General Tech What did you work on Today?

[zmotorsports]

I set up my new towbar over the weekend for flat-towing our JKU behind our coach. I recently sold my early edition Roadmaster Sterling towbar that had well over 100k miles on it. I had rebuilt it a few years ago and it worked well but being an early edition was rated @ 6k pounds and my Jeep has been gaining weight so I wanted to replace it with an 8k pound capacity unit. I recently purchased the new Roadmaster Night Hawk towbar but haven't had time to get it set up and with it nearing RV season I figured I had better get my butt in gear.

Rather than starting the coach and pulling it outside merely to mock it up I pulled my Jeep up behind my Duramax and mocked everything up in the shop.

Jeep pulled in the shop behind my truck.

Upon attempting the first connection the first thing that I noticed was that the end connectors are approx. .025” wider than the ones on my old Sterling so I used the mill to remove that .025” off of one side of each block.

Removed from milling vise and deburred.

This towbar came equipped with a 7-pole plug at the RV side and a 6-pole round at the toad end. I have my Jeep equipped with a 4-pole round electrical connector so I swapped the 6-pole on the toad end with a 4-pole. This towbar has strip LED’s along the arms that illuminate when the running lights are turned on. Seeing as how we travel at night on many occasions I view this as a safety feature.

Connected, electrical complete and all ready for many miles of flat-towing the Jeep behind our coach.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

I pulled the Jeep in the shop last night to perform another mod before the Jeeping and RVing season commence.

I am only running 35” tires on our Jeep and seriously doubt I will ever step up to 37’s so I wanted something that mainly addressed the weak sector shaft issue but if I can get a bit better steering performance at the same time it’s a bonus. For my situation I feel this PSC upgraded gearbox will be the best bang for the buck and give me exactly what I am looking for as I didn't want to go to a hydro-assist setup seeing as how this is my daily driver.

To compare gearbox spec’s, the difference between an OEM Jeep JK/JKU steering gearbox and the PSC are as follows; the OEM has a 70mm piston and the PSC has an 80mm piston. The OEM sector shaft is a scant 35mm in diameter vs the PSC’s 45mm sector shaft, that is 30% larger. Basically the PSC gearbox closely resembles the Dodge 2500/3500 steering gearbox.

So there is the “why” behind my upgrade now let’s get to the actual upgrade. One more upgrade I thought I would do while I have the system open and fluid drained is to add a power steering cooler to the return line. I purchased a Derale 15” oil cooler a few years ago for a different project but never used it. I will be looking for a place to mount that while I’m under the Jeep.

Here is the PSC Big Bore XD that will reside under my 2011 Jeep Wrangler

Before spinning any wrenches, I used my oil evacuation tank and pulled as much fluid out of the reservoir that I could. I figured this would be less “potential” fluid that would end up on my floor.

I removed my JKS steering gearbox support system then removed the steering column connection (where I’m pointing) then I can focus on removing the actual gearbox.

Here are the two power steering lines that need to be removed. The one I am pointing to is the pressure line.

I have collected a pretty good assortment of plastic caps and plugs over the years for situations like this. These are o-ring fittings so I capped each one after removing from the gearbox to minimize the mess and oil running down the frame.

OEM gearbox out and on the bench next to the new PSC unit ready to go under the Jeep.

Before closing up the shop for the night I cut the mounting block off of the frame from my JKS gearbox support as well as a tab from beefed up trac bar bracket. I blended the ground weld and sprayed some Eastwood Extreme chassis paint on the area to allow it to dry overnight.

It was so nice yesterday I was able to work in the shop with the roll up doors open for the first day of the year. Freakin’ awesome!

Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[Bart]

Nice work as always. Looks like a massive upgrade.

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice work as always. Looks like a massive upgrade.

Thanks. You're right about that, the PSC box is HUGE compared to the OEM.

Mike

 

[carlojip]

I just replaced the brake pads.

 

[YROC FAB.]

I just replaced the brake pads.

On what?

 

[frieed]

Installed this beast. Yaesu 2980 2m rig. (hence the cb stuff going up for sale )
It had exactly enough power lead to reach the battery.
Mostly one big heatsink.... 80W with no fan.

 

[Agility Customs]

I took about 2 months to polish and do a full paint correction on my 10 year old megacab. I took one picture througout the whole process. The fender flares in this picture hasn't been corrected/polished yet and you can really tell if you look at the reflection of the garage lights between the flare and the rest of the body. Just finishing up the roof and everything tonight.

 

[zmotorsports]

I took about 2 months to polish and do a full paint correction on my 10 year old megacab. I took one picture througout the whole process. The fender flares in this picture hasn't been corrected/polished yet and you can really tell if you look at the reflection of the garage lights between the flare and the rest of the body. Just finishing up the roof and everything tonight. View attachment 112676

Nice job. It's always a rewarding feeling to see that shine, depth and clarity in the paint come out.

Mike

 

[moab_cj5]

I took about 2 months to polish and do a full paint correction on my 10 year old megacab. I took one picture througout the whole process. The fender flares in this picture hasn't been corrected/polished yet and you can really tell if you look at the reflection of the garage lights between the flare and the rest of the body. Just finishing up the roof and everything tonight. View attachment 112676

Love the Hello Kitty Hair dyer!

Looks good!

 

[zmotorsports]

Love the Hello Kitty Hair dyer!

Looks good!

Saw that, opted not to comment.

Mike

 

[Agility Customs]

Saw that, opted not to comment.

Mike

The problem is all of the good tools are at the shop and I was doing this at the house. You gotta do what you gotta do...

 

[zmotorsports]

I only had about an hour to work in the shop last night so I fabbed up the mounting brackets for my power steering oil cooler.

Here’s what I started with, a 3” long piece of 2.250” diameter x .120” wall tubing that I cut in half lengthwise to saddle over the 2” diameter cross member and two pieces of 1/4” flat strap.

Saddles welded to tabs after drilling and tapping the tabs to match the coolers bolt pattern.

Mounted to the oil cooler.

Oil cooler mocked into position.

Bead blasted, painted and ready for installation.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Yesterday's project...

 

[zmotorsports]

Finished up my PSC Big Bore XDII steering gearbox and oil cooler installation last night.

Thanks for looking

Mike

 

[DAA]

Yesterday's project...

Memories... When I was 15, I got a summer job at the DWR in the engineering dept. The first thing they gave me to do, was organize/alphabetize and catalog a stack of loose quad sheets five feet tall. Multiple copies of every quad for the whole state, just in a pile. Take them off one at a time, put a push pin in the big wall board map that had all the quads listed, put in a drawer in alphabetical order. Worked on it all summer, did get it done. Looked at literally every quad for the whole state in the process. Sometimes, I'd get pretty absorbed and spend a lot of time in looking at them, rather than organizing them, but my boss didn't mind.

Later spent thousands of dollars on them, back when the best place was the USGS office in the federal building. For the thousands I spent, I got just a tiny little pile compared to the one Steve just bought!

- DAA

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Memories... When I was 15, I got a summer job at the DWR in the engineering dept. The first thing they gave me to do, was organize/alphabetize and catalog a stack of loose quad sheets five feet tall. Multiple copies of every quad for the whole state, just in a pile. Take them off one at a time, put a push pin in the big wall board map that had all the quads listed, put in a drawer in alphabetical order. Worked on it all summer, did get it done. Looked at literally every quad for the whole state in the process. Sometimes, I'd get pretty absorbed and spend a lot of time in looking at them, rather than organizing them, but my boss didn't mind.

Later spent thousands of dollars on them, back when the best place was the USGS office in the federal building. For the thousands I spent, I got just a tiny little pile compared to the one Steve just bought!

- DAA

That sounds like an awesome summer job!

PS Want to come help us organize?

 

[Agility Customs]

So my 10 year old megacabs driver seat cushion was starting to show its age and the leather was starting to crack in the same spot. With us chasing the werock rock crawling circuit we often spend 10-12 hours one way in the truck so comfort is a must. Well my wife surprised me for my 30th birthday with new leather for the truck along with a new driver seat cushion. The rear seat got all finished up today. The fit and finish and detail was second to none. This was my first leather Install and we might start offering it as a service at the shop. It was a nice change of pace from the normal dirty greasy stuff we are used to.

 

[Slangy]

I wouldn’t really say I had to work on this project to complete it, simply clipped it on. My new Smittybily Trash Bag for all those lazy bums who can’t pick up their own trash.

 

[BlueWolfFab]

@Agility Customs that looks amazing! Who did the leather work?