WolfGT 02 TJ

WolfGT

WolfGT

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#1
#1
Well here is my Jeep. I'll start this thread with two pictures. The way it was when purchased and the way it sits today. This first entry will be updated as time progresses to include the most current "today" picture and what mods are currently on it. Entries will be made containing details.

As originally purchased (July 2010)


As of Today (Here she is ready for summer 5-16-2012)


Current Specs

Engine
- Stock 4.0L 6 Cylinder
- K&N Air Filter (P/N 33-2114)
- Rugged Ridge Oil Pan (JC Whitney P/N O321743702)

Interior
- Original
CB Radio
- Cobra 29LTD *US Army* Limited Edition CB radio (WalcottCB P/N ?, can't get it anymore)
- Firestick 4' Antenna (WalcottCB P/N FS464A8AB)
- Trucker speaker (WalcottCB P/N CB980, mouted over rear-view mirror)
- Antenna mount drivers side (WalcottCB P/N CBML, mounts antenna over tail light)
- RAM 111 Pedestal Mount (WalcottCB P/N RAM111, allows mounting of radio on passenger side of tunnel, folds radio down to allow seat to slide forward)
​

Armor
- Currie Rock Ribz Rocker Panel Guards (Poison Spyder P/N CE-9093SRR)
- Skid Row oil pan and transmission skid plate (SkidRow P/N JP-0009 Rev O)
- TeraFlex Steering box skid plate (included in lift kit)

Bumpers
- Currie RockJock 45" Wide V-Front Bumper TJ/LJ (Poison Spyder P/N CE-9094V) - With CFS Off-road custom made hood hoop and stinger.
- Currie Rock Crawler II Rear Bumper TJ/LJ (Poison Spyder P/N CE-9065)

Winch
- Warn 9.5ti
- 100' of 3/8" WARN Spydura Synthetic Rope
- 12VoltGuy Dash Mount winch controls

Drivetrain
- Stock 231 Transfer Case
- Stock 5 speed manual transmission
- Front driveshaft re-tubed (Carolina Driveline)
- New rear SYE driveshaft (Carolina Driveline)
- ARB Mini Compressor (ECGS P/N CKSA12-ARB)
- Advance Adapter Slip Yoke Eliminator Kit (ECGS P/N 50-7906)
Front Axle
- Dana 30
- 4.88 Gears
- Lockright Locker
- Warn Hub Conversion Kit
- Warn Chromoloy Inner Shafts
- Alloy USA Tube Seals
- Rancho Dana 30 Diff Cover (Quadratec P/N: RS6218)
- Currie Johnny Joint kit for upper control arm brackets, axle side
- GoFerIt Flipped Tierod Insert
- Rubicon Express LCA Axle Brackets
- Synergy Heavy Duty Ball Joints
- Rusty's Heavy Duty Tie Rod (Rusty's P/N RS-TR125-UV)
​
Rear Axle
- Built by East Coast Gear Supply
- Ford 8.8
- TJ axle brackets
- Tubes welded into carrier
- 31 spline Yukon chromoly shafts
- 4.88 gears
- Axle bearing seal kit
- Solid diff cover
- C-Clip eliminator kit
- SYE flange
- setup for 3" lift
- ARB Air Locker
- Currie Adjustable Upper Control Arms w/Johnny Joints (rear) (ECGS P/N CE-9103)​

Wheels & Tires
- BF Goodrich M/T KM2 35x12.5x15
- TrailReady Aluminum Beadlocks (Baja Style) 15x8 with 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern

Suspension
- TeraFlex TJ Wrangler 3" Lift Kit with shocks and accessories (P/N 1241300)
- Springs
- Rear sway bar links
- Rear trackbar bracket
- Swaybar disconnects
- Steering box skid plate (mentioned also under Armor)
- Bumpstops
- Shocks
- And all necessary hardware for installation​
- Custom made rear lower control arms (2" x 1/4" DOM with Johnny Joints)
- Rough Country X-Flex Adjustable Control Arms (Front, Lower from Clemson 4 Wheel Center, P/N R-C-1199)
- Rusty's Upper Control Arms (Front, Upper)
- Rubicon Express adjustable track bar (Quadratec part # 16311 602 07)
- .75 inch Teraflex coil spacers (Quadratec part # 16190 2001)
- Old Man Emu bump stop spacers (Quadratec part # 16090 1119)

Top
- Summer: Bestop Strapless Bikini top (Quadratec part # 11125 15 07)
- Summer: Black Denim Windjammer (Quadtratec part # 11128 15 07)
- Summer: Black Denim Duster Deck Cover (Quadratec part # 11154 15 07)
- Winter: Bestop OEM Sailcloth soft top with tented windows (Quadratec part # 11135 115 07)

Doors
- Winter: Full metal doors
- Summer: Bestop canvas half doors (Quadratec part # 11141 15 07)

Miscellanious
- Gr8tops Exogate Tailgate kit (P/N GR8-XOG)
- Daystar Hood Wranglers (Quadratec part # 16053 5010)

Items broken over the life of the Jeep
- Rear lower control arms, stock, (qty 2)
- Rear lower control arm axle side bracket
- Rear ARB locker, leaked air inside the housing
- Rear tail light, stock
- Axle side sway bar mount, ripped off
- Teraflex rear shocks, (Qty 2)
- Warn hub conversion manual locking hubs, (qty 5)
- Transmission mount
- Radiator
- Throttle position sensor
- Fan clutch
- Water pump
- Warn Dana 30 short side front axle shaft, broken ear when u-joint went
- Front upper control arms, stock, (qty 2)
- Dana 30 u-joint, 297, (qty 2)
- Dana 30 yoke
- Front drive shaft
- Rear drive shaft, (qty 2)
- Dana 30 Ring and Pinion (qty 2)
- Rusty's Tie Rod Ends - driver side - bent (qty 2)
- Hood tie down (qty 1)


Thank you for your interest in my build. I will add build pictures after this main post. Let me know if you have any questions. I'll answer as best I can.
 
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F

Feileod

#3
#3
Do you have any good pics of the tie rod flip? If not, could I bother you for some. A shot of each knuckle and shot of the drag link in relation to the trackbar.
 
F

Feileod

#7
#7
Shows ya how much I know :) His lift is similar to mine and I had heard you couldn't do a flip with a 2-3 lift. I am curious to see how it all lined up.
 
WolfGT

WolfGT

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#8
#8
First project that I did was to add a CB radio to the Jeep in preparation for the Bumpus Cove trip. This project took place in March 2011.

Had to mount the bracket for the antenna. I purchased all of the equipment from WalcottCB.com. The bracket for the antenna mounted behind the taillight on the drivers side.

Here is the location before the bracket.


After disassembling the taillight and removing it from the Jeep. Then using the supplied hardware mounting the bracket behind the light housing, it looked like this.


Then I went inside and started with the external trucker speaker. I thought about mounting it on the roll bar above/behind the driver seat but I didn't want to drill into the rollbar or extend the wiring for the speaker. So I found that it fit really well over the rear view mirror, so that's where it went.


Then I wanted to mount the CB on the passenger side of the tunnel so I had to address the fact that is was going to get in the way of the passenger seat whenever you wanted access to the back seat (since the drivers seat does not slide forward, stupid design decision IMO). So I purchased a swivel pedestal and riveted the standard CB bracket to it then screwed it to the floor (after verifying I wasn't going to drill into any brake lines and such under the floor). Here is the mount folded down.


Here is a good shot of the setup in position with the mic mounted low enough not to get in the way of the ignition.


Then ran the antenna cable under the console, under the rear carpet and up the driver side of the bed. Coiled up the extra cable next to the rear of the jeep next to the rear rollbar mount and routed it out under the soft top. Mounted the antenna with then spring mount.


Went through the manual and performed the tuning steps provided. This radio has some pretty good capabilities built in for tuning. I never had to touch the antenna. It has a lot of power and very clear.
That's it for this little project.
 
C

Chris04

#9
#9
Where did you get the swivel mount from? Walcottcb? Mines just sitting on my dash and I cant stand it. I thought about pass. tunnel but farther up.
 
WolfGT

WolfGT

LIFETIME
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#12
#12
Yes, that is a better price, but different than the one I got. The one you listed is 2" shorter. But still $7 cheaper than you can get that same model from Walcott (Link: RAMB111)
 
WolfGT

WolfGT

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#13
#13
After this happened:


I repaired the Jeep enough to drive it home from Gulches. Then it sat for 3 or 4 weeks. I didn't want to drive it because the right rear lower control arm was damaged and I didn't trust it. I ordered DOM and Johnny Joints from Barnes 4wd to upgrade the rear lowers.

I replaced the damaged lower with another stock piece for now until I weld up the new stuff.

This is what the damaged piece looked like






Here is the damaged one next to the replacement




Here is a shot of the mount at the frame for that control arm


Here is a shot of my oil pan skid plate. Showing a pretty good gouge which would have most likely been in my oil pan. So I'm happy about that purchase


 
WolfGT

WolfGT

LIFETIME
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#14
#14
Here are a couple of shots of the damaged transmission mount after dropping the skid plate down




I had to hold up the drivetrain using the yoke on the back of the transfer case. I guess you normally support all of this using the oil pan but since I have a skid plate in the way and I didn't feel like removing it, this was my next option. This worked out well since the two skid plates are attached, they just hinged down in one big piece.


Here is a shot of the new mount next to the old damaged one


A closer shot of the damaged one (supposed to be one piece)


A closer shot of the new one ..... pretty


Then I went ahead and swapped the speedo gear so I can at least tell how fast I'm going. The small one was the stock one. The bigger one is the new one and it has 39 teeth.


 
WolfGT

WolfGT

LIFETIME
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#15
#15
Other damage was my new shocks. They came with the Teraflex lift kit that is on the Jeep. I replaced them with some cheap shocks from Autozone. I do believe they are camaro shocks. Here is a picture of the damage. One bent and the other dented to the point that the piston is frozen in place.






Here is a shot of the boxes of the replacement shocks I put on just in case someone needs some cheap shocks for a Jeep with a 3" lift. It took me, JR and the nice guys at Autozone a good bit to find some with the right length and connectors.


And she is back in full operation. See y'all out there.
 
WolfGT

WolfGT

LIFETIME
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#16
#16
Finished building the new Rear Lower Control Arms. Here is what I did to build them. Parts came from Barnes 4WD.

Time to do some welding.


I tacked it in three spots around the tube to hold it in place.


Then I filled in between the tacks. But I only went about half way between each tack before stopping and quenching it to cool it down. I was afraid I was going to warp it and ruin the threads on the inserts. This is a picture after the first complete pass.


This is after the second pass. I didn't really do this one very good. Instead of doing two good beads around the joint to make one good layer, I snaked the bead back and forth and made one wide bead. Don't like the way it turned out.




Now after taking a week to think about it, I worked on the second one today. This is the first pass. This time I did not tack it, or do it in sections. I ran a bead as far as I could and then turned it to continue. Cleaned the slag and quenched it in the bucket.


This is the second pass (on the insert side of the first bead).


Then this is after the third pass.
 
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WolfGT

WolfGT

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#17
#17
Did some quick grinding on them to get rid of the little booger balls and knock the weld down a little. Then hit them with some black primer.




Then hit them with two coats of Hammered Gray (matches my Teraflex coil springs).






This is what the spare stock LCA that Brooks gave me looks like after two trips. :shaking:


And this is what the bushing looked like on the one that I thought was fine. I guess it took more damage during my Gulches incident than I thought.


The bushing just fell out when the LCA was removed.


I mounted them with the grease fittings pointing up. I didn't think they would last very long pointing down.
All done!
 
WolfGT

WolfGT

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#18
#18
And now for a confession. I am proud of the way these turned out, but also embarrassed. Why? Since some very observant viewer is going to notice sooner or later anyway, I might as well confess. Somewhere during my trial fitting and preparation, I mixed up the inserts. Barnes 4WD marks their left hand thread inserts with a groove around the end. If you look closely, you will notice that I have one LCA with both right hand threads and the other with left. Woops. Not worth cutting them apart. I'll fix it when I go to long arms.
 
Steve97tj

Steve97tj

SUPPORTER
#20
#20
I honestly think the mix up won't matter. Im def game for adjustability but I don't think it's necessary to have lowers with right hand on one end and left hand on other.
 
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