Gabe's FSJ Diary (formally Grand Wagoneer build thread)

[Nikkormat]

I've got to do my plugs too, I think our PO's were cousins or something, I bet I find something similar!

I hope you don't! I hope it's much easier for you!

[Lumpskie]

I know your pain. I need to change plugs on mine as well, but I've been putting it off since it still runs well. Even just changing plug wires was a pain for me!

[Nikkormat]

My cat came! Woo!

Now I've got the whole exhaust exhaust system.

I'm going for what these guys have at 0:25 but a little more toned down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfIyDAaExog

So I have the following: Walker tail pipe and hangers, the cheapest turbo muffler money can buy (raptor BIG-50052FLT), and a universal catalytic converter with resonator!

The cat is a Magnaflow 94416 it's a ceramic honeycomb style converter with a resonator in one end. Does anyone know how to get this little cap off?

The $25 dollar turbo muffler. RAPTOR! Gotta love that branding. OUR MUFFLER HAS AN AGGRESSIVE NAME SO YOU KNOW IT'S LOUD! Pretty basic, just drilled tubes. People on the internet say it's not terribly durable, so I think i'll put a few ugly tacks on the inlet and outlet to try and hold it together longer. I'm hoping the smaller perforations and the way it necks down will make it quieter than competitive cheap designs. It's made of way thicker steel than the walker muffler that cost twice as much so as far as I'm concerned it's already a win!

Hopefully I'll get these installed this weekend.

[Charles Kline]

The cap is just pressed on and can be tapped off with a flat blade and a hammer/rubber mallet.

[tedlovesjeeps71]

I had a pair of Raptors on one of my past vehicles, can't remember which one. I don't remember it being obnoxious.


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[Nikkormat]

Alright, been a long time since an update but here it goes...

The exhaust is on, vacuum system mostly re plumbed have a leak somewhere in the 4wd shifter to work out, exhaust is 90% done, and it passed emissions!

Some of you already know this but... Today, on my forth test I absolutely killed it! Read it and weep suckers!


If those numbers don't seem impressive take a gander at this chart: http://aircarecolorado.com/index.php/ab ... and-older/

It is below the limits for vehicles 2000 and newer. It passed standards set for modern OBD2 fuel injected vehicles.

I'm nearly ready to start on the cosmetic work. Mechanically I still need to install a hose clamp on the catalytic converter AIR tube, figure out a better tip for the Walker pipe, and find that dang knocking noise. I'm beginning to suspect the water pump pulley. I'm going to order some new belts and then pull it all apart and run it without the bent pulley. Hopefully it's just the pulleys knocking into each other, as I still can't find a crack of any significant size in the flex plate.

I've got a misfire I've been fighting too, it's fuel related and I'm beggining to suspect it's float level or choke related. It seems as though occasionally some excess fuel is being drawn through the venturis. The misfire becomes more prevalent at higher air velocitys across the boosters. And gets worse as the air filter gets dirty.

Another note, the Jeep received hard wheel lifting trail use every night from the 29th to the first. Aside from a low range shifter issue (there is a missing clip where the shift rod connects to the transfer case) is has been completely flawless. It runs at amazing angles and is butter smooth on the trail compared to the Cherokee. Even with the not snow wheeling friendly tread it has been utterly unstoppable. I've gotten it places in 2wd that my friends really struggled with in 4wd with more aggressive tires.

Overall, I am very very happy with this Waggy so far.

PS, the exhaust note turned out perfect! Low and rumbly, loud enough to be heard with the windows down but not so loud as to make you the neighborhood redneck, and absolutely no drone! At light throttle cruise on the highway you get a faint V8 rumble and under WOT a acceleration it's just loud enough to be heard with the windows up at highway speeds.

I would also like to note that I picked up a ton of power going from the old clogged exhaust to an open y pipe. And I felt no power loss putting the new cat or muffler on.

[Nikkormat]

This past weekend my buddy and his school friends had made plans to go caving up by Leadville. However there is a problem with that plan, there is about 70" of snow at the cave. The roads are closed at least ten miles from it and there's no way on this earth those poorly prepared kids are hiking 20 miles round trip to go see some muddy hole in the ground. So I started suggesting and shooting down more ideas of where to go. Eventually they decided to go to the great sand dunes. Which is four hours away. To which I retorted "Moab is only five hours away why not just go there?" To my surprise they all then became very excited and wanted to go to Moab in the morning. So at 8PM it was decided. At 5 AM we would leave for Moab.

5 AM rolls around and we get the two kids besides Wyatt who are riding with me all packed into the Jeep and set off. It was a little snowy heading over Eisenhower and Vail pass but other than that it was smooth sailing. Jeep was extremely happy on the highway. Cruising along at 80+ no sweat at all even loaded to the gills. We made it into Moab at 10:40 AM.

Only mechanical trouble along the way involved the low range shifter. It came disconnected from the transfer case a few time leaving it hanging right where it could get smacked by the double cardan joint. That's loud at 90 mph. The clip that keeps the shift rod attached to the shift arm was lost somewhere along the route. I'm thinking it wasn't quite installed correctly. First time it dropped I put it back in the shifter. It came loose again just before the Utah border so I just tucked it up out of the way the second time.

Took about twenty minutes to get a pin from the True Value and install it. But then the mines kids started arguing about what to do now that they were here. Then they went and bought about $300 in climbing gear and became adamant that they were going to go rappel off of an arch. Corona arch. They set off and Wyatt, his buddy, and I ran through a drive through to grab some food. Somewhere along the route where we didn't have service they decided to go to Arches National Park instead. So we called it quits and decided to do our own thing instead since they had already abandoned us.

We tried to go a ways up the poison spider Safari route (poison spider mesas easy cousin) but I promptly broke the Jeep. Set the spare tire carrier on a rock and knocked the head off of the bolt holding it to the hitch. Oops. Took it off and it rode behind my seat for the rest of the day.

After loading up the tire we headed to Sand Flats to get some slickrock time.
First stop was Baby Lions Back:
Then on to a portion of Fins N Things:
Got the front bumper well wedged into the sand on this descent! Destroyed the front plate holder! Pictures never do it justice.

After Fins we went and played around on our own two feet for a few hours. Tried to clamber up onto the diving board, but we aren't agile enough so we settled for the top of the fin next door.

As darkness fell we headed back to town and I let Wyatt have a turn on the slickrock.
Going up the harder line on the backside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo5pApYPtUg
And coming down:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpfnc-VgiT8

That was it for wheelin in Moab. We had planned a quick excursion for the next morning but after we woke up the other kids decided they wanted to go to a cave. Reluctantly, I left moab behind. We turned onto dirt again just outside Rifle, CO. Wheeled through the nastiest mud I've ever encountered and accidentally got a little air on a creek crossing. Wish the camera had been rolling for that one!

After we'd blown past the beautiful "Trucks Hauling ASS" sign four or five times we stopped and went on a hike down an old powerline cut looking for insulators. We didn't find any insulators, but stopped on top of a ridge we observed a rather large kitty cat walking along the same trail we had just used headed our way. "Time to go" Wyatt and I agreed. We spent the additional hour waiting for the cave pervs in the waggy.

Also found a strange light up on the cliff. It has a road leading to it but there is absolutely no way it could be accessed by anything but a snow cat this time of year. And sheer cliff above it for 800 feet. We're planning an expedition back up there in late april to investigate. We tried morse code signaling with the headlights but there was no response of any kind so we think it's automated. 39.535566, -107.949914

All in all a fun few days. I won't be taking any kids I don't know with me in my car again. Too big of a hassle. Two of the kids who rode with me went on the caving expedition, which should have lasted an hour tops from there (maybe false) assurances, and they didn't return for five freaking hours!
That put us home WAYYYY late and added two hours to the drive home as we caught a nasty storm on Vail and Eisenhower. Nearly got me fired as my boss (Wyatt's Dad) didn't believe that we couldn't have abandoned the cave kids.

#1 If they disappeared we needed to be around to call mine rescue.
#2 We had half their gear including their dry clothes.
#3 If we had done that they would have had seven people and there gear crammed into a chevy cobalt. I may be an a-hole but I'm not cruel!

Whatever, Hopefully we get to do some more weekend adventures soon. Sand dunes, anyone?

[SJTD]

How old were these "kids"? Sounds like they need to have a little respect for the guy carting them around. Did they at least pay for gas?

[Nikkormat]

How old were these "kids"? Sounds like they need to have a little respect for the guy carting them around. Did they at least pay for gas?

18-19, call them kids more on the grounds of maturity. Did make them pay for gas.

[AwesomeJ10]

Bring it up to my off grid property again. There is still plenty of fresh snow to bash!

[Nikkormat]

Alright, today I pulled the front end apart to swap on a clean valence, front bumper, driver's side fender, straighten core support, strip and paint surface rust, and then reassemble. Let's just say I haven't gotten around to reassemble yet because some idiot, you could call him Gabe, forgot spray paint doesn't dry well in 20° weather. Do'h!

So while I've been waiting around I hammered out a plan for suspension, stage 1.

I went over to Bob's a few days ago and took stock of what I've got to work with cheap. He has some stock 75 Cherokee springs, and some rough country 3" lift springs.

The Waggy needs new front springs bad. They've gone negative arch at ride height empty and I managed to put a little bend in the passenger side. Curb, snow, dark, don't ask. The rough country springs are crazy stiff. Stiffer than stock j20 springs I've jumped up and down on.

Then that leaves me with the Cherokee springs. They're three leafers just like the ones on my 74, and come in a little under 300 lbs per inch measurred against the one RS44044 inexplicably floating around Bob's shop. They are very simple springs, with two big honking mainleafs and one spring that's about 3/4 length. That makes them perfectly suited for use with full length add a leafs.

Since my rear springs are only flat, and not negative arch, I'm going to run the 75 Cherokee springs up front with a Rusty's add a leaf kit front and rear. To further supplement the rear springs I'm also going to order some ORD zero rate add a leafs.

Why not just run blocks in the rear? Well if you've ever looked at the rear wheel well of a 76 or newer Waggy you should have noticed they the rear axle is biased about an inch to the front of the wheel well. That's what prevents people from running 31's at stock height on 76 and newer narrow track rigs. On a 75 and older they clear just fine even if the suspension is sagged out. Ala my 74 Cherokee. With the zero rate I can move the rear axle back an inch or an inch and a half to regain a ton of fender clearance and in theory; clear 31 inch tires without tearing up sheet metal.

This three pronged approach of used springs, add a leafs, and axle relocation should:
#1 - Regain my lost load capacity.
#2 - Add two inches of altitude (and therefore attitude) to my old man mobile.
#3 - Allow me to run the 31" Cooper ST's off of the Cherokee on the Waggy.
#4 - Lower my highway rpm due to aforementioned tire diameter change.
All as cheaply as possible.

[Lumpskie]

Looks like a plan! Post up your impressions after you get your setup finished.

As always, I have fun reading your build.

[Nikkormat]

Life has taken another unexpected turn...

Almost two years ago now I applied for, and didn't get into, the university of Montana. But since it's that time of year again I thought I'd re-apply and see how it went this time. This time I've been out of highschool for long enough they accepted my application without my highschool transcript. I applied only with my community college transcript and GED scores. Surprisingly, I was accepted. So I'll be moving to Missoula in August to study wildlife Biology.

So the Waggy now needs to be ready to survive 4-6 years of abuse instead of just two. And as such prioritys have shifted again.

Priority number one is now mechanical, I need to rebuild the motor and replace the flex plate.

Priority two is getting the little bit of rust I have eradicated. Floor corner, rear door dogleg panel, and the rear quarters.

Priority three is to redo everything above the headliner. Get the NMO antenna mount installed, Tad's roof rack brackets, some insulation, rtv the rack floor stiffeners, maybe add a few more roof braces, and then finally new headliner material.

And then I can resume working towards my more ambitious plans.


Oh, and I did get the front end back together. I'll post a pic once I track down my grill. A buddy who was big into FSJ's when they were new did a grill swap back somewhere around 94 on a friend's Jeep and saved the nearly new takeoff grill. If he can find it, he says I can have it.

I picked up the front springs from Bob's, I think my add a leaf plan might actually work!

[Skerrvydog]

Congrats on the college plans Gabe!



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[tedlovesjeeps71]

That sucks!... for us. But glad your in school! Congrats.


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[Cheapthrills]

Wow man .... what a read.... lol it was fun...

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[Nikkormat]

Thanks everyone!

To start making headway on the motor, I went out and boroscoped it.

Visible Crosshatching:

And non stock pistons, I cant see any markings indicating size but the stock pistons don't have "FRT" cast into them:

Also stuck it down the oil filler tube. Overall it wasn't that bad, but a lot of grit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6vLsII ... e=youtu.be

[tedlovesjeeps71]

So are you moving out there for good? Dragging all the jeep stuff with you?


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[Nikkormat]

So are you moving out there for good? Dragging all the jeep stuff with you?


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Not all of them. Just most of them.

[ktrosper]

Woot! Gratz on school man!
Don't leave town with my carb! My cam is on the way and the boy and I will be starting our build within the next couple of weeks