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My "new" dream Scrambler

AK-RWC

Legacy Registered User
Gold Member
City
south central
State
AK
Time to get back on the wagon. I pulled an exclusive moose tag for an area that we regularly wheel in, and will need the Scrambler to get it. With the postal project gone, that also cleared up a lot of space in my garage. It also looks like we'll be renting our other place out for much of the summer, so more weekends in Anchorage. My wife's thesis is done, so hopefully she won't mind giving me those weekends to spend in the garage. List:
- install the wide-band O2 sensor I've been sitting on for a year
- two new batteries to replace the dead Made in Mexico red-top Optimas
- drill and install the pitman arm (my wife got me a flat, un-drilled arm for Christmas)
- diagnose what's going on with my 2000 RPM random rev-limit
- design and build a real tire-carrier
- design and build gin-poles for the moose

So long as the ZJ doesn't need any major repairs this summer, I think the above can all be accomplished within reason before hunting season begins!
 

AK-RWC

Legacy Registered User
Gold Member
City
south central
State
AK
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One more future project. Someone on one of the Alaska FB groups posted this article from Fourwheeler:
http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/e...74eaa04d3013374dccf3c&utm_medium=&utm_source=
Which reminded me that I’ve wanted to add this since my dad showed me the one that came with his ‘94 Chevy in 1994. But when I was in junkyards, either I couldn’t find the right Chevy, or else I was focused on other parts and simply forgot to look.

Either way, a quick search on eBay turned up two lights with pigtails and two bulbs: one for the CJ, and one for the ZJ. (Even my wife thinks this was a great idea!)

This will go into the pile of future upgrade parts.
 

hdttm

Scrambler Enthusiast
Lifetime Member
City
Ashfield
State
MA
That GM reel light is a great idea. I called a local boneyard and got one for $20. I'll probably try to pick up a couple more
 

AK-RWC

Legacy Registered User
Gold Member
City
south central
State
AK
As for the P/N, you just need to find an LED that'll cross with an 1156 bulb, and stays under the height threshold for the cover. Obviously some 1156s don't have the limitation that the GM reel does, so the LED manufacturers don't have any particular consistency with stuffing however many individual LEDs they can onto a housing.

I ultimately found these on eBay, after searching through there and Amazon:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-Ba15s-1...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649
It was a little time consuming to find a set of 2, that had a fair number of LED packed onto the housings, that stayed at 1/2".
 

hdttm

Scrambler Enthusiast
Lifetime Member
City
Ashfield
State
MA
As for the P/N, you just need to find an LED that'll cross with an 1156 bulb, and stays under the height threshold for the cover. Obviously some 1156s don't have the limitation that the GM reel does, so the LED manufacturers don't have any particular consistency with stuffing however many individual LEDs they can onto a housing.

I ultimately found these on eBay, after searching through there and Amazon:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-Ba15s-1156-White-Car-Rear-Turn-Light-Signal-Ultra-bright-50-SMD-LED-Bulb-12V/171575897175?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649
It was a little time consuming to find a set of 2, that had a fair number of LED packed onto the housings, that stayed at 1/2".

I went to the local parts store, and got the cross reference to the 1156 LED bulb. It isn't anyway near the # of LED in the housing that you have, and probably no-where near as bright. I will try to get a set of those.

Here's a quick comparison - certainly a noticeable difference

Original 1156 bulb vs LED 1156
 

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AK-RWC

Legacy Registered User
Gold Member
City
south central
State
AK
Ended up getting a set of Interstate batteries from Costco. They aren’t what I want, but they are affordable, and the one in my Subaru is still working great after 11 years. The different post locations meant that my winch cables needed a slight adjustment, which led me to working on the horn. I eventually diagnosed a bad Hella, but more importantly, the OEM horn relay was dead. Once I swapped that out, the horn(s) started working again! I wired the OEM horn back in place with the functional Hella, and will order a new Supertone from Amazon.

I also got the new pitman arm measured, drilled, and reamed. I went with 6.5”, which is 1/8” shorter than OEM. It may or may not make any difference at compression, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. In the meantime, I can turn left again and my steering wheel is actually centered!

I also needed to replace two wheel studs and regrease the front hubs.

Last weekend I got the wide-band sensor and gauge installed:
AB5EC8DC-3D18-4D87-A4F9-DB8E134FEA5D.jpeg
It surprised me how long it takes for the sensor to warm up. I probably calibrated 8 or 10 times before I gave up and was driving to buy a new sensor, when it suddenly came to life. The digital gauge tells you when it’s hearing up, but this one doesn’t. It takes a couple minutes.

With that, I started driving around to figure out what’s up with the 2000 rpm cut-out. I tried pulling the advance signal by unplugging the start-up relay I installed, and that made the engine behave properly. Except for it also meant no advance was taking place. At least it’s not the ECU. So, it’s either a broken wire somewhere, the Electronic Spark Control module, or the 7-pin HEI ignition module.

And I pulled the hard top for the first time in a couple years:
0BCFAED5-97D6-482B-95DE-C1EEA18A751C.jpeg

Tonight I'm going to change the ignition module and work on the distributor harness to see if that makes a difference, and install the soft-top.

I've given up on getting the rear bumper done in time for moose season, which is now less than a month away. If I can make it run right and get the gin poles built, that will be sufficient.
 
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AK-RWC

Legacy Registered User
Gold Member
City
south central
State
AK
Installed a new/old ignition module (replaced it years ago thinking it was bad, but that wasn’t the problem), and replaced a portion of sketchy harness for the advance signal to the distributor, and took it for a drive today: fixed! No weird ignition signals, no back-firing, no ignition cut-outs, no change in my idle speed.

Tonight the Boggers go on!

Pic of the pitman arm and steering geometry:
9CD55710-AEA8-4A0A-880F-A400CADA4CB4.jpeg
I’m still thinking I may get some interference at full compression.
 

AK-RWC

Legacy Registered User
Gold Member
City
south central
State
AK
Last night on the way to a club meeting, it overheated a little on the highway, which led to the discovery that the fan clutch is shot. Picked up a new one this morning. I'm probably going to be kicking myself that all this time I blamed my overheating issues on it running too lien at highway speeds.
 
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AK-RWC

Legacy Registered User
Gold Member
City
south central
State
AK
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Gin poles, proof of concept. I need to paint the welds (bought galvanized poop-pipe; yes I took the zinc off before welding) and get proper hardware, but here’s proof-of-concept. I’ll probably use one of my military tie-downs that I usually employ for hauling cars on friends’ trailers to keep the poles up. But regardless, I know I can keep the moose high and dry now while skinning/cleaning/butchering.


Then I went wheeling and scouting. Just a couple pics:
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CE4A2237-4902-444B-B901-DD551B6883BA.jpeg
 

bigwalton

Alaskan Postal nutjob
FORUM MANAGER
SOA Member
City
Dexter
State
MI
Reading about a replacing a fan clutch and then seeing those poles in the next post had me like WTF?!? :huh:
 

AK-RWC

Legacy Registered User
Gold Member
City
south central
State
AK
Reading about a replacing a fan clutch and then seeing those poles in the next post had me like WTF?!? :huh:
LOL! Back up to post #321: I need to go get a moose this Saturday! My brother-in-law flies in Friday night at 9:00 to give me a hand. I'm hoping to have the tent set up by midnight for a quick nap. Or maybe we'll just crash out and get up at 3:00 am to drive to the trailhead. With any luck, the next pic I post will be of a moose hanging from the front!

My 95-amp alternator started making a bearing noise and only intermittently charging, so it got swapped too. That lifetime warranty I paid for from NAPA back in 2001 has been well worth it.
 

AK-RWC

Legacy Registered User
Gold Member
City
south central
State
AK
Not my moose, but while installing a new alternator tonight, I thought about how nice it would be to have a magnetic LED on a cord-reel to stick on my fender. And since there’s a chance I’ll be doing essentially solo repairs this weekend in the dark, installing the light made sense:
314B26A6-DAEA-42E2-A2F4-522248381F19.jpeg
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19664A06-8E70-4605-B745-A14579605D22.jpeg
 

AK-RWC

Legacy Registered User
Gold Member
City
south central
State
AK
LOTS of recent sign, but no moose. We hiked 5 miles through brush, and covered probably another 15 trail miles. Jeep did great until Sunday morning, when for some reason the front left tire wouldn’t take any power. I never heard any loud snap or bang, but I did notice that the front locker stopped making noises. I looked and didn’t see anything obviously wrong with driveshafts or axle-shaft joints or hubs, and the right front tire was doing fine, so I assumed I broke the EZ Locker.

Nope. Snapped the Alloy USA stub-shaft right at the splines. I've opened up a warranty ticket through Alloy USA since it's been less than 10 years:
6C827712-27B4-42AE-9D99-E2342B62E249.jpeg
Locker was fine:
039199BF-3F5D-466B-9B39-8CDB186BBAD2.jpeg

Here are a couple more pics from the weekend:
09CE5B47-04D7-41CD-BBED-677062A0882D.jpeg
1C24601C-932C-4831-BEC6-C9DE9B4FD44F.jpeg

We also let the engine idle for a couple hours to dry gear. The boots were sitting over the valve covers:
91C68939-5D84-4D6F-A6AF-19C7CD6B7001.jpeg


Before we went out, I quickly rigged up temporary Hi-Lift mounts using exhaust clamps. Not pretty, but they get the job done:
BB42183C-757B-45D5-B1B2-F939A14BB143.jpeg


A friend came over to help with diagnosis, which didn't take long. I threw my spare shaft in (also with an Alloy USA stub and U-joint), got the hub reassembled and the wheel put on, and called it a night just after midnight. With the Jeep fixed, I’ll be at it again next weekend. There WILL be a moose in my family’s future!
 

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bigwalton

Alaskan Postal nutjob
FORUM MANAGER
SOA Member
City
Dexter
State
MI
Love seeing them put to use. Sorry you didn’t get one and sucks on the stub shaft.
 

AK-RWC

Legacy Registered User
Gold Member
City
south central
State
AK
Alloy USA is warrantying the shaft! Glad I save the receipt. Jeep is up and running either way, so I'll be out again this weekend.
 
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