so they upped it to 1/2" but only after I had to inquire and request the upgrade. I get it, I work in the parts industry and its hard or impossible to get certain things, but I reach out to my customers.