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What I did to my TJ today

4M views 43K replies 4K participants last post by  LowCountryLJ 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Please feel free to add your own vehicle wrenching / adventure stories to this Thread.
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#28,821 ·
Laggy was right, it's metallic charcoal. Looks great all bolted up.



I also got a chance to take a good look at the K&N lifetime filter i pulled and replaced with a normal paper one.



I'm willing to bet the PO threw it in there thinking they'd get clean intake air for life. I tried spraying it out with the hose; that gunk is in there pretty good. Whoever buys it from Ebay is going to have to clean it themselves.
For the hell of it; i looked up how much the cleaning kit costs. $14 bucks. So you pay $50 for a lifetime filter, and $14 bucks regularly to clean it? K&N really has people by the balls with these, don't they?

I'll stick with my $13 paper filter & replace it with a brand new sterile one every 15k. Thanks.
That looks awesome, nice way to switch up the usual black.
As for the filter thing, it's a personal preference. I enjoy cleaning k&n style filters. Although one thing I will say, is that the preposterous claims of 10, 15 even 20 horsepower have no scientific data to back it up. A company puts a pretty graph up, and idiots believe it. Is a high flow intake an integral part of a PERFORMANCE engine? Absolutely. Race filter makes a difference on my supersport bike only when I tune using air/fuel data and a ECU programmer. But a bone stock Jeep is not gonna see 15HP from a filter. It's quicker airflow for sure, but your ECU is set to run lean anyway, so the little extra fuel your ECU feeds in isn't gonna do much. So I say, go ahead with your paper filter. So clean!
 
#28,822 ·
Installed GraBars. Amazing entry/exit from the jeep now. Will be even more so once i get some rockers with steps. Took a little extra work, probably gonna get flat socket cap bolts cause the GraBars are countersunk but they reuse original hardware.
Wired up illuminated switch for LED spots (found a good ground off metal dash/console skeleton).
Cleaned soft top mud stains with simple green.
Spec the wheels and tires.


 
#28,828 ·
Laggy was right, it's metallic charcoal. Looks great all bolted up.



I also got a chance to take a good look at the K&N lifetime filter i pulled and replaced with a normal paper one.



I'm willing to bet the PO threw it in there thinking they'd get clean intake air for life. I tried spraying it out with the hose; that gunk is in there pretty good. Whoever buys it from Ebay is going to have to clean it themselves.
For the hell of it; i looked up how much the cleaning kit costs. $14 bucks. So you pay $50 for a lifetime filter, and $14 bucks regularly to clean it? K&N really has people by the balls with these, don't they?

I'll stick with my $13 paper filter & replace it with a brand new sterile one every 15k. Thanks.
Metallic charcoal looks good. You did good on the air filter, K&N has done an unreal sales job on their filters, they suck if you think about it!
 
#28,831 ·
After 3 1/2 months I finally finished the front and rear regear. Took forever between life and work. So much better with the 4.56 gear. I'll never do it myself again. Way to much work.
 
#28,832 ·
Looks great. I have the rear bumper from them and love it. Leaning towards that one for the front or a stinger. Not sure yet.

This is what i did at midnight... just bc i wanted too...

how it started

how it ended



Barricade front HD bumper with winch mount... feels awesome, sturdy as a maaaaaaaaaaaaa:censored:aaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Winch comes in on tuesday and i cant :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored:wait
 
#28,833 ·
Good luck. I just finished mine. Took forever (see post). Getting ready to break them in today. It is a tedious job but in the end, nice to say you did it yourself. I spent about $1300 in parts and special tools. I had most of the stuff as I was a mechanic a few years ago. Have fun and take your time.

Not to the TJ, but for it. I am one step closed to doing my regear. I have finished reading all the stuff on Pirate and am on my second time through Randy's excellent Differentials: Identification, Restoration & Repair 2nd Ed.

I'm diggin' on my new tools, too, man. Brown Santa came today and left me two boxes of Jeep Joy.

These are like the nicest things I have yet purchased for working on my TJ. I have some other stuff to buy for the re-gear, but these were the two that I researched the most. After the TJ I have three more axles to either re-gear or simply rebuild. These will get used enough to justify the expense to me. I hate-hate-hate crappy tools.

I need to thank several machine shop guys who strongly recommended these over the course of my researching what to look for as well as what to expect from several top brands and some of the dogs.

I cannot afford as near as much as some folks here, but more than others. I have been trying to appease my addiction through meaningful upgrades using the best parts and tools I can possibly afford so that I do not have to do a job twice and so that my tools will be there for me whenever I need them to be.

This has dragged me up from a set of AutoZone wrenches, Craftsman sockets, and Home Depot screwdrivers and hammers to a fairly nice set of tools that improves a bit each season. Of course, that means that it is growing, too, since I never toss a tool that works. So my tool box has grown into one of those rolling carts the size of a dishwasher but about chin high to me. I used to keep it all in a green, plastic tackle box from Walmart.

The TJ is forcing me to become a better mechanic and also a bit of a tool junkie.

If not Jeep parts, tools. The costs never seem to end, man. They never seem to end. HAHAHA!!!
 
#28,835 ·
After 3 1/2 months I finally finished the front and rear regear. Took forever between life and work. So much better with the 4.56 gear. I'll never do it myself again. Way to much work.
Beautiful jeep
 
#28,838 ·
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