Jensonbt's recovery/build thread and questions

Well I've been hearing some strange noises coming from the under side of my truck for about a month. I looked under there and the center support bearing had about 2 inches of play in it so I decided I should changed that out... but when I took off the rear drive shaft yoke I noticed the rear u-joint was toasted. Like really toasted see below. Hopefully this should help with the 14-15 mpg I've been getting the last month or so.



and the opposite side


In other news me and my friend were looking around the local junkyard for exhaust pipe and other random assortments and I found the seat belt clip from a 07 tundra.

I've been thinking of making one because when my dog rides in the front seat he sets the seat belt alarm off and I have to buckle the seat belt which he sometimes gets tangled in. This buckle is not going to be used if an actual person is riding in the front seat but only my dog or other heavy stuff that can't be buckled in.

 

Well, I had a friend get his jeep stuck out a snowy trail. He had gone up in the early morning when the snow was still solid. But at about 9:30 the snow had started to get soft and he started sinking his jeep into the snow. I had to go to a work training so my friend called 3 other friends to tow him out but non of them we able to even reach his jeep. After about 6 hours I was able to get off work and join the effort. My other friend had gotten his truck buried to the frame about a mile from the jeep. I showed up and winched his truck out and we parked it and we then made the mile long journey to his jeep in about 2 hours. Winching and traction boarding the entire way the soft sun beat snow was soupy if you broke through the top layer. After getting to the jeep and seeing how stuck and how soft the snow was we decided that we would wait until the next day at night for the snow to solidify and we could easily drive on it. So we had to turn my truck around on a one wide fire road with soft snow all around.

I cranked my wheels hard right and Aimed for the hill side. We ran a winch line up to a tree to help pull my front around and up the hill I went. Slowly backing up and pulling forward, Austin powering the sh*t out of it.

The next night we and we were able to reach the jeep with no problems and began the task of winching from about 100 feet so to avoid the ditches left by the jeep in the snow, the day prior.

After we had pulled the jeep past the snow ditches I turned my truck around in the same place and we turned the jeep around too. Or so we thought... the jeep's rear tires slid off the road placing the jeep 90* with the rear tires off the road in unpacked snow. We attached a tow strap from my truck to the front of the jeep and pull him back onto the road and facing the correct direction. we then drove road through my tracks form the day prior. Almost to solid ground when the jeep got bogged down in the ruts from our other friends truck. So I reversed my truck back to the jeep and threw out the snatch strap and pulled the jeep free. We then made the journey out and back to civilization.

Oh and did I mention that the jeep had broken the front drive shaft the week prior so it was only rear wheel drive. So what did I learn from this, always, always, always have an extra pair of socks in my truck. I guess also don't go wheeling in a rear wheel drive jeep but always have extra socks.

 

Well I noticed that my original front bash plate was dented in, and because I was going to pull my front bumper off for some other maintenance and upgrades I figured I should just make a new one to beat up on.



step one find large thick plate and cut out rectangle


step two cut out space for the lift thing in the middle


Cut about half way through with a cut off wheel then bend it by hand, ok bend it a little more... good. Now do it again on the other side.


now cut it up some more to make more room for stuff


Now drill out the holes to mount it up and grind all the sharp edges off so you don't cut your hand every time you move it.


optional :weld the seams and anything else you want cause you need more practice


Now you get to bolt this cut up hunk of metal to the truck. Make sure you strip out and cross thread 2 of the 4 bolts because your an idiot but its on your truck and all 4 bolts are in...

 

I started on my auxiliary electrical today, I got the breaker, fuse block, and relays mounted to a plate. Hopefully my bed light strips and switches get here soon so I can add them on.

First is to cut and bend a plate to fit



Finalize placement of everything and mark for holes


Now Swiss cheese the plate


Check clearances and grind down any bolts that interfere


And wire everything together on the board


Yes the ground is only a 14g wire, it will be swapped out when I can get a proper ground cable. I will also be running wire to the rear of my truck and all around so the fuse block will start to fill in once I have all then wiring finished.

 

Lots of cool upgrades. I gotta ask tho, why remove the muffler? did you replace it with anything?

 

As I said, I've been hanging around with my redneck friends too much. We go to the junk yard often so when we were there last I found an exhaust section off a 04 4runner (same motor as a 2 gen). So I just bolted that on and it took away all the in cabin droning but leaves a similar exhaust note.

I live in semi rural Idaho so I don't have to worry about passing emissions even tho I still have all the cats. And it still isn't something really loud it just opened up the sound more.

 

Got my rear lights wired in, the switch is just floating in the little drawer/fuse cover box but here's some before and after photos. I've had the passenger reverse light out for probably a couple years and just haven't bothered to fix it so that's why in the reverse camera is only half lit up. I learned to just drag brakes slightly so I could see but now with lights I can actually view where I'm going.

 

Well I put some "bed lights" in the back I just have them zip tied to the bed rack and wired into a switch on the side of the bed.
https://youtu.be/beCH1y3-8h4


I also had some small magnetic led lights laying around from a friend so I put them under the hood of the truck. Since they are magnets I can pull them off and stick them almost anywhere so I can see under my hood at night.