August 27th, 2010
The other day, I tried to change my rear bumpstops and snapped 2 of the bolts. For the short term I punched the studs and the fastener into the subframe and threaded in some half inch bolts. I wasn’t too happy with that solution because I felt they wouldn’t be strong enough. While reading JeepForum, I came across a thread on fixing TJ transfer skid plates. I figured if it would work for a skid plate, it would work for a bumpstop. I wasn’t about to spend $8 a pop on them from a dealership, and I knew I didn’t need that much toughness. I found some nutserts at Fastenal. that would fit the holes in my subframe and should hold. I got 4 of them with tax and shipping for less than $9.
Here’s a nutsert on on a homebrew installation tool. It’s an M10 bolt with 2 flat washers, a 7/16 nut (anything large enough to spin freely on the bolt will work), and a star lock washer.
The only hand tools needed are a socket to turn the bolt, and a wrench to hold the nut from spinning.
Test Installation on one of the doors of my parts XJ. I wanted to see exactly how it installed before I got up under the Jeep where space was limited.
Cross section of the installation. The door panel wasn’t vertical and was dented, so the bolt’s not straight.
Both nutserts installed in the frame.
Bumpstop installed.
Here are some more random pics of took while I was working on this project. If the fix seems to hold up, I may invest in a hand full of these when I replace my rear shocks next time.
Tags: Cherokee, Jeep, XJ
Posted in Automotive, Global, Home Brew, Jeep, Mods | No Comments »
August 2nd, 2010
Yesterday I picked up an 27 spline 8.25 from a 91 Cherokee (XJ). I had wanted to get this because I’m looking for a complete axle that I can hang some XJ suspension parts on and mount a box on top to make a trailer. It was an hour and a half drive to pick it up. On the way back, I realized that including the axle’s that are under my XJ, I have 3 complete sets of rear axle’s (2 are 29 spline 8.25′s and a 27 spline 8.25), 2 complete D30 front axle’s, and duplicates of most any part I could ever need.
Back in my younger days I drove a Ford Tempo or Mercury Topaz (go ahead and laugh). I owned a total of 7 of them, including 2 that I had bought for parts. Along the way I collected a ton of spare parts. It seems that I’m doing the same with my jeep. The difference is that the parts are bigger and more involved. I don’t know if this is a natural progression or what. It seems that most of the people I deal with in the Jeep sphere of the internet also have alot of spare parts. I wonder if we have hoarding issues, or if there is a practical side to having all these spare parts.
Here are some pics of the axle as it stands now:
Axle loaded up in my Jeep.
Axle unloaded with some tires on it.
Axle stored in the garage.
Tags: 8.25, axle, Jeep, trailer, XJ
Posted in Automotive, Global, Home Brew, Jeep, Personal Ramblings | No Comments »
June 15th, 2010
This is a quick post about the past few weeks. I had been dragging my feet for the last year to install my tinted quarter glass. I was down in WV for the JeepInWV Jeep Show and locked my keys in the Jeep. After about 30 minutes of messing with it, I ended up shattering a quarter glass to get into the Jeep.
This needless to say made for a loud 3 hour ride home.
Not having much of a choice I had to install the new quarter glass. It only took about 10 minutes to replace this one and about an hour to replace the other one (because I couldn’t get it to shatter).
If I would have know it was that easy, I would have done it long ago. I really enjoy the upgrade to tinted glass. Now I just need to get the hatch glass replaced and I’ll be golden.
Tags: Jeep
Posted in Automotive, Global, Jeep, Mods, Personal Ramblings | No Comments »
June 11th, 2010
Last night I got the chance to go hang out at the Columbus Idea Foundry and take an intro to Knifesmithing. Even though it was just the basics, it was AWESOME. It was taught by a guy named Adlai who was great. He knew what he was talking about, and he was a great BSer. I had a blast and met afew new people.
We started out with a round steel rod and turned it into a square rod. Then we flattened out one end and made the blade. After that the other end was given an curve and a twist. Sadly I made mine alittle short, so I couldn’t bend it back around like everyone else. Even at that, I love the knife. I still need to clean it up, do some finish grinding, polishing, and sharpening. After that I give it the final heat treat to make it hard.
I think I’m going to draw on my skill using electrolysis rust removal to clean up the knife. Then for some odd reason (I think because I’m a masochist), I want to hand file an edge on the knife, and hand polish the body.
Here are some pictures as they stand:
My favorite part is the twisting on the handle. More pics once I clean up the knife.
Tags: Blacksmithing, Fordging, Knife Making
Posted in Global, Home Brew, Personal Ramblings | 1 Comment »
May 19th, 2010
Last Friday (5/14), myself and afew lucky Jeepers got to tour the Wrangler Assembly Plant in Toledo, Oh. We were not allowed to take our own camera’s in, but here are some pics they took at the factory and just sent us. Here are some quick notes we put together based on the info we were given.
- The plant is 3 sections:
DC/Fiat(?) OMMC and Kuya.
OMMC does the frame assembly with all its components -OMMC is a subsidiary of Hyundai. They basically assemble the frame with the drivetrain, axles, brakes and everything that mounts to the frame.
Kuya was final assembly and the DC side was Liberty/Nitro. Jeep basically hangs the sheet metal and installs the interior. The only body difference between a RHD & a LHD Wrangler is that the firewall is flipped in the body so the opening for the steering shaft is on the passenger side. Dash modules with steering columns are completely modular and either dash will fit the same tub.
- We saw a Thai export Unlimited with no bumpers and a few things that aren’t required for Thailand, RHD jeep, a diesel Wrangler.
- The 2011 hard tops have a bigger rear glass and bigger side quarter windows.
- There were 2012 prototypes around but we never saw any. The plant manager who gave our tour said that the 2012 Wrangler’s will be a retooled with changes that “add comfort but keep what makes the Jeep a Jeep”.
- There are 4 trim lines (buzz models) out/coming out:
Islander/Mountaineer/Mohave/Arctic plus a 70 yr anniversary model
The Mountaineer line Liberty had blacked out headlights, grill and gunmetal wheels. It was pretty cool looking. The one I saw had this candy black paint with gold flecks. It was also getting a large flat black vinyl decal on the hood. This thing looked truly sinister.
The plant is pretty much bright and spotless. I saw one oil spot on the Liberty side and that’s it.
The delivery semis are all robot unloaded and the parts are put on carts that are robotic and drive themselves to the line. There are almost no forklifts
The group getting the intro to how the plant runs by the plant manager.
The group with a 2011 Wrangler. The plant manager stopped the “finishing line” for the picture. About 30 seconds after she did that the line manager stomped over to see why his line was stopped. He didn’t seem too happy about it.
A picture of the group outside the gate.
Here’s a link to the full set of pictures that we got from Jeep that they took on that day.
Jeep Wrangler Factory Tour
Tags: Factory Tour, Jeep, Toledo Ohio, Wrangler
Posted in Automotive, Global, Jeep | No Comments »
May 15th, 2010
Yesterday (5/14/2010), I was one of the few, the proud, the guys who got a tour of Jeep’s Toledo Wrangler Assembly plant. All I can say is “Freaking Awesome”. They farm most of the component assembly and literally just hang parts on a frame. These tours are very very rare. I count myself very very lucky to have been given the chance to tour the factory.
We weren’t allowed to take our phones/camera’s into the plant. But the plant took some pics of the group. I can’t wait until they are posted and I will share them.
Tags: Jeep, Toledo, Wrangler
Posted in Automotive, Global, Jeep, Personal Ramblings | No Comments »
April 30th, 2010
Dear Spammers, fuck you. I realize you are using a bot to post like 100 spam comments a day. But do you realize that I’m mass denying them as fast as you post them.
It seems that when I don’t post for awhile, I get tons of spam. So here’s a post in the hopes that you will stop spamming my blog.
Posted in Global, Personal Ramblings, Rants | No Comments »
April 17th, 2010
After moving into the house, my GF said I could get a riding tractor. I finally picked this up today.
Not quite the man machine I had originally envisioned, but it’s pretty nice. It’s a 10HP Craftsman rear engine mower with a 30 inch deck. I would like alittle more go, but this does well for 10HP. I picked it up from my Aunt with all the accessories except the bins for the bagger.
I also got this as part of the deal.
And it does this:
I mowed my yard today and it did fairly well. The only real issues is that I had to replace the battery. Other than that I need to tighten the bracket for the deck height because wants to fall down to the lowest setting and adjust the throttle cable/linkage. But it’s older than I thought. I thought it had a 10 HP B&S, but I just went and looked and it’s a Tecumseh.
Posted in Global, Personal Ramblings | No Comments »
March 17th, 2010
Recently I came to the conclusion that I a complete budget gamer. This is actually kind of funny, because I own a “Gaming System” as my desktop PC. With the exception of W0W expansions, I do not bay full price for any game and I usually wait until it’s been out awhile before purchasing. A great boost to that is Steam. I can get games that are older for next to nothing. I had been wanting to get Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for just afew dollars on Steam.
Another favorite place for older games is Half Priced Books. You can get games very very cheaply there too. Last weekend, I picked up a copy of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl at HPB for $6. I had read about this game last year and was really psyched about the concept and storyline. And at the price, if the game only provides me 1 hour of enjoyment, it’s still cheaper than say a movie or many other activities.
Another cheap gaming option I recently got was Star Trek Online. I discovered about 2 weeks ago that Cryptic was running a promotional where you could get $10 off the game and a free 60 day game card on top of the 30 days of play you get with the game. 60 days of game play for one of my favorite media story lines for $40. Who could beat it. That’s like $13 a month or like $.44 a day for the game. At deals like that, I’d be a fool to not give the game a try.
Lastly, my all time favorite cheap gaming experience still has to be Anarchy Online. This is the MMORPG that I cut my teeth on and started me into the genre. Even though the game is 8 years old, they have opened extensive portions of the original game and the first booster for free. Pretty much you can get the “classic” version of the game with just afew minor ingame ads. Most of the time, I do not even notice these ads. Another bonus to this game is the due for a graphics engine upgrade in the near future.
Having said all this, I hope I have pointed out that there are alot of cheap options for PC gaming around. Another benefit to waiting for games to cool off a bit before jumping on them is that the hardware requirements are usually less. Meaning you can get the full gaming experience without having a built up “gaming rig”.
Tags: Anarchy Online, KotOR, mmorpg, Stalker, Star Trek Online, Star Wars, Steam, wow
Posted in Computers, Gaming, Global | No Comments »