New Front Driveshaft

So there was a bunch of play in the stock front driveshaft on the Jeep. It needed to be replaced.  Being that it was an ‘81 with the 4-speed tranny, there were only two years that they used that size front driveshaft: ‘80 and ‘81, consequently the years with the lowest number of Jeeps sold due to several reports and articles overstating the rollover probability of the Jeep CJ. Two months of trying to find a used driveshaft were fruitless. I was forced to buy new. With the Cdn dollar still around par with the USD, I started looking south. What I found was that having a custom, stronger driveshaft built was around 10% cheaper than buying a stock replacement. After reading around a bunch, I decided on a Tom Woods custom shaft which came with a pair of their really great Gold Seal U-joints.

Here it is beside the stocker:

One of the differences I noticed about the two was the amount of weight needed to balance the shafts. The Tom Woods shaft has a total of three quarter-sized pieces of metal welded on while the stocker has a large chunk of 1/4″ steel welded on.:

The new shaft has just over 2-1/2″ usable travel. More than I’m going to need.:

Going to a 2″ shaft did require a bit of trimming on the skid-plate – scratch one jigsaw blade! The install went quick and easy. Even for this non-mechanic computer geek. Found out that the best combination for removing grease and grime from my hands was liquid tide and one of those soapy SOS pads. I kinda like having clean hands when handling my 2 month old daughter!

Some installed pics- at the front diff:

Looking back to the dana 300:

I have to believe that this is the strongest part of the Jeep now.

After the install, I took the Jeep up Mt. Prevost until I got stuck in the snow (all terrain tires – bah!) and the shaft was sounding good. On the way back down the mountain, there were some really bad sounding crunchy, grinding squeaks coming from the front end. Seemed to happen most when turning. I managed to have a look when everything was at just the right angle for the problem to present itself. a broken U-Joint on the passenger side of the front axle! And I’ve been driving it like this! when not under load and the wheels are straight, it looks normal enough to hide itself from a local auto shop with a “golden touch”, but here’s what I saw:

Crap. There goes the rest of my budget.

Finally!

I finally took my two-year-old son off-roading.  I was a little apprehensive about taking him, as he seems sensitive to loud noises and my Jeep is quite the symphony of creaks, squeaks, and clunks in the rough stuff. 
Well, I needn’t have worried - he LOVED it. On our way home for his nap, I had pulled over and got out to unlock the front hubs and when I got back in he asked “More bumpy-bumpy?”

Awesome.  Just awesome.

Don’t Go Alone!

So I’m performing the cardinal sin when it comes to off-roading, I’m soloing. Didn’t tell anyone where I was going or even that I went and I was without any tools, a front driveshaft in bad need of replacing and the only recovery equipment I had was my 4-foot Jack-All.  – Dumb!

After almost sliding down a snowy embankment near the top of Mt Prevost, I decided that I had been stupid enough and would head home. On my way down I saw two girls pulled over with their over-heated 4-Runner. They were alone and had no idea what to do. After donating some antifreeze and sound advice (no, attempting to coast all the way to the bottom of a mountain in neutral is NOT a good idea) I was on my way – reminded just how easy it is to not make it back when you go alone.

Heard some good advice from a Kenyan guy this weekend – “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Been a busy month….

So in early January, we here at work received 143 computers and the same number of monitors and spent a week upgrading the computers in 5 of our labs.

Now almost all of our lab computers have 22″ wide screen monitors – nice. Still don’t have one on my desk though.

The question of how we pulled it off so smoothly has gone around and we’ve been pretty tight-lipped about it, but I’ll spill it here: BRIBES

 

Morning Jeep

Got to drive the Jeep in to work again today. Beautiful sunrise today!

Click the pic for bigger.

Infection of the Jeep Kind

I am now a Jeep guy. 
 Long story short – haven’t had a 4×4 for a number of years, and what I have had have all been trucks. I was a truck guy. Through marriage and long distance commuting I ended up driving and owning only a Hyundai.
 In the spring of 2007 we came into some money and my wife (the awesome woman she is) said that we could make room for me to spend a little on a 4×4. Well I started looking.
 The last 4×4 I went off roading in was my late father’s ‘99 F150.
 Gave it a good West-Coast pin-stripe job before my mom sold it to a dealer (I couldn’t afford it). I knew I didn’t want anything full size, what with the trails around here and the rising price of gas, so I was looking for something small. And simple. Now that I’m a father, a pickup was out of the question because I need the availability of a back seat. After prying my 6′5″ frame into and out of a Sammy SJ410 I realized I wanted to go a bit bigger than a ‘zuk. So I started looking for Jeeps. I got hooked on the idea of a narrow-track CJ and found a somewhat mechanically sound ‘81 CJ7 – last of the narrow tracks – with the 4.2l straight six “tractor motor” that I threw way too much money at to aquire.

 Drove it half-way home before it broke down. But by then I was hooked on the beast like a junkie.

 There’s just something about Jeeps that infect you – especially the older ones. Air conditioning? No. Stereo? No. Sound deadening? No. Broken windshield wipers? Broken defroster? Broken gas gauge? Check! Holes in the floor? Check! Reluctance to go much over 55? Check!  Funnest vehicle I’ve driven? Check (well, there was that ‘64 vette with the bored out 400 when I was 19 or 20 …)

 There’s also something about the sheer challange of driving a wreck. Every time I need to drive it to work because my wife needs the car, on the way home I give a “woohoo” when I get past the spot it broke down the day I bought it. Sure it’s another half hour to home, but I beat that hill this time!

  Best thing about it though – my son likes it too (he’s turning two this weekend)

Island 4×4ing

 

 Gates, gates everywhere!

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Atomicsamurai and digital douchbag are morans!