Crunchy Taco? - 1st gen on 35s BS

Didn't realize what weekend was coming up til kind of late and decided I want to go wheeling. Started to replace the passenger CV because the boot tore but I only made it as far taking the outer portion of the hub off before realizing I can't find my 12mm deep socket

Since I was already that far I decided to clean up some of the hub parts to paint. A generous amount of brake cleaner later:



Looks like I need to do a touch up on the skid too
Collateral damage from running Spring Creek with the big boys last fall.

 

Stupid CV job has turned from a multi hour job to multi-hour per day job.

The hub bolts were pretty well seized and I stripped a couple of them backing the nuts off. Then the cone washers wouldn't budge.

Then the front 2 lower ball joint bolts were frozen solid and stripped. I broke a pair of HF vice grips and rounded off an Irwin bolt extractor.

I got one out by welding a nut to it. I welded a nut to the 2nd and the nut actually cracked and broke so I decided to call it for the day at this point there's no rush since I couldn't find the hub studs anywhere in town and have them on order from Marlin

 

Parts from Marlin were delivered Friday so I finished up the CV swap yesterday.

Ended up having to sacrifice a socket to get the other LBJ bolt out as well.

I replaced all 6 hub studs since I stripped several during removal.

 

I also dedicated some time to the YJ crawler this afternoon. I cleaned up the remnants of the factory shock tower and fitted up the new one from Barnes4x4 before welding it up.

 

Spent most of this weekend in the garage. When I did the CV on the taco I must have messed up the inner axle seal because it immediately started puking gear oil. After waiting all week for the part I tackled it yesterday. I'm surprised it didn't leak before because the seal was actually installed backwards by whoever worked on it last

Painted the hub face to make it pretty while everything was apart. Instead of using grease I lubed all of the hub internals with 75-90 gear oil (since that's what I had on hand for the diff) and it moves much smoother than it did with the grease.




In other news I did the VSS wiring to connect the speedo on the Jeep...oh and I just flexed it out so I could figure out where I need to weld up the rear shock mounts

 

Oh, and I trimmed the front bumper on the Taco since the 34s(?) were rubbing. unfortunately I need to pick up some sheet and tub the fenders because it rubs there too.

 

Trying to get this shit wrapped up and out of my garage so I can get back to working on Tacoma stuff. I always make a little less progress than hoped

Shock is not fully installed yet

 

I've been learning how to work with vinyl so I made up my own bedside decals this mornifn when I couldn't sleep

 

Those look great!

 

Thanks! There were a PITA to install but I am pretty happy with how they turned out so I suppose it was worth it

 

Got the left rear suspension all finished. Running fox 2.0 shocks on the rear.

Then it was on to the other side.



Still need to weld the the back and bottom of the tower and do the axle side but that should be the last of what's keeping the Jeep off the road


Tired of Jeep updates?

I've been thinking about building a headache rack for the truck. I picked up some 2" square tube for it already.

 

Finally done with the suspension on the jeep

 

Ran Slaughterhouse Gulch to shake the truck down for summer wheeling. never had rubbing issues this bad before but I disconnected the swaybar and didn't think to check.

Oops


Still had a good day on the trail

 

Started mocking up the winch placement so I can start building my bumper. The 1st option puts it in front of the grille but pushes it out further.



The second keeps it lower and closer but would require cutting the grille to get it as close as I would like.



I'm inclined to go with the first since it gives a better approach angle even if it's further out.

 

Made a new cross member out of 3" 1/4 thick strap. Wrapped some 1/4 under the frame to tie into the 2 tow hook bolts on each side as well.

The part of the factory skid cross member is welded to the back so my Budbuilt skids will still bolt up.

All tacked to this point, need to start adding some tube then burn it all in.

 

Borrowed a HF pipe bender from my neighbor, managed to break the die. I went slow and used a lot of lube and the bend actually didnt kink until the die broke

 

You need a JD2....

 

Someday!

 

The show will go on once this all cools

 

Dog woke me up early so I made a few welds but didn't do too much. It's still a bit too early to run a grinder