The Jalapeno STILL Isn't Running, Updated 3/16/12

[SuicideTireZJ]

I guess I'll start a page dedicated to my POS. Been on here a while and always like reading what other people have done to their rides, and since nobody has updated their Members' Ride lately, here's mine:

93 ZJ Larado 5.2L V8

First vehicle ever. Got it a couple months after I turned 16. I had been looking at Rodeos and Pathfinders, and to some extent 4Runners and even Land Rovers (my dad's had 3 Rovers but didn't want me to have one because they fall apart regularly). Eventually decided on the ZJ becuase there was a red one in my HS parking lot and I thought it was the shit. Little did I know it actually had a live axle, which proved to be a damn good thing.

So, drove it for a year stock, did a little wheeling:

then finally saved up $500 to buy a SWEET procomp 3" kit. I threw this on in my auto class, where I actually started to understand what was going on with cars. A couple months later, after looking like a damn goofball, I got a set of used 32" MT/R's for free from a guy in New York. I thought I was ballin.' This is me and my roommate's 81 Yota before a trail run near Breckenridge


So I drove it in that condition during the rest of HS. I eventually got sick of ripping the rear bumper plastic off so I deleted it permently. I also threw in a remote start, a must for cold Colorado mornings.

Then came college. Even though I didn't have a job my freshman year, I was on a ROTC scholarship that gave me $300 pocket money each month, so I started doing some more mods where I could afford them. I swapped the bald MT/R's for a set of used BFG MT/KMs from a guy on the Co4x4 board, and got a ViAir from someone parting out a ZJ on the ZJ mailing list from Off-Road.com. My dad got me half of a Milemarker 9K for my birthday, and I bought a custom tube front bumper with integrated reciever hitch from a shop in Boulder that recently went out of business, and had the winch mounted to a reciever plate. Looks like this:


The above pictures are more recent, but you get the idea. Sorry for the shitty quality, I only have my phone to take picutres with.

Anyway, pretty much ran around with it like that for about a year. Took a couple trips out to Moab where I ran Hells Revenge, Fins n' Things, Lockheart Basin and Elephant Hill. Here's a pic of me on E.H., eh?


End up blowing up my 3rd set of tires in as many years, and get a set of 31" Truxxs MT's. I wanted to go bigger but my mom was sick of me getting used tires and helped me buy these.

A couple months later and I do this:



That's a stock front coil next to a 3" rear ProCrap coil. So guess which one went back into the Jeep? Oh and by the way, this is what having no UCA's connected, a floor jack, and a lot of boredom look like. Kinda dig the lowrider look:

Bought some 2" front spacers to even it all out and give myself a half-assed alignment. Spring break rolls around and I head out to Moab with my dad and some friends. Some extended ProComp cheapo shocks arrive the day I leave (I was scared shitless they wouldn't get there) and throw them on at the campsite. Hit Hells Revenge (3rd time, never gets old) and make it up tipover challenge (my goal for the trip). Next day we run PSM and have a blast as it was our first time up it. Got video of mad flex in the wedgie, and make it up everything with no problems. 3rd day we go to run Kane Creek and I blow up EVERYTHING on a pussy little hill. Tow it back to Denver (while I drove that white Toyota, roofless, in a blizzard up Vail Pass) and get it into a shop. Requires a full tranny rebuild and some new parts for the 249. Buy a 231 with a SYE and a Tom Woods rear shaft, and $3000 later I have a Jeep. Most of you have probably seen a similar image, but this is a ZJ with shit underneath:

That's about it! Couple other minor things, like some hood scoops (see above bumper picture) and a bigass air tank in the back, but for the most part, there she be. Ugly as hell and usually broken. Cooling system never has worked right, so she's always running hot. Add that to the green paint, and you get Jalapeno.

Future mods? None. I'll never be able to pay for any upgrades at the rate I keep repairing whats already there.....

But I would like a full long-arm system with airbags on all 4 corners on 39's and fullwidths. No roof, dovetailed tube rear, full cage.... blah blah blah. Eventually.

Right now I gotta work on hacking/boatsiding the rockers and getting a rear bumper. Then probably swap in a 8.8 rear with some sort of locker and 33's. Should get me around well enough from there.

[norton]

cool ZJ man.

mine too always seems to be parked on the street with damage/entrails coming out. its a slow process for a broke college foo, eh?

o well, its fun to wheel the piss outa it

[SuicideTireZJ]

THIS POST HAS BEEN DELETED BECAUSE I SUCK AT THE INTERNET, SEE BELOW

[SuicideTireZJ]

fo sho mang

It's stuck somewhere in the mountains with a huge hole in the radiator, replacement won't be here until Monday, and I'm kinda scared it'll be stripped by the time I get to it.

I'll ride my motorcycle up there tomorrow and maybe move it down the road a little so people don't think it's abandoned. It's funny because now that I have a job I almost have LESS money to wrench on it and get shit fixed up.

Here's another shot on Carnage Canyon, Boulder. The rest of the images are scattered on like 4 different host sites but the main one is www.tmobilepictures.com/seandogg

[SuicideTireZJ]

The heep sat around for a while in the last week because the battery was completely toast. I knew it was going for a while now, but it would still start the Jeep after I cranked for a little while. Then, all of a sudden, it just quit. So, I dumped almost the entirety of my last paycheck on this:



In case you're too dumb to know what you're looking at, that's a $170 Optima Yeller Top. A little overkill for my purposes, yes, but Sears was out of Red Tops, I needed a battery, and I wanted an Optima. So I ponied up. What the hell, you only live once.

And since my motorcycle just got ran into (but barely damaged), I've got some bumper/rocker replacement money in the way of an insurance check coming my way this week. Stay tuned to see what Cory at Rockin' Rods is gonna whip up for me!

[MaineZJ]

decent ride man.

One thing - a ZJ isn't a car.

[JeepinHank]

Don't let that yellow top die. They don't like to sit up for a long time.

If it does die by chance, don't let those one of those idiots behind the parts counter try to put it on a fast charge. If they do, it will kill the cells in the battery. Also read the fine print on that warranty - if its anything like AutoZone, you'll be sorely disappointed in the coverage.

[SuicideTireZJ]

Sit up? Like, should I mount it horizontally on its side?

And if it does die, should I throw it on the slow charge on my battery charger overnight?

[SuicideTireZJ]

decent ride man.

One thing - a ZJ isn't a car.

Unibody=car. If you look it at right, it looks like a lifted station wagon. I love it just the same though.

But I get your point, and fixed above.

[JeepinHank]

Sit up? Like, should I mount it horizontally on its side?

And if it does die, should I throw it on the slow charge on my battery charger overnight?

Sorry, Sit up as in sit with out being used for long periods of time.

And yes - Slow charge if it does happen to die, or better yet put it on a small 1 amp trickle charger for a couple of days.

My optima sat in my Jeep for 7 months while I was doing the current build, and like a dummy, I didn't unhook / remove it. Of course, it died. I made the mistake of taking my Yellow Top to auto zone and the tech put it on a fast charger (ignoring the little sign right above the fast charger that said not to put deep cycle or gell cell batteries on it) - TWICE!

Fast charging ended up killing one of the cells. I couldn't get more than 6-8 volts out of the battery with my multimeter. Then when I asked about the warranty - they looked it up in the computer, and said they'd give me $7.58 plus the $8.00 environmental impact / core charge. $15.58 for a battery I paid $150.00+ for 2 years ago. My battery was almost 2 years old to the day. So based on that - the warranty is for 2 years - 1 year free replacement and 1 year pro-rated. I told them I'd rather use it as a door stop.

The shitty part is - their $50.00 "duralast" batteries (or whatever they're called) carry a full 5 year warranty with just as many CCAs. The parts monkey told me that they don't warranty the Optima deep cycles as long since they're used in offroad and performance applications where they experience a lot of amperage draws.

[SuicideTireZJ]

I've got a 2 amp setting on my charger so that should be cool enough.

Fortunately (well, unfortunately, actually!) I don't think the Jeep will be sitting around for any extended period of time because I don't have enough money to build it any more!

Thanks for the advice.

[SuicideTireZJ]

My deal with the fab guy fell through, so to get me through the anguish I took the deposit I gave to him for the bumpers and sliders, and bought these bad boys:



33x13.50x15 Superswampers. Can't WAIT to get them mounted, but I've got to bust out the sawzall before any of that can happen. Oh, and buy new rims too.

[SuicideTireZJ]

Finally got the 33's on a couple weeks ago. Test flexed for clearance issues and had to trim the rear a little after these pictures were taken. You get the idea. I ran Carnage Boulder later that night but my flash was inadequate to get any decent shots off.










It's nice to have some real tires. And that swamper sound from 25MPH all the way up to 80 is music to my ears!


Next on the list, axle upgrades (read: replacement) and HOPEFULLY some armor. Might take out a student loan to get it where it needs to be for the rest of the time I'm in school.

[Kraqa]

nice tires

[SuicideTireZJ]

tanks mang

guess I should say the same to you. Your build thread is my daily source of escapism

[ELLLLLIOTTTTT]

looks good, i'd say you might wanna invest into some sliders but you may be past that point now.

[SuicideTireZJ]

looks good, i'd say you might wanna invest into some sliders but you may be past that point now.

Bwahaha yeah pretty much... It never was an issue when the plastic was on there but I took 'em off and found the nasties that they had been hiding. When I do, I'll opt to cut out the rocker completely and throw some tube in there instead of just going with a rocker guard....

...it's pretty obvious I need all the clearance I can get!

[SuicideTireZJ]

Ahh, back fromt the dead... I've been suffering from a terrible alignment and worse ride quality for so very long now that selling the Jeep was a daily thought. Ended up selling my motorcycle instead which I really regret now that it's warm.

Anyway, my birthday is in a week and my present from my parents arrived today: brand new Currie steering! Also, I've been sanding down and truckbed lining the bottom half of my doors as well as the fenders, so pics to come on both of those pretty soon. Heading to Moab in exactly a month so I need to get the Jeep in some sort of order before then! Stay tuned...

[1fox2go]

what suspension setup do you have to clear the 33s? and where did the front bumper come from?

[BlueXJ]

what suspension setup do you have to clear the 33s? and where did the front bumper come from?

He said it came from a shop in Boulder that went belly up for the bumper and ProComp on the springs IIRC.

[1fox2go]

Hes got more that just the procomp lift, it looks like a spacer in one of the pics, im asking if he changed control arms and what not

[SuicideTireZJ]

As it sits now I'm running a F/R swap and 3" Procomp coils with the 1.75" spacer in front. The front LCA's are RE adjustable, the rear LCA's are Teraflex (I think) adjustable ones. All UCA's are stock.

Yeah, the bumper was from a shop in Boulder called Terraliner. He wanted to start into the Grand market and used my rig as a mule. I think it was Keith- MountainWJ or somthing that also got a bumper from them, but I don't remember if he's still running it. The shop did shut down a little after I got it and one of the guys started Tubewerx in Denver but I think that closed down too.

[SuicideTireZJ]

Back from the dead... well sorta. After my latest mishap documented in this thread: http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/sho...ghlight=handle

I've pretty much been driving my sisters Scion while she's in school in NYC. I was given the ultimatum by my mom to get my shit drivable because she's coming back for spring break and needs her toastercar. So, despite all the other shit I have going on (school, work, part-time alcoholic), I drove down to Windsor to JSteve's house who was kind enough to sell me a 249 and stock drivshaft on the cheap. Finally got it all swapped in last night. Here's some pics.
The carnage:



In the other thread someone told me it might have been caused by a front driveshaft failure. So I tore apart the double cardan, and lo and behold:



They were right. Can anyone tell me why there is a ball and cup on my front shaft? I'm assuming it has something to do with it being full time 4wd, but the fucker failed and took my $300 231 with it. I'm not sure what my options are from this point, it looks like I need a new shaft. If I were running a part time case I would just cut the ball and cup off and run it like a normal double cardan but with a 249 in there I don't think so. So for now I'm just going to run it with no front shaft and hope it holds up for the week.

Also, the case Justin sold me was missing some studs so we had to scavenge them from the 231. Pam works wonders as a PB blaster replacement.



As usual, it took us about 3x longer to drop the case in, mostly because I had this stupid idea that I could bench the case into place. We eventually caved and grabbed a floor jack. Working in a dirt parking lot in the middle of the night BLOWS. Thank god it was still somewhat warm.



It's in! Still need to figure out the speedo and swap shifter tabs over since it's stuck in lo-range right now, but I took it for a spin around the block for the first time in a couple months.

Major modifications are on the way as I'm sick of it in it's current form. I'm moving into a house in June with a big garage, my welder, hopefully a bender, compressor, drill press, etc. For specifics, see other thread.

[ATL ZJ]

Next time use two nuts so you don't tear up the threads...

[SuicideTireZJ]

Next time use two nuts so you don't tear up the threads...

Yeah i know that looks bad but there's actually ~3/8 of unthreaded on the top we gripped off of. Don't worry!