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To start off...back in October, I got married! My wife and I have been together since high school and thru long distance in college (Oklahoma and MIchigan State) and after 7 years, have finally gotten to move on to a new chapter in our lives, and we are very happy! We were married in the Ann Arbor, Michigan and got to have the reception in an old barn from the late 1800s. It was a beautiful day for fall in Michigan, and everything worked out exactly how we wanted it too! We were even able to borrow a 67 Chevy K10 from one of my Jeep buddies (As I wanted an old Jeep or Truck for the wedding, gotta love having friends willing to help ya out!). It was a day to remember for sure! And very happy to be done with all the planning and meetings and all that stuff with the wedding too! Anyways, here's a few pics from the day!
Then next in line was the honeymoon! And we decided that we wanted to hit New Zealand! And we are so happy with our choice! The longest flight for us was San Francisco to Auckland, which was 12 1/2 hours, but the trip was soooo worth! We spent 10 days there split between 3 cities, Queenstown, Fox Glacier, and Christchurch. And man is that an amazing country! It is a must see if you get the chance! We had a good bit of fun from Hikes, and Zip lines, to Jet Boats, and ATV tours and doing a little bit of 4 wheelin' there, and we even got to take a helicopter up into a glacier and hike on the glacier and through ice caves...and that glacier was in the rain forest there! So amazing! And I also made sure we had something we could do a bit of wheeling in there too, so we had a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado with the diesel, and that thing was pretty fun! Still not my Jeep, but for a few weeks, it did just fine!
Royal New Zealand Air Force Logo (I find it quite ironic, as the Air Forces logo is a flightless bird!)
Inside one of the ice caves at Fox Glacier
Our Toyota Prado
Drinking from the glacier
Flying up to Fox Glacier
Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch
Reflection Point looking back at the mountains and Flax Glacier
View of Fox Glacier from Gillespie's Beach
45th South Parrallel
Skipper's Canyon Road near Queenstown
View over Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu
Cathedral in Christchurch ruined by recent earthquakes
Anyways! Back to Jeep stuff, but just wanted to share some neat memories and experiences with ya! So the Jeep turned 60k, and by the time I am posting this, it is more like 61.5k, but still climbing at a good rate, about 15k a year!
However, not completely without incident, as when we returned from New Zealand, the battery in my Jeep was completely dead, and I believe it did some damage to the battery maybe with draining as low as it did, but it took nearly 25-30 minutes of charging before it would start, and over the next month and a half, if the Jeep sat for more than a day without starting, it would be drained too low to start the Jeep. Now, I had never replaced the battery, so a 7 year old Jeep with the original battery was probably due for a replacement. It charged up fine when I was driving, and the only issue was when it sat that the battery would not maintain it's charge, but I was fairly confident, the battery was the weak link of the system. So after the fifth time of needing to jump it, I finally made enough time to run over to Autozone, where they confirmed the battery was bad, bad we replaced the battery! I got the Duralast 34AGM, which the guy at Autozone recommended as it is quicker to recharge when higher power draws are given, and it is splash proof, and all around better for a Jeep, and it was $30 more than the standard battery to replace, so I figured that I might as well go for that. I believe I spent around $170 for it. But I have had no more issues in the last 3 weeks since I swapped the battery, so looks like that issue is fixed!
Congratulations on getting married! My wife and I were high school sweethearts as well, but that would have been tough to go to separate colleges. Sounds like the wedding and the honeymoon turned out great. Thanks for sharing those pics of New Zealand. It's on the dream list of places for us to visit for sure. Congrats on 60K miles and looking forward to what you've got planned next for the rig.
LoboMike, thanks! Yeah, wasn't easy, but we are definitely better for it I believe! But definietly happy to be together now! Haha! Everything went even better than expected for sure! As for New Zealand, definietly make sure that's on your short list of places to travel! It is an unbelievable destination and I highly recommend getting out there! My favorite place I have ever been! And stay tune! Definitely some new projects coming!
I did get a couple things for the Jeep for Christmas this year, but having some of it back ordered, it was pretty late to arrive. One of the things I got is the Powerbuilt Tire Step! It's rated up to 300 lbs, and fits over the Tire quite nicely! I have adjusted it since the pictures where taken, so it sits a bit lower on the tire, but even standing on it in this picture, it was a very solid step! For me being only 5'7", I have an issue getting into the engine bay of the Jeep, and getting ladders and stuff out just end up hurting my back in the long run, because I am facing parallel to the engine bay and not perpendicular. This will help out greatly for me with engine maintenance as well as cleaning the Jeep and i don't know what else! But definitely very happy with it and can't wait to use it more!
I also got some new KC Cyclone lights to put under the hood! I did not get the entire install kit, as I already have a way to hook them up with the sPod, but just have to decide exactly how I would like to mount them under the hood! But I definitely needed some more usable light under the hood, as my garage lights do not work for this very well, and if I were out anywhere as well, it will be very helpful. I will get these installed soon, and do a full write-up on how I installed, so stay tuned for that!
Well, due to the cold weather there unfortunately has not been much going on in the way of Jeep work. I am especially not motivated when we keep waking up to this!
Snow still! Ridiculous! Well, I have been just relaxing and enjoying the Jeep instead. As it is my DD, I have still been driving it everyday and enjoying some Jeep Nights at the Detroit Burger Bar in Troy, MI and taking some trips with the Wolverine Wheelers to Rocks and Valleys ORV Park for some good fun too! Last time we were there, go to see the Mahindra Roxor up close and in action, so that was pretty neat!
Besides that, I am just lining up the projects, as I amjust shy of 64000 miles, and I feel like the Jeep is starting to show some wear and tear. On initial cold startup, and only with the engine under low load, you can hear a rhythmic chirp in the engine. Sounds like it's in some way associated with one of the pulleys andmaybe on the drivers side of teh engine, but i really have no clue. I will post a video up in another post of what i am hearing, but I would definiely like to get rid of the noise.
As for noises as well, I have a horrible rattle in the rear of the Jeep, but that is courtesy of the exhaust shield having fallen off of the studs again. I will either get under there and yank it out or i will get some big washersand tighten the shield back on. Haven't decided which way I want to go yet.
As for the engine, i have also been buring about a quart of oil every 1000 miles driven, which definietly is not good, so I will be digging into this issue and seeing what i can find. that will include spark plugs, PCV Value, and seeing if digging even further into the engine is necessary or not, as I want this engine to keep running for a while, but a lot of the symptoms that I am seeing aren't making me feel too good.
Diving back under the Jeep, I have noticed more of a wobble in teh steering wheel when hitting bumps now, and it becomes really bad between 35-45 MPH. It's not quite a full blown death wobble, but definietly the beginnings of it. What i am fairly certian that wobble is from, is the stock ball joints. 64000 miles on the originals, and 25000 of that wil a lift, mud tires, and 1.5" wheel spacers. So i definietly believe it is time to swap those guys out.
And if I have all of the front end torn apart for ball joints, I figure I should go ahead and take care of any other maintenance down there too, including unit bearings, brakes, Diff Fluid Changes, New Diff Covers, and a Transfer Case Fluid Change too. And I will send all of those fluids off to Blackstone for some analysis to see what's going on internally and what the health is there.
And lastly, my step bars that I redid last summer are once again rusting, so I am thinking I might just take the nerf bars off, and go with the Fishbone Offroad step sliders so I can actually get some real protection on the side and not just a nerf bar!
So stay tuned as the weather gets warmer and I start to dive further into these projects, just not too much new to report at the current time!
I did get a chance to go down to Toledo recently for a work trip to the Dana factory which was pretty cool to see. Ya know, never a bad time to be around everything Jeep! I gave myself a bit of a Jeep Toldeo tour before I had to head back too!
I got to see the old Willy's Smokestack, Drove around the Manufacturing Plant, and grabbed a bit to eat at Zinger's! Definitely was a good time! That JK Forum guide to Toledo was a great help!
Ok, so once again...been missing for a long while here, but have been very busy with travel (Munich, Germany, Toledo, and a few other places for work, and Up North, and Bar Harbor, Maine, and a few other places for fun!), housework, and just everything. Haven't done too much to the Jeep in a while, mostly just been enjoying it, but have ad a few items that I have had to work on! I also have a very big list of projects and maintenance items to take care of in the short term. Have all the parts, just need the time to install them! So...I will start where I left off an catch everyone back up!
Back in April, I started to get some really bad shake in the rear end of my Jeep when I would accelerate from a stop, up to about 15 MPH or 20 MPH. Drove with it for just a little while, like a week, but it got much worse...and quickly got there...
So a little investigation and some help in diagnosing from one of my Jeep Clubs showed me that I had blown the CV Rzeppa Joint boot on my rear driveshaft. And that in turn also blew all the grease out of that joint!
Great! And the thing I was amazed at, was that this occurred because of just normal driving, not some crazy trail or off roading I did...just melted the boot! So, I decided, it was time to just complete replace it, as at 3.5" of lift, it was bound to happen again. So I called up Tom Woods driveshafts and got the information that I needed as to what I needed to provide to them to make a customer driveshaft for me. So with understanding of the measurements at hand, i went out to take the measurements for the rear driveshaft and just got this feeling that I should take a quick peak at the front driveshaft too...and man was it a good thing that I did! That CV joint was completely torn and had thrown all of the grease out too, so two new driveshafts it is! That turned into a much more expense and extensive repair than I originally thought when I first felt the shaking in the rear end!
But at this point, I had 2 brand new, custom fit, 1310 Double Cardan Tom Woods driveshafts on there way for a fix, and to not have to deal with that issue again!
Last edited by WxNerd2015; 09-19-2018 at 07:52 AM.
01-25-2018, 04:53 AM
And the thing I was amazed at, was that this occurred because of just normal driving, not some crazy trail or off roading I did...just melted the boot! So, I decided, it was time to just complete replace it, as at 3.5" of lift, it was bound to happen again. So I called up Tom Woods driveshafts and got the information that I needed as to what I needed to provide to them to make a customer driveshaft for me. So with understanding of the measurements at hand, i went out to take the measurements for the rear driveshaft and just got this feeling that I should take a quick peak at the front driveshaft too...and man was it a good thing that I did! That CV joint was completely torn and had thrown all of the grease out too, so two new driveshafts it is! That turned into a much more expense and extensive repair than I originally thought when I first felt the shaking in the rear end!
