Jeep update… if you care

My Jeep is henceforth to be known as Project Skin Grafts.

Reason being, the bolts are all stubborn and working room around my front suspension/steering is nonexistent, and every time a bolt finally breaks free, I smash an appendage into a nearby piece of sharp steel at high velocity. I’ve got probably six or eight new scabs from replacing my front differential cover alone.

I’m making so-so progress on PSG, but it’s slow going because of the previously mentioned stubborn bolts. It took me probably an hour total just to get the castle nuts loose from the three tie rod ends I want to drop (drag link and both ends of the tie rod), because the cotter pins were rusted in and I had to drive them out with a punch, which is surprisingly hard to do. I want to pull the steering components for two reasons: the boots are in dire need of replacement, and I don’t want the pitman arm attached to anything when I’m dicking around with my steering box.

I got the roof rack together, touched up some scraped paint, and got it on the Jeep. It looks pretty sweet, but it’s going to suck accessing my spare from the roof rack. I need the room, suckiness of replacing a flat or not. I’m not an invalid; I can suck it up when it’s time to pull my 70 pound spare off the roof. At least it’s unlikely someone will try to steal it!

It was mentioned earlier (yesterday?) that I pulled my hubs off. Well, after I removed my diff cover and drained it, I pulled the axle shafts to look for signs of seal issues (like rusty shit where the seal rubs, which would have probably wrecked the differential seal on that shaft). No seal issues, thankfully, since I didn’t want to pull the gears, but my axle shafts sure were rusty. One of my projects today was wire wheeling all the rust off and painting them. I got all the rust off, then washed them with mineral spirits, dried them, primered with the Rustoleum Zinc Rich Primer stuff, and finished off with whatever Rustoleum rust-inhibiting paint they sell at Napa. If you choose to do something like this, make sure you mask the splines and far enough up the shaft to clear the seal. It’s obvious where the differential seal is, because there will be a little ring of oil there. If you can’t tell, just mask it 3″ up from the splines and you’ll be in good shape. I didn’t bother painting the u-joint yoke area, just up to the plastic axle tube cover thing on the shafts. I’m not worried about rust outside the tubes anyway.

Times like this, I wish I had a good source of compressed air. I don’t have any kind of air compressor, and I don’t have any friends around here that do either. I want to blow the loose rust out of my axle tubes. I guess I could rig some kind of brush… as long as I get most of it out, I’ll be happy. I just don’t see the logic in spending 2 hours cleaning up and painting my axle shafts if I leave a bunch of shit in the tubes anyway, where bumps could somehow get it up near the seal. I’m probably worrying over nothing, but why do 90% of a job, yannow?

I’ve done a lot on the Jeep, but that’s all I can remember since I last wrote about it. I decided tonight, however, that whatever I do now will probably be all I do to this Jeep, and I want to start a new project Jeep in a year or two. So this XJ will probably sit on 31″ tires and a 3″ lift forever. I really want to do a diesel conversion, see… I’d love to have a diesel, 5-spd, 97-98 XJ running on 33″ tires.

If you’re curious, I don’t want to go above 31″ tires on this Jeep because I’m not geared for it, and I don’t want to spend the money to regear a Dana 35 and Dana 30, let alone put lockers on them. If I’m really going to build a Jeep, I want to do it right, from the ground up. I just don’t have the time or money for that right now.

The importance of fastener preparation

I just removed both front wheel bearing hub assemblies from my Cherokee. One was the original part from the factory, never removed since 2000, and the other I replaced last year.

It took over an hour to get the factory original hub off, solely due to corrosion, and this was after three days of thrice daily applications of penetration oil. Despite wire brushing the exposed threads every quarter turn to minimize grit getting pulled through the threads and multiplying the torque required to remove the bolts, I still had to use a box end wrench and a mallet to get the things off. The one that wouldn’t respond even to that did give in to about 500 ft-lb of torque… 2-1/2 foot bar times the two hundred pounds or so of force I figure I could apply in that position. Criminy. Don’t even get me started on pulling the hub off the axle shaft with my gear puller.

The other hub, with clean and lubricated bolts from installation last time, plus grease on the axle shaft splines as well, took me three minutes, total. That’s from starting to remove the three bolts holding the hub to the knuckle to knocking the hub loose of the knuckle and sliding it right off the axle shaft. And that’s after a year of heavy driving, so prep doesn’t just wear off with time.

So, why not spend a few minutes cleaning the threads of the bolt and whatever you’re putting the bolt into, use antiseize, and grease contact areas? There’s no reason not to except extreme laziness and a gamble that you’ll never need to pull that part again. You’ll be glad you did when your luck runs out.

E6000 silicon adhesive… not a fan

At least not in the application I was using it for.

I was putting together my Kargo Master Bushman roof rack and they sent along this tube of adhesive to seal all joining surfaces. It may be from a bad batch or something, but it is almost impossible to use. I’m using it in the proper temperature range (where it has been all day as well, so the tube itself isn’t too cold) and it is so thick I can barely squeeze it out of the tube. I’m no Todd Jarrett, but I have strong hands and forearms, and if I’m having trouble with it… well wtf? Who do you need to be, Popeye? I’m not eating spinach every damn time I want to use some glue.

Once I did get it out, when I attempted to smooth it over the surface in an even layer, it had started to set immediately! Like, in 5-10 seconds, it was already rolling into little rubbery shitballs. Fun. Tell me: how do you apply a thin, even coat if you have to squeeze the tube with both hands to get a big ass glob of it on the surface and it immediately starts to firm up?

Eventually I just said fuck it, left the rubbery shitballs on the surface, and slid the joints together. Most of the silicone was scraped right off and I had to remove it once it set a bit more. I’ll probably end up going through the rack when it’s all set up and sealing the joints again and painting over them, because seriously… this stuff is worthless. I’ll stick to GOOP and Gorilla Glue from here on.

Edit: Looking at the tube again just to make sure I didn’t get comments about how I’m a retard for misapplying it or something, I noticed it even says it’s medium viscosity! Holy shit! What’s the high viscosity stuff like?

Bad luck

I like to play online poker (for money) during baseball games. Mostly I don’t play otherwise, but I tend to play more when I’m losing–possibly a bad habit, hmm–so tonight I played eight games.

Given that I’m about $15 down for the day, and was only in the money twice in eight games, both third place, the lowest paying placement for a 9 man sit and go… well… tonight I had really shitty luck. It was of the less frustrating variety, which is when you just don’t get shit for starting hands to begin with, rather than having some lucky assclown crack your aces with some bullshit inside straight on the river.

A few days ago, I got knocked out of a tournament by a royal flush some dick caught on the river. It was an inside draw; he caught the king on the river… wtf is that shit? Then the very first hand of the next game I played, some dude caught ANOTHER royal flush on the river, and I lost 1/3 of my chips to him. Two royals in a row, both inside draws, both the King, both on the river. Horrible.

The last game tonight, I seriously only had four good starting hands–as in good enough to see the flop, let alone win–out of the maybe ninety hands I was dealt. That’s pretty bad. My play is obviously influenced by the fucktardiness of my fellow players, but in low dollar games (I play 2 and 5 dollar tables) I play very tight until I’m in the money, and then I’ll get aggressive. The more chips I have, the more I can bully the table, but playing tight I rarely double up early on.

It works well, usually, but tight play only works when you’re not getting forty shitty hands in a row. As the blinds go up, you get to a point where you HAVE to play something. When your luck is off fucking itself instead of helping you out, well, shit.

I don’t feel bad. Tonight was a bad night, but in single table games I’ve been in the money 40% of the time, and I’m getting better as I hone my game and rein in my impatience and frustration. The poker ratings site I use rates me in the 82nd percentile or so of players online, which is funny because I’ve certainly not made a profit. I’m running -10% return on investment in my single table tournaments and -100% on my multiple table tournaments.

That’s right, folks, I’ve never made it in the money in a tournament with more than 9 players. I’m going to stay right a -100% too, at least until I go positive on my single table tournaments, because I fucking hate getting knocked out early because some dickweed called my AK suited with 10 8 offsuit and flopped a straight.

Of course, it always makes me feel better to look up the guy who knocked me out with such a donk hand and seeing that he’s -92% return on investment with hundreds of dollars worth of prizes anyway. That means he’s dumped thousands of dollars into poker, still sucks after several years, and isn’t getting better. Now that I’m free of the stress of the army and can relax (I only played on leave before, which is why I’ve only played 75 games in two years), I expect I’ll at least be making a small profit soon.

It’s not like I would be able to get the money out anyway, though, right? Fucking DOJ would probably show up with a SWAT team if I ever tried to cash a check from my poker site.

Do no harm

I fail to understand how anyone can argue with my political stance and still try to claim the moral high ground. My beliefs all boil down to one, simple idea: do what the fuck you want, as long as you don’t hurt anyone else. Hurting yourself is fine.

How can you argue against that without realizing you’re a statist prick who, despite protestations that you’re trying to protect or help the innocent/incapable/ignorant/poor/whatever, really just wants to tell people how to live their lives.

I’ve at least attempted to address the idea of legislating morality, which is the guise under which 99.8% of all laws in the US are passed, but I’ve never really gotten a handle on it. It’s such an overwhelming and complex subject to tackle in one post, at least if I’m trying to include specific examples to illustrate my case, that it’s beyond my skill. I’m sure Kevin Baker could do it justice.

Instead, this post will suffice. You can not claim to be freedom-loving while forcing your own sense of propriety on everyone else. If you want to live freely, you have to be willing to put up with the irritation of everyone else being free as well, something most people are incapable of dealing with (and unwilling to admit).

Military shippers…

I got up at 8 AM this morning, two hours earlier than normal (I sleep 2 AM to 10 AM or so), because the company that contracted with the military to ship my household goods said they might be here as early as nine. Certainly no later than three PM!

It’s freaking 3:02 PM. Yeah, I know, they might be around the corner right now, but I’ve been sitting around all day, doing almost nothing productive, because I can’t leave. I can’t leave because the shippers haven’t come yet, and I’m not going to take off and leave my father to deal with it in my absence, on his birthday no less.

In good news, I got my VA education benefits claim filed with appropriate attachments this morning, and my JKS bar pin eliminators came as well as my 31″ ProComp All Terrains. You wouldn’t think a 1.2″ difference in tire diameter would be so noticeable between the 30″ Pirellis (actual diameter 29.5″) and the ProComp 31″ tires (actual diameter 30.7″), but it’s pretty significant. It helps that the ProComps are an inch wider, I’m sure.

I’m pretty stoked about the bar pin eliminators. I will post a picture of the comparison between the original bar pin and the new JKS mount up front if I ever find my camera. Now if the shippers would just come so I could actually, you know, get my bushings out of my household goods in their truck and reinstall my fucking shocks…

Obviously they weren’t just around the corner because now it’s 3:14 PM and I don’t see a big ass semi in front of my house yet.

VA Fun

I just spent about 45 minutes working on my GI Bill claim on VONAPP, the online VA claim applet, and I seriously almost chucked my laptop out the window mid-form. I bet it’s ten times the fun dealing with the system in person.

I still haven’t put in for VA disability. I will probably do that tomorrow, if my laptop survives the next applet failure after I already spent 35 minutes filling out something with no save options until the end.

Just imagine, America… you too can all have this joy, once we get Obamacare! Yay, hopenchange!

Fuck that shit, I’ll be going to the Inuit medicine man in the bush before I deal with such horrible bureaucracy ridden health care again.

Cheap mods for my XJ = Happy Dave

The two really cheap mods I’m doing are laughably simple. One is beyond cheap… it’s basically free.

The first I may have already written about: using late Jeep YJ brake hoses to get more safe axle droop without ripping my brake lines apart. The front brake lines add almost 3″ and bolt right in. I think they cost me $20 less than the cheapest stainless hose kits touted by Jeep aftermarket manufacturers, and I believe the rubber hoses to be stronger than the braided steel type.

Another way to gain axle droop for nothing is by straightening the hard lines and relocating the hose bracket. You can gain 1″ to  1.5″ doing that. I should mention I’ve done some pretty serious offroading with no brake mods whatsoever, running about 2″ of lift, and never had problems. But that may be because my stock track bar was binding before my brake lines could act as limiting straps. Since I’m going to be running 4″ soon and eventually probably 6″, I want to maximize my axle droop in the long run now, when I’m messing with my brakes anyway.

The free mod is simply using a larger oil filter. The Mobil-1 301 / NAPA 1515 oil filter fits late model Jeep XJs with SAE thread filters and is damn near twice as long. More filter surface seems like a good thing, especially if you’re kinda erratic on the oil change intervals. For the same price, how can it be wrong? Just disconnect the positive terminal on your battery before you do your oil change. Though apparently the longer filter can potentially short your start leads, so… maybe if you’re erratic on the oil change interval, you won’t remember that, and you shouldn’t do this one after all.

I’m glad at least some of the stuff I’m doing is cheap. I got my differential covers today… talk about beefy! Quarter inch cast iron. Pretty sweet. Well worth $110 each, especially since the higher fill plugs will accomodate rotated axles and still allow the diffs to be filled to spec.

Since I need to basically take apart my whole suspension for various reasons, I might as well just drop the axles entirely, prep and paint them right? Right! Man, I’ve come a long way from not knowing how to even change brake pads 3 years ago… or not having a clue that a broken bar pin bolt wasn’t a HUGE DEAL 18 months ago.

Next step in the Jeep nuttiness… buy a welder and start fabricating my own parts! I’ll save that for next summer.

Planning is my friend… part II

Everything I did today was geared toward moving my Jeep about 12 feet to the left, so I can work on ground slightly more flat. I’ll probably make the time up in the convenience of having all four corners up rather than two, though.

The day wasn’t totally wasted. I got to practice my brake bleeding a lot, and I think I probably bled way more fluid than I needed to because I wanted to be SURE I was getting all the air out, even if that meant bleeding another 100ml of fluid from each corner.

See, when you bleed brakes with a vacuum pump and don’t put silicon tape or grease on the threads of the bleeder valve, small air bubbles can be sucked into the siphon hose at the valve itself rather than from the cylinder. Knowing that, I just waited until I got a solid 30 seconds of regular, smallish bubbles, and called the bleed good. It worked well, though I’m not 100% happy with my brake feel just yet. It’s just going to be worse with larger tires, too.

If I don’t like the brakes after my trip up to Alaska, I’ll probably switch to twin piston front calipers and a stronger master cylinder. I hear E-350 master cylinders work well on XJs.

I got all the old fluid out at least. It wasn’t too horribly black, but it was definitely a very dark gray. Since I’ve had the XJ for 3.5 years and 55,000 miles and you’re supposed to swap brake fluid every 24,000 miles or 2 years, well… better late than never!

HELL YEAH!!!

Awesome win for the Yankees! If you missed it, oh man… I can’t even explain how fucking awesome this is.