Posts by quadna

  • body lift

    check your body mounts now to see what sort of shape they are in. if the rubber mounts are still fine then this ebay deal seems pretty good to me. i'd keep an eye on the price though and maybe bid at the last minute (talk to joe for pointers on this :) )
    chris

  • little light thingy

    chris,
    did you know you have two spare wires back behind your glove box? one is switched (goes on and off with the key) and the other is unswitched (steady batt power). they are tucked back into themselves with some tape and are labeled as i described above. the lengths of the wires are about 4" to 6" and are plenty long for splicing things to them. i think that for once DC did us a favor by putting them back there just for times like this. i used the unswitched one for Icky's hellas and the switched one for her radar detector - they work great for stuff like that. get up with me if you need help finding them in the future.
    chris

  • Need Opinion for RC Ride in August

    i'd vote for choice 1.


    this is how i'm seeing it. get there by 5 on saturday, eating by 6. where's the roast at? probably not at our usual camping spot. that doesn't give much time for making it up the hill and setting up our campsites (if we even would be offered that spot this time). then you go crawl for a few hours - just can't see it going too long if people will be still wanting to get some sleep after the 2.5+ hour drive they made earlier. finally, barring any breaks you get to your tent and crash - up bright and early again to wheel some more (after packing up your stuff). just seems awfully rushed with the night ride and stuff. i just see lots of breakage with very few of us having rocklights. plus, paying the saturday's fee for a few hours of riding and cramped camping area (lots of people gonna be there).


    call me an introvert or what - i'd just rather have a weekend with our group of friends/wheelers. i enjoy wheeling as much as the next jeeper....but the "campfire" time we have on friday's and saturday's evenings is half the fun in my book. burnt marshmallows, dogs, some cold drinks, and just relaxing for a few hours after riding is :tup: with me. sort of hard to do when it's scheduled/wedged between driving, wheeling, and powersleeping. we can still meet them (bmja or any other groups) on other rides on other weekends.


    heck, i'm not even sure if i'd be able to get the time off from work to make the weekend trip...but if given the choice of the two i'd take the deja trip, choice 1 (not A??? :question: ).
    chris (going out on a limb and even saying he'd rather help coordinate food then eat roasted pig (saw 175 people sick from uncooked pig over a fire!))

  • Emergency help

    the steady shimmy could be from a tire - i know, i know...they've been balanced already. but it's a cheap and free way of eliminating them from the equation. generally that would be a shimmy that would come and go as you pass through certain speeds....but who knows. just trying to come up with things for you to check while waiting for the lowers to come in. good luck and hope the rain lets up (it did here finally)
    chris

  • bearing press

    hmph...napa and the hobby shop closed on a sunday. sorry - i don't know anyone in dover with a press. :(
    chris (wishing he worked in metals fab shop right about now)

  • Emergency help

    Quote from "Keith_C"

    1. Check alignment, specifically toe.
    2. Ensure everything is tight, especially trackbar.
    3. Check castor, do you have adjustable front control arms.
    4. Check wheel balance.
    5. Warped rotors can cause it also.


    kenny,
    keith's right on the money in the points he made...and even pretty much in the order in which you should be checking them.


    get (er, keep i should say...i just got a chance to post this even though you get the alignment already) the toe-in set. that cow-town site will get you close enough to never have issues again. i've been using that as my method and am not having issues whatsoever with dw.


    an improperly adjusted trackbar or rather the lack of an adjustable one once you lift a tj will be the #2 cause of your dw. i'm glad to see you're putting on an adjustable one instead of just relocating the axle mount of the stock one with a newly drilled hole - that fix just weakens the factory mount. once that new trackbar is installed tighten the nut tight - and then tighten it a little more. (oh, if it's the RE one then make sure you have a 5/8" bit handy for drilling the new hole).


    keep your caster at the proper angles...again, that site will get you close enough to run smoothly on the highway in a pinch. i've been lucky enough to be able to just adjust the upper arms to the point where my front driveshaft is at a good alignment and then didn't have any problems with caster.


    finally, wheel balance. wheel balance alone can cause some serious dw...but usually there's already some other factors (above ones) that are contributing...the out-of-balance wheel just aggravates and allows the dw to progress to the point where you're bouncing across lanes on route 1. just some large globs of mud in a wheel is all it takes sometimes - so a good visual inside the wheels will sometimes be in order after hitting mud. also, if you think a thrown wheel weight is the culprit - just rotate your tires as a troubleshooting tool. 15 minutes of time and zero dollars and you'll either pinpoint or eliminate the wheel balancing.


    i'd shoot for getting that trackbar on as soon as possible and then either align it yourself or bring it back to ntb if you got the yearly warranty. you can opt for the new steering stabilizer if you wish...but i'd be willing to bet that it isn't bad. i ran mine up through 33" tires...and then changed it in hopes of eliminating my dw at the time. nope, didn't change it a bit. paul's right about the grand's steering stabilizer though. i'm still running that one that i picked up at napa. it's cheaper than some of the aftermarket ones and usually in stock too. just tell them that you want one for a '97 grand with the v8 and you'll be in good shape. seems to do the job with my lift still and even with the 37" tires.


    sure hope you get it all worked out - give me a call tomorrow during the day if you want.
    chris


    p.s. keith's direction about the pitman arm is right also. tj's are alright when lifted and using the stock arm until you hit upwards of 5" of lift. i'm at 7" now with my suspension lift and am just now seeing signs of bumpsteer.

  • This Saturday's Jeep show in Salisbury

    the ESJA's jeep show in salisbury was pretty fun! there was a great turnout in jeeps - all shapes, colors, and sizes. there were prizes from a raffle, 50/50, and some winners of a vote from the dealership and from each of the jeep owners. the RTI (a 30 degree) ramp was pretty popular with most of the jeepers trying it at least once. burgers, dogs, chips and drinks were supplied free, and there was someone there taking pictures to sell of your jeep - slightly altered with photoshop of course. all in all a great day to see other jeeps. here's a few of the shots i took - the rest of them can be seen here at my imagestation site.
    chris


    a drag jeep :)


    a sick scrambler!


    one flexin' tj!

  • This Saturday's Jeep show in Salisbury

    the member sticker may have to wait - that or be mailed directly. i think that paul has them up north and usually passes them out at meetings. but i'm sure you can still buzz down to the polytech school and caravan with everyone from there.
    chris

  • &*%$#@ Oil cap!

    same issues with a friends old cherokee. it was only a '98 but he went through 3 filler caps in the 5 years he had it. in the end he was using a tj filler cap - had no problems with that one.
    chris

  • Trail Report - Paragon Weekend June 19/20

    sunday turned out being a great day for a nice relaxing ride. we ended up with a late start to the park after everyone packed up their camping gear. the total was only 4 jeeps - but it still proved to be a good number for a group ride.


    i made my first attempt at leading a group with Icky as my spotter/navigator. next was mellowyellow, then blackrubi, and finally the sample family riding in nikki's yj. we took the back road out of the lower staging area in order to make a fast run down to see the mineshaft.



    from there we headed off to outer spare tire. with rocky meadow shortly after it would be great way to work out the kinks in dave's new lift. both trails gave everyone a few bounces and scrapes but nobody had any real troubles. we took a break for drinks and sandwiches on the pipeline and just relaxed in some perfect weather. i even tried to convince trevor and bailey that they could move a rock to damn up the creek....well, almost...



    next, we moved on to laurel and boy scout where everyone had plenty of chances to wash their wheels from the days mud. once finished with boy scout i first took a wrong turn trying to find the spring - but it only threw us off a few hundred yards or so. hey, i never said i knew my way around :) finally getting to the spring, all of us played in the water crossing one last time before making our way back to the top of the park. a few of us hadn't had a chance to get to rubicon lake the day before and wanted to play around on the hills :suspicious:


    most of us took the time to play around and pose for some flex shots - dave's 3.5" lift was flexing more like a 4.5" if you ask me!



    eventually the two (the youngest of the three) Sample boys started playing around near the lake. before you knew it tom was following them around the entire lake - getting a great view of us from the other side (see nikki's pics for that shot of them with harry d!). i took a shot at a hill or two on the side - made it up them but still steered clear of the steepest one. "someone" had made some pretty deep ruts near the top and it just didn't look all that fun anymore (joe??? :) ). by that time though we decided to head back to the parking lot. most of us still needed to return to Lalik Mountain to grab our gear and it was a long ride back to delaware.


    see everyone else at the next ride :)
    chris


    oh, here at my pics at imagestation's site - hope you like them :)

  • Modification process begins (Need Help)

    Quote from "certk9"

    you dont nee a spring compressor. just remove the track bar and sway bar and let the axle go full droop, the springs will all but fall out


    well....he still has the stock control arms on it. they'll droop enough to get the factory springs out - but not the new 3.5" RE springs in. that'll require either compressors or the removal of the lowest control arm bolt on each side (fwd lower control arm mount bolt) to get full droop - it's that mounting point that hinders the droop from going any further. case in point - the reason the kit is called the "super flex" is because the lower control arms included have the lower mount point welded on at an offset angle - allowing longer, or lower droop once installed. at least that's how i've interpreted it. either way - he'll be putting in new lowers - and that'll get him plenty of droop for the springs.
    good luck kenny - call if you have any questions :)
    chris (cell # in member's section)