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Jeep Cherokee Broken Bumpstop Bolt Repair

Friday, 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.

Necessary Hand Tools
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 test installation
Cross section of the installation. The door panel wasn’t vertical and was dented, so the bolt’s not straight.

Nutserts installed in the subframe
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 »

Automotive Hoarding

Monday, 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 in the back of my Jeep.
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 »

Carnage & Repair

Tuesday, 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.

Carnage
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).

Tinted Quarter Glass
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 »

Jeep Wrangler Factory Tour

Wednesday, 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 »

Jeep Factory Tour

Saturday, 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 »

More Jeep Goodness….

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Since getting my house (and garage) afew months back, I’ve really been able to ramp up working on my Jeeps. Here’s a quick run down of where I am:

I removed the tinted rear door glass from my 98 parts XJ, and installed it in my 97 XJ. I’ve got the rear passenger quarter glass out, I still need to pull the driver quarter glass, and the rear hatch glass. I can install the quarter glass myself, but will have to find a shop to do the hatch glass.

In the above picture, you can see the door glass is darker than the quarter glass behind it.

I got the factory skid plates removed. I just need to clean them up before installation. I have a feeling I will need some new nut straps for the gas tank skid, and I will need to figure out how to mount the transfer case skid in the cross member/frame.

Front End Skid Plate

Transfer Case Skid Plate

Gas Tank Skid Plate

Gas Tank Skid Plate Nut Strips
The top nut strip is the way it’s supposed to be. The bottom got bent somehow when the Jeep was wrecked. The odd thing is that the bent strip came from the driver’s side, and the damage was on the passenger side. I guess the whole subframe is tweaked.

On of my other projects is to mount the header panel with headlights, grill, turn signals, and all the goodies on a piece of brick paneling and make it look like the jeep is crashing through the wall.

I hope to have the parts Jeep out of my garage before spring. The goal is to get the glass out, pull afew more interior parts, drop the rear drive shaft, remove a portion of the floor so I can unbolt the transfer case/transmission tail, and then cut the front end off at the firewall with engine, transmission, axle, and everything else still attached. Then all I need to do is drop the gas tank, remove the rear axle, and scrap the shell.

Lastly, my birthday was last week. I’ll gladly take any donations of Jeep parts….

Tags: Jeep, parts, skid plate, tinted glass
Posted in Automotive, Global, Jeep | 1 Comment »

New Interior

Monday, April 27th, 2009

On Saturday morning, I picked up this mess:
New Jeep Interior
I got most of the interior out of a wrecked 2000 Jeep Cherokee, that was in quite a bit better shape. I got the carpet (both front and rear sections), the rear bench seat, the front buckets, center console, and sun visors. There are afew more parts I want to go back and get, and the guy said he wasn’t probably getting rid of it for afew weeks.

Here’s why I’m swapping:
Drives Seat

Passangers Seat

Back Seat

Cargo Area

I got motivated yesterday afternoon and got part of the swap done. I’ve got the rear carpet in and the rear seat. I still need to yank the front seats, console, and carpet (the easy part).

New Sun Visors
I still need to wire the lights (my old visors didn’t have lights).

Rear Carpet Installed
Here’s the carpet installed, and trim waiting to be installed.

Just needs the rear seat
Waiting for the rear seat.

Everything back together.

Much better than the original rear seat (see above).

Tags: interior, Jeep, Mods
Posted in Automotive, Global, Jeep, Mods, Personal Ramblings | No Comments »

Small doses of my offroad fix

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

With everything that’s been going on, Carrie is making me scale back my offroad plans for the Jeep. Right now, we are using it as the family car when we have to take everyone (including the dogs) out of town.

That being said, I picked up a used Traxxas Stampede. It’s a fun little truck that I got used, and has had some mods done to it. Thus far I’ve not gotten much of a chance to play with it. The first time out, I blew the motor. After installing a new motor and correcting some wiring issues, I’ve played with it a bit more. I’m going to hold back on playing with it too much until I get a new set of tires.

The tires that are on it are a very nice tire, called Badlands. My problem is that alot of my RCing involves pavement, which wears these tires down very fast. I’m planning getting a set of Masher 2000′s for normal playing, and save the Badlands for a softer terrain.

Thus far the only mod I have done to the truck (with the exception of replacing the motor), is the RPM wide front bumper. Future mods include upgrading the suspension and eventually replacing the motor and electronic speed control with the setup from a Stampede VXL.

Here are some pics:
The truck right after unboxing.
Here’s the truck after unboxing.

I had to take some Poser/Flex Pics.
Some Poser/Flex Pics.

The only mod so far is the RPM bumper.
Another Poser/Flex pic that shows the new front bumper.

Tags: offroad, RC, Stampede, Traxxas
Posted in Automotive, Global, RC | No Comments »

Jeep Goodness

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

This is going to be a quick update. I’ve started doing the maintenance and upgrades to the Jeep. I replaced the saggy rear lift gate struts with a new set. They came from ebay and I suspect they were designed for something a bit heavier, as the liftgate raises on it’s own when opened and you have to push kind of hard to get it closed. No big deal, as the struts wear they won’t go all floppy as quickly.

The next upgrade was to replace the crappy original gauge cluster with a real one. Below are before and after:

The original gauge cluster.
Replacement Gauge Cluster
The new gauge cluster. This mod alone makes the Jeep feel 100 % better.

Somebody backed into the Jeep and cracked the tail light. Below is the original tail light and the replacement.
Tail Lights

Lastly, I took some poser pics of the Jeep last week. Here’s my favorite:

You can also see the full album from that shoot here.

In other non Jeep news, I downloaded the trial for the Warhammer MMO. It feels alot like WoW, but the graphics are less cartoony. I just wish they’d give you more than 10 days on the trial (maybe 14) and allow you to progress beyond level 10. Oh…well… I’ll play until the trial is over and be done with it. I doubt I’m going to see enough in the glimpse that they give to sell me on the game.

Tags: Jeep, mmo, warhammer, wow
Posted in Automotive, Gaming, Global, Mods | No Comments »

Jeep Goodies

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

I’ve settled into having my Jeep. Thus far, I’ve replaced the bald tires. I also got a set of TJ flairs to replace the factory fender flairs.

Here are some pics:
75% or better tread life
The tires have atleast 75% of their tread life left.

TJ Fender Flairs
Here’s the fender flairs for a Jeep TJ. This is a common mod that allows you to run bigger tires with less lift. Less lift means lower center of gravity.

Right now I’m pricing a Rough Country 3 inch Series II Lift Kit. If I can get the lift (which I hope I can do soon), I’m going to sit on the kit until I can get some new tires. I’m shooting for around 31 inch tires.

Tags: 4x4, Jeep, offroad
Posted in Automotive, Global, Personal Ramblings | No Comments »

A Geek Grows Up