Picked Up A Traitor Jeep (tj)

It was whatever auto-trans was paired with the stock 4.0. I think it was maybe just a lemon.

 

There's your problem.

 

Love my son's TJ. Won't get rid of my CJ's or M38A1's but it is nice to drive it to Uwharrie, wheel it, and drive back. Love those Rubicons. They did get it right.
So many possibilities with those with the selectable lockers, sway bar disconnects off road able with all the extras and comfort. They really do work well.

Dave

 

Love your new jeep, congrats on your purchase!

 

Now that I'm done working on the blue Jeep, I'm finally getting around to some stuff on the TJ. Dumb things like changing the wipers. The old ones just made an opaque smear.

Changed the fan belt. The old one was showing signs of wear but I didn't realize it was this bad until I got it off :


Added a net to keep the often dirty dogs in their own domain and off the seats:


It had a locking fuel door on it at one point, but the door was busted off leaving a damaged ring. New one installed:


With the 33 inch tires, the Jeep was doing 64 by GPS with the speedometer indicating 60, so I bought this little doodad from 12oclocklabs:


It's a tiny programmable computer that takes the incoming pulse from the transfercase speed sensor, and outputs a new pulse with an adjusted frequency.

It comes with connectors pre-installed to plug the inline pigtail in at the sensor:


I routed it up to a safe but accessible area under the hood and programmed it to adjust the indicated speed up 6.7%:


I haven't had a chance to drive it yet. Hopefully I'll have time to hit the highway tonight to verify it's working.

 

That is just wrong not letting Emmett drive the new Jeep! That belt was a little on the iffy side. When you run out of little things
things to do...cj2a.

 

Added my requisite billiard ball shift knob. Eight ball this time to stay with the black theme:


I was going to pop an Android Auto capable radio in last night. Got the harness all made:


Then I pulled out the radio and found out my factory plugs look nothing like that. It's the *other* 2006 Jeep harness. Sigh. Now I need to cut this apart and wait a week for the proper one to show up. That was a waste of time.

I'm trying to decide if I want to add front and rear cameras since the head unit supports it. Could be handy offroad, but given our dusty roads, I'm guessing they will be perpetually dirty.

 

Theft deterrent.

 

Add cameras so I know how to do it with proof it works and can sell my wife on that tj limo.

 

Hah. I probably will. Cameras are only $15.00 ea. The labor of running wires and making brackets is a bigger deal than the cameras themselves.

 

I didn't like that the Poison Spyder rack mounts the license place in the middle of the spare tire and requires a pair of 7/16 wrenches to undo. Not ideal if you need to change a tire:


I can't put the license plate in the original location because the rack latch is in the way. That leaves the lower right side. Luckily for me, the rack has a bolt-on metal steel spider web applicee there so I can attach a bracket without welding on the rack itself:


Added some 1" strapping to the spider web for spacers:


Cut out some 16 gauge sheet for a plate mount:


Combined:


A little gunmetal paint to match the rack:


I found these cool little LED license light/bolts on Amazon:




Bracket attached and wired. I'll probably tidy the wiring up some:


It does lay nice when the rack is closed though:


And it all works. Project complete:


I'll probably mount the back-up camera in the middle of the spare. It's small enough not to interfere with taking the tire on/off and will be protected by the guide.

 

That worked out perfect! I used 2 of those lights in place of bolts. Two illuminate the license plate better and they are cheap.

 

TJs are notorious for blowing out the foam surround on the subwoofer speaker. This one had already been replaced, but with the wrong type of speaker:


It's supposed to be a dual voice coil woofer and they replaced it with a single voice coil mid/tweet combo speaker with the wrong Ohm rating. They also wired the left and right channels together. Sigh:


You can't get original speakers any more, but Quadratrec makes a drop in replacement. However, they have been out of stock for a long time. I found a 6.75" Kicker dual 2 ohm voice coil woofer on Amazon that other TJ owners have had success with. I did need to grind on the webbing in the case to fit the depth of the new speaker:


I split the wires and hooked it up properly.

I found out the fins on the built-in amplifier are sharp when you drop it on your thumb:


Doesn't look so bad after applying some pressure and cleaning up:


But it was deep and there was blood everywhere. What a mess:


Usual shop bandaid applied. Nice to get the blood sacrifice to this Jeep done early I guess:


And new speaker installed. It sounds *much* better:

 

My go to is electrical tape...not too tight. What are ya gonna be rock-in out to?

 

Remember Our Heroes Famous words..... If any one gets hit , Slap Hot Iron to it .

 

I have a 2001, but my son recently turned 16 and claimed it as his. Good excuse to buy another Jeep!

 

It's not fair that your 16 year old son's Jeep looks nicer than mine!

 

When I turned 16 I got a jeep that ran on two cylinders, had zero brakes, needed tires and springs.

 

The right radio harness showed up so I cut my previous one apart and built up the new one:


Then it was time to rip the dash apart again. To get the double DIN radio to fit, I ended up having to hack saw some of the plastic guides for the old radio:


Double DIN radio installed with new dash center section. Turned out great and now I have Android Auto navigation in the dash and can play music from the phone. A pretty girl handed me the duck at a stoplight, so I wasn't about to say no :


Better picture of the new subwoofer in the console:


With the new radio and woofer, the stereo sounds surprisingly good!

I'll get around to mounting cameras and running wires before too long.

Also added an extinguisher. It's not accessible from the front, but it is quickly accessible from the rear hatch. There is no good place to put it up front: