Thanks guys.
The rear leaf shackles were bent and had seen better days. Swapped 'em out tonight and thought I'd finally knocked everything out. Went for a drive and it's running awesome, everything's workin'.
Get back and do a once over under the hood. Luckily I didn't have the shop radio blasting or I wouldn't have heard the faint pressure leak from the radiator. Sure enough, there's one crack on the passenger side tank and another around the cores. It's barely seeping any coolant/water but I'm not chancing it, especially since it's a universal style from Jegs. New one is on it's way.
It lives again!
Short recap for those that weren't at Clayton '14....
Arrived Thursday night, Busa, Scott, Lynda, Sam, and a couple others go out for a night run. End up running Slim's Slope and all is going well until I back up to try a different line and feel the brake pedal go to the floor. This is what I found....
Hitch a ride with Scott over to Slim's and ask him if he has another knuckle or if he can repair mine. He say's yes but that he works at night, so Scott and I grab tools then head back up top. Forgot to bring allen wrenches so I end up having to pull the whole hub/rotor/caliper/knuckle/axle shaft assembly as one piece and carry it up the mountain. At some point I slipped and whacked my leg right on my phone which crushed the screen in the process. (Funny side note- Bought a new phone in Dallas on my way home, but I figured I'd try and fix the old one for a backup. Ordered a new lcd/screen for my old phone for $120, changed it out, and sure enough it fixed it.)
Scott and I dropped the broken knuckle off at Slim's around 2:30 am. Woke up at 8 am, ate breakfast, and went over to Slim's. He had just finished the repair and only charged me $80. (Scott, I owe ya man. Really appreciate the support.)
Got it back together and was good to go for the weekend until late Saturday when again I backed up to try a different line on Walk in the Park. Heard a loud "Bang" like a bell ringing. Broke the entire leaf spring pack clean in half on the right front.
Busa is the man when it comes to broken leaf springs. He knew just what to do and rigged up my winch line so I could continue onward. Drove it out, back to the A&A, and on the trailer...success!
With a trip to the ranch over New Years I had no time to waste once I got back.
I ordered new front springs and reid racing knuckles. I also noticed a small leak from the oil pan gasket as well as still needing to change out the radiator since it didin't arrive in time fro Clayton. With the holidays I wasn't sure if the new hardware would arrive in time so Karl was kind enough to give me his new front springs while I was waiting for mine to come in. While doing the springs I found the drivers side knuckle had a crack in it as well. I figured I'd give the knuckle plating a try. It isn't quite as beefy as Slim's repair but it will make for a good spare.
I decided to try out the 44044's this time around and pulled the lower leaf from both packs to help soften them up and lower it. Ended up moving the shock mounts at the axle end upward a couple inches and also drilled the shackles higher to lower it as well. Sits a touch higher up front right now but I'm sure it will settle once the springs break in.
Definitely like the extra 2" of wheelbase the new springs provide.
The reid racing knuckles showed up just in time. I pulled the high steer arms and used the spacer that already had the 5th hole drilled as a guide. Got it knocked out.
New radiator installed
A view of the bottom end while putting the new oil pan gasket in. Everything looks good even after all the years of abuse.
When the spring broke it crushed the brand new section of exhaust tubing I had welded in right before Clayton. I had the treat of doing it once again...
Also finally got around to installing the new rear diff cover.
looks good. Let me know when you want to go cut some trails at the ranch.
92 YJ
04 F-150 4x4
11 F-250 4x4
Thanks man. I'll let ya know, might be going back up there in a couple weeks.
This weekend was a company outing so I introduced some of my supervisors and coworkers to the wheeling world...scared the **** out of a couple of them but they had fun.
Video of me launching it up a small climb with one of the sales engineers riding passenger.
http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/...psfkgjh76q.mp4
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/blin...ml?sort=3&o=17
I'm waiting for the GoPro footage I shot to upload on youtube.
Didn't take a whole lot of pics except for messing around by the house.
It's a CJ5 with full widths. The wheelbase is square.
On the 8th day god created the Super Swamper TSL and said "go forth and kick ass"