Norcal69's Common Sense Build.

Nice job. That's a fun project. This is an almost mandatory upgrade for Rubicon rigs, IMO. If it breaks, it's much easier to fix, you just slide in your spare axle shaft. At the worst it's still rolling on 4 wheels.

 

Three wheel drive. Do you carry the long shaft for a spare or both? Gets kind of expensive and I doubt anyone else will have one to help out. Plus side, super easy to change if you can get the broken end out.

 

Yes, you have to get the piece out, half the time they come right out. I carried both sides, but they were straight axles, literally because they take less room and lay flat. Splined both ends, and carried a drive flange to go on the end. Also wise to have a spare spindle, since it's custom.

 

A strong telescoping magnet could work. Axles are not cheap. Big expense to drive a few miles.

 

When I broke a flanged axle shaft last year, the splines were stuck inside. We pulled the opposite side axle and used a CB whip with a punch duct taped on the end to push the axle stub out.

 

Those axles look beefy, I doubt you'll be breaking those.

 

Kyle,

I've had fun following a couple of your threads. Try going through these 48 pages in one sitting... !!

You should retitle this thread, "Have welder. Will travel." Makes me want to go take a refresher and add a couple of welders to my shop. Haven't done much welding or fabricating since high school.

Great entertainment watching this all. And this thread is now well into its NINTH YEAR??!!! OMG. Time is your friend when it comes to all of these upgrades. Interesting to see your opinions change regarding tire size from start to now. Size matters when it comes to different types of wheeling. I have 35's and first thought I should go down to 31's or 33's, but now I'm wondering if I can squeeze it out to 40's, just for the added clearance and such. YouTube has become my friend, so I watch a lot of stuff like Matt's Off Road Recovery while educating myself on what some of those guys are building and driving.

https://www.youtube.com/@MattsOffRoadRecovery

I see you're out of Cottonwood? I spent a lot of time in the area, especially when heading out on my motorcycle to run the canyons west of Red Bluff and the like. I lived in Palo Cedro for a lot of years where I was also a Shasta County firefighter.

Don't miss the fires one bit...

Was really enthused to see you resolve the EFI upgrade. I've had the same issues since installing my FiTech unit a year ago. FiTech and I are both hoping a crank trigger will resolve these issues, and I'll FINALLY be able to enjoy my Jeep for the very first time.

 

I watch Matt at 2X speed so he sounds normal but I am really there for the Buckle Bunny. Actually I watch most utubes at 2X.

 

She's turned into quite a welder! Getting pretty good driving offroad as well. She's always fun to have along...

 

Woman can make good welders because they never learned how to do it wrong in the first place. Didn't pick up bad habits. There are a few out there.

 

Thank you for the compliments.
This jeep has been a fun journey and today looks nothing like my initial vision. Its a struggle to maintain the balance between a daily driver/freeway CJ5 and a Rubicon Trail level wheeler rig.
I'm actually headed out Saturday for a trail ride based out of Red Bluff!

 

With Steve's 71 nearing completion it was time to pull my jeep in for a little pre Rubicon inspection.
Pulled hubs apart, packed wheel bearings.
Greased RCV axles.
Grabbed a handful of wrenches and gave the whole thing a little nut/bolt check.
Marked everything checked with an orange dot.
I have a Ruff Stuff front diff cover that I will be installing this evening.
Found a couple things that took a 1/4 turn with a wrench..... but nothing scary.




Discovered this when reassembling the LF locking hub. Swapped it with a good used outer cap.





I had an old school recovery hook on the passenger side of the winch mount.
Slapped this D ring mount on the drivers side.





These old 33x10.50 BFG TA/KO tires are getting pretty hard and chunk easily on the rocks.
I purchased them from a member here several years ago, They are date code 2011
For 99% of what this jeep does the aggressive AT style tread of the BFG works well. Steve's 71 has a set of BFG TA/KO 2's with less than 1,000 miles on them.

 

Don't take a dead man's shoes.

 

What if I took his old shoes and gave him new shoes?
I feel like that should be good luck.... rather than bad luck.....
I hope.....

 

Isn't his the jeep that rolled on the curve and tested the cage?

 

Yup....
And rolled on the Rubicon a couple times too.
Steve was a really good friend of mine, but he was a NDMF.

 

Buttoned up most of the Rubicon prep last night.
Installed Ruff Stuff front diff cover, topped off all oils, installed wheel spacers and Steve's shoes.
Soft top was removed and bikini top installed.
I am waiting to install the cargo shelf and trail muffler until right before the trip.

 

I'm a bit late to the party, but while I was reading your build thread I happened to notice the driveshaft tied to the frame rails in this pic. That seems like pretty good place to mount it.
With it being almost a year later now, is that driveshaft still hung by zip ties, on a mount, or located somewhere else entirely?

 

It is still stashed up there.
The zip ties run through the bottom of the winch mount.